Sunday, May 16, 2010

Dragonfly bag

This bag looks like a simple design but it was a little more complicated to put together than I anticipated. I expect that it would get easier with practice. I stenciled the dragonfly on using a Shiva stick. I was quite please with it and it soon found a new home. My hairdresser has left the salon and now goes to her clients' homes. I had just finished this bag when she arrived and she wanted to buy it - I gave it to her as a tip.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Winter warmer

Although the days are mostly warm and sunny, the evenings are getting cooler and winter is definitely on the way and I've been knitting most evenings. Emma liked this cardigan, mainly because she loves buttons. (She also likes sitting on the window sill because it's just the right height for her.)

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Double Trouble Adventures

Last week, I had the wonderful opportunity to do a workshop with Jan Beaney & Jean Littlejohn. Their techniques, working on soluble backgrounds were interesting but I was more inspired by their generosity, friendliness and the wealth of advice they provided for developing pieces, including gathering and developing ideas. I learned a lot from them and enjoyed looking at their journals and samples

I still have to finish this one. The threads are laid onto a sticky soluble backing, Guliette laid over that and then I added the stitching. When I eventually finish the stitching and possibly add some beads, I'll dissolve the backing and Guliette and it should end up as a piece of lace. (The odd looking thread in the bottom right-hand corner was added by Jan to show me how to do a tie and I'll remove it later.)


This piece is made up of pieces of organza needle-felted together in a variety of ways, cut and joined. The waves of colour through it are from a piece of scrim at the back, needle-felted selectively from the back to force the colour through.


This piece was made by working large, messy cross-stitches into solusheet, then the daisies (I'm really not very good at making neat daisies). I then needle-felted the whole piece and added the beads in the centre of the flowers before dissolving the solusheet. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to get the various soluble backings here but I managed to buy some solusheet from Robyn, who arranged the workshop.