Where did August go?
I realized I have missed many weeks posting. It is not that I haven't been working but live revolving around me has been very busy.
Family from Vermont, birthday celebrations, weddings -(2), canning wonderful peaches, pears and salsa, experimenting with eco print dyeing, experimenting with ice dyeing, making jewelry with fabric beads, helping friends, new fence (finally!) all good things but it left me drained.
Combine that with the sadness in the world with hurricanes, and situations of extreme acts of hatred against people and that leaves me drained.
Why do I let life events effect me so...? Because like it or not I am a feeler. Intuitively or unconsciously I feel deeply. I am trying to just go with that as I would rather care to much than to little. I need to recognize it, see it and learn to accept that I am resilient and will not break. Do what I can and not break. So some of my down time has been reading so scientific books on resiliency. Fascinating. But a lot of processing.
But for a blog on my art work that is not very fascinating.
So I am going to share how I make fabric beads. Again not rocket science but a easy process to do when you just want to fiddle some time doing something rote and simple.
Making a fabric bead...
What you need:
- piece of colourful fabric
- small stir stick straws, drinking straws or skewers
- double sided contact tape. (Scor tape scor-pal.com/scor-tape) or fabric glue
- cutting mat, rotary cutter and ruler or a sharp pair of scissors.
Placing the double sided scor tape on the fabric top and bottom. If you are using glue put a small bead line of glue where the tape is .
Remove the tape and place the coffee straw on the sticky tape and start to tightly roll the straw up to the top tap. Remove top tape and finish rolling.
I didn't do this in the picture above but I would use my rotary cutter to make a clean cut on both ends first. Or you can use scissors for this. Don't use your best blade or scissors for this!
Here is a finished set of beads. 2 one inch beads and 5 half inch beads.
There is more that I do to the beads or you can use them like this.
Part 2 I will give you some suggestions that I do to fancy them up.
Part 3 will show you how I have used them in a project.
Then I will consolidate the instructions on a tab at the top.
I love making the beads. It is a perfect activity for TV or sewing that doesn't require a lot of thinking.
Hope you are having a wonderful week. Enjoy the sunshine while it lasts!
Jo
Linking up with the needleandthreadnetwork
P. S. I have no affiliation with Scor-pal tape but do find it very useful. Google it for a place where you can find it.
I realized I have missed many weeks posting. It is not that I haven't been working but live revolving around me has been very busy.
Family from Vermont, birthday celebrations, weddings -(2), canning wonderful peaches, pears and salsa, experimenting with eco print dyeing, experimenting with ice dyeing, making jewelry with fabric beads, helping friends, new fence (finally!) all good things but it left me drained.
Combine that with the sadness in the world with hurricanes, and situations of extreme acts of hatred against people and that leaves me drained.
Why do I let life events effect me so...? Because like it or not I am a feeler. Intuitively or unconsciously I feel deeply. I am trying to just go with that as I would rather care to much than to little. I need to recognize it, see it and learn to accept that I am resilient and will not break. Do what I can and not break. So some of my down time has been reading so scientific books on resiliency. Fascinating. But a lot of processing.
But for a blog on my art work that is not very fascinating.
So I am going to share how I make fabric beads. Again not rocket science but a easy process to do when you just want to fiddle some time doing something rote and simple.
Making a fabric bead...
What you need:
- piece of colourful fabric
- small stir stick straws, drinking straws or skewers
- double sided contact tape. (Scor tape scor-pal.com/scor-tape) or fabric glue
- cutting mat, rotary cutter and ruler or a sharp pair of scissors.
Choose a piece of fabric that is colourful. Batiks work great. Use up pieces that you may have saved. This is one way I use up my scraps. Cut the fabric the length of your straw or skewer.
These are some straws I have collected from my wanderings. Recycling all those coffee straws or you can buy a box of them at a place that sells restaurant supplies or coffee supplies for business.
Placing the double sided scor tape on the fabric top and bottom. If you are using glue put a small bead line of glue where the tape is .
You should now have a covered straw. To cut the piece into individual bead. Place a ruler beside the straw and vision how long you want your bead.
I didn't do this in the picture above but I would use my rotary cutter to make a clean cut on both ends first. Or you can use scissors for this. Don't use your best blade or scissors for this!
There is more that I do to the beads or you can use them like this.
Part 2 I will give you some suggestions that I do to fancy them up.
Part 3 will show you how I have used them in a project.
Then I will consolidate the instructions on a tab at the top.
I love making the beads. It is a perfect activity for TV or sewing that doesn't require a lot of thinking.
Hope you are having a wonderful week. Enjoy the sunshine while it lasts!
Jo
Linking up with the needleandthreadnetwork
P. S. I have no affiliation with Scor-pal tape but do find it very useful. Google it for a place where you can find it.
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