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Powertex Inspiration

It has been six months since I went off to train at Powertex Towers and it is lovely to see some of my new students applying their skills. Take a look at these fantastic pieces from Jean who has been so inspired by Powertex that she is now working in a wide range of colours and finishes.

    

Jean is planning on a range of green men that represent the changing of the four seasons. Because Powertex is completely weather proof she can use her finished pieces in her garden throughout the year. She has started with white Powertex and incorporated lichen and berries to bring her winter green man to life. Next Jean has dabbled with mixing the shades of Powertex to create subtle green tones that she has then gone to town embellishing with rich coppers and bronzes. Look at all the found items she has managed to incorporate in to her pieces. I’m looking forward to seeing the other two in the series.

     

 

If Jean has captured your imagination and you would like a piece like this for your garden remember Powertex is completely weather proof. There are a range of courses available using a variety of techniques and colourways. You can view more of our Workshops, Classes and Groups here.

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Beginner Dressmakers at the ready!!

Three Days, New Clothes! with Linda Radley on Saturday 10th February, 10th March and 14th April

Make 3 different clothing items on three different days with Linda helping you create a complete outfit and bringing some freshness to your wardrobe.

You will make:

  • A skirt on 10th February
  • A top for Summer on 10th March
  • A jacket to finish the outfit on 14th April

Linda will guide you to achieve the best fit and look for you, along with lots of helpful tips throughout the three days.

You can chose from a selection of patterns – which can be purchased from Tudor Rose Patchwork in advance of the course and at a 20% discount!

 

The patterns recommended by Linda are:

M6654 – a classic

skirt in stretch fabric

M6927 – Simple top

M7059, M6970 and M7368 – a selection of skirts, tops, and easy-to-wear jackets.

 

There is a wide range of fabric suitable for the McCalls patterns available at Tudor Rose Patchwork, however the type of fabric you can use may be impacted by it’s suitability for the chosen pattern.

At the end of the three days you will have a completed, new outfit, have met lots of new people and really enjoyed your time with Linda.

Each day will run from 10am to 4pm. Book a place here.

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Sculpting with Powertex

My first foray into Powertex work was a sculpture of a figure so this week I have been dabbling in the human form. I am trying to use different ways to build the armature for my pieces so this was an experiment into the wonders of kitchen roll tubes and foil. With a bundle of masking tape it was all getting very Blue Peter.

Once I had created a kneeling form that I was happy with I started bringing it all together with lots of old, natural fabrics and a healthy dollop of trusty Powertex. I love seeing the way the fabrics take on the shape of the armature and drape so that the clothing takes place. I especially like giving my figures hoods as I like the mystery they create so this figure is no exception.

Powertex is a great way to use old, stained linens so here I have incorporated some lace and even a few charms for effect. The feather charms we have in store at the moment are my favourite and find their way into lots of my work.

I was going for the bronze statue look with this piece and focused on some metallic tones to achieve this end. I hope you like her…or him….

If I have captured your imagination and you would like a piece like this for your garden remember Powertex is completely weather proof! The next opportunity to make this figure is on Saturday April 28th 2018.

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Purple Boots Update

Its a cold day and I am busy creating in my cold dining room. The fire has been calling me though so I am taking a break to warm my bones and catch up with my blog posts.

Just a few days now until Tudor Rose holds its wonderful annual exhibition. So much to see and learn about. I have been lucky to work with Kathy Laurel Sage on one of her machine embroidery classes so I need to set up my machine and get some of those pieces finished but first…Powertex!

I’m working on a mixture of pieces at the moment. My half day courses have proved popular so I am busy coming up with a new one based around mirrors. Those who know me know I am a little addicted to recycling so I have been rummaging in charity shops far and wide and have managed to come up with a whole bunch of mirrors that we can turn into a class.

My recycling habit is also becoming well known amongst our shop customers and I often find little donations for me to incorporate into my work have appeared in my drawer. The current favourite is old keys so a few of these are making an appearance into my mirror frames alongside the usual fabrics and linens.

I’m working in Ivory at the moment. This is also weather proof just like my lead and bronze pieces but will allow for a wider colour choice once I get to that stage. I’m thinking I might like a wall of, mirrors in my garden to hide the slightly ugly pallet fence made by my neighbour. I should love it, its a total recycling triumph but it’s orangeness offends me just a little. I’m hoping a collection of Powertex magic will make me love it a little. To this end I also found an absolute steal of an oval mirror in a charity shop. A friend and I have spent a happy hour with a pot of tea and some of the stockinette we have just added to our product line in store and the frame is now half covered with ivory. I am tempted to try some ombre skills by mixing my white with lead and creating some interesting graduated colours…but will it work? Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Watch this space to see how my mirror projects turn out.

