CAROLYN SAXBY MIXED MEDIA TEXTILE ART

in snowy mood

2012-01-09T14:27:00.006Z

today for Mosaic Monday I'm
in snowy mood

please do visit the work of these amazing artists on flickr
1. snow in Venice 2. no winter blues here 3. ice face 4. .

and please do see my post below for more snow
have a fab Monday ♥

December

2012-01-08T13:30:00.016Z

December was a very busy month

we had stressful conveyancing and legal things going on
lots of paperwork and contracts to push around
lots of typing and "swearing" of documents
it took up a lot of my time

whenever I had any spare time I made snowflakes for friends
and one or two for our own tree

I decorated our tree quite late this year ...
around the 10th December which is pretty late for me ...
but it looked lovely when it was finished

on 13 December my friend Rosie came over for the day

we just managed to walk down into St. Ives
before it poured with rain (big blobs)

we took shelter in a cafe on the seafront
where we steamed up the windows
with fish and chips and a mug of tea

it was bitter cold too
we did Christmas shopping

and admired the festive displays
in the shop windows in Fore Street

then had more tea
and a hot mince pie with Cornish clotted cream
in Madeleine's Tea Room

(necessary ... of course)

thank you for a lovely day Rosie ♥

in December

I made a seaside heart
the first one for a while ... and a little different
using some beautiful chiffon fabric my friend Cathie gave me

the chiffon had swirls of aqua sparkles which
made me think of waves and as it's been so windy
I was thinking how the winter wind
whips up the sea creating larger than usual "rollers"

the winter sea air carrying a saltiness

I layered it up with scrim, melted chiffons
and a little bit of my own hand dyed silk
free motion embroidery
lots of aqua and blue seed beads
and french knots

the beaded dangly is a "scrumble" of peyote
in various tones of aqua, sky blue and turquoise
with turquoise accent bead

so happy this heart sold to a lovely lady in the Channel Islands

in December I created lots of different beads
and I'm pleased to say I need to make more
(hopefully next week)

such lovely seaside colours

mid December I got mild shingles
and the week before Christmas got very stressful
feeling like our conveyancing was going to fall apart
it finally completed on 21st December
and we didn't get home until 23rd December

but once home I felt a whole load better
and had a very lovely, peaceful Christmas

we had some beautiful cards this year
so many featured snow and snowflakes
and were covered in glitter like cards from Christmas past

I love all the different silver snowflakes on this one
that make up the tree

this gorgeous one is Sally MacCabe's card for 2012
from her original painting

let it snow

Christmas Eve

I only managed to make a few hand made cards
and hand delivered them on Christmas Eve

an inch of snow - for Sally
some of my cards featured snow and snowflakes too

I had coffee with Sally
mmm ... she does make a great cup of coffee!

and I popped in to see Lesley at Art Space with a card
and met her lovely mum

it was a grey day ... cold fingers and toes ...
the snowflakes on the gallery window gave me an idea ...

we haven't had any snow in St. Ives yet this winter
it's quite a rare thing in this part of Cornwall
so I created some snow magic on my Christmas Eve
photos of the harbour

a snowy baby seagull

snow ... on a winter beach

I got these inspiring and beautiful cards in Art Space

they are the work of Sara Pound

I fell in love with Sara's starlings and bought this card

St. Ives starlings are such friendly birds
it's possible to sit on the beach by the cafes
and hand feed them crumbs of cake ... they are so tame

it was lovely to see you Lesley ♥

Christmas arrived and I had some wonderful books

from my lovely friend Jo ♥
I was thrilled to receive Angie Lewin's "Plants and Places"

I adore Angie Lewin's nature prints of seedhead shapes
so very inspiring

and was delighted to find a whole section of her work
dedicated to the coast and seaside finds

books are probably my most favourite presents
and from my darling hubby I received

Kim Thittichai's "Layered Textiles"

straight away this project jumped out at me
using painted bondaweb on canvas
it would lend itself to a seacape

Dawn Thorne's book "Transparency in Textiles"

loving this project that reminds me of the scrumble
of flotsam and jetsam I often find tangled up on the beach
sea glass mixed with seaweed and wire ... yummy!

Sarah Tuttle's "Exhibition 36"

this beautiful mixed media book of techniques
demonstrations and explorations

and a book I shall save for picnics on the rug at Godrevy
a beautiful summer read

The Day of the Storm - Rosamunde Pilcher

Rosamunde Pilcher was born in Lelant, which is only a few miles outside of St. Ives, so when she writes about Cornwall I can lose myself in her stories imagining that she is writing of St. Ives and this very pretty part of Cornwall. All of Cornwall is beautiful, of course, but this area of outstanding natural beauty has a very special pull
on my heart strings ... and yours too ... I know!

snowflakes in St. Ives

on 28th December Jo and I had our Christmas crow day
thank you so much for a lovely day Jo ♥

a very special day swapping pressies and cards
a stitched angel that I will share on my red blog ...
the Angie Lewin book and some red mittens ...

so very welcome ...
because it was absolutely freezing ...
when we went for a winter walk in St. Ives taking photos
which will be a base for textile art work for our exhibition
in The Library, St. Ives in March 2012

"inspired to stitch"

a very Happy Christmas to you - a card for Jo

and my year ended on a lovely note
with a beautiful swap with Mimilove

who stuffed a budgie through my letterbox
isn't he gorgeous!!

he is painted on fabric with lovely embroidery stitches
and adorned with sequin flowers and a bell
in a stitched and stuffed budgie cage

he is so like a budgie called "Beauty" (that we had as kids)
who sat on top of the mirror looking down at himself
and telling himself he was a "pretty boy"

"Beauty, pretty boy"

what a beauty

Mimilove
I adore your gift - thank you ♥

well that's December and 2011 all caught up with

thank you for visiting and reading my ramblings
January is already looking good ...
hope you come back and visit again soon ♥

Mosaic Monday

2012-01-02T15:59:00.005Z

happy new year
let's hope it's a good one

winter light for mosaic monday

1. Lystskoven 2. gentle snowflake 3. Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful ~ Norman Vincent Peale 4. sycamore seeds 5. means 6. covered with frost 7. guy fawkes night 8. frosty 9. onto 10. Victorian romance - 5 of 5 11. bittersweet november 12. twiggy things 13. gold silk

my December catch up is on it's way
then there will be exciting new projects
more sketchbooks
seaside hearts
and beads

happy new year everyone!

November

2011-12-31T10:42:00.008Z

I think of November as a brown month
not in a dreary soggy leaves and damp weather sort of way
but of golden brown leaves and bare branches
and glamorously ploughed fields
(have you ever looked closely at how neat they are)
rich and earthy
decaying ... but also renewing

A winter walk

1. Five cool trees - freshly ploughed Scottish field 2. Sycamore seeds 3. Chocolate drops 4. Last summer's souvenir 5. 1 rainy morning in the park 6. Winter day 7. Soft beauty 8. Bound 9. Making hay, 10. Mr. Gunston 11. Untitled, 12. Hiver 13. My life is like a picture left out too long in the sun

in autumn when the trees are brown
the little leaves come tumbling down
they do not make the slightest sound
but lie so quietly on the ground
until the wind comes puffing by
and blows them off towards the sky

the winds will blow their own freshness into you
and the storms their energy
while cares will drop away from you
like the leaves of Autumn

Autumn days are here again
John Muir

a time for hibernation
and preparation for winter proper
of logs and kindling
Guy Fawkes, bonfires, toffee
and chocolate, of course ;o)

personally ... it was a very bad November for me

for it was on a bright and sunny day in a garden
with a gorgeous show of autumn colour
that we gave thanks for the life of my darling Nanny

feeling emotionally drained and so, so tired
our journey back to Cornwall
turned into a horrific night that I shall never forget
when we were affected by that terrible accident
on the motorway on November 4th

a foggy night, the air was thick with bonfire smoke
fuzzy orange street lights blended
with so very many flashing blue lights too

the accident happened just two minutes in front of us ...
and we just knew it was gonna be a bad one
from the speed of the ambulances rushing to the scene

we were diverted off of the motorway
just before the accident and spent
the next hour trying to get across Bridgwater
all roads were closed for the town's annual carnival
we spent an hour on what would normally
have been a five minute journey across town
everywhere the air was thick with grey fog and smoke
so eery ... so surreal
blue flashing lights on every road

the weather was filthy that night
we had already asked each other
why do people drive so fast in such bad conditions?
(cars were speeding past us 90-100 mph)
some drivers just don't make allowance for poor weather

to wake next morning and hear on the news
the full extent of that horrific accident really shook me up
I just can't get it out of my head ... still
I will never forget that day

♥

less than a week later we were on the road again
we were away several days with family
for a special 65th birthday party in Berkshire
so nice to spend time with loved ones
in happier circumstances

golden browns in my palette

in November I hid away
painting and melting
making beads

stash sorting and admiring

stitching

and losing myself in the magical world of flickr

in November
I had a thing about owls
I think I'd like to make an owl next year
we have one in the garden that sits on the pointy bit of our shed
and I like to lay in bed and listen to it calling

this was the last mosaic of Autumn
and also the last one I made in 2011

1. Luka the owlet 2. barn owl 3 - tyto alba edit 3. maple leaves & bokeh square 4. owl progress 5. the bones of us living 6. embroidered button 7. journal spread close up 8. owl necklace 9. honestly 10. great horned owl 11. ChiLL ing OuT.... 12. empire owl cushion 2009 detail of back 13. ginny and the owl 14. owl poems, 15. we left our love in our summer skin 16. vine 17. lucien the fox - felt art toy 18. untitled 19. cottonwood flyers b 20. basket of nature owls close up 21. back to the book of boo 22. mummy family 23. misty sunset 24. || 25. promenade

in November
the weather was mostly dark, rainy and blustery
but a handful of golden sunrises led to brighter days

a Cornish sunrise over the neighbouring cottages

on such days I "pottered" in the garden

looking closely
making discoveries

love these rosehips

I had a little play in photoshop

it's another world I lose myself in

I find it really relaxing to take a boring photo
add a texture and bring it to life

in November

I bought a pomegranate
and let it dry out for a few days
pomegranates have such wonderful tones and textures

the words come from Wind in the Willows
which has to be one of the best books ever
for curling up with in winter
I enjoyed creating a series of pomegranate studies

seedlings from the pomegranate tree

this one really enhances the leathery texture of the skin
and highlights the those warm pink orange tones

a sad month of melancholy
but there will be other autumn times to cherish

and now for December ...

