To dye?

 This is one of the five vessels I made for the Diversity exhibition.  100% cotton wrapped round cord and machine stitched. I use cotton fabric so that I can have the option of dyeing it if I want.  This vessel was dyed using Procion dyes.  The embellishment was inspired by my brothers wallpaper, re-drawn and manipulated to make a stitchable design.  I started this vessel last week when I didn't have all my 'get up and go' and finisied stitching it last night.  Decision as to whether I shall dye or paint it depends on how long it takes to complete the piece of hand stitching I have been doing.



 

 





 

I bought this peacock Indian woodblock at the FOQ in August.  I have printed it onto 100% cotton and I am gradually hand stitching it.  I have been trying to find out how to do chemanthy stitch and found a site showing me, now found out there is two versions of the same stitch or so it seems.  I shall now be doing a bit of reverse stitching and doing the version I prefer.

I will be dyeing this piece eventually, bit can I wait that long to colour the vessel, not sure yet.

Diversity exhibition-part 3. Peacock Angel.

 My Peacock  Angel is the 9th and final piece I made for our exhibition.  While doing my research on peacocks, I came across a  Kurdish religion called Melek Taus. They believe in God creating the world and then leaving it up to seven heavenly bodies to look after it.  The chief Angel was the Peacock Angel, and I used artistic licence when I created her, as she, should have been a he.  Anyway, the long and the short of it is, that he was given the Cosmic Egg, and the Cosmos was hatched.

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 I had lots of fun creating her clothes.  Her coat had 'peacock 'tail' feathers attached similar in idea to a gents tails coat, which have been machine stitched and then beads and sequins to embellish.

 Her 'bra' top is lots more sequins and beads, and the necklace is a piece of an earring.

Her cosmic egg was made by pasting scrim around an egg mould and cutting it off when dry.  She stands on a base which lights up to represent the Comos.

And I've started...........

Can you tell what it is yet?   I've got back on my sewing machine and started making yet another peacock.  Have been mulling over for some time, how I could make this one different to the other two.  At T.I.F, on Sunday, I heard this fabric calling me to buy it.  This will now take several evenings to stuff, so watch this space. 



 

As I like to have a couple of projects on the go, so I have always got something to hand stitch, I have started making yet another vessel. Fabric wrapped cord, I use 100% cotton, so that if I want to, I can dye it with my Procion dyes.





Diversity exhibition, part 2-Burmese peacock.

 With my Indian peacock complete, my son and hubby thought I should make a peacock with his tail displayed.  I checked with Pauline to see if she was ok with this suggestion, to which she said yes, but it had to be different.  Thinking cap on, and a bit of research and I found, the Burmese peacock! 

As you can see in the photo above, I have started to paint his feet/legs.

 

 

For the top of his head, I did lots of french knots to give texture.  His side wings are made with a rag rug technique.  His tail feathers were made by fms onto water soluble film over a selection of fabrics.  The challenge with this bird was to attach his tail to the body and how he would stand on his own two feet.  Unfortunately, the weight of his tail could not be supported by his legs, so I used a fine acrylic rod, is name is Tayar Myetsi which is Burmese for 100 eyes.



U.F.O.'s

 

Due to my chest infection last week, which caused me to loose lots of sleep, I never finished these for the sales table at TIF.  I decided that I would complete them before starting my next project.







Messy time.

School holidays means that Judi and I get together to make a mess/be creative, depending on your point of view.  Playing around with words on a canvas, them painted all in one colour.

My canvas was going to be for my daughter and SIL, but hubby wants it on our wall, so will have to make another one.

Diversity exhibition - Indian Peacock.

 

 When Pauline said that we would need to make a body of work for our exhibition two years ago, I had no idea what I wanted to do.  The title she set was' Diversity', and as the dance group of that name had members in it from my school, I was at a loss, all I kept thinking was of Ashley and Jordon. Last February, still nothing in the sketch book and Pauline asked if it would help if she gave me a topic. 'Yes please' and it was 'feather and fin' that she gave me.  Straight away I said I was going to make a peacock, why? I don't know.  Anyway, I started off with a mind map, and feather was definitely more inspiring to me than fin.  I quite liked the idea of Superstitions, Myths and Legends related to birds, deciding that I would do something which related to peacocks, albatross's and maybe  crow's, but had not in fact made a definite decision on the third bird.  I called my body of work 'Ostentation' which is the collective noun for a group of peacocks.

 

The peacocks ( I have made two) start off with a body made from glazed cotton that has been firmly stuffed.  Painted with acrylic paints before I started embellishing him.



 Tail feather pattern was drawn on to Romeo water soluble and the machine stitched with feet down and a machine embroidery foot. Side wings were made with pages from an Indian novel, I have had in my stash for several years for that 'it will come in handy one day' moment.  He is able to stand on his own two feet without any need for support.

I have called him Priyardarshan, which is Indian for handsome. 



Alex Waylett

Alex (right) talking to members and answering questions after her talk.

Alex Waylett is a member of Fibrefusion, and last year at TIF, Nickie and I saw her embroidered bags she had created and thought we must get her to talk to our Branch. And tonight, we were not disappointed.  A lovely inspiring presentation from Alex with a chance to handle pieces of her work.  Afterwards, we were able to look at yet more samples and her sketchbooks.  We are lucky enough to have Alex doing a workshop for us in March, stitching and constructing a bag, unfortunately I can't attend the workshop as it is Y.E.

Lovely sketchbooks.

The type of bag being created at our Branch workshop.

The bag on the right, is just made for me!

D-Day tomorrow!

 Our Fen Edge Textile exhibition starts tomorrow at Textiles in Focus, Cottenham.  I have stitched for this event for the last year and will have 9 pieces in it.  We have got a sales table so have made some cards as well.  Sorry about the glare, the cards were all packed up before I remembered that I needed to take the pics- duh!!  The one above is an Indian wood block, hand painted with H20's then embellished with hand sewn sequins and Mill Hill beads.

These cards are made with paper out through my Big Shot, hand painted details embellished with 'flowers' made on my Big Shot.  More photos soon.

Not long now.......

And for those of you who want more info on Textiles in Focus please click on the link.  http://www.textilesinfocus.com/

Weather permitting I shall be off to Cambridge for our final meeting before the exhibition.  My latest exhibition piece of work was  completed Sunday, hope everyone likes how I have displayed it.   I have finished making 12 mixed media cards for our sales table, not sure that I will have time to do any more.