Saturday, April 1, 2017

Odonate bag

I don't make bags very often these days, so it's always a treat to have an excuse to.  This one was a gift for a friend in Winnipeg, who recently lost an old one I made for her years ago, in a fire.  We both have dragonflies (and other aquatic bugs) and wetlands in common.


I thread-sketched the dragonflies and damselflies, and touched up the wings and bodies with acrylic paint.  If you know your bugs, these ones should almost be identifiable!





Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Bowls, with a twist!

I'm back to making bowls (it's addictive, once I get into it), this time with a twist.  I'm combining the techniques of fabric bowl making with my Olde Riverside tree canvas stitched pieces.  I'm using paper (beautiful Thai marbled mulberry papers) instead of fabric, and adding a couple of coats of varnish to finish off the surface, for a smooth and shiny look.









Sunday, March 12, 2017

Fabric Vases

I taught a Fabric Vase class this week. 

I've made fabric bowls before (lots and lots, a few years ago), but had never tried my hand at fabric vases, which seem a bit tricky due to their tall shape (I had to figure out how to get them under the sewing machine).  Here are a couple of my simple ones:



The more advanced vases took a little longer to make, and were more intricate:



And here are the ones made by the 2 ladies who took my beginners vase class:



Mixed-media doodled cards


More of the doodled zentangle-like designs, turned into notecards.  I'm playing around with some mixed-media collage, adding bits of scrapbooking paper, stamping and using painted watercolour paper.  Some stitching as well, for texture.





The 2 large cards below (dimensions about 6x8") were really fun to work with.  Because they were large, and not standard-size, I made custom-sized envelopes for them from colourful calendar sheets.