October

2011-12-30T07:12:00.005Z

the thing I noticed about October ...

was how much longer the leaves and berries
seemed to hold their autumn colours this year

the colours lifted my spirits through a difficult month

I spent most of October in Somerset
with my time taken up with precious family matters
conveyancing and legal things needing lots of attention
so not a lot of time for art of any kind

but when I got home I made a new friend ...
who came in through my work room window

how high he climbed up the outside wall
to reach me in my upstairs studio!

I watched him for ages ... and I wanted to keep him
but I did put him back outside under a leaf

some time ago I made this mosaic for TILT
because sometimes we all need
a splash of colour on an otherwise dark rainy day

Things I love Thursday

sunshine, sun dyeing, flowers with sunny smiley faces, sunflowers, dandelions, daisies, leaves, beautiful greens and yellows

hope the mosaic made you smile today :o)

Thank you to my flickr friends and faves for their amazing art!

1. leaf #1 2. * 3. where did summer go? 4. daisies - textured 5. the green pumpkin 6. oct152011 7. ...and soon I'll fall 8. fragmented_time 9. sundyeing 10. universe (explored) 11. 3 little daisies 12. blackbird 2 13. beauty breaking through

in October

I hung my St. Ives seaside art quilt up on my studio wall
to remind me that I would like to make more art quilts
although not necessarily, under pressure, for Festival of Quilts

I have also offered my art quilt for sale for the first time ever
I was amazed and very grateful for the response it received

my etsy shop

and
in October I fell in love ...

with this baby bird ... all fluffed up

Things I love Thursday

fluffy birds
sunlight on a perfectly spun spider's web
fine art by Hiroshi Matsumoto
and abstract photography by Linda

1. exploring the world 2. spider's web bokeh 3. oct142011
4. only do what your heart tells you ~ Princess Diana

and discovered these inspiring words
"dreams are seedlings of realities"

when we day dream are we really making plans?
can we make that seed of a dream come true?

October
is the month for finding furry acorn cups

and ends with Halloween
I don't really celebrate it ... but I like to make a mosaic
this was my offering on flickr for this year

not too spooky
more a celebration of the season
of conkers and pumpkins
mists and mellow fruitfulness

1. Gabby - the incessant chatterbox 2. some nuts are hard to crack
3. struck 4. vintage halloween postcard Sanders 5. more pumpkins!
6. extreme primitive halloween cat doll 7. stack o' lanterns 8. pumpkin bucket
9. happy halloween! 10. the pumpkin 11. the sound of nothing
12. vintage halloween postcard "Barton & Spooner" BS 13. the bones of us living

and October is a time for spiky rose hips

and country umbels up near the steeple
I do like a country umbel!

the perfect time for an autumn walk

Things I love Thursday

autumn leaves, golden rain drops, leaf veins, skeleton leaves, dried curly leaf textures, hoar frost, tree bark, seeds, morning dew and spider's webs

1. The stillness of the night 2. What is it? 3. Untitled 4. New work detail 5. Frozen veins 6. Weed jewelry 7. Chocolate drops 8. Leaves 9. Bend 10. Decomposition 11. Frost on oak leaves 12. Leaves on the patio 13. Gold jewels

goodbye colourful October
and now for November ...

September

2011-12-29T16:49:00.007Z

as we near the end of the year

my thoughts are of reflection for the past four months
always my favourite time of year when autumn blessings
blend effortlessly with Christmas cheer

I welcomed the month of September with
the usual excitement for my favourite time of year

but as it turned out ...
it was to be the start of a very difficult period in my life
when blogging went haywire and I had a bit of a "meltdown"
just too many horrible things happening all at once ...

but I don't want to dwell on the very sad things here
instead I'd like to share some of the lovelier things
that were happening at the same time

like my "Crow Days" with Jo
Jo and I have such special days together
we work on our textile projects, try new art techniques
have lunch and loads of laughs
our days together always cheer me up ♥

you may remember the piece above as being one of
the mixed media collages I showed in a recent post
(torn paper, tissue paper, chiffon, oil pastel and watercolour paint)

it reminds me of a mini country landscape
of hilly meadows and ploughed earthy fields

I loosely used it as inspiration for this piece on the embellisher

I used a pre-felt base to which I added wool tops and strips of silk
sequinned chiffons, sari silk ribbons and sari silk yarns and

as I worked into it the overall shape became a bit quirky
the lines of the field boundaries naturally came and
it became a little fragile in places ... and I like that

I added a little machine embroidery with a metallic thread

and then I cut the large piece into little pieces
added some hand stitching and they became art cards

and from the rest of the waxed collage pieces
I made some art cards which are available in my etsy shop

(they make good starting points
if you need inspiration for your textile work)

in September ...

there were lots of bead orders but this is the only one
I kept for myself ... in green, lime, gold and dark brown
I like just "having" it

one of my beads with hand dyed ribbons

in September ...

the colours I loved were a mix of
golden greens and orange browns
mixed with sea blues and always St. Ives

inspiration came from one of my favourite artists

Elaine Pamphilon

I bought this card in Tate St. Ives
because I love rooftops and chimneys
and adore Elaine's use of colour

(more on chimneys and rooftops next year)

yellow morning - Elaine Pamphilon

and more colour and pattern inspiration from Elaine Pamphilon
on the front cover of one of her little books
that I bought at The Ainscough Gallery, Dartmouth
while on holiday at the beginning of September

dry river bed, Hayle

enjoying the autumn colours in her Cornish landscapes

and the shapes and textures of the fields and trees
that would so lend themselves to machine stitching

♥

after our holiday to Dartmouth (3-10 September)
we then enjoyed the St. Ives Arts Festival (10-24 September)
with various workshops and music events

and on 3o September I met up with Marilyn Stephens
a friend I first met at Cornwall College, Camborne

when I admired her most beautiful fine art textiles
at end of year exhibition
we hit it off straight away and became friends

we had lunch and then went around the Mariners Gallery
and also to The Crypt Gallery to see the work of
artists Brian Busselle, Stuart Thorn and John Higgins

I bought a few seasonal cards of Brian Busselle's work

Borderline

Kingswood Revisited

we met and chatted to artist Stuart Thorn
and admired his beautiful abstract paintings

Stuart Thorn

Clayworks
a fine mix of Stuart Thorn's paintings
and Jenny Beavan's ceramics

Coast - Stuart Thorn

Marilyn gave me this lovely textile brooch with a heart on
made from felt, chiffon and hand stitching
thank you Marilyn ♥

it reminds me of our lovely day together
it certainly was a gorgeous hot day in St. Ives

♥

and then on 2nd October I met up with lovely blog friend
Sophie Munns of "Homage to the Seed"

Sophie has a passion for seeds, pods and seedheads
and has several amazing blogs and sites
where she shares her art and drawings of seeds
you must go visit if you share our love of these things!

Sophie was over in England from Australia
about to spend a week working as resident artist
at The Eden Project in St. Austell, Cornwall
and then a month at the Millennium Seed Bank at Kew Gardens

Here is Sophie's account of our day together

It was a boiling hot day, Sophie and I met outside Tate St. Ives and at the time there wasn't a show hanging so we went upstairs to the cafe and and enjoyed a pot of coffee and admired the views through the long glass windows of the Tate Cafe

we visited some galleries and then
we went to the The Tea Rooms for more tea and cake

and then I made Sophie take her shoes off
to paddle and walk on the cooling wet sand
I always love to take my friends beachcombing
and she laughed at me as I spotted treasures at a hundred paces

Sophie gave me a copy of her book
"Homage to the Seed"
which I shall treasure

and then we had to say our goodbyes for, sadly
Sophie only had one day in St. Ives and that's not enough ...
so she had to cram in all the things she wanted to see
before catching the train to St. Austell

I do hope we meet again but, meanwhile, will continue to
follow her inspiring and beautiful art on all of her blogs

and that about brings me to the end of summer
when my life turned upside down ...

I had just begun work (photography and textiles) for an Exhibition with St. Ives Arts Club called "On the Island" and had already taken a large base of photos to inspire my textile pieces when I had to cancel and pull out of the exhibition because my Mum collapsed and was very ill in hospital and, just a few days later, we lost my gorgeous Nanny. For quite some time life was very difficult indeed ...

I still have the photos from "On the Island" and
I think I may use them for an exhibition in March 2012
(more on that later)

ochre lichen on the rocks
The Island, St. Ives

the colours inspired this mosaic

1. gas 2. untitled 3. sketchbook 4. sep302011 5. waves 6. 289-290 aggie 7. how do I love thee? 8. l'explorateur 9. the moorhens - 2009

and now for October ...

Merry Christmas one and all ...

2011-12-24T15:18:00.001Z

I would like to wish YOU ALL a very peaceful Christmas
and all the blessings of the Season

thank you for visiting
I will see you in a few days
Merry Christmas one and all
♥

Love Stitching Red

2011-11-30T13:42:00.004Z

I'll be closing my giveaway at 6pm this evening ... so there are still a few hours left to pop your name in the hat ... hope your day is going lovely ... bfn ♥

Love Stitching Red

Giveaway

2011-11-19T19:52:00.005Z

Dear blog friends and readers of my textile art blog

I'm having a giveaway on LOVE STITCHING RED and I would be so happy to see as many of you as possible. You are all very welcome to enter. I hope to be back here with textiles and inspiration next week. Hope to *see* you on Love Stitching Red - Carolyn ♥

happy halloween!

