Little Details

Carolyn has a weekly meme on Thursdays called Messy Little Details.  Find out about it here.  Why don't you join in?

I've chosen this week's offering particularly for Carolyn because I know how fond she is of rust!

Thanks for stopping by
Bernice

Embossing

On 12 Months in View today the technique challenge is Rubber Band Embossing.

Which is fine! Until you find that there's only one rubber band in the whole house!  Still needs must.

I have a very small roller which doesn't need to be taken apart so tried that first.  The problem with it, is that the roller is spongey so the rubber band sank into it a bit.

Here I had pressed on too hard.

Here I managed to do it with less pressure.

I tried tying string around a brayer but that only worked once because of the way I tied the string!

I decided I would try with card instead.  This might have worked better if I had more than one rubber band!

Then I tried string wrapped round card.

Finally I inked all my samples with Distress Inks and stuck them in my journal.

I may never use this technique again, but I love to try out new things so that I can count the idea in or discard it.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

What if?

What if
I went back to move forward?

What if
I looked at getting involved in textiles again?

What if
I stopped thinking so much and got on with it?

What if
I stopped asking what if and told you what I was talking about!!!

I told you in this post that I spent 2 days with Hilary Beattie working with fabric and paper.  I have had so many ideas flitting about my brain since then that I'm quite worn out.  Although random other things have also had an influence.

When I got back from the workshop with my 4 inch squares

I realised that I've been there before.

Not with this actual design but with the idea of small bejewelled bits.   Actually bejewelled is totally the wrong word but I can't think of a description at the moment.

Many years ago I did a Summer Workshop with the Pembrokeshire Embroiderer's Guild with Hilary Bower as the tutor.  I ended up with this which hangs on our lounge wall.  The map itself is 18 inches by 15 inches.

It's a fabric 'map' and each of the six images represent some part of the Old Testament.  For example the spiral is about the Israelites going round and round for 40 years in the desert.  Each of the images I would describe as the bejewelled bits - and yes I know there's no bling!

I did another workshop at the NEC some years ago with Erika Carter and one of the finished pieces was this 8.5 inch square.

Yet again small bits of fabric, paper, text and texture.  I think I was possibly going to put beads on this but once I'd left the workshop I got on with other things.

Since then I've dabbled in all sorts of other arty things including scrapbooking and art journalling.  And of course I love to make mini-books.

So what do I mean by going back to move forward?  I'm thinking about returning to using fabric and paper in mixed media somethings.  Although I have no idea what the somethings are!  I did a four year (part time) creative embroidery course and a couple of years afterwards just stopped.  And I love taking photos so maybe I can incorporate those as well.

So maybe now is the time to pick these things back up again.   Watch this space to see what happens!

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice