At the Bottom of the Sea

My latest photo collage - number 8.

It has been inspired by the lyrics to the song 'At the Bottom of the Sea' by The Thermals.

I've used lots of my own pictures and textures, including:

- 2 pictures of the sea, both from the Suffolk coast,
- a picture of part of the Collosseum in Rome,
- a picture of some moss/clay soil on the Devil's Dyke in Reach, Cambridgeshire,

and the following textures from kind people on DeviantArt:

- Buzillo Grunge Textures
- Absynthium Stock Flame Textures
- Freaky665 Victorian Grunge

The jellyfish has been hand painted, and, although it's mostly anatomically correct, I've taken artistic license with it's colour. This particular jellyfish isn't normally red, but it works better with the rest of the collages and as they're all going to be used in the same calendar.... The bubbles have also been hand painted.

The image will be available on my RedBubble and DeviantArt pages as a print (and in various other forms) plus it will also be included in my soon to be released 'Soulscapes' calendar on Redbubble. I'll announce it here when it's ready. :-)

Artemis - Wrist Warmers and Brooch Set

Here's my latest wrist warmer set:

Artemis

The wrist warmers have a fancy yarn (guinea fowl yarn is what I call it) cuff section and a burgundy red Debbie Bliss Cashmerino 'glove' section. There is a lovely diamond lace pattern running up the centre front and picot edging along the edge of the hand section and thumb.



The brooch is a double cabbage rose in both yarns and adorned with real guinea fowl feathers:


When the writst warmer is worn the lace pattern shows up nicely. There's also a little irridescent ribbon to finish off the 'Artemis' look - elegant, glamorous and timeless. :-)

The back has my trademark cable at the inside of the wrist. This makes sure the wristwarmer sits nice and tight around the wrist.

Here you can see the details:

The set will be available in my Etsy shop unless you snatch it up first. If you're interested, drop me a line.

Lost at Sea - Revisited

Here is the latest photo collage, or rather a deviation of the original 'Lost at Sea'. Although I liked the original I felt that there was something missing.

When I was hunting around for an 'insect' to include in the last collage, I came across the Luna Moth and thought it would be perfect for this collage to give it a focal point. I love the shape of it which reminds me of a manta ray.

I have also added additional textures.

This now includes apart from the Abused Floors texture by One Cold Canadian the following textures:
- Grunge Textures by Buzillo
- Grunge & Dirty Textures by Redheadstock
- Rust Textures by TextureStockByHJS

Here is the Luna Moth which has been handpainted:

Tempest

This is my latest collage and so far the most complex. Many, many layers later... Please click on it to see a larger version as some of the detail is hard to see in this smaller version.

The dragonfly - a grasshawk - has been handpainted and then been combined with the background.

Here's the dragonfly by itself:


I've used lots of textures this time:
Absynthium Stock Flame Textures
Buzillo Grunge
Fudgegraphics Grunge Nebula
Freaky665 Memories
Princess of Shadows Vintage Grunge
Lordarq Clouds

I have also used several textures of my own, including one of sea glass pebbles and sand, a photograph of the breakers at Southwold, a cloud picture etc. etc.

It was a more difficult picture to work on as the lighting needed to be exactly right to make you feel like you're looking at a storm without all the detail washing out.

Over the Sea and Far Away - Collage

My latest collage.


This time I have used:

- a picture of the sea
- a picture of the sky, both taken at the Suffolk coast.
- a picture of ivy growing on a wall
- a picture of a tree trunk, both taken at Sawston Hall.

I've painted the flying ladybird and used the following textures:

Big Light Textures by HinataTentenAnkoRul

Grunge Nebulae Textures by Fudgegraphics

Textures 117 by Sanami276

Water/Ghostly Textures by Lithium0916


Here is the flying ladybird by itself.


The title of the image is inspired by the song Other Side of the World by KT Tunstall.

The image is available from either my Redbubble or DeviantArt sites.

MagpieMagic at artists.de

This is a German artists site I've signed up to:

MagpieMagic at artists.de

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Chaos Butterfly

My latest photo collage.



This includes several of my photos, of filters and one hand painted purple hairstreak butterfly (female).

