Flowers and a House Book.

A bunch of flower brooches was made a little while ago. I made them from combed merino , dyed in saturated hues of pinks and reds , by a lovely dyeing fibre artist from Woodville ; Tracy White.  People ask me if I dye my own wool. Well , I could , but the results are usually "surprising". That means I have no idea of the results. But there are some amazingly talented people out there , that can get the right colour every time . So I buy my wool from them.   Each to their own talent. 

Part of the flower is a silk tissue fabric felted into the wool , resulting in a lovely wrinkled texture . A vintage glass button from my "sparklies" collection gives the brooch that needed glitz .   Some are not brooches but little hairclips.    

And yes , I actually kept one for myself this time. 
   A while ago I joined a new club , a bookarts club , where people make books of all kinds of shapes and sizes.  I was already altering old books, making them into new stories or themed art pages.   Like I needed another hobby!!  

  Anyhow this is the beginning of a "house" shaped book about home fashion and sewing. This is the back of the accordion type book. It folds out so it can stand up by itself.  It has the names of many fabrics stamped on the back , with pattern paper layered over it.  The hinges are made from strips of vintage barkcloth ; an old curtain with pink blossoms.  I ripped the material and left the stray threads on for added texture.   I don't like everything pristine and neat .  Life isn't like that either. 
  So here I have put the wooden tennis racket clamp to good use. It works really well to straighten the board while the glues and paints are drying.

  Pages 1 and 2 . Not entirely finished  , I still need to  put a title or blurp sentence on the title page.   I have used many layers in the background , paints , words , sewing pattern tissue paper. Then a  remnant of 1950's fabric from my stash , one that would go with the colours of the sewing pattern models. I cut the models from the front of the original packet.   I also used braiding and ric-rac , and I think I will add other notions such as buttons , hooks and eyes etc.

   Pages 3 and 4 . I totally adore that red and pink roses material..!  Unfortunately all I had was only twice the size as this...  A while ago at a local auction they had a apple box full of these kind of fabrics , with large painterly flowers on them. All still crisp and unused , a few metres each. By the time I blurted out"$35!" it was already up to $50 and very rapidly rose to $120. I couldn't afford that , but the woman who got the box lot definitely got a bargain. ....sigh.....