FibreFan

April iris

2011-04-22T11:37:00.004+02:00

While waiting for the April inspiration to take hold, and still feeling in between projects, I decided to try some more Free Machine Embroidery and did this old picture of the jungle waterfall at The Eden Project in Cornwall that I'd taken years ago. It helped me get more comfortable with Cable Stitch which is difficult because you have to work from the back of the piece.

Anyway, I've printed out the pix from our iris and have decided to do at least two - one "portrait" and one "landscape" orientation. Started the sketches this morning, and thought I might try using some pale mauve organza for the top petals, stitching them down with dark purple thread, for the bottom petals, a bit of crochet chain for the beards, or maybe some of that eyelash yarn. May also try to go quite abstract. There's also some lovely silk thread I bought at The Knitting & Stitching Show years ago that is just the right colour for the top petals - may try that in the bobbin using Cable stitch. The twist on it is agonising - it wants to snarl up all the time, so it should be interesting to see how I get on with it...

Finishing & April inspiration

2011-04-10T12:03:00.005+02:00

Probably like most people, I have an in-between-projects period where I'm not sure what to do next, so I look through the pile of experiments and do some finishing, in this case, making a little pocket from a piece of loomed beading where I used that chunky, uneven Colinette wool for the warp. Here are pix showing front, back, open, closed. May do a beaded rope cord for it later.

And here are pix of things I might do for April experiments - more blossom from our walks, and the medieval city across the river when we went to the market yesterday. The wisteria and the iris are also in bloom, and they are very tempting subjects. I'm being typically Libra and having trouble making up my mind. O well, sigh...

March Experiments

2011-04-03T15:49:00.001+02:00

First, in response to Carol's comment on my last post, here is a closeup of that piece. I was experimenting with cable stitch on the machine, where you wind some thick thread on your bobbin, then just use straight stitch. The tricky bit is that you have to work from the wrong side, as it is the bobbin thread that is making your design on the right side of the fabric, that is, the right side of the fabric is facing towards the bed of the machine. The background is a layer of plain cotton calico, then a layer of bright yellow scrim, then a layer of sludgy coloured beige georgette. In places I cut through the georgette, and I did beading. As always, you can click on the photo to see a larger version.

And here are the almond blossom pieces I did for March experiments with machine embroidery techniques. Enjoy.

Finally, here are pix of a little bag I finally made up from some embellisher felting experiments my friend Cyn sent me ages ago - showing the bag closed and opened.

A few things

2011-03-19T16:12:00.008+01:00

I decided to not re-join the Bead Journal Project for this year, instead decided to do a piece of embroidery each month and try to teach myself to use new techniques. This is the January piece ... OK, I know I have no patience with taking photos but you get the idea - it's spirals and curves.

I thought I'd do hearts and roses for February - St.Valentine's Day and all that, but I don't really like the piece, although I felt I was geting better at using the machine to do cable stitch. So, no pic yet.

March is the totally inspiring almond blossom, and here are pix I took on our walks around the neighbourhood. I haven't finished the pieces yet, so pix next time, but here is one showing some of the materials I've used...

Another year finished

2011-01-20T14:59:00.007+01:00

This is the November Bead Journal Project piece, showing the beads just sprinkled onto the backing fabric in the choosing process, then steps as it was made, including some pieces of lapis lazuli I picked up in Malta years ago, that I wanted to try to incorporate using a bezel technique, finally showing the finished piece.

These pix show the December piece being made. I decided not to join again for 2011, because I want to spend this year exploring a mixture of hand and machine embroidery, maybe including some beading. The topics I've chosen for this year are Parasol Pines which make lovely shapes against the sky, and the architecture around here - Cathar Castles and all that, not to mention the elegant French architecture of the Belle Epoch. There are also loads of wrought iron railings that could provide endless inspiration but I hesitate to go there because it seems so derivative - the artisans who made that wrought iron were inspired by nature themselves, so I feel I shouldn't copy them, I should go direct to the source, but use their works as a guideline in how to simplify natural designs for their artisanal purpose, if that makes any sense. Hopefully, I'll also be a bit more disciplined and blog more often... We'll see.

Catching up

2010-11-21T15:50:00.012+01:00

After a very busy summer full of visitors from all over, I've started to catcb up with my Bead Journal Project pieces. July was about the reflections from the water in the pool. These first pix show me trying to take a pic of the reflections, followed by the bead embroidery.

The August piece was about heat and the beautiful canna that finally flowered this year, after we moved it from the front to the border in the back. I have yet to do a September piece for the BJP.

September was busy with visitors but I got working on this piece, not related to the Bead Journal Project, but based on goldwork techniques, using some Jap silver my friend Ruth left me, and some soft silver chainette my friend Ann brought me. Because of this, I've called this piece "Silver Sisters".

This piece is for the October BJP and I call it "Autumn Colours", and it is crochet chain over a warp of a novelty yarn that Ann brought, and using some of the other yarns she brought, along with bead weaving. Some of these new yarns are made from such diverse things as sugar cane and bamboo!!!

So, that's all for now - hope you enjoy, and apologies as ever for the poor quality of the photos - I seem to have lost patience with getting them to show the "real" colours and textures of the pieces I embroider.

June Bead Journal Project piece finished

2010-07-01T10:39:00.003+02:00

It's supposed to be the bowl of strawberries I collected from the potager, the pic shown in the last post. Disappointing photo, can't get the colours right even though I fiddled with it some - o well - you get the idea anyway...
No idea what I'll do for July, but I'm carrying my camera around. Maybe courgette flowers again, maybe swimming pool... market...aperitif on the patio... tomato plants... lavendar and bumble bees... something to convey the heatwave...

Back to Basics

2010-06-08T16:31:00.003+02:00

I thought I'd get out an old Stitch Encyclopaedia and work through, just to refresh memory about stitches that I don't often use, and here is the sampler. It's that basic exercise: one thread, one colour. I'm tempted to do another using the next exercise, which is many threads, many colours just to see what it gives. I didn't draw the sampler first - just did everything freehand, and I'm always amazed at how many different things are out there to re-learn.

I thought I might do something based on this bowl of strawberries we picked from the potager - the first batches are always the best and it is very June for the Bead Journal Project this month.

Iris inspiration

2010-05-19T17:15:00.004+02:00

I finished the acanthus piece of needlelace and here it is.

The iris are superb this year and inspired both my April and May Bead Journal Project pieces. Click photos as usual to view a closeup. You can see on the April piece that I did a bit of fabric collage, then free machine embroidery over it before beading the standard iris. The blue and yellow ones were called Iris d'Holland on the packet and come up later and very tall.

Spring

2010-04-27T12:19:00.006+02:00

Ah, yes, that time of year when the iris are going wild - and I'm still amazed that only about 6 weeks ago, it was all covered in snow.

Here's a pix of my March Bead Journal Project piece - inspired by fish, as Dear Hubby's birthday is the first of the month - Pisces.

Haven't decided what to do for April yet, as I'm in process of doing a piece of needlelace based on acanthus, inspired by some leaves from a piece of Point de Gaze in the Spriggs Collection featured in Cathy Barley's book, "Needlelace Designs and Techniques Classic and Contemporary". I don't want to put up a pic of it yet, as it's a Work in Progress, but here is a pic of the back of it, showing the couching stitches.

And a bit MORE winter

2010-03-10T11:24:00.003+01:00

Last time we saw this much snow in this part of the world was 35 years ago according to the telly. These are pix of the wild almond tree over the wall during the snow, at sunset couple of days before, and the day after the snow, showing blossoms and snow together - so cool, in many ways. My sister writes that I should use the snow as inspiration, so I may get out there and take some more pix, but I was just getting into daffodil mood, and now we can't even find them! Life is like that sometimes...

A bit of winter

2010-02-23T15:18:00.009+01:00

Here is a pic from my book of Great Works of Japanese Graphic Art by Douglas Mannering, of the famous Beneath the Wave off Kanagawa, by the artist Hokausai (1760-1849). I started a waveform many years ago when I was first doing needlelace but hadn't figured out how to finish it until I was working with this white boucle thread that I used in my January BJP piece, which is shown further below.

Here's a pic of the needlelace finished off with the white boucle thread that I used for the crest. It is crocheted then couched down as the boucles wouldn't pass through the fabric. I think I will do a bit more foam, under the crest of the wave as it looks wrong the way it is - too topheavy.

Here is a pic of my January Bead Journal Project piece, representing snow and ice and the hole I feel in my heart at the death of my dad, whose birthday is in January. He passed away late last year and I haven't felt like communicating or being creative since, explaining my absence from blogging for a while. I'm finally getting to the place where it's less painful now, and where I can "talk" to him in my thoughts, like I do with other dearly beloved who have passed.

Here is a pic of my February BJP piece, still with the "hole" at the heart, but in feeling a bit less chill. It makes me think of moonlight on water and a star in the background.

I haven't decided what I want to concentrate on this year as a theme, so I haven't done much designing. Instead, I've been looking through unfinished pieces and thinking about them, but I really want to pick a "big" subject and see how I can develop it. Meantime, I'll bead away through the months on the BJP and hope something presents itself, and try blogging more frequently, as well as visiting my favourite blogs.

I'm Back!

2009-12-04T12:28:00.005+01:00

Sorry for the long absence from blogging - I was working on this piece and didn't want to post until it was nearly finished. It is just sitting on top of the background, waiting to be stab-stitched, which will eliminate the wavy edges.

In my previous post, there's a pic of the worksheet with inspiration pix, and you can see my initial treillage for the pansies in the left-hand frame of the triptych. As I completed the middle and right-hand frames (daffodils and iris, respectively), I realised that the techniques didn't seem to go together, so I cut out the pansies and redid them as shown in this pic. At this stage, the piece was still on the working backing.

These pix show the piece removed from the working backing, just laying on the table, and also laying on top of dark green fabric to see what that would look like. However, as the piece is supposed to represent Springtime, I chose the sky blue instead. I'm not sure I like it, but that's probably because I've been working on it for too long - I may like it again after it's been put away for a while.

Of course, now I have to start another project so I'm feeling insecure and flighty, and there's also the annual newsletter and Christmas Cards to do but hopefully I'll settle back into regular posting again and start thinking up ideas for next year's Bead Journal Project which I have now decided to rejoin...if I'm not too late. Thank you to all those who have left comments - they helped me decide to rejoin.

A word about couronne sticks

2009-10-22T18:01:00.004+02:00

Here's a pix of a WIP that I've resurrected. I abandoned it in April but have found it inspiring again.

I've been catching up with reading my favourite blogs and on one of them, the author posted pix of her purchases at the Knitting & Stitching Show, which brought back fond memories, including a pic of a "stepped" couronne stick.

Here is a pic of the couronne stick I use, which I find works much better because you simply have to do the initial wraps further up or down the stick to get different size couronnes, and you can slip your needle underneath the wraps much easier because the "steps" don't get in the way. Also shown is my first "stepped" couronne stick.

This pic shows detail of a piece called "Sea Fans" in which you can see how I sprinkled the couronnes onto the embroidery.

