Embroidered portrait

Stitching a portrait, this time for a friend, weighed the task down with more responsibility. Would she like it?

Getting other eyes to look at my stitching always helps and they make useful suggestions.

I was so pleased with this piece that I wanted to keep it!

Initial sketch

Stretched & ready for framing

A close up!

Lauren Child - fabric, collage and Chandeliers for the People

All images copywright Lauren Child

I have a little daughter Hettie.
       She's not so small but very funny.
She has always loved the books of Lauren Child.
       We have most of her books now.

Ms Child's books range from picture books to
        detective novels for pre-teens now.
When Ms Child's is in town we love to go and listen to her
        because we are inspired by her illustrations
            and          QUirkY 
                                         wriTiNg.

This Saturday we found out a bit more about her way of 
           working.
      
Lauren grew up in the 60s and 70s, like me, and her mother
        made clothes for Lauren and her 2 sisters.

We were also dressed in clothes my mum made for us.
      I feel a connection to Ms Childs and her homemade 70s
childhood. 

When Lauren creates her illustrations, she draws, 
        photocopies fabric, collages and such like.
She likes to use the computer to play around with the fabrics.

One source of fabric for her pics is the scrap stash at her 
        family home.
She also had a business called Chandeliers for the People -
        and has many remnants from that time that
               make their
                          way into her
                                marvellous illustrations.

Lola's pjs are made from fabric that was used to make a
       nightdress for young Lauren.

One small remnant was copied several times and overlaid to 
           make one larger image.
A patchwork background a bit like this one.

All images copywright Lauren Child

We are now into the 3rd Ruby Redfort book and think Lauren

       writes fab books for pre-teens.

In the Q & A I didn't get to ask my question. Boo hoo.

Me: On your slide you were using you whizzed forward to an image of Starsky and Hutch and Hart to Hart - how did they inspire your writing?

Lauren:   .........

Cornish Cove - a stitched piece

Who can fail to be inspired by a view like this?

Sennen Cove - Cornwall

Having holidayed with so many beautiful views of the Cornish sea and sky I wanted to make something to remind me of the holiday.

As a family, we collect shells and beach debris from most visits to the sea, and our 'collection' lives in our front garden. I love this collection.

I was tickled by the shells I saw used in art work on the wall of Alison Deegan's studio, in a feature in Mollie Makes. Shells stitched on felt.

I had a rough idea of what I wanted to make & planned out the piece using some favourite shells. I used applique, free-machine embroidery and hand sewing, enjoying using my Sylko threads and other metallic threads.

Not sure how to display it yet, but I really felt myself get lost in making this. Here are some closeups.

Ho hum, for Cornish Coves!

Here's to your hols and big skys!

Alli x

Marbling - first attempt

Having made some gorgeous marble paper on the Mixed Media course at Paper Village, Hettie and I had a go ourselves using a range of paper and fabric!

The results were not as marbly as we'd like, but I think that was due to not getting the marbling bath mixture right. We will play again, as the results were gorgeous.

Use a lovely range of colours...

The all important marbling bath mix...

Marbling bath needs prepping 24 hours before use

Luggage labels, white and colour paper -

Lots of space needed for the drying paper to rest

Not quite how it should look...

Crazy results...

Unique luggage labels...

Crazy 

Thank you!

When a friend gives you the gift of staying in their house for two weeks over the summer and the house is in Cornwall, you need to say more than 'Thank you', but this paper bunting, made from old and modern maps of Cornwall, was just one of the ways we showed our gratitude! 

We stuck the maps onto card, cut out the flags and stitched them onto some red binding.

The original idea comes from one of my fav blogs and can be found here : vlijtig.blogspot.co.uk

Happy September

Alli x

Weaving a ground...

I had a play with fabric and paper over the weekend to make some surfaces for stitching with and playing with. I borrowed the book, Drawn to Stitch by Gwen Hedley, from the library and in the first section you are shown a variety of ways to make a bank of surfaces for drawing, stitching on - so I had a play.

From Drawn to Stitch - the how to

From Drawn to Stitch

From Drawn to Stitch

I experimented with fabric first and realised that using fabrics with similar designs or colours was not as effective as the spot and gingham piece, where the contrasts were more obvious. I suppose it depends how the piece is used.

What I like is the way the pattern is disjointed in the weaving process.

I played around with maps and magazine ads.

OS map of bit of London with family history
juxtaposed with an older map of the area

Weaving of an ancient map of London &
the underground map - new & old

There is something odd about the way
the model appears silenced by the snowy
scene woven into this piece.

I must get an iron just for this purpose and stop trashing the family gadgets with my experiments....!

Oh and I had a go at trapping a skeleton of a leaf between tissue paper...good old bondaweb and a hot iron. I love this one...

Mixed Media - all that glitters...

I'm still having great fun on the course with Vic at Paper Village in Bedminster, Bristol. We are building up a bank of materials to 'mix' and have fun with as Vic introduces us to new techniques.


This week we looked at embellishing our work with a range of techniques.

I tore up some of the beautiful paper and cut out paper hearts from recycled books. Must glue this one down.

Fun with embossing powder...we all loved this

I stitched golden thread and sequins to this pic

Also added more paper hearts

Spray painting...looks like fishy shadows

Last class tomorrow, boo hoo, having such fun.

Vic is running the course again 

Exploring modern mixed media techniques £120

This course takes place on Wednesday evenings for 6 weeks. Next run starts on June 20th

Visit the Paper Village site or pop in and have a chat with Vic, you'll feel inspired, like you've made a new friend and may even find yourself on a course! Dare ya...

Mixed Media course - resist techniques

At Paper Village the mixed media course took us into the world of resist techniques. We used Aqua wax and stamped images or through stencils onto old pages from books.

Using a sponge to apply the Aqua wax
through a doily..mmm

We also used Markal Paint sticks to stencil onto paper. Applying a wash of water colour over the dried aqua wax and the paint sticks created wonderful effects.

Remember doing marbling when you were little? Well there are lots of other products to use these days and the results are always so wonderful...surprises to be had when you lift up the paper...

Wild, lunar landscapes

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