BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Handicrafts?

**Posted by stoertebeker** May 1, 2014 8:22 pm

Are there any creative people around? Well, actually this is a silly question considering the many fan fics, fan arts and stuff many people here do. But I was wondering about other creative hobbies. Me for example do a lot of handicraft stuff (pottery, window colour, silk painting, mosaics, decoupage, crochet...) Well, I like to experiment and try out new technics or ideas. But I am not good with "a blank page", I always need an idea or template to work with. So, maybe we "like-minded people" can share some of our projects and ideas as well as advice.
Here are some pictures of my latest project. We needed a clock for our living room and in a catalogue I saw a nice clock with a "shabby chic" Union Jack motive which was fairly expensive. So I made it by myself (I hope the pictures are not to big):

The second one is the end result and now has a good place at our living room wall . The wood ring of the first one was actually a trial piece but it turned out that good, that I made a second clock as birthday present for a dear friend (who is a big Britain and London fan).

P.S.: Aaah, photos now shown, dropbox seems not to work with sharing photos.

Last edited by stoertebeker (May 1, 2014 8:39 pm)

**Posted by TeeJay** May 1, 2014 8:25 pm

I do fabric painting every now and then. I'm actually painting a canvas bag for someone right now. I've made a few fan t-shirts before as well, including one for my favourite band.

I've also dabbled in ceramics painting, and there's a light green mug I have that I'm pondering to make a Sherlock mug out of. I already have a Monty Python Silly Walks latte mug I painted, which I use quite a lot.

**Posted by zeratul** May 1, 2014 8:38 pm

Did much when I was at school, window color, made friendship bracelets, rocailles and so on...
At the moment I like painting on T-Shirts .
I did this for example:

I also do dogs and so on

Last edited by zeratul (May 1, 2014 8:48 pm)

**Posted by Mattlocked** May 1, 2014 9:08 pm

I do pottery (rented an electric wheel just last week and am completely addicted now), modelling with clay, drawing, painting and such.
Reg. Sherlock related stuff I made a Sherlock (had it as avatar for a while), a Moriarty tile and a union jack ball which is now at another place.
Will search for pictures later. But I'm quite sure they must be here somewhere.

I like your clock very much, esp. the second one!

Last edited by Mattlocked (May 1, 2014 9:09 pm)

**Posted by TeeJay** May 1, 2014 9:16 pm

The clock looks great, and the t-shirts too! You're all so talented.

My band t-shirt is a bit more boring, because it's only black on red:

And, yes, every single letter was painted on by hand. With a very small brush. It took ages. (They're snippets of lyrics from Livingston's album "Fire To Fire".)

Here's one of the canvas bags I recently did. (ReGenesis is a TV show that I love.)

Last edited by TeeJay (May 1, 2014 9:19 pm)

**Posted by zeratul** May 1, 2014 9:25 pm

Wow beautiful!
I use stencils for the letters...
The eye is stunning!

I bought many shirts and also colored shopping bags and more colors. I'm waiting for the colors at the moment... I want to do a red/gold dalek with metallic colors

Which paint do you use? I use Javana Opak.

Like the clock too!

**Posted by TeeJay** May 1, 2014 9:27 pm

And as for the ceramics painting, here's a Bomb Girls themed mug I made, which I'm admittedly not all that proud of because the lady I was trying to paint doesn't look anything like the actress it was supposed to be.

I can't find a good picture of the Monty Python mug right now.

**Posted by TeeJay** May 1, 2014 9:36 pm

zeratul wrote:
Which paint do you use? I use Javana Opak.

I must admit I have different ones. Basically, whichever is available in a crafts store nearby. There aren't many left near here that even carry fabric paint. I've used Javana Sunny (for light coloured fabric) in the past, right now I have Marabu Textil and Deka Permanent. But you have to be carefuly if you use different brands, because sometimes they don't mix among each other and you end up with little rubbery clots, which obviously is a bit not good.

Oh, and I use a Deka transfer pencil for most of my shirts to transfer the outlines of the image I want to paint. I print out my template as a mirror-inverted image, put the kind of half see-through Butterbrotpapier (sandwich paper -- if that even exists outside of Germany) on it, and draw the outline with the transfer pen. Then you turn the transfer paper paper around and iron it onto the fabric. Which obviously only really works on fabric that is light coloured enough because the transfer pen is blue-ish purple.

Last edited by TeeJay (May 1, 2014 9:36 pm)

**Posted by stoertebeker** May 1, 2014 9:54 pm

Wow, TeeJay, the T-Shirt and the bag are awesome! It almost looked printed.
Many, many years ago (I was still in school) I made a T-Shirt with Lemmings motive (I used to love the computer game back then ). It took me weeks to finish it due to the details and I hardly ever wore it, but I'm still keeping it, of course:

I haven't done any fabric painting since but planning to do a T-Shirt with angle wings on the back for a long time now. Well, maybe for this year's festival season. I'll look for the colours you too recommended.

