Shabby Chic Roses

I got this from Pat, who got it from Ati, who got it from Anni, who saw the tutorial on Roben-Maries blog here – and just couldn’t resist having a go at it.

Lots of people are having a go and some really good ones are being created. I stitched the centre pieces on my ones as I seem to be a bit messy with glue.  Doreen had a great idea – she used a covered button in the centre.

Started off with some rusty ones:

Then used some other scrap fabric:

The fabric used for this one is actually a piece cut from here:

I’ve had this fabric for what must be 15 years plus, bought from John Lewis in Oxford Street at £3.99 a metre and I have about a fat quarter left.

It started life as a much more colourful piece of fabric than this but I had dipped it in a weak solution of Potassium Permanganate – and I loved the effect, so much so that I think just about every scrap of fabric I had was dipped and turned a shade of brown in varying degrees. Obviously where my love of rust stems from, funny thing is though, brown as a stand alone colour does absolutely nothing for me!

I remember all this because I thought I had an original snippet of this fabric stuck in a book back from my City & Guilds days – but could only find a space where it had once been, although all the details were still there.

I then spent (wasted?) a whole evening looking back through old notebooks and sketchbooks and reminiscing. Took loads of photos of different bits but decided to spare you all sharing my memories with me. *LOL*

One thing though, I used to go to lots of exhibitions and used to keep all the brochures and buy loads of postcards and keep detailed notes about them – (these ones look like they are all from ‘97). It was quite entertaining looking back through these.

Anyway, the point of this story is that when I was looking for the snippet of fabric I came across this picture from a recycling project I was working on way back.

I decided to Google the name of the maker of the corset (and the winner of Green Magazines fashion competition in 1992 as the text explains) – Alison Bailey Smith, and found her website here. It really is well worth a look and if you use Google Images you can see other examples of her work. Make sure you catch the bit on how to dismantle a television set. :)

I was talking to a lovely girl at the N.E.C. who was very excited as her handmade card business was starting to take off for her and we were chatting about using resin. (Sorry, I know you read this but I didn’t get to ask your name). I had bought some resin several months ago but just hadn’t got around to using it as I keep meaning to see if I can get a book on the subject. I bought it from a fibreglass supplier instead of in kit form from a hobbyist shop and the instructions I have are very scant to say the least.

I remember being bowled over in 2007 at Ally Pally with the installation ‘ The 9 Pillars’ created by Helene Soubeyran and wanted to try resin casting myself – on a much smaller scale of course. I don’t think Helene has any fear of competition with these pieces – even without the air bubbles and fingerprints.  *LOL*

I started off with a postcard size textured sample. As you can probably see, the mould is the bottom of a plastic lunch box. It was a good start though because the colours look really wonderful.

This is a small sample which I have shown on the blog before, not sure if I told you how it was created though – will leave that for another time. This one looked better outside the resin.

These are hand made beads – although you would be forgiven for thinking it was a goldfish come to a sticky end. :)

This experiment is made of rusted baby wipes. Four of them rolled up together each time and then cut in to about 2cm wedges. It was quite tricky to place them all without getting covered with resin.

And here’s a close up:

Next came one of the shabby chic roses minus the leaf – it wouldn’t fit in the mould. You can see how the colours of the fabric have become much more vibrant.

A couple of different views:

My original idea was to make a cast of a complete ‘Encrusted Blade’ but have a feeling it might be a bit on the heavy side. So I think that this is more what I would like to concentrate on. Its a piece of coloured Lutradur embedded in a thin layer of resin. Would like to try and get the layer thinner still, embed several of them separately and then attach them in some way.  And of course, make sure they haven’t got a lip around the edge.  Watch this space. :)

 ALQS4

Kate has decided to do another round of this very popular swap. Rules are a bit different this time. Its a great swap – I have been really pleased with the quilts I have received each time. Check it out here.