2011-10-31T23:15:00.002Z

hope it's a fun one!
♥

little works of art

2011-09-20T14:35:00.006+01:00

I've been away on a little holiday to Dartmouth

I do love it there and it's my second visit this year
as there were just too many things to fit in last time

there are so many things I love about Dartmouth ♥

the shops and art galleries
the marina full of fishing boats and yachts
being able to cross the river by small boat or ferry
and travel by steam train to old fashioned seasides
with Brixham, Paignton and Torquay so close

we went horse racing at Newton Abbot
where I backed a horse called "vintage fabric"
(it lost the race ... but did win "best turned out")

and we went to Greenway
the holiday home of Agatha Christie and Max Mallowan
a fascinating National Trust treasure

(more another time)

I suppose the appeal for me is that I find it peaceful there compared to how busy St. Ives gets in the summer months and you know what they say "a change is as good as a rest" so we swapped our cottage for an apartment with views of the river Dart and out to sea

our apartment has been renovated to resemble a ship's cabin
and was full to the rafters with nautical paraphernalia
but I'm going to post more about that on Love Stitching Red

I love the quaint pastel painted cottages
that nestle into the hills on both sides of the river Dart

I find I am fascinated with cottages at the moment
and took loads and loads of photos of rooftops
chimney pots, slates, lichen, windows and house shapes
for a future art project

bunting at Kingswear

on the Dartmouth side

a hillside of cottages in Kingswear

all in all ... it was a nice break away
even though the weather couldn't make up it's mind what to do
and my dear hubby was not well during our visit
we celebrated our wedding anniversary while we were away

stunning views of the river

since I got home ...
I've made a few more beads which are now in my shop

inspired by rusty fishing boats

the colours of the ocean
aqua, turquoise and sea blues

late summer sea and skies
aqua turquoise blue and gold

sold

and this week ...
I had a day in St. Ives with my friend Rosie

we visited The Salthouse Gallery and I had the unique opportunity
of meeting and chatting to artist Hugh Webster
who is exhibiting there during the St. Ives September Festival
(ends 24 September)

Hugh Webster has his artist studio in a converted boat shed
on the beach at Felixstowe Ferry Boatyard, Suffolk
working in oils his paintings derive from this tidal landscape

you won't find much of Hugh's work on the internet
he resists having a website
and much prefers people to discover his work by chance
only putting his posters up a few days in advance of a show
so it's rather like stumbling upon a secret

if you are in St. Ives over the next week
you can see Hugh's work at

The Salthouse Gallery
Norway Square, St. Ives

with permission of Hugh Webster

on Wednesday the weather was fabulous and I grabbed the chance
to photograph some more boats at low tide in the harbour

these rusty lines caught my eye

and I ♥ peeling paint textures on fishing boats
this paint belonged to Dolly

hello Dolly

on Wednesday ...
I was one of many who enjoyed a collage workshop
with Sue Dove at St Ives Society of Artists Old Mariners Church

known as "The Mariners Gallery"
The Mariners’ Church has a fascinating history
and has been the home of the St. Ives Society of Artists
for over fifty years. The building is over a hundred years old
and in need of some essential refurbishment.
Like all old buildings it constantly needs money, but the Society has survived the ebb and flow of its fortunes due to the dedication and vision of some of its notable members and with this in mind Sue was happy to volunteer her time to run the workshop to help raise funds for needy repairs to the beautiful old building

♥

Sue Dove
Developing Ideas and Images with Collage

we all had so much fun on Sue's workshop which essentially
involved tearing magazines pieces, getting sticky with the gluepot
and getting messy with oil pastels ... such a playful morning!

Sue talked about how she came to develop her collage technique
and showed us many inspiring pages in her sketchbooks where
she had played around with the technique to take her work further
and use the small collages as inspiration for her pieces of textile work

Sue's work for sale in The Crypt Gallery
(ends 23 September)

these pieces of artwork were donated by Sue
to St. Ives Society of Artists
for them to sell

Alone With a Tree

Unattached

after a couple of hours it was so exciting
to see how everyone's little works of art turned out

here are just a few of the colourful collaged pieces
(not my work)

and one lady made this fab vase of flowers

perhaps it's the time of year but the three pieces I managed
all came out in autumn vegetable colours ...
olive green, pumpkin, squash and courgette!

the first set is torn magazines and oil pastels

the second set is torn magazine pieces with
oil pastels and watercolour over the oil resist

and my third set is torn magazine pieces, water colour with salt
and looks a bit like a pizza :o)

when cut up it produces some lovely little abstracts

I will have to try and find some time to make a stitched collage
based on one of the squares

I also added some texture with a copper markel paint stick
applied with a palette knife

these ones turned out quite grassy

lots of abstract inspiration from a couple of hours play

if you would like to have a go at this technique
you can find it in Sue's book "Painting with Stitches"
which I would recommend for lots of inspiration

I guess I'm into these colours at the moment ...
I found some interesting bits of seaweed on the beach
and noticed my fibretex has a similar texture

playing with the pieces and aged textures
on a vintage botanical atlas

real seaweed on the left and fibretex on the right

I also made some beads in these colours
which were featured in this wondrous treasury on Etsy
someone else has the same colours in their head
and that makes me smile :o)

wondrous

sold

lastly I just wanted to tell you about
a lovely day I had with Margaret
whose blog is called Libertybelle

we met at the fairly new tea room called
"The Tea Room" on the Wharf, St. Ives
and after morning tea and walnut cake
we went beachcombing for treasures
and treated ourselves to beads in the bead shop
(not that I really need any more!)

it was a good day for seaweed

and photographing rock pools

magical little pools full of seaside colour

we sat and had our picnic lunch looking over Porthmeor beach
it was such a warm relaxing day

and then we visited The Gallery on the Square
and I took Margaret to meet Sheila Stayne
at her wonderful textile workshop
at Porthmeor Studios in downalong

Sheila's textiles particularly reflect her interest in
flowers, plants, trees, bark, leaves, seaweed and seascapes
inspired by gardens, hedgerows and local cliff tops

she works in lovely earthy colours which manage to be
both colourful and subtle at the same time
with hand painted silks, chiffon and merino wool fibres
to create wall hangings, delicate silk scarves and throws
as well as framed textile pieces and cards

(her sketchbooks are pretty wonderful too)

if you are interested in textiles in St. Ives
Sheila would love to see you :o)

I have more friends visiting and family staying
for the rest of the week so will post again when I can
it's kind of a back to work feeling next week

I've got a couple more things from my day with Margaret
to share connected to seawashed pottery
but they're not finished yet so ...
they will keep for another post

♥

and just to say there are more beads in my shop
and hope they inspire you to create something

earthy brown and autumn gold beads
with a hint of orange and copper

sea green, jade, emerald and a hint of lime

with shimmery browns, orange and gold

back as soon as I can ...
creative wishes
Carolyn ♥

Things I love Thursday

2011-08-25T08:15:00.001+01:00

nature sings the blues

Things I love Thursday

bubbles and bokeh, blue found in nature, sea and skies
shells and feathers, light and ice, shells and seedheads
blue in collections, cottons and beads, wonderful blues

beautiful blues with thanks to my flickr friends and faves
please do click on the links below to go to the artists' work

1. feathers 2. iced III 3. glamourized 4. rocks and pools 5. hoar frost 6. 07/01/11 7. seashells 8. rushing waters 9. “Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true”~ Lyman Frank Baum~ 10. can not love winter? 11. one last bokeh 12. beach bubbles 13. rimed seed pods

so today is all about things I love on Thursday and
sharing a few more things from Festival of Quilts 2011

like this plush velvet devore I bought at the show

I was intrigued by the cutwork patterns
and also the tones of dark navy and indigo blue

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet

but, for the time being, it's on my desk
for stroking and admiring purposes

other "must have" purchases included some turquoise felt

from Chris Gray's stall, some sea coloured chiffon
colourful silk pieces (throwsters waste)
and some fab threads and dyed scrim from Stef Francis

inspired, of course, by St. Ives and the fishing boats I love

"Our Liz"
has lovely worn wooden trimmings
and a boarded window covered in yellow ochre lichen
(a boat I found in the harbour on Friday)

I photographed the wood to use as a photoshop texture
and if you would like to use it as an overlay on your photos
please feel free to click on the texture and save

old wood texture

as well as the competition quilts at FOQ 2011
I really enjoying having the opportunity to see the work
of some very talented and inspiring textile artists
and would like to share some of it with you here

Alice Fox

I bought several postcards of Alice Fox's textiles. Her pieces were amazing, very simple, contemporary and oh so inspiring. Above you can see extracts from some of her work. Alice was chosen as joint winner of the Graduate Showcase bursary at the Festival of Quilts along with designer Rose Wood

If you are interested in natural and eco dyeing you will find Alice's blog of interest. In particular, her recent experiments dyeing with beach finds and seaweed, following a recipe from India Flint's book, are very interesting and you will just love the sea treasures she found as well as her sea inspired photography. I love her blog!

Alice Fox Textiles

do pop over and see ...
but come back won't you as I have more to share here ...

Barbara Weeks

I saw this small art quilt by Barbara Weeks
and instantly fell in love with her work

it features photos transferred to cotton and
stitched with sheer layers (torn strips of dyed organza)
quilting by hand included lots of little knots to represent
the tiny shells and crushed corals found on the beaches
... you can see why I fell in love?

what I love about this piece ... is the softness
as well as the composition and use of colour
I love that Barbara captured a moment of tranquility
of solitude and contemplation

Eat Your Greens, Kiwi

after that ... I spent rather a long time
admiring many, many pieces of her work
and Barbara was so generous allowing me to take photographs

isn't this felted, quilted piece just amazing!
a well balanced and interesting composition and
beautiful use of colour along with simple but fine stitching

below
this is such an effective design
fine details, fine stitching, simplicity of colour
loving the sea inspired theme and that lovely turquoise

Barbara says ...

"white coral may look festive, but it is an indication of the coral under stress from changes in the environment, water temperature, solar irradiance, salinity and a decline in zooplankton. This causes the coral to expel the zooxantheallae which give the coral it's colour"

wet felted merino with bamboo 'drawn' coral
overlaid with net tulle and machine quilted

I also bought postcards

this is a piece of work from Barbara's
"Landscape Impressions" series - a detail from "Birch"

silk noil, dyed, painted and printed
bonded silks, burnt edges and then
hand and machine quilted

and this one is aptly called "Strata"

Barbara Weeks

Barbara has a website that I think will inspire you

take a look at her gallery of work ...
but do come back again ...

Nicky Dillerstone

(detail - a dragon's wing)

Nicky Dillerstone

I was so happy to meet Nicky Dillerstone as we share
not only an enthusiasm for textiles and textile art, but also
a love of heating, melting, bonding and fabric manipulation

I was intrigued by the construction of this dragon's wing
and Nicky was very generous with her time
and explained to me how it was made using
fabrics and threads bonded with pva glue and
she also very kindly allowed me to take this photo

[I'm really rather excited about this as I can
see how I can adapt the technique for something
I want to make for exhibition in October]

Mary McIntosh

the exhibition space of Mary McIntosh was full of
exciting design samples, sketchbooks and works of art

I always love the opportunity to flip through
an inspiring sketchbook and Mary's work interested me
for her use of folds in fabric manipulation

you can read more about Mary's textile journey
and about her work here:

Mary McIntosh

and this particular quilt with manipulated folds reminded
me very much of the work of local artist Wendy Topsey
which I saw recently at Morvah Schoolhouse

Wendy Topsey likes to use fine cotton, organza and linen thread
together with a variety of looms to create woven and folded
seascapes and coastal scenes, based on the inspiration
she takes from the coasts of Cornwall

beautiful folds

well that's all from me today
I'll be back with some of my own work next time
and also hoping to update my shop over the weekend

thank you very much for visiting
creative wishes
Carolyn ♥

Festival of Quilts 2011

2011-08-20T12:44:00.011+01:00

I had such a wonderful time at Festival of Quilts

11-14 August 2011

the quilts were truly amazing with
a colourful array of work from some incredibly talented artists
it really was an honour to see them

one of the highlights of my day
was seeing my friend Julie's beautiful quilt

her quilt was inspired by Cornwall and it's sea, colours and textiles
with beautiful toning colours that I can relate to
and with images from St. Ives transferred to fabric
it was both perfectly composed and exquisitly finished

congratulations Julie

"Turning, Disappearing" - Julie Mackinder

so here are a few more of the quilts that I found interesting
inspiring and breathtakingly beautiful

where possible I have included information about the quilts and the artists but there are one or two where I'm not sure of the artist so if you can help me out with any missing information I would be grateful and will update this post

this one I loved for the shimmering silver greys
and the pebble shapes

[would welcome information]

this incredible piece is by my bloggy friend Annabel Rainbow
the amount of work and detail in this pictorial quilt is amazing
it drew many admirers and I was so pleased to see it was

"highly commended"

congratulations Annabel

"Life (Measure of Time)" - Annabel Rainbow

love this one for the beautiful stitching and soft silver greys

"Rosebridge" - Jacqueline Heinz

a beautifully composed seaside scene
so many interesting textures and details

so glad to put a name to this beautiful quilt
thanks to Sharne for the information

"Walking my dog" - Brigette Kopp

this one drew me in and was one of my favourites
I admire all the subtle colours and textures

"Herculaneum" - Susan Hotchkis

I love the mediums used

monoprinting on brown paper and then waxed
and screen printed fabrics with discharge

Susan was inspired by distressed walls and broken tiles
found on a visit to Pompeii and Herculaneum

I've visited Pompeii and Herculaneum too and I can relate
to this beautiful textile piece ... it's wonderful!

