T-Shirt Rejuvenated

I spent around 6 hours stamping bleach onto this t-shirt on Wednesday. It was an op-shop find originally that had a slight but large fade (maybe from the sun) mark on one arm - it was only visible if you really looked but because the fabric was a solid brown once I knew it was there it sort of jumped out at me. So I thought I'd try fading it deliberately. I assembled an assortment of plastic lids of various sizes (vegemite jar, coffee jar, mouthwash bottle, toothpaste tube etc) and sanded the edges on a sheet of sandpaper so they were smooth, level and had a bit of "tooth" for the bleach to cling to. I opened several windows in case the bleach fumes got too much for me. I put some old sheeting on the ironing board and between the back/front of the t-shirt. I poured a small amount of neat bleach onto a sponge sitting on a plate so I had a stamping pad. Then I smoothed a small area of the t-shirt and stamped a few circles. I waited a minute or two until they were the colour I wanted and then dried the bleach with the iron. I did small areas at a time.

The bleach fumes weren't a problem - I used a lot less bleach than would be used to clean benches, floors etc so the fumes were minimal. Once I had finished I rinsed the t-shirt by hand in cold water, then rinsed in water to which I had added a product intended to remove chlorine from tap water to use in fish aquariums as this was a tip I had read somewhere and I thought it sounded "sensible". Then I washed the t-shirt in the normal way with the next load of clothes. The circles aren't visible on the inside of the t-shirt so I doubt very much that the entire thickness of the fabric has been affected by the bleach - I'll let you know if the whole thing falls apart while I'm in the middle of the supermarket or something :-)

ATC's

Yesterday at Designing Women we swapped ATC's. The burgundy and tan set is my set of 20 before swapping. I made a stamp using a block of wood to which I glued some foam shapes. The fabric is silk that was rust-dyed at a friends house last month. Then I hand embroidered each one using 2 strands of cotton with the aim of making each one unique. I put my signature, website and blog address on the back by printing onto T-shirt transfer paper. The edges are finished by trapping a thin embroidery wool under a satin stitch.

The multi coloured set is what I received from the swap. Not everyone finished all 20 cards on time so those who swapped this weekend have only 12 so far. The rest will be swapped as they are finished.

I enjoyed making these. So much so that I made another set! Not sure who I'm going to swap with though...

Artist Trading Card Preparation

Designing Women are going to swap Artist Trading Cards (ATC's) in July. So I need to make some. So far I have ironed some heavy interfacing to the back of some of the rust-dyed silk I created at the WAFTA "inspiration" workshop a couple of weekends ago. I have 19 that have interesting marks from the stitched shibori resist and 22 less interesting ones. I'm not sure how many we're going to need for our swap but I thought it would be good to have a few on hand so I made up as many bases as I could from the fabric and scraps of interfacing that I had lying around. The final size is to be 2.5 by 3.5 inches so I've cut these 3 x 4 so I can cut them to size once I've decorated them. I've stitched around the edges just to make sure the interfacing stays in place while paint/stitch or whatever. I'm planning to use the stamp I made with circles on it for some of them. I may add some gold or glitz to the ones with the less interesting background. I'm planning to emphasize some of the marks with stitch on the ones with a more intersting background. I have decided to put my website and blog address on the back but I haven't decided how I'm going to do it yet. I may print on t-shirt transfer paper. I may actually get a rubber stamp made up with my logo on it as well. Or I may just opt for the good old-fashioned pen and ink method :-)

New stamps made

I made these 2 stamps over the last few days. I found some wood scraps, sanded them smooth and varnished them. I gave them 2 coats of varnish with a day between to dry. I stuck some foam shapes onto them, making sure that I picked shapes that were similar in thickness. I gave that a day to dry too. Then I made a test print and while the stamp was still on the paper I drew around the block of wood on the paper. I later cut this print out on the line and stuck it on the top of the stamp, so that I will know where the foam shapes will print on my fabric. Today I will sand the edges of the block/paper and then I will varnish over the paper print to seal it.