I recently dyed some wool with food colouring and wet felted it into beads. I strung it onto some necklaces with 2mm plastic coloured beads, clear thread and silver lobster clasps, O rings and earrings. To make the beads, dip the wool into warm soapy water and then slowly roll it into a sphere. Speed up as it cools and hardens. It will shrink a lot.
3 Comments
I've recently come into some fleece and thought I would look into dying it to see how easy it was: very easy! First was the wool with hot soapy water and dry it. Then leave it to soak in hot water and vinegar for an hour. Apparently this helps to bleach the wool so that it takes the dye. While it's soaking, make up some kilner jars of dye. I used Wilton food colouring: about a teaspoon handle, a splash of vinegar and a mug of hot water for each. I left them on the window sill for 24 hours and then dried the wool with kitchen towel. I like the mottled texture but if you wanted a more even colour you could probably get that by carding it first. I've started to make them into wool beads, jewellery to follow soon!
Fimo is a polymer clay, a little bit like playdoh but firmer and less sticky. It hardens in the oven when cooked for several hours at 130°C, depending on the thickness of your clay. I tested it with va thumbnail to see if I could still mark it. You can build up your burgers as you would with the real ingredients. The lettuce was made by cutting shards off a block of green fimo with a sharp knife. The red onions were made by rolling up purple and white clay and then cutting slices. I'm particularly proud of them. You can add texture using a sharp knife or some scrunched up tin foil. I bought a beginner Fimo kit from eBay and it came with some wooden texturing tools. To make the bread look more toasted, dust the top with glitter colour powder. You can attach the jewellery O rings straight to the fimo before cooking. If you are making beads made sure you put BIG holes into your clay.: I found it impossible to pull metal wire out. If you want to make something a bit more fancy, you can combine the fimo with doll's house miniature crockery for a fabulous afternoon tea. The fimo will stick to the ceramic or metal while it is heated and you can add the O rings afterwards using super glue or apoxy. To make tea or other transparent things use liquid fimo. You can colour it using powdered colours and it bakes in the same way as the normal clay. That's how the tea and the jam was made. It is very sticky and does no flow easily once mixed. I had to dab it on using a chopstick. Don't forget to glaze your creations once they are baked to protect them. You can get both satin and matt glazes. Some websites say use several coats but I've found one works fine.
|
Apparently SewYou rip what you sew! Archives
May 2020
Categories
All
|