I love the colours and soft tones in this seascape
and the idea of expressing the scene in long panels
another beautiful piece of art

[would welcome information]

I liked the rusted elements on this one

machine quilted with UV activated thread
rusted and tea dyed fabrics, screen printed text
with melted sheer overlays

sounds like a fun recipe!

"In the Closet" - Tamara Schultz

this beautiful and colourful quilt was "highly commended"
it is eye catching and drew many admirers

"men in Rajasthan, India wear their saffron dyed turbans
on two occasions ... weddings and the Dassehra Festival"

"Dassehra" - Bente Kultorp Andresen

love the layers and tones on this one
beautiful use of colour

"Temple of the Dawn, Bangkok" - Hazel Jordan

and this one I loved for the use of colour and text
and such minute piecing!

these are my favourite tones of orange and yellow

a detail from "Between the Lines" - Sonja Thalen-Maat

beautiful use of colour
beautiful piecing and shapes

[would welcome information]

this beautiful and whimsical landscape appealed to me very much
I love the patchwork countryside and, again, the colours
so quintessentially English

the artist was inspired by a painting by Carry Ackroyd
and made with her permission

this led me to discover the wonderful landscapes and paintings of
the English countryside by artist, painter and printmaker

Carry Ackroyd

Ditch 2 - Doris Mary Alcock

beautiful shapes, piecing, texture and use of colour in this quilt

"Navaho" - Sarah Showers

and this was the deserving winner of the pictorial quilt section
inspired by one of the artist's own photographs
of the dry season in Kenya

"Hot Africa" - Janneke de Vries-Bodzinga

just a small selection of some of my favourite quilts
as we all have different tastes
and thank goodness for that!

towards the end of the day I caught these two beautiful girls
in their lovely costumes and on ten foot stilts

"swanning around"

there were so many highlights crammed into one day
but the best one has to be meeting up
with so many of my lovely bloggy friends

a rare moment when so many of us got together
we all agreed this was the best photo taken of us all

left to right
Julie Mackinder, Mirim, Carol McFee, Carolyn Saxby
Margaret Roberts (Mags), Jackie Cardy, Gina Ferrari
Chrissie Galley, Viv Sliwka, Margaret and Sue Krekorian

and a little after the photo was taken
we were joined by Chris Gray, Sandra Wyman and Penny Leonard

I hope you enjoyed the photos ...
I have a little more to share from
Festival of Quilts 2011

until then
have a fab weekend
Carolyn ♥

Printing and playing with geospun textiles

2011-08-13T20:13:00.012+01:00

Hello ... thank you for visiting today

I'm hoping to get this blog back on track now as I have a few weeks where I will have a little more time to devote to blogging and there is so much to share ... so I shall get on then ...

Biddy Picard

I love to visit galleries every chance I get and I'm very lucky that there are many exhibitions of beautiful and inspiring work close to where I live. I do try to keep up with as many as I can and I have a growing collection of art cards, original prints and small original pieces of work which I keep in my sketchbooks

Recent exhibitions have included paintings by John Piper and beautiful ceramics by Linda Styles at The Lighthouse Gallery in Penzance and the exhibition of work by The Penwith Printmakers at The Crypt Gallery in St. Ives

I think I pick this catalogue up each time I go but it's very useful and explains all the different types of making an original print ... intaglio printmaking including etching and stone lithography, relief printing including collographs, woodcut and wood engraving, monoprinting and screen printing and also contains information on the members' work. So interesting to see the many different styles of work too

I went with my friend Jo to see the current exhibition after our Crow Day. On that particular day Carol Lander was moderating and I was so pleased to meet her and be able to chat to her about her work

meeting Carol Lander

Carol creates the most beautiful linocut prints often featuring sead heads and seed pods which is a subject close to my own heart

I fell in love with the image on the left which is called "Moon Flowers" and I was so lucky that Carol sent me a copy of the print on a card in the post to me

thank you so much Carol ♥

moon flowers

Carol was very generous with her time and explained how she builds up the layers of her images by printing and then cutting into the same linocut several times to create prints that are many colours and shades. This method means only a limited number of prints can be made and can never be reproduced

This is another card I bought which was printed in this way
I chose it because of my love of the umbelliferous shapes

if you are ever down in St. Ives when this exhibition is on
I would recommend it

coming up ... at The Crypt Gallery, St. Ives
September 24th - October 7th

an exhibition of work by
Brian Busselle, Stuart Thorn and John Higgins

St. Ives Society of Artists Gallery in Norway Square regularly have original printed work by two of my favourite artists Peter Wray and Marie Keeling. I have been collecting small original prints on cards by both artists

Peter Wray

original collagraph by Marie Keeling

Marie Keeling

I'm saving up to go on a workshop with Peter Wray
but they get pretty booked up so will probably be next year now
something to look forward to!

Peter Wray

love this print by Peter Wray because it reminds me of Cornish lichen found everywhere in St. Ives on the granite walls and rooftops

and I'm noticing printed designs everywhere right now
they are especially popular at the moment

late summer prints in Country Homes and Interiors magazine

and an article on Angie Lewin and her printing process and designs
in the September issue of Handmade Living magazine

and this would have been the appropriate time to share with you some dry point printing I did on a workshop with Jesse Leroy Smith but, as I write this, I'm not sure where the prints are ... so no doubt they will come out in a later post at some stage ...

... instead I shall share with you
a new material that I've been playing with ...

it was sent to me by Chris Gray of Butterfly Threads
and she calls it butterfly geospun textile fabric
she is currently selling it on her stall at The Festival of Quilts
and she will be at The Knitting & Stitching Show, Harrogate

Chris Gray
Butterfly Threads
STALL E52

Chris sent it to me because she knows I love to heat, melt and bond things. It's a white fabric very similar to fibretex but softer

I painted a large fat quarter size of it with watered down acrylic paints in colours of St. Ives bay. I found it best to give the fabric a good soaking in cold water before painting. Then left it to dry outside on the washing line

once the paint was dry
I cut into strips and zapped with my heat gun

the strips crinkled up nicely and the colours deepened
oh I had such fun!

I love these!

and then I made some beads

they look a little "alien" with knobbly bits on
so I highlighted these with gold
I think I will keep them ...
I shall enjoy using them in my projects

this past week I have been listing more of my beads in my shop
there are still just a few left
and I shall be listing more over the weekend

and I can take custom orders for the next three weeks
if you are interested in a particular colour scheme or size

just let me know what you would like to see in the shop

my shop

I just got back from a wonderful trip to The Festival of Quilts
where I met up with so many lovely, lovely blog friends

the quilts were amazing and I took loads of photos
also did a little shopping too ...

I will get my photos organised and post some of the quilts here
have a lovely weekend and thank you for visiting

Carolyn ♥

The Art of Cornwall

2011-07-26T00:10:00.006+01:00

Did you see St. Ives, Cornwall on the telly again tonight?

BBC4 showed a film looking at the art colony of St Ives, which became as important as Paris or London in the history of modernism, during a creative period between the 1920s and 1960s

a fascinating and beautiful watch ... highly recommended!

In case you missed the film
it is available to watch again on BBC4 iplayer

The Art of Cornwall

Enjoy!

Secret seagulls

2011-07-20T23:24:00.007+01:00

thank you so much for your get well wishes left here
and on my other blog, on flickr, twitter and facebook
I'm so grateful for your kind thoughts

it's been a nasty summer flu bug but I am now on the mend

(seagull in disguise)

over the next week I will be adding the finishing touches to
my art quilt entry for Festival of Quilts so I won't get time
to write any more here for the next week or so
but I may update on Love Stitching Red

thank you for visiting me today
back soon!

sunshine and love
Carolyn ♥

2011-07-14T10:22:00.003+01:00

no updates for a short while as I'm ill in bed with flu
... hope to be back soon with a new seaside inspired post ...
♥

A paddle in a cooling rock pool

2011-07-04T06:22:00.008+01:00

I was up at 5.30 this morning

woken by a huge orangish red sun
bathing everything in golden light

my mosaic today is inspired by seaside blues
golden light, sunshine yellow and cheerful orange

it's so hot, hot, hot already
I want to go down to the beach
and paddle in a cooling rock pool

1. Translucent 2. Fanned out and weird 3. Shells
4. Overlooking Kynance Cove by by Tommy's Photos via our I Love Cornwall Facebook page 5. Rockpool 6. Seaweed 7. Orange shell
8. Fall fruits 9. IMG_0012

with thanks to my flickr friends and faves for sharing their photos
and to special friend Julie for her fab fishes

I wish you a happy summertime week
seaside blues, happy orange and sunshine yellow
creative wishes
Carolyn ♥

summer stuff

The sparkle of the sea

2011-06-20T20:08:00.008+01:00

I'd love to share with you the things that are inspiring me at the moment and the colours that are finding their way into my work ... aqua seas, turquoise oceans, pale gold, yellow sand beaches and
soft early summer orange tones

this past week I made two hearts
inspired by the colours of the ocean and beach

as I love to do ... I heated the fabrics to resemble watery textures
and added french knots, beads, shells and gold stitches

in a vast turquoise ocean

the limpet shells came from St. Ives beach and I
added a small dangly of seed beads with an aqua accent bead

and there is some text too ... I love the words

in a vast turquoise ocean

I put the hearts in my etsy shop and was delighted
when both sold almost immediately

resting by the water side
so I wrapped each of the hearts as lovingly as possible
in tissue paper with an art tag, thread and a pretty bead or button

this tag was monoprinted on vintage paper (a fish recipe)
with gold angelina fibres, a button and text

and I'm happy that both hearts are on their way to new owners

the weather in St. Ives has been all over the place recently
with thundery skies, heavy rain and squally gusts

but it never stays like that for long before the sun shines again

and since I started writing this post we have had
nothing but rain and Cornish mizzle

so I've been keeping busy painting new beads for the shop
as I've almost sold out save for one packet

and while I had my paints out I've been monoprinting
and painting on bondaweb which I will use on more tags

in the colours I associate with St. Ives

they remind me of beach streams and the seashore's edge
and I'm stitching into the transfers so will show soon

we had more moody skies on Wednesday
and I loved the way the sunlight was falling on the sea

sparkling

Porthminster beach

I also love this painting by Stewart Edmondson
which has that lovely shimmering sunlight sparkling on the sea

I saw his original work in a gallery in Dartmouth earlier this year
and I fell in love with the work of this artist (take a look)

all of his paintings are beyond beautiful

Stewart Edmondson

magic of the sea

also loving this painting by Elaine Pamphillon
which reminds me of the landscape, seascape and countryside
I visit quite often between St. Ives and St. Just

only last week I had a trip on the open top bus
to Geevor, Morvah and St. Just
(more about that in the next post)

the views are exhilerating no matter the weather
but it's almost always very chilly on the open top bus
(worth it though!)

