So Proud!

 This spring has gone by in a flash~ I have been so swamped & stressed  I am surprised all my hair hasn't fallen out. Josh graduated from high school this past Friday and we couldn't be more proud of him.  I feel super lucky that graduation was so close to Mother's Day~ not only did I get an honor graduate, I also got to spend Mother's Day with my Mom~ something I haven't been able to do in over 20 years at least....probably more like 30. What a great weekend~ Im exhausted!

Things for me tend to roll in waves~ I end up working forever it seems and not getting anything done, then within a week or two, all sorts of things come together and get finished. I have been working on this blasted kitchen since I got back from Williamsburg, and finally, FINALLY~ its done. D.O.N.E. Im super excited, now I can get back to work on my things...I know my chi is there....just waiting to flow again...bring on the dollies...bring on the wood...and bring on the BEADS!!!! WOO HOOOOOO

Cheers to a Happy Summer to all of you!

New Dollys

On eBay this week!

  Golly the time is flying by~ we seemed to have skipped Spring and ran from cold straight into Summer here in southern Colorado.  Ladye Rachael is a little Grodnertal that would love to say hello~ you can see here on eBay here or click on my eBay auction link on the right sidebar.  I have a couple dollys on this week and a great little antique child's coat made from c1740 silk brocade up for sale. 

  I love Grodnertal dollys~ some call them peg or penny woodens~ they are precious and I think my girl is pretty sweet!  I wanted to get her on for May day, but as always, i'm a bit late!

Good Friday &

The Cristal Baschet

How many of you have heard of a Cristal Baschet? It's a fabulous water and glass instrument~ for me, in the same family as the Glass Armonica, or Hydrocrystalophone invented by Benjamin Franklin in the 1760s. The cristal Baschet is not that old tho, it was invented in the 1950s by the Baschet brothers in France. Glass rods are stroked with wet fingers to produce deep rich vibrating tones. I hope you all have a Blessed Easter, and enjoy this beautiful video~ one of my favorite French composers, Erik Satie, on an amazing French Cristal Baschet.

For Ye Visual Types......

Making Linen by Hand~

Some years ago I posted here about the long process of making linen. The other day I ran across the following video from the Monreagh Heritage & Education Centre at Carrigans Village, County Donegal in Ireland and thought all you folks would enjoy a visual to go along with my description~ because there are some things, that words just cannot express. There are a couple of differing terms in the video~ ie, what they refer to as  'Crimping', I refer to as 'Braking',  and their 'Brushing',  I refer to as ''Combing'~ but other than that, its all the same description of a long, skilled, magical  process.

Enjoy~

Back Home!

Spring in Williamsburg, Va

   I just got back Tuesday morning from a wonderful trip to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. The weather, even with the bomb cyclone, was just wonderful~ the cherry trees and Japanese Magnolias were blooming~ makes me pine for Spring.....here in southern Colorado, everything is still in a winter's coma.  I went to attend Chris Berry's 17th c raised work embroidery class 'Curious NeedleWorks'~ if you have a chance to take it, do it~ it is fabulous.  I stayed with my bff Sharon and arrived a few days early to take in Agecroft Hall and all that is 'Colonial Williamsburg'. Visiting the Historic Trades was my favorite~ I could watch them work all day long, every day...  above is a view of the back of the Governor's Palace, from the gardens.

  Of the zillions of pictures I took, this one, I think, is my favorite. There is nothing like the view thru wavy glass~ small glass panes like this were made by blowing glass into a cylinder, then cutting the ends off, cutting one side and then rolling it out flat.

 The Shoemaker was fabulous and a favorite of mine

  Another reason for getting your butt in a quick jiffy to the Dewitt Museum in Williamsburg is the 'Printed Textiles' exhibit. To say it was ultra mega extraordinarily fantabulous is an understatement. 

 Both clothing, and home furnishing printed textiles are on display~ there is no publication accompanying the exhibit, so if you want to study these pieces, you have to go in person~ and yes, take all the non flash personal use photographs you want!

 Several dolly houses are out on display as well~ the little tuck combs always a favorite of mine

 So of all the trades, if I had to pick a favorite...it wouldn't be the shoe maker's, which is strange, as many shoes as I make, and as much as I am absolutely infatuated with early shoes....nor would it be Sarah Hunter Millinery Shop....as much as I like to sew & study antique clothing.....the Tailor's was really fabulous, and came in a close second to the Wig Maker's....oh my golly. I died and went to Heaven in there! Many new techniques were learned and I have a zillion ideas sprouted in my head for dollys who simply must must must have hair!

