SELLING AND BUYING

In my last posting, I showed some of the cards I have been making. They feature "ladies" in the classic and romantic style, mostly Edwardian, a few from the twenties and thirties.

I intended making cards that would be suitable for Mothers' Day, but not restricted to that occasion.

 Just the sort of thing you may give to the special lady in your life, just because you felt like it!

I took the cards down to the Soul Gallery the day before Mothers' Day, and was quite delighted when one was purchased immediately by someone to give to her daughter! It was one that said "Always and Forever."

I do not know if any more have sold. However, on that day I received a few dollars in payment for some other sales from the preceding fortnight. That was enough for me to make up my mind to go to a garage sale I had seen advertised in the paper that morning.

I did not really expect to find many goodies that I would want, because the lady holding the sale is a sewer and quilter, and would be hanging on to that sort of stuff.

But I was wrong....I found a heap of treasures in the form of doilies and cloths, with loads of lacy edgings etc.

 I do not think there are many people on this island who are really interested in this sort of stuff, so it usually sits around waiting for me to rescue it!

 I suspect these cloths above are commercially produced, but the crochet lace is just beautiful, and there is so much of it.

 Some of these are definitely handmade.

 These have some real possibilities!

A few simple little embroidered doileys in the mix.

 And some exquisite linen napkins. I do not know why, but I have been strongly attracted to lovely linens in recent times.



Now I really must dream up some projects to showcase some of this lovely work.

And I managed to spend almost the exact amount that I had "earned" earlier from the Gallery takings. So that made for a very satisfying morning!

ROSETTES

I have been playing with little rosettes. These are made of small circles of fabrics and lace in graduating sizes.  They are layerwed and then joined through the centre.

 At first I was going to secure them with a button, but deided to use some little pearls. (I have quite a collection of faux pearls in various sizes, mostly from old necklaces.)

 After stitching them, I wet them and put them into the dryer so they would fluff up. It is that raw edge thing - I am trying very hard to get used to it. But I quite like the effect on these.
Some of them I used in this little Crazy Patch picture. I was really pleased with this.

 I made others into little brooches. I gave one to Catherine when she visited and she put it straight on. I was so delighted with how it looked that I often wear one myself now!!

 When I made a new batch of cards, I decided to use some of the rosettes to embellish them.  The effect was just great.

Now I have been cutting out lots of little circles in blues and greens and golds. I figure they would make lovely embellishments for seascapes, representing coral etc.



LOVE AT SOUL



SOUL Gallery held their "LOVE" exhibition last weekend, leading up to Valentine's Day. Most of the artists who exhibit there worked on new items with a theme of love, hearts etc.

 I showed you all the hearts etc I nad made in the previous posting. Because I had my dates wrong, I found I had time to produce a few more items, and gather together some old projects. I made a few brooches like these a few years ago, but tried a different colour scheme of black and gold.

 I made these little cupcake magnets a couple of months ago, but was not sure how to display them. In the end I sprayed an old "Weetbix" tin with white paint.

 I had already made  quite a few cards with heart shaped windows, but was able to add to them with some with red backgrounds and lace appliques.

 This is what my display looked like - just a few finishing touches to go! I decided to call it "Romantic Notions", naively thinking that no one would ever have thought of that name before!! Just a minute or two on Google proved me wrong!

 Here are some of the contributions of other artists - I am not altogether sure who made what, but they were all great.

 Tina made these wonderful rose necklaces, using twisted fabric and a hot glue gun. They look just fabulous.

 A great display of assorted items with hearts and other romantic themes.

 Lou and daughter Ada produced these yummy cupcakes.

 And Shari's little girl Nova painted this stunning picture. Nova must be all of six years old - what a talent! 

A delightful arrangement of shells.

 One of Tina's very creative photographs.

And Tina is not happy with a static exhibition. She has decided her car could do with some embellishment!

PRESSED FLOWERS

Only a month now to the start of Spring, but our Norfolk Island gardens cannot wait, and are already starting to produce some lovely early blooms to delight us. I have enjoyed gathering the lavender, floral sages and the early violets to use in some projects.

Many years ago I bought a microwave flower press, and have made use of it on many ocasions. It takes just a minute or two to do what takes weeks and weeks between the pages of a heavy book, or in a normal flower press.

One of the main reasons I have been pressing flowers lately is to make cards like these.

I will tell you more about these cards in another posting.

Every January and February, meanwhile I gather the floral spikes from the silver artemesia for the Country Womens' bookmarks that I make. Because I need so many, and use them throughout the year, I  dry these between the pages of a heavy old atlas.

I had not made any bookmarks for a while, and Margaret had offered to come and learn the process so she could help me keep up the supply. So I removed the artemesia  foliage from the atlas and placed them in a plastic container.

Imagine my amusement and amazement when I discovered I had another helper. Basil decided to help the pressing process along! Now Basil is a very large cat, but he remained squeezed into that container for a whole day!!