In which I buy a bee

Mr P and I went to the car boot sale on Saturday, and I paid £12 for something that could be worth £400.  I am a freaking antiques genius! 

We had a good wander round, and although there were lots of good stalls, nothing much caught my eye.  Until I saw this little bronze bee thing.  It's about 4 inches long, and the bee's body lifts up to reveal a hollow where things (small things) could be stored.  I like bees, I like shiny things, so I asked how much the stall holder wanted.  He asked for £15, we settled on £12. 

On the bottom of the bee, there's a stamp reading "W Avery and Sons, Redditch, The Bee Case".  So, with the miracle of interweb phones, I looked up said info.  First site I found was a page from Christie's, the auctioneers, where a similar case sold for £400 in 1993. 

Holy. Poop.

My bee case dates from 1869 - 1898 ish, was designed to hold needles and pins, and they are well collectable!  Now, mine isn't in great nick - the top of the leaf is bent, the catch is broken, and even after a fair bit of cleaning it's pretty tarnished.  So I doubt I'd get anywhere near £400, even if they cost the same as they did in 1993.  But I reckon I'll take it to an antique dealer and see how much they'd value it at.  I'd be dead excited if it would be worth putting it in an auction!   

In which my flax is flowering

Looky look look!  My flax in the allotment is flowering!  I went down at the weekend, and there are little blue flowers all over, like little stars.  It's just gorgeous. It's very wet, so I hope the flax is ok - there's still a lot of buds waiting to flower, and then I think it'll be a couple of weeks until the stalks turn golden and I can harvest the fibre.  The bindweed LOVES my flax - it's everywhere. 

In other allotment news - red ants.  Everywhere.  (Shudder.)

Also, my foxes featured on Mr X Stich again - this time in the 'Too Cute Tuesdays' slot curated by Olisa from Feeling Stitchy.  Yay!

In which I make marks on lino

I’ve finished the monoprints assignment on my OCA Printmaking course, and I've posted them off to my tutor.  Now, I'm on to linoprints!  Yum.  I love relief printing.

For the first assignment, I used a variety of cutting tools to make 24 test squares on an A4 piece of lino.  I'm referring to each square left to right 1 to 4, and top to bottom a to f.  So the top left square is 1a.  I used a variety of v-tools and gouges, and a craft knife as well.

A few of the marks remind me of different things - 1e looks like a school of fish swimming in a circle, and 2f looks like a school of fish darting through water.  The short, vertical strokes of 4a, 3e and 1f look like grasses or crops.  2c reminds me of a choppy pond and 3f of a still pond.  3a could be a flock of birds above a cornfield?  2d looks like hail or snow.  The more delicate qualities of 3c and 4c (made with the craft knife) are a bit like cobwebs.

Overall, it's an ok print?  I like the marks, but the ink isn't as clear and black as I'd like.  I used watercolour ink, and it was my first time using a baren.  I think I need to use more ink and more pressure!

In which my sloth is shown some love

Hello blog.  Sorry I've neglected you.

Anyway - the sloth has been getting some internet lovin'.  The internet's premier sloth blog, Sloth Action has featured my whitework, as has Mr X Stitch.  This is the third time my work has been featured on Mr X's site - that's very cool!

In which I embroider a whitework sloth

I love sloths.  I really, really love them.  If I’m having a bad day at work I just have to watch a clip from ‘Too Cute! Baby Sloths’ and I’m good again.  One day, I’d love to go to the Sloth Sanctuaryin Costa Rica. 

So what’s the obvious choice for my next foray into whitework?  Sloths!

 

 

After doing my Carrickmacross lace, I wanted to have a bash at cutwork.  I decided to embroider some hibiscus flowers, just about to be eaten by a sneaky sloth!  Sloths love hibiscus flowers.  I gave the flowers a bit of texture – the stamens are done in French knots, and I gave the sloth a nice furry coat.

This was so much fun to embroider!  If I did it again I’d use a whiter thread – this one looks a little cream, and use a sharper pair of scissors to cut the background cloth away.  You need really sharp scissors for this.  If you’ve got sharp scissors and know how to do buttonhole stitch, you’re pretty much sorted on cutwork! 

In which I print some self-portraits

Oh, I've been so lax.  Bad me.  I've been working away at my OCA printmaking course, but just haven't been blogging about it.

I'm currently working on the first section, which is on monoprints.  I have to submit four final prints, and one should be a portrait. 

I asked the mirror on the wall who the fairest of them all is, but apparantly Lucy Worsley wasn't available to sit for a portrait.  So I decided to do a self-portrait.

1 - I propped a mirror up and sketched this.  It looks nothing like me.  I think part of the problems is my eyes and mouth are too small here.

2 - I then put that under a sheet of glass, and painted on it using printing inks.  I looked terrifying - the nose areas is all weird and wrong.

3 - This is my final print - I used masks to print the areas of colour, and backdrawing to define the nose, chin, freckles and ears. I kept the whites of the eyes by positioning little masks on the inked surface.  I first printed the green layer, then the pink face, then the hair and eyes, and finally the red lips.

4 - Then, I mucked around a bit.  I rolled out the browny ink and did some backdrawing - this is the original print...

5 - And this is the negative - after I'd taken the first print, I just covered the inked plate and pulled another print.

6 - The one that looks most like me, really, is just this print I did of the 'brown' mask so you can just see my hair, eyes and eybrows.

So - overall, I'm please with my final print, but I wish my nose wasn't wonky - the print on the pink layer got slightly out of alignment. 

In which I complete a tapestry weaving

I've finished my tapestry weaving.  It took flippin' ages!  But it was fun - interesting to see how it's easier to make the letters when they are sideways - I think 'weft' came out better than 'warp'.

It's about 20cm squared, but it's not very square.  I guess I could pin it out on an ironing board and block it like I'd block crochet?