Plush Addicts Open Day!

Check out the swag I grabbed today at the Plush Addicts Open Day!
plushaddict.co.uk is a great fabric website I stumbled upon a few weeks ago when I was looking for a certain quilting fabric for a project. They are based in Edenbridge, about an hour from me in Kent. Although they are based online they have open days about every 6 weeks where you can come to the site and shop in person.
My mum and I decided to go have a nose and this is what I came home with. I love my new foxy box for my sewing gear for work. I have no idea what I am going to make with the fabrics yet but when inspiration hits you guys will be the first to know!
We also bought a pair of KAM snap pliars and some colourful snaps to try out - I'm pretty excited about that. Keep an eye out for a project using those soon and check out the Plush Addicts website for great stuff.
If you are in the area this is the calendar of open days too.

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Exhibition Report: Medway Open Studios

Recently I attended a Fabric Manipulation workshop at INTRA in Rochester. Through this 6 week workshop I developed some interesting techniques, the build up to which I will share with you in another post. But this weekend the artists of Medway opened their doors to the public in the Medway Open Studios & Arts Festival. My Fabric Manipulation piece was on display so I went to see it, the finished pieces of the rest of the class and some great local artists.

A particular favourite I discovered today was Heather Haythornthwaite who creates beautiful prints. Her three prints of historically notorious Medway prostitutes took my breath away. She combines interesting elements to create her images inclusing text, old maps and images imposed with regular printed shapes. She is a part of the Ridley Road group and can be seen at stop number 6 on the Medway Open Studios Map.

Stopping in at INTRA I saw my oen piece beautifully displayed along with work by Faye Lamb, Bernice Friend and Rebecca Davison.

My piece is in the top right of this photo.

 

Finally I saw some lovely textile work in Sun Pier House, a large work in process wall hanging by Jenni Burrows really caught my eye.

 

If you are in the area you should check out all of these artists and art venues.

Find out more about Medway Open Studios here

The Medway Open Studios map can be found here

Look at workshops on offer at INTRA and Unravel & Unwind here (highly recommended!)

Find Jenni Burrows here

Find Heather Haythornthwaite here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Let's Get Back To Business!

Hello my dears!  Yes, yes, I know it has been a long time.

2013 into the beginning of 2014 was a super busy time for me with my work which put a bit of a dampener on my crafting time.  I had some great experiences but some great challenges as well.....

.... As you might notice above the blog has had a name change.... I can no longer call myself a crafter at sea because I am no longer at sea!  That's right, my land legs have called me home and I am now a land-locked sailor.  I am currently looking to get into the theatre scene here in England.  It's all a bit scary but what I needed to do in life.  It has given me time to craft and catch up the blog though!

I have a few projects on the go right now and I have a few things to catch you guys up on that I worked on but didn't get chance to blog about.  Keep your eyes open in the next few weeks for posts on the following projects:

I finished adding the second layer to my beer cap belt.

My friend had a baby and I made her an embroidered gift.

My friends got married and I made them an embroidered wedding album.

I played around with eco-dying some fabric from natural elements I found on a walk.

I made a necklace organiser for my travels.  It is now going to be very useful at home as well!

I have an embroidery based on a song by The Band Perry... this is still a work in progress....

And finally, I worked on Legally Blonde: The Musical.  It was a very interesting challenge but I made it work!

I am also working on some online courses which I would love to share with you so there is a lot to come!!

To Be Free

Another piece derived from my experiences at Rosie James' workshop. This piece started out life as an experiment and finished as this fabric collage.

The figures come from a photo I took in Hawaii of my dancer friend. They are stitched on sheer fabrics and layered to create the illusion of movement.

The photo was taken on a beach so I ran with this idea when choosing my colour pallet and creating the collage. I used textured fabrics in silvers and blues. I free machine stitched a wave shape on silver lame to add to the collage.

I finished this piece off with the phrase 'To Be Free' which the figures inspired. I free machine stitched these through the blue and silver net layers.

I like the funky colours and textures I used in this piece. I am currently trying to find my signature style and this boldness might be it!

Book Review: Fabric Art Workshop

I was browsing through the craft book section of my local Borders the other day, actually looking for stuff on natural dyes. I found some good books on that subject, but another book about fibre arts jumped out at me and said ‘buy me!!’ Of course when a book says that to you, just have to buy it don’t you?!

The book is called Fabric Art Workshop by Susan Stein. I was very interested to see that it contained instructions on using Angelina fibre. I have some of this at home and have been shown at a craft fair how to use it. Of course, then I went away on a ship and forgot it all! This will come in handy when I get back on land and can have a go with this great looking sparkly stuff.

There is also a lot about printmaking in this book. I LOVE printmaking. When I was back in art college printing was my favourite thing to do but I have gotten out of the habit because it can be very messy and take up a lot of space. The techniques in the book use whatever you can find lying around and bring great results! I did a few of them and they have come out better than I thought. I find that this book encourages you to go further as well and try out whatever comes to hand.

I urge anyone who wants to create their own unique fabrics or play with fibres to get this book. It have very clear instructions with photos and advice. I found that I wanted to do all of the techniques right now! I found to be very inspiring as well and can’t wait until I get home to really try out all of these techniques!