Cord making - thread only bowls - a background

I have been making cords since the late 1980's.  I made an African Neck piece from cord as one of the pieces for my City and Guilds Part I - see below:

I have continued to make cords and use them in many of my projects - especially my costumes, Now that I am using up all the left over cords I have made over the years to  make the bowls  I have been finding cords in various boxes in my work room - like these:

Today I came across this mega ball of cord :-) !! Not sure when I made it or what it had been intended for but obviously it was never used - I wonder how many rainbow bowls it will make :-)

The ball on the left measures 12 metres (I was able to measure it) - mobile phone to show scale -  I have no idea how long the big one is.!!

Yet more thread bowls and now paper rolling

To continue the creative therapy I have made more thread coil bowls but I have also started paper rolling and making boxes/bowls - these will probably become Christmas presents so don't tell :-).  They are not only fun to make but a lovely way of recycling junk mail, therapeutic and relaxing.

 

What I did yesterday - chiffon sandwich, Waste not Want Not bag and Bay leaves

Photo heavy post - Having vented my frustration yesterday - I decided to make something - so I made another large piece of Waste Not Want Not 'chiffon sandwich' fabric and turned it into a bag.  If you have never made a chiffon sandwich - this is the recipe....
You can use any fabric as a background so long as it is cotton and not too thick - I use up old curtain samples as they are a good size - however on this occasion I joined two pieces together, then applied some Bondaweb

Next step is to take one of my many bags of scraps - including threads and chop them up

Until I have a largish pile of chopped up stuff - this is them scattered over the cotton background

 Cover this with a layer of chiffon - this time I used twinkle nylon instead as it gives a nice shimmer - next step is to stitch in both directions with a basic pattern stitch (easier to show from the back)

Then blast it with a heat gun - this melts the nylon and helps keep it all together - you can just see the melting - right side of the photo below

 

This was then turned into a large bag - which I will now try to see on Etsy ! It has two outside pockets and one inside for a mobile phone (or whatever)

Bay leaves - last summer I had to give my Bay tree a bit of a trim and as you know I hate to throw anything away so I dried the leaves. Now I have a very large quantity of dried leaves and although I use them all the time in my cooking I won't be able to use up all the stock I have - SO if you would like some FOR FREE please let me know and I will post you some.

Making again and again and again

UPDATE - I have been selling these to France, USA and UK over the last few days - Whoop Whoop!!

Have spent this weekend - making recycled fabric notebook and sketchbook covers - the fabrics include sari silk and unique fabrics made by me. Some include A5 sketchbooks, some include A5 lined notebooks, some are A6 and contain a mixture of recycled papers - including brown paper, wallpaper and coloured papers. Now I just need somewhere to sell them!!

Sari Silk

When you buy a bag or two of sari silk strips do you spend a whole day ironing them flat like I do???  Yes it has taken all day so far and I am not even half way through!

I know its been raining but look at my Clematis - this one Montana - isn't it lovely?

Beginning to feel better and Three Kings Update

So at long last I am beginning to feel better - am learning to breath through the stomach pain rather than taking meds and have adjusted the food I eat, therefore I think I am getting there.  Some days I wake up feeling horrid but there are the occasional days, like today, when I wake up feeling OK. On days like today I actually feel like being creative so moving on here is an update on the Three Kings - the first one is well in progress - free machine stitching is so relaxing and absorbing - like doing the zentangles I love so much.....

Today I also started planning and working on Three Kings 2 - it is much larger - as you can see from my trainers and the pen.  So far I have traced out the design onto Bondaweb and have a lovely stack of silk fabric - I was given this heap by a friend emptying her studio and the pieces have been sitting in my workroom for years waiting for just such a project.  I think it will just be bonded applique but am not sure what will happen next - How I will stitch it - Any suggestions would be welcomed.




Update:  Fabric pieces cut out...

Three Kings Update

So I have made a little progress on the first of my Three Kings Project, but before I show you that - once I mentioned to a friend that I am collecting Three Kings cards she found hers from this Christmas together with a couple of other cards I think I would like to translate......

So the first translation - I have redrawn the card, Zentangled it

 and have started a Free Machine version... not sure how I will add the gold highlights I added to my drawing.

Starting Yet Another Project

Whilst today is a good stomach day (fingers crossed it lasts) I have actually decided on yet another new project!!  This year I received some more rather lovely Christmas cards of The Three Wise Men  - I now have quite a collection - so -  I think they need to be translated - don't you ?!! -

OK so January is a bit of an odd time of year to start work on a Christmas Theme but at least I am 'doing' something!!