Showing posts with label embroidery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label embroidery. Show all posts

Tuesday 21 March 2023

Leaf Art and Slow Stitching - Material Mondays


Welcome to Material Mondays, I recently tried my hand at embroidery on leaves and it turned out to be quite an addictive activity. 

I saw an artist - Susanna Bauer and her work - which is amazing, and thought I'd give it a go. 

The leaf I used for this particular project is from a sea grape plant. The plant is normally found by the sea and has edible grapes. The plant acts as a good windbreak and when it dries out, it feels quite sturdy and turns a beautiful reddish color. If you would like to know more about sea grapes you can check out my Gardening Channel HERE.


I also experimented with another leaf from a trumpet tree, which has pretty trumpet-like flowers. 

To begin, I harvested the leaves from trees that had been trimmed or had fallen naturally. It's important to handle the leaves delicately as they are quite fragile. After picking them up, I soaked them in some olive oil - You can use whatever oil you have to hand to give them a nice sheen.  While the leaf will eventually degrade over time, you can preserve it by varnishing or using a gel mat or gloss medium.


For the actual stitching, I used embroidery thread and doubled up two strands and then created a spiral effect on the leaf. I'm still experimenting with different designs, but I'd love to try some crochet designs on leaves as well - check back next week on Material Mondays to see the results. 

The finished product can be framed or used as an outdoor hanging mobile. Overall, this has been a fun and creative way to use leaves from my surroundings. I'm excited to keep experimenting and sharing my projects.  Check out the video to see the process, and also the supplies below.

Supplies:

You can collect dried leaves from your garden or park, or you can purchase dried leaves below:


I hope you get to try them yourself and look forward to seeing what you come up with.





Friday 5 March 2021

100 Days of Embroidery Stitches



I committed to doing the 100 Day Project and decided to do 100 Days of Embroidery Stitches. Here are the ones that I have done so far.



The 100 Day project is about choosing an activity that you will do and you can choose whatever you like.  A couple of years ago I did 100 Days of Pastel Paintings, it enabled me to spend time with my pastels that I had never used and get familiar with them.






You can join me on Instagram as I share them once every 3 days.  There are some that I initially have difficulty with and that is alright, you just have to try your best and come back to it from a different perspective.

For me the main thing is to enjoy the stitches and use them in some of my other stitched projects.  Not all the stitches that I am doing will be suitable, but at least I will know how to do them.

I hope you are doing a 100 Project of your own and enjoying showing up for your self.

Stay blessed and be a blessing.





 

Tuesday 9 February 2021

100 Day Project - What will you do?

So I decided to join in with the 100 Day Project which started on the 31st January. For my project I decided to learn Embroidery stitches.  With some of the fabric pieces that I have been creating I wanted to add some new stitches, so this was an ideal time to support my daily creative practice and learn some new techniques.


I have had this book of embroidery stitches but never committed to learn any of them so it just stayed in my bag that I keep my machine threads.


I have had embroidery hoops for as long and they too just sat around as I never found the time to try them out.  These are my first embroidery stitches and you can follow me on Instagram to see which ones I complete.



I am looking forward to learning all 100 stitches and the emphasis is on learning new stitches.  I know they are not perfect but the whole thing about the 100 day project for me is the following:


  • Committing to the 100 days
  • Learning a new skill that I can apply in my creative work;
  • Remember that I am still learning the stitches and I can't compare myself to someone who has been doing it for years;
  • Showing up for myself;
  • Reminding myself that it doesn't have to be perfect for me to share what I am doing;
  • Congratulating myself for every day that I do show up
  • Have fun!!.





So if you are up for doing a 100 day project come and join us #100dayproject



Looking forward to seeing what you decide to do, remember there is no pressure, just continue to show up for yourself, don't compare yourself and have fun!  Check out the last 100 Day project that I did a couple of years ago where I use pastels for the first time and I have created a few videos of the process - 100 Days of Pastels HERE

Stay blessed and be a blessing!




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