A silk painted scarf

Now this is a fun craft : It’s easy, quick and has a lovely wow-factor!

First you create a design on the scarf (or just some lines or shapes) with outliner, a kind of paint. Mine was copper. 

When the outliner has dried, you fill in the spaces you just created with silk paint, which is a really fun thing to do. 

When the silk paint is really dry (next day), you have to iron the scarf, to secure the colours.

Washing my scarf made the copper outliner disappear. I don’t know if that is supposed to happen, but I like the scarf without the copper lines too. 

Et voila: a unique piece is created!

with the outliner :

no more outliner, because it is washed out. Also the colours have slightly faded:

Paper glove

This glove is the result of an assignment set by Jennifer Collier, via TextileArtist.org. At first I was not that thrilled about making a paper glove, because it didn’t seem to make much sense to me. However, the process was very enjoyable because I love paper and finding the colour combination was fun. Besides, I found yet again that stitching through paper is great. 

I used a wallpaper sampler, a bit of decorative paper from my stash, a soap wrapper, a bit of plastic waste, three small buttons and some ribbon, and of course some thread and wool yarn.

This made me think about how I can use more paper in my work. There are so many more possibilities than you might think at first sight!

Mixed media landscape

A mountain landscape in winter. I used mostly recycled fabrics, such as a worn handkerchief, worn kitchen textiles, pieces of clothing and old sheets, but also some sheer fabric and a few quilt fabric scraps. I added paper, stitched onto the fabric piece : a small picture of some logs, cut from a magazine and a piece of food packaging material. And of course lots and lots of stitching!

An icy cold winter, with a hint of light in the sky.

A messy puzzle to start with :

In my kitchen, there is this friendly cloud.

He is made from wool, needle-felted into a fluffy and very friendly cloud shape. Though it still never rains in my kitchen!

Circular sunny landscape

This textured vessel wrap is my response to a workshop by Emily Notman.

I used textile strips and stitching, adding texture with textile scraps and thread.

I loved adding vibrant colours with ecoline paint.

The sun is created with a silk yarn, and the whole piece is enforced with backing fabric and iron-on adhesive.

It has turned out a happy sunny piece!

 

Woollen handbag

In 2018 (you can read the blogpost here) I dyed some yarn with onion peel. 4 of the skeins, all of a different shade of yellow, I knit into a piece with wide stripes. 

This piece I washed on a high temperature and high spin cycle, to get it felted. It worked : the fabric is firmer, smaller and thicker now. 

And this week I decided to make it into a handbag of my own design.

I chose a nice fabric for the inner lining. It’s all hand-sewn, because I wanted to do some slow, meditative stitching. The wooden handles fit perfectly, in my opinion. 

This project is is a good example of slow crafting: hand-spun and naturally dyed yarn, hand-knit and hand-sewn into a bag. It reminds me that the journey is so much more important than the goal. That it turned out to be a nice handbag is a bonus 😊

the knitted fabric, before felting :

working on the bag, with the lining fabric and the handles:

the inside of the finished handbag:

Diptych still life

This piece came about through a workshop led by Stewart Kelly. 

First I made a still life drawing. Then I used a view finder to look for two interesting parts I could use. It was like looking at the still life from different perspectives!

These two views I tried to capture in textile, for one of them using only embroidery and for the other adding appliqué as well.

They look quite interesting together, so I sewed them onto one background. 

I very much enjoyed the thinking and exploring that came with this work! 

the embroidered piece:

Bottle wears sock

I love glass and beautiful bottles I tend to keep. 

Here is one of these bottles I decorated with a piece cut off a felted wool sock. I embroidered some abstract flowers onto the fabric. The yarn is a Nepalese hennep cotton blend, naturally died with walnut.

The result is quite stylish I think...

We read to know we’re not alone

This textile collage is again composed of textile waste material. Every piece of fabric has its own story: my son’s old sweater, a napkin from my grandmother, our old worn curtains, the fabric of a lampshade,... It’s these stories that make working with textiles so worthwhile for me. 

After juggling with different combinations and sewing the pieces together, a lot of stitching has been done here. I chose neutral tones for a calm atmosphere.

The reading woman is inspired by the stunning engravings by Gwen Raverat. 

The Purl Soho Reversible Hat

I have been working on this hat for quite some time. It was my travel knit and since we are not travelling at the moment, there was little progress for some time. But at last, it got finished, just in time for some cold spells this spring. It's a Purl Soho pattern which you can find here. It's a double-layered hat : you start knitting the first hat from the top down with colour 1, then continue right on with the second hat in colour 2, bottom up. You tuck one inside the other and connect them with a little tassel. It's reversible, so two hats in one!

The yarn I used is Ashford Tekapo 3ply (brown and off-white). I bought it at Wolboerderij Blij Bezuiden, a small sheep breeding farm in the South of the Netherlands. Besides their herd of merino sheep they have a wonderful, friendly shop and lots of knowledge and energy. Here I learned how to spin and I’m so happy with this skill, it’s a very relaxing thing to do!