Rusted fabric

Some men bring their wives chocolates and flowers, mine brings me rusty pots.



And this is what I do with them:
Mix a solution of water and a good dash of vinegar, soak fabric.

For this first lot I used cotton and thin muslin, but have another lot rusting now with taffeta, sheers and organza, just to see what it does.

Lay the wet fabric on the rusty surface, don't flatten out, leave it a bit scrunched.
Cover with a plastic bag and leave.

How long to leave I think may depend on how rusted the iron is. I have a friend who made some and left hers for several days.

My pieces happened overnight, the vinegar may have accelerated the process or I just might have had more rust to start with.

This was my rusted cast iron cook pot, I wrapped the fabric around the pot, the fabric was solid brown on the base where the pot rested, then very little on the sides where it wasn't hard against it, then a bit on the ends that I tucked into the inside of pot




This next was a piece of flat sheet iron, it worked well as you can see from the second photo:




We also had a couple of old chair bases sitting around the yard, I used the metal tops where the seat cushion is normally attached:




Next was some old rusted chains:




this is the piece from the chains:



I was very happy with my clothes line full of rusty fabric and will be making more. I think it could be really great in an art quilt/



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textiles

housework day

You know it's time to make a token effort with the housework when your neighbour calls in unexpectedly and you airily wave a hand in the direction of the overflowing dining room table and the craft books falling off the chairs and you say 'excuse the mess'

and she, just as airily says, 'that's OK, I'm used to it, it's ALWAYS LIKE THIS'

and the truth is, she's right, it is.....

I'll leave you with a sprig off my friends firewheel tree while I go put some things away ....

ArtExpress at Newington Armoury

Each year the education department stages a display of high school artwork under the banner of Art Express, because of the volume of work, different pieces are shown at a number of venues. I usually find the works quite depressing and dark and full of teenage angst as another generation shows their emerging social conscience and awareness of world affairs, can't blame them for that, we've left them a pretty sad old world.

This year I went to see the works at Newington Armoury gallery in Bicentennial Park, Homebush, NSW.

The theme shown here was the environment and while our environment is not in the best condition, the works didn't have the usual bleakness about them.

I don't know what the art curriculum was but evidently all the schools were working along the same lines - a piece of artwork was produced then taken out into the environment and photographed in situ.

I apologize for not getting the artists names here and the quality of the photos, I wasn't using the right indoor setting on my camera.
This wasn't the complete collection, I don't think I was supposed to be taking photos, so was being very sneaky about it.

weaving with textiles

Since my pottery days I've had an ongoing fascination with vessel shapes and find myself now translating them from clay to textiles.
Ever since I bought this book:



I've had a yen to try something like this:



so first made some cord by cutting up a light fabric into strips, twisting it into a cord-ish shape and running it through the sewing machine with a zig zag stitch



I first tried joining the strips with a traditional basket method as described in the book where the joining thread appears on the outside of the basket, but the appearance just wasn't working for me so I went to the next idea of using a sewing needle and hiding the joining stitches





As you can imagine it is a very slow process and I'm afraid I suffer from something called "want it finished NOW" ..... I kinda lost interest before it turned into a vessel, and it grew into a barnacle





I've started another in a different colour scheme, I might make this one a long term project









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textiles