Music...

This blog is normally reserved for my crafty pursuits, but I just wanted to make a wee post about the other major project I have been working on for about the last 3 years!

It is finally nearing completion, so I recently updated the website.

Check it out here... .

Waves and coral...

I'm just back from a week on the beautiful Scottish Hebridean island of Tiree, so appropriately this entry is about 2 pieces I have recently finished which were inspired by the beautiful shorelines and seascapes of the island.

For both of them I wanted to explore combining fabric and fibres with my embellisher, and adding beading and embroidery as I do for my jewellery pieces, but on a larger scale. I decided to use embroidery hoops as frames, and I used unbleached cotton batting as the backing/surface.

The first piece is called 'Coral', and was made as a 30th birthday present for my dear friend Eli.

Here's the process of adding fabric and fibres. I sewed on pieces of cotton fabric, scrim and muslin, and then added silk throwsters waste, silk noil and mixed threads with my embellisher.

Next I added many glass beads in different shapes and sizes, and some hand embroidery stitches to finish the piece off:

Here are some details:

The next piece I have been working on is called 'Waves'. A while ago I had bought some (more!) wonderful handdyed threads, fibres and fabric from thredfairy, and had been itching to use them in a larger piece. I love the muted grey-silver-turquoise palette - reminds me of stormy seascapes and louring clouds above.

Here's the process - again I sewed on some fabric and paper pieces before adding fibres with my embellisher, and then adding glass beads and freshwater pearls. Hand embroidery stitches finished off the piece.

Here are some details:

And the finished piece:

It's going on the wall in my hall!

I'm quite pleased with the way these two turned out - kind of variations on a theme. Next time I'm going to experiment with different backing fabrics/surfaces, and will continue with the never-ending search for a good framing solution... .

The trip to Tiree gave me so much crafty inspiration, I'm looking forward to trying out all my ideas!

Birthday backgammon board

My Dad and I started learning how to play backgammon earlier this year, so I decided for his birthday I would make him a backgammon board (we had previously been playing on a piece of paper!).

I decided to make a felty-fibrey version - less of a 'board' - softer and more flexible so it could be rolled up and easily stored/carried around.

First I made the felted background with my embellisher, using Merino roving, mulberry silk, silk noil, soy silk, firestar, bamboo fibre, silk throwsters waste and wool locks:

I cut the 'spikes' out of felt, and set the whole large felted piece onto a larger piece of yellow felt for extra thickness and sturdiness:

I machine-sewed the spikes onto the felted piece, and then sandwiched it all together and sewed around the edges of the felted pieces.

Next, I made a couple of 8-tama kumihimo braids to go around the edges of the piece:

and then I cut away the excess backing felt from the edges:I sewed marigold-coloured ribbon onto the backing felt to cover up the machine-stitching:

I also made a wee bag, with another kumihimo braid as the tie, to hold the dice and counters:

I decided to use vintage buttons for one set of counters, and shells from Portobello beach here in Edinburgh for the other set:

The finished piece! It measures about 51cm x 35cm.

I'm looking forward to using it next time I visit my parents :D

Projects update!

Managed to fit in a wee session with my embellisher this afternoon, to add the next parts to a couple of my ongoing projects. I love my embellisher.  It's just such fun to use, and I love the unexpected results that can happen and the way they take me off in a new direction with a piece.  I've had mine for nearly a year and a half now, and haven't looked back!  Thanks, Myfanwy , for talking me into buying one :P.  

I bought a beautiful 'inspiration pack', in shades of teal, from thredfairy a while back, and have been itching to make a piece with all the yummy fibres and fabrics in the pack.  Also last week I bought a lovely 'mixed bag' of hand dyed fibre and thread from therainbowgirl in beautiful shades of pinky purple.  I've bought many, many supplies from these two talented ladies, and I'm never disappointed - they always come up with beautiful hand dyed colour combinations in a range of fibres, threads and fabrics that are always a joy to work with.  Check out their shops!

So, anyway, I had these two selections in two different colourways, so I decided to make two fibre art pieces using embroidery hoops as their frames, similar to my 'Tiree' piece.  I have been wanting to try some smaller fibre art pieces like these for ages, but have had too many other things on my crafting list that kept taking precedence.  

