I Love Bargains!

While this beading frenzie has been on, I bought more beads than I used!!!! Ooops!!!! So this meant they didn't all fit in the little plastic case. Then I saw this lovely vanity case in the local charity shop for only £3.

A bit smelly and dirty but some Flash and Fabreeze later and it has come up lovely There is room for all my beads, findings, wire, bead tray and the tools I "borrowed" from Mark - well he has loads!!!!! What's more, there is even room for more beads!!!!!

More Scrapping

Here are the next two layouts for my Silk Album.

The first one is a double layout about painting the silks.

I have used bits of actual silk in it to explain some of the techniques.

And this is a close up of the embellishments.

The second one shows the framing process. Its pretty much the same as a previous post "Its Not All Beading"

And here are the close ups.

They are all crocheted on these pages. The "", {}, and ? are a set of new designs I am working on.

If you want to see more pictures, they are in my Rainbow Valley Photobucket Album.

And finally......

I started putting some stuff in my Etsy shop. Just some puppets for now. I can't add the silks until after the Exhibition has finished and I know what has been sold!

Do you Etsy?

As you may have noticed from my previous post, I joined Etsy.

And, because of the UKS rules, I can not link to my shop from here. However, there are no prizes for guessing my user name!

This afternoon I have finally got around to looking at it a bit more and making the banner for my shop.

So, do you Etsy? If so, I would love to hear fom you with some tips because I am very new to this.

After the hectic pace of the last few weeks, I have taken things a bit easier this week. I have been working on my Silk Album which I didn't get finished in time for the exhibition. Most of the important stuff was done but I wanted to add some more embellishments, particularly ones made from the beads used in the silks.

This is the front page.

I wanted the album to reflect the handmade aspect of the silks, so the album itself is handmade paper and throughout I have used mostly handmade papers and embellishments. I tore them rather than cut them for the "rustic" effect.

This is a digi collage of the embellishments.

Most of the crocheted embellishments used in the album are my own designs, apart from a few flowers on "Winter" which came from a crocheted flower exchange. The beaded embellishments are made from the beads which were used on the actual silks.

And, of course, I have been crocheting. I have been working on the pattern for the vest I wore in this post. I am making another one in black then I have to find some testers for the size above mine and the one below.

Also, I have been working on something inspired by Bee. You can see that very soon!

Announcement!

Stop Nagging!!!!

I signed up for Etsy!!!!!

The Morning After.

It sort of went ok.

I managed to get tea sorted and the family sorted and get there on time. Although the Tesco van we got stuck behind on the way did have me worried for a bit.

However, hardly any people came. Only two I invited came. I must have invited about 50,000 people.

Yes, I know that most of them lived a bit far away. Although I didn't think it was that much hassle to hop on a plane and come over from the US for a couple of hours!!!!!

The good news is, I sold Winter!!!!!

There is also somebody interested in the full set. If they do want them, I will have to make another Winter. I didn't really want to but a sale is a sale.

Tonights the night!

Loads of butterflies!!!!!

I have to be there at 5.50pm tonight, which means organising tea and the family extra early. Fun!!!

The scrapbook is coming along nicely but the journalling is taking ages. There will be a load more journalling tags when I have finished. I decided I didn't like the others, couldn't get the text to line up with the lins so am making more as I go along!

I would love to see anybody who is able to come along and support me. Just click on the pink invite on the left for details.

Back to the scrapbook!

Summer is here!

Although you wouldn't believe it from the weather!

Anyway, it wasn't that Summer I was on about!
As with the others it is 23 cm square and the quilting as much the same as possible.
I used a bright yellow backing fabric to get the vibrance of summer.

I covered the twigs with green beads, apart from the very end which I put shades of peach beads for flowers.
Then I put multi coloured flowers around the tree and cottages.

There are nearly 1000 beads on this one!
Hope you like it!
I went to the Angles Theatre in Wisbech this morning to hang the silks. I took a few pics of them in situ.
I will post lots of pics for you next week - but first I have a scrapbook to finish..........

I have an award!

Thank you Cass! I haven't had one before!

Now I have to nominate 3 people for one. As Cass said, this isn't easy so I have just picked 3 that I like to visit.

First of all, Debby. She makes loves cards!

Secondly, Lesley. Not at all craft related but she has a way with words!

And last, but not least, my Mam. You should see her tatting!

Thats it for today folks, I have lots to do!

Free Digi Journalling Templates

I have been busy this morning and it wasn't beading!

I want to make a scrapbook, by Sunday, of my silks. Yes, a tall order.

However, this is where friends - especially friends that scrap - come in useful!

I went around to see Lesley with some ½ formed ideas of what I want and now have some 3/4 formed ideas!!!!!

And have arranged a scrapping session for Friday.

Anybody else want to come and help?

As part of this, I have been playing in PSE. I want a lot of journaling in it to explain how things are done, similar to some of the posts on here. So I made some journaling templates.

I want to include scraps of silk and fabrics. Also the beads I have used.

The pictures shown here are of the templates after I filled them with paper. The two Rainbow papers are from Tracy Dean, Vibrant swirl and Wishywashy Bright.

I am not sure where the others came from but they are called CFR LPO Paper SpringColor and MST CollegeDays LeatherGold. They are most probably from Scrapgirls.

You can download the templates from here.

Enjoy!

Atelier East presents

This is my press release from Atlier East about my exhibiton. Only a few days left now. I am not including the pics, they are all on here already!

Helen Free – Silk

An Exhibition at the Angles Theatre, Wisbech, Cambs.

Bright, bold and colourful- the best words to describe the work of textile artist Helen Free who’s exhibition entitled Silk opens on April 6th at the Angles Theatre, Wisbech.

