Vanda and badge making
What interests me about making button
badges is pushing the boundaries between the related decorative areas of
costume jewellery, fabric art and embroidery. To me
the mundane button badge a throw away item that has been used
for decades to advertise products and companies still has its full potential to
be realized. All that is needed is the imagination to re-evaluate this
humble item and with an open mind to explore ideas in a wide variety of
materials and techniques.
The badges you make in the Stitch Club
Workshop can be decorative and worn in groups and clusters to added a
theme/colours to a plain tee shirt or jumper. They could also be for
a special occasion i.e. birthday, anniversary, new baby etc. and be to
attach to greeting cards. They could also be miniature works of art that play
with the idea of combining different surfaces and techniques and like the
exquisite miniatures of Nicolas Hilliard (1547-1619) are
objects in their own right.
For a little girl I know, whose name is
Penny, I made a badge based on the old pre-decimalisation Britannia coin and added it to her Xmas card. This same
little girl has her birthday near Halloween. I made her some luminous
badges and added these to her birthday card- I should perhaps add Penny was
very pleased with them.
Vanda
work in process
what you will need
Paper and fabric scissors – medium and
small
Fabrics
– thin cotton print or plain, voile, sheer, silk and other fine fabrics
Decal/sticker
images – no larger than 2 inches and could be much smaller
Pictures
from magazines/newspapers no larger than 2 inches across
Wrapping
paper, tissue paper, sweetie papers
Selection
of cotton embroidery threads (six strand)
Tiny
beads, sequins, lace, ribbons
Gold and silver felt tipped pens/
fabric crayons
while
Vanda can provide many of these materials but you might have something you
would enjoy putting into a badge
