Wednesday, January 25, 2012

a little painting and thread work

I had my swim this morning and spent my time thinking about how I would do the piece that I mono printed last week. While I'm stalled on my birches piece (I'm musing about what I will do next with it), I decided I needed something fresh. What better than some pretty summer flowers? Cosmos is one of my favorite. The colors are so pretty and they are so delicate with such lacy foliage.

Along with my cup of tea, I did a little bit of shading on the flowers with Neocolor II crayons and a paint brush. Then I ironed it and added some stiff interfacing to the back to get ready for some thread painting. I put a watercolor sketch that I did a couple of years ago beside me at the machine so I can refer to it. I started with pink silk thread to outline the flowers.

Next, I added some green for stems and leaves. I stopped here to sew in a bunch of ends. There seem to be mixed opinions on this. some simply over sew a bit at the beginning and end and clip the threads, others sew the ends to the back. I used to use the clip technique, but I've been wondering if it might be better to darn them all in on the back. it's time consuming though.

Before I stopped for a snack, I wanted to try a bit of bobbin work. I've just recently tried it out and love it! I wound some sparkly purple Candlelight thread onto my bobbin and tried one flower to see what it would be like. (I did do a trail on sample fabric first.) It did leave a little bobble in one spot but I understand that can happen.
And now it's time for another cup of tea before I get supper.

4 comments:

Marjorie's Busy Corner said...

Looks very pretty Holly...do you change your bobbin tension when you try heavier or sparkly threads??
I know nothing about this....it amazes me....I'm too timid to play around with most threads...

Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson said...

Bobbles are part of the deal with Candlelight thread and I always hoped for some surprise texture when I turned it over. I love cosmos too and hope to grow some in my backyard now that there won't be as much shade out there.

Margaret Applin said...

Holly, that came out great!!!

Wendy said...

Looks great Holly! Top left flower could have been made into a butterfly; small bottom flower could be a water lily..so many possiblities. Hope you kept your stamps...