A Blast from the Past

We decided to have a clear out in our loft including my old City and Guilds [embroidery] college work and I came across these two Christmas cards in a file. The spikes were made with wide gold ribbon I think although I cannot remember how I made it. I think they maybe called Prairie points. The green card is only about 3" high.

Another item I came across were these earrings which I quite like although I don't wear earrings so I won't be wearing them. Goldwork - beads, cord net.

I rather liked this little poppy picture, hand painted fabric and embroidery

Another card, also handpainted fabric and embroidery.

Another picture with various textures and embroidery

And this textured tree which has now gone with the rubbish collection today. Layered leaves, wool was used for the grass.

I did get rid of quite a bit of stuff, mainly files with paper, samples and lots of empty boxes.

Gifts to Arty Friends

The gifts to my arty friends were all based on a kind of Russian doll, I'll explain more further down.

My gift to Gill was three cards of art buttons. 

I altered Graphics Fairy images for the backing cards.

For Helen I made some earrings, on one side the man and the woman on the other. I printed my artwork on t-shirt transfer paper.

 I gave Marian a hand painted brooch. After painting I stitched around the lines and edges on the sewing machine.

Vicky was given a hanging doll of herself, one one side I drew her features and on the other the original photo. I used t-shirt transfer paper again. This particular type came out quite plasticky but it may have been because I didn't read the instructions fully[doh!], but it worked out OK for the gifts, it may not feel good on a t-shirt though. I have done something else since and it was not quite as plastic like but not quite so shiny.

I also designed some wrapping paper and gift tags which I printed on my inkjet. I also made little boxes for the jewellery and covered them in the paper. Click on the images for a closer look.

The project was/is to do with culture and I chose to concentrate on historical fashion presented on a Russian like doll. These are some pages from my sketchbook, the start of the project and I used some of these pictures for the above gifts and paper.