Reflecting and looking foward.

Happy New Year !

As January dawns I always find myself looking back at the year gone by, reflecting on the highs and lows and planning for the next 12 months.

For the purpose of this blog it will definitely be highs and I'm so lucky that their have been many.

I've had my work featured in some lovely magazines including this one, Be Creative, its a really beautiful publication and seems to be going from strength to strength.

I was fortunate to exhibit my work at Made in Cheltenham and it was here I met Andy Poplar from Vinegar and Brown Paper. This sparked an idea for a collaboration and one of my favourite ever pieces was the result. It sold very quickly. I do hope we can do more.

 

New work was a theme for last year too, I created new pieces for an exhibition at Unit Twelve in Staffordshire. Based on a kitchen garden theme these were embroidered seed packets with visiting creatures. I will be back to this lovely venue in August to teach some workshops.

In October I was delighted to be accepted as a member of the Society for Embroidered Work this organisation promotes embroidery as an art form. Take a look at their website, so inspiring.

The year ended with another order from Liberty London, my husband and I delivered in person and enjoyed a smashing day taking in the Christmas atmosphere.

2019 will bring lots of workshops and an exciting collaborative launch, please sign up to my newsletter to get all my latest offers and events. I'm really excited to see what this year has in store.

 

How to hatch a Swallowtail.

 

Hello everyone, I thought it might be a good idea to show you the processes that go into one of my pieces. One of the questions I get asked most when I'm out and about with my hatchlings is 'how long do they take ?'  

So here goes.....  Making a Liberty Swallowtail.

Each butterfly begins with a drawing, either from a specimen, book illustration, photograph or a combination of all three. I create a line drawing which simplifies the wing patterns .

 

The next stage is to break the patterns down into colour layers, these can be any number but usually about three or four. These are then traced onto bondaweb. I then select the fabrics that best match the colours of the particular species.

 

Each of these layers are then applied to individual fabrics and cut out. I use a very sharp pair of scissors. On the Swallowtail the black layer is fairly complex, this can take well over an hour.

The layers are then fused together and placed on a background of silk with another one of interfacing. This creates a stable base for embroidery.

I can then begin to stitch, looking very closely at my original source material, I satin stitch the edges of each wing part.

Next I cover each piece with a voile or organza and stitch the veins on the wings.
Using my very sharp scissors I then cut away parts of this layer to reveal what's underneath.

This creates iridescence and depth.

 
I then apply more free motion embroidery to add interest, it's this stage where the piece can come to life. The separate wings are stitched together to complete the butterfly's shape.

Hand stitching tiny beads and sequins adds texture. I then felt a body from pure wool, referring to photos, sewing bead eyes and antennae of hemp string.
And he's finished.

 

To answer that familiar question, about three and a half hours, without the sketching stage.

 

Beautiful Boxes and Fauxdermy

I was looking for a way to display my butterflies that was a little bit different to usual framing. The vintage entomology displays in places like the Natural History Museum have always fascinated me, even though the rows and rows of impaled insects are rather unsettling. Obviously most of these collections were sourced in less enlightened days, when conservation wasn't on the radar. Today's specimens are, on the whole, from sustainable stock.
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/

Well mine definitely are, a new version of taxidermy; I've heard it called Fauxdermy or very creatively Craftydermy.

I began to look at specialist suppliers and found a great variety of options, though none of them quite fitted the bill. Then late one evening I decided to pop 'entomology boxes' into a search on a well known internet site and up came 'Antique Butterfly Drawers used at the Natural History Museum to house Rothschild collection of British Butterflies'. I was amazed and thrilled to find out that every so often the museum sells of some of its older display pieces, these were perfect.

My finger hovered over the quantity button and there were 25 available.

I bought the lot and was thrilled when they arrived. They have so much character, some have labels or handwritten notes on the drawer face. I cleaned the glass, so beautiful with tiny bubbles showing how old it is, and waxed the wooden edges and lid. They also have a distinctive smell of moth balls when you lift the lid, reminding me of my Gran's wardrobe.
They are perfect and set off my work beautifully, I add vintage maps depicting the habitat of the specimens and small stitched labels with their Latin name.

