Embarking on Inspiration

The brain loves a challenge. It loves to grow and expand. So I have decided to feed it.
After working on that Ocean Floor necklace I wore it to Germany. My friend Siggi encouraged me to go further with this design idea. The bead embroidery on wool felt is at this moment my medium of choice.

With that in mind I cut out of paper a shape . At first I thought it looked like a bottle. But now I see a woman’s shape.

Make sure you click on the picture so you can see it larger and the detail.

I backed it with stiff interfacing, the kind you use to make fabric bowls. I started with the door. And started beading. I had sketched some of it on paper but most of it was on the fly.

Once backed with a knit backed faux leather and edged in beads I had to take a long time to figure out how I was going to hang it. I chose 3 strands that were somewhat braided. One strand is leather/suede. (found at the Pendleton Wool store as scrap) and two are beaded strands. The whole design was suppose to be inspired by Summer.

I really like how it came out



Staying with the same shape I was inspired by the Perseid Meteor Shower that happened in August. Having gone out late at night with friends to enjoy the sight.

Using another door but now with the stars being a focus, this design has really fueled my momentum. I want to start naming these objects (pendants). This purple with stars will be “Door Van Gogh” after Vincent Van Gogh’s painting Starry Starry Night.
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I still have to hang it and have been learning a new craft that will allow me to make my own cords. It is called Kumihimo. This is a kind of Japanese craft of braiding cord/yarn/string. This is the cord I braided for Door Van Gogh.

I think I will include a strand of beads and wrap them together.

The Summer one is now named “Door into Summer” after my mother’s favorite Sci Fi book by Robert Heinlein.

Here are some other samples of the Kumihimo I did with beads. I used wimple junk crochet cotton with some plastic beads I have, no idea what size they are but they do not slide easily on the cotton so it was a little time consuming doing this beaded rope. The yellow/green one is done with random colors. The Blue Pink has only one strand of pink and the rest is blue.

Right now I am testing a 16 strand braid using my Possum yarn. Yes, yarn made with Possum wool?/hair. My friend Brenda brought it back from New Zealand for me. I wasn’t sure how I was going to use it since I don’t knit. But this Kumihimo is a great opportunity to test it with. More on that later.

aMAZING

This blog post is being delayed. You will see it after July 13th. I am writing it on June 6th. That is because the items shown here are going with me to Germany as gifts and I don’t want the recipients to see them till I gift them. These pillows are for two young ladies that have graduated from high school and both are very much into theater and drama.



I have a tendency to make Sybil (from the movie with Sally Fields) pillows. That would be a pillow that has two opposite sides and yet have a theme or a message to portray.

Both pillows have the Drama masks on them, these are appliquéd wool onto cotton.
With the first phrase from the Shakespeare quote created through an printable iron on transfer.
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and entrances. And one man in his time plays many parts.”





The opposite side has a hand embroidered celtic knot that is actually a maze. The material the mazes were worked on are actually linen napkins from the Captain’s mess from the US Navy decommissioned carrier USS Chicago. I have had these napkins since 1979. I knew I would find a use for them.







The mazes are then appliquéd onto wonderful printed cotton with puzzle or maze print. The trim around the edge was built up with two trims, the black is gimp and the red is very small red rick-rack woven into the gimp.



Both sides of the pillows should give the young ladies a thought provoking moment. Of how life is a maze. . .and it is a play. . .and they will play many parts in their lives.

So profound. . . don’t you think.