Tutankhamen then the Dales

First I would like to thank Pippa for her postcard AND its envelope. They are lovely pieces of work and much appreciated.

I have finished two more pieces for my project which is getting closer to completion although I have said that before haven't I?
I had coated some gold sheer fabric with InkAid and printed a digitally changed image of the Tutankhamen gold mask onto it. After much deliberation I eventually decided how to take it further. I decided to create a small quilted panel. I placed the image over the top of some ivory Thai silk but had to put a layer of deep gold sheer underneath the image in order to enhance the print. I used a layer of white fleece underneath to create the quilting.
The old Egyptian curse reared its head again as I had several rescues to make with this piece. Fortunately they don't show.
I created a 'distressed' look (the result of one of the rescues) to the background silk by gently finger rubbing treasure gold over the surface and stamping some hieroglyphs with antique gold paint. I wasn't too sure if I liked it as it looked more 'dirty' than gold but once the printed image was pinned in place I began to like it so I carried on.
I used several different threads to both hand and machine quilt the printed image in the centre. The idea was then to carry on the quilting effect over and outside the border, created by the surplus sheer fabrics, and out to the edge of the panel. I made a hanger using a kebab skewer painted with the treasure gold and a Krylon gold leafing pen and some silk fabric loops.
The embellishments consist of gold twist cord couched around the image and the outer edge of the sheer fabric to make a frame and some beads, copper and gold purl to create the necklace on the mask.



















Many of the Egyptian images show the Pharaohs and their gods carrying something called a 'flail'. It was a symbol of power and looked a bit like a tassel on a stick. I used this as the design source for another tassel. All the flails had three dangles from a head. I made the tassel head from padded gold leather and used beads and gold thread to make the tassel skirts. The blue wooden beads and the gold and silver wooden bell beads were from my grandson's box of beads which he used to thread when he was a toddler to develop his coordination. Everything comes in useful in time and these wooden beads have come in handy regularly.







Today my OH and myself went for a day out to do some photography. We drove up into the Yorkshire Dales which are not far from where we live. I am not going to say a lot just put up some of the photographs I took and yes these were the greens that we saw.













These are the fields leading up to the moors on the way out of Reeth.


Couldn't resist this pose by this group of sheep.










All the following photos are of Hardrow Falls. A high waterfall which is reached by going through a pub and paying the fee at the bar.










It is a pleasant short walk along the floor of this valley to the foot of the waterfall. I spent some time trying to catch the water frozen in mid air. We were lucky that the sun was into the valley while we were there.