possums

Photo courtesy of wollombi

Possums are an iconic part of Australian nocturnal life. And, although I live in Canada and am deeply enamored with Canadian wildlife, one benefit of being an ex-pat Aussie is that I can offer tasty morsels about two different countries in the one blog. Bonus.

One sight that is very difficult not to appreciate on a balmy summer's evening in many parts of Australia, is the sight of possums, silhouetted against the night sky, hurrying precariously along the electric wires overhead. They rush from roof to tree to tree to roof to... well, wherever their little hearts desire and to wherever there is a likely source of food and shelter. While they are widely loved they are also equally hated (like squirrels and other furry troublemakers all over the world) for making homes in places they're not supposed to, for making an unholy racket in the dead of night, and for sampling the new shoots and barely ripe fruit that you've been carefully nurturing in your backyard garden.

When they are accustomed to humans they can be very bold and, one memorable New Year's eve when I was eating at an outdoor restaurant with my parents, we had to be very firm with the resident possum who wished to share our table and in particular the platter of Greek delicacies that we were starting the evening with. Who knew that possums had a taste for tzatziki dip with pita bread?

Anyway, this is all to introduce to you the main piece of my latest embroidery triptych. The inspiration came from thinking about what you could see by the light of the moon. Because it was the dead of winter here and acres of snow and stark bare trees are hardly the stuff of inspirational embroidery, my imagination turned to other moonlit scenes I've known. Which brings us back to possums and their nightly journey from tree to tree. (It also brings us to flying foxes [or fruit bats as the case may be] but that's a whole other post.)

Here is my latest freehand embroidery with applique creation. It goes with two others (thus the tri in triptych) but I'm saving showing you the complete product until it's, well, completed. When it's done (with accompanying poem, of course) I'll tell you the story of who I made it for and why.


This was the best photo I could get, unfortunately. For some reason I don't understand, the camera panics with this dark blue background and does all kinds of weird and wonderful things to compensate for what it thinks is an egregious error in lighting. If anyone has any pointers that would help me take a better photo, I'd appreciate any advice.

I'm off to contemplate what rhymes with "possum".

ideas

I once said that as long as people kept having babies then you'd all still get to see me create stuff. And by God, if that isn't true!

This little piece serves a dual purpose, though. Its primary reason for being is to provide some joy for a little girl that was born last year (I didn't say I'd make anything in a timely fashion, though). However, because I've got a little thing about doing triptychs in embroidery hoops at the moment, this will also serve as another opportunity to practise this idea (in case I ever decide to sell some work in the future). Who knows where the wind will blow these little fellows.

If anybody has any ideas what this picture is (it's a tantalising close up) then I'd love to hear what your interpretation is. I'll reveal the whole hoop in due course.

PS: Thanks are due to Mal* for reminding me of the diversity and joys of running stitch. It was just the ticket for getting me over the creative hump of how to complete this little picture.

tidying up

Thank you for the wonderful feedback on the trios that I have received over the last few days. What a pleasure having a blog can be.


While it was fun posting the trios with their accompanying poems as posts in themselves, I was conscious that I would have liked the opportunity to chat a bit about them as well. You know how it is, you work on things until they're Just So and then after the Big Reveal you want to bore, I mean illuminate, people with Every Single Detail about how they were done and why you made the choices you did. Hopefully I won't go quite that far but here are a few tidbits you might be interested in.

Firstly, the background material is Lady Grey herself. (Remember I had a love affair with a grey plaid flannelette duvet cover and wanted to share that love around a bit.) Some of you will be puzzled at the choice, but the combination of colour, texture and availability was a winner for me and so I didn't resist. If I decide to replicate them for sale (a long term dream I'll share with you at a later time), I might choose a slightly less humble material. I'll experiment and let you know.

Secondly, I used some great vintage buttons on the "snow" hoop and felt tickled pink doing so.


Thirdly, I backed each hoop with some vintage sheet material. They look so sweet and polished that way. I have a niggling feeling though that if you're a true embroidery artist then you should show the backs of your work with pride (as an indication of the sheer Talent and Neatness that you bring to your art). I can't be sure about this but until I'm slapped with an Infringement Notice by the Embroidery Police I'm just going to go ahead and finish them with some pretty sheeting on the back. Let it be said, though, I am prepared to show their naked back sides if needs be (ooh, err).


Fourthly, in case it's not clear, the hoops themselves are small ones. They are the 4 inch round wooden hoops that are ubiquitous in all the craft supplies shops.

