F is for flimsy fusible film ... a freebie from Ario which arrived this week. I had fun playing with the film, stitching, painting, heating it in various combinations. I've used Stewart Gill fusible film before so I knew it's properties. The piece I was sent has beautiful irridescent colours of white, pearl pink, pale yellow and blue/green tones
I cut some leaf shapes and played. I used accrylic paint in rose madder mixed with superfine metallic bronze powder in "Crimson Copper" (my latest favourite thing!)
This is what the film looks like when heated with a heat gun. The texture changes, the colours deepen, bubble shapes appear and the film hardens as it cools. The film is still flexible enough to be stitched through after heating though
When heated, the irridescent colours in the film are more prominent
F is for flickr friends and faves. I love flickr so much! I'm constantly amazed and inspired by the beautiful photographs and talented artists on flickr. My mosaic today is made from awesome abstract artwork from my flickr friends and faves!
1. Mosaic 2. Untitled 3. Ghost Tree No.2 4. P1020330 5. écheveau créé par Dominique M 6. | 7. Tree 8. Something about dreaming in the winter time 9. Sic 90 10. La vallée de l'amour 11. Nature is an artist 12. Pleasing 13. Rusty chain
Can you guess what it is yet?
F is for fruit, juicy and full of flavour. Yes, my photo is of the inside of a flavorking plum, so rich in my favourite red shades and so tasty too!
F is for bundles of Fun!
My bundles for the "Erosion Bundle Project" are coming along. They are all showing weathering and signs of life and I'm pleased to notice this one has lovely earthy red colouring and patterns
Mother nature truly is an artist! Look at these lovely patterns! It's so exciting! My bundle is now back outside hanging in the exact same place in the ivy branches. Can't wait till 15th April when I can open the bundles up ... although I'm going to wear several pairs of latex gloves, I think, because I'm not at all keen on crawly things (ugghh!)
F is for flowers (fleurs) brought back from Egypt pressed between the pages of a book
F is for fabrics. This is my hand stitched slow cloth piece that I'm slowly working on ... slowly developing ...
I started this a long time ago but wasn't happy with the way it was going. I'd forgotten all about it when I found it at the bottom of a box as I was rummaging around in my "reds". There were many elements of the original piece I didn't much care for so I took it to Egypt, unpicked the lot, and started again!
This is what it looks like now. I started in the centre by hand stitching on pieces of burgundy silk with long running stitches. I left the edges raw which were black. Then I added black and gold braiding. Next, I stitched down pieces of hand dyed cotton (pinky reds) and then more black and gold braiding
It's as far as I've got for now but I'm happy with it so far. I like that the piece is inspired by a trip to Thailand many years ago, but stitched in Egypt! The hand stitched pieces of silk remind me of steps up to a Temple, of which I visited many while in Bangkok and Koh Samui
It's very rich and very red. I know that not everyone likes quite this much red, but I love it!
Here are some more fabrics I brought back with me from Egypt recently
I made some more mini collaged tags using some snippets of the Egyptian fabrics, postage stamps, coins, beads and buttons. The "ribbons" are recycled plastic netting
"Queen Ti" and "Horemheb"
I used a snippet of Arabic writing from a coffee creamer sachet and red curling ribbon
These are the tags I used
I distressed them with tea dye, gold acrylic paint and Tim Holtz distress ink, photographed on an Arabic newspaper
I noticed
this detail
between
the tags
which I
really liked!
Lovely inspiring patterns from a book I have
More stamps, coins, patterns and my inchie for the letter F
My inchy for the inchy alphabet challenge is F for "face" ... the beautiful face of Queen Nefertari, the best known Egyptian Queen after Cleopatra, Nefertiti and Hatshepsut. Nefertari was the wife of Ramesses the Great. I made my inchie using a tiny bit of the fabric from Egypt and cut round an image of Nefertari from a postage stamp
Ramesses built a temple to Queen Nefertari at Abu Simbel. You can see it in the postcard of Abu Simbel in my last blog
Goddess Isis giving an Ankh to Nefertari
I am really inspired by this image I found of this parchment, the Book of the Dead, and wanted to include it here to remind me later. The patterns, heiroglyphics, colours and fragility of the parchment totally inspire me
For those of you that want to see even more bits from my Egypt trip I posted some more photos here: Egyptian Inspiration otherwise that's it with Egypt for the time being!
Hope you have a really lovely weekend
Carolyn ♥