Starfish

I live on the sea shore now! After 10 months that's still so novel and exciting.

One of the marine themes I've been exploring, on and off, is starfish. Such a variety of shapes, colours and patterns, who could resist? 

I started with a favourite technique - FME on soluble to make lacy shapes. These cast pretty shadows if they're mounted on pins and lit at an angle.

I was a bit disappointed with these tbh. Not sure why... too far from the original inspiration, and not interesting enough in ordinary daylight? And, I remembered I meant to give up creating fragile wall pieces that need box frames and are impossible to photograph! So I didn't take them any further. They're just pinned randomly on polystyrene here.

So, going off at a tangent, I tried felted crochet next. A nice loosely spun pure wool, in pink-orange-red. I tried raised, textural crochet stitches, and plain crochet with chunky French knots. After felting in the washer they looked like this:

The really knobbly one, using popcorn stitch, is fun - it's very 3D. And the French knots worked well too. Now what? These are quite big (9-12cm), but perhaps smaller ones, made with finer wool, would make brooches?

Back to the Bernina, and soluble fabric (I never stay away long!). But not lacy embroidery this time - the soluble fabric allowed me to decorate a cut out felt sunstar. Embroidering felt this way means you can go over the edges, and end up with a slightly stiffened shape without the usual fluffy edges. It's only about 6cm, so don't zoom in. More brooch potential, I thought...

A wildlife trust walk at an exceptionally low tide provided my first glimpse of living maerl beds. Maerl is coralline red algae, a sort of seaweed with a hard chalky skeleton that grows unattached on the sea bed. It provides shelter for a wide range of marine creatures, including brittle stars.

I used the embellisher to create my maerl bed, needle felting lengths of pink-purple textural yarns to white felt.

Then I machine embroidered brittle stars on soluble fabric.

 The brittle stars were fun, so I made a whole tangle of them for another little framed piece:

That led to the idea of a lacy structure of finer brittle stars held together by crossed legs!

Instead of mounting in a frame, maybe something like this could hang in a window?

Aargh, there I go again, creating things that are impossible to photograph nicely! (for me, anyway)

And finally (for now), I tried a brittle star bowl. Just a little one, 7cm diameter. The most open bowl I've ever made, and a very different technique to my Botanic, Ice and Metamorphic designs. Amazingly, it worked!

The idea needs some refining, and I didn't like the brittle star centres, but it's opened up a world of new possibilities... watch this space! 

UK Handmade magazine

The summer issue of this lovely, FREE online magazine is out today – and one of my stitched bowls is featured! No, I didn’t pay them, aren’t they kind?

Lots of other handmade goodies too – take a look here:

Folksy Summer Sampler

Look what popped through my letterbox!

It’s Folksy’s “Summer Sampler”, sent out to tempt more people to take a look, get involved, spread the word about the UK’s alternative to Etsy.

It folds out to A2, with a lovely selection of hand crafted goodies on one side and makers’ stories on the other.

Why did I get one? It’s those bowls again! One of my Cottage Garden bowls is pictured in the “Stuff We Love” section. <blush>

Aren’t I lucky? A big thank you to everyone at Folksy, and let’s hope it brings us all lots more friends and customers.

Shop talk

As the sun finally put in an appearance today, I took the opportunity to photograph a couple of new bowls.  They’re now in my Etsy and Folksy shops,  replacing ones that sold.    

While I was playing shop, I thought I’d better review my postage costs. I’ve always been a big supporter of the Royal Mail, and the situation they’re in isn’t their fault, but the recent price increases are stunning. The cost of posting one of my feather-light bowls to a UK address has gone up 55%. For other addresses it’s 60%. Unbelievable.

So if you sell online too, don’t forget to check that you’re charging enough for postage and packing, allowing for PayPal’s cut as well.

And remember that Folksy’s charges for listings and sales have gone up too! 

Water’s Edge Bowl

At last, I’ve added a new bowl design to my collection. This one is meant to evoke the margins of a lake or pond in summer, with impressions of bulrushes, flag irises, cotton grass and forget-me-nots amongst rushes and grasses.

Like my Meadow, Country Garden and Hedgerow bowls, it’s constructed entirely of thread – free machined on soluble fabric.

I’ve made three so far, and the first one is in my Etsy shop. But now I’m wondering (a little late, I know), do those plants have the same names in other countries? My description might make no sense at all to someone who’s not in the UK! Hmm, bit of research needed.