MAKING MOTHIES FROM SILK FUSION



The Mission: Make Mothies. "From WHAT?"...I pondered the different fabrics I had on hand. Some really funky, some just beautiful, but nothing jazzed me. Then I remembered the bags of silk fiber that I had purchased with the intention of trying the fusion process to create some unique 'fabric' to work with for my faeries. That was when I was actually sculpting faes.

The process took a bit of time. You lay out in one direction various silk fibers and then on top of that in the opposite direction you lay out another layer. This is placed in between nylon netting like a sandwich. The next step is to brush on hot water mixed with dish detergent and really saturate the fibers. After blotting the excess water off you then brush it with a textile medium for fabric painting which is like a thinned glue in a way. This now needs to hang up and dry anywhere from 4-8 hours depending on the climate. Once dry, you peel the netting off and you have some funky fabric that you can now use in your artwork or sew it up into whatever suits your fancy. For a fabulous tutorial, go to joggles.com and click on tutorials, then click on silk fusion. I tried to write the correct html code here to link it, but failed miserably. I did two different color combos. One was more blue and purple, and the other mossy green with hints of gold and pink. With these I made my mothies. Two for the swap and one for my daughter. I drew out a basic shape, cut, sewed, stuffed, embellished with beads and thread; stamped a face onto light muslin and applied to the body; added crowns; cut wings from the fusion fabric and added a cord for hanging. Viola!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Little Rella: I love all your work always and these mothies are no exception!! They are charming, glorious, gorgeous and just about too wonderful for words!!! I lovezzzz them! I will have to try this silk fusion paper....I think we had planned on making it last August, but we didn't get to it!
Lovezzzz ya,
Audra Mae

Patti G. said...

Rella, your mmmmmmmmmmothies are fabulous! I love them all!!!! Wheeeeeee! Such beauty in that silk and the faces are wonderful and the beads too! Terrific!
Hugs,Patti

Miss Robyn said...

I love your work - are you in a swap group? do you mind sharing? I would love to join a group - I make cloth spirit dolls

Angie at Home said...

Oh... so coolish and creative. The wings are just perfect. What a treat for the people you will be swapping with.

zuzu said...

Mothies? =^..^=

Oh Rella ... How very sweet they are! I must agree with the others that the wings are fabulous. The way the light plays with them -- You have used a nifty techinique to create these. (Again, something I have not heard of before was the silk fusion.)

Thank you for sharing.
I can picture these floating above your head while you work in your little nest ... Are they tiny?

=^..^= hugs, zU

dogfaeriex5 said...

i adore your color chances and they are beautiful!! good work you do!!
xox~Kim

moi said...

Simply beautiful Cindy!

Anonymous said...

I love all the fairies you create. I stop by often to see what is new in your fairy world. Thess mothies are just out of this world.

One Crabapple said...

Mothies are SO WONDERFUL !!!

One Crabapple said...

Thank you so much for sharing this process. I am fascinated and excited to try it .

JudyK said...

Love..love your mothies!
LOVE LOVE your sculpted fairies!