Buddy Bee Gold

I was invited to teach for Pacific Northwest Needle Arts Guild last month.  They requested another goldwork project, so I created Buddy Bee Gold (named after my Dad).

Buddy is padded with felt, there is cut work, chips, kid leather etc.  

A fun group of ladies, they seemed to enjoy working on Buddy.  I loved my day of teaching and sharing!

Sammy Slug

Goldwork is one of my favorite needlework techniques and slugs are not my favorite, so I put them together to make Sammy.

I don't know why, but I was looking at the shape of a slug and thought it would be a great goldwork project.  I started working on it at the Bellevue Art Museum at the open stitching day in the lobby.  It was really fun to spend the day with other stitchers in the museum.  

The visitors would stop by to see what we were doing.  The ladies would ask it I was making a bird of paradise or a snail and the men would say you are making a slug. I think this was the fun part for me to have people guessing what I was doing.

After finishing Sammy I did a little research and discovered he would like to eat strawberries.

I hope the next slug you have in your yard will remind you of Sammy!

Miniatures . . .

Friendship Garden

 Miniatures are fun, they are small and can be completed in a shorter amount of time.  Mercer Island Visual Arts League had a Treasures in Miniature show earlier this spring.  The size had to be less than 64 square inches.  Friendship Garden is framed in a 12" X 4" frame, silk thread on silk fabric.  The flowers are a variety of embroidery stitches.

Golden Mushroom

 The Golden Mushroom is frame in a 2 1/2" X 3 1/2" shadow box frame, goldwork on silk fabric. 

Wilted Daisy

My Wilted Daisy is cotton floss on silk, the frame is a 2 1/2" X 3 1/2" shadow box.

Teaching . . . .

Recently I had the opportunity to teach for Pacific Northwest Needle Arts Guild.  (click here to see their website)

I taught goldwork, Henry Hedgehog and my Golden Tree.  I had 6 students, 3 doing Henry and 3 doing the tree.  It was so much fun, I loved teaching these ladies.  

 

Henry was a little goldwork and a little silk shading.  

The Golden Tree was all goldwork using many different types of gold threads.  I have seen two of the trees finished. Every tree is different because I give the shape for the trunk and the students create their own tree.  So much fun!

I am looking forward to teaching more in the future for PNNAG and other guilds and/or shops.  If you are interested in a class for your guild please send me a message.

Thank you for checking back . . . hope you are enjoying spring weather!

Experimenting . . .

I have been very busy!  Ten pictures on display at New Visions until the middle of September.  Here are a few of them.  I was experimenting just for fun, hadn't plan to put them in a show or sell them, but when I needed more pictures I framed them . . . .

 Silk thread on silk, Jacobean crewel.

 Meet Henry Hedgehog, silk shading and gold work.

Embroidered leaves in silk thread.

And now keep your fingers crossed that they sell . . .  I will let you know.

Gold Work - Diploma Class at the RSN

I just returned home from San Francisco, California where I took my first Diploma Class as the Royal School of Needlework. My tutor was Elizabeth Elvin, you can read about her here http://www.royal-needlework.org.uk/Elizabeth_Elvin.html She is an excellent tutor and we had a wonderful group of ladies. Our class had four students, two taking the gold work Certificate Class and two taking the Diploma Class. The projects were all very different and all were lovely!


I usually post a picture of my finished projects, thought I would do something a little different this time.

This a is picture after a couple days of work, framing up on my slate frame, painting the design on the silk fabric and the beginning of the padding before adding the gold.

Have you ever seen the back of a gold work project? This is a mess, but I think it is interesting to see the mess and appreciate the front. All of the ends of the gold have to be plunged with a large needle, this can take hours.

The basket is padded with carpet felt, craft felt and string and then the gold is couched down on top. The edge of the basket is padded with soft string and satin stitch, cut work on top. The pea pod is kid leather. The pumpkin is Or Nue, Japanese gold couched down with different colors of floss, this took a day and half to complete. The leaf in the middle is stumpwork, silk fabric with a wire around the edge. The corn is beads with plate for the husk.

And finally the finished project all framed. I am very happy with my project. The tutors assessed it before I flew home so I could bring it home with me and not have to have it shipped, I haven't got my score yet!

If you are interested in taking classes at the Royal School of Needlework, check out their website for classes and dates: http://www.royal-needlework.org.uk/