Sunday 9 August 2009

Leaves - A Fibre Postcard & Art Now For Autism

I had a lovely surprise this week when Leah in Texas commented on one of my posts and said she'd love to trade. Now I am nearly always up for a one-on-one trade so I quickly said yes. We agreed on a postcard with a leaves theme. It is not due to be posted until the end of the month but yesterday I got the urge to start and before I knew it, the postcard was finished.

I have used a text printed fabric background (you can see it in the background of my picture) but the muslin that I layered and stitched on top has virtually obscured it. I'm telling myself that it is "providing depth" as I hate to waste expensive fabric, especially text fabric for which I am forever searching. I coloured the muslin by bunching it up and spraying it with various Adirondack Color Washes - I love those sprays! Because I have been reading Lesley Riley's book "Fabulous Fabric Art With Lutradur" I wanted to make my leaves from lutradur, so I dug out a piece from a whole pile I had painted a couple of years ago and used my woodburning tool to cut out some free form leaf shapes. I used the tool to score the leaves a bit to imitate veins and then stitched them onto the background using a green metallic thread. I added a bit of organza under the middle leaf, sewed on some miniature sequins and a backing and then decided to add some glitz by spraying some Glitz Spritz in green and gold. They give it a lovely radiance in real life!

Now as a result of "meeting" Leah I had a good look around her blog and found out that she is supporting "Art Now for Autism" through a fantastic and very generous give-away on her blog (appropriately called ART GIRL!) So pop over and have a look and decide if you too would like to link to the Art Now for Autism site and enter Leah's giveaway. Unfortunately the deadline for art donations for the on-line fund raiser is 1 September so I won't be able to make anything for it this year but I will be checking out the art available at the auction, that's for sure.

6 comments:

Leah said...

Debbi this looks awesome! i'm so excited. i love the writing fabric. you put so much detail into this. thanks for explaining your process too, it is helpful and inspiring.

thanks also for the mention and linking to the auction post. it IS a great cause so i'm excited about that.

look forward to seeing your lovely work when it gets to me, and i'll be working on yours too.

Helen from Hobart said...

"text fabric for which I am forever searching"

Why not just print your own ? Fancy fonts, interesting colours, shapes from WordArt. Schlepp the fabric onto freezer paper, set the printer for card/envelope and print it out.

If you only use it for non washables, no problem. For washables, you need to have DuraBrite ink or BubbleJetSet.

Hugz Helen from Hobart

Samantha Marshall said...

Debbi,
This is so beautiful. I love your layering and the great stitching.

Barb said...

Fantastic fabric art Debbi... and tes...you could print your own text covered fabric...easy-peasy!..vbg

Nia Tilley said...

This is beautiful Debbi, Thanks for sharing it with us.

Julie H said...

Oooh I do love this postcard! so much detail I had to enlarge it.