Fully vaccinated

As of today, we all have our full two jabs of vaccine. Just 2 more weeks, to wait while they reach their full protection, and we’ll be able to actually go out! (let’s be honest, a thrift store trip will probably be first)

Small gallery art wall

I’ve already talked about finishing a gallery on one of the sunroom walls but wanted to show the smaller art collage in the entrance-way.

It’s a small space, and a really varied mix of items, but by staying with a consistent colour palette, it feels very cohesive.

The repetition of circles in many of the pieces also ties it together.

This was another case where I used paper templates to get the placements right but the space is small enough I could have gotten away with laying it all out on a floor or table instead. (or even just holding up the last few pieces in place before putting up the hangers) I’d been making a ton of the templates so it was just as easy to carry them over to this wall and it is the cleanest method. (the smaller sizes meant I was able to reuse the paper pieces from the larger wall, after it was done, to make most of these templates)

Starting on sewing fabric scrap insects

An earlier project of mine was to convert a velvet jacket into a doublet. It was fun, and I’m happy with how it came out, but I felt it could use some additional decorations.

There were a few scraps of the green velvet from the base jacket and the bigger ones were set aside for a hat. That left a few smaller bits.

I’ve never watched Game of Thrones, but the incredible embroidery work that Michele Carragher did for it’s costumes has been all over my art feeds for years. She’s been wonderfully open about her process and so I decided to try making some fabric bugs of my own.

This is the first one. I didn’t have too much of a clear idea how I wanted to start, so just made a basic body.

Eventually, I figured out some wings I thought worked, even if they aren’t exactly anything like a real insect. (the ones on it were the third set I made since the first two just weren’t right. Those sets became the guides for the next pair of bugs)

Once the wings were on, it was all about using different materials to decorate the body. The stash has all sorts of vintage beads and embellishments so there was lots to choose from. I used some of the goldwork passing as well, both on the wings and to divide the abdomen.

It’s had a pin backing sewn to it and is ready to wear!

A fast fandom ornament

I posted about my Winter Soldier jacket yesterday and decided to stay with the Bucky Barnes theme and show off a fun little decoration. I love reading fanfiction and a couple of years ago, I was one of the backers for a Stucky (Steve/Bucky) anthology, Not Without You. It was fully funded on Kickstarter and came with all these great bonus items. One of which was a cute little sticker.

There were a few clear glass ornaments in the stash, waiting for use, and one was a perfect size for the sticker. A bit of wire was run through the top to hang it in the centre of the ball.

Some tiny, 3D confetti-like stars and heart shapes were also in the stash. They were a mix of colours but I was able to sort them and take all the ones that matched the sticker art. They were added to the bottom and that was it!

A fast and easy way to make a fun little bit of fandom shipping to personalize a tree. (or have out all the time, if you want)

Real leather Winter Soldier, plus-sized jacket

Like a big chunk of MCU fans, I love the character of Bucky Barnes. Geekery love, for me, generally translates into crafting and I’ve altered quite a number of bears into the Winter Soldier over the years.

While they were fun, once I got into altering leather jackets, I had to do one for him.

I actually started two, but this is the only one that’s finished so far.

I’ve seen a number of commercial version that were either all fabric/vinyl with a similar weight printed shiny fabric for the metal arm or they were leather except for arm, which was again, shiny fabric. I can’t say I liked either option and the fabric sleeves on leather looked really bad. I wanted to make a version that was fully leather but still looked closer to the screen arm.

The method I decided to use was to cut pieces to echo the arm plates design and sew them together with a bit of visible overlap.

After picking a suitable black leather jacket, (and a second smaller one that would be a leather donor) the lining was taken out and the left sleeve was removed.

I opened up the sleeve and used it to make a pattern. That pattern was reshaped a bit because the metal arm is slimmer than the right jacket sleeve and I wanted to make that part of the silhouette. Then I sketched out how I would divide up the arm into the plates. The great number of little Buckybear arms I’d quilted plate designs into meant this was familiar work.

