Bejewelled and Boro-d

So here are my finished necklaces.

  

    

The dreamcatcher circle has given me ideas for this year's Art Trail. Together with the CD felting and weaving, I think there will be a circular theme!

And I liked the first, smaller blue necklace, and wore it for much of the time while making the others - so definitely wearable!

It's always difficult with machine embroidered jewellery to make something soft, as machine threads always seem to go scratchy - even if they are soft to start with. Metallics are the worst.

I then had the knotty problem of how to display them. A utensil rack found in the charity shop looked promising,

 but a shirt box from the local "gentleman's outfitters" was the final choice - perfect!

I finally made it out of the house on Friday. It's been a week of snuffling with a cold, allergies (I blame the catkins) and smog, sitting huddled over my sewing machine stitching beads for the competition, so by Friday I was ready for a change of scene.

Someone had given me a freebie ticket to the creative stitches show (which was just as well considering how much I was fleeced for a Travelcard...) so I toddled off there first. I wasn't sure what to expect, but there were some delightful surprises - including Bobby Britnell's barkcloth shoes, and Dionne Swift doing her thing. I was particularly inspired by Christine Plummer's little books made from recycled paper and Decovil.

And despite not really being a "quilt" person, this log cabin made of old shirts caught my eye (and sorry, I didn't make a note of the maker - I usually do but forgot this time).

But it was the next visit on my itinerary, the Boro exhibition at Somerset House, that made my day. Absolutely lovely. A real meditation for the eyes. And all the more wonderful as when I tentatively asked if photos were allowed, I was told to take as many as I liked! So I did...

Even Mr G was inspired. He reckoned I could "do something" with old jeans and shirts. Which then strangely reminded me of the shirt log cabin quilt. Maybe he's onto something...

Bean spilling

There I was feeling guilty for looking at a screen instead of reading a book (since The Bridge finished last week, nothing is quite the same now on a Saturday night and we're back to gogglebox-free evenings).

But just LOOK what I found whilst perusing the i-thingy late yesterday evening:

Waddyaknow, whose work might THAT be gracing the front cover?????!!!!!!

Would it be this little chappy by any chance?

fab photo courtesy of Michael Wicks

It's published 3 April, but you can pre-order Kim's Reclaimed Textiles Techniques for paper, stitch, plastic and mixed mediaright here!

If you click my link (clicking the book title above should do the trick) I may earn a few pennies from being on the cover - a little extra something to go with the fame and glory!!

I have no clue what has been said inside - or who else is featured in the book. Can't wait until I get my mitts on one!

First Plaice

(Title to this post courtesy of Mr Gonecycling.....try living with him...)

I won!

I've never won a thing before - second, yes, but I don't remember every winning anything. 

And I've never had a silver cup before!

I'm truly deeply chuffed.

The brief was "flotsam and jetsam" and my little fishies, Flotsam and Jetsam, were truly all recycled and repurposed - from the can openers to the recycled sequins, the paper saved from holiday and the washed-up seashells from Brittany, and all stitched with second-hand threads.

Hooray!

Down to business

Time for a post about something creative!

I've been particularly busy the past month with preparing three courses.  Three!  And of course feeling more than a little overwhelmed....

Two of the courses are supposed to be informal, and more or less identical, and on more of a "project" basis - but I found that I was panicking about what we were going to do, and felt a fraud for taking people's money for a class where we just made it up as we went along - so I've now written a Scheme of Work for the term!  It's based on suggestions from the group, but I'm so much happier with a plan! 

The other course is a City & Guilds Award in machine embroidery - just a baby City & Guilds for now, but my first one to teach!  This one caused me the most headaches - trying to interpret the syllabus and come up with a grand plan to get through all the work in the right number of hours.

And then of course, having decided what we're going to do, I then have to do it all myself!

