Saturday, March 26, 2011

Focus On Fiber Retreat -Part 9 - Permanent Pleating and 3D Sculpture

I showed this lame melt-off piece on a previous post. I had no idea what I was going to do with it. When I opened it and looked at it I realized it could be a great 3D sculptural piece hanging on a wall. I found a perfect spot for it. I only needed 4 dressmaker pins to hold it on the wall.



This is the piece of sheer polyester I pleated on the pleating machine.
After I pleated it I boiled it in water for about 30 minutes to set the pleats.
In the background you see the fabric I started with.


I ironed this design on one side of the pleated fabric using one of the pieces of paper I had painted with disperse dyes.


I turned it over and ironed a different design on the other side.



After removing the threads I used to pleat this I have a piece of pleated and printed polyester that is now 8" x 32". It started out 8" x 72".
I can finish the edge with my serger.


This is a closeup of the piece. There is not as much design as I expected. I can see some great possibilities for this technique. This was a good learning experience creating this.

5 comments:

:Diane said...

Wow, would it have given you more color if you ironed on the transfer dyes first and then pleated and boiled? Is that one of your "next" ideas?

Anonymous said...

Ah, a new use for that pleater I used for smocking for GD 27 years ago...Thanks so much for sharing this process, would never have thought of it. Shirley.

Kay Koeper Sorensen said...

Diane,
I had not thought of that but it is an excellent idea.

Kay Koeper Sorensen said...

Shirley,
I hope this may get many people to get out those pleaters and enjoy them again.

KMY said...

I have applications of pleating in mind that I've wanted to do, but do not know how to actually create the pleats. I like what you made but you skipped over the actual pleating work. Can you plz explain it to me? Is it using a special foot, or just ironing or what?
Thanks so much,
Kim Young
http://kmyoungster.blogspot.com/