Making the Base Fabric

This is a series of photographs showing how Wai-Yuk produces the base fabrics that she uses to make her jewellery.

Before creating her jewellery pieces, Wai-Yuk first produces the basic material to be cut out and stitched. Here are some photos of a new piece of material being made:

First a suitably coloured background material is bonded onto a layer of Vylene stiffening material.

Small pieces of fabric, ribbon, threads, etc are placed onto the base layer, over some bonding powder.

A complex multi-colour pattern of tiny elements is gradually built up.

A layer of organza is placed on top and then ironed to bond it to the layer below.

Freehand machine stitching over the entire sheet fixes everything together.

The fabric is lightly treated with a heat gun to expose some more of the colours beneath.

Another layer of small pieces and another layer of organza are added. the surface is then stitched using a variety of pattern embroidery stitches.

Stitching over the now complex layered fabric. With experience, great depth and subtlety can be achieved.

Final treatment with a heat gun brings out the depth of the material.

The completed base fabric is now ready to be cut up and stitched into jewellery pieces. I am afraid that the complexity and depth don’t really show up in a photograph.
The above process takes a great deal of time but each sheet can then be used for many individual pieces of jewellery.