Saturday 22 October 2011

New books to look at!

 My arty buddy Lesley & I swapped books & I thought it a good idea to work thru them & make samples as I go. I don't think I'll be infringing copyright by showing you my samples (well, I hope not  anyway!) Most of you may have Stitches, Straps & Layers by Maggie Grey (see my blogroll for both - I see a new improvement is that we can't grab links anymore, am I missing something? also, we now have a neat 'filmstrip' display for pics but can't over enlarge them to see detail! ;( ) but since it came out I've only managed a quick sweaty glance thru while at a crowded stitches show & I'm so glad to read it now. Every page has mouth watering images & techniques to try.


There's been  no light today & the flash has turned the stretchy burgundy 'velvet' very dark. The first few excercises are to foil backgrounds & work into them, layering so the foil just peeps thru.  I only have/had some small samples of foil & Icertainly want some more gold, lovely stuff! The top one is my attempt at a landscape like Angie Hughes' sample in the book, no top layer , left, gold organza on top with 'stretched' satin stitch,  & the right is trapped threads under chiffon with stitching. Pretty heavy handed with the foil, need more practice ;) (or a cooler iron!)


These 3 are skelatised leaves (bought) top, leaf under foil, then black lace, with pink organza on top
with a little hand stitching. left, machine stitching veins on a blue leaf & the foil negative of another leaf with outline stitching. Right, leaf, foil, small piece of chiffon.



The above is foil, sprinkled sequins (I knew I'd find a use for the sequins one day!) with black organza then black & gold stitching. I heat gunned some holes in the bottom one - it'll need more stitching & I'll make them into cuffs.



A pink  (very pink!) & version of the above, not burnt, with beads made out of the same fabric. With ribbon or without? I quite like a bit of variety.

A brooch & samples




 and some earings out of the same all about an inch, plus. It's difficult working out the left or the right. I made these as I'd made one at my exhibition when I lost my lovely silver seahorse one morning - I'm sure it's under the bed somewhere!

I grabbed the finding from deep in the studio & the 2 bits of turquoise from an old neclace & the tiny cube with an 'M' on it from my jewellery box. At 'work' I got the copper wire into a twist & made a bead from little bits of fabric & paper from my week old bits box  & shoved it up!  It's about an inch & a half & altho I can't sleep in it I love it!

 Welcome to my new followers! one or 2 of you don't have a link so I can't visit - comment, if you can, & I'll come over ;)


19 comments:

Cate Rose said...

All stunning, Emma! xo

Katie said...

Where to begin? So many amazing things! I love the one w/ the red sprinkly sparkle,and those are some amazing earrings! I am in awe!

Suztats said...

I love it! Anything sparkly catches my eye, and this is gorgeous eye candy! Hugs

Marcia Beckett said...

Those are very beautiful. Gorgeous fabric!

ju-north said...

Some lovely pieces here!

Chesterbrook Academy Elementary said...

I love the textures and colors in your artwork.
Those blue's and gold's are very beautiful.

The Sparkly Fairy said...

Gorgeous work. I love the jewellery pieces.
Emma

Maggi said...

It all looks so rich. Incidentally I found this on a blog comment the other day re changing back to the normal pictures.
"If you’d like to disable Lightbox on your blog, log in to Blogger and select “No” next to Lightbox in the Settings | Posts and Comments section (new interface) or the Settings | Formatting section (old interface)"

jan said...

All lovely work, I love the jewellery.

ArtPropelled said...

Time to dazzle!I like the idea of making earrings from anything that comes to hand.

artymess said...

gorgeousness all of them .....sparkly thats what I love ........x

Robin Mac said...

I hope I can comment. Gorgeous work, I must get my book out again and work through some more bits of it, especially with Christmas coming up - you have given me some inspiration. I see one of the comments tells you how to get rid of the 'improvement' of the slide show. I wish Blogger would leave things alone. Cheers

Lynda Howells said...

wow..all this just looks amazing...wonderful work as usual and l don't have the words really to say how wonderful it all looks Emmaxx

Numinosity said...

Cool samples all sparkly and looks like fun stuff. I actually bought sequins in a Mexican fabric store, not sure what I'll ever do with them!
xoxo Kim

Linda’s Textiles said...

Fabulous work Emma - gorgeous foil fabrics & love what you're doing with them.

Linda Vincent said...

Oh wow Emma...you have been busy whilst I've been gone! ;-) I bought that book from Maggi at the FoQ (after her lecture) - it was my favourite from all the ones she had on show (tough decision tho')
You've certainly put it to good use...fantastic work!!
XX

Heloise said...

You have been busy. I really like the pink cuffs [what a surprise, think I am having my pink phase late in life]

jackie said...

What a good idea to swap books, although some of mine I feel v. possessive about. It has obviously spurred on your creativity.

Catharina Maria said...

Love , love , love it
RINI♥