Week 61 in my sketchbook practice.
sketchbook week 61
edwardian mosquitos
Mosquitos! Delicate mosquitos, hand stitched from Edwardian garments. I wonder what she would think, the 19th century girl who floated across lawns in the gown their wings are made from. They are mischievous ladies who will bite! But they will be so gentle you won’t feel a thing. There is a special place in my heart for the less sympathetic creatures – the rats and bats and spiders and who is less loved than mosquitos?
“It is your hateful little trump
You pointed fiend,
Which shakes my sudden blood to hatred of you:
It is your small, high, hateful bugle in my ear.”
The Mosquito
BY D. H. LAWRENCE
I made 6 – I had a truly marvelous time – completely lost in them for days. They are all in the shop (there are some songbirds too).
sketchbook : week 60
Week 60 in my sketchbook practice.
indigo owl, the may forest and songbirds
I packed up some sewing (including the Sri Threads indigo owl above) this past weekend and headed into the Adirondacks – it was cold and quiet and wet and lovely. More and more lately I appreciate a vacation from the interwebs and it was my first walk in the big, wild woods since last year.
get the owl sewing pattern
I needed the break – the air and the quiet badly – my pace has been frantic for weeks – not a very nice thing to do to myself. I should stop it. It was perfect- everything there is just waking up – little bits of new green beginning and birds are returning.
You may recall that last year I discovered that Eastern Phoebes collected my little scraps and threads and bits of stuffing for their nest. I did my little bird friends a solid and left out some extra this time – they liked the wool especially!
get the songbird sewing pattern
I brought my songbirds to finish and photograph too. The grey, misty day and evergreens made a perfect backdrop.
sketchbook : week 59
Week 59 in my sketchbook practice.
paper swans – new in the cake topper department
Paper swans are in the shop! (A kit is coming later this spring – i just got a big crate of supplies). I had such a good time photographing them. I think I made them mostly because I wanted to photograph them – I have lots of plans for more. I bought the blue velvet box above 20 years ago – my first year in NY and it’s been on my mind lately. I love that peacock blue, the patina and the little silver latch- it looks like it has a marvelous story. It’s one of those things I love so much just as it is I couldn’t make anything with it. It was perfect for this photo – the color combination surprised me and I love it. Lot’s more swan photos below and if you have questions please get in touch.
And P. S. – the cake toppers have their own instagram account now – you can find it here.
(spying on swans)
songbird work
I can never remember where I parked my car or what I had for lunch but I have an excellent fabric memory – sort of. I have clear and very distinct memories of the fabrics of my childhood – my whole life really. I think I could draw them all – maybe I’ll try. And now, even if a tiny scrap has bee tucked away for years, it’s cataloged in my head, just not very specifically……. I was absolutely positive that the fabulous little blue scrap in the photo below was here somewhere. Positive. And positive that that blue songbird had to have it. Had to. And it was – that one little piece – in the only place it could be – at the very bottom of the very last box I looked in.
I’ve been working on this group of Sri Threads songbirds for weeks and they are just about ready. I was hoping for this week but I’m still climbing out of a crappy spring cold and everything is in slow motion. Some of these and a few other things will be in the shop next week sometime (sign up here to be notified by email if you like).
You can find the sewing pattern to make this bird in the shop, there is a print and pdf version and there is a free tutorial on how to make a realistic bird foot right here.
And when you join the mailing list you get a coupon code for 20% off your pattern purchase.
get the songbird sewing pattern
sketchbook : week 58
color as a starting point : beginning with black
Did you know mica comes in black?! Well it does – blackish anyway and it’s lovely ( I got some here). I made a paper mache teacup and gave it a fancy, sparkly interior. The teacup reminds me of the black milk glass on my mother’s little shelf of treasures (P. S. – teacups make sweet Mother’s Day gifts).
Find the owl sewing pattern here.
Black is the color on my mind right now. I finished this scoundrel last week – he’s made of several antique bodices and a ancient moth eaten shawl – all in shades of black. I love the subtle variety in tones and the effect that limiting the palette has on my thinking and process. It made me wonder – what if I applied that same constraint to other ideas? I wandered around in my mind for a while and looked through my big note book of ideas – thinking about everything through a black lens. It was shockingly effective. That shift gave me lots of new ideas and curiosities and fresh eyes on so many that had stalled and gotten back-burnered. It was a great illustration of the massive creative power of constraint.
The simplest thing – the smallest shift can guide you to new paths, new ideas and new places in your mind – shine a light on something that has been just out of reach in the shadows….. I am on a life long mission to shine a light into each and every one of those shadows.
I think it could be interesting to do a series of color studies (maybe teal next). But here I am so I’ll begin with black. Right now I’m in the collecting, hunting, gathering, percolating phase.
For me percolating means – digging through treasures, making collections, experimenting, taking photos and generally messing around. I’m having an energetic and marvelous time. I’ll share what I come up with soon and if you would like to make your own study of black send me a link – I’d love to see.
sketchbook : week 57
suddenly a swan appeared
Swans. They’ve been on my mind and while I was working out the steps for the flamingo kit a swan turned up. And then another and another. I love them. LOVE them – so I took a ton of photos.
Of course there is a black swan and babies too- a whole family. My first thought was cake toppers and they will be in the shop very soon – ready made and probably kits I think too (sign up here to be notified when they are available).
But there is something else – probably most important of all – they bring me back around to the place I always end up. I think that everything I make has a foot in story but I have not very often explored that as fully or intentionally as I would like to and maybe paper swans are something to experiment with, a good place to play with the idea of illustrations – the setting of a tiny stage.
sketchbook : week 56
Week 56 in my sketchbook practice.
