Oh such a perfect day



Oh England is so beautiful when the sky is blue & it is heading towards  50 degrees.  Fruit from the market, followed by pancakes & a lot of fun.  A peaceful invigorating walk or rather a mud skate through the pocket park, where we took time to watch the birds high in the trees, silhouetted in high relief against the bright blue sky.  We watched reflections of the birds & skeleton branches in the pond, where the water reeds had turned crisps dark cream & flopped over.  The peace & tranquillity were intoxicating, food for the soul.  Even now when it is late & dark I still see 2 birds dancing & playing with the slight breeze & calling gently to each other.  We reflected that it could be 200 years ago.  The  church spire rose above the trees in the near distance, creamy stone slantly lit by the afternoon sun

Dinner time was a feast with part of my family & the evening was spent with the Affinity group followed by a dash to the train station to return my loved ones to the hussle & bussle of London
I hope that your day provided you with uplifting moments
SMASHEE group - PHOENIX is coming!!!
Night all x

ARRIVAL

Hi, been AWOL, due to the common cold visiting.  The Accuquilt Go & its baby arrived on Saturday.  At Stash this morning I started to cut out some pieces, which was completely exciting & I now have a little Stash of pieces.
I have a blog for this new venture called Patches Galore  Nothing for sale just yet until I package up the patterns & pre-cut fabrics.
TANTALISING TECHNIQUES (link) is becoming very popular so dont miss out on a place on this NEW set of lessons.  Book by 15th March & receive 7 lessons for the price of 6.  All the lessons are included in the price on bigcartel, which can be paid for through Paypal.  Bigcartel will convert to your currency, but if you have any questions then please EMAIL me

STAMFORD & RUTLAND EMBROIDERERS GUILD

HI, Its a good thing that I only have to type this, as I can barely speak this morning!!, this is the result of a fabulous evening as the speaker at Stamford & Rutland Embroiderers Guild.  I presented my talk Carpe Diem - Seize the day.  This is where I take along lots of my textile items & talk about them, their techniques & answer any questions from the audience as I go along, I pass out to the audience lots of things, embroidery, quilts etc, so they can get a feel & a good look.
I really enjoyed the evening & a big thank you to Carolyn for coming with me & being gofer.  The journey home was not at all pleasant as the weather decided to go very foggy on us, we ended up on the A1 where visibility was appalling so we crawled home & I am so glad Carolyn was with me to chat to & keep me awake.  I love to talk!!  I hope I can this morning as I have a workshop to teach!
Thanks ladies & hope to see you again & welcome to my blog & workshops x

END OF GUEST ARTIST

Many thanks to Vicki, Terii & Sue from 3creative studios.com for my month as GUEST ARTIST.  The details will stay on their site, so if you didnt get a chance to go & look this is the LINK

When you sign up for the TANTALISING TECHNIQUES lessons you will be sent a PDF file outlining the supplies for the course
The breakdown of the lessons is on the BLOG
Here is another image to TANTALISE.... Hmmm what could THIS be....as ever I keep you guessing

TANTALISING TECHNIQUES Sign up before 15th March 2011 & receive 7 lessons for the price of 6, sign up HERE

SMASHEES CHECK YOUR IN BOXES as there was a FREE BITE on Valentines day.
Sign up for SMASHEES by end of British time 17th February & I will send you the Valentine bite as a FREE gift.  Sign up HERE
See you there :-)

MORE TO TANTALISE

Happy Valentines Day
I have posted more details on TANTALISING TECHNIQUES over on the blog HERE

Sign up by 15th March 2011 & receive SILKEN TREASURES ...FREE..

Tomorrow is the last day of my GUEST ARTIST SPOT on 3 creative studios.  I have enjoyed providing information on TRANSFER PRINTING & am still experimenting with the supplies from COLOURCRAFT

For some unfathomable reason I decided that the inks must go into pump bottles.  So spent over 10 english pounds on 8 - 60ml ittle bottles from Superdrug.  Usually I use old water bottles.  I could have had dozens of water bottles for that amount of money grrr, what having a wally head(or obsession hmmm) does to you.

The bottles are still sitting in the bag, except for 3, guess what colours jumped out first?

TANTALISING TECHNIQUES

Hi, I hope you are (or had) a lovely weekend.  My time as the GUEST ARTIST on 3creativestudios will soon be ending & another lucky artist will provide the technique for the month.  So keep chcking back on here foe workshops & events

LAUNCHING TODAY IS TANTALISING TECHNIQUES - a series of 6 lessons delivered via PDF digital download fortnightly (two weekly) starting 1st April 2011.

