Upcycled Brooches!

I’ve been working away madly making clothes for an upcycled fashion parade to be held locally this weekend! A friend and I have got together and are just having so much fun altering clothes; cutting bits off and joining things back together again. We’ve made some amazing creations and some wonderfully wearable looks too…!

I’ve just finished some upcycled brooches to add to our stall on the night. These have been great fun to make. Until I learn how to collage all 5 images into one; I’ll have to load all 5 separately!

I made these with leftover portions of doileys, stacked circles of fabric (dyed vintage linens & fabric scraps) from the upcycled sewing frenzy here in the studio. I then free motion stitched over the whole lot; added some tails and a little hand embroidery. I stitched a simple brooch pin on the back to finish....

They look quite quirky - and I like quirky!

Click on photos for more detail!

Of the colour Red… plus bitumen!

I promised photos of my new red living room…. Wow! It is a different room and I adore it. I love being immersed in colour as opposed to just splashes of colour or feature walls….. Even the horrid brown panelling painted beautifully (with Antique White USA (Dulux)) It was perfect for all the trim and a built in bookcase near the front door too… I’m so happy with the colour… Red Stop (also Dulux) Love it, Love it!

New living room colour + Mojo!

After!

Before!

I just need a few new cushions and a rug and a throw rug. There isn't much wall space left for artwork...but maybe just a few small pieces...?!

While I'm on the colour Red, this is where I'm up to with my Tree Of Life #2! I still have some little details to stitch on... some tree roots, an edging, some details on the sun and moon I think, and some more hair on bird self (I've gone red again!)

my Tree of Life #2

I tried out the bitumen technique that Gary Reef shared on his site Loving Mixed Media again. I think I’m officially hooked! Here is the first one finished…

Bitumen experiment #1

This one is I used a simple paper doiley and a wall décor sticker thingy as a stencil…

Bitumen experiment #2

This circular one is another old unfinished collage (there’s more of them hanging around the studio that might get a face lift yet!) Not finished rubbing back yet....

Bitumen experiment #3

Eager to try some more!

Meeting a friend to discuss our entries into an upcoming upcycled fashion parade...

Bitumen Mixed Media Experiment....

I haven’t been here for a little while…….but I promise I have been busy; very busy!

We’ve had the floor in our main living area sanded and polished; and the walls painted –red! More of that in a later post…

I’ve been mostly working on another tree of life textile piece – photos later; but I really wanted to link to this amazing Mixed Media Photo Tutorial by Gary Reef on Loving Mixed Media. There's another link to his site in my sidebar too...

When I saw this I just had to give it a go! I used an unfinished collage on a stretched canvas that just wasn't working the way I had envisaged! I painted over it with white paint, added some stencilling, bitumen and more stencilling....

I really like it like this even!

Then started rubbing back into the bitumen with some turps..... WOW!

Not finished yet; Boy am I having fun playing though. The technique involves collage, bitumen, spray paint and stencils…… WOW! Thanks Gary for an amazing tutorial… I might get brave enough to post a photo of my finished piece on LMM! I think I'm hooked on the technique (despite the smell of the bitumen!) and regardless of how this turns out will definitely try some more!!!

Back Soon..............! xo

Done, dusted and delivered!

Yay, not long back from a day trip to Glen Innes to deliver my teapot and a friend's leadlight teapot clock! I got a sneak peek at some of the other entries…. Amazing talent! Some of the ceramic ones were especially creative!

So, I'm going to bore you with some final photos of the completed 'Crazy Glazy Beadpot' !

Crazy Glazy Teapot

Stuffed Felt Construction; beaded with Japanese Toho Beads

Spout- detail

Almost Cuppa Time!!!!!

Just a quick update on my teapot! I may not have time to photograph it again before delivering it to the exhibiting gallery on Monday! I've added the spout! It looks just like I imagined!! Apologies for the poor photo quality....

About 90% beaded!

And here is our latest addition to the Puddleduck Farm Menagerie!

Latest Highland Teddy Bear (We're proud parents for the 3rd time in 2 weeks!)

Back to beading........................................!

I'm a little TEA_ _ T!!

Some more progress on my challenge piece... still many, many hours of beading to go! I'm trying to bead the spout as much as possible before attaching it ; I'm finding the already stitched on handle extremely hard going!

Beaded Teapot - spout still to be attached!

