Off the Wall Friday - rocks and polyester

Tile Guy auditioning for
my next nude

This is my Off The Wall Friday post.  For more exciting projects from a lot of creative people, hop on over to Nina-Marie's Creations page.

I had a problem this week, I jabbed my eye with a piece of wire and sliced a 1.5 cm cut in it.  Not to be outdone, the uninjured part of the same eye decided to react to the ointment they gave me and now it is all inflamed and really ticked off at me.  So sewing has been out of the question since I am afraid that my fingers will suffer at the sewing machine.  And I can't go back to the ER for a while, lest they begin to recognize me.

And we are having tile laid in the bedroom (this guy is auditioning for my first male nude!) and all the furniture is in the den/living room and I can't find anything in the clothing I tossed on the guest bed from my overstuffed closet.  (The tile is ceramic but looks just like wood.  It will be gorgeous when finished.  And the dogs cannot scratch it up!)

The truthbomb spoke to me this morning:

                              You have everything you need. Right now.

I am pretty sure they don't mean fabric though.

I decided to sit on the patio and try a technique that didn't involve sharp thin instruments I couldn't see well.  I am tying rocks into a polyester scarf I found among my mother's things as I was clearing out the bottom of my closet.  I put it in the Purple Cow Recycle bin and then thought to

take it out and play.

I can't find the original post, but what I will attempt to do now that the rocks are all tied in the scarf, is to wet it and dry it with a hot blow dryer. 

The end effect is supposed to be a pebbling effect that will hold shape in the poly.  The next Fiber Challenge is Movement.  I think I can get a stream bed out of these pebbles.  I wish the scarf was blue, but I will work with what is at hand.

The Pond with the Loon and
the Turtle Rocks 

see the ripple in darker grass?

We have a rock walkway that was built to be a Rock Stream into the Japanese Garden Pond.  I will have to show you that one day.  It is really cool.  So these are my Japanese Rocks from the Rock Stream.  I sat on the Dam (bench) to put them together and listened to the birds call and the leaves rustle.  The the "water" pours over the "dam" into the larger "lake" and you can
see the ripples we made with the grass.  Cool.  I will have to get a picture of the ripples for
you.

Well, the idea didn't work.  I wet it and dried it with my hair dryer.  Nothing.  So I whipped up some 50/50 water/starch, nothing.  I went with 100% starch, nothing.  Did you know you really can't starch poly scarves?  LOL.  Really.  I gave up to watch Jodi's trial phase.

While I was watching the opening statements, I did some research on the web and it said to best do this effect with polyester scarf material you need a 200 degree conventional oven for 8 hours.  And you have to vent for the noxious fumes. 

Well, that ain't gonna happen.  I need to look further and find that post was where I saw this.  Darn.  I wish I had an implicit procedural memory!

Sometimes things just don't work.  More later, when the eye is better.