Woodland: inspired beauty, mystery and love of nature

It is that time of the year again. The boots are coming out with the soft woollens and cosy knits. I have to admit I love this time of year. I often find renewed energy and focus to buckle down on projects that perhaps I have neglected to the warm sun and light evenings.

Is it because of the colors I see in nature that I tend to turn my wardrobe into browns and reds? I cannot really say, but I find even in my weaving I want bold rich earthy tones.

 

This year I have found myself thinking more of the woodland theme and so I have made two particular pieces which reflect my love of the woods and also the mystery and romance it still holds for me.

The first is a badger inspired hooded scarf.

This hand woven hooded scarf is made from wool and alpaca mixed yarns in stripes of grey, black and cream. It is very cosy and soft because of the alpaca wool mix. In addition the hood is lined for extra comfort with lovely, soft, black jersey knit fabric to help combat cold. The lining also adds more 'structure' to the hood so that it gathers nicely when down and it holds shape when up. To the ‘brim’ of the hood has been added another layer of stiffened liner so that it does not fall and keeps its shape. All of the features to the hood makes it a little more 'damp proof’ for British Winters and makes it a unique piece to add to your wardrobe.
I am donating 10% from the sale of this scarf to stop the badger culls in the UK.
I really wanted to capture a bit of the spirit of the badger in this piece. I kept thinking of something which could be practically worn, but would also be a good representation of this popular totem animal.

The second is a Little Red Riding Hood inspired hooded scarf.

This handwoven hooded scarf is made from cotton and wool in 4 shades of brilliant red. The dark red wool is vintage, hand-spun wool from a lovely batch I purchased from and estate sale a number of years back; it has an amazing deep scarlet color and lovely roughly hewn texture while keeping the softness of wool. I added 3 cotton yarns to the mix in additional shades of red ranging from fiery to soft because I wanted the fabric to have the rich yet varied look of a garment woven a long time ago. I really wanted to create a practical yet romantic rendition of a hood for Little Red Riding Hood.
The hood is lined for extra comfort with lovely, soft, deep red jersey knit fabric to help combat cold. The lining also adds more 'structure' to the oversized hood so that it gathers nicely when down and it holds shape when up. The ‘brim’ of the hood has been stiffened with another liner so that it does not fall and keeps its swooping shape. 
I added a little silver wolf charm hanging from the tassel in the back as a small detail to round the piece off and add to the romance of this piece. I again wanted to have a piece which really is practical and yet ultimately is closely tied to the magic and mystery of the fairytale.

Both pieces can be found in my Etsy shop or in a special showcase page on FB. 

Inspired by something you have seen? Message me on FaceBook.

Beauty's Rose a weaving project for Stevie Nicks

A dear friend brought to my attention recently a competition on Talent House (collective of artists and competitions for artists to show off their work). The competition was to design a shawl for Stevie Nicks. Never have I been more excited to start a project!  So I did some research and pinned some ideas on Pinterest. Then I got going.

After I wove the main piece of the sample I decided on I took it off the loom and started planning out the details of the embellishments I planned on making to the main body of the scarf.

lace roses I tried out to see if I would like them

I planned one thing and then another... then tried something else and then something else again...
Time was getting short and finally I changed my mind one last time and decided to embroider using stumpwork techniques (which was nearly back to my original plan of needlelace work).

From there is all started falling into place.

These are so picture of the finished sample:

The following is the write up I did for the piece:

Beauty’s Rose

This shawl is inspired by fairy tales, dreams and enchantment. I imagined this piece after reading how much Stevie Nicks was inspired by fairy tales. I decided to take our common love of the tales and create a unique piece using my additional passion for traditional cottage crafts like weaving and embroidery, which often play an important role in fairy tales.
Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite stories as I love the romance and purity of the message in the story. The idea that beauty can be found in everything really was a theme I took to heart.
The shawl catches the dark mystery of Beast in the handwoven black cotton threads. The soft and voluptuous threads are woven in stripes of alternating weaves. In between the woven horizontal stripes the threads are loose and open, this gives the shawl freedom of movement. Not only does the piece flutter like a crow’s wing, but the occasional glimpse of flesh (or color) as sections open and whisper across the arm and back hints of a great secret beneath.
The delicate beauty of the rose Beauty requested from her father in the fairytale has been recreated and hand detailed with rich deep red and green embroidery threads. The vibrant lush colors of the embroidered roses and leaves are the visual foil to the darkness of the shawl. They soften the darkness while making it all that much more imposing.