Lamorna

these are a few of the monoprints I made

with acrylics and luminous paints
on vintage recipe pages and tissue paper

love monoprinting - it's fun!

then I tore them up to make art tags for my parcels

this one looks nice tied with thread and a gold anchor button

the luminous paint shimmers like sunlight on the sea
and I added some gold paper, chiffons and a few little beads

the sparkle of the water

this is the other heart I made which is inside this parcel

it has many layers of chiffon ocean
decorated with beads, buttons, copper curls and little stitches

an accent bead dangly

and fibres couched down add a bit of texture

layers of the ocean

this one is called "sun bathed coast"

and now it's on it's way to Australia

more of my textured beads made from Tyvek

inspired by this tangle of fishing nets and rusty chains
from the pier at St. Mawes a few weeks ago

and this is a photograph I took on St. Ives pier
of ropes and fishermens' pots

love that view of St. Ives cottages
through the gap

the colourful ropes inspired a colour study
in this mosaic for Mosaic Monday two weeks ago
(I'm afraid I'm a bit behind with everything)

fragility

1. Broken 2. She saw it differently 3. Skin memory.1 4. || 5. Autumn leaf II 6. My best profile 7. Tansy indigo 8. R036 Mel_Sheridan 9. Mother's day bundle 10. Means 11. Jar No 120 close up 01 12. A snail's pace 13. Ready to bud

thank you to my flickr friends and faves
please click on the links above to visit the artists' photos

found

and any spare moments I get I am beachcombing or
experimenting with textures and colours on my photographs

I hope you found some snippets of inspiration here today
have a wonderful creative week ahead

Carolyn ♥

Things I love Thursday

2011-06-09T08:30:00.001+01:00

Things I love Thursday

aqua green seas, turquoise oceans, salty water, beachcombing, shells, sea glass, St. Ives, embroidery, french knots and beads

1. Maelstrom 2. Simply pretty! 3. ACEO : Seashore 28 4. Salty
5. Sea knots 6. Porthminster Beach, St Ives

Happy Thursday!

Sky of blue and sea of green

2011-06-07T19:07:00.015+01:00

Another lovely week whizzed by filled with happy moments

Friday 27th May I enjoyed an afternoon with my friend Terri
We had a long lunch at The Harbour Pool Club and then had a walk around some of the quaint cobbled streets of St. Ives. The weather was stunning, hot blue skies and white sand beaches ... but ... it wasn't a good day for the camera as there were too many long dark shadows on just about everything I wanted to capture on the back streets in downalong ... so will have to re-take another day

Later the same day I bumped into my friend Jo on the beach and,
as it was so hot, we went for a cream tea in Madeleine's Tea Room
for no other reason than "just because"

Saturday 28th May was the start of Cornwall Open Studios
I discovered that textile artists Sandra Hardy and Vivien Staunton were exhibiting just up the lane from me
so I couldn't wait to go along and meet them

Why had I not met Sandra Hardy before?

Sandra moved to St. Ives just a year ago but spent the first year renovating her home and creating her beautiful studio workspace and is now settled and about to offer textile courses from her home and sell her beautiful textile pieces

I treated myself to one of Sandra's collaged sketchbooks
and some postcards with some birthday money I received

Have a look at Sandra's wonderful website

Sandra Hardy

I love Sandra's style from her textile collages to her
very fine felted and machine embroidered pieces

cushions and home furnishings

It was great to meet Vivien Staunton too!
I greatly admired her beautiful woven textiles and
bought one of her cards but the photo didn't do her work justice

♥

On Tuesday 31st May I had a birthday

My hubby booked a stay at The Idle Rocks Hotel in St. Mawes
as a birthday treat and I must say I was thoroughly spoilt

I aged the photo I took

St. Mawes is a very small fishing village with harbour
not far from Falmouth on the Roseland Peninsular and
in comparison with St. Ives it was very quiet and peaceful
with a lot less hustle and bustle

when we first arrived we had afternoon tea on the terrace
it was a very warm day and we sunned ourselves
till it was time to get ready for dinner

I enjoyed a couple of pints of Betty Stogs
a Cornish ale brewed in Truro

and then a seven course dinner - very posh!

next day I had time to visit several lovely galleries and shops
and bought a few art cards for my collection

I had a very happy birthday

I had some really fab pressies

Surface Treatment Workshop book
Caran D'Ache water soluable crayons
Winsor & Newton watercolour paintbox
watercolour pens and new batteries for my camera
and a new sewing lamp
(so I have one upstairs and one downstairs)

I had these really beautiful space dyed threads
hand dyed by Nells Embroidery on Etsy
from my very dear friend Cathie

thank you dear bezzy ♥

and with it came this beautiful card stitched by Nell
I thought you would like to see it as the flowers are embroidered

also from my friend Cathie I received these wonderful sheers
and silk threads in pretty mauve tones

beautiful woollen and chiffon fabrics which Cathie says
came from The Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival
and a very pretty heart tag made by Cathie

gorgeous charms and wonderfully inspiring fabrics

April in Parisfabrics ... charms and
a nest and eggs magnetic notepad from
The North Carolina Museum of Art
(wow ... would I love to go there!)

and more fabrics ...

the wollen fabrics I shall use on my embellisher
and you know how much I love to use sheers!

everything was beautiful and so "me"
thank you so much dear Cathie ♥

my very good friend Jo always spoils me lovely too
she gave me these project pots of beads in gorgeous colours
that perfectly match the threads ... so inspirational!

also from Jo these wonderful homespun and pebble fabrics
she knows me so well :o)

and Jo made this gorgeous threadpainted card
it's so fab and so funny ... I adore it!

Thank you for my brilliant presents Jo ♥

a beautiful card came from Missy K ♥
because she knows I love Cornish cottages
as well as a gorgeous birdie notebook

Thanks Karen lovely ♥

what a lovely birthday!

♥

the very next day after I got home from St. Mawes I met up with
some blog buddies at the cafe next to Art Space Gallery in St. Ives

Noelle, Diane, Lesley and me

It was lovely to see Lesley and Diane again and meet Noelle
for the first time even though she also lives in St. Ives!

we enjoyed tea and carrot cake
(a nice way of getting one of your five a day in!!)
put the blogging world to rights and then
exchanged gifts as is customary in blogland

from Noelle this adorable seagull
which my hubby loves as much as I do!

Stanley Seagull

look at all the love that has gone into the making of this mermaid
she is heavily embellished with beads, sequins and charms

Noelle ... thank you so much ♥

from Diane ... a bag of fabric scraps for my birthday
a pretty satin heart decorated with lace and beads

and a lovely flower corsage with a beaded centre

thank you Diane ... they are lovely ♥

and from Lesley ... these prints of her gorgeous artwork
I love Lesley's paintings all inspired by St. Ives

land and sea 2010

Man's Head

Porthmeor afternoon

Thank you Lesley ♥
Seascape

and for the girls I gave them each one of my waxed cards
some of my painted beads and made them each a gardening heart
inspired by summer skies and the secret garden

it was a beautiful sunny day

the garden looks wonderful

in full bloom

featuring vintage style lace, machine stitched sheers
and text from one of my fave childhood books

The Secret Garden

each one has a silver spade (trowel) charm dangly

after tea I went beachcombing with Diane and Noelle
because a girl can never have enough beach treasure!

sea glass, ocean tumbled pottery and seaweed
ocean worn plastic and fabric altered by time

and a paddle in warm clear turquoise waters

followed by a visit to St. Ives Society of Artists
to see the members' current work ...
a weekend stitching on my quilt for FOQ
painting beads and papers for collage
... so busy all the time ...

how are you?
what are you working on?

Creative wishes
Carolyn
♥

Spring and summer

2011-05-26T19:33:00.002+01:00

Things I love Thursday

spring, summer, aquamarine, the seaside, happy flowers, pretty leaves, snails, birds and their nests, collages, fine art, textiles, jewellery and little cottages

1. Casita 2. Ouch 3. In sunlight 4. Song 89 5. Home 6. Solace 7. Postcard 8. Green 9. Untitled 10. Art quilt journal love endures 11. Happy Easter to you 12. Embroidery detail 13. Porthminster beach St Ives

loving these images on flickr
creative wishes
Carolyn
♥

Distractions, distractions ...

2011-05-12T12:35:00.002+01:00

recently there have been so many distractions in my life

most of them have been nice ones but
I'm afraid my blog here has suffered some neglect

we finished the renovations on our cottage (finally)
been away to Exeter and Dartmouth and
had family staying with me here in St. Ives
but I'm back now!

