Can anyone offer some pointers?

[tierna]

Hi there, I'm actually a graphic design student, however we have an assignment at the moment to make one of those A-Z books, almost like one of those touch & feel books for children.

I was wondering if an of you can suggest some simple fabric & fiber methods I could use to create various letters of the alphabet? I'm going to make a cushioned letter, out of cotton and a foam or beanie filling. Some letters will simply drawn from graphic pens, however we have to explore as many mediums as possible. I've brainstormed lots of different mediums which I've uploaded here to give you an idea of where I'm going with this: http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e199/tiernamagee/brainstorm.jpg

Thanks for your time- I'm interested in what you can come up with, Really trying hard to be as creative as I can with this!

[sec]

It looks like you have a lot of really great ideas to start off with, so that's good!! I can't really think of anything that you don't have already written down!!
Good luck on your project!

[Clever]

If I were going to make an a-z childrens book, I would do the letter-word correspondence thing and make the texture compliment the word. such as for "a" obviously you can use "apple" and maybe red vinyl for the texture where as for "s" you might do sand castle and create a collage of a castle out of sand paper...T= tree maybe do it out of wood or bark or glued pine shavings. F for fur...you get it.

[tierna]

Thank you both for your pointers :) I've made some good progress, can't wait until it's completed- very stressful haha.

[lisilk]

Fun ( even if stressful) project. Do show us your results. I like "clever's" suggestions. W could be something batiked with wax. S could be something painted on silk, E could be something embroidered, etc.

Good luck!

Li

[mmaker]

v must be for velvet...to attach it, put fusible onto it (wonderunder, bondaweb, that kind of thing), then iron it onto your book. Fusing is a good way of attaching cloth to other materials.
hth
marion

[tierna]

Ooh I've never heard of fusing but I'll certainly check that out :) Wish I had access to batik- I used it a lot when I was at school... actually thinking I might use candle wax for something.

The idea is that we convey the tone/mood of the letter through material or sketching. For example, O is a soft sound, so I'll use a soft, fluffy material.D is a sharp sound so I'll use sharp colours and angles.. get it? Really baffling me, but it's part of 'design for visual communication' so I guess it'll all pay off in the end haha- starting to enjoy it more now that I'm further on with it- slightly less pressure! xo

[Maureen Grantham]

Felt is brilliant for what you plan to do. You can make book pages of tea dyed calico folded over a piece of stick on interfacing, the thicker sort I think. Hand made paper is stitchable, use glue sticks to attach stuff to your pages and then some minimal hand or machine stitching. Flowers made from tyvek, use knitting and crochet yarns for weeds, couching down, sheer embellishment. Beads are fun, special buttons, e.g. cat buttons are easy to find as are teddy buttons. What a fun assignment!

[Nalynn]

You could try braiding some pine needles to make a letter P. Roll up bandaids for a B - or maybe an O for "Ouch". Go to a pharmacy and pick up some Kling roll (gauze that sticks to itself without tape or glue) and work it into a K shape - it "klings" to itself, so you'd get the tone/quality of the material. How about Saran wrap?