New: In my Etsy Shop!

Hello there folks! Just wanted to let you know that my Stumpwork green man was now up for sale over at Etsy! Go check it out and grab yourself a famous little bargin!

P.S. I've just started working on a new blackwork kit... details coming soon!

Interviews...

I've been a little popular of late... I got interviewed for 'Milk' magazine, a very interesting magazine about the gippsland region here in Victoria. Then, while I was finishing up the green man I had put some pictures up of it on Flickr and was approached by urban threads to be interviewed for their blog. They originally designed the green man and I love their site... to me it's a bit like embroidery porn. Anyway, I totally jumped at the chance and you can read the interview HERE.

Green Man - Finished!!

So I finally managed to find time to finish off that green man I've been working on...

  Creating the stumpwork leaves takes time, bending all that cake wire into the right shapes. And then to attach it to the fabric and cover the wire with trailing...

Once the trailing was all done I cut out the leaves and trimmed back the fabric to the stitching, and then bent the wire so that the leaves took form a bit more. The final step was to stitch them in place on the face.

 

If I could change anything it might be the fabric. Although I loved that I was able to upcycle old school jumpers and a skirt for this project the fabric for the background leaves had a tendancy to fray, even with the couched thread edge. It doesn't take too much from the overall effect of the piece, but I now have a better understanding of the fabric and I still love how he turned out. I think I'll be doing a few more of these when i can and put them up on etsy!

W.I.P. Green Man

So I originaly started this because I've been hanging to work on a green man piece for a while. Then it became a gift idea for a good friend who has just moved house... but then i started to get interest about the possibility of selling it... So who knows what will happen to it!
I had also set a challenge for myself to make it out of up-cycled materials, so the backing fabric has been taken from a skirt and the leaves from school jumpers. The stumpwork leaves are wired around the edge to allow me to shape them before stitching them down, which although great, is also very time consuming when you have to bend them into the right shapes first! And i'll be honest, I've nearly poked my eye out several times...

All the background stitching done and leaves applied before the stumpwork leaves go on.

stumpwork leaves added to the forehead and chin... just 4 more leaves to go!

Now, I will have to put this project a side for a little while as i have a small commission to do before the end of the month (which i'll share with you in my next post), but I don't suspect this guy will be hanging around for very long...