I've committed to making an art quilt for Festival of Quilts 2011
and signed up for The Sketchbook Project 2012

my chosen theme is "in 10 minutes"

I've started a new blog
to help keep all my plans, thoughts, process and progress in one place as I think it will help me to focus on the project

as starting points for my work I am using
my own photos relating to Smeatons Pier in St. Ives harbour
and inspiration found on my recent trip to see the work
of artist Simon Starling at The Tate

ART IN 10 MINUTES

I will be blogging here again soon (probably over the weekend or early next week). I've got much to share in the way of inspiration from my recent trip to the art galleries in Dartmouth, photos of Dartmouth and St. Ives and lots of new work that came out as a result of my ramblings including new textile art hearts, hand made beads and mixed media collages and cards

I do hope you have an inspiring and creative weekend ahead
Carolyn ♥

The Erosion Bundle Project

2011-04-13T11:44:00.002+01:00

Just to say I blogged about my erosion bundle for anyone that was interested in seeing the contents of it and what Mother Nature did with all the bits and pieces

It can be seen here

Beautiful thoughts

2011-04-04T10:06:00.005+01:00

beautiful thoughts

for Mosaic Monday

Please click on the links to go to the artists work:

1. SummersMichelle20 2. Nutshell and leaf 3. How do i love thee?
4. Wind chime recycling 5. Silent_moments 6. Grey dreamer
7. Sketchbook project 15 8. . 9. Cold day, 10. |
11. Paper bird: inspirational 12. work in progress
13. Jar no 75 close up 02 14. Lacy edges
15. She knew her sister 16. Lost friend

have a lovely creative week ahead
♥

Colourful St. Ives

2011-04-03T13:57:00.003+01:00

Such a beautiful spring weekend

blue skies
a warm breeze
aquamarine sea
yellow lichen covered rooftops

sweet scented spring flowers
a lovely day for a visit to a favourite gallery

falling in love

with every single one of Matthew Lanyon's paintings
in the Porthminster Gallery, St. Ives

enjoying the colours of St. Ives

there is so much going on for me right now ...

I'm preparing for a week of workshops next week,
revealing the contents of my erosion bundle and
posting about a collage paper swap I did as well as
the heart I made for Chrissie, more natural dyeing reveals
and trying to get back on track with showing more sketchbook work

Quite soon I will be announcing the opening of my online shop
but I want it all to be perfect so I'm still "tweaking" a few things

Thank you so much for reading and following along

creative wishes
♥

My favourite blues

2011-03-24T10:29:00.009Z

so sorry ... I've been away a while ...

as you can imagine there is much to catch up with and the best way to start again is just to plunge right in with some gorgeous felt pebbles made by my lovely blog friend Chrissie
(of Niminy Fingers and Make Your Presents Felt)
and to thank Chrissie for her thoughtfulness
shown to me during a difficult time

the pebbles are so lovely and soft
so nice to handle and look great arranged in a column

they are just like my favourite pebbles with white veins of quartz
similar the ones to be found on the Cornish beaches

The pebbles came beautifully wrapped
with this gorgeous seaside inspired tag

a beautiful paper heart Chrissie made for me
with some of my favourite words

shells and beads
poppy seeds
moonlight

and this inspiring postcard too
thank you so much Chrissie
I love everything!
♥

In the far south west winter has been lingering
with chilly winds, rain and stormy skies

these photos were taken at Godrevy in February
on a very stormy day with high winds and a high tide

I sat on a rock and watched the waves for hours

I find deserted beaches so peaceful

the foamy surf washing everything clean and new

Godrevy is my peaceful place

This month I was inspired by the knitted textiles of
Hume Sweet Hume on my kitchen calendar

Hume Sweet Hume

I so love the girls' vision and the delicate colours of nature

I was inspired to get some knitting on my needles

for those chilly mornings and late nights
I knitted these fingerless gloves
for my brother who cycles 9 miles each way to work every day

and started a lacey knitted sample to embellish a heart for Chrissie

I used very fine embroidery threads on tiny needles
to achieve the very delicate look I wanted

It has a picot edge

and a lacey row of holes

but I can't show any more until Chrissie has received it
except to say it also features one of these ;o)

these mussel shells were photographed by my sister

Fotos by Flo

her photos are very lovely
and if you are interested in using any of them
they are now available for sale through license with Getty Images
Congratulations Flo!

♥

for Mosaic Monday

I put together some of my favourite blues

1. Mussel shells 2. Connected 3. Beach trio 4. Velella Velella close up
5. . 6. The fog 7. Shell 8. Beach rope and shells 9. Heart stone

I find these blues restful on the eye

♥

since I started writing this post
our weather has been very changeable

with very misty mornings
brightening to warm Spring days

I am hoping the warm spring weather will help me move on
and get back to some kind of blogging routine again

I have many new things in the pipeline
many more goodies to share with you
and some news too ... in the next post

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog
I am so grateful for your patience during the last few weeks

Carolyn
♥

a gallery of green

2011-02-12T14:59:00.012Z

Today I am embracing the colour green with a few pebble/round shaped samples from my sketchbook seaweed elements of my art quilt and remembering a summer day when everything that caught my eye was green

nougat

I love playing and sampling ... such fun!

the first few samples were inspired by sliced nougat

loving all those round pebble shapes
looking at those wonderful lines and textures

noticing the many tones of brown in the walnuts

being seduced by that lovely lime green angelica

yes ... there is inspiration to be found in everything!

playing with my paints
mixing copper, gold and sap green to recreate the tones

and using fabrics from my stash to play with pebble shapes

a simple and fun example of reverse applique

I used a synthetic kunin felt for the background. On top of that I layered an animal print fabric and then a soft lime and green fabric on top. I used my sewing machine to stitch some pebble shapes and then carefully cut through the green fabric to reveal the animal print fabric below

after cutting out the pebble shapes
I top stitched over the edges to secure fraying

and stitched round some of the green shapes too

to complement ... I cut some round shapes from paper
and stitched to the felt through brown sequins

I painted some textured paper with copper and sap green and used the pebble shapes I cut from the green fabric, arranging them into a pebble column which I then stitched to the paper with black thread and free motion stitch

fun little samples looking at shape and tones of colour

These are a few details from the bottom of my St. Ives quilt. The background is silk that I dyed variegated shades of green dark through lime and yellow greens

I had loads of fun embellishing the sea bottom with real shells, beads, textured threads that fanned out like seaweed, melted plastic carrier bags, melted textured chiffon fabrics and tiny hand stitches

the finished edge of my quilt folded over
with seaweed and coral elements

long lengths of frayed silk knotted for texture

and my quilt features pieces of real seaweed
couched to the silk with beads added

real seaweed (lettuce variety) on the left

and then, inevitably, I get the urge to create a mosaic
featuring beautiful photos from my friends on flickr

(hope you like it Jackie)

1. I dream in chordaria 2. Ghost flower
3. Seaweed Tolsta Beach, Isle of Lewis
4. River deep Mixed Media Collage

the rest of these photos are from a summer day
walking on Porthminster beach

green seaweed, barnacles and mossy rocks

a tangle of flotsam and jetsam

green string and weed in a rock pool

green layers of rock decorated with moss

a type of bladderwrack growing on the rocks
beneath Pedn Olva Hotel

seaweed branching

seaweed

a green crab ... still alive

green rocks

more research:
The Natural History Museum:
Identifying British Seaweeds

hope you enjoyed the gallery of green
have a great weekend and week ahead
Carolyn

♥

On a beach

2011-02-05T09:14:00.008Z

So many colours and tones epitomise St. Ives

Last summer, on the hottest day of the year,

the colour of the water was almost surreal

a sea of jade and aquamarine

I was reminded of these colours when a lovely parcel arrived from Margaret at Libbertybelle. I was very lucky to win her giveaway prize of a textile pack which included some hand dyed fabric, chiffon, hand dyed scrims, threads, ribbons, beads and buttons in these beautiful toning shades of green. Thank you Margaret ♥

Margaret also sent me this very pretty hand stitched postcard
with vintage lace, french knots, seed stitches and buttons

Margaret has family connections to St. Ives
so I wanted to stitch her a heart with St. Ives colours
using some of the bits and bobs that she sent me
and this is what I came up with for her

on a beach

each heart I stitch turns out a little differently
each one evolving on it's own with a tale to tell

"on a beach" is about beachcombing and gathering
things washed up on the St. Ives harbour beach

I used chiffons which I frayed a little to make them shimmery,
beads, knots and a limpet shell from the harbour beach

beach layers of sea, shore and shimmery sand

The fabric at the bottom is a piece of hand dyed cotton from Margaret's stash and I stitched on a piece of green seawashed plastic which I found washed up on the harbour beach

on a beach

I also made a small card from one of my photos of St. Ives
with texture from dommend (flickr)

This week has been a very busy one for me

Giveaway - I will be posting a catch up on Love Stitching Red later today with details of a giveaway. I am offering one of my textured hearts for Valentine's Day ... so please pop over there later if you would like to win one of my textile art hearts

The Brooklyn Sketchbook Project 2011 - I have now posted lots of photos of my sketchbook for anyone that is interested in seeing them ... they can be viewed here:

Below the Surface

I'm so glad it's the weekend. I'm looking forward to going into town for a few supplies and then catching up with as many blogs as I can possibly get round this weekend. I love you all ♥

Thank you for all your lovely comments ♥

Hope you have a good weekend too ... doing something that makes you happy!

Carolyn ♥

A thing about starlings

2011-02-03T10:24:00.002Z

I have a thing about starlings at the moment ...
especially mixed with some fine art, collage, snow and ice

a mosaic for TILT

Things I love Thursday
fine art, abstract, paintings, dolls, faces, snow, snowmen and starlings

1. Unyojsona-9 2. Lace books 3. Chubby fluffy 4. Sketchbook
5. Between two seasons 6. Se voir 7. Starling on the scrounge
8. Snowman and starling such close friends 9. Baby doll #3
10. Grange Park, less focus 11. Sorrow
12. 20091220-MG0673 13. Vintage little girl fairy

♥ thank you to my flickr friends and faves ♥

If you would like to pop back on Saturday
I will be having a giveaway for Valentine's Day

Best wishes
Carolyn ♥

Weather inspired

2011-02-01T17:30:00.008Z

Oh gosh! Time just flew away with me and I have so much to share that I almost don't know where to start! I have been very busy working on my Brooklyn Sketchbook in the early part of January, creating new hearts and working on textured photography and mosaics

I cheered myself up by lighting little candles and working on some rainy and icy hearts and mosaics. Here is a selection of work with a winter theme as we say goodbye to January

Dreamy January

Things I Love Thursday - dreamy thoughts, favourite things, winter light, natural colours, fine art, textiles, berries, snow, winter scenes, birdies, trees, Cathy's dolls, paper chains, stars and heartwarming treats

1. Standing books 2. Eruption 3. Dans l attente des vendanges tardives 4. The pink dress 5. Christmas altered silver cup ornament 6. Paper dolls 7. Winterscape 8. Starling in the snow 9. 220.365 10. Breathe 11. Alone 12. Decorating for advent 13. Still waters 14. ~ details 15. Tis the season to hold certain things dear 16. DSC_0359

The starling in the snow (above) inspired another mosaic with more starlings and a rainy theme. If I'm cosy indoors then I really like rain and raindrops on windows and sploshes in puddles and the comforting sound of rain on rooftops. This is another one I made for TILT (flickr group)

