Sunday 3 February 2008

Plastic garden - gas station project

I'm working on my panel for the Gas Station Project by the Fiber Collaborative. I decided to use plastic bags to show how ugly they are. And it's waterproof - a definite advantage for this project.




I started with a chain trellis base crocheted out of supermarket plastic bags and when I was halfway through I realized that I had used a few biodegradable bags!!! So I had to start again, this time with nylon string. As it is rather stretchy, I stitched cotton tape around the edges to stabilize the sahpe and size.


Here's the work in progress, all plastic. The orange dominates at the moment, not only because it's my favourite colour but also because somebody who shops in Sainsbury's gave me her stash.


The panel is quite large and I realized I have to corhet an awful lot of flowers and leaves to cover the base and the plastic started to hurt my fingers, so I started fusing fabric and cutting leaves out. These are the bags fused together with a hot iron in between layers of baking paper:



I cut some leaves out of the fused bags, arranged and again fused them together. I also folded them in half and just pressed the iron down (over the paper of course!) to make a crease in the midlle so that they look 3D. I will stitch them to the base using the same nylon string.


Updated photo. More flowers and leaves added, I've started stitching them to the base.

2 comments:

Jimbo said...

saw your post in ravelry and had to pay a visit. Amazing stuff!! Beautiful!! I don't crochet but one of these days... and when i do its going to be something like this!! Been in the back of my little mind for some time now. You and Inga!! Love your stuff!!

Jimbo

Emmanuelle said...

Great job!