New design

I got asked to make a little silk pouch for someone, which I have just done this week.  I really like the result, and am considering making a line of them in assorted colours - I'd appreciate some feedback, so let me know what you think!  I hope she likes it, too!

It's a simple, rectangular, flat, open top pouch, lined in grey silk on the inside, with a long cross-body strap. 

Work in Progress

I am working on new clutches, intending to have them ready for the Studio Tour in a couple of weeks.  I listed one on Etsy the other day, rainbow stripes on a white background.  It seemed to make sense to have a rainbow on white one, as I'd already made some rainbow on black. 

I am also re-working the scarves, I think they work better opened up, rather than sewn in the round as 'tubes'. 

Lastly, I have been using up my accumulated small scraps of silk that I can't use in the clutches/butterflies, i started free-motion stitching them down onto a tear-away stabilizer, intending to use the results as bookmarks and on cards, but I like it so much, I've cut a couple of larger pieces from it, and will be making 'patchwork' clutches from those pieces, and using the rest as originally planned. 

Textile Museum

Friday and Saturday the Textile Museum of Canada (in Toronto) had its yardage sale fundraiser - they gather donated fabric, notions, patterns, garments, crafts, yarns, books, etc. and have a tent sale each May.  I went on Friday, and scored some super beige silk dupioni (which I use in both my butterflies, and my clutches), 4.6m + 1m for $20!  I also got two bags of wool fibre, and a cute frog pattern 'batik' style piece of quilting cotton. 

Drop Spinning

A little while ago I bought myself a drop spindle, to try out spinning yarn.  Lately I've tried out a few pieces, some undyed/natural and others various colours --

L to R: hemp (?), flax (?), wool with metallic thread, wool with silk thread, 3 similar shades of wool, alternating yellow and peach wools

drop spindle, yarns

white wool, brown wool, grey wool with white silk fibres, hemp (?), flax (?)

Christmas season

I hope everyone is getting their shopping, baking and decorating done!  :)  Here's a couple more images of the clutches!  Eleven different colour combinations are now listed, and there's still about 4 in progress, plus a list a page long of other combinations I'll be working on.  I'd love to know what you think of them? 

Clutches, Etsy Shop Sale

I'm up to the first 5 clutches posted! 

I'm also offering free shipping in both my Etsy shops this coming weekend, Nov. 25-28.  You'll need to use coupon code SHIPPING at checkout. My textiles and painting are here, and my beaded jewellery here.

Clutches!

I'm excited to tell you that the first silk clutches are up on my Etsy shop!!  There are three sizes, a mini, a classic (a long narrow shape, size similar to many clutches), and an ultra (which is extra large).  I will be adding more colour selections soon, as they are completed and photographed.  I can also do custom colour combinations. 

Shown below is the mini.  :) 

Evening Clutches Coming Soon!!

I know it's been a while, but the first few silk evening clutch purses are nearly ready!!  There will be 3 sizes/shapes to start out, and I'm just going to see how they go and adjust accordingly.  Here's a little teaser photo!  Look for them in my Etsy Shop soon, I'll post again when they're up. 

Also, go check out this blog post where of my bookmarks is featured! 

Coming Soon

One of the next projects I'll be working on, and adding to my Etsy shop, is some evening purses.  I had a promo postcard with this image at the TOAE show over the weekend and it got lots of comments, so it's given me a push to make some.  I'm committed next to making wedding invites for a friend, so these evening purses won't be ready for a few weeks, and the design needs some tweaking so they won't be exactly like this, but they're being planned! 

Remember, Remember

I should have noted in my last post that it was the 5th of November - Guy Fawkes day.

Today, the 7th, has been a lovely sunny day. I'm trying to work really hard on things for the Piecework show in 3 weeks time, to which end I picked up some additional shadow box frames today.

The frames are for the silk free motion embroidered butterflies I've written about a number of times, otherwise known as my Psyche collection. I've created an online portfolio of a selection of those and a full explanation of the collection, which you can look at here:

Open publication - Free publishing - More thread

Silk and Opera

Took a little trip to the fabric shop yesterday, got some great thread colours, and some pieces of silk dupioni - one of my favourite fabrics.