Q What's better than 1 little highland teddy bear baby? A That would be 2 little highland teddy bear babies; they are just so adorable…

A frosty morning last week! 2 baby Highlands!...and 2 proud Mums (3 if you count me!)

...and little Mojo is fitting right in too; he’s such a sweeti! ( I think he's been watching the cats a little too closely!)

Apologies for the spacing and layout in my posts; blogger is really not working that well for me!

June Babies! ....real babies!

Oh, what an exciting day! We have 2 new babies!

Here's the first little guy!

Mojo - a Shitzu Maltese X

(a wee play mate for Cee-Cee)

and the second; a little Highland Calf - born either overnight or early this morning!

Highland Calf

The kids found Mojo at the pet shop this morning. I've been looking for a black Maltese/Shitzu X as a friend for Cee-Cee for a little while now. Not urgently looking; just keeping an eye out looking! I knew I wanted a boy and I knew his name was Mojo..... He's every bit as adorable as Cee-Cee and I know they'll be great mates! He's about 10-12 weeks old.

When we arrived back from town Jon went down to feed the alpacas, sheep, mini horse and cattle some hay; he arrived back up at the house a few minutes later very excited; 'we've got another new addition to the family'! It's our first calf born on our property and we're soooo excited. It looks like a wee teddy bear!

What a wonderous day!

More good news; the recycled art exhibition I wanted to enter the bread tag piece into, has extended it's entry date... so there's a chance I may get it finished after all...... other wise I was just going to hang onto it for next year's deadline!

Still working on the Te _ _ _ t too!

Assuming Shape

Finally this is starting to look like something apart from a pumpkin!

Felt and hobbyfill construction; including handle. Knob is a large timber bead, covered with felt and beaded. Rose decoration not quite complete (urgently awaiting beads to arrive in the post!)

Knob and lid detail

The reason the beading is looking a little random at the moment is that I'm using up the last of the beads I have with the view to infil and cover the T_ _ _ _ _ completely when the others arrive!

Awaiting the appendage that will make it's identity obvious!

Another little something I'm working on; for a recycled waste to art entry; due Friday (this Friday). I only started today... I made a little chart from some X-stitch software I have....

I'm using bread tags and hand dyed recycled rice bags. But I think I'm going to run out of bread tags! I've asked hubby to ask everyone at his work to bring in any they have at home... I need 960 all up... Am I going to get it completed in time? Probably not! Maybe for the 2012 challenge!!!!!!!! Not at all like me to work that far ahead. :) Wish me luck (I'm working Thurs and Friday too)

Back to the bread tags; no mail today (we only get it delivered 3 times a week) Sigh, so no more beads yet.....

Any guesses...?

Still not a pumpkin.... busy working away at my challenge piece. Can you believe I've already run out of beads and have had to order some from the States! I hope they arrive in time for me to finish this piece as I really want to enter something! i have spent many hours beading already - mostly keeping hubby company as he watches TV!

Bottom view! Not a pumpkin!

Detail; Not a pumpkin.

I've finally finished My Flaming Heart piece! I added text, some recycled sari silk ribbon and vintage doilies to the clouds and edges. I'm happy with how it turned out and am itching to frame it! That's the only problem with working as a framer.... I want to frame EVERYTHING!!!!

Finally finished! My Flaming Heart

Detail: My Flaming Heart - Vintage doiley pieces as clouds, backstitch text, recycled sari silk ribbon

Detail: My Flaming Heart - Beading

Working on some other things too... which I'll show progress on gradually!

Trussed and Tied and ready to Dye.........

Sounds a little ominous but really it's all about shibori! Here's some photos of the next stage of the upcycled silk scarf...

Upcycled Silk Scarf

Gathered and tied; ready for the dye bath

It took me a little longer to stitch and gather and tie up than I thought! Never mind, it's in the dye bath now... only an hour or so to wait until I can get it out and remove the stitching! I can't wait to see how it turns out.....

Running stitch, gathered up and tied off - front

Back view of shibori gathers

No, it's not a pumpkin......!

WIP Challenge!

Yes, it may look a little like a pumpkin at the moment; but hopefully it will look like something quite different by the time it's finished (which needs to be before the end of the month so I can enter it into a challenge!) Wish me luck - there's a lot more beads to add yet! I'll post progress photos!

My friend Lynda and I have been busy playing with dye and upcycling vintage and found fashion! We've had so much fun collecting our resources and playing with embellishing them. We've been chasing up some legalities about selling these pieces and hope to have some of the finished pieces for sale in our etsy stores and a local gallery soon....

