Of beads and pearls and memories of St Ives

Today I have been mostly stitching and beading - with a little felt making thrown in for good measure.  I have been finishing off some pieces which have been sitting around for a while, awaiting the final stages in the transformation from fibres to art.  Also the silk I dyed recently with onion skins has found its home, layered with (and glowing through) some cobweb felt in dark teal.  Bronze sparkly beads in a drift were all that was needed to make a piece that feels 'just right'.  Autumnal felt (wool and silk) was stitched with toning threads of cotton in feather stitch to evoke harvest, and an experiment in undyed organic merino and silk throwsters waste, which I have been looking at for a while knowing that it wouldn't do as it was, no matter how much I loved it, suddenly sprang into life when I selected a small part of it in a 4 inch square mount window, and added some tiny Japanese beads.  I even did a little feltmaking - I was inspired by some salvaged freshwater pearls, and my notebook with sketches taken off the quayside during a visit to St Ives two years ago, to create an aquatic scene with ripples, seaweed and sand (in silk!) and the pearls drifting across the bottom.  Very satisfying to see several months of creativity finally coming together.  Off to the framers tomorrow, as I want to take these to the Summer Art and Craft Fair at Craft Renaissance Gallery, near Usk, where I shall be selling on Sat 14 July.

These pictures aren't as good as I'd like, as I have had to do them indoors with flash because of the continuous rain and gloom outdoors, but they give an idea of the work.  Each picture is 4 inches square,  mounted in 12x12 inch mounts, which are then framed in narrow, dark wood frames.  Unless I am framing a complete piece of felt or weaving (ie attaching it to the front of the mount, with the edges of the work showing) in which case the shape of the mount and frame is dictated by the shape of the work, I often choose a square format with a wide border (with these pieces, the border is as wide as the aperture in the mount) as I find it draws the eye into the work, and gives it more impact than if the frame crowds in too closely.  Having a framer with a good eye helps!

Seashore 2012

Sky 2 2012

Teal and gold abstract 2012

Harvest 2012