CALYX 2

For this particular Calyx I have been working on making precious little pieces of art that can be tucked into a birthday card... or hung between doorways... or given as a small gift... or...

I made three different 'fabrics' in blue, red and green by combining various fibres such as silks, chiffons, tulles and fuse them together into many layers. I cover the entire piece with machine embroidery and burn it to reveal different colours. I then add hand stitching and embellishments, then add a handmade cord around the edge to finish the piece.

The progression...

Closeups of some of the thirty-six I made:

And some scale for size comparison!

CALYX 1

I made four different flowers out of copper shim for shows in past years and have one left in my stock. They featured embossed metal and free machine embroidery mounted on different backings.

The one I had left was a poppy mounted on a quilted black linen, and in discussion with my daughter on why we thought it never sold, we decided it was too stark of a contrast between the solid geometric background and the very organic flower.

So I decided to just go for it and pulled out coloured pencil crayons and start adding texture to the background - I love how it turned out!!

The before photo showing the solid background with selection of colours to be added...

  

Me working away...

 

 After I finished it I had to 'fix' the colours onto the cloth and this toned them down slightly. The final results, with detail shot...

 Will see what reaction it gets at the sale this weekend!

Playing with a new type of art...

I have been experimenting with a new working format for pieces in the upcoming Saskatchewan exhibition based upon our study session in southern Saskatchewan back in 2008. The working title for the show is Dreaming Patterns: Stitching Memories and everyone will be making pieces the same 12" x 24" size.

My new technique is a mixed media collage with a lot of machine and hand stitching on a stiff background. The entire piece is then painted white and layered, layered, layered with transparent acrylics to come up with a colour scheme. Machine and hand stitching is added on top with various other embellishments (could be beading, tags, collage.)

These were my experimental pieces about 8" x 18" which I was selling at the previous Calyx show.

Called Serenity, this one has paper beads, french knots filling burlap squares, and 

seed stitch acting as a filling stitch.

This one is called Peace and has gilding, lace, tags, and brads.