Today then I used my embellisher to add fibres and threads to the surface:

Silk velvet, silk throwsters waste, mulberry bark, silk carrier rod, silk threads, bamboo fibre, habotai silk, paper and cotton scrim.

Muslin fabric, mediumweight cotton fabric, cotton scrim, silk throwsters waste, angelina fibre, silk carrier rod, cotton nepps, wool yarn, organza ribbon, silk dupion fabric and mixed threads.

Next comes beading and hand embroidery.  I enjoy it so much!  Also I'm really loving my subscription to Audible - I devour audiobooks like nobody's business when I'm crafting.  At the moment, it's the tragic but wonderful  'Children of Hurin' by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Tolkien + crafting + tea = a happy crafty Kaeru!

Works in progress...

Some projects I'm working on...

A purple one...

A yellowy-orange one...

A teal one...

Necklace or brooch?

I finally got around to experimenting with one of my necklaces to see if I could make it into a brooch.  

I chose 'Marine': 

I removed the chain and firmly glued a 30mm brooch finding to her back, after sanding the metal surfaces with emery to make sure the glue could find purchase.

Here's how she turned out:

I'm going to change all the listings in my Etsy shop to reflect that it is now an option to have any of my 'bar'-type beaded, felted and embroidered necklaces made into a brooch instead!

Idea development...

In response to some helpful contructive criticism from a customer at the craft fair, I have begun developing  ideas for a new generation of my felted, beaded and embroidered necklaces.  

The comment was that my current necklace style:

...was too geometric for a necklace, and would work better as a brooch.  The suggestion was also made that a necklace with a more curved shape, to echo the curves of the neck and collarbone, would be an interesting idea.

So, I started thinking about how I could adapt my exisitng idea along these lines.  I like the general size of the necklaces as they are - not too big to work, but big enough to be able to fit in detail and interest without breaking my eyes!  The next consideration then is the curve.  A 'U' shape?  A more shallow curve?

I tried a few different shape ideas out on paper:

I liked the shallower curve with roundable corners best, so that is what I have decided to try out first to see how it goes.

Here is the shape at the embroidery and beading stage - I mask it out with paper to make sure I keep my threads and stitches within the perimeter.

Once the shape is decided, next comes the issue of the backing.  At the moment, the oblong necklaces are mounted onto a brass or aluminium metal tag cut to shape for me by Bopper of Etsy.  I figure it will be much more difficult cutting metal on a curve though, so I started thinking about alternative backing materials, and their pros and cons:

Polymer clay - easily shapeable but not sure it goes with the felt

Air-drying clay - again easily shapeable but probably too brittle

Wood - able to be curved (at least by my Dad ;D) and organic - but possibly not heavy enough?

Felt - easily shapeable, but again too light?

The two I have chosen to prototype are wood and felt.  That is felt baize to be precise - it's thick at 3mm and would give the necklace a bit more substance.

I decided to prototype 3 different lengths, to see which looks best as a finished piece.  My Dad cut these beautiful, thin, smooth wooden blanks for me (thanks Dad!) - the top 2 are Sycamore and the bottom one is Ash.

You can see the cut-out felted, beaded and embroidered necklace shapes on the left.

Here's a cross-section view of the felt on felt baize - pretty thick!

The idea is that for the felt baize, I would whip-stitch around the edges and the baize would form the necklace back.  For the wood, I would whip-stitch round the felt piece only and then set it onto the wooden blank.

I'm still working on these prototypes, so watch this space!  Any other suggestions or comments very welcome, as these ideas are very much a work in progress :) .

I also had a play around with some old necklace blanks to see if it was feasible to change them into brooches.  I've found some super-duper-superglue that seems to be strong enough (and not too messy!).

So the next stage is taking one of my exisiting necklaces and seeing if I can succesfully convert it. 

Apart from idea development, my crafty project to-do list is trundling along.  Here is a closeup of the beautiful Noro yarn I've been using to knit (yes, knit!!  amazing!!) a birthday present for a friend.

Mata ne~!