Yes, I plucked up the courage, found the safety glasses from my lab days, and had a nervous go at sewing around those mirrors. I think it's a bit like standing on the edge of a cliff - no matter how much you try not to you keep seeing yourself jumping off. I concentrate like mad and still see the needle veering towards the glass.
If truth be told (and you look closely) I actually only machined around mirrors in 2 of the samples - and that was after I had practised with 2 samples using metal foil, just incase..... Still, I persevered....
Incidentally, all these samples and the others 7.1-7.5 in the previous post are about 20cm x 20cm in size.
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| 7.6 |
7.6 My first practice go - Red bobbin thread and yellow top tighter tension in star formation over shisha of gold foil.
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| 7.7 |
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| 7.7 (detail) |
7.7 The back ground in this one has spiral pattern of a rubbing with gold oil pastel. Free machine swirls made over a metallic organza entrapping glass pebbles then areas of the sheer cut away to reveal the pattern underneath. I made a hole over one of the pebbles to make it more shisha-like but decided that I preferred the covered look on the others.
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| 7.8 |
7.8 Background rubbing in gold pastel over one of my blocks from before. Then shisha mirrors trapped under machine couched tramlines of red perle cotton. Further free machining done on top in metallic thread echoing the rubbing marks - not as clear as I had hoped unfortunately.
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| 7.9 |
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| 7.9 detail |
7.9 Green and gold pastel rubbing on olive green dyed cotton background. Echoing swirls in metallic free machining. Fragments of broken mirror that I already had from a mosaic class hand sewn with gold seed beads and gold thread. Shisha mirrors machine sewn in star formation in centre and then the rubbing marks emphasised in hand blanket stitch using gold embroidery thread.
I do like the way that the beads (in the detail photo) are reflected in the mirror.
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| 7.10 |
7.10 In this sample the gold foil shisha are held down with overlapping jump rings cut from a metal purl I made around a pencil. they are hand stitched on then free machining in whip stitch with red bobbin thread on top echoes the ring patterns and the rubbing markings on the fabric. The fabric is the same green as in 7.9 but the photo makes it appear brownish here.
4 comments:
I love all the samples you've done, especially the gold one!
These are wonderful experiments you are sharing. The encapsulated glass pebbles piece is stunning!
Fantastic samples!! I especially love nos. 7.7 and 7.9, they look really gorgeous
Just beautiful, Helen. Lovely, especially 7.7 - but they're all very good.
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