The Mighty Oak

Once again my sister and I have been playing with 'Silver Clay'. There was a little bit of clay left over from the last time we 'played', not enough to make anything too large so we turned the clay into paste so we could paint leaves with it.

I love Oak Trees, they are the quintessential 'English' tree and not far from to us there is a tree that is reputed to be upwards of 600 years old. It is very gnarled and the massive trunk has had to have a metal brace placed round it to preserve it as the trunk has split. With true British spirit it comes to life every year and is beautiful.



So we decided to use oak leaves, not I hasten to add taken from the 600 yr old tree! They were taken from my sisters tree. The leaf needs to be washed gently before starting, once that was done we could paint to our hearts content. Not a fast process as each layer has to be painted on thinly and dried before the next one can be painted on. In all it took 10 layers of silver clay paste for it to become strong enough to withstand use. Once totally dry they were fired and polished up. The veining was highlighted by adding 'liver of sulphur' to hot water and immersing them for a couple of minutes before re polishing to remove it from unwanted areas. A 'bail' has been added to the back of each one so I can hang them from a chain etc. We've both ended up with 2 beautiful silver (925) leaves.

Play Time!

This year my sister & I have decided to set each other a challenge for Christmas. The rules are very simple, we both have to have the same basic present with a price limit of £10. Once we have found something we both like we then have free reign to fill it with any manor of things, but whatever we fill it with has to be made from anything we have to hand in the house. No extra expenditure is allowed!

So now we've found some lovely wicker Trugs for the garden........

the fun can really begin.................

My first 'make' to go in the trug is an apron made from a t-towel. I have a bit of a t-towel fetish and buy lovely ones then hide them in the back of the drawer as I don't want to get them stained!! Virtually all my t-towels have dye stains on them!! At the beginning of the year I bought some lovely mint coloured ones from Asda and duly hid them! I came across them whilst tidying out the drawer and decided it was time to put one of them to a good use.

To the basic t-towel I added three pockets made from my stash of fabric and an extra long tie so it can be wrapped round the waist and tied at the front. I folded the two top edges of the t-towel round to the back just to add a little shape to the top of it. Eh Viola!

Now....what can I make next.............................?

The Call Of The Sea

For a piece of my course work I had to make a bowl of some description. Having recently spent much time by the sea I knew instantly what I wanted to do.

So, on a piece of pelmet vilene I had bondawebbed I laid torn up strips of fabric, cotton, sheers, silks & nets in a spiral pattern. Starting with the darkest in the centre spiralling out to the whites for the crests of the waves at the edges. I also added some chopped up silver threads sprinkled onto the white areas before covering the whole with a fine piece of net. To hold it all together I vermicelli stitched it all over and then stitched a wave around the top edge.

The edges were then shaped to mirror the waves before stitching the sides together. As a finishing touch I stitched some shells and sea glass to the inside. I'm ever so pleased with the finished result!

Aren't I A Lucky Girl!

We went to beautiful Cornwall at the weekend to see our 'Oldest & Dearest' friends. My wonderful 'Dearest' friend had made me some beautiful baskets to keep my treasures in.

Not only that, there were two dear little felt cupcakes too!!
I feel a 'tidy up' coming on now so that I can display them properly.
Thank you so much my friend. I love them!

A Bit More Dyeing

So having bought some alum it was time to do more dyeing. I had saved some bits I had pruned from the grape vine and after soaking them overnight boiled them for nearly 3 hours to get the colour out of them.

I really like the soft coffee colours achieved with this. The silks really lapped the dye up.


The next one I tried was Ivy. Chopped up fresh leaves and stems into a pan and again boiled them for nearly 3 hours. No overnight soaking. Now I have to say here that Ivy doesn't smell so good when it's boiled, in fact it stank the house out and gave me a headache! There's a lot to be said for doing this outside on a camping stove!!!! Anyway, that said I love the range of colours I've achieved on the different fabrics from a soft creamy green through to quite and acid colour on the silk.



So onto number three.....Dandelion roots, of which there are plenty in my garden! For every 1 I dig out another 10 seem to appear! Again they were soaked overnight and boiled for the best part of 3 hours. The liquid in the pan was a lovely rich dark brown colour. I have to say I was initially a little disappointed with the final colours achieved given that the dye bath colour looked so lush. But, having looked at the results for a while they are growing on me. Again, it seems to be the silks that take on the most colour.

Trust me, I've gone and spelt dandelion wrong on the label!!

The next batch of dyeing will be done outside!

Beside the Sea!

I have just come back from a wonderful week in Cornwall. The sun shone for virtually the whole week, my face is sun burnt & wind burnt and my legs are sore from all the walking we did! It was so lovely to sit by the sea and listen to the sounds of the waves.

This morning, I just had to have a play in my sketch book to remind my of my week. So using things I had scavenged from the beach I created my own piece of the seaside.

The page was first coated in a layer of decorators caulk then the shells, seaweed, pebbles & glass were added. Before it had the chance to start drying sand was sprinkled over the top. Once dried it was washed with blue and green inks

My very own little bit of Cornwall!

Garden Treasure Continued

I have been sketching the lovely pieces of bark I found in the garden. I love cutting up photos and filling them in to see what happens.


I have also been playing with sellotape to remove the photo from it's backing. Place sellotape over the photo and press down well. Soak in warm water for a few minutes then gently rub the reverse side to remove the paper. I've placed mine over a coloured textured piece of card. This has definite potential!

Now I just need to get some wide clear parcel tape to play with this a bit more.