 

Here are some of the boxes on display at The Devon Guild of Craftsmen in Bovey Tracey.

The Rothschild collection has been partly digitised and is available to view here.

https://blog.nhm.ac.uk/tag/rothschild-cockayne-kettlewell-collection/

A Butterfly fit for a Queen ?

As you may know I live in a small village on the edge of Exmoor. To celebrate the Queen's 90th birthday it was decided to put on an art exhibition inspired by Her Majesty. I'm not really into portraits or landscapes but I suddenly had a brainwave.
It was mainly thanks to Women's' Hour, a regular companion, that I found out about an amazing lady called Maria Merian. She was an entomologist and artist who travelled from her home in Germany to Suriname in 1699, whilst in South America she studied the native plants and animals. She was one of the first scientists to understand the transformation of caterpillar into butterfly.

Her work was later published in a volume called Metamorphosis Insectorum Suriname. Her original drawings were acquired by George the 3rd and now form part of the Royal Collection. They are currently on display at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace. So there's my Royal connection.

I choose the Blue Morpho, using Maria's drawing as inspiration, the first stage was to draw a simplified pattern.

This was then cut out in layers of silk and the raw edges bound with satin stitch. I layered black and white silk and cut through the layers to create the markings on the wing edge.

Next the whole butterfly was covered in a layer of shot organza and the veins on the wings were outlined in free motion embroidery.

I then cut sections away and stitched in a contrasting colour.

I added another layer of organza to achieve real depth in the wings, with lots of free motion embroidery in a variety of coloured threads.

The final stage was hand beading to represent the way light reflects on the iridescent wings.

And here we have the finished piece all ready to show over the weekend. I hope Her Majesty approves!

Hats off to 2016 !

Happy New Year everyone.
I love hats and always have, as a little girl I would enjoy dressing up in my Granny's collection. My passion for vintage fashion began at university and I longed to wear a 1920's cloche hat. Unfortunately, I have a huge head, hat size seven and three quarters( I blame my Dad) so these beautiful creations just wouldn't fit me. I collected a variety of styles made from felt, straw and velvet, dating from the 1900's to the 50's and not one would go near my enormous bonce !
The answer came to me with the fashion in the late 80's for soft fabric headgear, I would make my own. I drafted my own patterns and when I had perfected the fit I made them in corduroy, tweed, cotton and linen. As an extra touch many of them had appliqued and embroidered details.
They started out just being for me and then friends asked if they could have one, eventually I ended up making them commercially. Every Saturday I had a stall at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, this was brilliant until the IRA put a stop to proceedings with a terrible bomb that ripped the heart out of the city centre.
So many years have passed, my passion for hats is undiminished, I started making hair adornments featuring my butterfly 'hatchlings' about 4 years ago.

 A hatchling hair adornment.

 

These are still popular for ladies who shy away for a complete hat.

A couple of years ago I noticed the work of milliner Karen Geraghty, on Face Book, her business name is Mind Your Bonce. Her hats are so beautiful and combine references to vintage fashion with wonderfully, witty touches. We started conversing and this led to a collaboration on a couple of autumn/winter hats. One featured a tweedy moth and the other a wool Monarch butterfly.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/155001051/cocktail-hat-womens-vintage-style-olive?ref=shop_home_active_22

 

Later we created two spring/summer hats featuring a dragonfly and a silk butterfly.

The really lovely thing was meeting Karen and her husband in the queue at last year's Liberty Open Call.

Finally this December I had a lovely commission to create a cocktail hat for a Christmas wedding. The customer sent me details of her outfit and I knew she had a love of butterflies, so once again with the help of Karen, the Monarch hat was born.

My passion for hats continues and who knows where it will take me next; the best thing is that the cocktail hat design fits anyone even big heads !
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MindYourBonce?ref=l2-shopheader-name