underatopazsky posted: " Term has started and with it a three day a week supply teaching commitment which has at a stroke annihilated my stitching opportunities this week. I'm now teaching right across the primary age ranges from Early Years to Y6 and having to be involved in so" Under A Topaz Sky
Term has started and with it a three day a week supply teaching commitment which has at a stroke annihilated my stitching opportunities this week. I'm now teaching right across the primary age ranges from Early Years to Y6 and having to be involved in some planning and assessment as well, which has to be done at home. It's a Catch 22. I can't earn a living from my upcycled jewellery and textile art, so I have to take on supply work to pay the bills, but supply work doesn't leave me with enough time to develop my creative side as a business so I can't earn a living from it. Add to that my first cold germ of the new year, I'm feeling very frustrated and sorry for myself.
So, dribs and drabs of stitching is all I have to share this week. Last week I managed to find some more of the thread I needed to finish the leafy greens in my stumpwork garden. The last time I blogged about it back in July, it was looking like this:
Since then I've added more French knots to soften the hard edge of the path as well as finishing off the leafy greens and making a start on the weeds.
No movement on the buttonhole rings piece but I have done a tiny bit more on the Brantwood wallpaper motif. I'm glad I've continued with silk, but the thread is so fine I've been struggling to keep the satin stitch neat. I might try two strands in the needle and see how that goes.
I'm also trying to keep scratching the itch of wanting desperately to create upcycled jewellery. I came across this mid-century mother of pearl-set 'Hollywood' brooch in a recent lot of jewellery I was processing.
It was missing a section and it wasn't that exciting anyway, so I decided to find something much more interesting with which to replace the mother of pearl discs. I cut six petals from a piece of hand made felt and added veins in whipped back stitch.
To hide the back of the stitching and give the petals a bit more body, each one has a back cut from some heathered green commercial felt.
They hide the little coloured diamantes, but I like the effect much better.
I'm connecting the two pieces of felt with a beaded blanket stitch in pale gold seed beads which are almost identical in colour to the metal of the brooch.
I've only had time to do one, but it's come out so well I just want to get stuck into doing the rest!
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