take one art class or workshop this year

The leaf-shaped spaces are where the rayon velvet pile gets “burned” away from the silk backing. I think this fabric was 18% silk. The Procion dye is meant for plant fibers but the silk takes a little color anyways even though it’s a protein fiber. I bought a wool remnant as a backing fabric and to unravel it at the ends to make fringe. (I love fringe) The instructor gave us nice handouts with good step-by-step instructions plus online resources for supplies. I am getting more scarves plus looking for some yardage that’s got a higher ratio of silk:rayon to see if it drapes better and is stronger.

I went to take a photo of the scarf I made in class last night (so I could upload it with an entry) but the camera battery was dead. Drat. Had a wonderful time in the class though! The devore technique is pretty straightforward. The trick is to get a nice even layer of the acid paste. When you iron over the paste to activate it and dissolve the rayon, it will “burn” either too much or not enough if it’s uneven. I found a nice fabric remnant which I’m going to sew onto the scarf as a facing. As a bonus one of the other women in the class teaches knitting to elementary kids! I took her to coffee after the devore class and she taught me to cast on, knit, purl and cast off! So I’ve been practising my knitting last couple of evenings as well!

November 15th! I’ve been looking at the classes offered at Weaving Works for about six months now. I wanted to take a knitting class but those are usually 2 hours on a weeknight for four weeks running. Paco starts school on Wednesday and carving out a big chunk o’ time like that will be tricky. So the velvet scarf burnout class is on a Saturday for 7 hours! I signed up and paid my tuition Saturday! Bring stencils she says, so now I’m looking for some cool stencils for the class!