These pieces were created some time ago and were brought out earlier this week for a 'one to one' Zoom session I was having with a member of my class group.
I was so happy to see them again so thought I would share with you.
All of these pieces have been worked on 'vintage' hankies which have been cut up and joined to other pieces, some of them with Liberty print bindings.
I'm extending this piece which you last saw here. Edges from a vintage hankie have been added to one corner and embellished with sequins.....
A video show and tell.
Do you remember these hankies I was embellishing with sequins, bling and heavily embellished silk recently? Well yesterday I made an executive decision to join two of them to this paper and lace cloth piece (which still has me in raptures). As you can see in the next image for this to work I need more paper and lace cloth, another panel. That will be a chore.....not...that will actually now be the first thing we do in the new class.
One of the seams where hankie meets lace and paper is embellished with bead droplets, white and gold seed beads. The other has 'floaty' dangly sequins. I do hope you can make those out in these images.
Before I go...the date for 'live' access to my recently recorded podcast has been changed. It will now be April 11 not April 4. I will have a link on here when it happens so don't worry there's no chance of you missing it.
I am still working on my ''blinged'' up hankies. It's going to be slow work, as and when work, pick up and put down work. If you recall, one handkerchief was quite a bit smaller than the others. That hankie now has lace added around all four sides which I am securing with masses of French knots.
There's a little bit of a show and tell here and a chat....
I'm going to be away for a few days now.....see you at the weekend.
I think this one is the second one I started in my hankie, bling exercise. You last saw it here....it's a lot different now. One of the seams was a bit 'vulnerable' at the edge where I have added white lace and beads, hopefully that will strengthen it.
There's lots of gimp on here, gimp I have couched down with coloured purl and a few sparkly sequins. The paler area on one side tones it down a little, I was aiming for that.
I am over my funny mood from yesterday, my creative angst, my creative freeze. A good friend of mine said it would be the weather getting me down. She might be right, snow, gales, Siberian temperatures...I'm not surprised my brain froze.
This one is finished now....that makes two with this one and when this one is finished there will be three. I added gold beads to the turquoise cloth here, another row of sequins to an edge, sequins to which I added silver beads. Two edges have been embroidered with buttonhole stitch and I have scattered French knots across the fabric snippets on the surface....being impatient I am going to play around with joining the two finished hankies later today. I'm not saying I will join them today but I am desperate to see how that might work, to generate ideas.
I'm getting closer to finishing an artist book which has been in the making for a long time over in class. The actual making, the putting together will happen with my group and I will show you on here when it's done but for now I was playing with those pages and overlays this morning and there is a very short video if you want to see my progress.
Following on from my post yesterday this is embellished handkerchief number three. It's a little smaller than the other two which may present problems in the future when it comes to joining them all together but I will worry about that when I get there. For now I'm just enjoying working on these. I'm enjoying the over the top nature of the bling, of the sequins, beads and luxurious cloth snippets.
This one is probably 'understated' when you compare it to the other two but bear in mind it isn't finished yet.
Looking at this image which I took yesterday when today's piece was only at the pinning stage I realise I will need to add a tiny piece of the turquoise cloth for cohesion and I know that will transform it all over again.
This one is finished now. I have titivated it to death. I have been undecided as to what to do with it. Pin pillow was winning in that department but I have changed my mind...a woman's prerogative I believe.
This morning I was working on videos, demonstration for my artist book class and I got to thinking...we were creating a surface for a page when a penny dropped....replicate that idea on a hankie which will mean that along with this one which is in progress I will have three. Make another, then another and on and on....
Then, wait for it, I could join them all together and have a very ornate, opulent throw, wrapping cloth, shawl...whatever. it sounds like a plan to me. (the finer points of which are yet to be thought through. How to join lace edges without losing that floatiness, that delicacy for instance?) I'm not worried.....I will get there in the end.
Indulge me.......I'm in bling mode. When I was in London a couple of weeks ago I bought this beautiful, encrusted trim from The Cloth House and now I want to play with it all the time. There are a few a little bits of it on this piece from earlier this week and yesterday I added some to the hankie you see here along with a little lace cloth and started to embellish it some more. (there is a stain on this hankie...it's vintage and it has been laundered so I guess that stain is here to stay)
So what parts of this are my work and what parts were already there? I added the three dangly bead things at the top of the ribbon, I also added the ribbon. All the gimp has been added by me along with the embellishments on and around that. The gimp was couched before I added sequins and coloured purl.
What comes next? I have no idea....I'm just playing, spoiling myself with shiny things.
I have been asked a couple of times this week about an online 'workshop calendar' for the coming year. Oh dear....I am definitely not that organised and my motivations change all the time, my itches aren't consistent if you know what I mean. Today I am in raptures over this bling work, yesterday I was in raptures over fine, delicate overlays (and still am).....who knows what will happen tomorrow. Actually....... I just had a thought....fine, delicate overlays with bling!! See, that's what happens here, one word and any plan is out of the window. Workshop calendar? That person has never lived here.....I don't know who she is.
BUT....I am very grateful for the interest, hugely grateful, flattered............ and inadequate in some ways because I am not that 'organised' person.
So, at the moment I have two classes running both of which it is possible to join at any time and get access to the full class content from day 1. It's impossible for me to hold three at once, it's just me, on my own in a little room and there just isn't the time to devote to a third class, to give that class the devotion I would want to, the attention it would deserve.
The two classes which are available are rather amazing though, they are, trust me. Artist books has been running since September 2017 and continues through to September of this year. You can read more about that here.
2018 Embroidery school is delightful, I think of it as ''the pretty class'' as it's full of colour and happy discovery in terms of new embroidery stitches, sampling and pretty patterns. It is a 12 week class and you can read more about it here.
I hope that helps? and I hope it goes some way to explaining how my mind works in terms of the planning of future classes and learning programmes.
I'm rapidly falling in love with this. It was supposed to be the top of a pin pillow which was started in my London workshop but I'm getting carried away. Who knows, it may still become a pin pillow but for now I'm enjoying encrusting it with off cuts of beaded silk before adding my own hand stitch and sequins.
I actually think it will be easier to care for long term if it does become a pin pillow. It will have substance and weight and won't get creased if it is placed on a shelf or a table. As a bag or a pocket there is so much more potential for creasing with use. Pin pillow it is then, I've talked myself into it.
I'm going to leave it for a couple of days now. I'm busy creating overlays for artist book class and also putting finishing touches to pages over there. Pages excite me.....they are also very easy to fall in love with.