Studs / Rust

I decided to make use of the butterfly clips Sara had given me by combining them with the felt circles from a previous parcel. I thought that the butterfly clips on their own through fabric would look too similar to everyday studs already used in clothing so thought the felt circles would give them something extra. I really like this outcome as I think it looks like some sort of natural growth or honey fungus. I'm interested in using the idea as small clusters on clothing combined with a completely covered section - playing on the idea of deterioration. Although I liked the look, I experimented further with vinegar and salt to induce rusting (see below) to see if it improved the look. I also like that the "wings" of the butterfly clips underneath have criss-crossed to create a sort of mesh - something I again think would make for an interesting piece - if an item of clothing was completely covered it may become malleable, like the mesh/silver wire samples I played with in an earlier post, and would be interesting in terms of weight.

I do like the effects of the rust on the butterfly clips - they succumbed to deterioration very easily - but equally feel they look great untouched so maybe a mix of the two on a single piece would be great. I have a few designs for garments sketched and one idea I had was to have a heavily embellished top section (say the bodice of a dress) which would be rusted then gradually spacing the embellishment out to create small, untouched clusters. I think that highlighting the degrees of deterioration throughout the one piece would look great and sum up Re-worked. I was also pleased to see what looks like the start of salt crystals - maybe a new direction for the project? - a welcome embellishment!

I also did a smaller, less successful (in my opinion) experiment just scrunching up the fabric & securing it with clips to see if the rust would transfer throughout the  fabric. I think I was too heavy handed on the vinegar and the fabric is now almost completely orange! I like the colour but I wasn't overly impressed. However, it did give me an idea to use the butterfly clips to create structure within fabric - maybe create bunched up sections on large areas of fabric?