Friday 21 August 2009

Somthing good always comes out of something bad.



At the beginning of August I went away for a week. On my return my new plant in the garden, that I had lovingly nurtured for a couple of months had been attacked. The flowers and seed heads were still perfect but all of the leaves had been eaten. When I had got over my disappointment I decided to get out the camera and play with the images on photoshop. This got me thinking about my next felting project. I love challenges and this certainly was one. Wet felting was out of the question as my frozen shoulder just is too painful for such energetic movements so I set about making the background on the embellisher. After yet another sleepless night of pain I had come up with a method of creating the leaf and the blue seed pods behind it. The first picture is the result of my multi-layered creation. Now all I have to do it start on the machine embroidery. This is something I haven't done before mainly because my old Bernina machine died on me about 2 years ago and the new cheap sewing machine I bought at the same time as my embellisher doesn't have the the drop feed option. However two weeks ago my mother gave me her Bernina machine so now I am able to try this new technique. I've just ordered Pamela Watts book - 'Beginners guide to machine embroidery'. I can't wait for its arrival so that I can move on to the next stage.
Unlike most experienced felters I haven't got any qualifications in this area. I've been on a one day course on wet felting which was superb and many years ago I spent happy evenings on creative embroidery courses at night school. I teach myself as I go along, making manymistakes along the way but I guess that is how you learn.
Any hints would be gratefully received.

2 comments:

Jasmine said...

Your work is beautiful. I look forward to seeing the outcome. Thanks for the tip on the sewing machine. Its not something I have done before either, i was just about to buy a very cheap basic machine but think I'll check out the features before buying one.

Hope your shoulder feels better soon.

My Passport to Style said...

Totally agree, with the title of your post,your work is so uplifting, I love using and wearing natural fibres. Keep it up, thanks for sharing.Sxx