Saturday 24 January 2009

Gone home

Our visitor has gone home, the house is quiet and
we don't have a shadow every time we move!
I got these as a thank you. I love tulips. I shall miss the walks
and the company.

It'll be strange tomorrow without him.

Sunday 18 January 2009

ATC swop, Autumn Angel

Last summer I read Susan Lenz' Cyber Fyber Exhibition blog and
decided it would be good to take part. Do read all about it, I'm not
even going to begin to try and tell you all about it, I couldn't begin to
do it justice.I received this ATC in returnfor one of my creations,
number 159 (scroll down to find it). Have a good look at the blog,
there's loads of great textile art to see.
A brilliant job. Well done, Susan.
I took an opportunity to take part in a 'Trees' challenge last year.
One of the rules was that the piece should mostly be hand
stitched, so mine was mainly done by machine.
This is the fabric, organza embellished with more organza
and wool tops then machine embroidered with appropriate
text.
It was going to be a fairy but I used the wrong wings!
The construction wasn't difficult, decisions just needed to
be made. Firstly, the face. It took me ages to find a stamp
that I could use again and again. A stamp was needed
as I can't draw people or any part of a person. I chose the
sleeping face, it seemed appropriate for autumn, things
going to sleep/hibernation for the winter. I also wanted to
keep it simple, no hair!
The wings are rather heavy looking but I wanted her to all be
made from the same fabric. I used butterfly style markings
on the angel wings.
The arms and legs are made from kiddies pipe cleaners.
They were thicker than normal pipe cleaners and are just
wrapped with various yarns to cover the white.
As I've already said I'm no good at bodies or their parts
so the hands and feet are represented by simple stylised
shapes.
I made a body shape to hold the body covering and to attach
the legs. I didn't take photos as it all evolved rather quickly
and the dog didn't get his afternoon walk, I got carried away.
The other decision to be made was how to pose her, I'd
not really thought about it. I chose to seat her with her knees
up and shutting her eyes having forty winks.
I'd got enough fabric left over to make a leaf. I wish I'd created
a larger piece of fabric. The back of the leave shouldn't be seen.
I did add wire so it didn't have to be completely flat.

I've actually done something new. It feels good. In fact, I've entered
'Autumn Angel' and 'Waiting for Lunch' in a local Open Art exhibition.
'Waiting for Lunch' is the fishy piece I did last year, thought it could do
with a final airing.
The colours in the photos have come out abit faded when I
posted them, sorry.

Bye....................

Saturday 17 January 2009

Happy New Year

Just realised, something I forgot to say:

Happy New Year to you all.
Health and happiness and lots of textiles!
Somethings I always manage to get things back to front!
What a good start to the blogging year.
Bye........................

Street art, Autumn fairy, visitor

I saw this street art in an unexpected place, at our local shopping
centre. I think it's to do with prehistoric bones that were discovered
in the area some years ago. I like it. I'm not sure if it's fully
appreciated, at least it's not been damaged or defaced.

I made this piece of fabric a few weeks ago for a challenge with
the title 'Trees'. It is polyester organza embellished with more
organza and wool tops, then machine embroidered with text
related to trees - trees, autumn, colour, leaves. The challenge
was to make a piece that was predominantly hand stitched,
but I prefer machine stitching!
I then kept changing my mind as to what I was going to do
with it. I wanted to do something 3d and it had to be leaves.
After lots of thought I decided to combine this fabric with my
interest in art dolls and fairies. It's not a good photo, I'll do more
later. An excuse to practice with the new camera.
My four legged mate is visiting at the moment because
his mom and dad have a very bad virus and can't cope with
him. He came with his bed and a bag of stuff including an
unopened christmas present which turned out to be a
plastic chicken leg complete with sqeak. The sqeak didn't last
long, my other half took it into the garage and took a hammer
to it, the chicken leg, that is. Still popular with dog though.