I think I have mentioned before how much I enjoy working with tissue paper.  For 'In a Spanish Garden' I bonded the paper with PVA to a thin cotton.  I like the resulting texture so, having recently rescued more discarded tissue, I have decided to make a range of more background papers.  It is also a great technique if, like me, you find it hard to turn on the creative process sometimes after a full day at work .  It's simple and requires nothing more than the ingredients.

I use half and half PVA and water and literally paste the paper onto the background fabric, in this case some cheap calico from IKEA (it is not a tight weave so has a limited use on it's own).  In this case I left it overnight and then before walking the dog (and much to his disgust) I mixed up Fucshia and Midnight Blue procion dyes to use as inks and simply painted them on, letting them run into each other.

Luckily no one else needed the kitchen work surface! (And, to be clear, I use a torn plastic bag to cover the work surface as the PVA does not bond to it.)

This is not a big piece, but it feels as though it has taken quite a long time to finish.  In many ways July and August (so far) have been frustrating months.  There is so much going on in my 'other lives' that I have had hardly any time, and more importantly, hardly any energy to be creative.

But I did manage to get to the Festival of Quilts this weekend.  It was great to catch up with Stefanie Redfern and see her stunning, and award winning, 'book' The Stone Bird.  Unfortunately, because of the crush I was not able to take photos, but as many of my photos on the day failed to come out perhaps this is no bad thing.

Anyway, here is 'In a Spanish Garden'.  Again, this is using my favourite material of the moment, tissue paper.  It was bonded with diluted PVA to a thin cotton, then coloured using procion dyes.  The images were 'stamped' using hand made stamps and acrylic paint, some sweetie papers were collaged and then the piece was machine embroidered through a layer of synthetic organza.  Finally the beads were added by hand (I did this on holiday!).



If your are returning to this page, then I have posted a new photo as the first one was  a bit wonky, and blurred. I think this one is a bit better!

It has been a frustrating 3 weeks - the phone line went down and with it the internet, so no updating the blog.

To be fair, I did also have to go to Kent for a few days and then managed 10 glorious days in the Lake District - walking and enjoying the sun (we were so lucky - it hardly rained at all).



Here is one chilled dog, enjoying the view.

I did take a textile project with me, a small piece and I finished the beading.  I have a little bit of machine embroidery to finish and I will get it up on the site.