A carry bag using off-cuts and fabric inspired by nature

When I purchase pants, I usually need to shorten the leg and find it hard to throw out the off-cut. Over the years these off-cuts have been re-purposed into cleaning clothes, fabric buckets, pin cushions, zippered purses or cut up and stitched into a quilt... How do you utilise offcuts? With this off-cut, I particularly liked the stitch detail and wanted to keep it intact. The pant leg was reinforced with fusible wadding and became the flap on a message style bag. The lining is leftover shirting fabric, and the body of the bag is using one of my nature inspired fabrics called 'bottle tops round 2'. 

The BottleTop Trees located at Lake Annand Park in Bright Street, Toowoomba inspired this fabric. We had a brief stop at Lake Annand Park while out day tripping, the shape and size of this unique tree caught my eye; I've since learnt the tree in this park is thought to be over 50 years old and is listed on the Natural Trust Registry.   

When you select a textile design, you have over twenty varieties of fabric that the design can be printed onto, making it really easy to get the right weight and type of material for your chosen project. For this project, I have used organic cotton and interfaced it. The linen canvas is my favourite fabric for bags and really lovely to sew.

Sustainability is at the heart of the Spoonflower process, and less than a thimble full of water is used to print 5 yards of fabric. Being able to combine offcuts with something new that has used sustainable manufacturing methods is quite satisfying.


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Texture, the element of art that stimulates sight and touch

The texture is the element of art that refers to the way things look or feel. It is the character of a surface and can be both tactile and visual. Texture stimulates two different senses: sight and touch.

 
Types of texture:

• Tactile or real texture: is the physical quality of a surface, such as rough, smooth, sticky, fuzzy, soft or slick. A real texture is one you can actually feel with your hand, such as a tree trunk, sandpaper, brick, animal fur, etc.

• Visual or Implied texture is the visual quality of a surface. Visual or implied texture can be simulated or invented. The simulated texture is the type of composition that is created to look like something it is not. Visual texture is an illusion of texture created by an artist. For example, Paint can be manipulated to give the impression of texture, while the paper surface remains smooth and flat.

Incorporating texture into the creative process adds another dimension. Painters use different mediums, paint strokes, and surface treatments to create the illusion of texture. 

In textiles, texture starts with fabric selection. When selecting fabric, you consider the weave of the material, whether it be tightly woven to reflect the light or a courser weave like burlap.

With the development of technology, the photographic image now has a role in our textile pieces. The ability to print images onto lengths of fabric means the print on the material also plays a vital role in adding textural interest to our works. Learning to apply digital images to fabric was a pivotal moment in my practice.

Additional levels of texture can be added through the use of hand stitching, thread thickness, quilting, trapunto, beads, buttons, acrylic mediums, puff paint, Tyvek, fabric burning, adding ribbon, lace, applique, and fabric manipulation through pleating, folding, seam construction etc... 

Texture, along with the line, shape, form, colour, space and value are known as the elements of art, the essential design ingredients.

The elements of art help the artist to:

• create visual interest or a focal point
• to create contrast within a design
• to help visually balance a design

Artist across the mediums draw on these elements to create interest or contrast in their works. Sometimes these elements work together and other times the stand alone.

Everywhere, every day we are surrounded by natural and artificial texture. As you gather and collect inspiration keep an eye out for texture. Use a combination of words, sketch and digital image to obtain ideas. Many photographers use macro photography to capture the feel of a subject. Macro mode enables you to get in close, examine the detail and crop the scene. Interested in exploring macro photography further here are a couple of useful articles.

How To Create Your Own Unique Textures and Apply Them To Your Photography by John Davenport

How To Take Amazing Smartphone Macro Photos by Max Therry

The random smoothness and roughness of texture are what draws us in to touch and get a closer look. In addition to photography and sketching, you can use rubbing to capture the character of the texture. In school, you probably placed a piece of paper over the surface, and with a B pencil or charcoal, you lightly rubbed to reveal the pattern. 

This same exercise can be done by laying a piece of fabric across the texture and using a Shiva Oil Paintstik or similar fabric crayon rub across the texture.

1. Prewash the fabric to remove any sizing.
2. Place the textured surface under your fabric.
3. Tape your fabric in place to prevent it from shifting too much.
4. Oil paint sticks are self-sealing, using a piece of paper towel gently remove the film.
5. Lightly rub the paintstik across the fabric, an image of the textured item under the material will appear. 
6. After applying the colour, allow the painted fabric to dry 3-5 days, then heat-set to make the colours permanent.
7. Place a piece of baking paper on the surface of your ironing board, then a bit of old muslin (an old tea towel works well too) and set your iron to the proper setting for the painted fabric, e.g. cotton setting for cotton fabric etc.
8. Put the painted fabric paint-side down on the muslin (or tea towel) and press for 10-15 seconds in each painted spot.

Once the paintstik rubbing has been heat-set, it is colourfast, washable & dry cleanable. Not only have you captured the texture but you are have also created a unique piece of fabric. 

One of the great things about texture is that you can find it everywhere. The more you look, the more you'll discover, you can also make your own texture. Observe your surrounds and enjoy some creative playtime while building your texture library.

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Framed purse and floral beauty fabric

 Framed 4" purse featuring "floral Beauty" fabric inspired and designed during an artist-in-residence

For the 3" coin purse I combined "Floral Beauty" with "Progression" a fabric inspired by urban surrounds both fabrics available through Spoonflower.

Simple Times

Finished off a textile piece that I started a little while ago in a workshop (textile collage and foiling workshop) with Diane Groenewegen

The digitally printed portrait was the starting point, and I built the Collage from there. I've used braids, fabric swatches, tatting piece, antique buttons & lace and a section from a damaged vintage tablecloth. Very little machine stitching, I've mostly hand sewn this piece.

Inspired by opposites

With the floods, work and stuff it certainly has been an eventful start to the year. My sewing machine has finally been brought down off the top of the cupboard, it had been placed there back in January as the flood water was a rising through the parkland into our yard. I enjoyed some time over the weekend in the studio working on a quilt top inspired by the sketchbook challenge - February theme - "Opposites" - a couple of weeks ago when out and about, the colors and textures of fallen leaves caught my eye and I grabbed a couple. I later sealed each side of the leaves with gel medium. My thought response to these fallen leaves was around "Opposites" or alternatively living and fallen.

Leaves have a certain beauty in both the living and fallen format, in fact fallen leaves draw crowds if you think about how people travel across the world to experience Autumn with all those beautiful reds, browns and golds in climates that have a greater change between seasons than I experience in the sub-tropics. Even in the sub-tropics our leaves experience change and beauty. I have quite a few images of leaves in my digital library and couple of these I've had printed onto fabric. The quilt top so far is a combination of digital images, acrylic painted fabric and quilting fabric. The top is currently in the audition stage, I will let it sit there a couple of days adjusting the lay-out and adding or removing fabrics, before piecing it all together in readiness to quilt.