Sunday, September 9, 2018

Mixed Media Madness

The last time my good friends came over to my house before they vacated the Bay Area for Portland, they caught sight of my naughty bathroom x-stitch I made many years ago.  I have never seen Diane laugh that hard and I promised her I'd make her one for her bathroom as a house warming present.  Fast forward 1 year and 1 month, and we were on our way to PDX for the grand tour and I had to actually produce one for her.  Admittedly, I had literally started this project 3 different times and then gave up because nothing was feeling right.  I did finally settle on a design and just went for it.  What had been dragging me down and taking me months to accomplish with all the false starts, I was able to complete,  concept-to-finish,  in two weekends because when it is right, it is right:

The words are done in a wrapped stem stitch with some french knots thrown in where the font I used called for dots.  It is not the neatest of embroidery jobs, but I still left the back open so that it can be viewed if wanted:

I did my typical flowers, leaves and tendrils on the frame in polymer clay, and threw in little beetles of course because apparently I can't make anything without insects on it.  I brought a couple of the beetles from the frame onto the stitched portion.  I feel like they brought the piece together.

The most serendipitous part of this: she has her new house decorated with this exact color turquoise as the highlight color, and there is insect decor everywhere.   I had had no idea.  The universe just spoke to me and I'm so happy I listened!

While in PDX  I was extremely fairy inspired (anyone who has been to Portland will tell you how magical it is there) so on this, the first weekend since I am back, I decided to figure out how to make fairy wings.  There are tons of tutorials online, so I watched and read a good half dozen or so, and then started playing around with techniques until I figured out worked best for me and followed my own path.  I think they came out fantastic!  I just need to figure out wtf I should make with them.

 


I also discovered Instagram stories (three years too late, hoo-boy) but this story was pretty indicative of my day yesterday:

I also finished my cicada necklace some time ago and never posted.  I see that I had posted the wings whilst in progress, but failed to post final project.  Whoopsies doodles.  Here she is:



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