New Moths & a Giveaway!!!

Hi all, theres been a few more moths flying off my sewing machine this week!
I'm really enjoying these stitches they seem to be flowing very nicely, I will be  exploring some more next week and maybe need to get myself some new threads in all different shades - of browns of course...my old fear of color still looms large!

 I have noticed that I now have 100 lovely people following this blog, which is very exciting from me, so to celebrate Im going to give away one of these moths to a lucky name pulled out of a hat (or teapot)!

The piece I'm going to giveaway is the one in the picture just above, to be in with a chance simply leave me comment below and on Tuesday 10th August at 10pm UK time I will put all the names in a hat and pick one (please make sure I have a way of contacting you) as a way of spreading the word if you tweet or mention this give away in your blog I will add your name twice to the hat, Just let me know if you have done thisxxxx

I shall be putting the other 2 moths & any more that fly out of my machine in my shop ASAP  www.etsy.com/shop/jennymccabe please check it out xxx

finished Moth

Just finished ! my first stitched moth xxxx

more felting experiments

Another felting experiment, just playing with mixing machine and hand embroidery with the needle felting. Im quite liking it.
Ive had a rubbish week with no time to get anything started, I have a list as long as my arm to get on with! tomorrow is the day for me, lets hope I wake up with bags of energy!!

got the blues!

Im having the biggest wobble of my recent practice! I really dont like my work! I dont like color and Im using colors! I love the process of natural dyeing but I dont like working with color in my art, I like browns and blacks ! maybe Im not doing enough drawing.
I know people really like the birds and thats lovely and I wish I could really enjoy them too.
I made a piece yesterday and when Id finished I just hated it!! it was a scale I havent worked on for a while and that may have added to the shock but mainly I think its the colors, I must try and work with colors I like rather than try to be accurate to the colors of the birds! I need to get some brown birds started!
Hopefully Im just having a little wobble and will wake up very soon and think 'what was I worried about they are all lovely!'
(I am thinking of a series of dead bird pictures as a cathartic exercise to say good bye to the birds!)
here is the work I made yesterday.

I really prefer the back of the canvas!

sorry to whinge! Im sure Ill be brighter in a few days, not really sure whats the matter. Art wise I need to play more and stop worrying, I do put to much presure on myself to complete works and have finished ideas in the few hours a week I get to do stuff!!!.
Im thinking of having a give away again very soon maybe that will be a good start to cheer me up!
xx jenny

a few more swallows

 

Just a quick post with a little sketch from yesterday evening, working towards a bigger piece with a few different swallows in I wanted to test this idea out first. xxx

summer evening visitors

A few more bird embroideries popped out of me today, a new chaffinch, a Long tailed tit and a house sparrow.
I thought that was it for today but early evening my hubby, son & I went for a walk by the canal, there was loads of swallow action over the water, diving and swooping really fast to catch the bugs! Joe said they looked like X-Wing fighters! so we all made starwars noises as a soundtrack to their busy hunting! When I got home I was inspired to add some summer visitors to me garden bird collection.
I have been very short of the color brown for these bird embroideries so the other day I prepared and dyed a few pieces of silk with tea & coffee! the tea on Iron mordanted silk produced the dark gray you can see on the flying swallow above! and on alum mordented silk tea made a kind of weak tea color!! the coffee on iron mordented silk made green!such fun
Its half term here this coming week so not sure how much time Ill have in studio but have ever intention to carry on making a few more garden birds!
have a wonderful weekend everyone xxx

a couple of new birds

Just a quicky this morning to share a couple of new birds that arrived from my sewing machine today.

Garden birds

Had a hard end to last week in my head! very lost with the direction of my work, all felt to bitty for my liking. Ive had a few 'off the wall' ideas which Ive noted down and that fired me up a little but still current things felt lost! UNTIL I returned to what I love best of all, British garden birds! a poster in my sons room reminded me to re focus on whats right under my nose, my embroideries with birds have so much more potenial and there so much more to try out ! and now of course I have an ever growing supply of naturally dyed bits of silk and cotton! put 2 & 2 together and you get garden birds ( if your me!)

 details of garden bird stitches, more on my flickr page

I plan to make all of the common british garden birds and maybe a few summer visitors.
At the moment they arent framed, Ive stretched them in hoops and that looks good but I would like to play with framing them in other ways and see if I can make a coherent series from them! maybe to try and show somewhere? maybe not. I also like the idea of a huge flock piece ? so we will see.
but the fire is back in my belly so I'd better just keep on !!

Oh my messy head!

Ok this picture says it all at the moment!! my head is as messy as my studio!!!! I just cant focus on one thing, I have so many half finished/half started things on the go, Im enjoying most of the things Im working on but lost in the middle of it all!!!!!
I need to calm down and finish some things and wait for the connections to become clear. Im finding that easier to say than do.

