My special birthday week. What a beautiful sunset to celebrate it with. I absolutely love the colour of the sky at dusk or dawn. The reflections across the sky and in this case onto a foreground lake, can be stunningly beautiful.
The sunset photograph has been printed onto fabric and consequently made into a postcard. It is my 139th week and the last blog of this postcard project. I hope you have enjoyed the series. I have enjoyed making the postcards and entering them each week into my blog.
I gained a lot of pleasure from making my own stamps. This kangaroo has been 'stamped' onto appropriately coloured and printed commercial cotton fabric.
The detailed view shows that the stamped image is not quite perfect. This allows for the casual appearance of 'hand made' items
A piece of procian dyed cotton fabric has been altered to display irregular pleating. This was done by firstly wetting the fabric, then leaving it to dry in a scrunched and twisted roll. When dry, the fabric was opened and the pleats were ironed in place. The pressing with a hot steam iron makes the pleating much more permanent.The sample fabric was placed on the card and the pleats were over stitched with a variegated cotton thread. The scrunching and stitching can be seen more clearly in the detailed view below.
The frayed piece of fabric is silk from the end of a roll. It appears quite attractive as it is positioned on the dull pink backing. The near view clearly shows the frayed edges.
I have used a scrap of black cotton fabric for this week's postcard. The black fabric was bleach discharged into a very 'unexpected' design. I have over-stitched it with free machine stitching using a variegated thread. Discharging of colour always leads to an unexpected design...that is the fun of the process. The detailed view really shows the odd pattern that the discharge left.
My passion for Eco dyeing has grown during the last few years. Dyeing with eucalyptus leaves and rusted objects give my favorite results. Both cream woollen fabric (old blankets in particular) and cream or white silk are the most successful types of fabric to use. The fabric on this card is actually very fine cotton which I rarely use. It is surprising how attractive rusty marks can be when there is no definite definition or planning.
This piece of Japanese Obi silk has been Eco dyed. It has been attached to the postcard with machine stitching lines which have followed the marks on the fabric.