Any ideas

Well, the last exhibition deliveries are done and I can now refocus on some more creative stuff, (for the next one) ha, ha ! I don't think so, not for while anyway.

While I was looking for suitable pieces to put in the exhibition I came across this half finished sample, as you do, hidden away because you got so far with it and then didn't know what to do in case you spoilt it!





It's a piece of Nuno felt worked on some very fine silk with a water soluble backing. The inspiration came from a shell, which was FME on after the layers of wool tops were felted. I've put some hand stitching on with an idea that this may provide an environment for the shell, but it's not enough and I'm not sure how much more to do.



I've tried scanning the piece and then drawing in the stitches to see where to put them but this doesn't seem to help. I'd really like to finish this piece, because I think it could be quite effective if I could get it right, so any suggestions would be welcome.

Pavarotti's handkerchief

No time for personal creativity today! I had work to do for my daughter in the morning and had prep to do for my granddaughter’s new project, which she came to work on this evening. It was worth the effort as she’s making a very exotic outfit to go to Clothes Show Live in December. Needless to say she’s the one who wants to be a fashion designer and is responsible for me swearing over having to work with lycra this afternoon!

Anyway my grandson came over last evening and we had a good session on his new project. He wanted to do something about Pavarotti and his handkerchief, using FME, so I started by printing a painting he found on the net on cotton that had been pre soaked with Bubblejet.

He then decided that he wanted to make it more 3D so we put some wadding underneath. He gleefully set about free machining the contours of Pavarotti’s frame. I really didn’t think he’d be able to follow the lines, remembering back to how difficult I found it when I first started. But as usual he amazed me with his accuracy.





Ben then wanted me to get in on the act and as we only have one machine suitable for FME I got out the embellisher and started to shatter some silk thanks to Helen’s advise. I’d been frightened to use it on a single layer of fine fabric but was delighted with the results. We may use some of these pieces for a surround to Ben’s original piece.





Of course once the embellisher was out Ben couldn’t wait to have another go on it and was so pleased with the resulting samples that he’s called them Ben’s five minute tips, I think he’s planning on giving tutorials to anyone who’s interested ☺.

Bread and butter

I had a productive, if worky, sort of day today. I have started to mount a collection of very small pieces that I have been working on for a while now and decided that they might make good ‘bread and butter ‘ pieces for our exhibition.

I started these with a very dear friend who was running the odd workshop at the time. She started the day by getting us to make sheets of BG papers to a colour scheme of our choice and using all her lovely different acrylics and special effects paints.



We cut these pieces up into squares, making a 9 square layout ( the designs I have shown worked here are marked with a red star). Once we’d stuck these to black paper we then placed them in a plastic wallet and made stitch marks on the designs with a black marker pen. I’m sure many people will recognise this technique. but for me it was a revelation, as were many of the other skills my friend taught us over that period. She was one of the few people who made me feel comfortable with incorporating stitch into a design, and who made exceedingly good cakes!



The resulting small samples were done after the class and I thoroughly enjoyed doing something so small and glittery, not at all my usual thing!





I found these delightful frames in my favourite shop, Hobbycraft and will be mounting 4 more for the show, so let’s hope people like them.

Busy day

I finally found time to put the embroidered leaves on the printed silk paper sample. I just laied down a few silk tops to keep everything in place and left it at that, I think it's worked quite well. I bought some Perspex to make a sandwiched frame to display it, so I hope that goes well, with a little DIY help from 'him indoors'!


Having finished off that project I decided to take the plunge and make my first post card. It was actually the product of a rather unsuccessful attempt at using Transfoil. I had some knocking about from a show, as you do, and had lost the instructions. I tried sticking it to Bondaweb, shiny side up, and found I couldn't remove the film, so most of it had to stay put. I seem to remember similar problems when I tried to use it once before. I'll have to investigate further and maybe take some advise from PurpleMissus.


Anyway, it was a fairly succesful day and I was pleased to have made a post card at last especially when I found that my little quilting square was the perfect size, and I could see through it, hopefully many more on the way.

Shedhead

It was such a relief to see the sun this afternoon after a dismal morning that I decided it was time for some shed time. I have my wet area in a large shed at the end of the garden, reluctantly loaned to me by my husband, when he gave up wet film processing after the invention of the digital camera! So it has no natural light as it was a 'dark room', but it's a great haven to disappear into when I want to do something messy.

I wanted to take the silk paper idea a bit further so today I printed a lino cut onto the Mawata Hankie. I didn't know if it would work as the silk is so fluffy, but with a little care when removing the print it worked a treat. When it's dry I'll try incorporating some more embroidered leaves, only this time I'll stick to the deep burgundy colour that the leaves turn later this month.

Rather than waste the ink I printed some leaves onto mulberry paper, which took the print really well.

Finally I laid some tissue paper on the printing glass and took off the final layer of ink, which will be useful as a background for something else. So at the end of a morning at work I had a great afternoon 'sheheading', just to prove it's not only a man thing!

Silk Paper

I decided to have a bit of 'me time' the other day and got out my silk paper kit, bought at the Knitting and Stitch show last year. I had breifly had a go once before so had a rough idea how to do it.

I thought I would try trapping some of the beautiful Autumn leaves that are falling near my home. I collected a large pile and then painted the ones I really liked with diluted PVA and hung them up to dry.

I used a Mawata Hankie as my base, about 4 layers, then placed the dried leaves and seed heads on the top. I covered this with silk waste and tussa silk noils, and then glued the whole thing together with Jo Sonja's textile Medium.

I was quite pleased with the result, so I went on to do a few more using machine embroidery patches and pressed flower petals.

This was a very satisfying and peaceful morning's work and has given me some useful starting points.

new blogger

Hi to anyone who might read this.
Having thoroughly enjoyed reading a selection of textile and mixed media art blogs I have finally decided to take the plunge and join in.
I'm doing a C&G embroidery level 3 certificate at the moment and am busy making seven different chain stitch samples. Here's a couple.
Looking forward to joining the blogging community.