My last post was all about my preparations for a fabulous photo trip to Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Well, we made it to Dubai and in the afternoon of the first day my OH missed his footing, stumbled and in an attempt to prevent a fall, twisted his back so badly it put paid to the rest of the trip. We had to fly back home after only a couple of days. He has now recovered after numerous sessions of physiotherapy but the trip is sadly gone.
I did manage to take some photos of Dubai and I have to say I loved the place. We thought we would have problems with the heat but we didn't. As long as there was some shade the heat was wonderful.
Dubai is a fascinating blend of old and the most spectacular new architecture.
This is the the Khalifa Tower. It is the tallest free standing structure in the world and so beautiful.
I have enough images to create a reasonable good audio visual and I have also decided to create a project of embroidery and textiles based on Dubai so watch this space.
Since my return I have been busy with some textile and embroidery work. As you will have gathered, I take much of my inspiration from my photography. I have created two pieces based on this image of a gravel path in the gardens of Richmond Castle here in North Yorkshire.
The first piece is a little goldwork piece on some woven silk fabric. I used a gold and silver twist for the wire mesh and beads for the gravel.
I haven't decided how to display it yet so it is a sample at the moment.
I put the image into Photoshop and played with it and the result of one of them led to this panel.
The hexagons are couched silver twist onto black velvet and the gravel was created using free machining with variagated metallic threads. Metallic beads were added to give more texture and depth. At the moment it is a hanging but I keep folding it and think it would make a lovely bag! Not sure which it will be yet.
Every time I finish a piece on black velvet, I promise myself it will be the last. It is so difficult to work on. Obviously, I never keep that promise.
I have had the insides of an old pocket watch stored for some time now always intending to use it on a textile piece. I finally did just that with this little piece.
The background is an even weave piece of silk. I tea dyed it and sponged it then I made some cog stencils in different sizes and painted the cogs onto the fabric with various metallic paints. I also used some cogs from the garage to stamp various different cogs. I free machined around all the cogs , stitched down as many of my old pocket watch cogs as I could and filled the open areas with upright random cross stitches to add more texture. Job done.
Two of the pieces so far have been stitched onto silk , this is because I have had a pack of textured and woven silk pieces stored for many years and thought it was time they were put to good use. So the next piece is also stitched onto silk. This is a piece of dupion slub silk. It was big enough to make a book folder. I decided to use one of my digitised designs for the front. I stitched it out with gold thread and used gold thread in the shuttle too so it was the same on top and underneath. I used sponged pelmet vilene for the lining to give it strength and I put some wadding between the silk and the lining to give it a quilted look. Tiny pearl beads were stitched around the edges of the folder to finish.
I have another piece of silk with a large binca style weave. I am thinking 'pulled work' for this. Meanwhile I will be busy designing lots of pieces for the next project - Dubai. I am totally smitten by the place. It could be as big as the Craster project and the Egyptian project. I already have an idea for some of my jewellery which I always include in a project. The more diverse the better.
Until the next post - cheers everyone.