I have also used the textures by

- Khaosdog: Blood Splatter textures
- Bombay101: Splatters 01

The picture is based on the Chaos Effect theory the flutter of a butterfly's wing tip can cause a typhoon at the other end of the world. However, to me this also means that one tiny thing can change your world.

Here's the drawing of the Purple Hairstreak butterfly by itself:

Daisy, Daisy - Wrist Warmers and Hat Set

Daisy, Daisy.... well, if this set doesn't cheer up the bleak Winter months I don't know what will!

:-)


A lovely beanie style hat with a cute flower on the side and a pair of long wrist warmers that definitely will keep out all the nasty drafts. The set has been knitted (and crocheted) with Louisa Harding Willow Tweed in pale blue and Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in cream. Both are high quality yarns and wear fantastically well. The Louisa Harding is a mix of alpacca, merino and silk, the Debbie Bliss yarn is a mix of cashmere, merino, and microfibre.

The pattern for both the hat and the wrist warmers is all my own design. I am going to try and offer it as a download sometimes soon. :-)

Below you can see some of the details (from left to right) - flower on the hat, crown of the hat, cable on the inside wrist of the wrist warmers (to keep them nice and tight around your wrist) and flower and cable/bobble pattern on the front of the wrist warmers.

Here's the wrist warmer on:


The inside where you can see the nice snug fit around the wrist:


The inside of the wrist warmer laid out:


Once the set has been washed and blocked it will be available in my Etsy shop... unless you snap it up by sending me an e-mail.

NOT the Stairway to Heaven

This started off a fairly simple photograph of a stairs in Sawston Hall:



I've added a picture of the sky, which I took at the Suffolk coast to the background, and one of some branches with berries at the end which I took at the park, plus lots of filters and three textures from the following packs here on deviantart:

Khaosdog's Free Blood Splatter Textures
[link]

Fudgegraphic's Texture Pack 1
[link]

Jeannerin's Pack II Textures
[link]

Once I went with the picture it reminded me of the stairs the heroine in romantic mystery novels (and films) always goes up, despite the fact that everyone knows her doom is waiting at the top of the stairs.

Discovery....

Just discovered a cool new blog with an excellent video tutorial on how to make Kanzashi flowers.

Check it out.

I've used the basic design for Kanzashi flowers in my Origami Dress but so far haven't attempted to make one in fabric (or paper for that matter). However, after watching the video I might have a go. The flowers are so pretty and would make wonderful brooches, pendants and flowers for your hair.

Lost at Sea - Photo Collage

My latest photo collage. The photos are of the sea and the sky at the Suffolk Coast. I've also used a texture by One Cold Canadian (Abused Floor) and several filters and other editing magic. The image is available as a print from my RedBubble site.

Crow - Photo and Texture Collage

By popular demand (actually it was only Caroline asking for more LOL), another photo collage:

One day last week I saw this crow sitting on my neighbour’s TV aerial. I love crows and all the birds of the crow/raven family, so I quickly took a few shots.

The lighting conditions weren’t brilliant and it was high up so the photos weren’t perfect, but with a little bit of editing magic and some of my other photos and a grunge texture from Buzillo I love the finished picture. :-) I hope you do, too.

I Knit Show Or Yarn Heaven

Last Saturday was taken up by a visit to London and the I Knit Show.

My blogger friend Caroline from over on Uniqart and her lovely daugher joined me and we trudged all the way from Waterloo to Westminster and got rather an indepth view of Westminster due to a terrible map (and some map reading errors on our side). However, we finally got there, and, yes, it was definitely worth it and next year's show is already marked in my diary.

The show was held in the lovely Lindley Hall Conference Centre, which is bright and airy and has great facilities including a reasonably priced cafe.

There were tables for people to sit and 'talk yarn' and lots of stalls with gorgeous, lovely, amazing, interesting yarn delights. :-) Yep, it's that bad. Really. LOL

I knew it'd be bad so I'd set myself a budget and resisted using the cash machine in the centre. I only bought things I really, really, neeeeeded. LOL

Here's my stash, partially wound up in balls already (couldn't resist playing with my yarn the minute I got home, footsore and exhausted but happy).

Like Caroline, I bought mostly lace weight yarns.


Below is some feathery pink yarn with black spots interspersed throughout which I'll be using as trim and also the black lambswool laceweight yarn.

