The Princess And The Toad Cowl - WIP Pics

This is the first work in progress pic of the decoration of the piece. I have ruffled some light green lace to the bottom of the cowl and layered it with some ruffled old gold tulle. I was going to use two foam balls wrapped in gold cloth hanging on the ends of the pull but I can't find any fabric that looks the way I want it. I could wrap them in tulle but its not going to cover the white of the balls enough



I have found a fabulous tutorial for making organza water lilies but I won't be putting them on the piece I shall be making them large and scattering them all around the ground when I photograph the piece. I'm also a collector of frog prince sculptures so I'm going to have either my favourite wirework frog or my little green prince balancing on the hand of my model.

Now to stitch the ruffles to the cowl.

Felted Cowl - the princess and the toad

You know what, I've just taken the cowl out of the machine and it looks good but I have decided not to go with the mermaid theme but to go with something completely different.

I'm currently listening to Emily Loizeau's cd Pays Savauge (I recommend it simply for the photographs, you get a wonderful french boho collection with a bearded lady,dandies, silk and furs, long skirts and tousled curls, top hats and horns) and I fell in love with the mix of languages and troubadourish style that echos through the entire album.

She has a wonderful song on there called "The Princess And The Toad" and it made me totally change my plans for this cowl. I'll still be decorating it with muslin but this will be tea stained and ruffled with gold tulle, old lace, pearls and water lillies and the loop pull will have two gold balls on the end to represent the ball that the princess lost in the palace pond which lead to the story itself.

I'll post some images from the album so you can see what has inspired me so much

Beauty and The Beast - Jewellery and Objets dArt by Anna Tham - and the importance of Information in exhibits

Yesterday I went to a beautiful jewellery exhibition/display by Anna Tham in Oxford, she makes Jewellery and Objets d'Art from thing she finds and vintage jewellery.

The piece themselves are stunning, really medieval and chunky and it was a joy to wonder around and examine the pieces.

The only thing I found dissatisfying was the complete lack of information. I only found out about the exhibit when I was looking on a local whats on page it was in The Vaults Cafe in town and when we got there there was no poster, no notices, no nothing to tell that there was something on. We spent 10 minutes wandering around the complex trying to find it untill we went into the cafe to ask and saw the display cases on the wall.

I wanted to know more about the artist, where she came from, her ideas, what she had done before but apart from a couple of postcards firmly stuck to the wall there was nothing, no cards, leaflets, bio or even names to the pieces. I know bios and things are a pain to write out, I've done enough to know that but some information is important, you can't just pop things in a case and leave them to do all the work.

Anyway enough with the rant, I'll move on to the pieces.

I'd love to know where she finds 6 matching pieces out of the blue like that as well.

Gold bull's head with rhinestones





Panthers painted black with gold and gem collars





White and gold Bumblebee necklace/choker. I adore bumblebees.





Gold bumblebee necklace





Blue and gold lion's head choker. Blue and Gold is my favourite colour mix




Stunning elephant piece in blue and gold with gems. I've got such a soft spot for this piece.






Child's toy dinosours with painted gold accents



Child's toy snake with a gold collar. I simply love this, I'm going to make one next time I go to a car boot



It was stunning but deserved more advertising, more information.

Her website is http://www.annatham.com/ and is coming soon.

Here are some more links to information on the web

Previous Exhibitions

Daily Info

This Is Bath