On a calmer note I have finished 2 pieces that I would like to share.
first is a machine stitched piece I started a few weeks ago and was unsure about it until my daughter said she loved it, I have finished it for her and she now has it on her bedroom wall (cue surges of pride & pleasure from me - my biggest critic likes something Ive made ! yippee)

The second piece is one of the slow stitched patchworks I started the other day. Im seeing these as mini samplers for the natural dyeing I have been doing and Im enjoying the slow stitching of an evening in front of Tele.

A few more of these will appear over the next few days and one large piece will be developing more slowly, Im working on a patch as and when the mood takes me towards a large patch work piece.

I hope tomorrow brings me some calm creating and maybe some focus and confidence.....please...

Thanks as always for all you kind and encouraging comments

hope all are well xxxx

Im in print!!

I feel a little shy about this but Im in print!! a tutorial about my owl brooches.
I feel a little funny about it because Im not sure tutorials are the right thing to do ( feels like trade secrets) but then I like the fact people may be inspired to have a go . I am really pleased to see my stuff in a magazine. My mum is very pleased and thats a great thing!!
Sew hip is a UK based magazine full of craft projects on the shelves in most good news agents!
Ive been working hard on some more of the hooped ladies over the last few days, I will post some pics tomorrow  xxxx

Give away!

Ok I think its time I did a give away!

I hope you will all be interested in the chance to have a piece of my work for free!
Ive decided to offer one of my new pieces of hooped embroiderys.

she is 6" and made of natural dyed fabrics and machine embroidery and her name is Maggie.

I will draw a name out of a hat on MONDAY 26th APRIL at 10 am UK time and post it straight to the winner.

In order to be part of the draw and so I can get to know you all better,  I would like you to answer one question  " what drives you to create your artworks?"

Just put your answer and your name in a comment to this post by monday 10am and who ever is drawn I will contact you for your address right away.

Im also noticing that a tradition of offering an extra chance to win for people who tweet, blog or facebook about the give away, just mention in the comment that you have done this and Ill put your name in twice!

Im really looking forward to all your answers and I promise I will answer the question myself on monday morning at the end of the draw!

loads of dyes started here today will post soon with picture and process!!

thanks again for all  your supportive comments here and on flickr, I have lovely cyber friends xx

(p.s dont forget to tell all your friends xx)

new Hoop framed works

 I have been so busy while my lot have been away (they are back today! yeah!)

I had somewhat of a revelation on sunday! I heard that an exhibition I really wanted to see was closing that day and seeing as I was minus family I jumped on a train to manchester to go have a look.

Manchester city art gallery is a wonderful place with a great permanent collection full of some victorian gems! I went to see the Ron Mueck pieces that were finishing that day, just 3 peices but they have to be seen in the flesh to be appreciated ! I knew that if I made the effort to go see the mueck work i would also get the chance to go spend some time with the pre raphaelite work that I have always love since I was a very little girl.

Muecks work was amazing the scale is staggering and the detail breath taking well worth running to see. But it was in the victorian paintings section that I had my revelation. I have alway loved the pre raphaelite's work particually Rossetti and Burne Jones but never really learnt much about them or the symbolism they used, I just responded instinctively, they are beautiful pictures of beautiful women with beautiful fabrics and nature all around them. I realised that the way i try to draw faces has a look of Rossetti and Burne Jones! by no way do I do it as well as them, its more of a style , the shape of eyes and lips and noses, I was so pleased to notice the conetion, I really gave me the confidence I had been lacking to just draw the way that comes naturally and not change , I spend time in fornt of a few of the painting I love drawing they faces and trying to understand how they structure the whole painting. A wonderful task and one I think I need to do much more of.

Anyway before going to Manchester, I had ideas for hoop framed embroiderd drawings of ladies with owls but wasn't sure how they should look and was doubting my drawing style. after the revelation I found the confidence to just go for it, I looked at some of the poses from the paintings and used those within the work, I am over the moon with the finished pieces. I need to try lots more ideas using my new found confidence now ! see what you think, theres more pics on my flickr page if you like what you see. I now have to concider whether I want to put them in my shop or not yet??

sketches and new doll!

Here are some sketch book pages I promised a while ago they were the start of ideas for possible dolls or embroidered works I wanted to share now because I have finished the doll that developed from here! she dosent have a name yet and her owl isnt quite finished but her she is!

slow stitching

As its the Easter holidays I haven't had as much time as Id like in my studio this week, and when I have Ive just been finishing off a few more brooches for my shop.