Last edited by stoertebeker (May 1, 2014 9:56 pm)

**Posted by zeratul** May 1, 2014 10:00 pm

I need to look for this pen, I bought some kind of "Kohlepapier" but for fabrics... It was expensive and does not work at all, I was really angry... So I did everything free hand. Used a textile pen to do the outlines first. I also bought pens which shall disappear with water but the one for dark fabrics is quite silly, it has to dry to be visible so you cannot paint along.

I also got paints from Tchibo but they are too thin. Especially for stencils...
I order most of the stuff online.

Last edited by zeratul (May 1, 2014 10:03 pm)

**Posted by TeeJay** May 1, 2014 10:17 pm

Lemmings! That's awesome! I also have a few hand-painted shirts that don't fit anymore (middle-age comes to us all, dear brother), but which I can't bear to give away.

In terms of the transfer pen, I really recommend the Deka one. I had a similar one by another brand once (don't remember which), and that one didn't transfer well. Look for something that looks like a dark blue-coloured pencil, that's the kind you want to get.

http://www.rau-co.ch/contents/de-ch/d389.html

Last edited by TeeJay (May 1, 2014 10:32 pm)

**Posted by zeratul** May 1, 2014 10:26 pm

Yeah I found it, but it is hard to find a shop which has it.
Where did you buy it?

Edit: Yes found the same shop, but they want much shipping + extra money if you order for less than 50€... a bit "unverschämt"...

How about this: http://www.amazon.de/RAYHER-B%C3%BCgelmusterstift-SB-Btl-dunkle-Stoffe/dp/B004P1AXKC/

I have the opposite problem... many, many shirts (bandshirts, threadless shirts mainly) which are too big now... Damn... (and more than 20 jeans...)

Last edited by zeratul (May 1, 2014 10:30 pm)

**Posted by TeeJay** May 1, 2014 10:35 pm

I don't remember where I bought it. Might have been amazon or the crafts store in Leverkusen where I sometimes go.

The one you linked to might also work, but like I said, I once tried another brand than Deka, and it didn't transfer as well. Guess you'll have to try for yourself.

Last edited by TeeJay (May 1, 2014 10:38 pm)

**Posted by zeratul** May 1, 2014 10:40 pm

Ok I'm gonna try it.
C.Kreul "Kopierpapier" was waste of 4€ because it doesn't work at all, so let's see...

Did you use the Deka on dark fabrics?

**Posted by stoertebeker** May 1, 2014 11:07 pm

I am ordering at this shop regulary. They have a good range of products and they also have the Deka-Pen TeeJay mentioned: http://www.kreativ.de/shop/unser-angebot/textiles-gestalten/stoffmalerei/zubehoer/deka-buegelmusterstift-buegelstift-online-kaufen-42183a

Shipping will cost 3,95 Euro if you are under 40 Euro but they sometimes have special offers for reduced shipping or discount. Maybe subscripe for the newsletter.

**Posted by zeratul** May 1, 2014 11:12 pm

thanks will do that

**Posted by TeeJay** May 2, 2014 8:02 am

zeratul wrote:
C.Kreul "Kopierpapier" was waste of 4€ because it doesn't work at all, so let's see...

Okay, good to know. I'll certainly stay away from that, then.

Did you use the Deka on dark fabrics?

I don't remember what the darkest fabric was that I've used, because all I've used in recent years is light-ish colours. I used it on that red t-shirt with the lyrics, and that works fine. I think as long as the fabric colour is lighter than the colour of the pencil, you'll be okay. It probably won't work on anything that's darker, although I've never tried it. If you have something like that, maybe you could try it on the inside with a small piece of transfer first?

Oh, and in order for the transfer to work, you need a non-steam iron (or switch off the steam function), and it has to be set to quite high temperatures and you have to keep the iron on the area for more than a few seconds, so I would be careful with synthetic fabric. It might only really work with cotton. I've only ever used it on cotton.

Also, the transfer pen usually washes out with the first wash, at the latest with the second.

This might be an interesting read for you: http://www.luzine-happel.de/?p=3110

Oh, and I suppose another method could be that you use a beamer or projector to project your template onto the fabric and then use a normal pen to draw the outlines. But of course you need a projector for that (which, for instance, I don't have).

Last edited by TeeJay (May 2, 2014 8:10 am)

**Posted by zeratul** May 2, 2014 9:40 am

Thank you .
Yeah I would also use it on cotton.
I also do not own a beamer or projector .
I will try to get such pen and then try it out.
Thanks for the tip.

**Posted by zeratul** May 3, 2014 8:40 pm

Strange thing: kreativ.de and gerstacker.de is the same owner, same order numbers, same / similar prices but more shipping at gerstacker... different user accounts and different facebook pages though...

I registered for the newsletter at kreativ.de to get a voucher then I somehow got to gerstacker.de and mixed it up... straaange

**Posted by zeratul** May 6, 2014 9:46 pm

Got some new colors and I am doing this atm:
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRNNLp-vLlVHPXNwtk04nnJ6o8Z9K9yMh5gNGJ5XSaa6Amfsg2yrw
Gosh, the red colour is not good. It is also Javana Opak, but I already painted with it twice and I think i need at least another go. Even white covers better than this...