Chill out Stitching!

It has been so lovely over the Christmas break to have a bit of time to throw myself into some stitching.

I found some silk and wool threads that I had hand dyed and together with my favourite green silk thread from 21st Century Yarns, they looked so lovely. Like a breath of Summertime!

I put them together in a bag with some dyed muslin and silk snippets and over Christmas this slowly happened!.......

I embroidered a Summer Garden onto the front of an uninspiring handmade felt sketchbook cover. 

Last year my amazing, talented friend Suzanne was making all in one sketchbook covers using a resist and I thought I'd try the technique using some wool tops. Hers are stunning but I just used any old colours to try it out. It worked so well, but, because I'd used such dull colours it never felt quite right. It was just waiting...

So my dull old cover now looks like a Wild Summer Garden and chilled me out good and proper over Christmas. I think it will inspire me to do some nice colourful art in there this year. 

Isn't that a nice way to start a new year of Art? 
With a fresh new sketchbook to play in.

I wish you all a very Happy New Year

May wonderful things happen for you and those you love. xx

PS. I thought you may like to see a couple of photos of the dyeing process. This is from a blog post from June 2012 if you'd like to see the whole thing with before and after photos. 

Here are a couple of photos of the threads and other bits of silk, velvet and cotton I space dyed. The colours make me so happy.

Oops! Inktense Part 3!

I've been teaching drawing and colouring with Inktense pencils this week. Every time I do, I am reminded that these are such a lovely product. I just love 'em!

They are so easy and effective to use with just a few top tips to make the effects extra special.

It reminded me that back in March I added two tutorials on this blog for using them and promised a third one. Life got so busy and I forgot to do it.

Part 3 was going to be about using these amazing, versatile pencils on fabric. Here it is...

It is a little known feature of Derwent Inktense pencils that when they are dry they become permanent. This makes them fab to use to colour fabric. 

Some artists use Fabric Medium to wet the pencils and it is great to experiment with this and see if it gives extra fastness but I have always just used water to fix mine.

The colours are also translucent which means you can layer them. This means that you can keep adding colour and blending it to make lovely watercolur effects.

Step one: I used a vintage doily and drew one of my  little crazy birds onto it. I probably used a 0.2 size Pigma Micron pen for this because it is permanent and can draw fine detail without the nib being ruined on the textured fabric, if it is used carefully.

I will have some workshops coming up soon,  in 2017 on Whimsical Illustration

Let me know if you are interested in these because lots of people have been asking about these and I think places may go quite quickly.

I then embroidered over the lines and details using 21st Century Yarns hand dyed thread. Then it was time to play with the pencils!

I drew around the embroidered contours on the doily with the pencils. I used 2 colours because I love the way they mix to give a blended watercolour effect. Here is a closer look.
Click on the photos to get a larger and closer look.

Then I added the water. Here is the most important bit......

VERY LITTLE WATER!

This gives you much more control over the dissolving the pigment and spreads it only as far as you want it to go.

As soon as the area you have been working on is dry, it is fixed and you can add more colour if you like.

The area on the right of the photo above shows the effect with the water added.

I will probably leave it like this now. Sometimes, you just need a little bit of colour to zizz up a thingy! Finished!

These would be fabulous to decorate one of the pages in a 

Fabric Book. 

Workshop coming up in February for making these and I will probably include this technique in that action packed day.

Have a go! I'd love to know if you do and what you think.

PS. Try colouring on Satin ribbons and on threads too.

Rusty old stuff!

Brown is not one of my favourite colours. When I'm choosing paints or threads I usually rejoice in light and bright shades that make me itch to make art.

But the serendipity of nature and natural dyeing is amazing. Rust yields such rich and mellow shades of russet and ochre, orange, ginger and cinnamon that it is irresistible to dye with and to stitch on.

I recently dyed some cotton Guipure  lace, cotton threads, silk and muslin with rust. I just wrapped the materials around a piece of rusty metal. I dipped them first in a mixture of malt vinegar and water to get the rusting started.

Then I left them in the garden to do their magic. They got rained on of course and that helped and speeded  up the transformation.

Over Easter I had a bit of time to stitch with some of it. I loved seeing the colours of the materials naturally blend with each other and it was good to have time to do some slow stitching which always slows me down and makes me feel relaxed. 

I added some sewing with some of my favourite hand dyed stranded cotton from 21st Century Yarns. I also added some sequins made from coconut shell.  It isn't finished yet.

I'd love to know what you think. Do you think you'd give it a try too?

Mother Nature's Woolly Book

The world around us is so beautiful. Even the tiniest details of the birds and beasts, the flowers and the colours can fill us with joy if we take the time to look.

Luckily I have had more excuses to look closely at Nature recently because we have had 3 lovely Nature Embroidery workshops at the Hertfordshire branch of the Embroiderers Guild. We were led by Trish and Viv who make the most beautiful pictures with collaged stitcheries  that include all kinds of techniques. We have been so inspired with the little embroideries, that we have made them do 3 workshops for us so far!

I have made mine into a book of course and mounted all the little samples on  lovely woolly surfaces like vintage blankets, and handmade felt. The cover was kantha stitched handmade felt made to look like moss on the forest floor and the red behind the holes reminded me of toadstools. 

Here are some of the pages.

This first one celebrates the humble little beetle. Some creepy crawlies are gorgeous! I had fun with the colours on these and learning some basic stump work.

Here is a closer look.

The background is cotton sheeting which has been scribbled with Derwent Inktense pencils which permanently dye the fabric when they are dampened and blended.

This next page is embroidered rabbits. The sample is stitched to a vintage embroidered doily and the page is made of an old wool blanket. The edging is couched hand dyed wool.

Birds next! I have to have birds on everything! The first one is canvas work with added needle felted blobs and star stitches. Shame it looks so crooked ha ha.

And this one is a drawn bird with added hand stitches on another doily. Coloured with Inktense pencils again.

It has got velvet flowers added. I love using these!

Ready for more bugs? These have grass stitched around them in hand dyed silk thread and a round border of silk and wool fibres which are held down with hand embroidery to look like lichen and moss. The bee is velvety! It took ages but he is so sweet!

Here is a closer look at the stitching!

More bugs!

Each bug has Trapunto quilting beneath it and Kantha stitching around it.

A pretty butterfly now just in case you are feeling itchy... Embroidered with variegated threads from 21st Century Yarns. My favourite!

And seed heads. I am in love with looking at seed heads! This also has snippets of vintage fabrics and lace.
It has all been stitched to a lovely soft blue wool blanket.

A little nest. With eggs! It has a real twig and teensy handmade organza flowers. This one has all sorts of bits and bobs to give it texture. See what you can spot in there.

It has been joyous making this book and doing the workshops. Trish and Viv were so generous in sharing their techniques and making the days perfectly relaxing and inspirational. And it was the perfect reminder for me to take time to look at and rejoice in the little things.