Silk is a collection of beautifully sumptuous floral motifs- all hand painted onto silk, lightly quilted and embellished with beadwork and stitching.

Helen was brought up to appreciate crafts; she loves working with textiles- sewing, quilting, silk painting, knitting, tatting, crocheting and much more. Helen was taught to crochet by her father when she was very young and now she is a successful crochet pattern designer and writer, selling her patterns worldwide through her website.

“This is the first time that we have shown textile work at the Angles Theatre and I am sure people will really like it. Helen’s work is really fresh and vibrant- perfect for cheering us up after the winter months!” said Karen Harvey who has curated the exhibition for Atelier East.

Silk by Helen Free will be showing from 6 April – 2 May at the Angles Theatre.

On Sunday 6 April from 6-8pm there will be a free opening reception and, as always, everyone is welcome to come along.

The theatre is also open Monday to Friday all day and Saturday mornings, plus it is open for shows. Best the check with the theatre if you are going out of normal hours.

For more information on exhibitions at the Angles Theatre contact info@atelier-east.co.uk

The current exhibition by Jennie Claire runs until Friday 4th April.

Autumn

As promised yesterday, here are the pics of the third silk in the set, Autumn. As with the others it is 23 cm square.

And as you can probably see by now, I have tried to keep the quilting as much the same as possible on them all. I used a rust coloured backing fabric to get the warm glow of autumn. I used a variety of gold, brown, root beer and irridescant amber for the leaves. I left quite a lot of the twigs bare to try to get the effect of the leaves falling off.

Then I put some dotted about as if falling off the tree. And loads on the grass. There are about 300 beads on this one.

April Calendar

Between the frenzied activity in getting ready for the exhibition and the dreadful weather, I haven't had much chance to go out and take something new for Aprils Calendar.

So, as so many of you like this one, I decided to use it!

I finished Autumn this morning. Pics tomorrow.

Its not all beading!

I hate the finishing off. All the little bits that need doing to make things look presentable. The boring bits. When I started doing this, Mark thought I had got bored with the beading. But, the truth is, I really don't want all the finishing off left until last. Mark made me all the frames. Here they are stacked against the unit waiting to be used.

They all need sanding before I can use them. I "sew" the silks on. This gives me the flexibility to move them into the right place and the ability to pull the thread tighter to stretch the silk to its maximum.

When the silk is in the right position and tightened, the corners need trimming and stitching into place.

To make the backs, I draw around the frame then iron all the folds in place, just inside the lines. Then I sew on my very own "Designer" label. It's amazing what you can do with t-shirt transfers!

The backs are pinned in place. When they are all done, I will take them back down the shed for Mark to use his compressed air staple gun to attach them on firmly.

Winter.

I have finished Winter. It is mounted and backed and here are the pics to prove it! Again, it is 23cm square with relatively simple stitching and beading.

I used white fabric behind the silk to give the colours a washed out feel. And irridescant clear beads for snow.

With just a few snowflakes to finish it off. There are over 600 beads on this one and over 400 on Spring.

J is for Jubilee Gardens.

I decided to take some time out from beading and edit some of those pics I took weeks ago. Jubilee Gardens are at the end (or the beginning depending on which way you come in) of Chatteris High Street.

I haven't been able to find out much about them. All I know is that the original gardens were built in 1977 to celebrate the Queens Silver Jubilee and housed the original Town Sign.

The Gardens were re-vamped in 2004 when the lovely clock was put up and the Town Sign repainted. If anybody knows anything else, I would love to hear it!

Spring.

While the weather may not know it, it is Spring! And here is the first of my Four Seasons - Spring. It is only small, 23 cm square, which means the beading has to be kept relatively simple. The fabric behind the silk is a sort of minty/limey green. Nice and bright to convey the freshness of spring.

I embroidered the twigs on the tree, attaching the leaves as I went. I used the thread double to make it stand out and two different coloured green beads.

I then used one of the colours from the tree and yellow beads to make primroses. I finished Winter last night but that needs mounting before I take any pictures. I can do that this afternoon while waiting for the Tesco delivery!

Self Portrait.

I hate doing these! But one of the papers wanted a photo of me with my work, so...... I decided to kill two birds with one stone and model the new top I have been working on for a new pattern - when I finished all this beading! Think it will do?

In answer to the comments..........

Yes, this is one of the hangings that will be in the exhibition and I hope to sell them all!

It was the Peterborough Evening Telegraph that asked for the photo. However, Karen sends press releases which include photos of my work to all the local papers.

Look out for them!

Blow!

I used this photo as inspiration for one of my silk paintings. I took this during the OU course and was amazed at the detail when I blew it up to pixel size in PSE. You can see all the individual dew drops.

The painting was done a little differently to usual. I didn't use any gutta. I wanted the stitching and beading to be the main focus. I used water to lighten the sepals and salt to ad texture to the background.

There was a LOT of sewing! I added the brown seeds first. Then I added the fluffy seed heads in white. I regretted doing so many seeds when it came to adding the seed heads.

And, of course, lots of seed heads meant lots of beads. I used irridescant clear beads to represent the dew. The finished picture is 38 cm square.

I was thinking about counting the beads. But only for a very brief moment!!!!

Snow today, gone tomorrow!

Well, almost! We didn't get a White Christmas but we did get a White Easter. I went out while it was till snowing and took the first two photos.

I should have put a coat on because I came in wet and very cold!

When it stopped snowing I went out for a walk to take some more.

The weather had warmed up and the snow was melting really quickly.

The sun came out in the afternoon and it was all gone by tea time At least the children had time to build some snowmen!