A family of artists and artisans
I made this bracelet, in February 2013, at a workshop run by Sandy MacFarlane at the Art School of Peterborough. I made and sawed the links and then followed a pattern to end up with this lovely Byzantine Bracelet. I made this one in copper, but would like to try it in silver! I especially enjoyed making the clasp. It’s fun to hammer the metal. Hammering metal is actually “forging”, like a Blacksmith!
I painted this based on a very far off, very zoomed-in photo of Can-Can dancers in the Operetta “La Veuve Joyeuse” which me and Candace saw at the Palais Garnier.
I was trying to loosen up with details and paint a little more freely. Unfortunately (or not) I didn’t do anything to prepare my rough piece of wood, so it wasn’t so relaxed as I would have liked.
This, my first Fair Isle toque, took about 16 hours to complete. The next one took a few less hours. I made it for Cassie last year for Christmas.
I dyed the unspun wool with Kool-Aid, and then I spun it in rainbow order. Then I knit the scarf. I thought I would make a hat to match and knit it from the pattern in this Pattons knitting book. The pattern is actually a Fair Isle pattern, but I just knit it all from my rainbow wool.
This is the same pattern (with the Fair Isle pattern). This hand spun wool was dyed with Black Walnuts, Onion Skins and Goldenrod.
hand-spun knitted hat and scarf.
This is an embroidered sampler that I created from a pattern. Generally I design my embroidered pieces myself, but this one was kicking around the house, and so I started working on it. The main change that I made was to re-work the colours, which were originally in some super-gross pastels. I (obviously) prefer the colours in the picture.
I think this design was called a ‘Jacobean’ sampler, but it looks to me more like the 1980s than the 1600s.
You’ll notice that there’s space at the bottom, which is where my name and the date is supposed to go; it’s the one part I can’t seem to get around to finishing. The rest of the sampler has been done for years.
Here are some close-ups:
Here is my watercolour of Gremlin, AKA the baby. Usually I like to paint in oil, but it seems to take too much effort, so I am experimenting with watercolour.
My sister bought me a kit for Christmas one year to make these fiddlehead mittens from Tanis Fibre Arts. They have a knitted lining and are super warm. This was my first attempt at fair isle knitting or knitting with several colours. I love the result, but found the pattern for the lining to be a challenge because it was too big. I re-knit the one mitt’s lining several times, but didn’t redo the other, so it’s a bit bunched in the end. I wear them anyway, I love knitting!
I recently attended a “Lost Wax Casting” workshop at the Art School of Peterborough. First I sculpted the head in hard wax. A plaster cast was made from the wax and then the wax melts. Silver is injected into the cast and when it is put into water the plaster explodes and you are left with an exact silver replica of the original wax. The silver is then filed and polished.
Created using a template I found online, these felt flowers each have barrettes attached to them so that you can put them in your hair, but could also be worn as a brooch or grouped together to make a bouquet.
