Hoops for sale ...

Having a bit of a clearout here at planetmithi headquarters, and have put the original Meta- embroidery hoops on sale at etsy... grab the originals while you can!!!

Help Cafe Kino by buying ART!!!

Cafe Kino is a gorgeous little independant co-op cafe in Stoke's Croft, Bristol - conveniently placed within stumbling distance of the ultra fabulous Here Gallery (which also has a show opening tonight) and the uber querky Cube Cinema. Some local artists (including me and Milla and Claire and other exciting peoples) have work on show (and sale) there from today till 13th December. A percentage of the sales go towards supporting the cafe - "cafe kino is a not-for-profit co-operative owned and operated by its' workers and run in part by volunteers. We strive to create a viable business which is open, fair and mutually supportive of all those with whom we are associated" ...how could you not want to support that??!!??

So, if you want to get your hands on any of my stitch'n'bitch inspired hoops - I've got all 6 on sale there ... grab yourself an early Christmas goodie whilst helping keep Kino afloat!

And Craft Magazine Blog too!

Remember me and Whip Up yesterday?


Well it appears the story's filtered through to the Craft Mag blog too ... (Thank you lil'sis Tiara for spotting that!)

Bizarrely, this project was the one that I got the lowest marks for this year!!!

Missed ...

Just tidying up this last semester's work when I realised that there's a few bits I hadn't managed to upload to the blog:

Did another one of these (so theres five in the set)

Also, as some homework for the life painting sessions, we had to take a photo, and using a black and white version of it as tonal reference, do a high key and low key version of it.

Low key

High key

The idea being that after that we could black and white photocopy the two paintings to see if we managed to get the tones right - I didn't get them exactly (especially the background area) but did better on the hands. This is what the two look like (left low key, right high key):

I think this is the last of this year's work (apart from some random sketches)... Phew! What a year of learning ... and my 198th post! Maybe I should do something special for the 200th .... hmmm....

Look out for a feature on this year's graduating class from UWE illustration in the next few days :)

Image and Obs update 2

I also did a set of embroidery hoops as my 'body of work' for this module:













I contemplated some sewn text and also cutting the fabric so only the bit IN the hoop was there - but was advised against it by a couple of people who saw them ... I still think there's something missing, but I'm handing them in this way - and will think about how to make them better over summer ...

Edit July 08 - Hello to everyone who's come here via Whip up and Craft Mag's Blog and have been leaving lovely comments :) If you follow the "embroidery" label, you'll get to see a couple more sewing based things...
Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!

Images and Obs update 1

Remember these hands? I redid all the blue ones in thread, on the sewing machine (hand cranking!), on some organza. Wish they had been a bit sheer-er ... but this was the best I could get. I quite like how 'loop-y' the sewing is.

Knit Green Purl Red

Just playing from some of my stitch'n'bitch refernce photos ...

Still stitchin' ...

Are you bored of them yet? Sorry for the quality - the pencil drawings don't scan very well - And I seem to have lots of spots (scanner artifacts)... Have also started thinking about what I might actually DO with all these drawings ... but it's still in planning/testing phase ...

More crafting hands...

Remember this? Well we've just started a module called "Image and observation" during which we have to do a sustained amount of drawing at a location or event of our choice. The tutor liked the drawings I did the last time and suggested I take them on further by visiting more stitch'n'bitches and doing more. So I've located not just my local stitch'n'bitch, but another three within the city that I can go and visit in the next month or so. Not sure where I'm going with these drawings, hopefully that'll suggest itself as I go along ...

Crafting hands

So there you have it, these are the originals from which the final drawing was done. Sorry for the lightness - they were done with quite hard pencils on an off-white cartridge paper sketchbook.

Thank you to everyone who has been leaving me messages about sewing-drawing. It appears I have the special plate necessary to be able to do this on our sewing machine, and I've also invested in some embroidery hoops ... really excited about having a go!

HANDcrafted

So this is my response to last Thursday's homework. I sat down and drew lots of crafting people and hands based on the photos I'd taken on Monday night at the stitch'n'bitch group, and was playing around with the hands and have come up with what you see above. I was trying to give it the feeling of a lot of activity - because, honestly, that IS what it looked like - a flurry of active hands making things! If you look carefully there is a cutter, two knitters, and three crocheters ... (click on the picture to enlarge to a better view). I quite like how the original sketches came out as well but I haven't managed to take decent scans of them - they are quite light, having been done with a 3H pencil on some off-white paper. Sunshine says there is a possibility that he can take photographs, although that has to wait till daylight ... so I'll try and upload some photos tomorrow of the original drawings.

My intention had also been to make a kind of poster-thing to advertise the group; using fabric and sewing as part of the drawing - didn't have time to do that, but I think that is definitely something I'm going to have go at over Easter. Anyone out there can give me tips on freehand sewing machine drawing?

EDIT: I think I wasn't very clear with my question (thank you for your drawing of a sewing machine though Shirley!). I have my own sewing machine (well, I have Sunshine's one). I would like to learn how to 'draw' using a sewing machine - freehand stitching I think its called? Like these three illustrators do. The mobile I received as part of the swap had some too - maybe I should ask its maker for some tips...

(Not so) creative crocheting

The lovely Milla put me on to this ... A new Stitch'n'bitch group round the corner form where I live! And there I learnt to CROCHET!!!

Notice the bad crocheting at the bottom (beginning of the evening) and better at the top (end of the night).

I learnt from this lovely lady called Amy who is a GREAT teacher, and she even loaned me her wool and needle so I can keep practising for the next month till the next stitch'n'bitch.


I'm SO glad I went - I'd been cranky at home all day yesterday - I think I'm coming down with something - feeling very frustrated juggling lots of different projects and not seeming to get anywhere with any of them ... blah blah blah ... This was SUCH the lovely thing to do ... Meet local crafting ladies and do a bit of crafting and socialising. I'd actually gone in with my sketch book so I could draw people and then use it to do something for my drawing in location homework. But its difficult to draw people's hands moving so fast! So I took lots of photos instead and may do something with those ... and I learnt to crochet! Here's the proof (notice open sketchbook in the background):


There was all sorts going on - crocheting, knitting, cutting, gluing, sewing, etc etc ... pictures here of you have a facebook account. Come along next month!