Tag Tuesday-Decay

This week on Tag Tuesday the theme is Decay.

For my tag, I have used a photo I took of some seed heads. I outlined them with a fine liner. Then I framed it using images of rust and torn paper and stamped it.

Work in Progress

I have been making a mood board for a new stitched piece of a sunflower,

for a client, my second commission!

Choosing threads

First stages of stitching

Tag Tuesday-Myths and Legends

I have chosen the unicorn as the subject of my Myths and Legends tag for this week's Tag Tuesday.

I made my tag with a variety of papers to give different textures. They were stamped and coloured and mounted onto card. I found I had a set of " romantic " stamps, which were just right for the job! The background I used to photograph it is William Morris "Briar Rose" pattern, which I thought went with the romantic theme.

Unicorns were a popular subject for tapestries and wall hangings in medieval times.

 I found this charming description of the unicorn and the maiden in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, which uses an extract from le Bestiaire Divin de Guillaume, Clerc de Normandie (13th  Century).   

Hunters can catch the unicorn only by placing a young virgin in his haunts. No sooner does he see the damsel , than he runs towards her, and lies down at her feet, and so suffers himself to be captured by the hunters.

I loved stories about unicorns as a child, but always cried when the unicorn was killed, and it still  makes me feel sad nowadays.

Thatched Cottages

  Last week I posted a tag of a thatched cottage. At the weekend, driving through South Oxfordshire with my husband, I found the picturesque village of Berrick Salome, which is full of thatched cottages! 

Tag Tuesday-Capital Cities

I am running late with my tag again this week! I took a while to decide on my Capital Cities tag. In the end I just wanted to play with my new letter stamps (from Paperchase), as they stand out so well in 3D. I stamped some cities onto some hand made Indian paper, which is very textured, it has a lot of speckles and uneven neutral shades,  making it an interesting background. I coloured in the words with my Pro markers and added some pen and ink sketches of famous sights from London, Paris, New York and Rome. The washi tape round the edge has clocks on it, to show the different time zones

River Thames in Flood at Reading

The River Thames has burst its banks at Reading. I mentioned the flood in my previous post, and today managed to take some photos. 

The River Thames from Caversham Bridge.

 The area to the left of the picture is actually the park and playing fields, now under water!

Riverside path, just by Caversham Bridge is mostly under water.

Where is the path? If you look closely you can see a couple of park benches in the middle of the water!

The tow path on the other side is still open, as it is on higher ground.

Tag Tuesday-Homes/Shelters

 Here in Reading, the River Thames has burst its banks and water has covered all the low lying ground at Christchurch Meadows. In what now looks like a lake, the playground and park benches are visible, and look very odd. We are so lucky to live up on a hill, and I really feel for the people who live down there who have put up sandbags in case their homes are flooded.

Shelters/Homes seems an appropriate subject for this week's tag for Tag Tuesday.

I realise I am running late with my tag, how can it be Friday already! The start of term seemed to come so quickly after Christmas, and I had no sooner sent the men of my household off to their various places of study/work, than it was time for me to begin classes again! I have been at a beading workshop, and still have very little to show for it, as the beads are so tiny, progress is very slow, but I am learning! The painting class I am attending this term also started this week at our local centre, and this week we have been working in acrylics.

For my tag, I was thinking about homes and shelters, and then thought about how a house could be a home for people and at the same time a shelter for animals and birds. I wasn't quite sure where I was going with this, it took me a while to work out how to show this in tag form.

I have made two tags, the first using an image of a thatched cottage (from a magasine), which I put onto a collaged background of blues and greens. I wondered which animals and birds could make their homes there, as one of the drawbacks of having a thatched roof is that it is attractive for nesting birds and animals!

This is what I think would happen! I have enlarged the cottage and drawn it, and added some wildlife! Can you spot the jackdaw nesting on the chimney, the duck and pigeon  nesting under the eaves, the cat inside the cottage, the spider and the butterflies!

Sunflower

I have just finished my first commissioned stitched picture, of a sunflower. The background is printed on a gelli plate, then stamped and the petals were embroidered in layers. The middle is made from beads of three colours.

 A close up

Work in progress

Macro image of the beads

Christmas Books

Christmas is always a good time to get new books, and I always enjoy the feeling of having something special to look at for the rest of the year and beyond.

I had two new textiles books as presents for Christmas, both of which were on my wish list!

Approaches to Stitch edited by Maggie Grey is a compilation of work by six well known textiles artists, Ro Bruhn, Elizabeth Brimelow, Ruth Lee, Sian Martin, Olga Norris and Beryl Taylor. It is available from D4daisy books. 

Sew Wild by Alisa Burke also includes a  DVD, and is full of ideas for ways to produce your own original fabric by dyeing and printing. 

Happy New Year to all of you!

I hope 2014 is a good year, bringing health, wealth and happiness to you.

The New Year's card I have posted is by courtesy of The Graphics Fairy.