More Magpie Musings

Hello my lovelies, Just thought I would give you all a sneaky peak at some of the work that I've been doing over the last couple of days.

As I mentioned yesterday I have been realy inspired by the Magpies visting my garden at the moment, and thought I would share some of my sketchbook pages and work in progress that I had been creating from this.

The fascinator is very much a work in progress as I'm still adding beads to the sinamay base and the other embroidered Magpie is probably going to end up as either a necklace or on a head band. 

 

I'm just playing around with combining patterned fabric with playful motifs and beaded embroidery with these pieces and have a few others ( although not magpie related) in the pipeline. I think the techniques still need a bit of envelopment at the moment but I'll keep on playing with it until I get it just right.Let me know what you think, if anyone knows any great beading or embroidery resources out their please let me know in the comments because I could definitely do with a bit of guidance for techniques xxx 

Inspiration round up - February 2015

 

Hello my lovelies, just wanted to give you all a little glimpse of the thinks that have been inspiring me last month.  February whizzed by, and I can't believe we are nearly 10 days into this month already.

image source digicoll.library.wisc.edu

1. Vintage millinery books and patterns, oh gosh if I could only get a time machine and travel back to bygone ages and stock up on the lovely manuals and guides written  about making the hat styles of time I would, luckily the internet has come to help me with my quest instead. I have found that online holds a pretty good source of  free pdf copies of old millinery books. Also Amazon, Etsy and Ebay all have stockists that sell reprints and cd's of others at reasonable prices. At the moment I'm  keeping myself happy by working my way though my copy of Millinery for Every Woman ( an Edwardian hat making guide that I got off Amazon a few years ago  and How to make and trim your own hats by Vee Walker Powell which you can access for free here .

image source Getty via Telegraph online


 

2. Magpies- One for sorrow, two for joy... I know magpies are a somewhat controversial bird but I love them, yes I know they are a bit of a bully in the  bird yard and are very noisy but I can't help it I love their cheekiness and bright look. We have a few that come and visit our garden ( and in summer months chatter away at any time day or night) and lately I have been attempting to use them as a source of inspiration for some accessory designs.

image source unmistakablecreative.com

3- Unmistakable Creative podcasts.- I cam across these podcasts late last year when I was watching April Bowles Olin's interview for Michelle Ward's Grown up gigs series ( which was also super inspiring too but I digress). I can't quite get over the amount of content that the creator Srini Rao has produced for this project. There are over 400 episodes available and although I have only listened a fraction of these I can honestly say that I have found something truly inspiring in each of them.

Well that's pretty much it for now, hope everyone's week has started well and that you've enjoyed this sneaky peak at what I've been inspired by recently.