sloppy silk screening ;-)

ok ... I finally got around to posting something about the fun day we had about 3 weeks ago - messing around with silk screens and squeegees - using acrylic paints on paper, but with the idea that now we have done it - we can go home and do it again on fabric/etc, if we so desire.
We were actually trying out one or 2 of the techniques from this Jane Dunnewold DVD - http://www.interweavestore.com/Quilting/DVDs-Videos/Screen-Printing-Sampler-Download.html

This is the first thing I did:

we used paper stencils ... I put it down on the paper a second time, and of course the stencil (which was on the bottom of the screen) stuck to the paint that was already on the paper ... but I kind of liked the effect so I left most of it there.
These are my things drying on the clothes line when I got home:


and a close up of 2 of them:

I decided to do my own thing - and went outside and found some gum leaves and other plants and used them as a "stencil" - and made several prints adding a bit more paint to what was left after each one.
I also made some bubbles ;-)

(this was when I put the screen down on some paper and started to wash out some of the paint, from the screen, onto the paper - to make a weird coloured bit of paper to use as a background or something, rather than just wash out the paint)
and ... while I am here posting photos - here is some other textile art I finished recently:

it is not quite an art quilt, but it is textile art and it is fabric and stitching ... and I do plan to make a small art quilt using the same idea and probably at least some of the same fabrics ;-)

hopefully I won't be the only one to post photos of the things we did that day - some other people produced some amazing stuff ...
(and a great time was had by all ;-)

Meeting activity - boxes

This is the box I made as a result of our meeting activity last weekend.

It is not the greatest thing I have ever made - in fact I don't like it very much at all as it is rather 'in-your-face'!

However, it was a great learning activity and very satisfying to test how various yarns and fabrics worked with the stiffened felt I used as the background for the box. I was surprised how easily the fabrics and fibres worked through this type of felt from both sides.

I also learnt a couple of things to remember for next time:

• I had not given enough thought to proportions. Whilst I did think about the placement of elements on the finished box, I didn't consider how big they would appear on the box when finished. Whilst various elements (motifs, colour blocks etc) looked OK on the full piece of felting, some of them became much more dominant and overpowering on the finished box.
  
  
• I used one of the templates from an unfolded commercial box and whilst I am happy with the size and shape, I didn't notice until putting my box together that it had been glued on one of the front corners. This was probably not noticeable on the original cardboard box, but it certainly set me a challenge to work out a way of joining that was not too noticeable. I would much prefer to join at the back of the box.

This was a great activity with lots of potential. Thanks Buffy for proposing it, and for generously bringing all the bits you did for it.