Category: The Work of My Hands

Crepuscular – active at twilight

17 October, 2014 / Katy / 1 Comment

What’s your favourite word?

Here’s mine:

HaggardHawks (otherwise known as Paul Anthony Jones – author of Haggard Hawks and Paltry Poltroons) put out a call for favourite words for World Dictionary Day and it gave me a chance to make a piece I’ve been wanting to make for ages.

Crepuscular means active at twilight, and it mainly refers to animals…and children. It was a rather weary refrain from my mother when I was a child, and I have to say that I have found myself sighing it to myself in similar circumstances at the moment. As if that weren’t enough, Kipling has a bit of a crazy half hour around bedtime too, so we have a full house of crepuscular creatures!

I thought you might like to see how hoops get turned from flat embroideries to hoops, so here’s a little factory tour, enjoy!

Mr Underhill of the Shire

10 October, 2014 / Katy / 4 Comments

When the Lord of the Rings films came out, (really? over 10 years ago?) my flatmate decided to have a fancy dress party for her birthday.

You may never have lived with two people at art college and a computer scientist with a good memory and an eye for detail, so let me describe the scene…

We decorated every room as a different location, complete with a round paper doorway for the Shire (the kitchen, of course), the entrance to Moria with carvings (a triumphant moment in LYM’s artistic career), and crepe paper and photocopied faces on the shower screen to turn the bathroom into the Dead Marshes. We painted a huge Eye of Sauron on the front room window which stayed up for months because it was a pain to chip off.

Because of this (and a subsequent pie and films marathon), I have a bit of a soft spot for the films.

So perhaps you’ll forgive my indulgence in presenting on my my favourite quotes.

(Click the photos to see the full listing.)

With a New Brush

19 September, 2014 / Katy / 3 Comments

Ever since I made the Amos and Boris piece,

I’ve been itching to try some more watercolour embroideries.

So, with the help of a new sketchbook (naturally), I thought I’d make myself a swatch book and play with some ideas and techniques.

I think my favourite is dry-ish paint on dry fabric. I like the way you see the varying amounts of absorbtion and dilution, a nice contrast from the relatively controlled feeling of the stitching (which is a little absent in these swatches).

So keep your eyes peeled for the next watercolour piece, and a wee tutorial in case you’re inspired to try it yourself.

Morningside Makers Market this Saturday, 6th September

5 September, 2014 / Katy / 3 Comments

Happy September everyone!

I hope you had a wonderful summer and are feeling full of the joy that only new notebooks and pens can provide.

This one is a present to myself for passing my Pilates Equipment exam, which has been the source of much anxiety around Misericordia Mansions since June.

In a very organised moment last year, I booked myself in for a whole year’s worth of craft fairs and next one is on Saturday. I will be at the Morningside Makers Market and I’d love to see you there!

If you’ve got your diary handy, all the dates for all the craft fairs are here.

Still Life with Thread

29 August, 2014 / Katy / 1 Comment

Cutting and Counting

22 August, 2014 / Katy / 1 Comment

I’m still in the muddly bit of the ark project where I know where I’m going but it doesn’t look the way I want it to. I’m going to be a little coy about it for that reason and just keep up the still lives of work in progress.

More Paperwork

15 August, 2014 / Katy / 1 Comment

Paperwork

8 August, 2014 / Katy / 3 Comments

I’m in the midst of designing and making two complete sets of Torah appurtenances – Torah mantle, ark curtain and bimah cover. As usual with these things, there is a rather pressing deadline so I’m in a bit of a scramble to get things ready before we go on holiday (where I am, hopefully stitching away happily, as you read this).

I thought it might be nice to see what it looks like when I work on a larger scale – I’ve got used to being able to work on a nice civilised kitchen-table scale, but this time I’ve got rolls of paper everywhere and I’ve commandeered the train sidings, much to the disapproval of the station manager.

I’m sure I’ll be writing more about it, but for now, here is the first installment of the photo diary.

Shop Scotland

1 August, 2014 / Katy / 2 Comments

I’m very pleased to announce that I’ve joined the ranks of Shop Scotland!

Misericordia

Shop Scotland’s concept is simple: We give small creative ecommerce businesses a platform to shout from, and we help people around the world discover Scottish talent in abundance. With an easy to navigate site, category specific sections and features, there is always a wealth of fresh and exciting businesses to uncover.

After sadly seeing the demise of many local independent shops and the rise of the tartan tat brigade, Shop Scotland was born to help raise awareness about real Scottish products. You might find tartan on this site but you definitely won’t find tat.

Susan from Shop Scotland is full of exciting links on Twitter and Facebook to help you discover other Scottish businesses and I’ve spoken to nothing but lovely folk since joining.

It also came in quite handy when my poor website had a php-meltdown and had to be rescued by the Lovely Young Man and I could re-direct website traffic to something lovely and professional looking with links to all the relevant places.

So as a token of my gratitude, I’ve been browsing through other Shop Scotland-er’s pages and here are a few gems:

Strumpet Cocktail Hats

You know by now how much I love an eye veil, and it’s taking all my will power to leave my holiday money alone and not buy a dozen killing hats!

Young Glass

Some lovely glass (I’m feeling an urge for a martini all of a sudden).

Off With Her Head Millinery

…and more hats because, well why wouldn’t you?

Nolan – Commission

25 July, 2014 / Katy / 2 Comments

There are two ways to approach a name commission; one is to start with the name and find some history, meaning or aesthetic in it that inspires the rest of the piece.

Another is to start with the shape of the letters, find a font that seems to make the shape sing and then see if that suggests the next step.

This commission was definitely the latter approach, I felt really stuck with it until I hit upon a rather lovely font which then instantly suggested the Book of Kells.

After that, it was just a case of finding my most jewel-like colours and setting to work!