Embellishing Queens & Mermaids

I belong to a group called The Embellishing Queens. There are 7 of us and we meet every two months to work on projects and take the occasional class. It's a good balance between challenging yourself to do something but not so stressy that you don't want to come if you haven't got your project done!

Last weekend we had Wilma Simmons come and teach us her bead embroidered mermaids using Patti Culea's face stamps. Such a great time - Wilma is an extremely organised teacher - she had little supply kits (you know - all the things you think "oh no I forgot to bring my....." were in there) as well as beautifully printed out patterns and instructions. Wilma's beading is absolutely fantastic - she lays down the beads, back stitches and couches - so if you ever buy something from her you are pretty much guaranteed that the beads aren't going anywhere! She also has a great eye for colour mixing - always an art in itself!

Here are some close ups of the body and tail of the mermaid on the bag - although the predominant colours are blue and green - there's alot more going on here - notice the silver on the bodice and the bronze outline in the scallops on the tail?

The pattern(s) Wilma gave us included a necklace, the handbag and a mermaid "art doll" shape. So many possibilities. Here are some shots of the necklace version. This one has one flat beaded side (the right) and a freeform twisted chain on the other. The pattern has the shape for flat on both sides - but as this is a demo piece it's good to see that you could go either way. The other thing I noticed on the necklace was that Wilma had used darker blue and mostly matte beads for the necklace part - leaving all the shiny bling colours on the mermaid. It would be too much if the whole thing was shiny.
Wilma had developed up these pieces as part of a challenge to use polymer clay in a different way. We rolled out our Super Sculpey and stamped the faces onto it. Some cutting and shaping ensued - some stamps needed to have shoulders added in or parts masked and Wilma showed us how to do this. I decided I hadn't had enough caffeine so used stamps that didn't need to be masked. The stamp on the left is by Patti Culea and is Audine. I borrowed it from Carole who was kind enough to lend it to me (apparently she bought it at this fabulous place called Idyll Pleasures...) the other stamp was one that Wilma had which was a lovely old fashioned face. I guess if you are going to make and sell these things you need to check the reproduction rights for the stamps - I know Patti is ok with making things to sell with her stamps (always acknowledge on the swing tag people!)

You'll notice we pierced holes with a T-pin all over the polymer - this was to allow for the beading later. You could just as easily stamp onto fabric and create a piece too.
We traced the patterns onto interfacing and ironed that onto some thin pellon. The polymer clay forms were glued on with E6000 glue (watch those toxic fumes!)

Here are a few pieces that Wilma had started to bead - she taught us how to make frothy fern fringe as well as the seaweed fringe. All the frothy beading etc. helps to fill in the raised edge between the polymer clay and the fabric.
Wilma pointed out that as it was an embroidery piece we could also utilise things such as silk ribbon and novelty yarns etc. in our pieces.
I am a definite mermaid aficionado - so I was very happy! Lots of beading to still do - but so many possibilities!

Apart from all the mermaid love, Wilma also brought some of her other pieces to show us. She is also a mad keen felter - these photos don't really do justice to the depth of colour and complexity of the felted pieces - photos always seem to flatten the colours out. I love the combo of beads and felt - happy sigh!

This doll's face is beaded using the same techniques we learned in the workshop. The pattern for it is by Annie Hesse and can be found in Patti Culea's 4th book on Cloth Doll Beading.

The piece below was also amazing - the warrior on horse back is a simple shape - Wilma added the man's face and horse's head separately, along with the arms and legs. The beading was exquisite in all white shades.

Apart from the workshop we also had show and tell. Some time ago I posed the thought of doing something with a birdcage (of course I've done nothing with mine but there you go...) Anyhoo.... Janine found this beauty at Bay Swiss and furnished it all with doll's furniture as a boutique seamstress's shop. Don't I have great ideas?

