Portable crafts?
Dec. 28th, 2005 10:19 pmI'm going to be spending a total of 10+ hours in the car over the weekend, and I'm trying to find something crafty to do with my hands while I ride. What comes to mind is needle/yarn stuff, like knitting/crocheting or cross stitch. I know how to crochet, cross stitch, and basic knitting, but I have NO patience with them, so I tend to leave all the projects unfinished. If someone can suggest a short crocheting or stitchery project, I'll take that, but I was curious if anyone had ideas for something portable that's not embroidery or knitting/crochet.
And now for the LEAST portable project ever:

This was my final project for a textile design course last semester. The top layer is hand painted silk gauze, the bottom layer is shibori on cotton lawn. There's a total of two yards of each and I pinned them together and draped on a dress form. (quick and dirty presentation, the real work was the fabric.)
(Basic procedure: Stretch silk on a wooden frame either by stitching it with strong thread, or pinning with thumbtacks - I clamped 2x4s to lab tables, pinned the sides of the fabric to the 2x4s, then moved the tables apart so it would stretch the fabric. I had to sit on the tables to paint - not fun for my back! Then you transfer your design with disappearing ink pen and use a little squeeze bottle of gutta resist to draw the design on. Then you mix dye and water and paint in between the lines with a paintbrush. You have to dryclean it to get the gutta out, I haven't done that yet.
For the shibori, which is kind of like tie-dye, you draw the design on with the disappearing ink and then do a running stitch on all the lines, then gather it up super tight so you have a mysterious stitched blob. Mix dye according to recipe and paint on. The dye spreads but you get dotted lines where your stitches were.)
Took HOURS but I got an A on it and am generally very proud of it :)

And now for the LEAST portable project ever:

This was my final project for a textile design course last semester. The top layer is hand painted silk gauze, the bottom layer is shibori on cotton lawn. There's a total of two yards of each and I pinned them together and draped on a dress form. (quick and dirty presentation, the real work was the fabric.)
(Basic procedure: Stretch silk on a wooden frame either by stitching it with strong thread, or pinning with thumbtacks - I clamped 2x4s to lab tables, pinned the sides of the fabric to the 2x4s, then moved the tables apart so it would stretch the fabric. I had to sit on the tables to paint - not fun for my back! Then you transfer your design with disappearing ink pen and use a little squeeze bottle of gutta resist to draw the design on. Then you mix dye and water and paint in between the lines with a paintbrush. You have to dryclean it to get the gutta out, I haven't done that yet.
For the shibori, which is kind of like tie-dye, you draw the design on with the disappearing ink and then do a running stitch on all the lines, then gather it up super tight so you have a mysterious stitched blob. Mix dye according to recipe and paint on. The dye spreads but you get dotted lines where your stitches were.)
Took HOURS but I got an A on it and am generally very proud of it :)
