Think Outside the Box – Canvas

To switch it up, I thought I would give some art a go for a change. At work we had lots of canvas on special offer and I’d never worked with one before so I decided to buy one and do something with it.

I didn’t really want to do any painting, as that isn’t really my style. So instead I thought I would try out my mixed media sewing concept on canvas as it’s fabric and probably easier to sew through than the watercolour paper I usually do it on.

I wanted to do something bright and colourful, and the first thing that came to mind was a sunflower. I thought I could get the different textures and colours with different materials.

I first cut out lots of petals out of tissue paper. I followed a template so they would all be the same. I then used my ecoline brush pens to get the colour and blended it out with water. They were a little tricky to do as tissue paper is so thin, but I used a heat gun to dry them quicker and give them a crisp texture. I tried a few different layout before I stuck them down, but I preferred the center flower because the petals stood out over the edge and I thought it was unique. I coloured in the corners and center with gouache paint so that the background wasn’t left white. I traced a circle in the middle and stuck the petals all around it. I then started to embroider the sunflower seeds in the middle. I did think it would take quite a while, but I love the effect they give and it really does look like a creative take on a sunflower and I now want to do more flowers!

Mixed Media Sewing Workshop

On Wednesday, I ran a workshop on sewing. However, it wasn’t a typical sewing workshop, it was using watercolour paper instead of fabric. As this is a art shop rather than a sewing shop I thought this would bring in the products in the shop more.

I started by collecting all kinds of bits and pieces that could be used in the workshop. For the background of the pieces I like to use watercolour pens. My favourite being the ecoline pens. I think they make really nice backgrounds because they blend really well with water and I feel they are a lot less effort than watercolour paints. I also picked out a wide range of embroidery threads to used for the sewing. I chose I wide range of colours so people were waiting around if someone had the colour they want. I then picked out a range of embellishments, like buttons, ribbon, and felt.

The workshop was more of a playabout, rather than teaching, so everyone got on a had a go at making their own sewing pieces.

In the end, everyone came out with a completely different pieces, each in their own style.

 

Memory Box

My collection is all completely inspired by a memory box that I borrowed from Colchester Castle. I know I wanted to base it on the 1950s so I was looking for places I could get inspiration, and I found that Colchester Castle has memory boxes from different times with different objects. When I first found it I didn’t really that it would be such a big help for me and become the basis for my entire collection. 

This is iron that was in the box. I really liked the dial on the top of it.

This is a clothes Brush. I found this really inspirational, and have taken many elements of it to inspire my collection. The colour of the box is being used. The barrel is taken as inspiration of the pleats in my collection. The bristles are where my idea for fringing and tassles has come from. 

This is a little pocket binoculars. I tired to take different shapes from it and so how they could be incorporated into my collection.

This is a little bag that was in the box. I was originally going to use this a colour inspiration but decided that were too many colours so narrowed it down to my colour palette of yellow, white and grey.

I was really inspired by the piping set. I like to do lots of baking myself so I found it quite personal. I like the shaped of the nozzels, especially the star shape ones, and want to incorporated them into my collection.

There were a few accesories and fashion items in the box. This were helpful to see the fashion then but I didn’t was to rely on them too much. I liked the topstitching on this hat and want to use topstitching within my own collection.

This was the strangest item of them all. It’s a rug maker. I didn’t originally know what it did so I just started to take pictures of it. I really liked the shapes that I drew from it and they ended up being my inspiration for my panels. The rope was really interesting too and the weave design on it is going to come out in topstitching.

This is a dress that was in the box. I really liked it and it looked like something that I would probably wear myself. I thought it would be interesting to see the construction of it.

This is a magazine that was in the box, and probably my favourite item. It looked like something that I would probably read myself.

This was my favourite page. I loved the illustrations and the colour and this was colour inspiration for my collection and where the yellow came from.

I like to see the pages with dress patterns because I am really inspired by the 1950 shape of dresses.

I liked the little illustrations that were present throughout the magazine.

And the adverts for different objects, this adverts showing a iron that looked very similar to the one I got in the box.

It was interesting to see the different styles too. This one showing the ‘fringed look’ that is in, a style that is very prominent in my collection.