Thanks for looking :)
Tuesday 28 July 2015
Monday 20 July 2015
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/elinart?section_id=17543456&ref=shopsection_leftnav_6
The photo is a money plant which I had to clean a thick layer of dust off first and an old green hand towel draped behind.....I like to keep my costs down ;)
Monday 13 July 2015
Ready to fly.
I'm near to completing about 12 of these moths in various colours. I have yet to find a good way of making the antennae, button thread has the right thickness but even a touch of wax doesn't make them positionable. I am going to try watered down pva and a couple of other things to see if I can make them perkier. Any suggestions for a fix would be much appreciated :)
I've reached a point where I'm starting to use fabric paint and adding more hand-stitching, the urge to embellish is overwhelming! This means I have to take a different tack from now on. I have just purchased some long entomology pins, the next batch of moths will be more elaborate but constructed specifically for wall display. I'll work to a standard Ikea box frame size which will hold two of these small moths or one larger. It means, I don't have to hold back when it comes to the details.
All the 12 completed moths will be available to purchase next week in my Etsy shop on Monday 20th at 2pm. They will be listed at a special price in order to encourage their successful flight.
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/elinart
Thursday 9 July 2015
More moths
The white moth represents the basic pattern I have devised. I wanted to make a really simple pattern, so have whittled it down to seven pieces (the two eyes and one thread for the antennae are included). The aim was to dispense with areas which would be far too time consuming i.e the legs, leaving me with the freedom to play with fabrics and stitching to create a play of colour, contrast and texture.
The mousy brown moth is the first go at making a finished moth. I am not overly keen on machine edging in general, not sure why, but as I am creating more moths I can vary the colour and add small hand-stitched accents that liven up the flat edges. The aim is to keep it simple, so I have to make sure the urge to embellish doesn't take over. I have a large moth pattern (with legs!) in development, where, in the future I can go crazy on the details.
The brown moth presents an interesting dillema in the creative thought process. One of the wonderful things about moths here in the UK is their modest plumage. We have many hundreds of 'little brown moths', it's not until you zoom in on them the amazing variations become apparent. Just making brown moths would suit me, but I'm lucky enough to have a large stash of upholstery fabric samples. This stash has been part of the inspiration for producing the pattern in the first place, I also have to justify hanging onto all this fabric!. So, I'm trying to do both, subtle moths and moths with eye-catching colour combinations. More pictures to follow soon....
Saturday 4 July 2015
Cloth Moth
By far the hardest task is turning the body right side out after sewing from the back. I left what I thought was quite a large aperture at the side to keep the shape of the point at the tail and blip for the head, but still it was tricky. What the photo doesn't show is the gash left by the scissors on the underside. I know it's madness to use pointy scissors to push the fabric through, but I often fail to listen to that inner voice. Thankfully, it wasn't a finished piece :)
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