Paper textile
December 1st, 2008 by Maree
 This is the piece of textile which I made in the workshop on Sunday.
 It is composed of 5 layers of different papers, some painted, some stamped, some waxed, others oiled, or fused to a piece of painted Bondaweb or organza, in order to stabilize the piece if it was  too delicate. Â
We used mulberry paper, Brown paper, pieces of chiffon scarves (Polyester), encaustic wax, wax crayons and iron, stamps, acrylic or fabric paints, Â embossing powder, glitter glue, a heat gun( to distress the fabric), and olive oil on scrunched magazine pages. Phew!
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A design was drawn on a piece of backing Vilene, and then machine stitched 
(or hand stitched) through about 5 layers of the papers. Â
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  Then I cut through the first layer in one section on the front of the piece, in   the next section I cut through 2 layers to reveal a different colour paper,     Then I cut through 3 layers  in the next section, and so on through all the l   layers until I  had the effect I wanted, or near enough to it!                       Â
 I hope to cover a notebook with this piece, and maybe keep it for a         record of techniques I learn or find!
 This was a piece made by another lady, and as she had used white fabric for her top layer, it shows clearly the process of cutting through each of the sections.
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December 2nd, 2008 at 6:24 pm
I love this technique! What a cool, fun idea this is. Thanks so much for showing how it is done–it’s one for the “someday” file! Maybe, in the middle of a winter blizzard, I’ll try this one.
December 3rd, 2008 at 11:32 am
Thank you for this great post. It looks like fun.
December 5th, 2008 at 12:29 am
Maree, that is a fascinating project – I will definitely give it a try.. soon. BTW what would you do with the finished article?? or is that a silly question? Patsy
December 5th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Patsy, not a silly question, I hope to cover a book with it which I will keep for storing techniques and info re textiles. I saw a tutorial on altering an old book, removing some pages to create space and reusing the pages to hold instructions and samples etc!
December 29th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
I think this article is absolutely fabulous Maree and as I have been interested in textile artwork for some time, reading up on snippets here and there this caught my eye.
Do you need to distress the fabric if you have many different textures or does it not look quite as effective as using encaustic wax, wax crayons etc.?
I think you could use angel hair in this also and at the moment it is easy to stock up on different colours in the post Xmas sales.
I nearly bought some bright Christmas red the other day and talked myself out of it and now will go back and see if I can get some! I have stacks of gold, silver and sapphire blue/green shades.
My new sewing machine might be sewing experimentation pieces instead of garments yet but I did buy the machine with craft in mind and would also like to do crazy patchwork so time is the problem to do all.
December 29th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Colleen, as far as treating the fabric or paper, anything goes. It can be distressed, painted, waxed, embroidered, or even use any of the background card-making techniques we have learned.
Angel hair would work fine as also the fine polyester gilt fabrics. The list is endless. Problem is, where to start!!
December 30th, 2008 at 2:07 am
Problem is where to start alright Maree! Gosh I can see loads of potential here and what fun and thanks for this article, great stuff!
January 1st, 2009 at 4:59 pm
BLIMEY! That’s inspiring – a great piece. TFS.
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