More Silverclay

This is the other half of the Angel Wings that I made. One half was for me, and the other half was for a friend who is very special to me and without whom my life would be far less rich. She has now received it so I can post the picture of it.

Silverclay

My sister & I have had a lovely day playing with Silver clay making jewellery.



It was hard to get a really good photo because of the light reflection in the bowl. Anyway, it's got small flower with a Sapphire in the centre and a ball with silver sprinkle dust on it in the bowl and the band has a wavy edge to it. Some parts of it have a very shiny finish whilst others have been left burnished to give a bit of contrast.




The pendant above is an angels wing with the word dream. The feathers were etched into the damp clay and the lines were darkened after firing with liver of sulphur. ( Think 'stink bombs here !! ) The letters were impressed using rubber alphabet stamps.



This is the pendant my sister made. It has a dragons head on with mountains in the background. Its beautiful.

What a truly wonderful way to spend a day together.

TRIPTYCH PT 3

I've added a few more shapes to my canvas boards now and a little bit of black and white tissue. Have decided not to add any more as I am quite pleased with the textures and shapes I have created.


I have given the three boards an initial dry brush coating of cream acrylic paint, then another dry brush coating of the same colour emulsion paint as is on the walls.


Finally I have again, very lightly dry brushed over the raised edges with a slightly stronger tone of colour to match and add a bit more depth an highlights to some areas. I like the fact that you can still see some of the colour showing through from the papers etc that I have used to add texture to the boards.

These are my pieces of fabric ready to be cut up into their shapes and edged. Embellishments still need to be added before they are attached to the boards.

And There's More

If doing all that rust dying wasn't enough we decided to make books as well. There is a poem by Kathleen Raine that I have liked for a long time called 'Spell Of Creation' so decided that I would like to put this poem in my book. I decided on a star shaped book and set to printing onto some hand made papers.

My inner leaves and pages printed and ready to be put together

I decided to write the poem, and another one on the inside leaves where it would be almost hidden

The book put together with some extra little books hidden in the folds onto which the poem would be re-written

The book from above showing the construction and layout. Not all the pieces are attached here.

The poem written on the little booklets tucked inside.

The finished book just waiting to have its cover put on.

I feel a Christmas theme coming on for a book this shape but made in fabric!

Fun With Rust Dying

Have just had a fabulous weekend at home with Dot. We had a go at rust dying following the instructions on Purplemissus blog. Undaunted by the fact that it was raining and we couldn't be messy outside we set to inside. It has to be said that doing this indoors is not the best of ideas as ferrous sulphate and caustic soda in a tea bag solution smells foul! But we had great fun anyway.






These first two images are of the fabric first dipped into a solution of soda crystals then into the teabag bath followed by the ferrous sulphate. The very vibrant piece in the bottom right hand corner of the first photo is felt from Whaleys.




The second two photos are the fabrics dipped into a solution of vinegar first. The instructions did say white vinegar ( not white wine vinegar as Dot kept telling me! ). We didn't have very much white vinegar so sloshed some malt into the mix as well. If in doubt, experiment! The colours came out a lot more muted this time, especially on the papers. I used a pippet to apply the ferrous sulphate solution to some of the pieces so that I would have more control over the outcome.

Our lovely array of 'RAGS' hanging out to dry after washing the dye out!

I was ever so pleased with most of the results. A piece of cotton velvet that was dunked into the dye baths took on a beautiful rust and purple hue but all the purple went when it was washed out and I was left with splodges of dark brown, very disappointed with that but I will over dye it with a couple of other bits I didn't like so they won't go to waste.

A Book For My Sister

A little while ago, well quite some time ago actually, my sister asked me to make a cover for her journal. She wanted a moonlight scene with a stone circle and hares. So after much mulling over fabrics, designs and general faffing around I set to in February and this is the result! It is heavily layered and very textural.

This is the front cover of the book with a full moon lighting up a stone circle
and a moon gazing hare. Texture on the stone was created with a
heat expanding medium.

This is the back cover with free machined skeleton tree lit up by the moonlight.

This is the book opened out. Jacquie wanted a spiral and a dragon but didn't know what to else to put in there so I chose a Celtic knot as it represents our Irish heritage and
it is intertwined just as we are.

The Dragon! Friendly but fiery in colour.

SHE LOVED IT!!

PHEW!!