Must keep stitching...

I have to say far from chilling out this week, I've been putting myself through the paces with embroidery this week, but I am certainly enjoying it. Silly thing to say really, of course I am enjoying it. Sure there have been projects that I've worked on where the enjoyment ebbed away the longer it went on, but you know you live and your learn and also you have to remember with any job or even hobby for that matter there are always things you end up not enjoying. So far its been a long time since that's happened for me.

Hopefully not tempted fate. 

Before I show you the progress of the Paradise Bird project I thought I would give you an update on how my business plans are going. Branding is under way, as I speak my rather talented Uncle is working on that for me and we may even do some collaboration pieces like I have done with Heidi. I'll keep you posted.

Once the branding is sorted it means I can update all the sites with a more consistent look and I can get the new business cards sorted and labels etc. Which I can't wait to get sorted, at some point I will need to source fabric labels, or perhaps get a stamp made so I can make my own. Decisions, decisions.

The website I would say has finally bedded down, by that I mean I've stopped tweaking it, so any changes from now on will simply to keep it up to date. With the new look its certainly going to be easier and quicker, which is a relief. 

The most important step, and one that I know all craftspeople and artists battle with and that's how much are you worth? Perhaps that makes it sound a bit cras but it really is as simple as that. There are countless articles, blog posts and books on the subject of pricing and how you shouldn't under or over value your work. It's a bloody minefield. 

I've heard it quite a lot from friends and family that I undersell my wares, and yes I know I have and it comes down to not having the confidence in what I make is worth the price tag. Artists are there worse enemy in this respect. So I've bitten the bullet, if I don't now then frankly I am never going to be able to make this a viable means of living. I worked out my hourly rate, it certainly hurt my brain I'll tell you that much. And now I have done that it gives me a better basis for what to charge for my pieces and gives me the confidence I need to say I am worth it. I have a good friend of mine on hand to slap me if I don't use it. She has a strong right arm so she'll hurt. 

Why am I telling you this, well I hope it will help some other like minded soul. 

The heavy stuff over with for another week let's have a look at some pretty pictures. 

A spot of late night stitching meant that I managed to get all the trailing done on the tail feathers completed, however, it's not the end of the tail feathers, they need sparkle! Sparkle will come in the form of silver passing couched down one side, and crystals at the end of the feathers.

Ain't it pretty?

Actually one thing you can't really see in these images, is that towards the ends of the feathers I have blended in another colour different shades or tones of the colour I started with. Rather like the effect, even if my photography doesn't show it off.

Artsy shot...

Actually that's where the project is at, I've stopped it to work on something else for the rest of the afternoon, once that's complete then I will be working on the wing.

Tea, Royal Pig and Stitching

There is nothing quite like progressing a project, and by jove this one seems to be moving along rather quickly, I think that may be down to having completely settled on the stitches, normally I tend to change my mind. So not wanting to leave it another day to show you where I have gotten to I thought I would talk you through the following shots...

I do love a bit of metal work and on the beak I have introduced a thin layer of padding, and began to couch silver passing using a coloured thread to give it a different feel and drew in the deep purple of the silk used for the bird's head.

To help with the sharp bends in the beak I used a trusty pair of tweezers to help force the passing into the shape I wanted before stitching it down. 

At this stage I had begun to plunge the passing to the back, it's both a satisfying bit of the job but bloody infurating at the same time. Anyone who thinks embroiderers are patient folk I assure we are not. Or at least I am not. It takes time to do this bit, it's fiddly and can drive you to distraction....and yet it looks bloody good when done. 

The job isn't over when you plunge the thread to the back, you have to sew the threads down so they don't shift or pop back up. I've done this bit now since coming to write this post. If I remember to I'll take a shot of that too so you can see what I have done, though I slightly cheated...but hey its a perk of being shown how to do it properly you can find the loop holes.

Of course, I didn't just sew over this lovely bank holiday (yeah despite the rain!) I had a wee tea party with a couple of good friends, watched the pageant and the concert (bitched about the crap bits and whooped with delight at the cracking bits).  I have to say this was the best jubilee ever and long may her Majesty reign that's all I say. Though I do hope the DoE gets better real soon..perhaps he wanted to get out of watching the concert.

Calico got the Royal treatment, a little wee felt crown and Union Jack Ribbon (thank's to my best mate's mum)

Can't beat a Victoria...Elizabeth Sponge (by the way not bad for a 22p sponge mix from Sainsbury's basics! The Fortumn jam and fresh buttercream helped too)

I hope everyone else had a thoroughly good time, even the non-Brits! 

Right on with the tea drinking and the stitching!

WIP: Bird of Paradise

This is a rather overdue post but I am sure you can forgive me, a lot has gone on this week and I have been feeling somewhat shattered. However, I now have a chance of a break and well catch up on the missing energy. So, without further ado, allow me to walk you through where I have got with my latest project. 

At this point I had applied all the felt layers, and cut out a section of the Liberty Tana Lawn I am using as the accent to the piece, it's also acting as my colour palette. I cut it out after having first applied a layer of vilene on the back to help support it. I should also add, this is the second version as the previous shape I hadn't allowed enough to shape over the padding. 

Here I am just doing tiny stab stitches around the shape.

With that part of the body done, I move to head. Now to keep in with the layering affect I worked it separately. Annoyingly photographing this part of the project was infuriating the fabric really didn't like to be photographed.

I applied very carefully to the back of purple silk dupion a layer of bondaweb, this then helped me to then cut out the shape of the birds head. Then this layer was applied to a very lightweight black cotton. You can see in the above image that I stabbed stitched the layers together around the edges before starting to do long and short, natural shading at the bottom to get a feathery effect. I used for that several colours of cotton stranded and highlighted it with sparing stitches of silver thread. You can see that in the picture below, you will also spot...sort of, that I have begun to bead the bottom of the birds head, and have also applied a crystal for the eye. Nothing like sparkle!

Once the head was complete, all the details finished, stitching, beading and so forth. I cut it out out from the fabric. In this shot I am just checking out the placement, I won't be stitching yet as I need to stitch the beak. Which is my current job! Pictures will follow on that part.

So, there we go, what projects are you working on at the moment?