Let me know what you think!

Hi all

I would be sooooooo grateful for feedback if possible as I am always learning and developing and critics are very much welcome! At the moment I am getting some pieces together to submit to a gallery in Rochester Kent. So these will be posted as soon as I finish them.

Thank you!

These are a few photos of my sketch book which I have added to when I venture out. My favourite sketching medium is pen and watercolour.

                                            Do not worry, this was a small garden spider!

                                                      Poplar leaf and poppy head studies

                                                          Abutilon flower

 

Willow detail

 

Quick sketch of garden (Hall place Bexley)

 

 

Acer

 

 

Mushrooms

How cool are these mushrooms. They appeared underneath a beech tree. So magical!

 

These are my hand made beads. I have used decorative papers and fabrics. All you need is imagination and cocktail sticks. Cut your paper or fabric into a long triangle or experiment with shapes such as rectangles. Lightly glue your the back of your chosen paper or material then  wrap them tightly around your stick. Once dry you can either decorate your beads and then lightly coat with modge podge (PVA like glue). Once made you can wrap these with wire or ribbon. Experiment!

 

 

Festival of quilts Birmingham

Thought I would post a picture of my mushrooms at the Festival of quilts in Birmingham. It was a great show with so many talented artists. I received great feedback from the judges and already thinking what to submit next year. At the moment I am preparing to submit work to a gallery and hope to sell a few pieces. Wish me luck!

This is the piece of work that I put into the festival of quilts. It was an amazing experience to see my work at the festival and I will put another piece in next year. The judges feedback was great and this has given me confidence in my work. The standard at the festival of quilts was amazing and I hope next year to be able to attend for the whole festival.

Making cords

Most of my work uses machine wrapped cords which are very useful not only for textile art but also jewellery and beyond. Most sewing machines will allow you to do this. Firstly put your darning (free machine) foot on your machine. Put your machine to darn or free machine mode. Thread you machine normally using preferable matching thread. Grab some interesting lengths of threads/wools, wire (if you want to twist the cords or add stability) etc, a metre plus is advised. Switch to zig zag and experiment. Place your threads in the middle of the plate and hold them taught then start to sew. Here are a few pictures of
me making cords. Good luck!

 Detail of machine wrapped cord on the sewing machine.

 This cord was made using lengths of silk, linen and thick gold thread and machine stitched using copper thread (wonderfil). I then used the finger knitting technique.

 Further detail of above.

I used a textured thread for this cord which makes a nobbly cord when machine stitched.

These are a few details of my wall hanging. What do you think?

Wall hanging inspired by nature

This wall hanging was inspired by woodlands and what grows in this habitat. The base of this wall hanging was felt (which I made using the wet felting technique) this was then stitched and 3D mushrooms applied. These mushrooms were made of various materials including silk, plastic packaging wrap, cottons and organza. The ivy which curves aroud this wall hanging was made of machine wrapped cord and wire with cotton and fuse fx leaves.

Mushrooms

These pieces are my interpretation of mushrooms. These pieces with be exhibited at the festival of quilts this year. I am a bit nervous as I have never submited work to a show before. Wish me luck!

This is a papier mache version of my mushrooms. It looks really effective amongst the undergrowth.

Last samples

This is a detail of one of my samples for the end of my course. These samples were based on seed heads. This particular sample is inspired by honesty. The base material is rice paper which was painted with Modge podge (a type of glue) to make it stitchable then stitched. I then added the felt seeeds to the back and added another layer of rice paper. This was then painted with brusho from the back and inked on the front of the work.

This sample  used open thread work and was very contemporary for me. I looked at various shapes of seed heads and took the patterns and shapes as inspiration. I used different types of canvas and machine stitched with various threads.

This sample explores texture and uses fabric manipulation. I have used ruffles and pintucks and yo-yo's. The border was made using acryli felt which has been stitched with seedhead motifs and then burned with a heat gun.

 

One of my samples

this picture is inspired by the techniques of Alice Kettle. Her technique requires you to sew over and over and over again until the surface is filled with stitch and almost feels as thick as a rug. It is a great tecnique although you need to stock up on loads of spools of thread (try and get these from car boots etc as you will go through alot of spools!)

Finished my City and Guilds in Machine Embroidery!

Yeh! I have finished my city and guilds! I went to Wickham Market (Suffolk) for the City and Guilds exhibition for the Creative Stitch College. As always I was very nervous and not sure whether my work was up to scratch but thoroughly enjoyed it and loved the work that other students produced. Would highly recommend doing this course if you love machine embroidery/ textile art.

Trying to use a double needle

One of my units requires me to use a double needle. I had no trouble setting my machine up and these are the stitch I have made. When I get to a needle craft shop I will try and get a wider needle to see what the stitches look like further apart.

Weaving sample

This small sample is woven on a square frame with ribbon then I adding dissolvable fabric and stitched diagonally. The piece is then immersed in water then left to dry. I then went over the piece with a heat gun to melt the ribbon.

My version of the green man

This is my version  of the green man. This is made from fabrics, papers and thick threads that are put through the bobbin. The nose, eyes and lips are stuffed so they stand out. I have singed the felt to make it look natural and give it definition.

Completed my cat embroidery called 'I miss you black cat'

 

This piece is part of my experimental embroidery unit and I decided to make an embroidery inspired by my cat Mitzy who died 7 years ago. The whole piece is stitched using free motion embroidery on cotton.