Upcycled Fashion

I've recently entered a few local art exhibitons and have been lucky enough to gain a 2nd place in the Works on Paper section with 'Virginia Creeper' at the Bendemeer Art and Craft Show and a 1st prize at the Currabubula Red Cross Art Show with 'My Tree of Life' Textile piece. I've been over the moon about both!

'Virginia Creeper'

Pastel

Another WIP! I found this lovely long silk scarf this week and am going to try some more shibori dyeing... I've drawn 5 circles and have stitched running (gathering stitch across each one - actually I've one to go!) I want to get it into the dye pot tonight. I envisage 5 patterned circles on a black background. I can't wait to see how it ends up!

Found Silk Scarf

Stitched ready to gather for Shibori dyeing...

The circles remind me of sunflowers at the moment...

COLOUR as a form of JOY!!!!!!!!!

Oh, JOY! Look at these colours!

Fibre active dyes on vintage cotton

Low immersion dyeing

I finally stopped procrastinating and ordered some Procion MX fibre reactive dyes online. Out of the 8 colours I wanted; the first place I tried could only fill 4. Gladly they posted them the same day and they turned up here Friday! (We only get post delivered 3 times a week so this was even more of a wonderful surprise!)

Soooo, after dinner; whilst everyone else was busy I decided to have a little play! I'm so excited by the results! It's something I've wanted to do for a long time. I am amazed at the brightness of the colours and after I've been through the bright pure colour phase I'm sure I will love coming up with my own blends!

A little bit of shibori.... First on a silk scarf...

Shibori Silk Scarf

.....then on a piece of vintage cotton which I scrunched onto a plastic tube (again something I've always wanted to try!)

Shibori Cotton

I adore how the colours have blended together in places and the scale shapes from the scrunching!

I've also made some progress on my Flaming Heart piece this week; adding beads... I'm also experimenting with ways to depict clouds...

Flaming Heart - beading detail

and....... I just wanted to share this gorgeous op shop find. It is the most beautifully embroidered Chinese jacket. I originally bought it to cut up... but on closer inspection I don't think I will be able to bring myself to! The embroidery is to die for..... I'm not sure whether to get it dry cleaned or wash it myself... One pocket is badly ripped; so will need a lot of attention. Also, a number of the original toggles at the front are unravelled... so I'll have to learn how to stitch them back down. It would make an exquisite evening jacket..... the label looks as if it is about a 1950's vintage.

It is just so beautiful....

Vintage Chinese Embroidered Jacket - back view

The green and blue dyes should arrive from a little further afield on Monday! I can't wait to try them out! Happy days!

of Threads of Life......

I’ve finished ‘Adorn’! I moved a few elements around and am even happier with it now…!

Adorn

Threads of the Past

detail

Adorn

Threads of the Past

I’m entering a couple of pastel paintings and ‘My Tree of Life’ textile piece (that I started in Jude Hill’s SpiritCloth online workshop) into a local exhibition. I managed to get the textile piece framed just in time! I absolutely looove how it turned out… that timber frame is just perfect... I used spacers so the glass wasn’t sitting directly on the fabric. I need to take it in tomorrow... but I like where I have it hanging at home....

I will frame 'Adorn' similarly...

Adorn

This is what I've been working on most of today... Quite unlike anything I've ever done but I have to say it's been very enjoyable to play with!

Adorn

Textile Collage

It won't be mounted on black; that's a piece of black foam core board I use as a mobile design wall!!! I have several of them and they are often full on both sides with Works In Progress!

This piece includes all sorts of vintage and found textiles and bits and pieces! There is a piece of upholstery fabric and trim; some of the onion dyed linen and cotton from the other day; some crotched edges from the tiger lily doiley of Flaming Heart fame..., vintage buttons, organza, pink damask (gifted from Lynda), vintage bead set, beaded sari organza, a little onion dyed stuffed flannel heart and the stamped word 'Adorn'- still to be attached. I will mount this either onto a stretched canvas or mat board to frame under glass.

Such fun to make! (Back to work tomorrow-but how lucky am I to have had a full day playing) Dinner guest tonight; so had better get to the kitchen!

Coloured Progress

I'm liking this so much better...!

The only blue fabric paint I had was metallic, but I think it fits in with the theme! I think I might add some white gauze or muslin clouds at the perimeter........