The plate pattern pieces were all numbered and I made a guide so I wouldn’t lose track of the layout. As the pieces were cut from the donor jacket, they were also numbered in chalk on their backs. The pieces were painted in silver and then sewn into the sleeve. The red star is also leather and it was sewn down last, before the sleeve was closed up and reattached to the base jacket.

The main jacket had it’s collar altered to look more like the screen version. Strips were cut from the donor and used to make decorative accents for the front that look like the strapping on the screen jacket.

Once it was all together, the lining was put back in and the front buttons were updated to complete the transformation!

Hanging stained glass

Another of the cases where I needed to use creative problem solving with home decor.

My aunts make beautiful stained glass and had made a large panel with iris flowers for my mother. The problem was that it was just a bit bigger than the windows.

All the house windows are surrounded with an wide, ornate moulding so simply hanging it flush with the outer edge wasn’t a possible fix.

Putting in a pair of hooks, above the top of the moulding would work, but it was going to be a bit unsightly so we tucked it away until we figured out a better solution.

The answer came to me when we were reviewing some of the older framing supplies. I’d had a pair of small valances made from frame moulding that I’d held onto for years. They were display samples I’d bought when a shop I’d worked for closed.

They were too small to work for curtains in the house so they’d been put away and mostly forgotten about.

After some measuring, we realized they would work for the stained glass.

It’s a simple fix. The valance is hung above the edge of the window moulding. A pair of hanging hooks were screwed into the bottom, an inch+ out from the edge and the chain of the glass was hooked over them so the glass panel is held out from the moulding and covers the top of the window.

A bit of a convoluted solution but it works and we’re so happy to have it up!

finding golden treasure

My art supply stash is…large, but that doesn’t mean I can’t still look! The hunting options have been severely curtailed in the past year, but a few still remained.

Mostly we’ve been limiting ourselves to online auctions. We’re lucky in that the Stratford area has several good auction houses that carry a pretty wide range of items. Not being able to review things in person has made it much harder but sometimes we’ve still been able to make a few winning gambles.

One of the more niche ones was a large lot of goldwork supplies. There was a box full of spools of (mostly) what is called “gold passing”. It’s thread that has been wrapped in a very thin layer of metal foil. There are variable levels of quality and thickness that it’s made in and it’s used to create ornate, often raised embellishments on fabric. One of the quality aspects is based on the percentage of actual gold in the metal foil! The use of real gold is how the colour and brightness is maintained.

The type we have is typically sold by the metre so 10 spools of it is an insanely good score! (and that’s not getting into the the even higher grade bundle of cording)

We’re fairly sure the person who sold it might have been planning to do some sort historical military reproduction but never got around to it.

The same lot also had a large number of what appear to be thick silk threads in a range of bright colours. They could be older and some have discoloured a bit on their outsides, but they are fine below the surface layer.

I’ve only dabbled a bit in embroidery and beaded embellishments so I’m having a bit of a learning curve but I’m excited to try something new!

an ornamental raspberry

We love raspberries here and a couple of years ago I added one more type. It’s an ornamental so the fruit are negligible but it’s super easy to grow, (pretty much borderline-a-weed level) and it doesn’t much care about the quality of the ground.

The flowers are lovely and it has a long period of flowering. One aspect of keeping the fruit production up is making sure there is lots of food for our pollinators so low-maintenance flowers are helpful.

They got put in, in front for the house fence. This is the toughest spot we have for plants due to the winter snow clearing so I’m just happy to have something that can both survive there and still help out the rest of the garden. Pretty flowers and a tiny bit of fruit is a great bonus!

Wings and a corkscrew…

Sometimes, when doing a group of themed pieces, ones will get done just because they make me smile. I was going through my supplies and when I found this tiny corkscrew, I knew it had to become one of the Good Omens pieces. I kept the rest of the necklace very simple and kept it right in the center since it does sum up a chunk of their relationship!

Brown velvet steampunk pins

One of the most strongly Steampunk groups of my small “medal” pins. I think they work well as a cluster. It was fun to try different ways of ending the brown velvet ribbon that is the base for them all.