 Chris's class was just fabulous~ it starts simply enough with detached buttonhole and before you know it, you are working up & down buttonhole, trellis, ceylon, and all sorts of knotted buttonholes~ I had worked regular detached buttonhole before, and was worried that I would get behind in my stitch samples as I have never worked any of the others before(tho I have studied them for years), but she explains them so completely, and in such a way that I think a newborn baby could work them if they could hold a needle. Because you work your own samples, you know how the stitches work, how they interact with others around them, how they look from the back and from the front, loose tension, tight tension...how they look different being worked with different threads....it was just a fabulous course and I highly recommend it to both novice as well as advanced stitchers.

  Before heading out to the airport, I stopped by the Bakery and they had just pulled out two pans of ginger cakes~ I had room enough in my purse for one piping hot bit of deliciousness.... so note for next trip...get a bigger purse.

 I wasn't even home a full day and zoomed down to Albuquerque to pick the bead palette for next year's classes at Bath Textile Summer School....yes...you read right~ class~'es'....I will be teaching a short 3 day workshop on working a little bunny in a cartouche on a ground fabric, and then another 4 day workshop on a large bust, similar to the one on my casket lid~ but this year, we will be using modern beads, so students will have the option to purchase my bead palette, or bring their own colors!

Top Panel Finished At LAST!

 5 Months of Work....

 It's official! At 12.35 pm this day, I cut the last thread on this panel and called it finished! I seems like it has taken forever to work~ I looked back in my notebook and I started it on the 18th September, so 5 months to the day it took me to start it from start to finish.  After the angels I worked both the large Tudor roses at the bottom...I used gilt milliary for the edge of the petals to give them nice sparkle, and to match the pink and gold colors on the inside of my casket.

  The cartouche came after the roses~ I finally decided to work the entire thing in loupes~ I was thinking perhaps four bow like areas of them, with flat rows of beads in between, but wanted it to look 'lush' so went all out making little beaded wire loupes for eons and eons..... 

  I am getting ready for a needlework seminar at Colonial Williamsburg this next week, so practically no time to stitch for me.... so when the power went out I threw such a fit my husband went and brought me one of his Coleman lanterns~ there was NO WAY I was going to sit in the dark and do nothing.....

 Aside from the great amount of heat it put off....it was enough light for me to work the cartouche....I spent the night hoping it would look as good in the daylight as it did in the dark.

 Once I got the cartouche finished, there was just two things left~ first to attach all the bits and bobs collected in my little box...wings, and angel sashes.... and then to make and attach the garland that goes around it

  I added steel cuts to the wings and like how they sparkle, but no too gaudy....

  Butterflies got their wings~ I like this picture because it shows how dimensional the stumpwork stitching is

This past week I worked on the twilled leaves for the garland, and today got the garland made and attached~ I left this picture big so you can click on it and enjoy all the little details!

My Flat Top Casket Progress

Working Thru....

  I havent posted any progress on my flat top casket for a while because well, there hasn't been much progress to share. I was working on the angels when my Biskie got hit by a car, and I have felt so much guilt that he should not even have been outside  ect ect...that it has been very difficult for me to even look at the angels, let alone work on them. A few minutes was all I could muster before I would get overwhelmed and need to go do something else. I have dreaded working on them....not to mention, the what seemed like zillions of feathers were terrifically boring and they just kept going on forever and ever. 

 I would make a couple of feathers, put them on...make a few more~ they are all different sizes to fit the drawing I made. Once they were on, angel finally got her hair....because I had to work the hair before I could put the head of the wings on

  Once hair was sufficiently full and flowing, I added the head of the wings to cover the bottoms of the feathers. At this point I was still dreading every bead, knowing that I had a whole second angel to work

 This was the angel I was working on at the time, so I have left a gap in her feathers, a missing one, for my precious lil guy. When I finished her feathers, I was anxious to work her hair and finish her wigs so I could just be done with them, finally.

I have a ton of work to do getting ready for next years Bath Textile Summer School, (I will be teaching two classes), so my thought train was as soon as I finished the angels, the cover was going over this panel for a while. I knew if I didnt make myself finish the angels, 10 years from now they would still be unfinished...but something unexpected happened when I got second angel done. It was like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders, and looking at my lid panel...I was excited again. There's not that much left on it actually...

 Suddenly I found myself madly pawing thru my beads looking for colors for the two large roses at the bottom of the panel, and before I knew it, I had chose two sets of colors and was enjoying trying to figure out which ones to use. My son suggested this red, which I liked, but didnt have enough beads of that color, so this petal got unpicked and I went with shades of pink to match the roses in the friezes.

Yesterday I finished one of the roses and yes, I am excited for this panel again! One more rose like this, a garland and the cartouche border and thats it~ I already have all the detached elements for the bugs finished, just have to put them on when I get the cartouche border done.