23 August 2006

Amazing what a little heat will do to layers of plastic bags - not just weld, but distort in interesting ways. I particularly liked using thick pink builders' plastic, together with graphic elements from carrier bags, over a grid of rug-hooking canvas, which textures the layers. And thin strips made by cutting out the bag seams, which are already bonded, made for good linear elements.Smaller sections can be juxtaposedJo showed us various uses of fabric and machine stitch (invisible thread in the top) along with the plastic. I was entranced by plastic itself, but did come up with this "dress", with the thin silk (dyed at Hartpury!) coming up through holes in the plastic of the "hem" and held by a rather disturbing layer of pins.
Here's a close-up of the interesting textures you can get. The plastic doesn't stick to the rug-canvas grid -- but it will stick to the iron if you have any that's not covered by baking parchment. Only a moment of ironing is needed -- and the plastic will go on shrinking and wrinkling unless you slap something flat and heavyish over it quickly.
When I got home I made a cover for the compost heap, using what was on hand -- Waitrose bags. This is about a metre square.

1 comment:

The WestCountryBuddha said...

Now, that's a seriously brilliant idea!