Part 3 Stage 2 Workshop 5

Using a laminator

I wanted to see what would happen if I put wax crayon shavings in a laminating sheet and melted them together.

Wax crayons put through a sharpener

I sprinkled the wax bits onto my laminating sheet....

... and put it through the laminator making feather like images

I was concerned because the wax looked like it might have seeped out of the bottom of the work. I tried again but put less wax in and put it at the top of the plastic sheet.

The result was less attractive and it was clear that the roller was getting very messy.

I put four sheets of paper through the laminator before I was happy the roller was clean.

Cleaning the rollers

I don't know whether I'll be trying this again - the laminator is only on loan to me.

I keep all my bits from stitching in a container and I've found it very useful for doing work that has inclusions.  I decided to sprinkle some of these bits into a laminating sheet and just see how it turned out.

There are lots of bits in here, not all visible because they are see through

In total this is not particularly beautiful  but there are bits that might inspire future work.

A scrap of sari silk that has possibilities

I went on to use plant material, fabric and feathers.

Honesty with some seeds, wire and some organza

Honesty again, with strands of prunus serrula bark

Feathers

Less successful was my attempt to use fruit nets.  I chose to use nets because I thought I'd be able to get an all over effect.

The plastic sleeve got stuck.  The whole thing curled up

The nets got zapped and disintegrated

I tried again, this time with more success:

I found the flatter the things I used the better they worked.  I think there are specialist laminators for craft work but mine is just an ordinary one so that explains it.

I'm not sure this is something I want to pursue in its own right but I can see it might present shapes and patterns for development.