Its been a nice week with the family all around, but a little unstructured which has left me a bit flity- by which i mean I'm not sure what I should be doing and Ive been pacing a lot ! to calm my mind I decided a bit of hand stitching would be good therapy. I have all these lovely shades of naturally dyes muslin's and have wanted to use them for a while. I also have been thinking about the dresses for the dolls Ive been making a lot and liked the idea of vintage pages under fabric, this was a good time to experiment.  As I began working the holes revealing certain words just developed and I love this idea! The bottom of the piece has  a ordinance survey map under it, another idea I want to take further.
A very satisfying project to calm my busy mind.

My lot are away from Saturday for a few days, Im secretly really looking forward to some peace and time to just make all day without having to stop to make lunch and tea and bedtimes!!!! guilty pleasures! They will be having a nice time though with the grandma in Suffolk (Ruth McCabe- shes an interesting artist)I will defiantly be getting in the garden as well to ready things for the growing season cant wait to get some dirt under my finger nails!.
xxx

sketches in stitch!

Whilst playing with the dolls heads, testing out ideas I started this little piece, only on a scrap of canvas, mainly trying out a face but the owls just extended from her and I kept going.
 Its not one of my favorites but I love how it just appeared without me really intending it to!

Ive been doing some sketches for some Owl - lady hybrids this weekend, I think the dolls may end up being experiments in this way, I will photograph sketchbook pages when its light and share my plans tomorrow.
My family are going away for a few days to see the in laws at the end of the week so Im looking forward to a bit of uninterrupted making!!! how very exciting x

Flock of Owls

Continuing the Owl theme, Here is my Flock of Eagle Owls!
quite a large piece for me about 9x7" I will put n my shop later tonight. I have on the go a flock of mixed owls same sort of size, will post when theres anything to show!

This week my life outside my art is all about being a proactive/pushy parent for me! really trying to sort out any club or interest either of my children has ever shown an interest in! also Joes school for September! we have a place at the local primary school but Ive been wanting the impossible and trying to get him a place at an amazing school in the country side just a little outside of our town, keep all fingers and toes crossed for us, we had a very positive meeting with the head and now just have to wait to see if there's any movement with people excepting and not excepting their offered places....Just booked Jesse a place at Camp Quest for the summer in an attempt to provide her mind opening experiences, she was born a little philosopher and we wonder if the week may signpost her to ways she could explore that either as future studies or just for fun!
All feels a bit scary trying to make the right choices for your children when A- there are so many choices and B- its such a responsibility! what if we get it wrong......and breath.....rant over....till next time.
X

Owl brooches

see more of them on my flickr page 

All last week I was busy with these guys! I'm really loving the 1970 look Ive got going on, that wasn't what I was aiming for but just love they way they have turned out. They are all large brooch size so maybe small art pieces, they all have raised fronts which is a natural occurrence when you embroider heavily around the outside of the pieces but they remind me of cameo brooches so Ive stuck with it.
Im going to put them in my shop over the next few days.

I'm working on a larger piece now with a whole flock of these guys all jumbled in together. will let you have a look as soon as Ive started it!

Yarn pots

This weekend as well as it being our 13th wedding anniversary! I got on with a little project I ve had in mind for a while.
Small cloth storage pots for any use but I really need some for yarn storage! I always seem to have several knitting projects on the go and storing them all becomes difficult, I like the idea of having a few different sizes of these cloth pots to store the yarn, needles and working project in while on the go.

I am going to make a few more today and put them in my shop.
amusing moments where 2 grown ups are trying to remember how to work out the circumfrence of a circle!!! "isnt it pi X something??" but we got there in the end.

Im loving the feather embroidery, Oh i made a brooch as well, must photograph that!!
pip pip  for now xxx

more brooches in progress

 

Still havent got around to finishing this weeks drawings but late last night started a couple of new brooches, Ive had some lovely feedback from  my etsy shop so Im hoping they sell soon! 

I have also finished 2 of the 3 sewn collages from the seamstress drawings I have been working on, I dont want to post till they all done so hopefully will get the third finished this week, although its half term so we will see!!

new brooches

 

Two new embroideries! I wanted to make something with the embroidery Ive been doing that was easy to sell/ give as gifts. Im really happy with the result, I love the scribbles of thread to block in the birds.

Ive got a few more planned for weekend, I will try a few more flocks, I love the jumble of birds but I may also try some lone birds and I feel a change brewing.......Ive been thinking more and more about insects!! I may have to explore an old love of all things crawly and small but definatly not creepy!

I am going to put brooches in my etsy shop for weekend and see if there's any interest check out my shop and pass along to anyone you think may be interested http://www.etsy.com/shop/jennymccabe

A little behind with my daily drawings this week so may not post till tomorrow but I will try later when kids all settled 

Half term next week!!!!!!!!! I always dread them, not because  I dont love spending time with my family, but its just hard work with everyone out of routine and ( under my feet!!) there I said it, maybe now Ive admitted it the week wont be so bad!