MORE ODDITIES ON THE WASHING LINE

A week or two ago, this is what my washing line looked like.

I had been making silk paper, and put it out to dry in a lovely breeze. Making silk paper is a little bit like felting, but the silk fibres do not hook together in the same way as wool fibres. You need to bind them with a medium like Textile medium, or even diluted PVA or wallpaper paste.

The resulting 'paper' can be quite beautiful, has a lovely shimmer, and can be put to a multitude of uses.

                                  

I have scanned some of them to show you.

                                    

                                       

                                                        

You can still see the imprint of the net that I use to make the 'silk sandwich', but this will be ironed out - literally!!

Lately I have used pieces of silk paper to make cards. The paper makes a beautiful rich background for pressed flower arrangements.

This background inspired me to do something different.

So I went off to my stash of lace, and found what I needed.

I think I like the lace pieces almost as much as the pressed flowers - and they have the advantage of being much more acceptable to a fussy quarantine officer if the cards should be travelling to Australia or New Zealand!!

I was panicking because I was running short of window cards, and also wanted more of the lovely dragonfly lace motifs!

My dear online friend Peggy, from Kaliko Kottage, was able to come to the rescue with both!

Meanwhile, this is what my washing line looks like this morning!

These are pieces of woolen jumpers (from the Op Shop) that I have felted in my washing machine using very hot water! This produced beautiful thick and versatile felt pieces that I use for many things!

                             

Believe it or not, I have a load of real washing sitting in my machine, waiting to be hung out. How boring!!