Studio Kit

My very first fairy! (I have the feeling there'll be more!)

From my thread painting to the fabric I made to the those little pink wings, I'm very pleased with my first effort.

You may remember I was first inspired by the androgynous fairies in Snow White And The Huntsman (example here), but then I had to make those girly wings.

Like some of the other things I've made recently, I could definitely see making more of these little fairies as part of a series - maybe even a story!

(Some day; when I've learned how to add another four hours or so to the day!)

Have a great weekend everyone - see you on Monday!

P.S. Linking up with Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday at Blossom Heart Quilts

So, you know how on Monday I said I liked that the fairies in Snow White And the Huntsman were genderless? Despite that, I couldn't help but make mine a girl. And the best way to do that, was to give her pink wings!

So I started by painting some lutradur pink and then cutting it out in wing shapes that would suit my fairy's body ...

And then pulled some mostly sheer scraps from my stash (and yes, those are some of the same scraps that I incorporated when I made my little yellow throated warbler for Spring.) You'll want to use sheer fabrics so that you get a light, feather-like, appearance at the end. If you use cotton, for instance, the wings will look to heavy to fly!

And I used the same method as I did for "Spring":

Fuse the fabric using a paper-backed fusible
peel off the paper and then cut out each "feather" individually. (I peel the paper off first because it's just WAY too hard to peel it off once they're cut; also, if you peel the paper off first, for some reason, it seems to reduce fraying of the fabric)
place the feathers in a pleasing pattern on the wing base, keeping in mind that it's the first layer. Then do your second and third layers in the same way. And bob's your uncle, you've got some wings!

Finished fairy on Friday. See you then. :)

P.S. - It's Wednesday, so I'm joining up with The Needle and Thread Network for WIP Wednesday. Come and see what other Canadian fiber art bloggers are up to!

Making something new - a little pretty that I was inspired to make by seeing Snow White And The Huntsman. If you haven't seen the movie, there's a scene in the forest where the dwarves bring her to a secret place where fairies live ...

and they're green, androngynous, and big eared. lol I liked everything about them but their big ears; especially the idea that they were humanoid but genderless, (and not the sort of oddly sexualized version of fairies that are often portrayed in movies [I'm looking at you, Disney!])

Anyway - I went with my new favourite - lutradur to make the body - first a rough sketch, and then layered it with several gradations of olive green that I mixed up; and then a coating of new-grass-green for highlights.

Then I used a leftover scrap of the brown fabric that I made from roving for "Written On The Body" (careful, that link has frontal nudity! ;) )

... and thread painted some foliage on it. (My thread painting's getting better, no?)

And here it is from the back ('cause I know some of you like to see the back.)

On Wednesday, we're making wings! See you then...

I just got notice that Written On The Body was juried into The West Tampa Centre For The Arts show entitled "Common Sense".

So excited!!!! (Details to follow!) and details of this piece can be found here

A successful conclusion!

To those of you who have joined me recently - this saga began several months ago (posts are here, here, here, here, here, here and here - I TOLD you it was a saga! *w*) and I simply had to make this piece if only to finally have closure. lol

The piece is based on the very last "scene" from the Grimm fairy tale, "The Musicians of Bremen", a fairy tale I enjoyed very much as a child - likely for its themes of justice and redemption. :)

The piece as a whole is 8 x 10 inches so each of these animals is wee - the Donkey being the biggest at a grandiose 1 inch tall. Each individual piece of each animal is made of a piece of fused fabric...

As are their instruments, the stones in the path,

and the leaves on the trees.

I'm really pleased to have this done and some day I'm going to re-visit it - by illustrating the rest of the story!

But in the meantime, I've got other irons in the fire - stay tuned for the beginnings of new work on Monday.

Have a great weekend!

Anybody NOT from Eastern Canada familiar with "begin'igin"? (It means, "begin, again".) ;)

So, remember my whole resin gone wrong experiment?

Well, I'm not trying it again - at least, not yet! *w* But I AM re-making that Bremen piece which was the subject of that debacle!

So, I started with the same silk floral as the background fabric - I had just enough to piece together a background (!) and then I commenced to cutting out my house, my one billion teeny tiny leaves and my trees.

As you can see, it does look at bit different than the original - but this time I free-hand cut with the old in front of me, rather than drawing patterns on the paper back of the fused material and cutting them out that way (I can't shake the thought somehow that it's damaging my scissors to do that!)

And I'm including this old photo just for fun.