Wednesday 25 September 2013

Beaded swallows and project musings

 
So A little while ago I  talked about a beaded embroidery broach project I was making for a friends birthday ( yay unintentional alliteration I love that!)
 
Well this is a picture of the type of beaded embroidery I have tried before. It's a picture of one of the hats I made for the last millinery course I attended and my aim was to use the same technique and a similar design but just on a smaller scale.
 

 
Now the first time I made the swallows for this hat they took forever, but as I did the second or third I got quicker and the outcomes became better.
 
However when I scaled down the design to broach size I seemed to loose some of the definite pattern. To be honest I made the design up as I went along and in hind sight I think it would have looked better if it had a more structured motif like the one pictured on the hat above.
 
 
Any way I gave my friend the broach and she seemed very pleased with it and  was surprised when I said I made it myself  ( she said she thought it was bought from Monsoon, which I took as a very big compliment as we both love monsoon things )  
 
After it was completed I decided I wanted to do some more research before designing anymore beaded broaches  and I created this mood board.

 
It helped me see that I definitely needed to properly plan my motif out before I start making it and decide on an exact colour scheme etc. also I love the effect using a variety of larger and smaller beads creates and  also having areas that are really encrusted. The whole process has given me plenty of ideas to be getting on with so I'll let you know how I get on. Let me know if you any tips or thoughts on these kind of projects or if you too have had a project that hasn't turned out  how you hoped but left you with inspiration and new ideas.
 
Hope you are all having a great week , Jessie xxx
 
 
 

Monday 23 September 2013

A Glimpse of Inspiration- Model with Bahianas in Salvador by Anne Menke


 
 

I've been a bit absent  in blogging for a while but whilst  searching for some inspirational pictures from my collection of magazine cuttings  this evening I came across this one. Its a photograph by the wonderfully talented photographer Anne Menke from  a series in her book - See The World Beautiful.

 I love the cool peaceful feeling of the colours  of the clothes and scenery and the expressions on the ladies faces. I suppose what initially drew me to the picture was the lovely headdresses two of the ladies wear and also the expressions captures on their faces.

Any way I just wanted to share this lovely image with you all, have a great week Jessie xx