TANTALISING TECHNIQUES has its own BLOG HERE with all the details.  You can sign up on http://shelaghfolgate.bigcartel.com.   If you do this by 15th March 2011 then you will receive an EXTRA FREE TT (tantalising technique) - making 7 for the price of 6.
These are not workshops with items to make, but are experimental techniques in Stitched mixed media.  My SMASHEE group, which also now has its own blog HERE is a series of 8 workshops, once a month, creating an item each time.  The TANTALISING TECHNIQUES lessons are for you to use in your own projects, I have been asked to run a group that can explore the ideas that I have in more depth so here it is TANTALISING TECHNIQUES (if I can remember how to spell it correctly!!!)
Join in and explore creating backgrounds for stitch & mixed media, use fleting tools either hand or machine & embellish with wire & beads.  For sale HERE
The image above shows some of my creative ideas, it is not  picture of what the lessons will contain.

TRANSFIX - further experiments

CLICK ON THE LINKS TO GO DIRECTLY TO THE SELLERS PAGE

This is the original fabric.  Pale lilac with little dittsie flowers in a darker purple

I coloured a sheet of computer paper with VIOLET DISPERSE DYE, from COLOURCRAFT.  This was mixed 50mls water to 10 grams dye powder, as per their instructions for an intense colour.  I mixed this whilst in the middle of a power cut last Sunday afternoon.  Mentioned below in a previous post.  Not a good idea as I forgot my gloves (included in the kit & they actually fit my huge mitts of hands) & got it all over my fingers & lots of scrubbing did not remove it all before work the next day.  Purple around your nails is NOT a good feature, believe me.  They are clean now though!!

The colour was applied really thickly to the paper & the image below shows the paper after being used for a fat quarter size piece of cotton that's around 20 inches square, there is still dye left to use on it.

 I painted TRANSFIX onto the cotton, through the same stencil as in the previous post & left it to dry overnight, although it does dry really quite quickly & can be hastened by use of a hair dryer

 This is the result of the ironing, just the one colour this time, as I wanted a control piece to report on here!

 Look how clear the stencil marks are.  Remember that the dark colour is where the TRANSFIX is & the light area is the base cotton fabric, (which is already coloured pale lilac)  I cant see the point of using white material unless you want white lines left, that's why I used the pretty pale lilac fabric.  You cant see any of the preprinted flowers

SO

 Into the washing up bowl it went (the craft bowl, I might add)  Look at the release of the dye.
If you have been following the TRANSFER DYE ROUTE, then you will remember that Transfer dyes , the crayons, paints & Disperse dyes are NOT completely colourfast on cotton fabric.  This is why I am trying out the TRANSFIX, which enables these fascinating mediums to be used on cottons instead of the usual synthetic or synthetic blends.  A complete boon for quilters. (Of which I am one)
I needed to rinse the fabric about a third of the time that I do with Procion fabric dying, I guess I could have put it in the washer & would do if I had a lot to do.

 Wow, this is the result of the washing & ironing dry.  It is paler, which a much better, more natural look to the fabric.  The little flowers are popping up here & there as well.  I transferred uneven as I like my cloth to look un-commercialised.  I guess you could transfer it all to look exactly the same.

My conclusion is that I will most definitely use this product on cotton.  The handle of the fabric has not altered at all, the stencil pattern looks fabulous.  But the areas that were just brushed on have also a great broken effect with the base cloth peeping through.

I estimate that the base cloth has coloured by a small amount, but the Transfix areas have coloured lovely.  Another bonus is that I love this shade of purple (those that know me, know all about the purple car, coat, eyeshadow etc etc, sad git that I am!!)

So grab yourself a bottle of transfix along with the paints or disperse dyes.

