Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Paint, Glue, Glitter & More

I've been wanting to try my hand at textile bead making for quite a while, so yesterday I decided to just do it, and continued with some more this morning.  Those of you who know me, know I really don't like anything to do with glue, so it's not easy for me to get into this sort of thing.  However, I have to say, I had some fun, and I've made a few little textured pieces that might be useful for some mixed media projects.  I took the easy way out and made some paper ones first.  These are made from heavy brown paper [almost card stiffness], which I coloured with crayons, painted with metallic folk art paint, with glitter added after rolling.  They have been sealed with ModPodge.  I think a much brighter result might be achieved by using lighter coloured paper, where the colour will be stronger.

The next experiment was using Kunin felt, stitched with metallic thread.  It was then rolled onto a satay stick with some purple silk dupion.  I like the broken/crackled surface, which was also painted with glue prior to rolling in glitter.  These are really cool.





Okay, so now I'd found my sea legs, I was off!!!  The next thing to try was Tyvek.  I painted several strips with iridescent folk art paints, and Lumiere metallics.  This batch was done using Lumiere Pewter on the Tyvek, and rolled with black wool felt, later rubbed with Sapphire Treasure Gold, and the obligatory glitter to finish off.



The last batch I'm quite pleased with because I managed to be much more judicious with the heat gun.  These little gems are painted Tyvek, rolled with purple silk, distressed a little, and rubbed with Rose Gold Treasure Gold, but I stayed away from the glitter this time!!!!    They are a much tighter and neater roll for my liking. 



I want to try more with Kunin felt stitched prior to rolling with contrasting coloured silk.  I like the look of those, the way the stitching is left after the felt is pulled away by the heat. 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Try blasting the Tyvek and Kunin felt with a heat gun for some really interesting effects.

DIAN said...

Linda, these look fabulous. Good for you. I hate the glue too. I guess it is a way of using small pieces of fabric and making something special.


Thanks for the nice comments on my blog.

Robin Mac said...

They look wonderful Linda. Have you tried using a long triangle wrapped from the wide end to the narrow? I usually just poke a pin into the tip of the tyvek then blast it and everything stays together. I also love using embossing powder on the paper beads after I have glued and rolled them. Cheers, Robin

Karyn said...

what a clever thing to do linda. So what will you do with them now? They are all very pretty.

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous beads Linda. You do some very interesting techniques and come up with some beautiful treasures

Radka said...

Never boring, Linda! Your beads a great! The only beads I made were from triangles of a gift wrapping paper,rolled around a knitting needle and varnished. This is miles ahead! I am sure you will find some use for them in some future project.