Finishing BJP2009

2009-10-20T11:25:00.006+02:00

Here are the last Bead Journal Project pieces for 2009. I fell behind in April when we went to Normandy to visit B's family because I was upset to see his brother ill (he's a bit better now). Then we had non-stop visitors all summer and we are only now getting back to normal. Anyway, here's April - wisteria.

May is B's roses growing against the wall with the neighbour's olive trees in the middle distance and the Montagne Noire in the far distance.

June is the lavender in the front garden.

July had to be fireworks for Bastille day, but it also represents courgette flowers that I love so much - their form, colour, taste...

Finally, August returns to sunflowers but more the feeling of them than an actual representation. Apologies as usual for the quality of these photos - they don't really show the true colours and textures but c'est la vie...

I also made these two cushion covers - B's nieces chose the materials from my stash when they visited and one chose a theme - love, friendship, fireworks - while the other just chose the colours and beads.

I enjoyed doing the BJP this year but felt pressured once I'd fallen behind, so I won't be joining in this year. I didn't look at the blogs once I'd fallen behind so I now have the happy task of catching up, which may take some time.

Visiting Carcassonne

2009-09-04T15:51:00.004+02:00

Here is a pic showing some gargoyles on the cathedral of the medieval city of Carcassone, which I am posting to show my sis how to do it on Blogger. Apologies for not posting in so long - I'll write up more details later and put up pix of the BJP pieces I've done in the meantime.

March in a flash

2009-03-31T12:12:00.009+02:00

How quickly the time goes! Although I haven't posted since February, I've been busy...

March Bead Journal Project (BJP)
Here are pix of my March BJP - a pic I took of the daffodils on the front lawn, and a pic of the finished piece.

Needlelace Coral

Here are pix showing a piece of coral reef I did using needlelace techniques - the first pic shows the finished needlelace, taken off the working backing but still needing mounting onto background fabric. The second pix shows the outlines and the beginning of the fillings while the piece was still on the working backing.

This pic shows an experiment with treillage - Elicia's filling is the one that looks like asterisks and Katie's Kisses is the one that looks like crosses. I did them to see what they could look like thinking I might use them in the coral, but in the end I used Tudor Rose filling.

Fish Portrait

Here are pix showing what I am currently working on - a fish made up in layers - yukky blue satin background, some silk-painted scrim, some organza, some fish shapes cut from an unsuccesful velvet dvoree scarf I did in a class, some purple and turquise free machine embroidery that I did on dissolving fabric, all covered with another piece of organza. On top, I've stitched scales and parallel lines to show the fins - just finishing the tail fin now. One pic shows the layers, one shows what you see looking at the piece straight-on, and one is from an angle, showing the stitching more in relief.

I worked on some other things as well, but forgot to take pix - next time.

February BJP finished

2009-02-18T11:32:00.006+01:00

Well, I succumbed to the Valentine's Day idea and here is my February piece - love crashing down from the sky in the form of a star, shooting up the purple heart as ejecta. It's done on a background that was layered - a scrap of red silk for the base with some silk-painted ribbon lace on top and a piece of reddish gold organza on top of that, which I gathered in some places - you can see the gathers towards the bottom near the star.

Here is a pic showing the January piece from a sideways angle, so you can see how the florist's glass blobs are in relief. It took me a while to put this pic up because I had to buy another packet of rechargeable batteries.

And here is a pic showing the first six all together, stretched onto posterboard. I may do beaded edgings or make them into an accordian book - not sure yet.

I'd like to say a huge Thank You to everyone who has left such lovely comments on my blog - it's very encouraging and leads me to your blogs which is very inspiring.

January BJP Finished

2009-02-05T11:16:00.006+01:00

Well, after declaring that I was going to stay with the theme of nature for my Bead Journal Project (BJP) pages in the last post, I immediately did something abstract for January. It's supposed to represent snow and ice and freezing cold.

I also recovered these two stools and recycled an old quilt that was going raggedy at the edges. I felt a bit sad as I hand-quilted around the shapes because it's the first time I've ever done hand-quilting all by myself - it made me think of old friends.

Happy New Year

2009-01-07T18:16:00.005+01:00

As you can see I haven't blogged since way before Christmas - it's been a busy time but we're now back to normal. Here is a pic of my December Bead Journal Project page which I just finished today - it's the mistletoe in the almond tree outside the dining room window.

And here is a close-up. The background fabric is shiny polyester that made me think of the grey days of winter. I did some FME along a horizon line underneath to represent the line of trees in the distance, but they don't show up in the photo. I realised as I worked on this piece that all my BJPs so far this year are to do with nature - the things coming into fruit or flower at the time of year, and I'll try to stay with this theme.

Here is a pic of the additional Take It Further December Challenge I did based on the idea of Mother Nature & generosity.

And here is a pic of a little bag I made for the daughter of some friends who came to celebrate New Years with us.

Now I can start to think of what I want to bead for my January BJP page - probably something to do with freezing cold, snow, ice...

December TIF finished

2008-12-10T15:48:00.004+01:00

Here's the sketch and the machine embroidery. I like the lines of stitching on this so much, I don't want to add to it so I'm doing another one where I will fill in the shape with gold passing thread, and machine embroider the background as in the sketch. I may then bead it and count it as my December Bead Journal Page - we'll see.

Cards done

2008-12-05T16:32:00.006+01:00

I crocheted this little woolly hat while watching the news the other day, but had a bit of a break from making things. It's that time of year - just mailed the last package out to loved ones for Christmas, along with all the cards and the newsletter. It seems to take longer each year, for a shorter letter!
Then I bought this magazine as a Christmas present for myself: it features the exhibition of Picasso & the Masters being held this year in 3 of the big museums in Paris. Although reading the magazine is not as satisfying as going to the galleries, I'm really enjoying it, and it's improving my French at the same time, adding technical art words to my vocabulary.

Which brings me to this sketch, my interpretation of the December Take-It-Further Challenge which is about generosity, or what giving means to me, using red, green and gold Christmas colours. My first reaction was to think of Mother Nature's genorosity and the biggest gift of all which I think is life itself. Having just reread Jean M Auel's The Plains of Passage, I thought of those little statues she describes of the Doni or Earth Mother, where the legs are just pegs and the head does not have a face, just spirals or decoration of that sort. I'll probably rework the sketch to make the belly more pronounced to stress the mother message. So I think I'll make that up using fabrics from my stash and free machine embroidery.
A big Thank You to Sharon for running the Take It Further Challenge this year. I won't be taking part next year but will continue to follow others' experiments.

November BJP page finished

2008-11-18T16:51:00.005+01:00

Here are pix of my November page, using a photo of the vineyards I took the other day. One shows the fabric collage I made as a background, the other with beads sprinkled on top.

Here's a pic of the finished piece - it's a bit lumpy because I just folded back the edges, leaving them like that for now until all the pieces for the year are finished when I can decide how to mount or frame them or make them into something. I'm surprised at how fast I did it - finished in just one day!

I may do another piece based on the sun shining through this clump of foilage.

November TIF finished

2008-11-18T16:42:00.004+01:00

Here's the finished piece and pix showing progress. I used my initials, MJB, as the basis for the design, using goldwork couching technique to do the first two gold designs, then decided to repeat them larger in a fan shape on top but just couching in the negative space, and the final piece reminds me of a maple leaf, not a bad design considering I'm originally from Canada.

I think it may be a little bag when it grows up. I've since added a couple of beads but will post that pic later.

Multitasking

2008-11-09T20:13:00.008+01:00

As usual, I've been working on both the November TIF and doing head designs for the November BJP. A head design is where you know what you're going to do in your head but you just haven't had time to get it out there in the real world.

The November TIF was "to use typography as inspiration for a piece". OK I'm a bit of a snob because I thought, "soooo design school exercise," and "been there, done that" when I used to do graphics and typesetting three decades ago. But no - try to get inspired and do something new. Here are a couple of bad pix of my "signature" on some old pieces I have around the house - my initials - MJB - mostly in fly stitch.

So I decided to use my initials as the lettering and to execute the design in goldwork. Here is a pic of progress - I've since ripped out the first motif and re-did it with sharper corners and much neater. I'll be adding some beads and I also want to explore the design with "voided" shapes, where you stitch the negative spaces around the shapes ... if I have time.

Here's a field we drive by regularly that I want to use for the November BJP, where the vintner has planted all different varieties of vines that turn different colours in the fall. These pix don't really do it justice, but it's my inspiration. I had to laugh as I was walking back to the car, passing a man with a serious camera heading to the spot I'd just vacated to take his photos.

Loading up the new workbox

2008-11-01T13:41:00.006+01:00

Just finished the new workbox this morning and decided to transfer my sewing implements from the old one. The pic shows both - you can see how the old one was disintegrating.

My sister sent me this little case of implements that she never used, which came from my gran - it's mostly crochet hooks, with a couple of bodkins, but it felt really nice to mix her implements in with my own, and now the box feels finished. I'm going to wash and press gran's hook holder and keep the really fine hooks in it, then try to look up on the internet what those curved needles are used for - they look like knitting needles bent into a j-shape.

October Progress

2008-10-30T10:57:00.011+01:00

Bead Journal Project (BJP)

Here are some pix showing my BJP piece for October finished, and some in-progress. I wanted the grapes to be the star of the piece which is why they appear more in relief. I did some free machine embroidery in the background to represent the leaves and the land, but first I laid the beads on top to get an idea of how they would be positioned.

I may come back to it at the end of the year and add more embroidered organza leaves on top. Or not - I find that letting a piece rest out of sight improves my vision of it and lets me analyse it with fresh eyes.

Take It Further (TIF) Challenge

And here are some pix showing progress of the sewing box I'm making for the October TIF Challenge. These pix show construction of the box itself, from the inside and the outside. And yes, those are florist's glass blobs trapped under the organza and net on the bottom, making little "feet" for the box. I still have to take some stitches into the gussets so it doesn't open entirely flat as shown. Having decided not to use any glue at all, I've made holes in my fingers stitching the pieces together but I think it's worth it.

Here are some pix where I'm deciding which piece of embroidery to use for the inside of the lid. I still have to figure out how to piece it together, but that's always a challenge I enjoy. Well, must dash - there's still a lot of stitching to do before month-end.

Too busy to blog

2008-10-13T11:57:00.013+02:00

Sorry for the absence - I've been busy, though...

Bead Journal Project(BJP)

I started the month by doing some thinking and sketching for the BJP, having decided that the theme was to be "vendange" or grape-picking as it's that time of year here.

In the village newsletter, the local association had organised a morning to show how to collect the grapes, a picnic lunch, then a demonstration of how the grapes are pressed to produce juice and eventually wine. When I called up to inscribe, I was embarassed to learn it was meant for kids only - o well. Still, I got out and took some photos and did some sketching using watercolour pencils and a study using acrylics.

We were very lucky that our neighbour offered that we could pick some of his "lucques" olives from his trees, and they are now curing in a couple of buckets in the back kitchen. I also thought of doing a piece based on the olive trees, but I think I've convinced myself that it's to be the grapes. However, I put aside BJP work because I finally decided about the ...

October TIF

This month's theme is our artist's workspaces. My studio is the guest bedroom, so I have to concede space for the pull-out bed, upon which I pile things.

