More creative therapy ..

Okay, the piece here on the left is another one of my

loose

interpretations of Shelagh Folgate's fabulous challenges. You get part by part instructions but don't know what your really making till youve finished! I confess to diverting from the brief abit on this one.......and added a stumpwork ladybird..

but they are great fun to do and I can highly recommend her blog and work. One clever lady that.

Now the piece on the right is under construction and came about after a conversation with a lovely lady called Sue, whom I know online, though we havent yet met. She asked if I had any ideas about what her stitching group might do, to use up binka and crewel/tapestry wools, both of which they have an abundance of, but which didnt really fill them with any enthusiasm.

Well binka has that - yawning - effect on me normally, but for some reason, that day, Creative Gene was buzzing lol

So I passed on to Sue what I would opt to do, given binka and wools, then kept thinking about the idea and finally HAD to have a go myself lol

Stop smiling Sue!

So there was I at a workshop on sunday, run by Isobel Hall, who lives in Spain but is over in the UK for 3 months. On the saturday she gave a talk at our East Yorkshire Embroiderers Society (EYES) then she did the workshop the following day. Isobel is known for her stunning handbags made out of paper, which look more like leather in many cases. ( her books include, Bags with Paper and Stitch and also Embroidered Books)

And in amongst making background fabrics out of a variety of things, brown paper, silk cocoon strippings, textured wallpaper etc I also came up with the above piece to use as a background, using binka and the silk cocoons that Isobel was teaching us to make use of.

I dyed the cream binka with coffee the night before, spattering clumps of coffee here and there whilst the fabric was wet so it would be darker in places.

I also dyed some offcuts of lace, taken from an old lacey doiley, the circles.

Then using the binka as a base, I added wisps of silk cocoon strippings and strands of hemp and also one or two pieces of distorted scrim and sprayed the whole thing with cold coffee. This I pressed between baking parchment so that the cocoon strippings all melded everthing together nicely, to form a base for stitching into.

The top picture, which was supposed to be here.................> but isn't, as you can see - sighhhhh

is of this melded piece and others I made up that day too. I made up alot, several more, that's part of the fun of workshops like that, the chance to make a batch of backgrounds that you build up on later, at home.

I will post pics of this piece as it progresses, it speaks to me of lichens in shades of golden, brown and creams so I will do abit of googling and maybe abit of graveyard wandering to spot some likely lichens!
:)