Eco printing on fabric with embroidery

 Hi everyone. It's been a few months since I last posted as we have very sadly had a family bereavement and I was dashing to and from England for hospital visits and a funeral. To be honest I didn't feel much like working anyway.

However, I am now getting back to work - and play. I have listed several more felts in my etsy shop. I was delighted that three sold within days ! Two of them went to repeat customers which is always nice because I know that they must have been very happy with their original purchase to have come back for more.

I'm waffling. Let me tell you about the eco printing. In case you've not come across it before it's a process where you mordant either paper or fabric, place leaves and flowers on it and steam it for a couple of hours. The leaves and some flowers leave a print on your paper / fabric. 

I have had a lot of success with printing on paper before but been disappointed with the results on fabric so I decided to take an online workshop. What a difference! Instead of looking like someone screwed the fabric and rubbed it in dirt I have leaf prints.

I started with cotton. It's not the best for this method but it's inexpensive and I had some. The prints were there but quite faint so I decided to add embroidery. I love the result. Here are photos of my samplers.

This is the first one. It was done on plain, white calico. I added both hand and free machine stitching. I also put some wadding on the back to make the stitches give more depth.

This is the second one I made. The background is actually a peachy, beige but doesn't show well in the photo. It started as plain, white calico but I dyed it with coreopsis before printing. Coreopsis gives a bright orange but the iron water I used as a mordant modified it.

Close up of stitching. Both machine and hand embroidery.

Close up of the second one which was all hand embroidery.

After having a bit of practise I treated myself to some silk noil. Gosh! Look at this.

The prints are so much clearer. I think it is a little too dark so today I am trying more silk with less mordant. It's so exiting when the time comes to unwrap the bundles and see what has happened.

I've no idea what I shall do with all of these prints but I'm sure I will think of something. I'll keep you updated when I do.

 


 

Embroidered portraits

 I know that everyone is missing their families during lock down and I am no exception. We managed to see our 3 daughters in between lockdowns last year but I haven't seen my mother or sister since last February. In a week it will be a whole year!

After watching 'portrait artist of the year ' on TV I wished that I could paint portraits of my family but, sadly, I am not much good with a paintbrush. Then I wondered if it would be possible to embroider a portrait because I do know how to use a needle. After trawling the internet I discovered that a few people do make them so I decided to have a go.

My first attempt was a self portrait as a sort of warm up piece. It was recognisable but not great. I did learn from my mistakes however so decided to have a go at my mum. I am actually quite pleased with this one.

I used mostly crewel wool on linen but didn't have all of the colours I needed  so improvised with stranded embroidery thread and even machine thread doubled up. It was kind of magical seeing her face appear beneath my needle.

I am attempting a portrait of my husband next but that is proving to be much more problematic as he has a more olive skin tone and I really don't have those sort of colours. I wish the shops were open!

Anyway, I will show you that one when it is finished.

More thread painting

I've been experimenting with my thread painting and really enjoying it. One of the problems I had was how to display the completed work.  After trawling through google images and trying various things out I decided that the finished pieces look best bonded on white mount board and put in to a box frame. I am going to supply them already on the mount board but not with the frame because the extra cost of shipping would be considerable and some people might prefer a wooden frame anyway.

This is the first piece which I have up for sale. It is called a sister is forever and if you want to see how it looks in a frame pop along to my etsy shop where there are more photos.