But thinking about it, I only work in here on the computer or the sewing machine. For hand work and painting, I use the dining room table.

This made me think that the studio is really a storage space, which led me to decide that I want to make up one of these sewing boxes that were all the rage about 10 years ago. In the pix, you can see my old one which is falling apart as it was only ever glued together, along with the pieces for the one I am making, and this long piece of fabric from which I am cutting the sides.

One pic shows the background fabric with the snippets of threads and the other shows it with the organza top and stitched down. The inside of the box will be a dark turquoise silk dupion.

I also had a birthday in there and a couple of unproductive days due to depression as a result, but I'm over that now.

September TIF finished maybe

2008-09-28T16:46:00.005+02:00

This pic shows the curtain wall just finished.

This pic shows an experiment with a bit of crochet sewed on to represent the cobbles.

This pic shows the cobbles unpicked along with some of the blue shadow, and this is how I'm leaving the piece for now. As usual, I was wildly enthusiastic about it while I was working on it, but now that it's finished it reminds me of a cheap souvenir cushion cover - probably the satin backing making me think this. It's pinned up on the studio wall for now. I'm looking forward to the October challenge, and am starting to think what I want to do for my October BJP page as well.

Today's update & Thanks

2008-09-25T18:20:00.003+02:00

Here's a pic of today's progress, and I'd like to say a big Thank You to all of you who have left comments on my blog over the year. I try to respond by going to your blog and leaving a comment or sending an email, but I don't always succeed. I'd just like to let you know that your comments light up my day and make me feel great - like a little kid with a wonderful new toy.

Picky Picky

2008-09-24T16:12:00.005+02:00

More pix showing progress on the September TIF, a view of the medieval City of Carcassonne.

It may not be apparent in these pix, but I'v unpicked as much as I've sewn to get the balance of colours and textures about right. I hate unpicking, but I've actually done it a lot in this piece and I'm pleased with the result so far.

Here is where I'm at today. I think it may go faster now, as it's the curtain wall and the building in back of the lists that are left to finish. Then there is the vegetation up the hill and the cobbles along the front of the Aude Gate. I think some French knots for the former and oyster stitch for the latter, but we'll see...

Here is a pic from going to the market on Saturday - it's mushroom season, and these orange girolles looked lovely.

Walking back a different route through the Bastide St Louis, I took loads of pix of this architecture, but couldn't seem to get the whole facade in one pic because of the narrow street and losing patience.

More September TIF progress

2008-09-18T19:57:00.004+02:00

I'm trying to remember to take a pic at the end of each day to show how much I get done, but sometimes I just take a pic to show progress and stretch my neck & back. Anyway, here are pix showing some progress, including unpicking the dark brown in the far tower and redoing it in red with blue and copper couching, which I think "reads" better.

I am really enjoying this Bayeux Tapestry Stitch, now that I've started seeing the results of the horizontal couching stitches on top.

Progress on September TIF

2008-09-16T12:54:00.004+02:00

Here are a series of pix showing progress on the September TIF, from choosing the background (the sky blue as opposed to the beige silk noile), selecting threads, and starting stitching.

I decided to do a lot of the vertical stitching to start, so I can do the horizontal couching all together. It's taking longer than I thought, but I'm making it up as I go along, so that's my excuse. I like the "hardness" of the chainette thread, reminding me of the stone in the architecture. In the real Bayeux tapestry, they used wool which would have given a softer effect. Also, my threads are different thicknesses, giving problems of scale that I have to resolve as I go along, but I'm enjoying it very much.

September BJP finished

2008-09-16T12:42:00.003+02:00

...for now. Here are pix trying to show the sunflower piece for the September BJP finished. The colours are subtle golds, beiges, browns but after many attempts to get a good image, I resigned myself to the idea that the image will never show the richness of texture and colour that is the real embroidered & beaded piece. The pix have a blue cast that knocks back the yellow hue in real life. I think it needs more darks to represent shadows but it needs to rest for a while before I come back to that. It now lives in my BJP folder in a plastic pocket, waiting for me to come back to it at the end of the year (or perhaps sooner) for finishing.

Bayeux tapestry research

2008-09-09T16:32:00.003+02:00

Having decided to interpret the September TIF challenge, lists, as the jousting variety, and wanting to try Bayeux Tapestry stitch to render a knight, I Googled to find information, and came across this wonderful YouTube take on the tapestry - check it out...

I should get cracking on sketches now, as I think this piece may take me quite a while...

More sunflower progress on BJP

2008-09-09T16:16:00.005+02:00

Here are pix of progress on the September BJP page. I just have to stitch petals around the seedheads and I think I'm finished. I know these pix aren't very good quality, so I'll try to do better with the finished piece.

As for the field, this dirty great machine chopped them all down the other day - it made me feel sad.
On to the September TIF challenge now, in a separate post.

September TIF ideas

2008-09-03T12:07:00.005+02:00

Sharon B's September Take It Further Challenge topic this month is lists. I don't seem to do lists except for groceries. I used to do a list to keep track of things I want to look up on the internet. It makes me think that I don't have enough to do, but that's not right... To translate this into an image, I thought I could stitch some writing like milk, eggs, laundry soap, then stitch across the letters to show that they have been crossed off the list, but this just didn't inspire me. The colour swatch also wasn't speaking to me, but the journal page spread Sharon used made me think of castles and crusades, and that led me to...

Lists - the arena, sometimes within the castle walls, where jousting takes place.

Since moving to Cathar Country in the South of France, near Carcassonne, I've wanted to do something inspired by the area. This pic is taken from my tourist guide, along with a pic of a knight jousting that I cut out. This one may take me a while - current thinking is to do the castle as fabric collage and FME, then the knights using Bayeau Tapestry stitching...

Sunflower journal

2008-09-03T11:49:00.004+02:00

Go figure - I found some more sunflower-inspired things I've done in the past. It makes me think that I chose this subject for the first BJP this year because it's something I'm familiar with and I wanted to start with something I find easy. Well, that's the excuse, anyway (grin). This first one is made up of needlelace petals on copper wire cordonets that I did for the cusion cover but that I decided not to use on that piece. I attached them to a cheap tin bangle, giving the circle in the middle.

This piece is my bag bag. It hangs in the kitchen, and I squidge up those plastic carrier bags from the supermarket into the top, then pull them out the bottom as I need them to line the kitchen waste bin.

And this pic shows as far as I got this morning on the 2008 September BJP piece - I stitched around the seedheads then cut back the silk dupion to show the darker silk noile. Now it's onto stems, shadows and tattered leaves before I can even begin beading the seedheads.

Woohoo - BJP started

2008-09-02T17:32:00.008+02:00

I did a pencil sketch of the sunflowers, took out these materials from my stash, and I know just the dark brown and gold beads I want to use in the seed heads. I stitched the piece of silk noil to the back of the piece of silk dupion which I will cut through to reveal the noil for the seed heads. The sheers are for making raggedy leaves, and the black net for the shadow shapes. I'm a bit worried that the size of the piece is too small but I'll continue with it anyway and see where it leads.

Here are some I did years ago, without size restrictions - this first one is now my sewing machine cover. It started as an exercise in studying the way sunflower seeds grow in spirals. The closeup has gone sort of blue in color - sorry about that.

While I was on that jag, I also did this piece, based on a piece of Swiss cotton batiste that I'd shibori-coloured. The close-up is meant to show how some of the bugles are standing up. These pix also have a blue cast that isn't there in real life.

I may get out tomorrow morning and sketch some more in the field. By writing this post, I realise that I have a thing for sunflowers, just never realised it before. It's not that I'm obssessed or anything like that, just that I find them very moving. Now I come to think about it, I also have a book about them, David Douglas Duncan's "Sunflowers for Van Gogh". O, dear, this BJP is already turning into a journey of self-discovery...

BJP Preparation

2008-08-31T11:44:00.005+02:00

Here are pix of an experimental piece in progress and taken off the tubular frame I used as a loom. I thought I'd use the Colinette yarns to crochet or knit it onto the end of a scarf, but then decided it will be the spine of the turquoise folder I bought to house my 2008 Bead Journal Project (BJP) notes.
Yes, I've signed up for the 2008 Bead Journal Project!. As I have difficulty doing the same thing twice, it will be a real challenge to stay with the same size for the 12 months, so I spent a few days thinking through a size that I could work with, finally coming up with a rectangle based on the Fibonacci series 1,1,2,3,5,8. I cut off the 1,1 and ended up with a rectangle that measures 10 x 18 (2,3,5 x 2,3,5,8), and decided on centimetres instead of inches. This gives me enough room for detailed beading as well as embroidery.
I also decided that the September piece will be based on the ripening field of sunflowers next door - it has been so dry here that they look like dessicated skeletons soldiering on, their leaves hanging in tatters. It makes me feel sorry for them but proud that they are so strong - is it a cultural thing, inherited from our collective consciousness of Van Gogh's passion or just a simple human reaction, anthropomorphising nature? Does it matter? If it touches me as an artist, then it's something I can work with and that emotion will out in the finished piece. This post shows what the field looked like earlier in the year, when the flowers still had their yellow petal crowns in the sun.

August TIF done for now

2008-08-19T11:48:00.005+02:00

Here is a pic of the August TIF in progress, showing the mohair being crocheted and couched down, before the chiffon scarf was machine stitched over top.

Here are pix of the project as far as I want to go with it at the moment. It needs something that I haven't discovered yet, so it's currently pinned to the studio wall awaiting that inspiration or instruction.

Although I started with the idea of balance, this piece looks more like a seascape with a sail showing in the distance and the feeling of a lighthouse represented by the long skinny triangle up the middle, and the shiny fabric layer which doesn't show up in the photos.

We had two lots of guests lately, so I've neither been posting as regularly as I like nor doing as much artwork. I think my life, rather than being balanced lately, has been more like a see-saw - feast or famine - loads of time to stitch or none at all - a pendulum swinging between extremes. Hmmm, some good images/ideas if I find time to revisit this theme.

August TIF started

2008-08-07T13:11:00.005+02:00

I did the collage of fabrics the other day, using the sketch of a balance against a sky & sea background. I used this old silk t-shirt that had started to rip & disintegrate under the arms for the background blue.

Started to lay mohair lines horizontally across. Although at this stage, it doesn't look like much, I know where I'm going with it, and after a few more pix, you'll see the darks giving more life to it. I've also got one of those chiffon scarfs to lay over top, to unite everything, and some ideas of stitches to use on top to hold the chiffon scarf down...

Balance

2008-08-05T16:22:00.003+02:00

The August Take It Further Challenge is balance. Easy peasy. This has always been a big idea for me - in art, in life - because I'm an October baby, a Libra, the balance.

I got out the watercolour crayons yesterday morning and doodled these designs, just filling up the paper, going up, down, sideways. The sketch that appeals is the one with the balance, in the bottom right hand corner, and that's what I'm going to do, with maybe the sign of Libra somewhere in it.

I'm going to use just the blues in the pallette because I don't like them in combination with the reds this month. Rather, I'm going to use some purple like in the sketch, which is what you get when you mix red and blue anyway. Off to search through stash for the colours now...

