Two things I learned today.

First, from LK Ludwig’s ‘Point and Shoot’ on-line class, on using your own photos in journals – the wonderful effects you get if you scratch your photos. [!] 

This is one of the photos I took at the last Contemporary Textiles session, converted to B&W, printed on cheapo glossy photo paper from [I think] WH Smiths and scratched with an awl and an embossing tool – which I have never used for its intended purpose.

The loops of thread looked like one of those ‘taking a line for a walk’ drawings I used to do in primary school – so I filled in some of the spaces with doodles. I can see this as free motion embroidery on water soluble.

When I looked at this dribble of thread I spotted a Mackintosh rose in the middle – [well, possibly plastic mac more than Rennie Mac] so scratched parts of it, then coloured it with Inktense pencils. The colour is more intense where the image has been scratched, paler where the surface is left, so you get interesting colour variations without really trying – the texture left by the scratching helps too. I love the translucent, stained glass effect because you can see the photo behind the colour.

The journaling class is pretty good – I have an on-off relationship with journaling, partly because I don’t want to use other  people’s images and I can’t draw – so the idea of using my own photos appeals.

And the second thing I learned was from here.   Going to a class where I embroidered corrugated card has led to a move away from textile-related  words, I’m afraid, but I think the technique could be adapted for cloth – perhaps for appliqué using Bondaweb. [Livewriter’s spell check wants to substitute ‘bondage’ for ‘Bondaweb’. Er – I think not.]