Jump on and join a group of artists/crafts-women as they link around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.
Our question for this month is: Explain How You Do Your Craft?
Okay! Here goes - I surround my working area with as much fabric as possible. Currently, that's silk in all colours of the rainbow, taffetas and sari silks. Mmm. I pull out any colours that appeal. I love this bit! I could get totally lost in the experience....
Then, I take a deep breath. Start snipping. Start arranging, discarding, new colours, new textures, back to the beginning, moving shapes around, replacing...happy. I'm not too specific with my cutting. I like the randomly uneven edges. I lift bits and tuck in some organza for some shimmer. I then move to the machine and start stitching it into place in layers.
Once that's done, I start trimming bits away, and use a pin to fray sections out, or lift and tuck bits I'm unhappy with. Then the fun begins with the beads! This makes or breaks a piece - it adds texture, sparkle and definition.
Ta da! The last part is the finishing. Popping in pendant bails or brooch bars and tidying up the back. I don't enjoy this bit - it often (feels like it) takes almost as long as the item itself, and it's such a dull job!! Now, if I could just train my daughters up, I could pass this bit over to them!!! Now, there's a thought....
Thanks for taking the time to read this! Please pop in on the other merrygorounders over the next day or two, to discover other ways of working - their links are in the sidebar. We're all in different time zones, and busy, so we cannot always co-ordinate posting at exactly the same time...so please pop back later if their post hasn't appeared yet. Thank you!
13 comments:
I have always wondered how you do it... love it :)
Reading this reminded me of the first time I ever saw your work, and wondered how you get started on a project...And this is totally how I imagined it!! Surrounded by beautiful colours and fabrics and textures and glittery things...and I can't stop to marvel at how everything under your fingers come together in such breathtaking combos of colours and shapes! It's decadent and outrageous and beautiful and a slap of warmth and positive vibrations and I could go on and on and on... :) Love it!!!
Lovely to read how you work. I hate the finishing off part too - especially sewing on brooch backs!
Don't give away all your secrets!
I use iron on pelment vilene on some backs. It does the trick without too much fuss.
ha ha, Jackie - I know what you mean!!
Thanks everyone xx
Oh but I love your colours! The idea of training some sort of little helping elf to do the boring bits too...
But I suspect I'll have a harder time even with my cat than you with your children...
Still, it's interesting to see that we all have our boring bits to go through... Or did I mean comforting? Nooo. That would be rather mean, wouldn't it? So unlike me.
I love the idea of surrounding yourself in all those lovely fabrics with such rich colours. I want to do that! Yummy!
You have such strong and bright colors in your work. They way you arrange thing is totally from your artist intuition. It's great.
You have such strong and bright colors in your work. They way you arrange thing is totally from your artist intuition. It's great.
It's like making a collage with lots of different materials!!! sounds great to me... A great part must eb to just walk around town finding fabrics, beads, lint... so many great little bits that can sparkle a new idea!
Your work is amazing, so many colors and textures. Each piece a whole new sensorial experience!
Wow I love your colorful stash photos. heh I think the final steps always bore me too like putting on clasps.
The choosing of materials is the exciting part!
Thanks for sharing.x
A girl after my own heart!
Sxx
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