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Recycling isn’t easy

Recycling isn’t easy

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The idea of upcycling and recycling is enormously appealing given the situation we all face. But going back and undoing work from others’ hands is challenging.  For those of you who have come late to my adventures in recycling,  I am disassembling worn out silk kimono to weave into more modern type of jacket, still with an Asian look, but done in a rag weave. This is part of the Japanese tradition of using materials to their utmost, so I don’t feel too bad about taking these garments apart.

The process of tearing or cutting the fabric is boring, boring, boring and just for a change of emotion it’s frustrating too!  I have dulled blades on fabric cutters, dulled scissors and now I’m trying a combination of rotary cutter and ripping, but still I’m not having great success.

 

Sometimes the silk tears into perfect strips

Sometimes the silk tears perfectly and the strip can be used exactly as it comes off the fabric, then the next strip goes completely haywire for no discernible reason.  These are really old kimono so my suspicion is that they have started to shatter, but that should be working in my favour when ripping, so I’m at a loss.

I have pressed and folded the silk and laid it out on the quarter inch.  This is when the straight edge and rotary cutter come out.  The silk used here is very fine, from the lining, so the width of the ribbon is a little more than the quarter inch. The poor rotary blade was starting to sound pretty grim after eight deep cuts.  I’ll look for a small sharpener to try to extend the life of the blades.

The ribbons are joined into one long ‘thread’ using a split knot.  A small cut is made in each end of the ribbon about a quarter inch from the ends.

 

 

The right hand ribbon is threaded through the slit in the left hand ribbon.

Then the very end of the left hand ribbon is threaded through slit in the right hand ribbon.

And finally, they are gently given a slow and gentle pull until they come together in a little butterfly knot that will be a design element of the weave.  It will be random and just pop up here and there on the fabric.

I find doing this hour after hour nearly mind numbing, and can only do this for a few hours a day or two at a time.  I really want to finish this kimono project but it’s getting to be a slog so I have to take breaks.  I will finish it, but not in the original time line.  What do the rest of you do when you have a project that starts to pale as time goes on?

This time boredom prompted me to crack out the dye pot and do something vivid and cheery for a November day.

Easing into the Third Quarter Challenge

Easing into the Third Quarter Challenge

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I’m working on some projects for the Third Quarter Challenge, but had completed this project earlier which also falls into the Second Quarter Challenge.

While going through some old craft boxes, I found a piece of crochet I did many, many moons ago as a young woman.  I set it aside with my felting supplies.  Every once in a while I’d pick it up and set it on some roving or prefelt, unsure what I wanted to do with it.

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It was definitely acrylic, so I used a small tail on a prefelt when I was making samples and it felt in very nicely.  However, because it has such great dimension I didn’t want to lose that either.  Finally, I made some gray batts with merino and corriedale and decided that’s what I’d do and use a resist under the center so I wouldn’t lose that nice dimension.

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I purposely left the center open so that would be firmly attached.

Here is the result:

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I don’t know why this one looks orange.  Lighting I guess.  But you can see where some of the gray migrated up through crochet piece.20160609_123520_001

My next dilemna was what to do with it.  I tried it over a small pillow, but didn’t like the way it pushed the design up.  Then I tried a couple of pre-made square frames.  But I didn’t like them either.  The frames were either too wide, the wrong color or not big enough.

There was something lacking.  I just couldn’t put my finger on it.  Then I tried stitching a design around it.  That gave it a little balance, but I’m still not sure.

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I may take it to a professional framer and have something like this done.  I tried a new program — Ribbet to super impose a frame.  I know the top and bottom are  cut off a little but it was just to see if I liked it.

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Or this?

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What do you think?

At least now I have a piece of my crafting history preserved and not stuck away in a box.

More experiments with UFOs

More experiments with UFOs

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A couple of years ago, I was making silk paper just for practice.  I decided to try to cover a bowl and make some ruffle edges.  But it was a disaster. I used an acrylic medium to help give it substance, but all that did was make it stiff and unmanageable.  I tried soaking it in soapy water for a couple of days, but that didn’t do anything either.  So it went into the “pile.”  I’ve picked it up a couple of times thinking I could use it for something, but nothing came to mind. Sorry about the fuzzy picture.

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Recently, with the Second Quarter challenge to revisit our UFO stash, I pulled it out again. This time as I thought about it I started pulling it apart, peeling off layers.  I wondered if it would still felt, so I looked through my stash and found some yellow batts with unknown fibers.

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It felted just fine, some parts are still stiff, but most of the thinner areas still had the silk shine. This piece will probably be made into a coin purse.

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But what to do with the rest?

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Another UFO was a piece of prefelt I had cut for “lace” in Fiona Duthie’s Surface Design class.  I put a piece of habatoi silk under it and felted them together.  I’m not sure what I’ll do with it.  But I like the bubbly effect of the silk through the holes.

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Then I found a frame for the cityscape.

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While I haven’t made a big dent in the scraps and UFO pile, I feel good about trying some new things.

2nd Quarter Challenge 2016

2nd Quarter Challenge 2016

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Remember the credit card wallet disaster I told you about earlier this year?

 

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I decided I would recycle part of this piece into an earbud case for the 2nd Quarter Challenge. So I cut it up.

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I used a blanket stitch to sew it together and finish off the edges.

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Then I added a snap as a closure.

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Its a little bigger than needed, but I figure I’ll find something else to stuff in there if necessary. Perhaps a few business cards.  I feel better knowing I’ve been able to use some of the material for something useful rather than sitting in a pile.

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If you’ve done something for the 2nd Quarter Challenge, be sure to post it on the forum! Or contact one of us to write a blog about it!

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