Plastic Fantastic: The marvels of melting

Beautiful butterfly collage

Yesterday I ran a melted plastic decorations workshop at The Hut, which is part of Brampton Community Centre. It was a bit of a wet and grey morning but this worked out well as the session was over subscribed so very busy, a few more than I anticipated but it kept me busy! Last year I ran a similar session at The Kirkgate Centre in Cockermouth as a drop in workshop. The session was for children and there was quite a wide age range. Because of this I'd planned two activities so that they could choose what was most suitable for them.

Arranging bits and pieces

Laying the pieces out

Another collage ready to melt

The first option was plastic bag collage. This involved collaging and then fusing pieces of plastic bags together to make pictures or abstract compositions. Some of the children made really complex collages and there were some really fun ideas.

Melting!

Cat collage

The right trousers!

The second option was to crochet chains and then arrange the chains into shapes before melting. Because it was quite a large group it was difficult to have enough time help everyone with this but all the parents, grandparents and carers were really helpful and some of the children picked it up really well and made some really long chains!

Learning to crochet

Finger crochet

Chains arranged into a flower and melted

My main aim for the session was to give the children and their carers a fun and creative activity that they could experiment more with at home. As all that is needed are plastic bags, an iron and some baking parchment it is a cheap and easy thing to experiment but with a bit of skill and practice complex patterns and pieces can be produced. I've been melting plastic bags for about ten years now and I like the element of transformation and slightly unpredictable nature of it.

Fish Collage

Fish Collage #2

Plastic Fantastic

Some of my melted plastic decorations in my studio window

Last month I did two Melted Plastic Decoration Workshops at The Kirkgate Centre in Cockermouth. I really enjoyed them and it is a lovely place to work with very friendly staff.

In the window at The Kirkgate Centre

All the materials set up ready to go!

The workshops were drop-in sessions and I taught people to crochet using plarn (yarn made from strips of plastic bag.) I then showed people how to melt their creations using an iron to create beautiful, light-weight decorations.

Picture made from melted plastic bag pieces

Flower decoration made from melted crochet chains

There were some beautiful creations; unfortunately I didn't get many photographs as I was far too busy crocheting and melting, which as regular readers will know is one of my favourite ways to spend time!

Another beautiful crochet flower

Melty Stuff

Melty!

I've been up to my old tricks, crocheting plastic bags and melting them. I can't help it, it's an addiction!

Before the melting...

The Mystery Project

The finished piece

The final project in the Art House Co-op's 10x10 series is the Mystery Project. You get sent a theme and a marker and have to make a piece of art and leave it somewhere for a stranger to find. My theme was 'The Future of the Year' and I really struggled to think of something. So, I left it to the last minute! Last night I thought I really should do something as the deadline is today so I thought about what a good future would be like; recycled and handmade, obviously! I decided my signature style of crocheting and melting plastic bags would be good so I made a pretty flower with a chain so that whoever finds it and takes it home can hang it up. A little card explaining what the piece is and it was ready to go.

In my window

Detail

Detail

Crocheted plastic bag flower

The whole thing

Detail of card

Melty Lace Flowers

Crocheted Plastic Flower Decoration

As some of you may know I love to knit and I love to melt stuff. I have also been known to combine these two interests to create pieces such as The Lace Space which I am currently doing some more work on. The basic process involves cutting plastic bags into strips, knitting or crocheting them and then melting them, this creates quite a rigid piece of fabric which is, of course, waterproof. On a smaller scale my friend and colleague Helen T and I along with help from Susan have been crocheting a flower garden using the same technique. We intend this to be a beautiful outside 'curtain garden.' We also thought that these pieces would make beautiful hanging decorations, either inside or outside. This pair of flowers was made using a discarded plastic poncho and a sandwich bag. I made the pattern up as I went along!

Big flower

Little Flower

Little flower detail

Large flower detail

The Lace Space and Monster Capes

How organised am I? I said I would blog about our Summer Project-Universal-and here I am actually doing it. Anyway, enough self congratulations. Today we have been outside chucking dye onto fabric ready to cut it up and weave it into the Harris fencing up around site. Another of the Creative Textiles projects I'm doing is a space (see drawing) that you can step into created from knitted/crocheted/woven plastic bags, melted and attached together. It's beginning to concern me quite how much plastic I have to knit before Thursday but I'm not alone, my able assistants are more than pulling their weight.

The Lace Space-Concept drawing

Knitted and melted plastic bags

Crocheted and melted plastic bags

One of the Costume projects I'm doing is monster capes. I made a pattern for a simple hooded cape and then decided the hoods would be good with eyes and teeth to make them into monsters. Which is what you see below. The second one even has eye holes!

Monster!

Monster with eye holes!

Stay tuned for more fun fabric based frolics!