Cottage Workshops

I spent last summer teaching and testing out workshop techniques and samples, and got to share them with a gaggle of ladies at a couple of cottages! They, in turn, made sure I got a lot of sunset boat rides, lunches on the water, and entertainment value for my efforts!

The summer faded to a close with more private lessons on creating yarn and thread scarves on the sewing machine, which went over really big in the end! I terrorized them by not showing them how the 'mystery' project was going to work or look, and tried their patience, by telling them only what supplies they needed. The poor things actually trusted me! (Hee hee)

The 'not-so-convinced-that-this-is-going-to-work' ladies wound up absolutely delighted, and were begging for more at the end of the day! The men, of course, all thought their women had gone totally 'loopy'.

Once again, late this summer, the 'cottage-industry' will be in for more 'spectacular' workshops, as it was just simply way too much fun!

Hope proudly displays her creation!

She was heading back to Calgary with plans to make them for Christmas gifts! A good sign!

She chose to have a casual, relaxed free flowing edge on her scarf...

Camera shy, Nancy disappeared, but this was her scarf!

Apparently, she also made more!

She preferred, a more clean-edged look!

Lilac Altered Handbag

Before the "incident" (lol)

Made the deadline... with this finished piece

Altered artwear, at times can be a simple thing.... and other times not.

A local artwear group to which I belong, issued a recycled-artwear challenge a little more than a year ago, and with great gusto, I jumped right in.

I had the piece in mind, and it all went swimmingly until the day of the deadline. Strategically cutting with the finest of embroidery scissors, I managed to make one cut too many in my beautiful blouse! In the blink of an eye, my beautiful creation was spoiled, and with just hours to go until the meeting, I was desperately in need of an item to show... and so began the lilac purse adventure.

Off to the thrift store, I raced...

This lilac handbag was tossed into a bin of cast-offs, with nary a mark on the poor thing. No doubt, it was likely purchased for a wedding or some other special occasion. The simplicity of the style, and the somewhat vinyl-like texture of it, did not lend itself to a lot of fussy alteration. It was clean, and maybe a little boring to some, but it had potential and that was all I needed. Personally, I rather like a clean-lined simplicity to my projects, anyhow. It's just my own personal style... kind of classic and not a lot of fuss. The colour, though, was going to be a challenge in itself.

Everything for this particular recycled-artwear challenge, except for thread, had to be recycled. So I hunted through my stash of supplies to see what I could come up with in a hurry.

The grape leaves and stems were formerly part of a high-end silk-sprig that had outlived its usefulness, but inspired me to think grapes. The colour would work quite nicely and bring out the bluey-lilac tones of the bag. Now all I needed was something for the grapes.

Inspiration came again. I was struck by the shimmering tones in some floral "stones" that I had seen in a floral design wholesalers. I picked them up just because I loved the way the colours interacted and shimmered with each other. I had no plans for them, but they were eye-catching.

Our neighbour builds pools, and came home with a box of leftover blue mosic tiles. One box, was relatively useless to them, and he asked me if there was anything I could do with them. My father-in-law had just tossed a wonderful old, round, metal table and I thought it was a shame that I couldn't put a mosaic top on it. Lo and behold, a freebie of timely tiles had arrived! I decided that adding these stones, amidst the tiles, would work nicely and compliment the blue - if they could withstand the changing Canadian weather. (The "grapes" are in actuality the "frog" stones that you put in a vase with your flowers.)

The colour of the leftover stones, from the recycled-table project, certainly enhanced the colour of the bag...and my speedy, required project was birthed. And, it was certainly do-able in a couple of hours!

The "challenge" in this task was really about getting the grapes to stick to both the bag and to each other. After several frustrating attempts with different apoxys, super-glues, and glass adherants, they finally adhered! But, time was fading, all too fast...

You know the old saying, "the hurrieder I get, the behinder I get"?

Thus, the "incident". The stones, in their uncooperative state, were sliding off of one another, and in my haste to maintain control, I managed to get the glue on my fingers. It wouldn't work on the glass, but it didn't hesitate to create a bond on human flesh!

The ordeal ended up with an embarrassing call to the 1-800 number on their product. A dazed support tech, between snorts, wondered why I hadn't worn gloves, and chuckled as he explained the solution to my problem... it was just plain old nailpolish remover. Go figure...

Created to be Crowned

Originally posted by Brenda, Sat, 12 Jul 2008 22:20:00 GMT on Pawn to King, and is filed under True Stories

As artists or designers, we have a chance to work in many different mediums and in many diverse forms. We take what is possible, experimental, successful, or even disastrous, and make an attempt to turn out a piece that we are proud to place our name on.

