A Peak Inside my Portfolio: Embroidered Bracelet

Still on my Fiber Arts kick! One my summer projects was to design and sew a cuff bracelet for myself. Embroidery is so nice because I can sit and do it while I'm watching TV or listening to music or relaxing out on the porch. Check out some of my other fiber arts projects here, here and here!

Gathering all my supplies! Embroidery Floss, material and leather. Don't forget a needle, scissors and a button to finish the piece.

Here's the sketch on the material and you can see, I've started to fill in the design and edges with a solid border.

I wasn't sure about filling in the area with yellow but I ended up liking the look!

Here's the finished piece with the button on the back to close it.

Finished bracelet!

At Home with the Artist: Wall Decor

There's this area in our hallway that I've been dying to fill with something! 

I knew that I wanted to put my Harry Potter embroidery in this area from a loooonnngg time ago. Check it out at this post. But I also wanted to add some hanging planters (with fake plants of course since I am a known planter killer)

So I created these adorable mini hanging planters with some clay, white paint and modge podge to finish them off. I poked holes in the back before the clay was fired for them to hang. I got them all set up and hung and guess what!?! They kept slipping off the nails!!

So I had to get creative! I used some leftover leather cording that I had and constructed some holders for the hangers so that the wouldn't fall and scare us half to death in the middle of the night. ( I swear to you, it sounded just like a gun shot!) Here's the final product!

A Peak Inside My Portfolio: Fiber Arts

Lately I've been dabbling in fiber arts,. In the past I've done a lot with embroidery, as you can see here and here. But recently I added to my skills with painting on fabric. I have done two items that were given as gifts. One was a tie for a family member on my husbands side. I painted a seascape on a yellow tie. The other was a table runner for my aunt, in which I used, batik, dyeing fabric, painting on fabric and embroidery to complete the final piece.

First I used a flour paste to create a batik design on my fabric. Although it worked out well, I would not recommend this method, it was very messy!

After applying the paste and letting it dry, I then sprayed a watered-down dye  mixture onto the fabric and let it drive completely over night.

After it was dry, I washed it thoroughly, which took forever! I was very happy with the resulting design!

The last steps were to paint the design on to the body of the table runner. I used acrylic paint to do this. Then I embroidered some white designs around the painted portion and all along the border. As a finishing touch, I added tassels!

DIY: Harry Potter Embroidery Sampler

I've had my eye on a certain wall space in our house, right at the top of the stairs. It is a cute little space and it needs something. So I've decided to work on a couple of things in the next few months to use to style that area. The first thing that I created was an embroidery hoop with a cute flower pattern and a Harry Potter quote. Perhaps I haven't mentioned this before on this blog, but I am a GIANT Harry Potter fan! Check out HERE for the inspiration for this DIY.

As I mentioned above, I love me some HP! However, if you're unfamiliar with the movies or the books. "Always" is a beautiful quote from one of the most misunderstood characters. Severus Snape ends up with the most beautiful and heart-wrenching story line. 

I used some lightweight canvas fabric that I had lying around. I also had a small embroidery hoop, a needle, and some embroidery floss. I chose some colors that I think will look nice with the other items I am planning for this space. However, something like this can be changed to suite whatever color palette you have in your house!

After gathering my supplies, I sketched out a basic idea of what I wanted to do and got to work! I used a back stitch to create the letters. I did two rows, right beside each other so as to make the letters thicker. I'm considering going back and adding a third layer to make them stand out even more? Thoughts?

After that I added some embellishments around the outside. I wanted to keep with the embroidery sampler look from my inspiration but I also wanted to make it my own. So I came up with some vines and small flowers and some daffodil/tulip like blooms at the bottom. 

I think the final project is going to look great on my little wall space! I'll keep you posted as I add more to the area and what it looks like when I'm done!

What's Going on in the Classroom: Last Days in the Art Room

Ah! Only a couple more weeks and there is so much to do! So we finished out practice pieces for our clay unit and they are everywhere. First step to getting them out of the room, wax the bottoms!

Seriously, there were clay pieces on every surface in the room! After they wax the bottom, students used a dipping method to glaze their pieces.

See all the glazed pieces! They're ready for the kiln. We're waiting on putting the last batch through currently. While they were glazing, they were also working on their final, larger clay pieces. Here are a couple of examples, but I will post more when they're glazed and out of the kiln!

For the last project of the year, we are doing wet felting. This is a process where wool roving is combined with hot water and soap causing the to fibers shrink, creating a piece of felt! We did this whole process outside and it was a ton of fun, with the sun shining! Now we are learning three different stitches and embroidering a border and designs on our pieces. My hope is to sew them all together to make one large wall hanging! More pictures to come as we finish!