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Using discards in your current project

comments (0) January 26th, 2010

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tatteredthreads, member

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Using Discards

When I think about all the things I've thrown or given away only because I didn't either know what to do with the scraps or how to save them so I would remember I had them, I could dive head first into the shredder!

Seriously, recently I've been making crochet flowers and trying to paint museum quality watercolors.

Sounds crazy, doesn't it? And it is. Or was. Until I started to save the paper towels I was using to make sure all the paint was off my brush.

Lo and behold, I found I had hefty, "quilted" paper scraps with excellent Winston and Newton color samples dried into high quality paper that, when sprayed with an acrylic fixative, not only kept the color safe but also almost laced the paper towel into a type of micro fabric.

Since I work, unconsciously, with the same basic palette of color at one time regardless of the medium I'm creating in, the "paint wipe paper" very often matched the colors I used for the flowers.

I easily twisted my paper watercolor discards into flowers and, with the fixative, they keep their form. I attach the paper towel flowers to the crochet flowers and secure them together in the center bud with either a button or a jingle bell, a polymer figure or a celtic knot of kitted yarn.

They are really striking flowers, and I hope to upload a sample soon.

Thanks!

Tattered Threads