If I've said it on here once I've said it on here a hundred times.....need inspiration, need a new creative head of steam, need to shake things up a bit? Look at old work, look at ledgers, revisit what has worked before and mix it up a bit. With Francein mind I was doing just that yesterday and these are the pieces which are inspiring me today.
These pieces...and others.....especially this one....have me more excited than you can imagine.....you will be seeing a lot of things inspired by these on my blog soon and also in the new class. Are you ready?
I made an executive decision yesterday. I decided this piece needed more lace cloth at the lower edge to balance it out. If you compare it now to how it looks here I am sure you will agree. This is another piece where the surface embellishment is almost finished. There will be more indecision soon about titivations, pillow or pocket, just likeyesterday.
Titivations, buttons, Suffolk puffs.....thinking which of those two things would look better on the surface of this embroidered and appliqued silk piece. Maybe they would work together, buttons and puffs? I'm leaning towards puffs though, they're softer, gentler....
There is very little surface embroidery left to do on this. The next decision, for miss indecisive 2015 is whether it should be a pillow or a pocket? I'm thinking pocket.....what about you?
I've got a good feeling about 2016. I am honoured to have been asked to exhibit and teach at Pour l'amour Du Fil in Nantesnext April. We will be embellishing lace cloth, titivating, in France, in English...with a translator! I will be selling, exhibiting, drinking coffee and most likely spending too much money.
If you can't make it to France you can come to my place instead. Patched Pocketsbegins in early January. I will be making pockets....no surprise there. I will also be including all things ''France''. I guess I will be selling pockets in Nantes.
I'm back. Did you miss me? No? Oh, ok then....I had a fabulous couple of days shopping and eating wonderful food in the company of my daughter. The only thing wrong with the trip was it didn't last long enough. Actually, no...there was something else wrong. My favourite ever, most wonderful, highlight of my trip vintage shop has gone!! Closed down. Not relocated, closed down. I have no idea why but I am very curious as to what happened to her stock. To console myself I accidentally bought some quite expensive silk. Oops.....I really wanted to traipse and wander until I found other vintage places but I had people with me with shopping needs of their own and zero interest in fabric. I think I see a solo trip on the horizon, me and myself and nobody else.....
This morning I was on the sewing machine at 8 am putting together this scrap of lace cloth. You saw the silk pieceherelast week. The lace cloth has some of my accidental silk in it. What I'm doing is sampling for overlays I can use on the silk piece. The silk in the lace cloth looks darker here than it actually is but in all honesty it's dark as night here too so even in natural light I'm struggling to get a proper sense of whether this will work. I'm not worried, I can wait for the sunshine and if it's not working I will just make some more, different, lighter.
This piece of work on paper was started here, on video. My intention is to cut this up when it's finished....food for my artists books. Today it's an unruly piece of pink gingham ribbon.....
Patched Pockets, online learning now available here.
This piece of lace cloth was created earlier this week. My plan for this is to embellish, embellish some more and use this in any artists books I may make. An added bonus however is that this piece has inspired me in other ways that I hope to share with you in the coming weeks....
My house has been prepared for Christmas early this year due to my London trip. I normally wouldn't have done it yet but I'm so glad I have. I won't be saying that when I have to put it all away though! This week has been mixed in terms of creativity, again because of my London trip. I've stitched cloth, I've stitched fastenings and I've made more videos that I thought humanly possible...I really am getting sick of the sound of my own voice so I can't imagine how that must be for you.
By the time you read this I hope to have been here and here....
A little while ago I was gifted the most beautiful selection of vintage handkerchiefs. The lace piece here was the first thing I was inspired to make from these wonderful pieces. Last night I began the piece with silk and again, more of the vintage hankies. I am using the tiniest of amounts, sampling, sparingly cutting little scraps from close to the edge, saving every little piece I can. I hope my fairy godmother, my gift giver likes what I am doing with these. They may be different hankies but I see a link. Do you? I am so inspired by these pieces.....imagine how many precious pockets I could have in 12 months time.