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Joy’s Christmas Update

Most of my recent blogs have featured my crazy addiction to crochet.  Not so this time.  I’m still crochet mad and have been working on crocheted cowls amongst other things as Christmas presents for many of my friends.  Each one a different yarn and a different colour especially chosen for each recipient.  It’s so exciting.  I look at all these lovely things I’ve made and feel so happy and full of anticipation of giving them, I’ve roped my 13 year old daughter in to help with present wrapping this year.  We’ll have an afternoon together in front of the television watching a Christmas movie, with sweet treats and wrap like mad.

Right now though, I’m making earrings. Lots of earrings.  I’ve blogged in the past about my love for beading and jewellery making and it’s made a bit of a resurgence in my life.  An elderly family friend dropped by the other week with an antique blue-grey freshwater pearl necklace.  She didn’t wear it anymore and could I do something with it?  She wanted to give a gift to each of our group of friends as Christmas presents.

What could I create?  I decided earrings would be the way to go.  I needed to make 5 pairs using the pearls.  One lady needed something lightweight – she had delicate ears.  One lady would need a big and bold pair.  I was going to have to make a pair funky and modern for one of the group and something very sparkly for another.  And of course, there would have to be a pair for me.

I have raided my stash and have come up with 5 different styles.  I’ve got a simple teardrop with tiny crystals, a bigger teardrop with larger crystals and a crystal charm.  There’s a simple multi stranded affair using just the pearls, a more complex multi stranded pair using crystals and seed beads. And finally a pair with crystals that’s going to look rather like a bunch of grapes.

I’ve used several different techniques – thread and a needle, nymo and tiger tail.

It has taken quite a few weeks but I am finally happy with the end results.  One pair was taken apart twice as they weren’t quite right and I just wasn’t satisfied.  Finding the different styles to suit the intended recipient took a while and quite a lot of research.  I even dug out old design magazines and books as well as using the internet to form the basis of my ideas.

It is so nice creating and making personal Christmas gifts.  That wonderful feeling you get is what Christmas should be about.  Keeping our loved ones in mind and giving a present that is personal and thought out.  Merry Christmas everyone!

 

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Guest Blog – Terry Fletcher

One of our most regular and favourite customers spent some time here on her own working on her projects, and while she was here she wrote a lovely blog post for us! Pop that kettle on and fetch the cake 🙂

 

 

‘Another productive day at Tudor Rose. I’m doing a ‘Day Away From Home’ on my own and I’ve cut out, stitched and almost completed the quilting on a lap quilt designed for a Christmas present!

Could I have managed at home? I suppose, but at home I would have felt the need to put on a load of washing, and probably put some tea on as well. This is much less stress! I can lay out the material, and have my machine, the iron, and the cutting table all in the same space. Measure, cut, stitch, and plug in my headphones, find a book, and start quilting. Joy!

This sounds so anti-social, but I also come along with my sister and several friends, usually once a month. We do different things, helping where needed, and it’s all very relaxed. We chat, catch-up, and have a nice lunch in O for Coffee that we haven’t had to cook or clear up. It’s become a regular social occasion for us. And if we run out of cotton – we’re in a shop!’

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Purple Boots and The Ocean Wave

I am looking forward to more Powertex workshops as we approach Christmas and I am making lots of new products to tempt you in to one of my courses. This week I have been working on mixed media pieces inspired by the sea. My best friend recently moved to Cornwall and her son is a surf instructor so he has had my ten year old out on the waves while the mums watched and ate cream teas. Then my daughter convinced me I had to have a go and I managed to stand up. I’m am actually quite proud of myself. I always tell my girl she should try things once and then she will know whether she likes it and can politely say nope not for me if she doesn’t. She’s a totally natural surfer, her mother, not so much and no one needs to see me in a wetsuit but I may just give it another try.

Being near the sea always inspires me and I often take my sketchbook out and about when we are on family holidays. I love the ocean especially when it is rough so it made sense to try to capture the feeling of the huge rolling waves. I am experimenting with white Powertex as I really want the colours of the sea to show through. Being a total beachcomber, I always manage to come home with pockets full of sea shells, driftwood and sea glass so I have incorporated some of these pieces into my waves.

