The Indian Bride - - Victorian Empire Bridal Neck Ruff

Victorian Empire Bridal Neck Ruff 

So far in my bridal ruffs I have concentrated on traditional english bridal themes but with this piece I have gone for an Angle Indian Victorian Empire Tribal theme in bold oranges and browns.

I have had this piece in mind for a while now and the cotton yarn was in my workroom but as soon as I saw this delicate fabric I knew I had found the right binding material to bring this idea to fruition.

The base piece is a bright and beautiful orange eco friendly cotton with a single base layer and crochet ruffles at the top and bottom.
The second layer is a big beautiful flouncy ruffled layer of delicious burnt orange spicy raw edged organza with a hand stitched looped length of sequinned thread in metallic dark brown. The third element is strips of a beautiful ethnic indian cotton print in cream with a bold orange batik print and raw enged muslin ties with larks head knots to various crochet loops at the bottom of the piece.

This collar is finished off with a beautiful handmade copper clasp with glass sees beads and has a secret golden bell on one of the fabric strips that will jingle out whenever you walk.

This piece is perfect for anything from your indian ethnic wedding to bellydancing, festivals and if ypur brave enough, everyday wear. 

Teaser - New hat designs for 2012

I do have a small range of mini crochet hats in the fascinator style but in the new year I'll be introducing a collection of victorian/romantic style hats in full size in a range of colours and themes.

Cherry fascinator

Winter Wedding Ruffs

Brides are always tempted by summer sun but a winter wedding can be just as romantic. Think pure shot silk jackets, heavy vintage lace, faux fur muffs, victorian style little leather boots, handmade gloves, silk stockings, chunky ice crystal jewellery, snowflake confetti, the list is seemingly endlesss.

To this inspiration I owe my new collection of Winter Wedding Ruffs. These ruffs all have a solid base of crochet with shell style loop ruffles and are lavishly decorated with pure white cotton, raw edged muslin, delicate ruffled fabric, organza, ribbon, tea dyed muslin, vintage lace, beaded faux pearl and chain strings,handmade copper and bead T bar clasps and all manner of beautiful things.

Introducing

Rapunzel

Grey and white crochet with white cotton, tea dyed muslin, gold organza, vintage lace and faux pearl chain. 

 The Snow Jester

Grey and white crochet with white cotton ruffle,  blue and lilac organza and muslin free form roses and broad white ribbon bow tie

 Snowflake Columbine

Grey and white crochet with delicate blue fabric, muslin, faux pearl effect beaded trim in cream and pink

These ruffs are now available on Etsy except Rapunzel which will be available from14/11/2011

Shalotte at the Queen Park Arts Centre

Shalotte is running a selling exhibition at the Queen Park Arts Centre in Aylesbury, Bucks from the 8th of Nov to the 18th. Our cabinet is in the cafe so anyone who is down that way why not pop in and see what we have to offer. We are exhibiting a selection of glass and semi precious jewellery, crochet neck ruffs, hats, scarves, art dolls and English Prim Owls.

Oxford Russian Bazaar

Oxford's Russian Bazaar  in St Michaels church was the event on yesterday morning

We got in early before it filled up.

The book stall was a mix of russian and english books and I was sorely tempted by a beautiful illustrated dictionary saints and several stunning russian language art books

Food stall with delicious take away cakes and pastries. I rather liked the thought of pumpkin and butterscotch muffins

Stall selling a mix of ethnic crafts, cards and other items

The icon stall was beautiful. We were really spoilt for choice

Mmm the hot food stand. Everything smelled utterly delicious and the ladies were lovely and chatty

We indulged in a slice of a russian honey cake called Medovie and nearly died of delight. It was about 15 layers of a light honey sponge with a cream filling, topped with a drizzle of chocolate and strawberries

These were the two lovely ladies behind the sweet and savoury stalls who served us. We also took home some fabulous dark bread that tasted of aniseed and some cheese and herb aubergine roulades

                                                                                     I got this lovely little blue glass crucifix pendant

                                                                                 

                                                   A handmade wooden spoon for dry serving as a present for my mother

                                                                          

                                                                      and a little painted leather icon for my father

Mermaid Art Doll project #6 -face update

The transfer for her face appears to have been a success. The first time it didn't work because I took the instructions too literally ' cover the image in a thick layer' I ended up with a huge blob of gunk on the fabric that peeled off. The second time I used less fluid and whilst the fabric is still slightly stiff I have managed to clear off all the paper. I now need to wait for it to dry and make her head.

Mermaid Art Doll project #6 - Possible breakthrough for her face

Now I haven't forgotten my mermaid doll but I have been struggling to get her face right. I have tried a load of the types of faces suggested by doll sites but I just can't seem to get the knack right. I am hoping that the next attempt will prove sucessful enough for me to finish her.

I have purchased a tube of Dylon image maker with the hope of sucessfully transfering a face design to fabric. I have used thE image on the right as I want to do her hair myself and last night I printed it out, lathered it in transfer fluid, placed it on the fabric and left it till this morning and am praying that it works.

I have nothad much sucess with this product before and if it doesn't work then I may have to go back to the freezer paper method.

Salamander on stone - Free machine embroidery

Having cracked the free machine stitch on my machine I have embroidered a beautiful, colourful salamander on the natural stained fabric collage.

This is my lizard simply drawn on the fabric

I started off with a dark olive green in a natural patern, covoured the rest of the fabric in grey and red but making sure I left enoughspace to show the natural colour of the tumeric dye.

Mark Making Experiments - results and follow on- Salamander on stone

These are the results of the natural mark making that I was working on over the weekend

From the left #1 apple #2 tea #3 spices

I have cut out rough circles on the apple dyed fabric around the marks made by the fruit

I have layered the apple fabric onto the tea fabric so that the darker fabric so that the darker dye shows thru and contrasts with the lighter dye. The spice fabric has been cut into a pattern matching the marks of the dye and layered on top with a single opening to show the other layers.

I have now joined the pieces with hand stitching in red,yellow,grey and orange abnd it reminde me of some kind of fire creature, a salamander or fire lizard.

One of my birthday presents was a roll of fine copper sheeting suitable for machine and hand stitching so I will either cut out a lizard in the copper or machine stitch the creature on the fabric with black and red cotton and use the copper as flames.

Faces in Free Motion

I have managed to crack Free Motion embroidery on the sewing machine. I was playing about last night with faces and whilst they do look rather gargoyle like I think they show promise.