Making paper

We went to a papermaking workshop with Lyn Griffiths using plant fibres it was most enjoyable and very informative, Lyn is a great tutor and very generous with her ideas and all her plant pulps which she provided This piece was layers of fibres laid down and then glued with PVA and water just like making silk paper, from the top down, cotton, hemp,soya, bamboo, flax, linen noil, and cotton wool trapped in the fibres are dried rose petals thanks to my husband for my anniversary roses, a leaf, lavender seeds,garlic insides. I then did some machine sewing to help keep it together and as it was for the Fibre & Stitch kitchen challenge I added a piece of star anise a wooden skewer 2 pieces of pasta and some pieces of the mushroom paper all backed by a J cloth

This is made from blanched leeks pulled apart and layered placed between 2 sheets of parchment paper( what would we do with out it) and left to dry for 5 days this one is OK but Lyn`s lookedlike glass most attractive. this type of paper can be made layering, courgettes, kiwi fruit beetroot etc.

This believe it or not is made from a liquidised wasps nest .
Abaca and silver birch bark I don`t think I will be writing many letters with this!
This is made from mushrooms the kind you get from suppermarkets the older the better it is really lovely

Abaca and honesty seeds
Abacaon left & with dried Rosemary on the right
This piece is made from iris leaves it is much darker in real life

Finished at last

This is two closeups of the patchwork bag below

Well it has taken me ages to finish this bag,it is made from indigo dyed fabric that we did at college, the dye bath was pale but I like the slightly washed out look.It was made using a commercial pattern in crazy patchwork I sewed it in the car on planes and whenever I had a spare minute, lots of hand sewing, beads & lace, the ttouble is I am not that keen on it now.

A great day

Doreen made these lovely bags & she has loaned me the pattern so I will have a go at making it

These Budda images were embossed on copper Madi`s is the one on the book & she rubbed hers with green treasure gold I am pickling mine in vinegar to see if it will get a patina

We spent some of the day embossing metal using pewter foil we did these images

We all met up at Madi`s for a great day of crafting and talking we all brought our bodice challenges this is Madi`s small bodice and below she is wearing her superb laced corset . just right for going out clubbing.Doreen has sewn this bodice in lovely colours.

In disgrace again!!

This is my first art quilt bit like a new baby. made from procion dyed cottons it is for my daughter who loves her killer high heels. How she staggers around on them I do not know but then I am just jealous as I could`t squeeze my great feet into anything so dainty or totter about in shoes so high,its Hotters & Eccos now and heaven forbid Cosy feet next!

I walked into the kitchen and saw these beautiful roses and said to my husband " where did they come from?" "An admirer" said he giving me a card, well it was our wedding aniversary and no prizes for guessing who had forgotten, so I shall have to make amends

Please read the instructions

The finished padfolio.

This is the embellished top I then lined it and with the Vilene inside ziggaged around the edges I then put in the papers tied in with the braided ties which were finished off with Filmo hearts

we were allowed extra material & I used some pelmut vilene for stiffening,I embellished all the odd bits of thread ,scrim,wool and felt onto the felt base,supposed to look like Monet`s garden

I keep all my odd bits of fabris & thread to use with the embellisher sad I know, so I gathered the next lot together and started to make a padfolio, thanks to Sue B`s instructions.

Well I produced this piece of work on the embellisher, in under 15 mins. it is for the Fibre Challenge, when I went to there website and saw all the great things people had made it suddenly dawned on me that you have 15 mins to find all the odd bits and pieces not to make the finished item, when will I learn not to read instructions under the influence of red wine.

purple missus

I had a go at "purple missus "painted foil tutorial as it looked so glorious , I had to use PVA glue rather than Golden medium as I didnt have any, but it worked a treat and I do like a bit of shine to brighten up the day.It was painted mauve and the had treasure gold rubbed over, a great effect for little cost or effort, now what to do with it.

My Mother phoned me today, because she wanted to tell me about the end result of the dig we had been on 38yrs ago!! Over the course of 3 summers we had unearthed about 26 Bronze Age graves, my Mother was there most of the time, I was only there when work allowed, so when we found anything interesting like the grave with a shield boss, dagger beads and other goodies I was put back to work on the iron age pits.The bones and grave goods went to the local museum at Devizes, and they had now decided to re-inter them so a local vicar went along to read the funeral service, his daughter read out the Lord`s prayer in Anglo Saxon, which was all a bit strange as they would have been pagan. The best bit of all though was when the Home office was asked for permission to rebury them the reply was we can`t give you permission to rebury them as you never had permission to dig them up, I suppose this makes my Mother and I grave robbers.!

inside of bodice

This is the inside of the bodice , for some reason totally beyond me it didn`t load but I have got it around the right way this time, but I still do not understand how to re arrange the blog once you have done it

The finished article

The front ,back and front of the bodice and the sideways picture shows the front inside, does anyone know how I can edit the pictures during posting please? I cant wait to see what the

other two come up with only one more week and I shall see

Liberating the liberty bodice

Remember these? Takes me back a good few years, I found them tight and uncomfortable, and why am I the only person who had ones that did not undo but still had those rubber buttons?My Mother says she thought that they were warm and comfortable and if I remember having to struggle into mine it must have been too small probably one of my sisters castoffs, which is my excuse for buying more clothes than I really need now, it was because I was deprived as a child! My mother does not have access to a computer so I am quite safe. I decided that I wanted my bodice to be rigid as that is how I remember it, I wanted to make it from calico so how to make it stiff I toyed with the idea of gesso on the inside, but used pelmut vilene as a linimg this worked a treat.I downloaded pictures of corsets and bodices from the net and printed them onto calico, these were machined stitched onto the calico bodice I also stitched pieces of text written on tape and just because my new machine can do it I stitched "liberty bodice" all over. the inside of the bodice had photocopied pictures of the revelant parts of the body bonded to it,I made the buttons from air dry clay and they are lovely & rubbery just like the original buttons