Skip to main content

The 100 Day Project #3 & #4




Days 3 and 4 #The100DayProject #100pinpoems

My pin poem for day 2 was rather dark and I heard that my granddaughter was finding self isolation and schooling from home was a bit difficult last week. #3 then became an affirmation, far from a traditional haiku but still with the  3 line formation with 5-7-5 syllables. 
Be like a princess
Wear your invisible crown 
Love the self you are. 
The pin is a machine embroidered one - free form. This is done fairly quickly, directly onto the fabric. As you can see from the photo above, I use a "darning"  or "embroidery" foot , with straight stitch, and the sewing machine feed dogs lowered. For this kind of small exercise, I put the fabric into a hoop and I usually do a warm up before tackling the "real" work. I think the main tip with this sort of machine stitch 'drawing' is to always remember to keep the fabric moving and foot on the pedal. 


For Day 4, I made a small collage depicting the super moon of the last few nights. I started with an amateurish photo ....
 I am often asked how to start a collage.... I always start with a photo or a drawing for reference. Then ...choosing materials - fabric and/or paper. I usually sit the materials around me and "rehearse" them together, in different combinations, checking for good contrasts, complementary colours, textures and weight. 
 For this collage, I used very little variety of material, a dark blue, painted paper, organza and snippets from an organza ribbon After laying out the fabrics, I did some machine stitching as well as a few stitches by hand around the moon. 
'Super Moon aglow 
Dismisses cloudy darkness
New day beginning . '
And if you hadn't already seen #1 and #2

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Too Precious to Waste

 Stitched tea bags/ old doily "tea lights" - Wilma Simmons  More than a year ago, a decision was made.  The annual exhibition of NCEATA ( Newcastle Creative Embroiderers and Textile Artists) 2015-2016 will have the theme "Mottainai". Mottainai in Japanese refers to more than just physical waste (resources). It is even used to refer to thought patterns that give rise to wasteful action. Grammatically, it can be used in Japanese as an exclamation ("mottainai!") or as an adjective phrase ("it feels mottainai"). There is no plural form. The collection of mottainai things could be called mottainai koto ( もったいない事 ? ). As an exclamation ("mottainai!") it means roughly "what a waste!" or "Don't waste." [2]  A simple English equivalent is the saying "waste not, want not." A more elaborate meaning conveys a sense of value and worthiness and may be translated as "do not destroy (or lay waste to) that

Fish and Sticks : Art Dolls

This week I've been working on fish and sticks ....  The sticks are the message stick art dolls which were very popular, attracting some attention and a few orders at the Wise Women exhibition. Each of the message stick dolls are from the Wise Women series, each with her own personality and  message of wisdom, handwritten on a handmade timber tag. I gather the sticks during my walks around my neighbourhood and the tags are made from special bits of timber, some collected by me or  my husband or from off cuts gifted to us  from another doll making friend whose husband makes bagpipes. These dolls start off very simply with a wrap around a stick, in the general shape of a body. 'Naked" message stick dolls - strips of wadding wrapped around found sticks.   Then I usually wrap other layers of fabric, wool, and/or fibres, over which I do some simple embroidery. I sculpt  or mould small face masks for these dolls. I really like using "sari ribbon" as wrapping str

May I Present Mrs Chalumeau...

Finally Mrs Chalumeau takes a bow …She is a Pearly Queen … 695 buttons on the doll and 10 on the journal.(I think – could be more). I would like to thank Paula from Antiques and Collectables here in Hamilton, Newcastle and Raku Buttons ETSY seller for supplying me with about 500 of the vintage mother of pearl buttons, and the rest I had in my stash. I think they look great on my pearly queen, but I am truly tired of sewing on buttons. It made me think however, how many buttons must be on the elaborate clothes of the real pearly Kings and Queens! I drew my inspiration from the lovely lady pictured here, and the following description from Wikipedia. ... A Pearly King ( feminine form Pearly Queen) is a person dressed in a traditional Cockney costume covered in mother-of-pearl buttons. These costumes were treasured heirlooms, hand made and sometimes representing much of a family's wealth. .... This doll is all cloth – a little different from most of my other dolls which generally h