Quickly dashing through…..

This year has started with a bang, and I’m already struggling to keep up. It wasn’t meant to be like that – but sometimes life is unpredictable. No complaints, but I have to go out in a very short while. As I mentioned in the last post I am sorting through and passing on some bargains. The vegetarian silk has now gone, and as this is such a specialised product you may wonder why I’ve offered it. Well, today I’m offering some felt – and it’s for the same reason. Both these products are specially made for me. As a result I have to order them in HUGE quantities. Think of the largest number you can accommodate – and then double it. Yes, I really do have to order that much. So, in order to safely and easily store it all I have to make roon. Delivery is soon – so today there are some special felt offers, and others too.

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The felt is viscose. No, it doesn’t burn. Yes, it is soft. Yes, it is easy to stitch into. Yes, you can use it with great success on the embellisher. I’ve used it for many purposes and so have those of you that know and love it. It normally retails at £3.50 a piece. The next order is more expensive so there is a possibility of a price increase, but I’ll let you know about that if it happens. In the meantime I’m offering 5 at half price – that’s £8.75 plus postage. Clicking any of the live links on this page, or the photographs, will take you through to the offers. If you subscribe to the Creative Diary too you will save on postage.

I also have a few packs of lovely ceramic beads. These have many uses and I’ve taught workshops that included them in tassels, fringes, ‘jewellery’ of course, and also just as additions to stitching. The packs are £6.00 plus postage – you will see that you can also buy a mix of everything here.

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Stocks of these are very limited, so it’s first come, first served. There are approx 100 beads in a pack and the selection is varied.

All offers are our choice of colour and the felt will be a selection of colours. They will be posted at the end of the week, but don’t leave it until the last minute as they will run out! Oh, yes, and I’ll include a thread/yarn of some sort or another with the felt – it might be a mix like the one in the picture above. Incidently, the ‘arty’ pictures I’ve used here are of a couple of the quick warm up exercises I’m doing each day. I’ve talked more about them in the Creative Diary. If you haven’t found them yet there are occasional pictures here, but with no information.

Now I have to dash off, all the previous orders are already on their way – we battled through wind and rain to get them to you. Hope you are all managing to stay dry, thankfully we are.

 

Another busy weekend

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Just a few samples produced during the dyeing day at Busy Bees in Newport yesterday. These were the demonstration samples and all the students produced their own variations of these colours…… and lots more. I’ll be returning there next year to teach another technique. Watch out for their new brochure – this year’s class sold out really quickly.

I teach several different dyeing courses. If you are interested in one for your group just get in touch and we will see if we can arrange something.

What I’m working on!

I have a private exhibition looming. It’s an unusual event as it won’t be open to the public, just to a specific group of people. The work that they will see is quite a big step away from some of the things that I have previously created. I’m just beginning a new artwork, and I thought you might like to see a part of the process.

The background fabric will be hand dyed cotton. Dull and dingy it will be a dark mustard in colour with splashes of a slightly brighter yellow and dark blue. It doesn’t sound very attractive or interesting, does it? So, how to make it more interesting? It’s too dark to respond to much more over-dyeing, so the answer is paint.

First some experiments:

blending 1

 

Blending colour is the first step, I don’t like to use ‘raw’ colour straight from the tube or bottle. This looks promising

blending 2

 

Looking better as it is mixed more and more. I’m not using a paintbrush for this process, I have a special blending tool which I’ll tell you about another day. They look good on paper, but will they do on the fabric?

fabric

 

 

Perfect!  Several thin layers of transparent acrylic have been built up. Some of it is printing using an old mouse mat which is a perfect printing surface. The experiments were worth it. Can you guess which colours I used?

colours

 

Did you guess? I love mixing colours – you never know what you will discover. I have never used these colours in combination before, but I will be using them again. Stitching comes next, but first, some more fabric preparation.

Is it time you tried some new colours? Let me know if you do.