Blooming Daft

What was I thinking… the deadline I set for my first attempt at a little giveaway was far too short. Especially as it’s half term, I hadn’t realised. Sorry, I’m really not with it at the moment.

So I hope nobody will mind, but I’ve decided to add on a week. Follow me and leave a comment by 9 a.m. GMT on Monday 5th November to enter the draw for a Bloom brooch (see previous post).

Winter Lux

Tomorrow sees the opening of this Christmas exhibition at the lovely Platform Gallery in Clitheroe, Lancashire. There’s a nice little slideshow here to tempt you along.

 

“Star Lace – Orion” (above) is one of my framed pieces that’s included, along with a selection of Bloom embroidered brooches (below).

The lacy brooches are also available in my Etsy and Folksy shops if you can’t get to Clitheroe!

New Brooches

This week I’ve been working on some new little brooches along the same lines as my bowls and bookmarks. Well not everyone can offer a suitable home for a bowl that’s not intended to hold anything, can they? And lots of people have Kindles so they don’t need a bookmark…

 

Note my valiant (?) efforts at “styling”… I find this so difficult, trying to come up with suitable props and backgrounds. I need to work on it though, as apart from adding interest, it helps with the problem where pieces show up at many times life size in my shops – NOT flattering for free machining!

The first few of these are in my Folksy and Etsy shops now.

Bloomers

Or, flowers… but did that grab your attention?!

Hot off the Bernina – a batch of “Bloom” brooches, now launched in my Etsy and Folksy shops.

The design was inspired by alliums, and they did start off in suitable shades of purple, but the colours have branched out a bit now… there’s no limit really, I could do rainbow ones! Each flower head is made up of four layers, free machined on dissolvable fabric and put together to make a lacy, three-dimensional structure.  

I made the first few for Textilia’s recent exhibition at Farfield Mill, to tie in with one of my framed pieces, and they sold out. But for this new batch I’ve switched from stick pins to tiny brooch backs. They looked good on long metal “stalks”, but that effect was lost when they were pinned on clothing, and the stick pins were a bit thick anyway. These will work better on fine fabrics I think.

Only trouble is, they look HUGE in the photos in my shops – bigger than life size, of course they don’t seem as delicate and lacy as in real life. Hmm. There’s an awful lot to learn with this online shopping business.

Differing Viewpoints

The new Textilia III exhibition opened yesterday in Halifax (details on the website). We had a lovely opening, thanks to Karen Lewis and Joan Tillotson of Calderdale MBC, as well as Rachel, Jane and Margaret of Textilia III who did all the hard work. All I had to do this time was hand over my work - four framed pieces and five little bowls, all on my Antarctic theme. I took a few pics for the group website but they're not great as there were a lot of reflections.

Apart from that I'm still putting together ideas for the christmas shows. Inspired by a custom request on Etsy (thanks Nia!) I made a batch of embossed velvet brooches. And remembered how much I love those - when they work that is, lots don't get past quality control! I think they'll be great for one of the shows.

Still on textile jewellery (something of an obsession), I'm also designing new felted crochet corsages and possibly necklaces too. A lot of trial and error here - I made some real horrors! But maybe some promising ones as well? We'll see.