So there's been sketchbook work on colours:

then into stitch:

sketchbook and stitch work on line

(and tone, I couldn't help myself - I don't think it's Level 1 C&G though....)

and dealing with the offcuts:

I've made a sort of log-cabiny sample with this, but don't seem to have a photo to hand...

And I've finally started work on our EG branch competition "flotsam and jetsom" due in on Saturday....ahem...maybe because I love seascapes, maybe because I hoard things from my seaside holiday, maybe I was just a little complacent???

The Girl did say out loud "I wonder where you'll get some shells from Mummy - we've hardly got any in the house at all".  Cheeky miss.  (She was of course referring to the four jamjars in the kitchen, the massive kilner jars in the office, the shells on the patio, and the as-yet unclaimed shells in the car storage cubbies...)

So it was out with the sea-themed wool, to do some sort of random felting.  Out with assorted sticks and shells.  Out with the massive box of accumulated french papers (bread wrappers, receipts, tourist leaflets, tide tables etc...)

Sorry, have to tilt your head to see that one...

Whereupon inspiration deserted me.  It was Mr G who then suggested I made a fish.

So out with the copper wire and the pliers

A brief detour to a local craft show where I found these wonderful electroplated balls and nearly got distracted from my fish and wanted to make balls...

A very real distraction involving manipulating painted Bondaweb into a bowl shape

I am quite seriously chuffed with this, and need to scour charity shops for heatproof bowls and large ceramic/pottery balls...this may be my new thing....there's even some FOIL in there! 

But I digress.

Finally, I've made a good stab at starting my Fish:

All recycled fabrics and beads. 

Here's me stitching the beaded cords in place on some water soluble.  This is after I stitched through my finger.  (So now I have two tingling fingers on my right hand - the mandolined finger healed beautifully, btw, but is still a little bit numb/tingly - getting better all the time:)

Here are some assorted recycled bits and pieces to attach:

And here is a bit further on:

I'm supposed to be dealing with the tail at the moment, but as it involves stitching over copper wire threaded with beads, I thought I'd write a blog post instead!

 Procrastination, deviation from the task in hand, avoiding something difficult?  Moi?!!

Constructing constructions

Hooray!  I've been a student again!

I love taking classes, and I have been looking forward to my class in Lewes for weeks - ever since I saw the little ad in a shop window.  Lewes is a funny place - very alternative, sort of the Totnes of the South East.  Half the population is Lewes Woman - easily spotted, usually sporting wicker basket, sandals, hairy knitwear...The class was in a little natural foods cafe - lots of jars of lentils, boxes of exotic tea, tubs of organic vegetarian stock powder, gluten-free hand-knitted muffins...

I digress.  I love construction, and jumped at the chance to learn how to make two different sorts of baskets.  This week, recycled cardboard.

The process:

The finished article (complete with dodgy blanket stitch....)

I liked the lilac cereal box, but was a bit upset I ended up using a pizza box from That Supermarket....

I like the googly eyes on this weetabix though...

And here are the others:

Next week: coiled grass!

I've also finally finished stitching my blue bracelet (still to do the brooch).

This is it pre-dissolving.  It is currently soaking in a tub in the kitchen sink - fingers crossed it doesn't unravel and all the beads fall off!

And just before cooking dinner, I had another go at cooking some beads with my heat gun - prettier this time, less charred:

Angelina fibres on top layer - what a result!  Holds everything in place, and adds some sparkle.  This colour was called something like "Pink Tickle"...

And then this morning, we woke to glorious sunshine (at last!) and the Whippet picked the winner of my little giveaway:

A little packet of foil is now on the way to you!

Thank you for all the lovely comments about the bracelets - very encouraging.  Luckily the blue/seashore bracelet didn't disintegrate in the wash, and so here it is!

Thinking ahead to Art Trail in the summer, I want to make some more of these (or similar) to sell.  Thus the knotty problem now of "what to charge for them?"  As with anything embroidered, it takes an age to make BUT it's only fabric and thread, not precious metal or anything...Any thoughts? 

PS  Welcome to new followers!