In late July/early August I came to the realization that I really needed to tidy up my sewing space and get piles of fabric OFF my cutting table (so I could use it to cut and sew!) and get them all put away. This… didn’t go well.
I honestly have sort of run out of room to put everything, which is both wonderful and terrible. I really need to make up more of my fabrics into the beautiful things I imagine they’ll become, and stop buying fabric until I make some more room.
A&S display at Avacal Sergeant Trials, with my device banner on the end
As I mentioned in my previous post, I made a banner with my device (which has yet to be approved…) for the Artisan’s Village at Sargeant Trials. I have a super-quick post today to show off the making-of.
Transferring the pattern to grey cotton canvas
I started off with the intention of making a silk banner – I had expected to have the “village” outside, and thought a pretty fluttering banner would be lovely. I used silk salvaged from a used blouse. This is the same silk blouse I re-used for my earlier Jorvik-style silk hood earlier this summer.
The design was enlarged on a photocopier and paper was taped together to make a large version. I transferred the design using chalk transfer paper and a rotary transfer tool. It worked pretty well, and I hoped to cover all of the chalk lines with my gutta.
Painting gold gutta on white silk
For my resist, I used gold gutta from a tube… I had thought I had black gutta at home, but I didn’t. After this point I actually went out to the art supply store and bought some black, but I figured I’d stick with the gold….
I used an embroidery hoop – having to move it a few times because my design was larger than the hoop.
Testing the gutta with plain water – lots of leaking 😦
Once I had my design fully resisted – I tested the lines using plain water and my brush – but there was spreading on ALL of my gutta lines! None of them were going to hold back the dye! I wasn’t sure what was wrong – but thought perhaps there was fabric softener or something on my fabric, so I figured I’d gently wash it in the sink……….
Big mistake. I guess I needed to press the gutta first, because as soon as I washed it – all the gutta started to peel off!
So, I abandoned the silk banner project for the time being (I might try a silk meant for painting; hopefully that will work better too!) and decided to go for acrylic paints instead of silk painting.
Beginning to paint the grey canvas with acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium
I transferred the design the same way to some grey cotton canvas, and mixed regular acrylic paints with textile medium, and painted it on the canvas.
I didn’t totally love the look – it seemed a bit ‘soft’ without the gutta resist, so I took the black ‘puff paint’ similar to the stuff we used when we did the silk painting class at Coronation, and went over the lines.
I also made a soft linoleum block of the ermine design for the “counter-ermine” print in the black area.
I cut the device out with pinking shears to hopefully resist ravelling, and strung the banner up on a rectangular wooden “dowel” kind of thing, with eye hooks on either end to string up. Initially I thought it would hang outside my pavilion, but instead it hung off the end of my table. I realized with that – that it’s a bit small… but I think I’ll wait until the College of Heralds passes my device before printing up another, larger (and perhaps silk) version.
A&S display at Avacal Sergeant Trials, with my device banner on the end
The finished banner on display at the Sergeant Trials in August to the left. The large banner hanging behind my display is the banner for the Emerald Rose – part of the regalia I have on loan as the current Arts & Sciences Champion for Montengarde.
I had hoped to teach the following class at Quad War 2015 at the end of August, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to find a ride up to the War, so couldn’t attend. Apparently there was some interest in taking the class from those who were per-registering, so the organizer asked me to make my notes available so another instructor who was able to attend could teach instead.
Here are my notes for anyone attending… If you have questions, please speak to the teacher teaching the class… there’s a lot here that I was going to show in-person rather than just rely on hand-outs.
*bummed I can’t attend*
-Dawn
A&S display at Avacal Sergeant Trials
August 14-16 was SCA Sergeantry Trials, and as part of it, one of the organizers was hosting an Artisan’s Village. I opted in (along with a number of others) and the original plan was to have a bunch of pavilions/sunshades etc with tables all together where all of the artisans could hang out, do demos, chat with people, and show off what we did.
I haven’t been to one before, so I kind of thought about it a lot, and made lots of plans- figuring out how to bring my pavilion, making a gear loft to hang a lantern from, getting big bins to carry my things so they could double as tables, making a banner-kind of thing so I could hang stuff from my pavilion, rigging up a collapsible shelving unit thing that could hang from the pavilion, and making a banner to “advertise” my part in the village.
A&S display at Avacal Sergeant Trials – focus on my Finnish Coils Work In Progress
Then on the ride up.. it started to rain. And rain, and rain. Saturday it rained, and Sunday it rained too… (Plus it was cold!) When we got there we were told that the ‘village’ was moved inside, and it ended up only being a few of us, tucked into a separate room from the main activity. (The main activity needed quiet from time to time, which was totally understandable.)
It kind of shook me really… I had something so ‘organized’ in my head, and then felt shaken up when it all kind of went sideways.
In the end, it was set up, and I spent some time there, some time volunteering at gate, and some time visiting with other people. I think I like the IDEA behind the ‘village’ (with a few more people than participated) so hopefully it will happen again, at an event I’m able to attend, with better weather!
A&S display at Avacal Sergeant Trials, with my device banner on the end
Before I went, I wanted to check out what I might expect – I looked up Artisan’s Village events from a few other areas, including:
A&S display at Avacal Sergeant Trials – focus on my naalbinding
The large brown rectangle in the display of naalbinding – that’s another work-in-progress… hopefully I’ll finish it soon to be able to share with you!
I’ll also have a post soon about my device banner!
My third naalbinding hat in brown heather wool (before fulling)
In my previous post, I shared my first and second full nålbinding projects – a striped hat that definitly had room for improvement, and then a smaller brown hat which I was quite happy with – although it ended up smaller than I originally planned for it to be.
After that one, I made a THIRD hat – this time making it bigger overall, so that there would be room to full it. (Shown above, before fulling) Continue reading
Dawn's Dress Diary 