Thursday 31 January 2013

Shopping Spree!!


Hi Chaps! These are the latest ATCs- a simple theme of 'White'. I am loving having a sewing machine at home and am using it as much as I can. These ATCs are layers of ribbon, cotton and gauzy polyester, stitched down (with my new machine!!) and then embellished with machine couched paper yarn combined with embroidery thread and little beads.


Now then, onto my shopping spree! Which was several weeks ago now when I think about it! I did buy lots of pretty and inspirational things.


These little beauties were discovered in a charity shop (not that we should talk money but they were £1 for both of them). Now these aren't for me but for Lucy who really loves this kind of decorated pot. They are only weeny!!



This cute bowl was also found in a charity shop, and the racing snails were on offer in Wilkos after Christmas (got to love a Christmas bargain!)


And speaking of bargains, this lovely oil burner from Evolution was another of my purchases- a ceramic theme here I think!

On a non-ceramic note, I also splashed out on magazines, with the latest Mollie Makes...


I may be adding a fox and raccoon to my little felt animal family!!
The second magazine is a mash up of all the best bits from previous Workbox magazines so it is absolutely beautiful with the most amazing projects and pieces of art in it!



To end on a crafty note, some more elephants have been popping up for various birthday presents...


A duo coloured elephant- loving this multicoloured look!



And I have also started making my own rag rug!! Could take me a while though. I think I will have to scour the charity shops to look for more clothes to turn into rags.


I really like the texture of the back actually. Rag rugging is really simple to do, all you need is hessian (which potatoes come in- or you can buy it from a local craft/fabric shop), I have turned over the edges and zig zagged along just to stop it from fraying. Then you cut your little strips of fabric and pull them halfway underneath a few threads of the hessian. Voila!

Hand & Lock or Indigo?


Right then, so here is the scoop on the dreadful hand in! Above is my space, a little bit cluttered by the box of maquettes!!
Now ssssh, don't tell anyone but I've wheedled my way in to taking a few photos of the other girls' work. We were working on two different briefs and four different projects so the results are quite diverse. I was working on a project called Eden for a brief drawn up by Indigo.


First up is Freya Smith with her punk-styled pieces.



Katy Rickles' Tudor- punk cross.


 
 Bella Darbar with a rose theme.



Bethany Roseveare, who I seem to remember being inspired by sword hilts...


 
Faddy Abdullatif



Megan Evans


Stef Bonner with some highly detailed faggot stitch!


So there you go, not very many I'm afraid but I hope you enjoyed a little sneaky peek!! You can't say I don't spoil you!!

Monday 28 January 2013

Eden


Evening All!! Right then, so, the moaning is (nearly) over and the relief has settled! I had the worst weekend (about 7 hours sleep since Friday) and hand in ever. So stressful! Most of my samples were made in the last week so there isn't much left of my fingers!
Welcome to show and tell!!

 
 (Above) Machine couching and organdie strips stitched onto water soluble fabric.

 
Strips of netting, cotton organdie, ribbon, couched ribbons and coloured synthetic string stitched onto water soluble fabric. Supported in the centre with a leather-look PVC.
 

Machine couched embroidery threads stitched onto water soluble fabric, then, once the fabric is dissolved, the threads were wrapped in places with sewing cotton.
 

 
 
 Strips of organdie and netting sewn to strips of PVC, emellished with beads down the middle strip.
 
 
 Twisted and stitched organdie strips stitched onto water soluble fabric (there was lots of the water soluble going around!).
 

Organdie strips stitched onto leather.
 

Strips of organdie and crimped polyester stitched onto linen to create tufts. What you can't see are the pleats and machine couched threads underneath.


Leather look PVC (ran out of the real leather) cut into strips then embellished with strips of organdie and bead strings.
 



Machine couched embroidery threads stitched onto leather.
 


Synthetic string and netting stitched onto leather-look PVC.
 


Box pleated netting with bead strings.
 
 
 This is two samples but I mounted them together because they looked strange on their own. Not sure if it works though.
 
 
Layers of organdie cut into strips and then wrapped together with ribbons or threads.
 

Layers of organdie machine stitched onto water soluble fabric and embellished with beads.
 

 
 Again the strip and pleat technique but a little more spaced, leggy and based on cotton organdie.

 
 Strips of organdie wrapped with leather strips.
 

Stitched organdie, netting and ribbons with couched machine couching (lots of couching!!) on the PVC.
 


 
 Ribbons, organdie, machine couched threads on linen fabric embellished further with beads.
 

So there you go, that's my Eden project in a very nutty nutshell!! Tomorrow I will show you other people's work. I am always very wary about taking photos of the other girl's work, especially now we are starting to promote ourselves as designers but I have got a few for you.