Tuesday 30 March 2010

A Wee Diversion

To prove that I have been working, albeit not Distant Stitch work, the following are projects that I have completed over the last couple of months.

The excitement began with a talk by Annette Emms. She bought with her delightful handmade books and fairy slippers.

We were all so enchanted that we felt compelled to go home and make our own!

I have still got to conjure up a fairy tale and embelish my fabric pages with beads and stitchery, but they were so much fun to make.


We were then treated to a workshop with Kath Danswan.

Kath taught us how to make her famous silk bowls.

I am so pleased with the way my machine embroidery is improving. It took me a whole weekend to embroider the silk. I then found a pefect bowl to dry my finished piece around after washing out the disolvable film. A friend suggested that I sew clear seed beads on the draped and curled bits at the top, to give the impression of raindrops.

Lastly, Jenny, the Chairman of our stitching group, set a challenge to produce a piece of work inspired by one of a selection of photographs chosen by her. I was inspired by the contasts between St Martin's church, and the Selfridges building in the Bull Ring in Birmingham.

I started off with a pre-concieved idea of a heavily machine embroidered church tower placed upon Kim Thittichai style melted foil wrappers (giving the impression of Selfridges' bubble texture).

I decided, however, to start off in my sketchbook, and plan the design properly, testing out ideas, colours etc. Slowly, one idea led to another through brainstorming and research and gradually the following design evolved!

Now I must crack on with my Distant Stitch work!