Flower Casting

After a couple of not so good weeks I'm on the up 
and have been doing a little more flower casting to try and lift the spirits 

and improve my techniques!  

You can see my first attempts here.

 Brambles, Angelica, Chives and Heuchera.

   

Freesias and Heuchera  

A little Welsh Poppy.

  

A coat of grey paint, but I think I preferred it white!

The dining room table has been my desk during lock down, and here are some more castings waiting to be sanded, sealed and in some cases have a little colour added if they need a little more definition.  

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

The Most Beautiful Little Painting and WOYWW

I am thrilled to show you what is on my desk this week -

a most beautiful water colour sea urchin by the incredibly talented Sandra De, plus a card and some little stamps and sea urchin spines.

I sent her one of my Victorian cabinet card collages and she kindly sent me this - how lucky am I!  I love her work and I'm always in awe of her amazing ability to paint with such delicateness, reality and beauty.  I can't wait to get this framed and up on my wall.

The beautiful leaf card is also going to be framed and the stamps and tiny sea urchin spines are just delightful and filling me with inspiration.

A huge thank you to you Sandra.

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Bobbins and More Bobbins

 This week I have been busy successfully squishing my lace-making equipment into a space half the size it was originally in!  I also made a new bobbin roll for my bobbins as the old one was on it's last legs - I found a lovely William Morris off-cut for it in my stash so also made a little space in my fabric box -  woohoo - double space-saving success this week! 

Many years ago I used to paint bobbins and sell them - it was quite a success and I had lots of lovely ladies who collected them.  The designs had to be easy to replicate and not too detailed as I could easily be painting 50 of the same design at any one time!  During my sorting I came across my collection of Honiton bobbins that I painted for myself and thought I'd share a few of them with you - I don't make Honiton lace anymore as it's very fine and my 'old' eyes struggle with it, but I've held on to the bobbins 'just in case'!

If you wondered why these don't have beads (spangles) on the ends, Honiton bobbins don't as the lace is a lot finer than other laces so they would be too heavy and also there can be a fair amount of threading the bobbins through loops which would be much more difficult with spangles on the end.

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Never Ending Sorting and WOYWW

I decided that I needed to move my lace making equipment off the book shelf it had been sitting on for years to make way for a pile of books that are currently homeless - what should have been a simple job has taken two weeks of re-shuffling and re-organising virtually all my belongings!

I have eventually made a small gap on the book shelves and the lace stuff is being sorted to see if I can stuff it into a much smaller box that will fit on another shelf!  Why oh why did I start this!

So this week my desk, unusually for me, is an absolute mess - old bobbins that need new spangles (spangles are the beads that hang on the bottom end), a large jumble of beads and all the supplies that go with the job.

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Plaster Cast Flowers and WOYWW

In between all the usual lock down stuff like gardening, housework and competitive backgammon with the hubs I have discovered a new obsession - casting plants in plaster!

Sitting here on my desk are my first attempts - it's been a steep learning curve but hopefully I've learned from most of the numerous mistakes I made!

  I'll start with my favourite (and most successful so far!) The brambles are from my front garden and I think they look quite beautiful here although in the garden they promote swearing and frustration on a regular basis.

Chives on the left - dropped on the floor and smashed.
Baby ferns on the right - had to be chiselled out of the mould as I forgot to use mould release!

Pyracanthus buds

A rose with Lavender and dried grasses - I enthusiastically sanded off some of the stalks!

It's quite a long process, letting the plaster set then letting it dry out for days on end, but I did remember to take a desk shot earlier in the proceedings!

I'm linking up Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Animal Tag

Over at Tag Tuesday the theme is 'Animals' so I've put together 

an animal tag using a beautiful paper napkin that I've been saving for just such an occasion!

I added fussy cut leaves from an old book and I also found some rusty metal palm leaves and tied them on with sari silk.

Vintage Photos and WOYWW Anniversary

I stamped images onto these old vintage photos a long time ago, with the intention of 'doing something' with them!  
All I needed was the WOYWW 11th Anniversary and Hey Ho I've spent a delightful week playing about and turning them into little collages. 

 I thought they showed the Victorian's love of collecting and hoarding but actually I think they depict mine!

A quick and unusal shot of my desk last night without the white 'photographic' tablecloth on it!  It had been whipped away and some little paper clay moulded shapes left out to dry -I made the 4 flowers at the front for a specific project but decided to use up the rest of the clay in random moulds before it dried out completely.   

And finally a Happy Anniversary to all the deskers, a huge thank you for the kind, supportive comments and warm friendship over the years, and a massive thank you and virtual hug to Julia who has amazingly brought us all together and kept us going - what a star!

Cathedral Window Patchwork Pin Cushion and WOYWW

In stark contrast to last week I am so pleased I managed to work out what day of the week it is today so I can join in with WOYWW!  

I have been quite busy this week but did manage to find time to make myself a pincushion.  I was taught this Cathedral Window patchwork technique by a friend back in March and the one I made then was rather too vivid so I've made a more neutral coloured one - it matches the colours in my studio much better!

I  have some old antique photos I stamped some images on a few years ago and they've been sitting in a box doing nothing ever since - so they are going to be my UFO for next week - now I just have to find them!

I hope you are all keeping safe and well.