As a whole the piece weaves a picture of romance and love and  which I think is what Stevie Nicks embodies.

The piece if created will be 18” x 66” woven in black cotton with horizontal woven stripes alternating with ‘open’ sections of vertical threads. There will be three lines of hand embroidery running the length of the 66 inches: one half inch line of rose buds and vine; and two one-inch wide lines of roses and vine with leaves.

If you'd like to vote for my submission and to see the other submissions please do.

Other pieces of my finished work can be found in my Etsy shop or join me on FB if you want a chat or to see more process photos.

Woven hearts: A Simple to Elegant weaving project to do without a loom

Woven hearts are easy to make and can be simple to more complicated or 'grown up' depending on the time and effort you put into them.

to be auctioned for the British Heart Foundation Feb 5th

Using pure wool felt and a little embroidery I turned this woven heart into a dainty hanging ornament perfect for gift giving on Valentine’s Day or even Mother’s Day

3 felt hearts I made got turned into a coin purse, a cute dressing up handbag and a hand basket for sweets or toys.

What you will need:

• Pencil or fabric chalk or felt tip pen for tracing and making light marks
• Scissors
• Paper pattern either printed or self made *see footnotes on the pattern for details on how to make your own the graph paper shown is for making your own pattern.
• Material you’re making your heart out of paper, felt, fabric (the fabric needs to have interfacing on the back to help stiffen a little and prevent too much fraying), etc.

*if doing this with younger children it’s easiest to use felt or thick paper like mulberry paper because it bends and moves easily*

First copy/ print and cut out the pattern or make your own. (See end of tutorial for pattern)
Trace the pattern onto each material you wish to cut out i.e. paper, fabric, felt. Use pattern to cut your material You will need two for each heart.
Fold the pieces in half so the top of each arch matches the top of the other.
Refold so that the ‘inside’ is outside. I.e. any pattern you want is on the inside of the heart. This is so all marks you make are on the inside of the finished product.
this way:	not this way:
Draw a very faint line across the bottom of the arch using the other half of the heart as a guide.
Decide how wide and how many strips you want. You may have 2 to 201 stripes (obviously the wider the strips the easier it is to weave them)
Cut the strips from the fold up to the lightly penciled line at the bottom of the arch. *Remember go just a little beyond your lightly pencilled line to allow for the bending and filling of the paper*
Refold the arches so that the pencilled lines are all back on the inside and the pattern you want is on the outside.
Weave the strips together as follows:	*Remember when weaving the strips, they need to go through and around the loops of the other side not just over and under as in traditional weaving because you are weaving a 3D item/ open pocket*
Start with the first looped strip on the right half of the heart. Put loop 1 through loop A then put loop 1 around loop B then through loop C then put loop 1 around loop D and through...etc until you get to the end of the strips on the left half.
Push the woven piece all the way toward the top of the heart (toward the arch)
The second looped strip on the right will be done as follows: Loop 2 around loop A then through loop B then around loop C and through loop D etc. Push all the way to the top against loop 1. Third looped strip will be done same as first.

Fourth will be the same as the second.

Continue in the same way, alternating the through and around until you finish weaving all the strips into each other.

With the addition of a little paper handle the heart then turns into a beautiful hanging hand basket for decorating or gift giving.

Here is the pattern for the hearts

Blow up this image until it fits nicely on an A4 or letter sized paper to print it off.

Alternately, make your own using the guidelines and tips below:

To see loom woven items visit me at LoomyBin or my Etsy shop. Also catch up with me on Twitter (BethatLoomybin) or Instagram (bethatloomy).

Please join us for the auction for the British Heart Foundation

Busy days busy nights: Summer fun

  I've been so busy with Summery fun and working on creating for a market I'm having that I've not had much time for blogging. I thought I'd give you a quick overview of what's been going on:

Walks in the city (Mermaid Quay)

Lots of outdoor walks

Enjoying the fresh morning dew

Enjoying nature

Seeing new things

Delighting in the amazingly simple and fresh

Spending time with my navigator

Revelling in design

And then I've been working hard on my weaving and creating:

Beads and weaving bits

New scarves woven

Making messes

Finishing off  projects I've been longing to do for ages

Weaving fresh designs for summer

Enjoying colors and shape

Finally getting to the pile of sewing which has been hanging over me head

Concentrating on detail

Creating new designs

Having a few mishaps

Loving the time I've taken to make and create simple things.

 If you'd like to see more of my creations check out LoomyBin. 

I've got an online market going on until Sunday.