This was one of my 'neeeeed-this': beautiful Malabrigo Silk Blend yarn in cherry red.

Rose and green alpacca lace weight yarn.



Feathery fluffy and, oh so soft, 'Guinea Fowl' yarn. Again, I will use this as a trim.


And this is the second of 'had to have' yarns: Louisa Harding Willow Tweed in a soft blue with little white dots throughout. Totally gorgeous!!!

And here's some Filatura di Crosa baby merino lace weight yarn. So soft and yummy. The colour is a pale silver. Very similar to the yarn I dyed - see this post.


Apart from the yarn stalls there were also seminars and stalls with 'made' things. One of the stalls was particulalry memorable. Unfortunately I didn't take a card, so can't remember the name of the lady, but she made the most beautiful sea creatures from knitted, very thin wire. Totally amazing. We also saw some people spinning - with spinning wheels and drop spindles. If there had been a spinning class.... one of the things I want to try before I die. LOL

A great day out. I'd recommend it to anyone.

Silk Flowers

Some silk flowers I prepared earlier. ;-)

The purple and teal & red ones are already spoken for (they're MINE) but the green and pink one is still available and will go into my Etsy shop.

Here's the Teal & Red one in detail. All flowers use a mix of organza, tulle, dupioni silk and in some cases taffeta.
The purple one in detail - to go with my Purple Haze cardigan (better pictures coming soon).


And finally the Green & Pink brooch. It also includes some golden and cream organza and cream tulle. This is even prettier in real life, as the colours are softer and you don't get the shimmer on the photographs. :-(


I've changed the back so they can either be worn as brooches or in your hair. The hair barrettes also work great to hold scarves in place, especially with lace scarves.

Dye Project - Forgetmeknots, or maybe Faded Jeans

My latest dye project.

I had some fantastic feathery, papery ribbon yarn in silver which wasn't quite the right colour for what I was going to use it (my latest cardigan, pictures coming soon). I ended up using a different yarn for the project as it didn't dye the way I wanted it to as the yarn I used is from all artificial fibres so I knew right from the start that the dying process would be hit and miss. Also, I was using Procyon dyes rather than acid dyes, which makes it even more difficult. However, I love the new colour, which I am not quite sure why but reminds me of forgetmenots. It is a faded denim kind of colour and the various elements of the yarn dyed differently which gives it a lovely colour depth.

Below you can see the original silvery colour and next to it the dyed version.


Here's a close-up of the two yarn version side by side.

And here's a close-up of the dyed yarn by itself.

Yarn dying is so much fun and if you've always been meaning to try but weren't sure, do try.

I am still hankering after some natural dyes to play with....

Abandoned - Photo Collage

Photo manipulation/collage.

I've used:

- A photograph of the sky over the Suffolk Cost (UK) and a photo of the beach.

- A texture from Lady Amdis Dark Symphony Textures

- A grunge texture from Buzillo

- A leaf photograph.

All the photographs have been manipulated with various filters.

Actually, this started out as a background for one of my paintings but then I decided it was lovely as it is and turned it into a picture. I am really pleased with the mood, the colours and the textures.

The image can be purchased as a print either via DeviantArt or RedBubble. :-)

Perdu - Painting

This is my latest (finished) painting.

Perdu - forgotten, out of sight, French

The painting is about aging and lost beauty (not just physical beauty), which only continues to exist in our memories and thoughts.

It has been inspired by the three fates from Norse mythology: Wyrd, Skuld and Verdandi. Their Roman equivalents are the Parcea: Nona, Decima and Morta. In Greek mythology they are known as the Moirae: Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos.

All three mythologies agree that one of the three fates would spin the thread, the other would measure it and the last one would cut it, measuring out the fates of mortals and defining their destiny.


The two birds are Odin's ravens, Memory and Thought.


The tree necklace pendant is meant to represent Yggdrasil - the world ash of Norse mythology.


Here is the spindle, a tape measure with a Greek reference (alpha for the beginning of a life and omega for the ending of a life) and the scissors used to cut the thread. The scissors are based on a design from the T'ang dynasty.

Although not that many people still know much about the three fates, I've always been fascinated by them and some authors are too: Stephen King's Insomnia and Robin Jarvis' Wyrd Museum trilogy are just two of them, I am sure there are others.

The image is available as a print on RedBubble.