Things I love Thursday - Rain drops, rainy days and rain on windows, droplets on branches, puddles, reflections in water, cheeky starlings and shiny stars

1. Winter is still here 2. Silver edged stars 3. S-fall for kids 4. As a star in the night 5. Starling and dots 6. Starling looking at the stars 7. Reflect 8. It rained softly at Cefn Onn 9. Another rainy day 10. Raindrops 11. *узоры* 12. Starling 13. Crow bundle

Then I remembered some photos of starlings I took at Porthgwidden cafe (Porthgwidden beach, St. Ives) when I met up with blog friend Julie in 2009. You can just make out St. Ives bay and the lighthouse at Godrevy in the background

These cheeky birdies helped clear the table of crumbs

They seemed to like blueberry muffins

too many cake crumbs perhaps ...

chubby fluffy

Our January weather was bright but bitterly cold at times. On Friday it was cold enough to snow. I had to go into St. Ives to the post office and it was the coldest I have ever known it. I captured these freezing hydrangea seed heads in The Warren and added a snow texture by Visualogist (flickr)

Another St. Ives shot with texture from djpettitt
incorporating lace and scrim

More weather inspired photography

This is one of my favourite photos of St. Ives to which
I added a gorgeous winter texture by Clive Sax and PSE tools
to create a moody stormy harbour scene with a painterly look

The same texture was applied to the one below but a different look
achieved with PSE for a misty ethereal treatment

In the last post I showed some beautiful fabrics in ice blue tones, lace, a snowflake garland and a snowflake charm sent to me by Sharon, a sketchbook friend from Rhode Island

I wanted to make a gift to Sharon of one of my textile hearts
I chose ice blue and silver with a snowflake theme for her

I used my favourite silks and distressed chiffons/melted plastics
I melted chiffon snowflakes too so that they had an icy look

The key to this look is lots of layering
and everything is hand stitched

I added text with melted plastic over the top to resemble ice
It really does reflect the light like icy water

when winter came

To finish I added crystal icicle danglies in clear and ice blue

This is the finished heart

I was very pleased with the way this one turned out and I had some lovely encouraging comments about it on flickr (thank you). I do hope Sharon likes it!

Hope you have a good week ahead. I'm not done yet! I have another post with more work coming very soon, a long long blog post with lots of photos of my Brooklyn sketchbook (for anyone who may be interested in that kind of thing) and a post on Love Stitching Red too. I have also photographed the whole of the rest of my pebble sketchbook so there will be a few new posts on pebbles, rocks and contours coming sometime soon

♥

If you would like to pop back on Saturday I will be having a giveaway for Valentine's Day

Best wishes
Carolyn ♥

Happy new year!

2011-01-03T19:13:00.009Z

Sparkly Monday

1. Sparkly Monday blues 2. Juniper bokeh 3. .
4. Happy New Year! 5. Blog snowflake 6. Blue hearts

♥ sparkly new year wishes to you all ♥

a sparkly crystal snowflake always brings cheer

I am very happy to have made some lovely friendships
in blogland and through the Brooklyn sketchbook project

I hope you don't mind if I share with you
some of the beautiful things that came my way this Christmas
from my very clever and creative friends

a beautiful frosty snowflake card from Sharne

a delicious bundle from Sharon
my friend from the Brooklyn sketchbook project

including the most beautiful fabrics and lace

and pretty snowflakes and stars

a wonderful stitched postcard from Gunnel

with pretty and nostalgic details

a card featuring Gunnel's beautiful photography
from her hometown in Sweden
they have much snow!

a tag made by Sheila
for the Christmas tag with an inchie swap

a lovely silver Christmas tree charm from Colette

a tag made by Penny
for the Christmas tag with an inchie swap

a wonderful and magical oil painting of a snow scene
painted by my friend Lesley
who was inspired by the little bit of snow we had
in St. Ives at the beginning of December

a gorgeous stitched piece resembling a rock pool from my friend Julie

It reminds me of the beachcombing day we spent in the summer
Julie loves and is inspired by St. Ives

and these beautiful and interesting dyed/painted fabrics are from Julie

a tag made by Emma
for the Christmas tag with an inchie swap
a tag for the Christmas tag with an inchie swap
but I'm not sure who made this pretty green tag
as there was no name/details on the back
does anyone recognise it?

I had a very lovely parcel from Ewa Christine from Sweden
which I will be sharing on my red blog
I also thought this stamp was pretty!
From my friend Viv - Hen's Teeth
I received this wonderful fabric/paper/stitched collaged card
It has a lovely vintage Christmas feel about it
which made me feel all nostalgic for my early childhood
I love this card from my friend Sue
She knows me well and sent me snowy cottages ...
... that remind me of St. Ives

Christmas shopping - Fore Street, St. Ives, Cornwall

and so I come to a few photos taken recently
in St. Ives in December

little boats taken out of the water for winter

St. Ives - old stone archway

Cornish cottage on cotton with texture from djpettitt

St. Ives harbour - winter light

The light always seems so amazingly bright in St. Ives

I took this just before Christmas but don't be fooled by all that blue
it was -4°C with a blustery wind chill factor

brrrrrrrr ....

My latest heart was inspired by St. Ives in winter
with the wind and sea roaring noisily

roared noisily seawards in winter

Stitched incorporating text, my distressed fabrics and local shells
The pale yellow fabric was a pressie from Julie back in the summer
and will always remind me of a lovely lunch prepared by Julie's DH

My last photo is one I took of St. Ives in December
I've altered it with textures from djpettitt
and various photoshop tools

I love everything about this one actually!

the bright winter light
the little white sail boat
the yellow painterly layers
so St. Ives!

Well, that's Christmas over with for another year
I took my decorations down today and it's looking a bit bare
I think I will light some little tea lights this evening for cheer!

I hope the new year brings you fresh optimism
and enthusiasm for whatever you wish to achieve in 2011

I will be posting on LOVE STITCHING RED tomorrow
and steering this blog back to mixed media textiles next time!

sparkly new year wishes to you
Carolyn
♥

A wish for you!

2010-12-23T09:00:00.005Z

Happily ... the time has come to wish you all
a very happy Christmas

Thank you so much for reading my ramblings
following my blogs and for all your thoughtful comments

I'll be back in a few days ...

♥ lots of love ♥
Carolyn

Winter solstice

2010-12-21T07:23:00.004Z

My mosaic today marks the rare occasion of
the winter solstice coinciding with a total lunar eclipse

1. O Holy Night 2. Ice Tree 3. Heaton Park Manchester "cropped"
4. Winter trail 5. Sky between branches 6. Bluejay circle123_W
7. Released to Public: Neutron Star 2004 by NASA (NASA)
8. Circle collage 9. Moon behind Trees

I'll be back with some sparkly goodies soon!
♥

Falling snow and a little bit of magic

2010-12-14T10:04:00.008Z

if you would like to win a crystal snowflake
there are still a few days left until I pick a winner on Saturday
have fun!

Snowing in St. Ives

2010-11-29T09:53:00.007Z

1. *** 2. Happy Christmas, everyone! 3. Following the light of the sun we left the old world 4. "Out of the bosom of the air out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken over the woodlands brown and bare over the harvest-fields forsaken silent, and soft, and slow descends the snow" 5. Winter wonderland 2 6. a conversation 7. Cold 8. Snow seed memory 9. Alfred Snowman

Yes ... it's snowing in St. Ives!
enough snow for birdie prints
... like a child ... I'm very excited about this ...

The song of the sea

2010-11-25T23:26:00.008Z

Today I am loving aqua and sea green

This sample came from my pebble sketchbook and is part of a fabric collage I made of a pebble beach scene with lovely sea colours
of aqua jewels and stormy blues mixed together

monoprinted papers with machine stitched distressed sheers

Sometimes the sea really is this blue

can I hear the song of the sea?

Things I love Thursday

aqua, sea green, seaside, shells, vintage bathing belles,
textiles, yarns, stitching, fine art, sea glass and birdie houses

... to go to the artists work ...
1. Beach girl 2. Green 3. The truest elixir 4. Revival 5. The Eye 6. Colours

7. Circles in modelling paste - page from my Caithness and Orkney book
8. P1000394 9. ACEO : Seashore 28 10. Buttoned slate
11. Wookey Hole cave 12. Inspired - rockpool 13. Little house big woods

Still loving playing with textures and layers
I used textures from dj pettitt and playingwithbrushes

never mind the song of the sea ...
... if she put her finger in her ear
she could pick up Radio 1

I'm posting much later in the day than I had hoped
but it is still Thursday ... just!

Happy Thursday
Carolyn
♥

Monday melodies

2010-11-22T10:28:00.003Z

a spring chorus
St. Ives blue and friendly flowers

a summer ditty
with a whisper of a warm breeze

autumn melodies
to fill our hearts with gladness

1. Fence Friday {Contrasting Edition}....124/365
2. Untitled 3. Izmišljeno 4. au printemps
5. Autumn stories hand in hand 6. Yellow

the song of the sea for winter

happy Monday thoughts
Carolyn ♥

Colours of St. Ives

2010-11-18T22:58:00.005Z

Things I love Thursday

St. Ives all year round, whitewashed cottages with lichen covered rooftops, yellow flowers, daffodils, blue sea, splashing water, fine art, paint brushes, being inspired by colour

For the flickr group TILT

1. St. Ives_D8278 2. Postcard from St. Ives 3. Seagull St. Ives
4. St. Ives cottages 5. On my desk 6. St. Ives
7. untitled 8. au printemps 9. SS59 10. The pumpkin
11. Some of my brushes 12. Let art get you 13. Sea breeze

I'm very inspired by the colours of St. Ives
What's inspiring you at the moment?

The butterfly effect

2010-11-08T11:10:00.003Z

I'd like to share with you a very moving project that

I know you will want to be a part of

to make a butterfly

to make 1,500,000 butterflies

one for each of the innocent children
who perished as a result of the Holocaust

I Never Saw Another Butterfly

The last, the very last,

So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow
Perhaps if the sun’s tears would sing
against a white stone....

Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly ’way up high.
It went away I’m sure
because it wished
to kiss the world good-bye.

For seven weeks I’ve lived in here
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.

Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don’t live in here, in the ghetto.

