Recent Adventures

It's been a very busy few months with moving my belongings out of storage from the house I used to share with me ex and trying to organise and simplify it all. Going through all my stuff was emotional with a mix of highs and lows and also some surprises. I found so many unfinished art and craft projects, and spent quite a lot of time looking at them thinking they were less rubbish than I'd remembered! Some of them I got rid of but some of them I've hung onto with the intention of using them in some way or finishing them off.  I honestly didn't know how much I had. I do however now have a quite a collection of vintage fabrics and some of those were a joy to find and I've started using bits and pieces. I've only just started producing more consistently though after all the upheaval, and I'm also working on my drawings, vegan ideas etc. Here's a little update of what I've been doing:

This is a rather colourful one of a crow after feeling inspired by a commission someone asked me to do which was using a crow image. I think in hindsight I'd like to tone down the colour combos, but learning what I like is all a part of the process and never see things as mistakes just as an ongoing development.

This is was the first stag I did, which I liked very much actually. I've decided stags are one of my favourite subjects because their antlers are such  a fascinating shape and they are so magnificent to look at.

Following how much i enjoyed the first one I decided to do a follow up, I think I'll be doing a few of these!

Little Pleasures

I know I've been rubbish at keeping up my blog but I'm making a promise to myself to start being more consistent even if it just means posting photos of bits and bobs and unfinished pieces that I'm playing around with. It's been bust old month with family commitments but no excuse! I got all my vintage fabrics out of storage last week and I've been having a wonderful time going through them all, I really do love them, colours and patterns just do it or me what can I say!

This led me an intense urge to make lots of pretty little things, like brooches and ACEO cards. I've always had a creative fetish for the small and miniature, no idea for that where that comes from but I love it. I made some of these little ACEO, or ATC cards. I came across the whole ACEO thing accidentally on ebay of all places. It stands for Artists Collectibles, Editions and Originals, a kind of step on from Artists Trading Cards because ether tend to get sold instead of traded. Well what ever, it's an excuse of remaking lovely little things with my bits and pieces, so here are some of my experiments below, soon to be all in my Etsy shop:

Thread drawings from the last couple of weeks

I've been trying  a variety of images and exploring what I enjoy, here are a few experiments from the last couple of weeks:

Freehand Machine Embroidery

I started trying freehand machine embroidery ages ago but hadn't gone back to it for a little while but then these last couple of weeks I'd felt a growing urge to try it again. I think I was feeling inspired after going through bags of my vintage textiles and the simultaneous need to draw. Once I'd given it a go again, only this time with a more ordered process I realised that I'm a bit in love with it!

My process involves lining a nice piece of fabric with interfacing, to make it more stable, and then sewing appliqué pieces from another piece of fabric, usually flowers on to the fabric for added colour and interest. Once that was done I used a pencil sketch, either of my own drawing or of a photo onto thin tracing paper and then with a freehand machine foot and the right stitch setting would 'draw' around the outline of the sketch. I'd then take the paper off, ripping it carefully to remove it from the stitches, and would carry on filling in the details and the rest of the drawing so that most of it really is freehand.

Here are some photos of the results, I think they turned out well, better than expected. I've started setting some of them on embroidery hoops for frames and selling them on Etsy. I intend to do a lot more and experiment with all kinds of designs. I'm genuinely feeling excited about this whole new way of working. It allows me to work with beautfil textiles, patterns and colour AND drawing, it really couldn't get much better in my world! I would highly recommend people give it a go.

Drawing with thread

A little soft sculpture also for my brothers birthday, it's meant to be a kind of characature of him. I did however realise afterwards that I'd neglected to put on his poor ears, oh well!

I've been practising my drawing with the sewing machine, I have in mind some ideas for combining my love of textiles and art to make some interesting illustrations. This was just from a random photo in a magazine I had to hand.

Enjoying Textiles

Over the last couple of weeks I've really gotten into working with textiles again. That is my current passion. I'm exploring things to do with embroidery, on the sewing machine, and by hand. I really do love working with pretty feminine things. I get slightly ridiculously excited when I look at my collection of ribbons, beads, buttons and vintage fabrics. The combination of beautiful colours, patterns and textures inspires me to want to create something beautiful, fun, cute, feminine, delightful etc etc.
So I made these little badges/brooches by doing some small freehand sewing on felt, I then added a backing of wadding and another layer of felt and then added details so you got a slightly quilted effect. I always back my fabrics with interfacing so that it's a bit thicker for the embroidery, especially machine embroidery which can really pucker the fabric without it:

I made this quick fun card for my brothers birthday. I did the same thing, I used felt with interfacing underneath. I don't always bother to iron the interfacing on, I just pin it in place, it just saves a bit of time and still does the job of making the fabric more stable to work on:

This is a little purse I made, which isn't brilliantly finished and needs a good iron, is a mixture of freehand machine embroidery and hand embellishing. I used pieces of several different vintage fabrics and layered them on the base fabric, machine embroidering them on and then hand stitching details and adding items such as beads and bows etc to create a rich feminine surface of colour and pattern and texture:

Handmade

Freehand Machine Embroidery 

I'm currently going through a textile, crafty phase. I want to try my hand at some more freehand machine embroidery and actually finish some pieces. I've been searching for more artists who use this technique of drawing with the sewing machine, and seeing what they do with it for inspiration. I think I enjoy it so much because it combines line drawing, which I love, and textiles, which I also love. I've done a post before on Claire Coles, whose work I particularly admire, but I've also found some more artists whose work I find inspiring:

Gillian Bates

Find a link to her work here: Gillian Bates

Tugba Kop


Find link here: Tugba Kop

Etsy Seller: Three Red Apples
link here: Three Red Apples

 

Freehand machine embroidery

    My Textile and Mixed Media Projects

  So I've finally managed to get some little textile projects finished. Quite a while ago I bought myself a foot for the sewing machine especially designed for freehand machine embroidery, but it's taken some time to get round to really using it. I've used freehand embroidery to create little applique pictures using bits and pieces taken from my fabric stash. I've really enjoyed putting together colours, patterns and textures, as well as using pieces of ribbons, lace, buttons and whatever happens to be lying around to add accents.

Taking inspiration from mini quilts, I used layers of fabric with batting to create that 'padded' look.

Made using vintage fabrics and  freehand machine embroidery.

This is a little children's textile in progress, I haven't decided what I'm going to do with yet it!

This uses all kinds of bits and pieces, the starting point was a little bird I 'drew' on felt.

Bunny illustration using a mix of vintage fabrics, lace and hand done crochet.

 It satisfies my girly love for pretty ephemera and the need to put these things together in a way that creates something beautiful. In some of the pieces I've used batting so they are like little mini quilts, which I really like. I used it mostly to allow me to add texture and depth so that the finished piece would feel 'substantial'.