Friday, September 26, 2014

Semi-Detached Structure

SEMI-DETACHED

... or OMG! 
I completed a challenge! 

Meet Semi-Detached. 

I made the leaves about six weeks ago and left them alone until they provided the "I should do something with these" impetus needed to create Semi-D. Semi-D is created mainly from silk dupioni, which doesn't photograph very well, MistyFuse, and Timtex. I like the rigidity of Timtex, which gives the piece "structure". 


The tree-branch is made from Timtex and heat-activated, moldable batting, giving the tree-branch a slight three-dimensional curve. According to the packaging, the moldable batting gives rigidity and stiffness for handbags and totes. A fun product, and I shall try it again for something. 

The Timtex and moldable batting were covered in brown silk dupioni and cords made from silk embroidery floss,  Kreinik braid, and metallic knitting yarn (the stuff that looks like a ladder) were attached with a zig-zag stitch. The edges were left raw for a little bit of texture.

I should have used a much firmer quilt batting than bamboo, and next time I will quilt the backing and top before attaching such heavy add-ons. In order to keep some of the leaves from flopping around, and to secure the base of the tree-branch, I used some "450 Quick Dry Adhesive" - it's clear and dries very quickly. Some of the leaves are raised from the surface with large beads, which are glued to the background and to the leaf itself.


While I was writing this, my husband was vacuuming my sewing room (Yes, he really was!) and found something I thought I had lost. So I added it to Semi-D.


As a bonus (and because I haven't kept up!), this is a photo of Stream - the piece I used for inspiration when I made the leaves. Stream is over two feet long, and is over seven years old!


Ready for the next challenge!

3 comments:

  1. Isn't it grand when you " find" somewhere to put these beautiful pieces! Great to see you back on the blog! Fun piece Dale.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dale that is spectacular! How inspiring it is! I am percolating one but it's not happening yet. Not dropped out....just on hiatus for a bit. I too had a project that I didn't use stiff enough batting and it would be 100% better if I had used Timtex. Too much on the front so it's floppy. I never thought of stiffening it with a surface treatment.....creative mind you have there!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dale, it's great! I particularly love the background - satin I presume. It adds a real richness to the piece,

    ReplyDelete