Spent the evening watching a great production of Carmen on TV. Very dramatic!

More updates coming soon...

Tea Staining

I'm preparing for some new work, so yesterday I tea stained some silks.  Many of my colours are bright/dark commercially dyed ones so the tea staining isn't obvious, it just gives a subtle effect to the colour.  I like how some of the colours bleed in the hot tea soak.  This isn't always what you want though so if you're trying this out, you might want to only stain one colour or like colours at a time, otherwise you can end up with (for example) red blotches on green silk.

Green Tea

Green tea does work!  It's lighter.  These were soaked about an hour.  The left was a white silk dupioni, the right was an off-white silk dupioni.

Tea Staining Tutorial

I used tea staining in my butterflies which have been mentioned before.  It's great for giving an aged look to fabrics and fibres. 

First, it works best on natural fibres - wool, silk, cotton, etc.  It works because the tannins naturally present in tea act to hold colour onto fibres.  Pre-washing your fabric is a good idea to get rid of chemicals from the manufacturing process.

Beside that, it's pretty simple - boil water, make strong tea.  What I did was to make the tea a bit stronger than I would if I were drinking it.  I used black tea (ie. ceylon, chai, earl grey, orange pekoe).  Each tea is a little different and so your shade may be different also.  **  You should test small swatches before staining a larger piece. **  The strength of the tea and how long you soak your fabric will affect how dark it stains as will the weight of the fabric.  A lighter/thinner fabric will take less time. 

You will get a more even colour if you make your tea in a container that will have enough room to move the fabric around, and stir it every few minutes or so.  If the fabric is more tightly packed into the container you will get uneven colour, more like a tie-dye effect where the colour bleeds and fades.  This can look really neat, but may not be what you want.

So, if you're staining a yard or so of fabric, fill a large pot or sink with freshly boiled water.  A hot soak will work better than cold.

NOTE 1:  It's best if you use an old pot that is not used for food.

NOTE 2:  Be more careful about temperature with wool.  Heat and friction can both cause wool to felt, which is not always what you want.  

Drop in your tea bags, and let sit a few minutes.  Remove the tea bags, and drop in fabric.  Stir it around to make sure it's really wet.  Soak for 10 minutes to an hour.  Stir often.  I find that after an hour or so it doesn't get alot darker.  Remove from the tea bath, empty that out, rinse the fabric with clean water, and then dry.  I wring it out and then hang it outside. 

Alternative Fashion Week

Last evening my classmates and I presented a beautiful collection of silk dresses at Toronto's Alternative Arts and Fashion Week.  Our collection, titled Seda Ferida, which means 'bruised silk' in Portuguese, was gracefully danced down the runway by ten dancers from the Toronto Dance Theatre, to a soulful, introspective piece of music. Based around the theme of longing, we developed a soft, meditative palette reflecting influences from the natural environment. 

The collection was a collaborative project for our third and final year of college studies. 

If you'd like to read more about this, I suggest you start here and here and here.

Oh, and a happy Earth Day to you!

April Showers

It has become clear I haven't mastered the art of daily posting.  Today's efforts revolve around the framing issues, putting the silk on the inside backing and such.  That doesn't make for a very interesting photo.  I need to do more machine embroidering soon, that will give me something neat to show, I think.

Tuesday

In contrast to yesterday, it's cooler and raining a little.  Still, everything outside smells so fresh.


I ironed my silk yardages today, disturbed the cat and got a minor steam burn in the process.  I've cut foam board for the frames that didn't come with something of that nature in them - shadow boxes for the butterfly project.  Currently I'm organizing all the sketchbook material, which is on loose sheets of paper, so that I can get it spiral bound soon.  Here's a little teaser of a piece under construction. 

Mess!

Clearing up weeks of accumulated piles of things so that we can move in this room again.  Tea stained a piece of silk yardage a little while ago and took it outside to dry, which was the first time I'd been outside today.  It's so nice out!  These are another element of the butterfly project.  They're wet felted 'cocoons' made from wool and silk fibres.