Following on from my last post..........
My mother died a year ago today. A widow who had been disabled for much of her adult life, she was nevertheless a cheerful and stoical woman. She loved 'nick nacks' and her small apartment was crammed with fluffy cushions, decorative plates, thimble racks and cases full of ornaments.
I have several of her thimble racks (and a multitude of thimbles!) and had been meaning to play with them for a while. It seemed fitting to make a case dedicated to her.
The dark teak rack was cleaned and a light layer of cream acrylic paint was applied to give it some tooth. Further layers of acrylics were applied and lastly stencilled through a heart shaped paper doily. Edges were 'antiqued' with Distress ink in Vintage Photo.
When I started out I was unclear as to the contents of the shelves. But as the colour developed I knew I wanted a feeling of the the romantic Edwardian era, the Belle Epoque. This led to the inclusion of vintage images of women and children. The objects I included were chosen to this theme but also related to my mother - the tea pot which was constantly full, the food she loved, jewellery, and I even included some lingerie lace as she loved pretty things. These were layered in Ranger Glossy Accents.
I love the result and know she would have loved to see it hanging on her wall.

The Faerie within......

Today I finished a piece of work I've been meaning to do for a while. It is in memory of my mother, who died a year ago tomorrow. But while I was making it I became distracted by the need for a 'prop' for it's photo and remembered that I never did get round to altering that small dress form........
My theme was the faerie within. It comprises several layers of Indian newspaper and flowered tissue paper, collaged with a image of a faerie and music sheets then coated with washes of dilute acrylic paint. It was then highlighted with Crackle Paint, stamped with flourishes in StazOn, and 'antiqued' with Distress ink pads. A final sheen is added with pale gold shimmer glaze purchased from a hardware store and a tiny pair of wings attached to her back.





I'll post the rest of the project up tomorrow.

Just found these!

I'd forgotten about these :) A friend send me a package of random ephemera which contained, amongst other things, a keyhole. I've been addicted ever since!

Here's a fairy:



And I found some lovely chandelier pendants in my album:













Must stop browsing my albums and do some work!

Dominoes

I have the urge to play with dominoes today :) Dominoes are so adaptable and forgiveable. I think these were the first ones I ever altered, for a UKS swap:


Closely followed by:


Made for a friend, to the theme of morning frost:


A charm swap:


And my favourite, for a themed swap:


These days it tends to be inked and collaged though:






But occasionally stamped:


Hm, I think inks and collage is the way to go today :)

Fabric books

I've been having a look through some past projects, trying to get some inspiration, and found some fabric book covers I made several years ago.
This is the cover of the first CJ I ever made, when I had only just heard of scrapbooking - a friend had invited me to join a group. The fabric is an early 1970's Laura Ashley called Sweet Alyssum. It has a slightly wonky frame but is a promising start:


Later I joined a CJ for faith journals, this cover is very stroke-able:


I thought I'd try my hand at something new with a FaithscrappersUK journal, my theme was Protestify (ie speaking out against injustice) and I used a calico base to layer paints and stamp. It is great to handle, very textured:


I never did finish the cloth 'file' I made in just one hour during a cyber crop event:


However, that journal does at least contain one of my favourite pieces:


The above page was created by printing part of 'The Annunciation' on an ordinary piece of calico in an inkjet printer. I then created a frame from upholstery fabric but instead of removing all the inner fabric I just removed the horizontal ones, creating a curtain effect in front of the angel. This represented the secrecy of the visit. I decorated with various yarns and handmade sari beads and mounted the scene on brocade. This was one of my first adventures into textile pages and I still have a soft spot for it.

Thought I'd share some bird charms I recently made. These were made from polymer clay which was conditioned, stamped and then cut with cookie cutters. An attachment hole was added before baking. Afterwards I layered pastel shades of acrylic paints to 'age' them. These are for a project for my shop but I have another similar group I'm embellishing for a charm swap.

Tumbling free.......

Thought I'd show the results of my tumbling experiments.
Firstly, my first tumbling, some basic rough rock mix, tumbled over 3 weeks with decreasing grit grades. These will be drilled and used to form jewellery.


Then I smashed up a cheap Willow Pattern plate and tumbled that. It took far less time to tumble than the rock and I love the results, some of which will be wire wrapped as pendants and some drilled for other jewellery.


So I threw in some smashed up china..........


....hmm, not so good, took ages to tumble and the decoration eroded! But it has potential for stamping:


I now have plans to tackle some larger pottery and perhaps see if I can erode some of mum's old china thimbles.