Monday, July 11, 2016

Introduction: Learning Terms

 It's important that we are all speaking the same language, art-wise, so I thought we'd begin with stuff you probably already know, in an attempt to get on the same page. Beginning with some color terms: Hue is the name of the color, i.e. turquoise, or carmine, or gold.
Value is the intensity of that color
Intensity or saturation is the depth of the color, ranging from pale to deep.
Tint is that color mixed with another color, usually black or white, but it can be mixed with its compliment, i.e. yellow mixed with a bit of purple will result in a muddier yellow.
Shade is that color mixed with black usually. 
Tone is that color mixed with gray.
Mud is my term and I mean colors that have all three primaries mixed together in varying amounts, resulting in earthier mixes, not a bad thing, just not clear bright colors.
More color terms; On the color wheel we have primary, secondary and tertiary colors. 
primary are Red Yellow and Blue, or in dyes/inks/paints we call them fucshia, yellow, and cyan.
Secondary colors are orange, green and violet. Tertiary colors are yellow-green, yellow-orange, red-orange, blue-green, blue-violet, red-violet.
Analogous colors are those next to each other on the color wheel.
Complements are those colors opposite each other on the color wheel. Red-green, blue-orange, yellow-violet.
 For more in depth information on these terms, see this site  and this site which did all the work for me.
++++
How to fuse: See this post.
++++++
How to clean your iron. O dear, yes the fusible will get on the iron if you are not careful, or if like me you are overconfident. ha!  or you can use Bounce dryer sheets, just be careful not to burn your fingers.

Or you can practice good fusing by always working with the fusible side down. 
++++++
Fabrics: While I love cottons like sateen and Kona, fusers  have to be aware of the tightness of the weave. We want to cut fabric and not have it fray, so muslin or print cloth would be best for our purposes. Silks are wonderful to fuse, if they are not sheer, as the fusible will show through on China silks for example. Batiks can be used but fused shapes often have a tendency to peel up if not fall right off. We don't want to have to stitch down every tiny piece so be aware of using batiks for small details.
I recommend fusing near solids or one color textured hand dyes, and let's save the fancy fabric for later.



18 comments:

  1. Good information!! You are building up the excitement about for the class!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm in Canada but was able to order pellon from Amazon.com! Even with shipping and exchange it is about half of what I can get it for here, when I can find it. Now fingers crossed for no mail strike.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Another Canadian happy to resume studies with Melody! Thanks for sharing your marvellous skills, my Chicago School of fusing skills are quite rusty!

      Delete
    2. Mine from Amazon.com arrived for pick up in my rural town today. Fast and yes, still cheaper! But they wouldn't do the teflon sheets. :/ Now I'm looking at my hand dyes and hoping I can tell Vicki's from the others. Am I correct that we will end up with 3" x approx 18" strips with no release paper behind them? But they are stored together on a large sheet of release paper for class? How do you store the large sheets of fused fabric that remain? hmm, I might have to do some reorganizing of the sewing room. ;^) yes, heart is starting to race!

      Delete
  3. Melody--I haven't fused fabric with wonder under for years. Please give directions, hints, techniques, etc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. See this post on my old blog; http://fibermania.blogspot.com/2012/01/fusing-101.html

      Delete
    2. Thank you Melody. that is just what I needed.

      Delete
  4. Did you have some pieces at the Quilt Museum in Golden CO last year? April, I think maybe?

    ReplyDelete
  5. So much information in a such condensed style! Thank you, Melody!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Melody,
    I emailed with Antony and he said he would have fat eighths and fat quarters. Are we better of getting fat eighths and get more colors or are we better off getting the 39 colors in fat quarters?

    My wonder under already arrived!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi...I have some hand dyed fabric and will be fusing it soon...local Quilt Show taking precedent. Melody, you mentioned storing of the fused fabric...how do you do that? Any particular system? My space is limited so I'm quite interested in how to store it. Thanks and so looking forward to you sharing your knowledge.

    ReplyDelete
  8. How do i sign up? Can't seem to find the link?

    ReplyDelete
  9. I got a great Teflon sheet at Walmart in the baking section. It's black and approximately 18"X24". Cheap but I don't remember how much. Another fusing blogger told me about them. It works great.

    ReplyDelete
  10. How do i sign up? Can't seem to find the link?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just stay on this site and you can consider yourself signed up! All the classes will be posted here every Friday.

      Delete
  11. Instead of a Teflon sheet, I just bought a roll of parchment paper and I can make it as long or short as I want..

    ReplyDelete
  12. I can't wait to get started! Look forward to the next post

    ReplyDelete
  13. What size background do you recommend for these fused fabric samples?

    ReplyDelete

Comment or ask your questions here so I can clear up any confusion.