Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Simply Neutrals Tuesday 31 - For the Love of Old

For the Love of Old
I'm sharing a few precious items I've collected
over the years which surround me 
in my studio where I create!



 There is always the mystery surrounding the stories behind
these old cabinet cards and the
collection of the antique
photo albums
so beautifully decorated and bound



 but for me, personally, I am also very
attracted to the incredibly beautiful fabrics and laces
used in the dresses of these women and young girls



as well as the quality and detail which is so absent today! 
Clothing was meant to last and you only owned
one special dress often which was worn
for special occasions! 

Even the embroidery - so beautiful!


One can barely understand how they could
use such intricate pieces under glass
for an ash tray!!!!! 



Even these little German porcelain dolls' under garments
were hand stitched so beautifully and neatly!
Lasting treasures!


You will, of course, always find a piece of beautiful old lace
in my studio because I don't have to tell you that that is
another addiction of mine!

 
Everything was so well made 
including these beautiful locks with their
keyhole covers
and




it matters not that the
 surface becomes damaged with time -
the rust is treasured even more!

 

Cash books and journals were used for every day purposes
and their leather covers last for centuries!
 

I'm linking this post to Simply Neutrals Tuesday today
and if you would like to visit more
wonderful neutrals go visit



Thank you Wen for hosting this for us once again and thanks
to all of you who visit and appreciate these loves of mine
also!

Hugs, Suzy xox

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Simply Neutrals Tuesday No. 30

This is the second Simply Neutrals Tuesday party
for the New Year
over at

and this week I am sharing two Guiding Angel Dolls
which I created recently!

Heaven knows we all need Guiding Angels
in our lives at different times
to help to show us the way!!!!

The first 
in shades of white, creams and pinks where I have used
some upcycled vintage clothing in satins and
dyed cheesecloth along with layers of


vintage laces, buckram and wadding for the
wings 


 


 with the addition of
beads and seam binding
and a rhinestone button as embellishments.














 

 I have really hopped out of my comfort zone to create these
and I have now made about half a dozen angels
using this technique.

They are created in 3 different stages:
Firstly, I created and painted the faces,
Secondly, I ripped and tore and dyed fabrics and layered them
in a pleasing way and
Thirdly, came the wings where I have so far tried two types.


This angel has a vintage beaded collar
wrapped around her neck 

  



 with layers of beautiful embossed velvet fabric,
tulle and a layer of gorgeous coffee coloured lace fabric
creating her robe

 





 



 edged with layers of vintage laces
some pretty rose netted fabric
cover her wings


 

and always some soft cream sari ribbon - 
this time used as bows!





These two Guiding Angels - rather tattered and torn 
are available in my Etsy shop!

If you wish to see more neutrals used in many different ways
then pop over to Wen's blog and you will some
amazing works there!


 Thank you my friends for you kind comments when
you visit.  It's always great to hear from you!

xox Suzy

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Simply Neutrals Tuesday No. 29 - First for 2018

I think there are quite a number of bloggers who are
very excited at the moment about the return
of Simply Neutrals Tuesday party
which Wen Sylvestre of
has so generously decided to host again after a break last year!

As it turns out I was just creating some new artwork
for Valentine's Day for my Etsy shop
and, how lucky was I, that I was able to include
 my creations in the event today!

So firstly I have two cards to share along
the St. Valentine's
theme





 



 

 and this more romantic card
where I used some of the eco-dyed paper I created
and posted about in my last post.








Below are some collaged hearts (naturally)
symbolizing the innocence and purity
of love and meaningful
relationships.

 

"Reaching out" to a loved one!


 

then sharing special long time
friendships!






 and finally
those companionships which are
treasured and last forever!






Some very old antique lace and tattered embroidered silk
have been incorporated in these treasures of love!

These hearts and the first card shown on this post
are available in my Etsy shop 
now for your perusal!

Now please click on this link above at AppleApricot blog
if you wish to see all other bloggers sharing their
neutrals
as well as joining the party if you wish - the more the merrier!

 


Thanks so much dear Wen again for allowing all of this inspiration
available to us again for the coming New Year!

Many thanks to all of my wonderful supporters and kind bloggers
for visiting and always leaving such encouraging
comments!

Love and hugs,
Suzy xox


 

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Eco-dyed paper experiment!

Dear readers
in my last post I mentioned some eco-dyeing
 that I had been
experimenting with
at home and thought I might share some more images
of
some tools, plants etc. that I used to create these results.

This post is not really a tutorial on eco-dyeing as such
 but rather my own adventure into experimenting with 
some plants from my garden. 

In this particular case these are a couple of plants I used.
This first one is from the Plectranthus family - there
are many varieites of this plant but I used
Plectranthus Nitidus (Silver Plectranthus)


Another plant was Impatiens!
I also used some ferns, palm leaves and
Japanese Maple.


 


I prepared 6 sheets of 300gms heavy weight water color paper
then laid my plant material overlapping on each page,
picking up the whole lot and placing the pages
in my wooden plant press
which 
was just created from timber and 4 bolts with wing nuts
 in each corner.  


 I tightened everything down then placed the press
in this enamel dyeing container which was
3/4 full and which I had brought to the
boil with a number of rusty nuts, bolts, rusty steel rods, 
bits and pieces
to create some iron to the pot of water.

 

Before placing the plant press in the water
I added 1 cup of vinegar to act as a mordant.

I also did another little experiment where I added a few
sprinklings of Dylon grey dye to the water
(something which I saw on a You Tube video)
this was purely experimental also!
I left the press in the pot for approx. 90 minutes before
removing
and
when I removed the plant material from the pages
these are the results they gave.





















I must say the whole process was very uncomplicated
and gave the most amazingly clear results!
 
 These images above were taken once I removed them from
the dye pot still wet - so they were quite strong
and the images below were taken several days later.



 So the dried results were still very striking - strong and dark
but soft and subtle also!


 

The dyed lace piece was from a different project where I was
using some "Infusion" - dried coloured stains but
I thought they blended so beautifully together
along with some favourite lace fabric,
burnout fabric and trims.  


 

 This is one project where I used the beautiful eco-dyed paper!

 


 Hope this gives you a little inspiration to
try this type of natural dyeing. It is
so rewarding in every possible way -
and
don't forget to share your results with us too!

Love and hugs,
Suzy xox
 
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