Experiments with an embellisher

I'm not the proud owner of an embellisher but I have a friend who is!

I wanted to experiment and see how the embellisher works and the effects I could achieve so I had a go when we last met.

I've selected some drawings from chapter 1 of this module 6 as was the protocol for samples in the last 2 chapters.

Sample 1

Drawing 1.71.h. Oil paint sticks with inktense sticks rubbed over snippets of card under paper

Calico with painted bondaweb applied with added white emulsion paint and horizontal strips of net.

I added strands of space dyed deep blue scrim and blue / orange wool fibres plus strips of pale blue scrim snippets of space dyed blue sari strips which tended to blend less well. I decided to cut the sample to add a sense of movement.  Free machine embroidery added in sideways zigzag and circular stitching.

At this point I tried out a hand held needle felting tool which proved ineffective

 I then embellished the sample and achieved a beautiful blended effect. Very pleased with this:

Sample 2
Drawing 1.71.g.  Oil pastels followed by a wash of water and inktense sticks applied.

Printed felt with horizontal strips of painted Bondaweb and blue / orange wool fibres and scrim:

I then overlaid this with a lacey fabric worked on water soluble fabric [ horizontal sideways zigzag stitching with added snippets of of dyed sari strips, dyed blue scrim, blue and orange wool fibres.
Threads - Blue, turquoise and orange threads and royal blue in lower bobbin:

The above was dissolved and laid over the backing.

Embellisher applied to blend the layers, some pale blue scrim and darker blue / teal cable stitch added for more tonal contrasts. The sample took on a distorted form with embellishment and extra stitching:

Sample 3
Drawing 1.8

Background - Printed white felt in blue [ bubble wrap print].
 I lay spirals of wool fibres, dyed blue scrim, snippets of dyed blue sari strips and disc-shaped fabric pieces in a sandwich of Aquabond and water soluble film before free machine stitching in variegated
blue thread with royal blue on the lower bobbin in a vermicelli style / pattern. Orange thread added with royal blue to bobbin. Cable stitch added with space dyed cotton perle on lower bobbin in vermicelli style and then orange stranded cotton also in vermicelli style.

And dissolved:

And embellished:

This was an interesting exercise and demonstrated some beautiful blending effects which could be used  to represent a watery feel.

I took inspiration and added information about the use of an embellisher from the book Just One More Thing by Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn