Monday, January 9, 2012

African batik 2

Here's the second half!

After the fabric was completely covered with wax, I took the pillow case outside.

I cracked the wax a little, by crumpling up the pillowcase.

Then I got out the black fabric spray paint, and went to work.

 

After covering it completely with black paint, I took it back inside on a garbage bag, and let it dry for quite a while.

Next, I ironed it between newspapers, to get most of the wax off.


This is how the first couple of sheets looked...
:P

 

I ironed.
and ironed.
and ironed.

 

and here the batik is, finished!

 
 Sigh. 
I wish I could take better photos.
These just don't do it justice.
:/

 

but I like how it turned out!


African batik 1

Well, here is my quarter project post!

I decided on African batik after finding this neat tutorial.

I found an old muffin tin, bunches of crayons, and a cotton pillowcase.


Then, I lightly sketched my design onto the pillowcase with a pencil.


 Next, I unwrapped a box of crayons...

 
...broke them into chunks... 


 ...and separated them by color into the muffin tin.


I stuck the muffin tin into the oven on the lowest temperature.

After about five or ten minutes, the crayons had melted.


I took the tin out of the oven, and using an old paintbrush, I started painting my design.


Every few minutes the wax began to harden, so I had to stick it back in the oven.

Several people commented on the tutorial that a warming tray may be much better than the oven.

If you're in a hurry, or want to be more efficient, you might want that.
Being the spendthrift I am, 
I took the time-consuming but cheap path. 
:P

Also, the wax hardened onto the bristles of my brushes, and they  became unusable.
So having a pot of boiling water is helpful, to pour over the stiff bristles, and to soak brushes in.

A warning...the container used to soak your brushes in will quickly become covered in hard wax.
Rather hard to clean. 
:P


And note the layer of wax on top of the water... 
It helps to clean that off with a bit of paper every so often, or else every time you lift out a brush, it will be re-coated in wax.

And...

Here is the fabric completely painted!

 It took maybe five or six hours to paint it all.

Phew!
Sweaty work in such a suffocatingly hot kitchen!
:)

I'll post about the last half of the project in a day or two.

purple flowers

Well, we are back to school.
:(

My art assignment this week was to paint something outside.
I was at a loss for ideas.
Then I noticed the beautiful bouquet of purple flowers sitting on our table.
So I painted them. 
They came from outside, after all. :P


I liked how it turned out!
The buds are actually light green, and the flowers are purple, not blue, but our scanner didn't recognize that.
:P
I will post about my quarter project soon...

I know, it's long overdue!

Monday, January 2, 2012

felt animals

Christmas break is so nice.
Lots of free time for reading, writing, and making things.
:)
I made some cute little felt and fleece animals for winter decorations.

A penguin...

a bluebird...

and a fox!
(my favorite)

 
Elise made a sweet little owl.

They were fun to create!


We carried armloads of felt and fleece scraps up to our room, along with sewing needles and thread, and listened to most of the Narnia books on my Mp3.

Our room was a mess of fabric scraps and thread afterward.

:P

 -
Also during Christmas break, I've been revising my novel and trying to work out the last chapter.
If anyone would like to critique some of my novel, I would really appreciate it! 
You can leave me a comment and I will email you the second draft of  however many chapters you want to critique.

Next post will be about...
Basket weaving!
:)

Sunday, January 1, 2012

t-shirt quilt

Wow, do I have a backlog of projects...
I have been too busy making things to post them.

I'll start with the t-shirt quilt I made for Michael.
A while ago, Michael brought a few old shirts down from his room to give away. He explained that he had more that were too small, but he wanted to keep them because he liked them so much. 

*light bulb moment*
Michael...do you want a quilt? 
:P

So I sewed him a quilt with his favorite, too small t-shirts.

It was fun, and very easy.

I cut out the shirts into squares of the same size, stitched them together, stitched on a back and quilted down  the seams between the shirts.
Sorry.
No pictures of any of that.
:P

I was too occupied making it.

But here is a pic of the finished blanket:


He likes it.
:)