My Favorite Books

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Friends and Glue!





Actually the title of my post is accurate...our friends are like glue and we do stay together no matter how far away we live or how long between visits with each other!




Yesterday, after picking up my new car (Buick Enclave - which I love!!!) I got to meet up with two friends I haven't seen in years!!! I posted a few days ago about the beautiful beadwork by Christine. (If interested, you can read my post here on how we met.) Well, Christine was/is best friends with Sue who used to work with me in my good old EDS days and Sue was helping Christine at the Flint Handmade Spring Sale.



Here are Christine, Sue and me in front of Christine's table which contained absolutely beautiful beading!!! Not your typical, "oh, I made a nice bracelet" jewelry. Christine has some very unique pieces. Check out some of Christine's work on her Etsy site here.

This is Christine's display table. Very nice!
It really was so nice to visit with both Sue and Christine. Sue and I met for lunch several years ago and I don't think I've seen Christine for 10 years! Friends are like glue! They stick around and THANK goodness for that!! I do hope to see both these ladies more! Just need to make the effort and keep tabs on where and when Christine is vending. I saw a few items that would make great gifts!!


Now to playing with real glue....Karen from A Creative Kick did a post on using glue and alcohol inks that I've been wanting to play with. You can read her post here on the technique. Check out her other blog posts as well! She really does some beautiful work!

Based on the inspiration from Karen's post, I bought some Alene's clear Tacky Glue (Karen used regular which also dries clear) and I also diluted it with water so it was a little thicken then the consistency of honey. I brushed the diluted glue on some white fabric. You can barely make out the glue on the fabric.
While the fabric was wet, you drop your alcohol inks onto the fabric.
I tried to use the same technique for making painted fusible by folding the fabric onto itself but 'duh'!, what happens when you put glue to glue! Yep, it sticks to itself so I had to puullllll it apart carefully and slowly....then I took a brush and just brushed the paint around the fabric.
My wood block fish was just sitting there looking for a job to do so I thought why not!
I stamped the fish onto my piece while it was still wet. I loved the fish!!
I took my 3 painted pieces and hung them on skirt hangers (I use these ALL the time!) outside..big mistake! The wind blew the fabric onto itself and I lost most of my fish print! :(
I think the pieces still turned out pretty good. I love this brown one for sure. I did iron each piece and they are stiff but actually softened up quite a bit.
This is the 3rd piece I did which was larger than the other two but it's still only a little bigger than a fat quarter. I think they'll make nice ATC's, fiber cards or even fusible applique in some artwork. So, thanks, Karen, for posting this technique! Isn't it great to have our friends and to meet new friends even through 'cyber space'!

5 comments:

  1. Robbie,
    I was so very good to see you. Sue and I had a fabulous time (you missed our impromptu cocktail hour at 3) and had a great dinner across the street after the show.

    I love your experiment with glue and ink, it's incredible. Maybe this summer I'll experiment and create my own table cloth for the shows. You've given me some great inspiration (and a desire to get back to the sewing machine!).

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  2. I like yours a lot. I tried this on card board and liked the results and made ATC's out of them but now I see I must try it on fabric and let the pieces moosh together a bit.

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  3. Love those fish.....too bad about the line trouble, but hey they are still there, the water just got a little murkier.

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  4. Thanks for the mention, Robbie! I really like the colors you used -- and it's genius to have tried it on fusible! Now I'll have to retire to my laboratory and try that too!

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  5. That's a neat technique, your results are really interesting! And congrats on the new car. :D

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Had to put Word Verification back in! Getting strange messages!!!