Written by Pavel Friedman, 4 June 1942

Born in Prague on 7 January 1921
Deported to the Terezin Concentration Camp on 26 April 1942
Died in Aushchwitz on 29 September 1944

there is plenty of time
to make a butterfly

a whole year

you have till 31st December 2011
(click on any of the pictures for more info)

sorry ... I've been quiet
I've been feeling a bit down in the dumps
I've caught a chill on top of an existing chest infection
(cough, cough)

hope to be back rambling again soon ...

love
from
me
♥

A walk on the beach

2010-11-04T10:02:00.004Z

Things I love Thursday

A walk on the beach
wet sand, perfect pebbles, beach patterns
sunshine after the rain
a silver lining
to sometimes be alone
time to reflect and be thankful

1. Polzeath Beach (Jan) 2. Untitled
3. No end and no beginning 4. Grey morning
and texture by playingwithbrushes

Carolyn
♥

St. Ives peeling paint, rusty boats and a splash of water

2010-10-30T13:52:00.005+01:00

Another busy week whizzes by bringing lots of nice things:

lots of fab and groovy comments for the giveaway on
Love Stitching Red
(ends tomorrow)

more natural dyeing

a walk into St. Ives harbour
warm autumn sunshine
amazing light

lunch with a friend in the cafe next to Art Space
a visit to some favourite art galleries

some stitching
with lots of shimmery sheers
and materials that reflect the light

splash of water

one of my St. Ives hearts
with Alfred Wallis style Cornish cottage

layers of sea and a splash of water

using recycled materials in textile art

heat distressed sheers
painted and heated Tyvek
melted plastic carrier bags
and cellophane sweetie wrappers
that reflect the light
and the water splashing up on the harbour walkway

and found objects
a mussel shell from the harbour beach
with rusted edges balancing the lichen coloured cottage rooftop

enjoying the brightness of the day
photographing peeling paint and rust
on Cornish fishing boats

in St. Ives harbour

rusty chains

distressed by elements of nature

weathered by sea and time

and putting together a mosaic of my photographs
in the complementary colours of aqua blue and rusty orange

There is still time to enter my giveaway of natural dyed fabrics,
textile art beads and some of my distressed sheers.
It ends tomorrow so hurry if you are interested!

Happy creating!
Carolyn ♥

I have a new page on facebook
click on the box if you would like updates

Textiles, rusty boats and peeling paint

2010-10-23T13:40:00.010+01:00

Thank you for visiting me and for all comments on recent posts. It's lovely to hear from you and to see new followers

I have a few things to share today ...

Firstly, a couple of pages from my "sketchbook" which isn't really a sketchbook, but more like a sample book! I do draw and sketch a little, mainly still life. When I'm out and about I tend to use my camera for visual recording and a notebook for scribbling thoughts and ideas. Are you the same?

There are so many ways of recording observation, the name "sketchbook" can be daunting. I like to think of mine more as an inspiration book really, just full of my ideas and things I try and recording things I notice with photography, collage, samples, paint and stitch

On the left I stuck an image in my book that inspired me. I was drawn to the colours and detail in the rocks. Top left I painted a couple of Tyvek tags with acrylics in the same blues as the image, heated them and stitched into them. A few of these Tyvek tags layered on top of each other in my book give a bit of texture and interest

I made a textile piece using a base layer of dyed cotton, silk, scrim and tissue paper. I was able to stitch into the paper because it had a supporting fabric layer behind

On top of that I added lots of threads and curly wool tops bonded with bondaweb. Then I embroidered into the surface with hundreds of french knots in a variety of textured yarns of varying thickness, added some lazy daisy stitches and beads

I love french knots. I find them very therapeutic to stitch. They appear on most things I make. I do like the colours of the sea in this little piece :o)

Another thing I'd love to share is my new favourite thing of layering and adding textures in Photoshop! I've always wanted to know how to do it and it's one of those things that's very easy when you know, so everything is getting the treatment!

St. Ives harbour

I soon realised that all those texture photos I've taken over the years, all that focusing in on rust and peeling paint etc., would come in handy for adding highlights and interest to otherwise dull photos, of which I have loads!

So ...

This ...

plus ...

this ...

can, with a bit of manipulation, become this ...

texture multiplied

or this ...

texture multiplied with pin light added

or this painterly look ...

texture overlay plus hard light

or this more vibrant rusty look ...

texture with vibrant light

or the same image with the colours reversed and made a little more red (love red)

rust texture vibrant light colours altered

Using these photos for inspiration I made some samples on my embellisher on a recent Crow Day with my friend Jo. First was a piece of dyed felt which Jo gave me. This gorgeous piece of pre-felt came all the way from Arizona and it's very soft and beautiful

This is how a small piece of the fabric reacted to being needle punched in the embellisher

The pulled threads look just like little lazy daisy stitches and create great texture and movement. I like it just as it is and the colours remind me so much of rusty boats in St. Ives harbour

The next few samples were made on the embellisher using felted backgrounds to which I added wool tops, silk tops, snippets of metallic fabrics, chiffons and ladder yarns

To this one I added some ladder yarns and cellophane sweet wrappers before embellishing. Then I free machine stitched on both samples using a variegated metallic thread

Below ... you can see I got my inspiration from the colours in my boat photo (the vibrant rust coloured version)

To take the samples further I cut them up so there were 16 little pieces and re-arranged them. On each little piece I added more snippets of cellophane, fabrics, hand stitching, copper curls, beads and bits of orange netting (like fishing nets)

I think they look more interesting grouped together like this

I made them into cards for friends but they would also make interesting little brooches for anyone who liked a St. Ives boat/fishing net sort of thing lol :o)

Another sample where the vertical yarns were embedded in the felt with the embellisher. On top there is machine stitching and lots of "flotsam and jetsam" consisting of copper curls, gem stones, beads and french knots

The sample below doesn't have a pre-felt backing. I used the embellisher to join wool tops and silk tops together. I enjoyed this one. You could go on forever ... keep adding bits to the side and watching it grow

I made holes in a piece of blue seawashed plastic I picked up on the harbour beach recently and sewed it to the felt

paint was peeling

Talking of beaches ... I never did show the results of the seaside inchy swap that some of us girls took part in over the summer, so here they are ...

Mine is the top row, second along ... made with a vintage image, text, orange fishing net and a shell

Seaside inchy swap at inchybyinch

... and finally ... some pebbles ...

... with free machine stitching into watercolour paper

I said there would be some blue and orange coming soon didn't I? Well, that's it for now

Hope you are enjoying this beautiful Autumn sunshine we are having or else enjoy being creative and cosy indoors. Happy weekend :o)

Carolyn ♥

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Rainy day ramblings

2010-10-10T17:50:00.009+01:00

For the first time in ages I've had time to go through my photos and have a good catch up on both blogs. I'm showing Autumn inspiration on LOVE STITCHING RED and now a good catch up is needed over here too ... I got busy with real life and then lost my momentum ... easily done when your head is full of "fluff and beads"!

A few weeks ago now ... I got along to an exhibition of work by artist Trevor Bell at the Millennium Gallery, St. Ives

TREVOR BELL AT EIGHTY
EARTH AIR FIRE WATER AETHER

My first impression was one of amazement at the size and scale of his work ... artwork taking up a whole wall ...

... and then I began to look closely ... and was fascinated with the detail ... and then interested to find that, although my first love is red, I find myself more and more drawn to sea blues and rusty coppery oranges, so expect to see some in my next blog post!

The blues came out in this heart I made for my friend Cathie recently, inspired by the cottages of St. Ives and the work of Alfred Wallis

Cafes and places to be

It's a mixed media heart stitched on cotton and silk that I dyed myself in aqua and pale mauve, with an aqua blue satin backing, it incorporates my distressed chiffons, wool tops, melted plastic, scrim, text, beads, tiny hand stitches, french knots and mussel shells

I do enjoy making these because each one comes out different. This one has text "Cafes and places to be" which I think is lovely. In my mind, it's Bumbles Tea Room on The Digey, St. Ives surrounded by little white washed cottages with lichen covered rooftops and Alfred Wallis's cottage just opposite

Alfred Wallis's cottage

Alfred Wallis, artist and mariner, lived here

The work of Alfred Wallis

Bumbles Tea Room is up a little cobbled street in St. Ives and just around the corner from Porthmeor beach and The Tate. It's quaint and cute and has knitted cupcakes on plates in the window and old fashioned cakes. I hope you have tea there one day

Up the steep little street

My blog friend Julie and I had tea and cakes in there a couple of weeks ago. It was a dark, rainy day so we couldn't think of anywhere nicer and cosier to sit and chat and exchange little gifts

This is the heart I made for Julie ...

... and Julie made this beautiful book for me ...

I absolutely love it! The front and back are completely covered in layers of fabric, textured threads and stitch. Julie made a long cord which wraps several times around the book and ties with seahorse and starfish charms

Inside, I had a "wow" moment because all of the pages are hand painted and different types of paper and look at these ...

... pages of beautiful water colour pebbles

My book is gorgeous. Thank you Julie ♥

Later in the day Julie and I went beachcombing on the lifeboat beach, looking mainly for plastic and knitted materials rather than my usual pebbles and shells

Rainy day

The next day was rainy and dark

Rainy and dark

This is what I did with some of the pieces. Texture by Les Brumes

playing with the pieces

Well, as you know, it never rains for long in St. Ives, especially if you have a sunny nature! A few days later the weather was back to being gorgeous again. This is me with the quilt I stitched for Festival of Quilts 2010. I am very grateful to Julie's DH for taking the photo. I wanted one of the quilt with St. Ives in the background. It was taken at the Malakoff

This one was taken on Friday 8th October when I walked down to St. Ives to see textile art by Wendy Topsey in St. Ives Arts Club

No matter how many times I see this view I fall in love each time

Hope you have a great week. I'm already working hard on the next post which is the one I meant to show you before ;o) but before I go I want to share this absolutely gorgeous postcard that my friend Jo sent me recently. Thank you so much Jo ♥ ... I love it!

Carolyn ♥

End of season randomness

2010-10-10T14:29:00.004+01:00

This heap of randomness is a mix of stuff to be sorted and photographed for both blogs - naturally dyed fabrics, dyed chiffons, gifts of a pebble sketchbook and a favourite pebble postcard, autumn berries and beach finds

It just sums up for me ... that end of summer / start of autumn feeling

There will be a longer post here this afternoon. I do hope you pop back again later - Carolyn ♥

2010-09-15T22:53:00.005+01:00

There is a new post coming soon ... honest!

Meanwhile ... playing with a pebble photo, my own layers, lightbox effect and cyanotype textures from dommend

St. Ives bay through agapanthus

2010-08-25T17:49:00.008+01:00

A photo I took from The Malakoff, St. Ives looking towards Hayle and Godrevy through agapanthus which grows profusely in Cornwall. Textures are courtesy of playingwithbrushes

I'm still in Somerset with family and hoping to be home some time late tomorrow. Very much looking forward to getting back to normal and working on my various projects

Meanwhile, I've been playing with textures and layers in Photoshop and thought I would share one of my creations. More sketchbook soon :o)

Carolyn ♥