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

Wen - Apple Apricot Blog 

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

Simply Neutrals Tuesday No. 30

This is the second Simply Neutrals Tuesday party

for the New Year

over at

Apple Apricot Blog with Wen

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

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

appleapricot's blog 

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

 

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