Another iris creeps in! I've just realised I didn't do any poppies in stained glass. Unfortunately the course no longer runs, but I would love to take up the hobby again.
I made the stained glass owl separately, and soldered him on once the mirror was assembled.
The 2d stained glass fits onto the special base, and there's a small lamp behind so the light shines through. Note the iris theme again!
One of the highlights of the stained glass evening classes was finishing this lampshade - with help!
This is another collage, poppies this time.
Again I used watery acrylic paint and crunched cling film for the leafy background.
The flowers and iris leaves are collage - torn glossy paper from magazines, stuck on with PVA glue, and edged with black marker pen.
A bit of a cheat to call it a painting really!
The background for this painting was done with watery acrylic and scrunched cling film. The irises were painted using artisan oil paint - it's a water-based oil paint, which dries more quickly than ordinary oils and there's no smell, plus you can wash brushes out in soap and water! All the irises I paint are based on photos, mainly from my own garden.
This is an oil painting of Whitby Harbour. I used gouache for the detail on the houses, and artisan oils for the rest ... sky, sea, boats etc. I worked from photographs, so had a few trips to Whitby, which all involved a great coffee and cake shop!
I have some limited edition prints, and some cards,for sale.
As well as more flower cards, this picture shows 2 felt flower brooches. They were made using a "donut" shape of foam, to act as the resist - stopping the 2 layers of petals from felting together.
Flopsy is from a Debbie Bliss pattern, using 100% double knit wool. She has a white pompom tail. As a twist to the pattern, I've lined the ears with pink material.
These are from the same size pattern - it just shows how wool felts at different percentages! I'm going to use them instead of Christmas Crackers and fill them with a hat, motto and small gift or sweets - but when I do more, I shall buy more Christmassy colours!
The background on these cards is watercolour paper. To achieve the look of foliage, I covered the paper with watery acrylic paint and scrunched a large piece of cling film over the top, pressing it down. When the paint was dry, I removed the cling film - some areas were coloured, but in some parts the white remained, giving a unique mottled effect.
The stems and leaves are collage, using coloured paper from glossy magazines. The flower heads were knitted using 100% wool. Some of the flower heads were then felted in the washing machine.
This is one of the larger cards I made. More poppies!
These flower pictures were made by wet felting. I did 2 layers of natural merino tops, with coloured wool for grass and leaves.Then I added iris or poppy shapes, before completing the wet felting process.
These are more needle-felted cards. You can tell I just love poppies and iris! You need to be really careful you don't stab your fingers when using the needle as it has a barb at the pointy end!
These were made using merino tops, onto a 100% wool base (bought on a roll - the equivalent, I guess, of making your own half felt). The flowers were created by needle felting - using a needle to stab the wool onto the base. You need a foam layer underneath to act as a cushion for the needle.
Each bag was knitted in one piece, beginning with a square on the base. Subsequent squares were added in rotation, using "cast-on" or "pick-up" to achieve the correct number of stitches for each square. Once knit, the bags were felted in the washing machine - it's important to use 100% wool yarn which is hand wash only! The bags shrunk by about 30%, making them fairly substantial. I lined them, added handles, fastenings, and the flower decoration on the green one.
