Tuesday 30 June 2009

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!

7 comments:

Trekky said...

Gorgeous work, the subtle beading and hand stitching really bring these pieces to life. Hope you had a good time on Tiree!

Chris Gray said...

Love the colours and textures - Tiree must have been a dream!

Micki said...

These are very lovely pieces.

Kate said...

Thank you for your kind comments, everyone - Tiree was really wonderful (I highly recommend it!). Still getting used to being back in the noise, smells and busy-ness of the city!

Karen said...

These are just gorgeous Kate - you certainly were inspired by your holiday in Tiree. They look lovely on your wall but I can imagine the one in the embroidery hoop will get dusty etc over time. I know people doing this type of work have them framed professionally with spacers between the mount and the work but think it's pretty expensive.

Hungry Designs said...

These are stunning. I love the colours and the use of beads and pearls. I think you're onto something here with the frames. They're really special. Your friend must be over the moon with her gift - luck her! Keep up the good work. I'm off to Loch Ness for the weekend on Saturday, maybe it will inspire me too! xx

Kate said...

Thanks Karen and Amanda :D

Yes, dust is a problem... I've kind of chosen to ignore it for the moment though! It's so difficult to find a compromise between being able to touch the lovely textures and protecting the piece... !