July TIF finished and sunflowers

2008-07-18T10:54:00.004+02:00

Here is my July TIF finished, I think. I embroidered the words, "At the half way mark - - -" on a white ribbon down the middle of the piece, from the top towards the bottom, then the words "What is it to be?" from the bottom towards the top. The idea I was trying for was looking back on half the year and thinking about "the wild blue yonder" for the second half of the year. I don't think it is very successful, but hey, that's the way it goes sometimes. It may become a book cover.

There's a gorgeous field of sunflowers I can see from the back kitchen window and I've been trying to photograph it in different lights. It's especially wonderful when the sun is behind them, making their coronas light up, but taking a pic into the sun just doesn't work with this little camera, so here's a pic of sunflowers at the market.

July TIF Challenge started

2008-07-11T12:36:00.006+02:00

These pix are working with the idea of looking back at the previous six months. The first pic shows just the pieces I "counted" for the TIF Challenge (some months, I worked on more than one idea), followed by a pic showing all the pieces I've done (or started) so far this year, except I realised that I left out some beading and sketches - o well.

I got fed up with trying to take a good pic of everything in one go, so I put pix of half at a time. Apologies for the quality; when I have more time, I'll try again with the stepladder, spreading them out on the floor in the studio instead of trying to stand on the dining room chair with the pieces spread on the table.

These pix show a new piece using the idea of halves: the original collage, threads I emptied out of a drawer, and some threads I want to work with. On to stitching, and, o, I think this piece will need some beading, too.

The interesting thing I'm getting out of this month's challenge is looking back and trying to analyse what I've done so far, as an attempt to predict what I might do in the second half of the year. It's a real mixture, some realistic, some abstract, most technical, but I've had fun with it as well. I think I'm on a collage streak now.

Short Break

2008-07-11T12:03:00.007+02:00

We had a short break to Liverpool European City of Culture 2008, where we visited the Tate Liverpool for the Gustaf Klimt exhibition. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pix inside, so I bought a sketchbook in the shop and scribbled notes. It really inspired me and I now have loads of ideas for new embroideries, which I will describe in a later post.

I also visited the Walker Art Gallery and saw the exhibit Art In The Age of Steam, and Ben Johnson's Cityscapes. They had this SuperLambBanana there as well. They are sculptures done by a Japanese artist to demonstrate the possible dangers of genetic engineering, combining a lamb shape with a banana shape, and "blank" sculptures were given to various artists in Liverpool to decorate. They were then placed all around the city.

I thought they were very amusing and took pix of a couple of them that we saw.

Here is the last "geology" piece a little further along, but I'm going to abandon it for now as I'm itiching to get on with the July TIF Challenge, "What is it to be at the half way mark?", about which I shall now do a separate post.

As far as it got

2008-07-02T17:22:00.003+02:00

This is as far as I got with the geology piece, which I may put aside for now.

Well, the new July TIF Challenge has been posted in colours I really like - I think I may use some of the collaged scraps I made in June as backgrounds, and do something with beads. Some ideas:

Past/present/future. I did a thumbnail sketch where half the piece is stitched in rigid straight lines representing the past and reality and the right hand side stitched in flowing dotted lines, representing the future and abstract and what may be. With, maybe in the middle, dividing the two areas, myself looking backwards on the history side in a silhouette, representing the present.

Collage of actual pieces on one side, with just blotches of colour and abstract on the other side. Play with photos of the pieces to make them fit into a jigsaw of sorts on the one side, representing the past, with the future maybe very abstract swirls on the other, or maybe a colour wheel spinning off into the distance because sure as God made little green apples, colour will feature in any future pieces even though shapes and themes may be unknown.

Not Geology

2008-06-25T17:35:00.004+02:00

Here is a pic showing the painted offcuts from the wedding dresses, collaged together, to use as backgrounds in embroideries.

This pic shows the beads leftover from the serpent and some threads I found in the Challenge colours. I wanted to use these to work on the geology idea.

This pic shows what I'm working on now, with some bits from the painted offcuts. I was thinking of the geology idea but it doesn't seem very rocky to me just yet. It's one of those pieces that is just making itself so I'm going along for the ride, to see where it ends up.

Having another go

2008-06-21T16:14:00.011+02:00

I had a good old rummage through stash and found these two bags of offcuts from wedding dresses, which I bought for the regal sum of 2 Pounds Sterling per bag from a mate at West of England Lace Club, years ago. They are mostly silk or satin with some machine lace.

I had a fun morning dropping silk paints onto the wet piles, then folding them up to dry. This results in blotchy uneven colour mixes, which is what I wanted...

before I could start a collage which I stitched down onto plain calico.

This collage makes me think of summer, regatta, sails in the distance, beach, in a sort of cubist take on that bayscape. What I was really thinking was geology - I have a picture in my head of rocks by the beach in beige and blues, and I have some lovely little shells I want to use along with beads to create this image, but it's just not coming out of my hands - I got this instead. I'm not complaining - I can't wait to play with this image and embellish it with stitch, bead, shell.

What I like about this collage is the fact that it's made from scraps of wedding dresses - are those people still married? Where are they now? How was their special day? What are their stories?

Then I read Comment 66 on the June TIF Challenge and checked out the blog, and there were photos very similar to the ones at the top of this post, and a similar story about using wedding dress scraps - I wonder if she got them from the same person? Except she made a beautiful Cinderella dress. It's this synchronicity that I love so much in doing this challenge - people may start with the same design brief and even similar materials, but finish with wildly different pieces.

Here are a couple of pix of the old "Halles" (covered markets, usually for fishmonger, butcher, delicatessan, cheese merchants) in the Bastide St. Louis, that have recently been renovated. They made one section into an art gallery for sculptures and I think it's been wonderfully done, showing the charpente (the beams holding the roof) and the columns, and best of all - it's FREE! We took a shortcut through it to go to the butcher. There was also a marching band in the fruit & veg part of the market in the Place Carnot.
Had lunch at this little restaurant beside the river Aude, looking across to the Medieval City of Carcassonne. I feel back to my blissful self. Must get stitching now.

June TIF Finished

2008-06-17T15:56:00.005+02:00

Here is a series of pix showing the June TIF Challenge in progress and completed. I think. It needs to live in my portfolio for a while before I decide whether it remains just a little mat or becomes the basis for a little purse. In the end, it didn't seem to want beads added to it, and because there's still almost half of June left, I may spend the time revisiting my original ideas and trying to come up with a bead design.

Critique:
Things I like about the piece:
The stripey-ness of the grasses, reminds me of zebras.
The softness of the chenille contrasting with the hardness of the other yarns.
This technique - I think it has potential, and I worked out a lot of things while doing it, such as how to change direction, how to change colours, what to do on the selveges, how to hold the frame while working so it's comfortable. One thing - the back is less dense than the front because when you chain stitch, the front has two threads for every one on the back if you know what I mean, so the fabric created is not truly reversible.

This I don't like about the piece:
Snakes. Yes, I admire their beauty but I can't seem to get over their creepiness. This snake in particular. I think the piece would have been better without the snake shape, just the grasses.
The warps on the left-hand side seem to show up more as ribs.
This combination of colours.
It is not really telling a story - it's just a snake in the grass - so I don't think it is very successful as a TIF Challenge. O well.

More June TIF Progress

2008-06-12T12:33:00.004+02:00

I finished the snake shape and started on the background grasses. It's at that stage where it doesn't look like much but the snake has started to take on a life of its own. It is very pleasant to the touch - soft - not what you would expect a snake to fee like. I can't wait to get to the beading. I really like this technique - it goes pretty quickly once you decide where you are going - it's kind of a cross between weaving and crochet.

June TIF Progress

2008-06-08T14:47:00.006+02:00

Trying to work with the schizophrenia idea, I found this article, "How Prevalent is Schizophrenia?" , with this astonishing painting by Craig Finn, which is frequently used to teach undergraduates what a person with schizophrenia experiences. Just looking at it made me feel unwell, so I thought I might use the hallucinations of serpents and stains as a design source.

Wow - are there ever a lot of images out there on the web of serpents! I also found this silk evening jacket I bought in New York in my younger and more foolish days. I thought I'd make something beaded, perhaps a bracelet, but found that that has already been done exquisitely by loads of people. Anyway, I printed out a couple of photos for reference, then rummaged through stash for the colours.

I only had the light and medium brown colours in this thin chenille which doesn't like to be sewn, so I had to decide on a technique like knitting or crochet, but then I remembered my January TIF piece and decided to use a similar technique. I wrapped this tubular frame with the chenille and am starting to chain stitch using a crochet hook in a snake shape. We'll see where this goes. I started on the left-hand side, with the brown sparkly goldfingering yarn, using Raised Chain Band stitch before I got going with the crochet hook on the snake shape.

These pix show an old piece I did almost entirely in RCB - back & front. Like many of my finished pieces, it lives in my green book until I decide whether I want it to be a bag or a book cover. I'm currently photographing my green book, to post in a slide show eventually.

I'm Back

2008-06-04T11:04:00.005+02:00

We took a short trip to Normandy for 12 days to visit DH's family and friends. I was only organised enough to take the green crochet cotton with me to stitch, so this is a repeat of the little bag I made earlier, except I'm using Pea Stitch Variation for the filling, and trying out open edges all around.

I didn't finish the fish piece in May, but looking back on my blog posts, I think I covered the challenge sufficiently that I can move on to the June TIF Challenge, which is, "stories that are and stories that are possible," relating to stash.

Here are my initial ideas:

"Stash exists in geological time." This is an amusing comment made by a Honiton Lace buddy, Judith Greene, now sadly passed away. We were chatting one evening in class, about our stashes and she said she had some in her loft that she knew she'd never have the time to work with, but just knowing that it was there was good for her soul. I said that I'd made a rule that I was not going to buy any more fabric until I'd used up what I already had (I can't imagine making such a bizarre rule now - in fact, I think there may be no such thing as too much stash), but that I had some fabrics that dated back a long time. That's when she made this comment. To translate this into a project, the colour palette suggests earth, rock, geology.

Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you, if you're young at heart - remember that song? This relates to stories, and gives the idea of fairies but I don't see them in the pallette colours.

Guns into ploughshares. This idea came from the pallette, and the idea of things that are and things that could be. I see a farmer ploughing a field, with one of those big horses with fetlocks, but a rifle in the place of the ploughshare - I don't know...

The dictionary definition of stash gives the idea of concealment, of things hidden in a safe place, which makes me think of making something that you open to reveal something else, much the same as a story unfolds. Maybe a book or a box.

Schizophrenia. Part of the reason for the visit to Normandy was to see a family member who suffers from this. He lives in an institution now, and we were both really distressed when we visited him because he was in a psychotic phase, seeing serpents, being agressive with other patients, trying to scrub the walls and floors. For safety, all photos, paintings, books, pencils, etc. had been removed from his room so he really had nothing to look at or to do, and it made me think, "No wonder he's inventing serpents and spots - he's creating interest for himself where there is none." When we returned home, we looked up schizophrenia on the internet and read some case histories, and it seems that the TIF theme relates - most of us see reality in a similar way (stories that are), but people with schizophrenia see stories that are possible as well, in a kind of jumble of reality and imagination. It makes me think that they are using their creativity in a very specific way, to help them cope with their emotional world. I think I'd like to work with this idea, hoping that it will help me get through the emotional shock we had at seeing a loved one in this state. But how to represent it? Hmmmmm...

