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!

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.

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.