Cotton lace and old t shirts are a great medium for Powertex so after applying a base layer of fabric I spent a couple of happy hours sculpting a pair of canvases. I wasn’t sure about how  effective lace would look in a piece of ocean art so I opted for narrow pieces that echoed the waves. Several coats of Powertex were needed over the bulky parts of my work to help them stay in place and then I moved to a layer of colour. What I love about this product is that I can happily make mistakes, either in colour choice or by using too much colour, and these can be rectified with a quick dry brush of gloopiness ready for me to try again. It really takes the fear of making mistakes away as I know I can’t ruin my work.

I had great fun experimenting with these.

 

Purple Boots x

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Shop Update
To everyone who visited the shop and made Sew Saturday such a successful day on 21st October.
Congratulations to Angela Scutchings
who was delighted to win a metre of fabric in our raffle and was one of our first 5 lucky customers to receive a Goody Bag
Newon our website!!

We’ve got some lovely little bargains over on the website. Every little helps in the run up to Christmas!
20% OFF
NEW!!! from Lewis & Irene 
Themed with a selection of fabulous diggers, trains, planes and more …. ‘Small Things on the Move’NOW £10.36 per metre
Offer ends 7.11.17

18% OFF
Anne Smith Designs
Fun little doll patterns with painted faces allow you to experiment with new techniques while creating a toy to be given as a gift or kept for you to admire.
The dolls are no taller that 17″ when finished so they are great for using up scrap fabric. You can try out all sorts of colour ways to put your spin on your doll! 

 NOW £9.00 
Offer ends 7.11.17

Also reductions on the lovely squishy Wendy Supreme Cotton Chunky – pop over and have a look and treat yourself to a bargain.
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Purple Boots and the Powertex – Part 2

Back with my Powertex uniform on…well not so much a uniform as my painting clothes! Powertex is designed to make fabric hard so obviously it does exactly that, not so great in your favourite jeans. My ‘out of the frame’ pieces have been so popular and the course is filling up so I have produced another sample to entice you.

My fantasy house is made from a large pickle jar. I love the way this great product lets me upcycle so many things. I start with a design idea – where will the windows and door go, do I need a chimney? After some very careful wrapping, using t shirt yarn that I make with my trusty rotary cutter, I am ready to Powertex. A firm brushing embeds the Powertex into the yarn and forms a great base to build on.

An hour later I have a quirky, individual roof for my house, the door is attached and the window frames are ready for some titivation. Old lace or crocheted doilies are spot on for this part of the project. A little drying time and my house is ready for colour. Today’s decoration is teal and purple but Powertex can be coloured in lots of different combinations.

 

Why not come along and make your own? Your house could soon be living at the end of the garden for the local fairy population, or go darker and make it appeal to some hobgoblins, perfect for the Halloween doorstep. Because my houses are built around a jar, just add some battery powered fairy lights for a whole new effect.

Next project is a seated figure. Perfect for a spot in the garden. Best get my thinking cap on.

Join Purple Boots for her Fantasy House workshop on Wednesday 29th November.

Click here to book online.

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Purple Boots and the Powertex

 

I have been having lots of fun this week experimenting with our new range of Powertex products. Having worked with a visiting Powertex tutor I took myself off to Powertex UK to learn more about this exciting product.

Powertex fabric hardener and textile hardener is an environmentally friendly water-based liquid sculpting medium. It can harden absorbent materials such as textiles, paper, cardboard, fabrics, leather and fiberglass and can be easily combined with self-hardening clays, concrete, stone, ceramic, wood, sand and Stone Art.

Over the summer I have been collecting a range of materials to recycle as Powertex offers masses of opportunities for ‘green’ crafting. I have turned many old t-shirts into t-shirt yarn which we will come in really useful once I move onto bigger figures. Old jewellery is also a great resource, broken necklaces and old buttons and beads. I also discovered some lovely but stained old crocheted doilies in a charity shop and these too will be getting the treatment.

As a way of introducing Powertex I am running a course called Out of the Frame. This week I have been busy making the samples. First I covered my base materials – old frames and canvases – with some of those recycled t-shirts then I got creative. Powertex is absorbed by the fabric but takes some time to become hard so it allows for lots of opportunities to change my mind and reposition the elements of my designs. In order to get some elements to adhere you need a little patience and some jiggery pokery with scraps of lace and paper.

 

Time for a brew and step back for half an hour, and now the pieces I have been working on are well on the way to dry. At this point I need to pick a palette of colours for each piece I’m working on. Steampunk is gradually turning into shades of blue while my fantasy frame is a little more subtle with metallic shade.

Unlike other coloured media you cannot go too wrong with colour on Powertex pieces. If it’s too strong I simply take a little Powertex on my brush and blend it over to soften the effect. A little patience, a little layering, and I am done.

 

Now….fairy houses….hmmm!

Purple Boots x