Fun with Warhol

2008-05-11T18:57:00.007+02:00

I just couldn't stop playing with the stencils and did this sort of Andy Warhol grid with them in the end, using the May TIF Challenge colours which I "read" as light and medium blue, pink and a browny-pink. It was great fun and I'm not displeased with the result even though it is something I might never have done but for the Challenge.

Here's the original grid, where I left white spaces between the squares which I subsequently cut out because I didn't like them.

Here's the used stencil. I cut it out of a piece of textured wallpaper because it's stronger than copier paper when it gets wet. However, when I used it texture-side-down, the paint escaped under the stencil and made smudgy images, so that's not recommended. I should really have cut two stencils, facing opposite ways or else used some other material that was smooth on both sides - live & learn!

Here is a pic of the little rose I did a few weeks ago - I unpicked the celtic knotwork beading I'd done around it, so it's ready to be used on something. There is a glass blob I found years ago, around which I tried out the cabochon technique, thinking it could be the eye of some creature. And finally, there is a lens that I think is called a "dragon's eye". It makes the world look faceted.

I tried to take some photos holding the dragon's eye lens against the lens of the camera - here are pix of the cabochon and the rose. I think I can use these in something, but don't know what yet.

Here's the back of the cabochon.

Finally, just a comment on a comment from Purple Missus, who said in part, "James Hunting said we must call ourselves artists and not textile or fibre artists that way people will take our art seriously. After all a painter doesn't call himself a 'paint artist'". I so agree - it's not the medium that defines the artist, it's the intent behind the making.

Playing with Self Portraits of the Artist

2008-05-10T17:02:00.011+02:00

Continuing to think about the May TIF Challenge, and coming back to the idea of a self-portrait, I dug out some exercises we'd done in art class when I first moved here. I'd signed up to meet local people and to refresh drawing & painting skills. This first one was an exercise where you had to just write the same word or phrase over and over - I just used my name, Michele, backwards, upside down, forwards, large, small, printed, cursive, etc. It reminds me of a rug or mat and I think could work as a silk painting or using a rag rug technique.

Another exercise we did was to sketch ourselves, then do tracings of the dark, medium and light areas, then cut stencils from each of these tracings. We could then use the stencils to print out different images. I very much liked the cut out bits and mounted them together like this. It is part of my face, deconstructed, and reminds me of hieroglyphics - it's like you can "read" these marks and make up my face from them. This gave me the idea to applique various bits onto organza and mount them together in such a way that when you stacked them up together, you would get the whole image but individually they would only ever be bits of a face.

I didn't get the idea to work the way I wanted it to, but here are two pieces that I did make up, using up all the offcuts.

Here are some pix of a new self-portrait sketch. I think the marks are a bit better because I knew where I was going with it, that I'd have to cut out the shapes in such a way that the stencil wouldn't fall apart.

And here are some pix of experiments with collage of the cut out bits. In this exercise, I didn't use a medium value, just dark and light. Can you find the eye, nose, mouth shapes? I can see a sort of bouquet of vegetation in one collage.

I particularly like this one - it's just mirror images of my hair shape, with the shape of a nostril making a question mark at the bottom. I think it is a pretty good interpretation of "what do you call yourself", which could be read as, "fat head" or "in two minds about the question".

I copied the sketch on the computer, then cut different bits out. As you can see, I recycle paper, so both of these had printing on the back. I like this a lot, too, the cut out shape showing against the words, and may use this somehow.

Unfortunately, none of these experiments seem to suggest working with beads - o well, that's the way it is sometimes. Either I have to use another technique or get back to fishy or just do another bead design...

Thoughts on May TIF Challenge

2008-05-05T16:19:00.008+02:00

Here are my ideas on the new TIF Challenge .

Splitting hairs: That was my first reaction to the distinction between art and craft. A quick trip to the dictionary seemed to confirm this - both definitions use the other word to provide explanation, with the word skill included. It seems to me that art critics have given rise to this so-called distinction. Have you ever heard of anyone called a "craft critic"? I suspect they would feel hurt and disparaged if we started to call them that. 'Nuff said. It's all about using your own feelings and sensibilities when coming to define what you are and what you do, and not using others' definitions. I'm an artist because I say so. My idea of being an artist is that I look at the world with pleasure and wonder and my whole raft of emotions, distill that stimulus and mirror it back into the world through the work of my hands, heart, mind, intellect, social conscience, and means. This gave the idea of a self portrait, looking straight at the camera and enlarging the eyes, while the rest of the pose would show me working on something. Think of Rembrandt at his easel. Maybe I could include a messy hairdo with split ends? An exaggerated parting?

The Outlaw Area: This is an idea from Buckminster Fuller, but I couldn't find the reference in my library. He was explaining about people who go their own way to explore the world and find themselves outside the mainstream social context, where they permit themselves to do the outrageous and frequently come back with extraordinary discoveries. The idea is profoundly appealing to me, and makes me think of pirates, freedom, sailing ships, oceans, both exterior and interior space, solitude, wonder, courage, independence - o, it's very rich and evocative - and I believe this is what artists do - but how to represent all that? Good challenge - I shall have to think about it some more.

Blessings: Yes, I feel blessed to be an artist, and this made me think of one of my favourite poems, Dylan Thomas's "Poem On His Birthday", in which he counts his blessings...

"Yet, though I cry with tumbledown tongue,
Count my blessings aloud:

"Four elements and five
Senses, and man a spirit in love
Tangling through this spun slime
To his nimbus bell cool kindgom come
And the lost, moonshine domes,
And the sea that hides his secret selves
Deep in its black, base bones,
Lulling of spheres in the seashell flesh,
And this last blessing most,

"That the closer I move
To death, one man through his sundered hulks,
The louder the sun blooms
And the tusked, ramshackling sea exults..."

There are plenty of strong images, lots of them related to the ocean, making me think of coral and fish, etc. I read somewhere that Picasso represented himself in some of his paintings as a goat. I guess I think of myself as a fish - a revelation. I wondered why I kept coming back to this as an image in my art.

Spirit: Finally, taking Sharon's challenge question further, "What do you call yourself and why?", I have for a long time pondered questions such as "Who are you?", "Why are you here?", etc. I believe that I am a splinter of the divine, mirroring glory. Yup, that's me, that's what I call myself because that's what I feel at the core. To make this into a design, well, a fish has been a symbol used by the Catholic church. I'm not sure what it represents in that context, but I like it very much, so I guess the beaded fish I just did may count as my May challenge piece. The irridescent beads actually include the colours in this month's pallette, too.

Looks like I've talked myself into working on that fish collage I just started, although I think I'd like to do machine embroidery on it and I'm on a beading streak just now...

On the other hand, the iris are just stunning and maybe I'll do that, but no, I'm trying to stay with the colour pallette...

Fishy

2008-05-05T12:07:00.005+02:00

After finishing the needlelace bag, I resurrected an embroidery I started years ago, in which I'd made some coral reef and what looked like a fish head using a piece of abalone shell, but I could never figure out where to go from there. It was looking at beading blogs and experimenting with bead embroidery that I found the answer - the fish's body could be beaded.

Here's a photo collage of reference books, sketch, started embroidery (top left, under the needlecase). There's also a started piece of needlelace that will eventually be coral, just the outlines couched down. I photographed the National Geographic book opened to the page that inspired this idea, as well as the dust jacket shown in the top right corner.

Here are pix of the piece in progress and the finished embroidery, which just needs to be mounted once I decide whether it will be a book cover or bag or wall art.

I started this piece while waiting patiently for the first of the month for Sharon Boggon's May Take It Further Challenge. I didn't even look up the challenge on the first of the month because I was so wrapped up in this beading. Next post will deal with that.

Meanwhile, here is another fishy piece that has been collaged and now awaits machine embroidery and bead embellishment.

Needlelace bag finished

2008-04-29T16:25:00.011+02:00

Here's the bag that I just finished this morning, using the new crochet cotton thread I bought on sale a few weeks ago.

Here's how it started, with the outline shape couched down, and the filling started. I should have started the filling at the top of the shape, but I wanted to test that I could turn at the open edges on the inside. The join doesn't show on the finished piece.

This pic shows the start of the scallops, and before I turned the strap loops inside out.

This pic shows version one, where I did a flap started in the paler turquoise thread then continued in beading, but I didn't like that so I cut it off and headed to the bookcase to check out...

Jacqui Carey's "Beads and Braids" book. Unfortunately, I don't have a maru-dai, and I didn't want to spend the time to cobble one together, so I used The Beadworkers Guild "Introduction to Beadwork: Bracelets", trying Tubular Herringbone, which I couldn't figure out, so I settled on Spiral Staircase to make the cord, finishing it in the centre with some drop beads and a feature bead.

The other book you can see in the pic is "Beadwork Magazine Presents The Beader's Companion" by Judith Durant & Jean Campbell, which I flicked through for good measure.

In my search, I found "The Beading Book" by Julia Jones which I bought ages ago, mail order, I think. At the time, I looked through it quickly then put on the shelf, but now that I have the bead bug again, not to mention the time, I'm going to read it from cover to cover and experiment with techniques.

Why all this bead mania? Well, I signed up for the 2008 Bead Journal Project - eeeekkk! Although it only starts in September, I thought I might start experimenting with techniques now.

Critique on the finished piece: It's sort of what I had in mind. I wanted to create a casing to hold the cord, and it was really an experiment to figure out how to do that. Although the turned handles kind of work to hold the cord, it's not right. I have to figure out the correct pattern shape to get the casing to work. I think a sumptuous, crunchy tassel would look well in a similar design, but I kept the embellishment simple on this one because the scallops were fussy enough. I could have used an open edge all around instead of just on the inside shape. The colour was difficult to match to my stash of beads. I find the overall size and shape pleasing. That crochet cotton is lovely to work with, and the cordonnette holds its shape well.

Busy busy Springtime

2008-04-28T19:36:00.009+02:00

I've been working on a new needlelace and beaded piece but that's all I'm going to say about it for now - I'm busting to post pix of it, but there's just that little bit left to finish and I want to post the whole project in one go, so here are some pix of other things we've been up to. The semi-ruin in the middle distance is the Cathar castle of Saissac in the Montagne Noire, about twenty minutes drive, where we went to check out a boucherie/charcuterie we had been told had good produce.

These pix show the bud one day and the flower the next.

This pic shows the two rows of lettuce I put in the potager - I really like taking shadow pix - I think they are fun. I also dug up and separated the strawberry plants, to make a cordon around the edge of the potager. I find they give more fruit if I spread them out.

Here's the orange/peach rose bush giving us a wonderful show this year, and a pic of a single bloom DH cut for me to try to show the colour better.

Here's a darling fig just starting to swell. We put that tree in year before last, but late in the season, so we only had three or four figs last year. Hopefully there will be many more this year.

And last but not least, here are the brown-y purple iris being just too gorgeous.

Bead experiments

2008-04-21T14:57:00.007+02:00

Looking at beaders blogs, I thought I'd try to do bead embroidery, and this little rose made itself.