We create because there is an incredible part of our personality that longs to express our thoughts and ideas in a way that will speak to others in a powerful and intimate way. If we are successful, you will be able to identify any artist’s works without seeing our actual name on it, simply because our style or the ‘handprint’ on our piece is so unique.

God, our unique Creator, with both His words and with the work of his hands, performed the most miraculous forms of originality in creating both the heavens and the universe. The One who created all that is within it, is the Master of diversity and distinctiveness. Everything is colourful, exceptional, purposed, and has a matchless beauty of all its’ own. It is the interpretation of that creativity that influences how we view our world, and art, as such a personal thing.

For an artist, official challenges and competitions are a chance to exhibit can bring the best, and sometimes the worst, in any creative personality - fuelling the creative part of us that needs just one other excuse or “outlet” to design something.

A recent “challenge” was to incorporate a specific line of hand-dyed fabrics and threads for a show entitled “Quilters Pleasure Weekend”. We were required to purchase a kit that contained one spool of hand-dyed thread and two different fat-quarters of fabric (2 pieces, 18” x 22”), instead of the usual strips (9” x WOF, or what is known as width of fabric).

In spite of the already excessive amounts of fabrics stashed away in the cupboard, I wanted to personally challenge myself to use only the kit without adding too much to it. That meant a smaller project, but hopefully something that could pack a lot of punch!

It goes without saying that it would have to be something different that would catch the attention of the judges. Colourful and eye-catching, the workmanship would have to show off the true beauty and colour of the threads and fabric, without overwhelming the design of the item itself.

Inspiration came, and I knew what I wanted to do. The size was do-able and different. When studying fashion design, one of my required courses of study was millinery, but I hadn’t really done anything with it since. Now I found myself inspired to peruse every book I could order from the library in order to refresh my skills and knowledge-base on the subject.

I went through the process of creating the various pieces of the hat and mapped out the design itself. Then I started cutting out the sample pieces to perfect the details and catch any flaws within the project.

Perching the sample pieces on a ‘design head’ and seeing what alternations needed to be made... I began to contemplate the ‘crown’, which is the portion of the hat that sits on the top of the head. The crown gives it both structure and stability, and is the determining factor as to its’ overall fit and appearance. The top has to be well constructed in regard to the covering, fit, height, width, and shape, or else it loses its purpose and effectiveness. In other words, a hat is created to be “crowned”.

In the end, the simplicity of the overall design put me in mind of a frontal view of Tutmose’s painted, limestone sculpture of Queen Nefertiti that was made in the 18th Dynasty. It would almost appear like a flowerpot perched upon her head. She is wearing a period version of a royal head-covering, but it is not in our minds’ eye what a traditional crown would look like.

Searching out the definition of crown in the dictionary confirms that a crown was “reward of victory and honour and the titles associated with such positions”, “a royal, sovereign or imperial type of headwear”, the uppermost part of the head, mountain, tree or shrub, “the part of hat that sits on the top of one’s head”, “a wreath or decoration for the top of the head or skull”.

What is most interesting, is the Miriam Webster dictionary also adds a comment regarding to the “capitalization” of the word “crown”, referencing it to “(1) imperial or regal power: sovereignty (2) the government under a constitutional monarchy: monarch (7) something that imparts splendour, honour, or finish: culmination.”

There is not one crown that will be remembered as powerfully as one the wreath of thorns and crowns...woven and twisted... to be used as a tool of mockery on the head of Christ for His crucifixion. Worn by the King-of-Kings and Lord-of-Lords, it imparted the finish and culmination of His life’s purpose in the form of a man - in order to bring salvation and eternal life for those who would choose to believe. Because of His unselfish position of royalty as the Son of God, we too will be entitled to a crown of a different kind... if we choose to believe.

If we look at the Word of God in the New International Version, there are 70 verses that have the word ‘crown’ included. Noting that re-emphasizing verifies the importance, in reference specifically to our focus, there are a few outstanding verses that confirm there is indeed a crown that awaits each one of us at the finish... the culmination of our walk with Christ.

“Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:8

“Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.” James 1:12

“And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.” 1 Peter 5:4

While the dictionary definition confirms that a crown is a “reward of victory and honour, and the titles associated with such positions”, the Word of God indeed guarantees that it will be a crown that is custom designed, creatively made, custom-fitted, and embellished with jewels that you have rightfully inherited and earned as a child of The King! Like Queen Esther, “you have been called unto a royal position for such a time as this"! (Esther 4:14)

...You were created to be crowned!