Ladies Night Out

Here's some more doings - this time it's beading. I love this pattern by Sheila Cleary called (unsuprisingly) Ladies Night Out.I made these three up in one afternoon - it makes up really quickly. It uses size 3 & 4 Swavorski crystals (the olive green one I used 4s and 5s I think) as well as little charlottes. I bought them from Meredith and her very gorgeous mum Jan from Silhouette Designs - they were our friendly neighbours during the February Stitches and Craft Show in Sydney. They are awesome beaders - their stand was busy from days opening to closing and their workshops are hugely popular. If you get the chance do a class with them. The size three crystals and the charlottes are hard to find - but they have them so give them a shout if you are looking for them. Mum bought some gorgeous cabachons from Jan as she and her husband go fossicking and then shape and polish them. She's mounted them on ultrasuede and is doing peyote stitch around them. They look terrific will take a picture one day when she's working on them at the shop.

Visit from Ruth Prest

Ruth Prest is a dollmaker from the US - she is in Australia on a short visit and stopped by the shop today with Ann Maullin to say hello. That's Ann on the left and Ruth on the right. Ruth was such a lovely lady - she obviously couldn't bring a lot of dolls but she brought a book with all her dolls in it and Ann brought one of Ruth's giraffes that she had given her some years ago.

Ruth also brought some of her beautiful beading work which was stunning.

A group of dollmakers assembled to meet Ruth and brought samples of their work. Ruth is writing an article for Soft Dolls and Animals magazine about her trip down under - so we might appear in there at some stage!

Here's Marilyn Halcomb holding a new doll she's created - I can't remember what the doll's name was - maybe Purple Passion? She's got her corset on - but she's put on a little weight and can't quite get it done up at the back. I love the high heel slippers - very Gloria Swanson. (I'm talking about the doll here - not Marilyn !)

The little elf type fellow is Marilyn's version of Gloria Winer's new doll pattern. He really was an appealing little fellow.

Here is a beautiful textile piece that Erica had done with all sorts of beading and couching and interesting things on it. I previously attributed it to Ruth - but Erica let me know it's her piece. Actually I feel better now because I was so busy admiring all the things Erica brought to show that I forgot to photograph them!

Back to Ruth - she also had a couple of fabric postcards - love the Crane picture.

The tiny little baby troll was a gift to Ruth by Ute Vasina - here's a close up of it - you have to see this thing in real life to realise how tiny it is. If you look at it versus the size of the postcard - you'll get something of an idea!

It was a lovely day and so nice to see Ann, Anne, Marilyn, Erica, Annette, Natascha and even my Mum turn up to say hello to Ruth.

Creative Beading

I forgot to post pics of the Beading class with Lisa Walton that was on here back in March (how silly am I)? What prompted me to remember was getting in the wonderful book from Nancy Eha which Lisa uses as the basis of some of her designs (and gives full credit too in case you were wondering!

Here are pics of some of the students works in progress.

And here are some more of Lisa's samplers.

Everyone went home feeling very clever and happy to be able to add some more dimensional interest to their handwork whether it was quilting or needlework or combinations thereof. Great class - great teacher.

Fabrications

Here are some pics from the Fabrications class held at my shop recently. Lisa Walton took a bunch of ladies on a journey making fantasy fabrics using free motion embroidery and soluble stabilizer. The following class they started constructing the blocks using Lisa's fantastic hand dyed fabrics. Here are some of the results. I have pics from the Creative Beading class too but they are still on the camera (and the husband has the camera). Lisa's inspiration for the beading comes from Nancy Eha - had a good flick through the book and will be adding it to my own personal library (as well as the bookshelves for the shop).

Creative Cloth Doll Beading

Patti Culea is a very, very talented dollmaker and she has written several fantastic books on dollmaking - her latest book arrived in the shop today and I snaffled one for myself (don't you worry about that!) It's terrific - I love beading (thanks to Patti introducing me to Peyote Stitch). The most exciting thing is that Patti included my shop as a place to get resources in her book - so now I can be famous all round the world. Thanks Patti ;-). I should also mention that Patti produced this book in cahoots with Laura McCabe (an awesome beader would be something of an understatement in discribing her work) and Annie Hesse (a cloth doll maker who is also a talented beader. The work in this book is dribble inducing.