I was also thinking about Celtic knotwork, and tried to incorporate that - unsuccessfully - I think the rose looks better on its own.

Having "finished" the design, here's a pic of the contents of the experiment box in my bead drawer, where the design shall now live.

It's a woman thing

2008-04-19T17:29:00.001+02:00

Woohoo - I found these yarns and beads on sale for -30% when I nipped out to get himself some cigars because he was busy painting the wrought iron on the kitchen window. It is extremely pleasant to noodle round the fabric shop on my own, but I do smuggle the goods into the studio to avoid comments such as, "You could open a shop with all the stuff you have in there", or, "Don't tell me you got MORE beads - what are you going to do with the ones you already have?" Men just don't understand.

Second April TIF Finished

2008-04-19T16:22:00.005+02:00

Here's the plant lifecycle - I must have had roses on the brain, left over from the March challenge...

I started by making up a background using the colours I could find in my stash, in the Fibonacci sequence 1,1,2,3,5,8, then used automatic patterns on the machine to stitch them to a plain calico backing. As I didn't really like the colours in my stash, I added a couple of squares of organza to shift some of the colours more to orange or red. It still wasn't pleasing my eye, so I added a layer of the darker red organza, then started to stitch scraps of pink shot metallic organza on top to make the full flowers.

Then I went outside and photographed some of the shrub and climbing roses to study bud, leaf, blossom. I particularly like the way the new leaves come up dark red before turning glossy green.

Then I used the oyster stitch (among others) from SharonB's Take A Stitch Tuesday challenge from last year, thinking they looked like buds and leaves.

Finally I added a couple of beads to represent the rosehips et voila I think it's finished. It's pinned up in the studio now while I go through my "I don't like it" period, before it tells me what it wants to become - not a bag, this time I think - perhaps a wall hanging?

First April TIF Challenge Finished

2008-04-09T18:35:00.005+02:00

I'm counting this piece against April's challenge. The reason I think it "counts" for the April challenge is because it changed from the original thinking when I started it for the March challenge.

Here's what happened: I wanted to try out Oyster Stitch before I went any further with my plant lifecycle design, to see if it would "read" as seeds. I decided to try the stitch on the abandoned piece from March with some variegated knitting ribbon and chainette, but once started, I couldn't stop because I was enjoying the stitch so much. Then I decided to cut up and resew, et voila. I think it will be a strap on a bag which I have yet to design & make.
The two pieces on the left in the photo are offcuts - click on the photo to enlarge.

Back to the drawing board now...

I bought this set of Gardening Encyclopaedia in an antique shop in Topsham years ago.

It touched me because on the flyleaf of each book is the name of the original owner and the date, starting March 18, 1898 and going to 1890. S/he must have subscribed for it and received one each month. They are in remarkably good condition considering they're 110 years old - some foxing on some of the pages, that' all.

There are terriffic engravings of the plants and the occasional colour plate. Sometimes I look through it just to admire the drawings, which is what I plan to do next, to get some ideas for the plant lifecycle piece I think I want to do for the April Challenge. I don't believe in tracing directly from the book, instead, I use it as a guide for my own drawing, and to get inspiration.

Studios and other thoughts

2008-04-05T16:18:00.005+02:00

Yums - got these at the market this morning - very happy making - along with our first bunch of asparagus of the season.

While we were walking through the Bastide St.Louis, I thought of using architecture in this month's challenge - old buildings. I especially like crumbling rock and peeling paint for embroidery, so I'll add that to my list of Change challenges. Here is a piece I did shortly after we moved here, of the abbey ruins at Alet-les-Bains.

Then, while checking one of my favourite blogs, Beading At The Beach, the author showed pix of her studio. I just love looking at other creative people's studios, so I thought I'd include a couple of pix of my workspace - la voila - enjoy.

Now that I've taken the pix, the studio seems really organised and neat, and it makes me feel a tiny bit embarrassed. I do most of my handsewing at the dining table, which probably explains it.

April Challenge

2008-04-04T17:19:00.003+02:00

Sharon Boggon's April Take It Further Challenge is, "How do you see change?" Here are my first thoughts:

Mostly positive: I like change and seem to adapt well. I think it is because we moved almost every year when I was little, in Montreal. Since then, I've moved to Toronto, Bermuda, England, and now live in the South of France. But this didn't give me inspiration for stitching, so I put the question like this:

What does change mean to me? This gave:

Seasons: Spring into summer into fall into winter and starting again. I could do a number of panels to get this, or make it a circle or even a spiral - need to figure out how to do this, maybe later in the month.

Plant lifecycle: Seeds into plants into flowers into falling leaves making compost to nurture the seeds falling to make new plants. I had a look at Sharon Boggon's Take A Stitch Tuesday blog, thinking I might use new stitches, to change my habits because I keep coming back to my favourites, French Knots and Fly Stitch. Also, the TIF Challenge grew out of the TAST Challenge which I didn't do as that was in the days before I had discovered embroidery blogs. I came across the Oyster Stitch and it's been in my head ever since - I see it as seeds against the earth colours she set for the April challenge, so this looks a likely candidate.

MCEscher's Metamorphosis. I'd love to do a long runner with shapes morphing into each other. Maybe after I have a go at the seed idea.

Sayings: What goes around comes around. Plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose. Chinese whispers. I could free machine somehow. I think Chinese whispers could be really funny.

Evolution: Using that diagram of ape to man that we all seem to know. I researched this a bit thinking it was called The Ascent of Man, and found it is called "The March of Progress" by Rudy Wallinger, first published in "Early Man" 1970 Time Life book by F. Clark Howell. There have been numerous takes on this, including this one which I found amusing while sitting at the computer doing this research...

A Dinosaur: I thought I could repeat the original March of Progress motif twice and attach it to the back of a dinosaur shape, like those plates that stick up - I'll sketch the idea in a minute - to represent "standing on the shoulders of giants", a quote in a letter during Darwin's acrimonious debates with some of his peers - I'll have to find that reference, too, so I can write it up properly. It would be a visual gag on Darwin, evolution, change.

Finally, still thinking about evolution, I thought I might want to use Fibonacci progressions, as that is the way things grow in nature, so I did a paper pattern this morning to think about size and placement of objects, using 1,1,2,3,5,8,13. Rainbow's End made me remember about Fibonacci numbers in a post last week.

Here's what I found in my stash to make a start...

just need to get the threads out now...

A big thank you to Sharon for adding me to the challenge list - I just noticed it in the blog the other day - and for coming up with these wonderful ideas.

So Long March

2008-03-31T17:27:00.007+02:00

It's been a bit stressful - I destroyed my laptop when trying to install the Service Pack for Windows Vista and had to take it to the repair shop. I lost all my files which is not so bad as I'd backed up most and the better pix of embroidery are still on this blog, but I now have to re-enter all my contacts. O well. This pic of the neighbour's cherry in blossom was from a few weeks ago, and the iris was taken on Saturday before we went to the market. Both make me happy.

Here is my March piece, which I think is finished. I'm not sure what it is - perhaps a wall hanging? I've pinned it up in the studio so I can continue to look at it in the hope that inspiration will occur.

This is a pic showing the piece before I couched the gold around the scribble shapes.

And this pic shows the couching partly completed to show what a difference it made, and also what a difference lighting makes to the colours of the pix.

I 'm not convinced I did very well on this challenge, starting with ranting about the colours then abandoning one piece and not knowing to do with this one. Still, I shall think about it some more and try to come back to the pieces later to salvage what I can from them.

Sometimes creativity is like that - if I don't allow myself to try, I lose not only the failures but the chance successes, too. Mum used to say, "The door to success is marked 'Push'."

March TIF Progress

2008-03-16T13:20:00.006+01:00

I don't know what this piece is yet, I think it's about writing. The snippets of sand-coloured fabrics in the middle that I appliqued with the gold passing thread remind me of Japanese brushwork.

I started to Kantha-quilt around these shapes - there's a lot more to go, including some lines of beading because I have the exact colour of purple beads in my stash. I think I want to use the purple beads on the green background and the green beads on the purple background.

On the edges, I decided to do this Maltese Cross composite stitch, using a glittery purple Goldfingering thread over some pale green chainette. To hold the intersections in place, I added a light green bead.

One edge finished, this is where I am this morning.

Still on the subject of "little things that make me happy", DH poked some holes in these boulders in the garden and planted some of these little plants that I think we used to call "chickens and hens" when we were kids. They are already in flower and I had to take a pic because they are so wonderful. Thinking they might become an embroidery, I played with the pic using the software that came with the digital camera, but wasn't able to come up with anything. Instead, I added this little poem to the image and made some cards:

Spring has sprung, the grass is ris,
I wonder where the birdies is?

And because I had the cutting mat and the glue out already, I decided to cut up a gardening catalogue to use the rest of the card stock. It made me think I could send these cards to celebrate Springtime, saying "Season's Greetings" - instead of only once a year at Christmas - create my own new tradition... It would give me at least 4 design themes during the year...hmmmm....

One abandoned one to go

2008-03-11T15:11:00.005+01:00

Well, I started the sand and burgundy colours and this is what I came up with, thinking of the idea of small blocks of time when you stop to smell the roses.

This is the point at which I abandoned this piece - I just don't like the colours and besides the olive and purple materials were on the worktable and I just wanted to get on with them. Things I like about this piece: I figured out how much to adjust the tension in the bobbin for the gold passing thread, and I like the roses just not on this background. It goes into the experiment pile for recycling one day.

Here is a pic showing my first ideas with this group of colours.

In reading through comments on the March TIF Challenge, I realised that I could actually use all the colours together if I did something small like cross stitch - doh! I guess I was just having a rant about colours.

Here is a pic of the goodies I found on sale for just 50cents Euro a tube. I've been looking at beading websites and must try some of those techniques.

Colour analysis - March TIF

2008-03-05T16:21:00.005+01:00

I had a good old rummage through my stash in search of the colours for the March TIF Challenge , and I came up with this:

I just couldn't seem to resolve the sand and burgundy with the others, so I separated them off by themselves, giving this, in which I've added a medium sand and a lighter burgundy, so I have light, medium and dark in the two colours, with the black represented by the shot burgundy sheer jersey. It doesn't photograph well as usual.

That left the olive green with the purple and black:

And I found that I could add a touch of the sand to this using snippets under the green organza. I also want to experiment with the cone of gold passing thread in the bobbin on the machine, thinking that this gold is loosely related to the sand colour and might add sparkle and maybe even "zing" if used judiciously. Loosely speaking, this grouping has the greens as the lights, the purple as the medium and the black/purple shot jersey as the dark.

Finally, I decided I could maybe add a small amount of the green to the burgundy & sand mixture as I think that piece will be about "litte moments of time when you stop to smell the roses" and I need green for the leaves.

So it looks like I'll be doing at least two pieces with the two bunches of colours because by separating them, I feel the results will be more harmonious. The pieces may be put together in a book or used as the front and back of something, but there will have to be a separation.

I've read through some of the comments already and a lot of people like the pallette, so I shall be very interested to see what they do with it - a real voyage of discovery this month!