Finally, I have put some more photos up on my flickr account if anyone just can't get enough and must see more, More, MORE! (Indeed, there will be a permanent link to this account on the lefthand side of the blog should you need to dip into my artistic/craftistic world at any time.)

Thanks again for stopping by and thanks to those who were keen enough to comment. You are all treasures.

rhyming slang

We're not much for Valentine's Day in these parts.

However, we are very much for dog fur. Oops, I mean lerve. L.O.V.E Leeeerrrve. (I think the random dog fur that peppers the place is competing for space with the lerve though.)

As evidence of The Lerve Propensity, we celebrated our second anniversary of meeting face to face yesterday. It's been two years since our first hug, our first kiss, our first nervous laughter in the middle of a busy international airport. Sigh.

Okay, okay - before you're sick onto your keyboard and vow never to return to such a soppy rubbish blog again, here's the little something I made in honour of the occasion (something I made for my One True Leeerrrve).


Please forgive the terrible photo (and the wicker laundry basket the hoop is propped on) - I'm yet to work out how to make anything that isn't super macro look good. Normally it's the other way around, no?

As is my wont in these matters, this is another applique (a la Emma's technique) with some random embroidery for joy's sake. I have to admit that I loved practising my running writing (circa grade three) to get these sweet words down. I don't write like that anymore, but I tell you, it's like riding a bicycle (a bit wobbly at first but we got there eventually).

Have a lovely weekend everyone, Valentine's Day or no.

the gloves are on

As I have hinted previously, a series of small embroidery hoops have been occupying a little of the creative space in my mind for months now. I have been revealing them to you (sometimes a little poetically) as I complete them and have been keen to have the whole set of nine done for ages. However, they seem to be evolving in their own good time and while I am waiting for that last little burst of inspiration to fully complete them, I thought I'd introduce you to the latest of the bunch.

It took a little tweaking, though, before it could join its friends. This is what it used to look like:


However, when I presented it to my OLT for his opinion he exclaimed delightedly: "Ooh! A pair of boxing gloves!"

So I unpicked the lot, did a little redesign and returned with these winter mittens.

Cold hands,
wind bitten.
Warm hands,
spotted mittens.
Happy woman.
Poem written.

inspire | conspire

In light of some inspirational interviews I've enjoyed reading recently, I've been contemplating what inspires my own craft life, my own artistic vision (should one swim into focus). Surprisingly, it's a harder question to answer than I imagined. Many of the artists interviewed cited the natural world as their primary source of inspiration, while others talked of the inspiration of other artists' work or of the world in general as it swirls around them. Sitting gazing out the lounge room window, I posed the same question to myself. A few blank moments later I could feel myself beginning to conclude that, really, I must be one of God's more singularly uninspired creatures. Quickly changing tack to redeem my sense of self, I posed a different question: "Emma," I asked, "what if you were inspired by nature?"

And then I saw this tree, the same one I see everyday - across the road and up the street - and thought it quite lovely, really.


That was when I could see how my embroidery hooped beginnings from last week could become its own fully realised creation in its own right.


Inspiration is a mysterious and elusive little chap, I decided. As I worked on this piece, I realised that I had chosen these hues and these fabrics because my world is currently saturated in the softest, lightest, most subtle gradations of whites, greys and pastels. It is a landscape of breathtaking simplicity, austerity and beauty. How could it not, then, inform the current landscape of my creative mind. However, likewise, without conscious effort and a decision to look I may never have chosen to be inspired by this simple, everyday view.

I think inspiration is a little like love, actually. Both spontaneous windfall and well-chosen course.

whither the weather

We all know that weather, any facet of it - temperature, precipitation, forecasts, histories, averages, records - is a godsend at parties. Who hasn't helped a conversation over an awkward hump by shamelessly drawing on the weather to take all present onwards into common conversational territory? I have to admit, coming to Canada and meeting so many new people, sometimes I just launch straight in after "hello". I do it as a community service, mainly, as Canadians, as we know from last week, take a near nationalistic pride in the extremes that winter throws at them. Indeed, I'm tempted to say that weather stories are a core part of the construction of the Canadian identity.


Whether the weather in Canada influenced my creation of these, I can't say. Indeed, I can't remember exactly what my motivation was when I first began these in April/May. However, it seems I have begun some of my own weather stories, rendered in embroidered, appliqued circles.


Stay tuned. More weather this way comes.

How to make some foolish fish

[Hint: Click on right side of strip to see all three frames.]



