As you probably well know In 2022, Her Majesty The Queen will become the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee after 70 years of service.
Many events and activities have been planned and will be happening throughout the UK and beyond to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee including a number of design contests. We can not stay away from the festivities and are offering to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with a timited edition fabric pack. Do read on to learn more about it.
I do hope that you are taking part in the BMA Platimun Jubilee challenge and are currently working away at your millinery design to submit it in the next couple of days. Alas, my busy schedule has not permitted me to take time in this challenge, but if I was to create a hat for it I would definitely base my design around the “platinum colour” as I am a huge fan of metallic fabrics! They are such a versatile and wonderful material to use in all their variety, I am certain they would have allowed me to put a stunning and “precious” piece of headwear together.
As there is a variety of metallic fabrics, both specialist prestiffened as well as the ones you can source yourself. I would like to use this opportunity and take a closer look at them. Staying true to our theme of “platinum” let’s focus on the silvery metallic fabrics.
We can loosely classify the metallic fabrics for flower making into several groups based on their weight/ thickness which, in turn, will define their applications.
❀ Lightweight / Sheer metallic fabrics (organza, netting, lightweight silks)
❀ Medium Weight metallic fabrics (medium weight silks, dupioni etc)
❀ Heavy weight / opaque metallic fabrics (metallic satin, jacquard etc)
Whilst I stock professional metallic fabrics from all the 3 abovementioned groups, there are other suitable fabrics that you can find in your haberdashery or craft store. They can include dupioni silks (heavy weight), fine silk metallic netting (lightweight), light silks with metallic thread (lightweight), lace with metallic detail etc. Please remember that all fabrics you source yourself need to be prestiffened before you can use them in flower making.
WHEN
The first thought you might have about when to use fabrics like that in your flowers is for some seriously special occasions like weddings, races, garden parties and other special receptions etc. They work exceptionally well here, this is true. You can make whole flowers (see the photo of my famous dandelion in silver) or butterflies from metallic fabrics or just use them sparingly to add a couple of petals in a rose or back the foliage for example. The possibilities are endless.
However if you are anything like me, you would agree that one does not need to wait for a special occasion to showcase these beautiful fabrics. Indeed there is space for a subtle (or a serious one!) sparkle in the most everyday of makes. A silver underside might not only look pretty and unusual, it also helps you finish your piece professionally and neatly (think simple everyday leather leaf brooches finished with metallic satin as well as many other options).
HOW
So, how do we go about using these beauties then?I’d like to start by mentioning that the fabrics that I offer and use can be further tinted to match your projects better (no worries about the sparkle, it’s going to stay after dyeing).
Because of their properties and different qualities each of these fabrics have their own uses.
For example the medium and lightweight metallic fabrics are great for backing fabric petals and leaves made from heavier fabrics (think satin, velvet etc). These lighter fabrics can be used for filler petals in large flowers or add an additional lightweight sparkly layer on some parts of flowers in combination with a non sparkly fabric.
For backing leather I often prefer to use metallic satin (the heavy weight fabric) because it is completely opaque, can hide thicker wires and complements such dense material like leather very well.
Metallic satin also works well for butterfly and dragonfly wings, leaf pieces (like a holly leaf brooch etc) and some other projects which require a heavy fabric with some body to it.
I always work on new ideas for these fabrics so if you love using them too, keep your eye out for more information in my newsletters.
Right now to get your creative juices flowing and to conquer your heart with these stunning as well as versatile fabrics with a great creative potential I would like to offer my Limited Edition Platinum Jubilee metallic fabric pack.
This fabric pack contains 5 fat quarters of specialist stiffened metallic fabrics in silvery tones and includes the following selection:
❀ silver metal yarn fabric
❀ silver metallic jacquard fabric
❀ lightweight silver metallic fabric
❀ medium weight silver metallic fabric
❀ heavy weight silver satin fabric
Two of these fabrics have never been offered for sale, so if you like using metallics in your work, take advantage of this rare opportunity and help yourself to one of the packs while stocks last.
Let’s celebrate the Queen’s Platinum by doing the best thing we know: by creating some amaging handmade flowers in the platinum metallic colours!