Using a negative reaction

2008-03-04T18:33:00.005+01:00

Well I was really looking forward to the March TIF Challenge but when I saw the pallette of colours I'm sorry to say that my reaction was negative.

When I get a reaction like this, I find it useful to go with the dislike because it makes me work harder to create a thing of beauty. I started by naming the colours then assigning them a value: burgundy (dark), sand (light), olive (medium to dark), purple (medium to dark), black (very dark). Then I listed my problems with them:
I don't think there is enough light.
I don't usually think of the sand colour as "light" and I find the dark and medium colours depressing except for the purple.
The only complementaries, at a stretch, are the burgundy and the olive.
Juxtaposing the highest contrasts doesn't give a "zing" (sand and black).

I resolved to try to do each challenge using both the concept and the pallette, and I think it will be a stretch this month, but after all, isn't that what "Take It Further" is about?

Ideas to transform the dislike:

"Burgundy and olive" evokes lovely moments having apero during the summer, sitting on the front terrace.

"Not enough light" makes me think of moonlight.

"Sand and black without a zing" sounds like a cool title and could produce a figurative piece.

I have loads of ideas for the "little things/small moments" concept though:
Seeds, those miraculous packages of DNA,
Atoms and molecules, those gorgeous units of universe that make cloud shapes shown on The Hubble photo gallery,
Sand, that can trickle through the waist of an hourglass grain by grain, counting the seconds of our lives,
Insects that colonise our patches of garden - ants, grasshoppers, ladybugs,
Rockpools that contain their own little but complex worlds.

I may play with all these ideas as I'm currently on a roll, but I still have to deal with the pallette. Wish me luck!

Fibre collage

2008-03-03T17:55:00.010+01:00

Here's my little thread end pot. My friend Felicity made it in a pottery class and gave it to me when I praised it. It lives on my sewing worktop and I save up all my thread ends in it as I sew. It reminds me of an upside down top hat. Periodically I turn it out and sort through the colours to do fibre collages, using up scraps of fabric from various projects.

Here's a green and purple one - this pic shows the collage before I put the pale blue/gold organza over it...

...and after. The organza unites all the colours, knocking back some, enhancing others.

This pic shows the back of the finished collage.

And this pic shows the front. I added a pale sky blue satin backing and I think it is a book cover, but it may be a bag.

These pix show another collage using the screamish orange, before and after putting on the organza,

and after stitching around the shapes. I found some medium and light orange raffia which I am using to make a crocheted chain to stitch around the shapes next.

I don't know what possessed me to start these - I was waiting for SharonB's March Challenge and just decided to clear out the thread pot in the meantime. I had a marathon session ironing scraps and have now used them all except for some cotton. I suppose I could count these for the March challenge, because they are thread ends - little things - but I'm going to do a separate post for the March challenge in a minute...

Coral finished?

2008-02-28T11:58:00.003+01:00

I think this is finished. The colours simply don't replicate properly, even though I've fiddled with this pic. The background is a sort of dark purple and there is some electric purple/blue at the bottom under the glass bits which simply don't show up on screen. You can't even see the hologram turquoise free machine stitching at the top. O well...

Here's a close-up of the glass bits. I used Cretan Stitch to attach them.

And I turned in the ends of the treillage piece which now looks like this.

Arrrggghhh! Come on March and the new challenge - things I fancy trying next: a bit of goldwork, something with the screamish orange, trying to figure out how to bead like some of the pieces on the Bead Journal Project, free machine embroidery using the cone of gold passing thread, saori (freestyle weaving), teaching myself torchon lace, finishing the book cover for the "green book" - but I don't want to start something new until I've had a go at the challenge. Nah, forget that - there's two whole days so I'll just go ahead and start a new design. Maybe something inspired by medieval research I've been doing.

Screamish orange

2008-02-27T22:38:00.003+01:00

Here's the treillage piece finished and mounted on the orange - in a way, it's a continuation of the colours for February's challenge. I'm not sure what I want to do with it now, so I've pinned it up on the wall in the studio. I kind of like the threads left over but I'll probably tidy them up and make an envelope-type clutch bag with it.

When we visited Malta some years ago, we had a day trip around the island and stopped at a glassworks. The artisans had cut these bits of glass off the lips of some vases they were making and I thought they were fascinating and asked if I could have them - they sold me the lot for 10 pence.

I remembered them as I was struggling to finish the coral piece and unfortunately you will have to wait for the next post tomorrow to see it as the batteries in the camera need recharging. It's also pinned up on the studio wall as I'm not convinced the piece works yet.

Blossomed out

2008-02-26T15:42:00.004+01:00

Here are close ups of the almond blossom pieces. I was so excited about them when I started that I did two in a row and I'm blossomed out now.

I just finished the second this morning, and am impatiently awaiting SharonB's March challenge.

Meanwhile, I bought a metre of this shocking orange satin fabric at the market on Saturday for 1Euro. It is truly screamish and makes me feel energized to embroider it.

I've had loads of ideas for it, but found this almost finished piece of treillage and thought I'd complete it using some purpley-blue Colinette in my stash, then mount it on the orange satin.

As ever, the colours are not quite what they are in real life, but you get the general idea.

Exact Almond Blossom

2008-02-21T17:38:00.008+01:00

It's not often that I get the exact effect I want in embroidery, but I'm really pleased with how this almond blossom is coming along.

I did the sketches yesterday and prepped the background satin (iron-set the colour, added a calico backing and overcast the edges). I wanted to print out more photos but the ink cartrigdes ran out.

Then I dug out some Texere yarns. They are sold like this, in hanks of related colours but all different textures. I just cut off a length, then used the individual threads to fly-stitch the branches.

Finally I was able to start using the variegated knitting ribbon to do the French knots for the blossoms, which is the bit I originally "saw" when we went for our walk: not trees, but cream and pink French knots against sapphire satin.

Unfortunately, the light is going so I had to stop, but I'm so excited with this piece that I'll try to finish it tomorrow - watch this space!

Coral and Almond Blossom

2008-02-19T17:57:00.008+01:00

Here are two close-ups of a coral piece I'm trying to finish. I did a lot of machine embroidery on it this morning using a reel of - it's not thread - I think it's some kind of plastic film that has been treated to have a turquoise hologram effect on it, then sliced into a thread-size strip and rolled onto a bobbin.

It breaks all the time if you use it in the top on the machine, but it works a treat if you use it in the bobbin, except that you have to stitch upside-down. It doesn't photograph very well, and the stitching I did is at the top of the piece, not shown in these pix. This piece started last year using "goodies" my friend Cyn sent in the mail - silk coccoons (upper left in the first pic), purple ribbon, etc.

Here is a pic of almond blossom from my Van Gogh book, "Vincent by Himself", edited by Bruce Bernard, Orbis Publishing Limited, London, 1985, giving an idea of the new piece I want to do next, except I want to use sketches I'm planning to do tomorrow based on observation of the almond trees outside the kitchen window and the pix I took the other day. Although I like the mistletoe in the trees around here, I'm not sure I'll include it in the embroideries.

I used my Pebeo Setasilk Gitane blue and Cyan blue silk paints on some pale blue satin I bought at the market last year for 1Euro/metre, and had to be patient while it dried. It still wasn't dark enough to get that sapphire feeling of a Springtime sky, so after ironing it to set the first layer of colour, I applied the washes again. Unfortunately, I took the hairdryer to it to try to speed up this second wash, and it shifted the colour around unevenly. O well, sigh, I guess it will add character to that piece.

I have to sketch the skeletons of the trees first and figure out how to represent them in stitch & fibre, so it will be at least another day before I can start stitching the French knots with the cream coloured knitting ribbon to represent the blossoms, which is the bit I really want to get to...

Finally, here is a pic of the beaded gussets I did on the little bag that makes me think of almond blossom - the very one that I blogged about earlier in the month.

Finished February TIF Challenge

2008-02-14T17:44:00.008+01:00

Well, here it is finished, the concept being memory itself, using SharonB's palette of colours which were light and medium blue and orange and dark blue.

On the left-hand side, the colours are more intense with more beads signifying the intensity of my thoughts when something happens. As I am a visual person, there is also an eye shape there.

In the middle section, the visual stimulus has entered the brain signified by the shibori-technique light blue organza. The beads and sequins in this part represent thoughts about the original stimulus and the trails of fabric leading off represent neurones and synapses. So the brain "digests" the stimulus and saves the experience in short-term memory.

Finally, on the right-hand side, the thoughts trail off into long term memory but the beads are lighter in colour because the original experience has been transformed by the brain and by being in short-term memory. The plain orange organza of the background has also been replaced by that shot-metallic organza that I wet and wrinkled, representing the gold tinge we apply to happy memories and also aging (wrinkles). In this section, there are also rips in the orange fabric representing gaps in memory as I get older.

All around the basic shapes are concentric lines of machine stitching to give the effect of ripples in a pool, and the sense of time passing as you "read" the piece from left to right.

I enjoyed doing this piece and the thought processes behind it, but as usual, now that it's finished I have to put it aside because I don't like it very much. On the other hand, the piece I did for the January TIF challenge is back on my worktop, ready to be made into a little bag and I like it again. Go figure.

Almond Blossom

2008-02-10T16:06:00.000+01:00

Went for a walk this afternoon and remembered to take the camera! The almond blossom has already started and is gorgeous against the sapphire sky, with its decorative balls of mistletoe.

The little purse now has some lines of kantha quilting on it and looks a bit like the almond blossom. I'm definitely going to do some more embroideries based on the photos I took today...

Meanwhile, back at the Februray TIF challenge, here are two more tasters taken with the macro setting on the camera - the colours aren't too far off from reality.
I "read" SharonB's palette for the February challenge as light, medium and dark blue and light and dark orange.

Went to the market in the Bastide St. Louis on Saturday for fruit and veg, and was surprised to see the mimosa already on sale.

These orange peppers made me feel springtime and happy.

As did these bright bouquets. It seems I have bright colours on the brain.

I did this "book cover" for my notes and sketches for the courgette flower bag and just thought I'd put them here to show that I sometimes do sketching and painting before leaping into a piece.
Enjoy.

I found a slideshow thing on MSN, so I've put more almond blossom pix on that blog if you wish to have a look, together with some old pieces. You just click on the album and the slideshow cycles through all by itself ... MixPix

February TIF

2008-02-08T15:26:00.000+01:00

The challenge this month is EXCELLENT, as the old brain cell is really working. The question is very subtle in its phrasing. I started with the same ideas as KnitsOnTheBus in her Feb.5 post, having grown up in Canada about the same time.

I did a mindmap, breaking the question into lines:

What are you? which gave me fashion and lifestyle; this gave platform shoes, hot pants, mini skirts, etc., for fashion, and double glazing and throw-away plastic shopping bags for lifestyle. This gave the idea of a window with the panes done in shadow-work embroidery illustrating the fashions, windows symbolic of looking out on the past. For the bags, I thought I might cut up the plastic bags into strips and use them in needlelace techniques to make a paper shopping bag, but it just didn't appeal.

Old enough? which gave me age, youth, experience. This gave lace because I'm young enough to still be able to see to do it, it's something I don't think the world should lose because I'm old enough to have learned it from some of the world's experts in Honiton, and the clematis was ready to come off the pillow anyway, ready for designing how it would work with the rose.
So: I am old enough to remember Honiton lace making.

