Bonding, Fusing, Distressing, Distorting Workshop with Karin Bucannan

This past weekend I was lucky enough to go to a one day workshop taught by Karin Bucannan. It was, as the title suggests, about distressing and distorting fabric, and we got to experiment with using heat on fabric and plastic, and xpandaprint. Although these were already things I’d been trying out myself (in my Decay Art Project and Making Art with Plastic Bags) it was an opportunity to build on those ideas and actually produced successful work.

We were given 3 tasks to complete during the day and I left with some (almost) finished work that I am happy with as well as ideas on how to develop my own ideas and work further.

The first task was melting Angelina, shredded plastic and plastic from bags or crisp packets with an iron. We arranged them between baking parchment and then used the iron to fuse the layers together.

For the second task, we began by painting bondaweb with fabric paints and left it to dry. We then ripped the bondaweb up, arranged it on fabric and ironed it to fuse it to the fabric. We added xpandaprint, heated it and then painted it. (I did two, because I felt my first attempt was a little bit too reserved on the xpandaprint.)

We started the third task by painting calico with fabric paint and letting it dry. We sprinkled the fabric with bonding powder and then cut piece of fabric and merino wool and arranged them in a design. We placed a piece of chiffon over the top and ironed it all down. I then had enough time to add some stitch as well.