1. Consider your stash of thrifted, recycled, ready-for-a-new-life materials. Notice your favourite thrifted flannelette duvet cover (surely once the property of psychology major from this one-horse university town, who, whilst on a student budget, fancied themselves an early minimalist - classy soft greys with the occassional tasteful fawn and cream stripe). This will make a great, neutral sea for the fish-to-be.


2. Pull out that lovely, thrifted, cotton printed blouse. (Almost certainly donated by a fondly reminiscing Maritimer whose once-in-a-lifetime trip to Bali gave them the very excuse to wear this pretty, light cotton top - although its soft drape never quite felt the same back on Atlantic Canadian soil.) The pattern and hue of this blouse just seem to shout "fish!"


3. Remember your stash of brightly and oddly coloured, thrifted (and now felted) woolen sweaters. Seek every opportunity to work them into what you are working on.


4. Let free your imagination and your primary school drawing skills. Draft onto some solid paper some simple patterns of whatever quirky shapes take your fancy. Cut them out.


5. Pin patterns to your colourful material, and then cut out leaving about 1/4 of an inch of extra material all the way around. (You can either eyeball this yourself or, if you don't trust your eyeballs, you can cut out two paper patterns: one the larger size with the extra 1/4 inch all around and one the original size and shape.) [See photo in no. 7 below.]


6. Trace your pattern onto some fusible interfacing (lighter) or fusible backing (heavier) (whatever level of support you think you'll need to carry out your plan) and then cut out.


7. Iron your cut-out fusible material onto the wrong side of your cut-out colourful material (matching the correct shapes, of course!) Notice that your pretty material should extend 1/4 inch beyond the fusible backing. With sharp scissors, snip around your border material, at regular intervals, up to the edge of the fusible material. Fold border over the edge of the fusible backing and iron down. You should now have some lovely shapes, the size you want them, complete with inner fortitude (provided by the fusible backing, of course). You are now ready to sew them onto your chosen embroidery backing material, which you have cut out and mounted onto an embroidery hoop.



8. Use a small whip stitch in a colour that suits your project (either matching or contrasting appropriately) to secure the shape to your backing fabric. I used a very fine metallic blue thread to anchor my fish to their grey stripey sea. [No photo for this one, sorry. I was so intent on sewing I forgot to photograph each stage.]

9. Once sewn where you like, embellish with your favourite embroidery stitches. Go wild, experiment. I used a simple running stitch to outline each fish and to provide detail to their patterns.



I also used french knots for flowers and eyes, and alternated stem and split stitches for other features such as the teapot handle etc.


10. Then mount them firmly in suitably sized embroidery hoops, cut off excess material carefully, give them a smile of appreciation and welcome them into the world as the full creative beings they are.

Feel free to ask me any questions if I haven't been clear enough in these instructions.

April Fool's Fish

Motivation: the promise of fame and fortune through the Dabbled competition.

Inspiration: Wikipedia, particularly this little gem:

The April 1 tradition in France includes poisson d'avril (literally "April's fish"), attempting to attach a paper fish to the victim's back without being noticed. This is also widespread in other nations, such as Italy (where the term pesce d'aprile (literally "April's fish") is also used to refer to any jokes done during the day).

"April Fish", I felt, had potential...


Allow me to introduce them (click on photo for bigger image)...

the bore fish (known for her clever disguise
as a jingling jester)

the drear fish (known for her fabulous foil
as a flowery teapot)

the snore fish (who blows multi-coloured bubbles
as her brilliant cover for sleeping on the job)

the rebels (say no more, say no more)

"April Fish" is a four-piece wall hanging. They are appliqued and embroidered onto grey flannellette and framed in embroidery hoops. Their sheer cheer and cheek will be available from my etsy store shortly.

Also, stay tuned (later today) for a tutorial on how to make your very own fish! More (and fancier) photos will be up on Flickr shortly.

Thanks for stopping by!

Herb and Hesta

Herb and Hesta are herbivores. Like all caterpillars, they eagerly await the greenery indulgences of spring.

Hesta is a hippy - with plaited antennae









...and a crescent moon tail. (She secretly wishes she was called Moonbeam.)







Herb is just happy his antennae still have that windblown look after snowboarding all winter.







Available shortly from furrybees at www.etsy.com.

Edit: 1. If you click on any of the pictures you can see them in greater detail (they are big images though, so may take a while to download). 2. Herb and Hesta are made from felted, repurposed wool sweaters, cotton embroidery floss, polyester fibre fill and, in Herb's case, thick hemp string for his antennae (Hesta's are made from wool).