Here are some pix showing the finished clematis and rose...
which will eventually be one fall of the jabot instead of the clematis over the rose (or vice-versa) in two falls, which didn't work...
I've pinned both the pieces on my Brugges pillow and now have to decide fillings - I keep thinking of Four Pin for the negative spaces in the interior, using plain old Trolley Net to connect the whole shape to a horseshoe shape that will surround the composition. Needs more thought.

To remember? which gave me memory, forgetfulness, Alzheimers, senility. As I worked on the lace, I kept thinking of memory and became more and more drawn to that as design concept.
I'd read this book years ago (The Making of Memory, From molecules to mind, by Steven Rose, Bantam Press, 1992, ISBN 0593 021800), then using Sharon's palette of colours, I did a collage with organzas using naff orange bling fabric underneath, and here is a taster of where this is going - I can't stop working on it, it's so exciting I'm "in the flow" with it...The pic was taken just as I was losing the light and the flash was off, so hand shake made it a blur, but I think it works well as a taster. ...I got out the embroidery threads to select some bright orange, but decided on beading instead. I keep my embroidery thread stash in an old damask table cloth onto which I've sewn some strips of duvet poppers. It keeps the colours fresh and dust-free.

Courgette Flower Bag

2008-02-08T14:55:00.000+01:00

As a new blogger, I was well pleased to receive comments on my Courgette Flower Bag, so here is a post explaining a bit more.

I started by making each petal separately using Corded Brussels stitch and including the odd bead here and there. I'd taken photos and did some watercolour sketches first, to get a feel for the shapes and colours.
Then I attached them together using a simple cordonnette technique. Then, I finished the tops of the petals with Cinq-Point-de-Venise, and laced the yellow ribbon through holes I'd left in the Corded Brussels at the waist of each petal.
Here are some links to needlelace resources...

Lacemakerslace

Doreens Needlelace-dot-com

A bit of history and technique

Or you can simply Google "needlelace" and work your way through as I am doing now... Enjoy!

I've been tagged

2008-02-05T15:42:00.000+01:00

Eye candy today is a pic of a little bag I made last year, inspired by courgette (zuccini) flowers. I'm going to do a separate post for the Feburary TIF.

I've been tagged by Vivian-in-Stitches . I'm not used to blogging, so I hope I do these things correctly...

THE RULES:
1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post THE RULES on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

7 random facts about me...
1. Childhood in Montreal, moved to Toronto, then Bermuda, then England and now live in France.
2. I'm not a pet person - probably because of travelling.
3. Taught myself to knit & crochet from a magazine.
4. Enjoy cooking, photography, scuba diving, aquagym, puzzles and quiz shows.
5. Would love to visit the Grand Canyon, Painted Desert, west coast national parks in the USA, the Great Wall of China, and cruise on the Nile to see the pyramids.
6. Am becoming a morning person - was always a night owl.
7. Almost always take photos on low resolution because they are faster to email or upload.

Here are 7 blogs that I like a lot...
1. http://vivian-institches.blogspot.com/ posts gorgeous pix of middle and west coast Canada, amid her fibrework.
2. http://beadingatthebeach.blogspot.com/ gets me inspired to bead.
3. http://magstitch.blogspot.com/ is always interesting and shares different techniques.
4. http://sharonb.wordpress.com/take-it-further-challenge/ is a wealth of information and challenges.
5. http://purplemissus.blogspot.com/ is varied and incredibly addictive - you just want to check it out every day to see what's new.
6. http://digitalgran.blogspot.com/ makes me smile and shares inspiration.
7. http://www.jowoodbeads.com/gallery is inspiring and takes my breath away.

I think I have to go on to these blogs now and add a comment.

Inspiration in the mail

2008-01-31T16:10:00.000+01:00

Received this lovely bunch of embellisher experiments from my friend Cynthia yesterday in the mail, and immediately began playing with them. First, I layed the lengths of the wool mixtures along the piece of blue felt and used fusible interfacing to hold them in place so I could sew them down using automatic patterns on the Bernina.

These pix show the piece before and after stitching.
I'm reasonably pleased with the result except for the residue of the fusible interfacing, so I'm going to try soaking it in boiling water, and maybe even go at it with a nail brush.

Then I started to play with the silk fibres. They made me think of fan shapes and papyrus plants. I guess there must have been a residue of purple in my head from the January TIF challenge...
I tried variations of turquoise and purple ...

including turquoise net over top which I didn't like at all, eventually ending with the screamish turquoise metallic knocked back by the purple organza.
After machine stitching, it looked like this. I tried laying it on some dark green satin but didn't like that, so I decided on a pale sky blue satin for the backing.
But before I could sew the backing on, it told me it wanted some hand stitching, so I added this.
And here's the front of what will be a little purse...
And the back... I may still do a bit of kantha quilting in concentric lines around some shapes, not sure yet. The piece is simply folded in half along the bottom. Oooo - maybe I could even do a bead fringe? A beaded cord?
I may also do gussets in a treillage technique, using the purple and green threads which are too twisty for pulling through fabric in embroidery techniques but show up wonderfully in needlelace techniques...
I really admire Cynthia and these colours sort of match the challenge, so I guess this piece counts as a second TIF for January...Thanks Cyn - a bit of Cyn-chronicity there...

Gorgeous sunrise

2008-01-29T16:44:00.000+01:00

Gorgeous sunrise this morning, illuminating the rags and tatters of clouds, making me feel that winter isn't so bad and I can get through it. Is that what is called a mackerel sky? Enjoy.

Grumpy

2008-01-29T10:55:00.000+01:00

I was feeling grumpy over the weekend because there was housework that had to be done, we went to the market on Saturday which is always nice but takes daylight time away from lace making time, and my bobbins needed bowing so I couldn't finish that last leaf at the top of the clematis piece. The first pic on this post shows my bobbin trousseau with the bobbins separated into piles of runners and passives (or knots and nots if you like). The second pic shows the trousseau with the bobbins bowed into pairs, which I did after I cleaned the house from top to bottom, ready to go again Monday morning, ungrumped.

Ha! I figured out how to put the pic where I want it it the blog - I found both ends of the appropriate tag in the html and copied it where I want it, making me feel inordinately proud.
Anyway, this third pic shows the clematis piece as Work In Progress - you are looking at the back of the lace as it's worked so the face is towards the pillow for readers not familiar with Honiton lace making.
I just need to finish the flower on the right, under the top three leaves - you can't see the pricking in the photo. And just to show you what it looks like as I work on the lace, when I've dressed the pillow, this next pic.

As you can see, I decided not to do a beaded piece as I said in the previous post, prefering to do Honiton lace instead. I'm thinking this piece will be the top fall of a two fall jabot, with the centre of the bottom fall being based on this rose that I did last year, from a pattern I picked up at a Devon Lace Teacher's Day at the Priory School in Exeter.

I haven't done all the buds and stems coming out from the central rose, because I want to finish the clematis first, to determine how the negative spaces will look. It's a bit complicated to describe this creative process...
Speaking of which, I have come to realise that I'm not really a planner type artist: I very seldom do the mindmap and sketches first. What usually happens is that I get inspired by the colours and textures of the materials and they speak to me, except of course with white lace, where it's the lines. In fact, I usually get wildly enthusiastic and leap right in, resenting any preparation time at all. Pinning & basting - bah humbug - just hold the pieces together and feed them through the machine.
Here's a pic of the lavender sachets I made using my stash of Liberty lawns (which have a gorgeous hand and are pure pleasure to handle). I used up all the lavender I collected from this year.
So I guess I've been reasonably productive for January - only two days to go until the February TIF challenge - and my good friend Cynthia sent an email saying she's put a surprise package in the post for me - can't wait to see what arrives...

A word about TIF

2008-01-23T20:37:00.001+01:00

I've been looking at other's wonderful work by following the links on SharonB's website and I'm very impressed with people who sketch and do mindmaps and match the colours. It makes me think I took the title of the challenge too literally - o well, sigh - as there is still some time left before the February challenge, I may have a go at doing a small design for a Bead thing - page or postcard - I like the idea of the Bead Journal Project - something like that - still using Monet as the object of admiration, still using those colours.
Eye candy for today is a beaded landscape of the parasol pines at the bottom of the road that I did at this time last year. Enjoy.

Between projects

2008-01-22T17:01:00.000+01:00

It's that terrible time in between projects, so I'm noodling around on the internet enjoying looking at all kinds of embroidery - it's like being in heaven.
Here are some pix of finished works just to add a bit of eye candy to this post. The first pic shows some woven beading I did on a loom I made and the second is a piece of Branscombe lace I worked from an old DMC pattern book.
I still haven't figured out how to add pix in sequence within the blog - maybe cut & paste the html? It just looks like gibberish - I'll figure it out later...

Last batch of TIF pix

2008-01-20T19:49:00.000+01:00

First pic shows the Corded Brussles stitching complete, second pic shows the start of the crochet edge to hold the horizontal threads in place, last pic shows the finished piece - I stitched a backing on to pull the loose edge threads to the inside. Now that it's finished, I don't like it, so it's going in my experiment portfolio.

More pix in TIF challenge

2008-01-20T19:33:00.000+01:00

I think I have to add pix in separate posts - anyway here's some more showing a closeup of the work in progress and a thread I missed on the back, followed by the finished piece with some chenille on top for the branches of willow hanging down...I tried to use the chenille in the needle, doing corded brussels stitch but it's too fragile and the fluff comes off, so I decided to use it separately at the end. I had to unpick to go back to the missed thread, something I really don't like doing, but in this case it was OK because there was too much green in that section, so I took the opportujnity to change thread. I also had to take the piece off the frame to use longer sidebars as I thought the original square format was too short.

Discovering Embroidery Blogs

2008-01-20T14:54:00.000+01:00

I've just discovered embroidery blogs and now spend happy hours in the studio on the internet checking through Sharon B's Take It Further Challenge blog/website . Although I'm too late to enter the challenge, I thought I'd do it anyway and post progress on this blog.

January challenge was the concept of admiration and a colour palette that included mauve and a sort of an olive-y green. I thought of Mom, Grandma and Monet but it was the colours that made me choose Monet. Here are pix of the work as it was completed. I can't believe how fast I did it - I just couldn't stop stitching and it grew itself - I hope the rest of the year will contain challenges that are like that... Now I just have to figure out how to add the pix...

So the picture above shows my stash of Colinette wools and various threads, and the book The Colour Of Time Claude Monet by Virginia Spate, published 1992 by BCA by arrangement with Thames & Hudson Ltd.

This pic shows the technique I used: I decided to wrap some of those tubular embroidery frames with the variegated cotton/rayon "Giotto" thread (by Colinette), then buttonhole over the cords in a take on needlelace's Corded Brussels stitch, changing threads from time to time. I was that taken with the colours and the technique that I didn't really take the time to figure out how to turn at the end of a row until I was about half way through....

I admit defeat for now - pix are showing up all together at the top, and not in the order that I'm writing about them, and I have to start preparing dins now, so I'll just Save Now and Publish Post and figure it out later...