Norman Window

Been remiss at not posting recently but life has a way of catching up with one doesn't it?! I am very focussed this week on getting my pieces for the Textile 21 Norton Priory exhibition finished

This is almost at the finished stage. I have been to organise a frame which should be ready on Saturday.

I have posted two pictures the first without flash and the second one with flash. I would say that the colour is some way between the two. The first one shows the navy background and how the reclaimed lace (with soldering iron) shows up. I lightened the window recess area and thankfully it worked!

See pictures on previous post for detail of the distressed edges. There is a Norman window at the Priory and the theme was 'Outside In' so it was crying out to be represented in some way. I have been very pleased with the way the Lutradur behaved it has been coated with many different layers of paint, acrylic and interferance and inks etc. It was a dream to solder and to sew.

Update on Norton Priory pieces

After a lot of thought I decide to use my soldering iron and attack the treated Lutradur. This enabled me to reclaim the lace shapes and distress the scrim areas.

I have chosen a dark navy polyester fabric for the base as it will show up the holes in the Lutradur. I have applied heat with my heat gun to get a great surface effect.

This is the silhouette of the Dill plant. The base is embellished velvet, the stems are painted tyvek and the seed heads hand embroidery.

Closeup of Seed head still needs highlights

Norton Priory Exhibition

The latest exhibition of Textile 21 entitled 'Outside In' is to be held at Norton Priory between 22 May - 14th July 2008. All 15 members have designed and executed new pieces based on the gardens at the Priory to reflect the theme throughout Cheshire this year 'The Year of Garden'.

I have started three pieces that have allowed me to create new surfaces/backgrounds. I can't see much else getting done over the next few weeks as I plough on with these pieces.

The first is an embellished piece on ivory cotton velvet. I have used lace, wool roving and silk tops, as you can see from this pic I played around with the arrangement.



This pic shows the finished surface before I started to create the silhouette design on top. It has been well batted down and the gummed silk has remained in relief giving a very pleasing surface pattern. The finished size will be 9x15inches and mounted around a frame that Hubbie doesn't yet know he will be making!

These are a variety of experiments to reproduce stems for my silhouette of Dill plants. Very long painted tyvek beads and painted machine wrapped cords. I will couch on both types to achieve the different thicknesses of stems.

This is the image that is my inspiration for my first piece.

The second piece is embellishing again but this time on layers of organza with trapped fibres. This pic shows the random placing of cut fabric and fibres before I embellished on my janome Xpression.

This pic is after I have embellished . I love the resulting crinkle effect . I intend to FME a closeup of the Flower head on this background. Following pic gave me this idea.

This is the start of my third piece. Lace and muslin on Lutradur after I have machined in place and painted the reverse in browns and oranges. (thanks to Carol McFee for technique)

Then I painted the right side in acrylics and interference paints.Love the shimmer effect of interference paintsFinished piece ready for the window design to be applied, haven't quite worked that out yet but think the Roman window shape at Norton will be cut out before I FME on the Lutradur.

This is the pic that gave me the inspiration for the window shape.

So back to it.............. having said that I am at a workshop with Jackie Cardy and the Macclesfield Embroiderers Guild tomorrow so it will have to all wait until Friday, then again it's my birthday so i hoping some of my 'friends' will be popping round or phoning up to take me out for lunch!!

I've heard back from most of my nominees for the award of 'inspirational blogs' and it is plain to see the positive effect it has on people as they realise how they an affect other bloggers work and life. A great idea to spread good will and creativity.

Thanks Barbara for Nomination

Barbara at Embroidery Overlaps has nominated me for an award as a blog that brought her inspiration and made her appreciate the blogosphere! Thanks Barbara. David and I were away in Poole last week visiting the eldest daughter and husband so I am a little late in responding and choosing my 10 nominees.



MargaretR at Digital Gran

Carol at Taylors Textile Trials

Anna at Serendipity

Doreen at Creative Meanderings

Emmy at Cramzy

Julie at Mixed Media

Sue, Guzzisue, at travelfibreandthread

Maggie at Magstitch

Gunnel at Gunnels Blog

Carol at Textile Tales

and I couldn't resist adding an eleventh

Arlee at albedo



I have enjoyed relooking at my above 'favourites of mine with a different eye and they all fulfill some or all of the criteria that I would expect from an inspirational blog.






How about this for a photo taken whilst down south, it is the view from the garden of the Russell Coates Museum in Bournemouth where we spent a delightful few hours looking at the various exhibits. There was an interesting display entitled 'Flockage:the flock phenomenon' that explored the unique qualities of flock in art, design and culture. The architecture was stunning and hard to grasp that the building was once a family home by the sea.

Take It Further Challenge March

This great selection of wool rovings and silk tops are following the given colour scheme for the TIF challenge this month. Sharon Boggon chosen colour scheme for March, the concept was to 'pay attention to the tiny details'.
As time was very precious this month due to many other creative commitments ( exhibitions by Silk-n-Threads at Tatton Park, the Macclesfield Embroiderers Guild at the Silk Museum and the Society of Marple Artists Ruby exhibition in April) whatever I did had to be achieveable in less than 24hours. So I decided to embellish on to black felt and use beads as the tiny details. The finished result works as a fluid swirling piece viewed from a far as the photo below shows. However, if you look closer you can see the tiny details of the beads that give the piece definition and surface texture.

These two closeups show the beads nestling in the embellished wool. I frequently employ beads and french knots to create small pockets of interest that only is realised when the viewer looks close up.

I machine edged the postcard and added it to my monthly collection.

Fabric Paper Workshop

Just finished my prep to publicise a workshop tonight at the monthly Silk-n-Threads meeting.

We have a weekly Monday club that is a more informal gathering and on the 10th March I am leading a workshop on Fabric Paper. Above shows one of the pieces before I cut it up.

Below is a closeup of the FME of leaves that embellish the fabric/paper.

This is the front of the altered book that I chose to cover with the fabric/paper.

The green cord was from a carrier bag that I rescued before throwing out.The back of the book.

These five images show a range of altered pages inside the sketch book. The book was a 'Teach Yourself Chemistry' publication from the 1960s, do you remember the black and yellow covers of that series? I suspect I thought at the time that by just owing such books I would become sooooooo clever!!!!!!! I was about to throw it at the Charity shop when I thought what can I possibly do with it? I had it in my mind to keep a sketch book of my garden in 2008 so what better way than in a handmade version that utilises my creative juices as well. I blogged about the method I used here and here.More examples will be posted on the Silk-n-Threads blog at a later date.

TIF and Pink Explosion

Finished February TIF, I used the given colour scheme and the concept of What I could remember - Cornish holidays in the 1960s! Didn't have too much time for this challenge so it is a minimalistic version but still effective.

This is what I have been working on most recently. Strips of silk woven into painted tyvek and then blasted with heat gun. this was then FME and machine wrapped cords and beads added as embellishment. It is for the Silk-n-Threads exhibition at Tatton Park 15th march to 1st June entitled 'Year of the Garden'. I wanted to create that overwhelming feeling when there is so much colour in some flower beds during the summer. I think I achieved it.
Close up shows the FME flower heads