Fifty on Friday

Five? Pah!

I've been so unbelievably slack with posting pictures of the amazing work happening in class, so now I'm going to have to pay for it with a massive post to show what we've been doing! Brace yourselves...

First, way back in January, we indulged in my favourite stitchy exercise - strips of texture, sari silks and wot-not. These were then embellished with metal bits and pieces, in the following weeks, as we got more confident stitching on metal:

(Our first experiments with metal were simple samplers, of "foot-on" stitching then free-machining, posted way back here).

Then we played around with positive/negative images, which is REALLY HARD to do with metal, as it is a pig to cut intricate shapes without shredding your hands unless you have a fancy die-cutting device! We had some good results using chocolate wrappers and foil from dark chocolate bars, which seemed to please the troops (can't think why...)

Using the same shapes, we experimented with distressed kunin felt motifs on foiled or metal backgrounds (and there is a rogue fish there, not on metal, but fun nevertheless!):

And then another one of my favourites: since half-term we have been stitching metal with a water-soluble fabric backing. This allows separate pieces to be linked with stitch, which I then chose to weave into, after the backing was dissolved away:

You can also stitch fringes and decorative edges, as the fabric supports the stitch until you dissolve it. And for the really brave, you can incorporate beads, sequins and washers as embellishments to your fringes and edges - stitching directly into them with the sewing machine needle (you may well need to change to a thinner needle first, and perhaps remove the foot!).

Top picture here is the intrepid Jill, bravely stitching away into metal and beads, without a presser foot:

Then for the all-important embellishments, we've had a go at making beads with metal shim and wire. Our favourites were the beaded wire tangles!

And along the way, there have been some wonderful creations, and more are still works-in-progress:

Looking back at that lot, I think we deserve a holiday!