My first experiment in building a structured purse.

I used the Dorothy/Evelyn pattern from Emma Brennan’s Making Vintage Bags. Charming bags and good instructions — a lovely book.

The pink boucle fabric jumped off the shelf at me in JoAnn’s one afternoon. It seemed like something that should be made into a Chanel jacket but I can’t wear that much pink and I have no occasion to wear a “suit” so…

pink boucle purse

I already had the lining, and the button was in the miscellaneous box. I had though I wanted a pink velvet bow — there’s one in the book — but finding pink short pile velvet turned out to be a fool’s errand. So the aqua button stepped in. I think it works well.

lining and magnetic snap

The experimental part was the interfacing. I wanted structure so I used a heavy craft weight interfacing Pellon — Peltex 70. Imaging something that is almost like packing felt — and really stiff. It’s easy enough to work with, and gives a nice plump feeling to the purse and keeps the body from collapsing but… it’s wonky. I couldn’t figure out just how or why but the result was not pleasing.

buckling on the top edge

Leave it to the DH to make sense of my intuitions. The problem is similar to “oil-canning” in sheet metal. Sort of… (You can find the wierdest stuff on the internet!)

In this case the problem is that the Pelmet does not roll gracefully, it buckles instead, giving the wonky top edge that I didn’t like.

After messing about with a piece of leftover Pelmet I’ve concluded that there is no way to make it roll smoothly over a radius as small as the top edge of a clutch. I can see where I would want to use Pelmet for something like a bucket tote, or the sides of a bolster clutch but it isn’t the right material for this project.

Ho hum, on to the next one…

I’ve got a shiny new copy of Photoshop CS3 and have been experimenting.

In Photoshop Creative Collection v3 (no link available) there’s a technique that mimics pen and ink. Something that is similar to some watercolor and ink work that I did a couple of years ago.

I did the tutorial and got this effect.

Which I liked well enough but I think the ink lines are a bit crude. Perhaps as a result of my not being a true ace with the graphics tablet, yet.

I’ve gone on to experiment with some other images and am slowly developing a version of the technique that I like.

For some pieces I’m building the color in Photoshop and then printing the piece and inking it my hand. I like the results I’m getting from printing on 140# cold press watercolor paper. (Usually the smoother side.) It takes ink from the inkjet well and the slight texture gives the hand inked lines a nice variation.

I’m also trying to find ways of creating a black-line layer within Photoshop. It’s tricky to get the overlay to have enough information to pick out the details of the image without overwhelming the nice blocks and blobs of color that I work so hard to make.

This is part of a piece based on a photograph that my husband took in Oaxaca. I used a handful of filters to create the black overlay. (I can go back and look them up if you want the gory details.)

I think this has promise.

Oh and if you were here with me looking out my window you’d see this.

snow — Yikes!