I actually recommend the paints as they are so easy to use & a lovely consistency.  The dyes require quite a bit of mixing etc but go about 3 to 4 times further but they are runnier.  They can be mixed with a thickener............oh yeah....there is more to come

Don't forget the WORKSHOPS that are for sale on this technique & also 3creativestudios have my profile & a FREE workshop.  If you post a picture on their Flickr group before the 15th February, you could win a prize, details on here

Back soon, have a lovely weekend x

SOY BATIK

Hi
A break from TRANSFER PRINTING....  Last night was our BOAT meeting, lead by Janis.  We decided to explore the properties of SOY WAX, as opposed to Beeswax or Parafin wax or a combination between the two.  This is what I usually use when making or teaching Batik along with a Batik kettle.
This is my findings, just based on this one trial.
The wax was heated in a microwave.  I was a bit jumpy about this as Soy has a lower melting point than the other waxes & of course there are no controls over the heating.  I am NOT going to give times etc as I was unhappy when mine, in a plastic container became a bit smoky & the container very wobbly.  We had 2 microwaves both with different wattage.  The container was VERY HOT
The container was then put into a bowl containing boiling water.
I found all of this very shaky, as a teacher I am always aware of health & safety & could not & would not let my students do this in a classroom situation, no matter their age!!
I used a tjanting & a small & large brush & found that the wax was hot enough to penetrate the fibres of the cotton fabric, which was stretched in a frame.  I used a large embroidery hoop as I could not find my silk frames in the time I allotted to get the 'stuff' ready for the workshop.
We used silk paints to colour
Usually I use silk paints in class for quickness, Procion works just as well as do fabric paints, watered down & stirred very well.
Now with traditional batik (immersion technique) colouring takes a long time but works fantastically & once the dye has had time to cure (Procion) then the piece can be washed & dried with a hairdryer.
Not so with Soy.
The silk paint needs setting with heat at each stage.  I used my hairdryer to find that the wax just ran off!!!!!.  I didnt try an iron but I guess it would be the same
So for using lots of colours this technique does not really work

This is the piece whilst still wet, looking a lot like a close up of Monets Waterlillies.  Completely fabulous.

When I arrived home, I popped it in the freezer in the hopes that the wax would firm up a bit, & thought that I might leave it like this already framed as a piece of art.

When the piece came out of the freezer about an hour later, some of the wax began to fall off, so that scuppered my previous idea

I grabbed an old credit card & scrapped off all the wax (saved in another container but highly coloured with silk paint)

I then washed it by hand in hot water & ALL of the wax just vanished along with alot of the unfixed colour

In hindsight after scrapping off the wax I should have ironed it between paper to retain the colour, but didnt think of that

Now I would have experimentedon my OTHER piece that I did.  A little piece.  BUT when I arrived home I could not find it!!!! Yep it had vanished.

I walked a fair way to my car carrying the pieces in a plastic bag & guess that my little piece just up & flew away!!  So today there is a sadd little piece in a gutter somewhere getting all dirty.  Tomorrow when I am back in the area, I MAY go and look for it, who knows.  So I had no trial piece

I wish I had set the colours as this morning when the piece was dry, it looks quite sorry for itself, colour wise.  However, it will be fab to stitch on.

See how it has lost its intensity & the Monet daubs have disappeared.
The fabric was a white cracked ice, which had not been washed
I still love the piece & I am glad that I photographed it, the first photo was with my phone & this one taken with my DSLR
If any of you have experience with Soy wax for Batik, not for Journalling, please leave a comment & help us all out with 'cracking' (heehee) this 'newish' medium
Tomorrow I am posting more about the TRANSFIX from Colourcraft.
Dont forget the TAKING IT FURTHER WITH TRANSFERS WORKSHOP, on special rate here until 16th February 2011
See you tomorrow

DISPERSE DYES

Guess who has purple dye all over her hands - yep SHOULD WEAR GLOVES when mixing Shelagh ...grr....

COMPLETELY NEW TRANSFER PRINTING WORKSHOP

Hi, as promised I have just released the NEW - TAKING IT FURTHER TRANSFER PRINTING WORKSHOP. (downloadable PDF file)  This has many techniques with TRANSFER PAINTS ONLY - There are instructions on how to use the techniques to make the project shown. Link HERE to purchase
This is on SALE until 16th February 2011, whilst I am the GUEST ARTIST ON 3CREATIVE STUDIOS
Step by step instructions with many photos....Get it quick...:-)

WALLY HEAD

Hi
Thanks for the good wishes, I really appreciate it.  My poor students today had a very wally headed tutor, thanks girls for being so tolerant.  I have just checked my Etsy shop only to find that I had not done it right duh.  If you were interested in a workshop then please visit it again as I think I have sorted it out now.  So a double Wally Head!!!  I am not able to load photos through aol for some unfathomable reason.  I do PROMISE to continue with the Transfer workshops - I just need a little rest .........ahhh!!!