Rusting Fabric

 I have always been intrigued by the idea of rusting fabrics. A warm sunny day seemed the best time to try it. I chose an assortment of silk gauze, cheese cloth, scrim and silk scarves. These were first soaked in a vinegar and salt mixture. In the first image, I wrapped the fabrics around an old paint can, loosely coved it with a garbage bag and left it to sit overnight.This one was on top of a thick card stock which also successfully rusted and created interesting round shapes.  The effects were great, but the vinegar smell remained in the card stock. 

I used an old rusted lamp for the second and third images. It is important to keep the fabric from drying out while the rusting process takes place,so  I loosely covered the lamp with a garbage bag. After leaving the fabrics for at least 24 hours, they were removed from the rusted lamp and left to dry out completely
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 Wash the fabrics thoroughly in the washing machine to remove the vinegar and bits of rusted materials and ironed as needed. I did find that if not left long enough for the ursting process, too much of the rust washed out and I was left with very pale fabrics.

Our tiny Rhodesian Ridgeback (only 145 lbs) found this process very confusing. At first he was frightened by the strange object and funny smell!