Hi everyone, first of all a little bit about my background, interests
and skills. My name is Birdy Heywood, and I am a 'Recycled Teenager' nearing my
70th year. Many of my generation can relate to the phrase, MAKE DO AND MEND.
Old clothes were unpicked and made into clothes for the children. Even the food
from yesterday was recycled into an invented dish. I suppose we just had to
learn to be creative but it was a fun challenge. In my early twenties I created
handbags and clothing out of scraps of leather in order to sell them at markets
and to friends. Then followed premature baby clothes made from old T Shirts.
This evolved into sweatshirts with applique. After many years Polymer Clay
entered my life. "Wow," I thought and realised that I could be really
creative. I taught myself how to model, figurines, dragons, fairies and
jewellery then went on to teach and demonstrate in schools and at exhibitions
all over the country. Polymer Clay is baked (hardened) in an ordinary oven so I
could only create smallish things. Fabric Hardener came into my life and opened
a whole new world for me. I found that I could create the bodies out of wire,
the heads and hands out of polymer clay then clothe them with natural fabrics.
The great thing about the Fabric Hardener I use which is called
Powertex is THAT IT IS WEATHERPROOF and can be used for garden ornaments.
As I mentioned I love to recycle and with POWERTEX I can do just that. Old
canvases can be treated with Powertex to create a whole new work of art. Ok let
me list a few things here to wet your appetite: Cardboard boxes can be
transformed into plant pot holder, bottles into candlesticks, with a few scraps
of material and some wire, one can create a beautiful sculpture, old mirrors
can be given a magical face lift, picture frames too and the list goes on.....!
I am now honoured to have been chosen as a member of The Powertex design Team.
For more info on
this fantastic material please visit their website www.powertex.co.uk
Here as an example of a plant pot holder that was once a plain old cardboard box. At a later date I will post examples with step by steps.
Just have to get my head around creating this first ever blog....
Follow Birdy's blog here
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