C&T New Product test revealed... the joy of exploration!

As you may have noticed, I have a 'relationship' with C&T as a product tester (a 'Creative Trouper') and last summer I had a fun time playing with one of their newest creative fibers - which didn't have a name at the time, but now I know is called "mul-tex"!

 When this fiber arrived... I was admittedly a bit stumped - it was shiny almost waterproof plastic on one side, and the other side was like a finely spun interfacing...  I really had to put my thinking cap on for this one!  In July, I was taking watercolor classes at the Greensburg Art Center - so I worked with what was handy!  The above pieces were painted with translucent watercolors.  I noticed they had a tendency to curl...

Here is my first try at a little scrap book - I turned the pages so the fibrous side was out, and sewed a few pieces into this little book with the pages open at the top for storing tiny trinkets & fiber scraps that are too small to put back into the 'stash' collection.  This also lets me store the scraps 'color sorted' from yellow to red!  I love that Ferris Wheel stamp from Pat Catan's!  I used several different ink colors and kept stamping over the image for a more interesting effect.

But the deal is.... I have to make something to send back to C&T!  Sometimes it's sew darn hard to return things, you know what I mean, right?  I decided to make a 'bigger, better, more complex version of the little book.
You can see the final results below, and on the C&T Flickr page - along with all the other results!

printed in ink jet printer - love my fireworks!

crumpled & painted with metallic inks - notice how it stays translucent?

tried a tie-dye fold - with metallic inks again...

loving these watercolor results - the only hard part is waiting for it to dry!

acrylic paint with silver & two shades of blue - less translucent, but still has nice depth and texture!  this was slathered on rather thick, as you can see!

This was a piece that I really tortured until the two layers separated... the fiber part was soaked with watercolor wash and draped over a bottle to dry, but was very fragile while wet!  Once dry, it was terrific!

here's the finished 'album' with stored snippets.....

and a view from the front... Sweet Book!

For those who are looking for my 'newbee' paper piecing tute, I've had a little change in my schedule... you can click on the "subscribe to" icon in the left column, and get a notice in your email as soon as it's published.

Thanks for visiting with me!  Let me know if you try the mul-tex - and remember to share pictures!