Purses with a Story

It's always interesting to think of all that goes into making something and where all the elements come from. Like these bags for example. The brown linen fabric making up the background on these are design samples destined for the landfill, but rescued by Fabmo, and organization in the bay area that collects and distributes fabrics. I loved the weight, nice and strong so it didn't require a lining. The zippers, are metal and I rescued them from a thrift store. There is something about the old metal zippers, I even enjoy the packaging and the instructions that are printed inside. I previously dyed this batch of vintage zippers in Indigo, thinking I would make purses or small bags. The dupioni silk design panel, was white and purchased at Fabrics R Us in San Jose. I was going to make roman shades with it, but it didn't work out, so I had plenty to do dye experiments with. The lace, also dyed in Indigo, was an estate sale find, that took the color really well. Vintage lace often is so pure fabric content (likely cotton), in this case it eats up the color. I have more of this, so I will play with this again.

So, there you go . . . two purses with a history. It would be fun to make more, but this is all the linen I had. Two of a kind.

More Surface Design in Felting

This is one of my favorites that I will definitely use again.

Nuno Inclusions with Silk Habotai

Today's felting samples I created were about trapping element between layers of merino wool and silk. Elements like beads, silk cocoons, pre felted wools, cottons, quilt batting, and other silks.

Using Wool as a Resist

More interesting textures, I learned today in Fiona Duthie's online class.

Felting Surface Design - Fabric Manipulation

Finished piece

Layout of silks before the felting begins.

Felting Surface Design

I signed up for a online felting class taught by Fiona Duthie on surface design techniques. This is week two of the six week class. There is an opportunity to create 30+ samples if you do all the techniques. She posts PDF files with photos and instructions. In addition she adds a few video lessons. Below you can see the first three samples I created today, and a close up of the back on the Nuno Quilting example. I really enjoyed the lessons. It was a great day, creating makes me happy.