Art with My Needle ~ Week 10
Today I share with you the final miniature container that I made using the items from the sea. A piece of coral that looked like lace caught my eye this time. The coral looked delicate so I wanted the finished item to reflect this.
I remember reading an article about Miser’s purses and it fascinated me at the time. If I remember correctly the original shape of a Miser’s purse was in the form of a figure 8. All the coins were inserted in the centre and slid towards either end, usually silver to one end and gold to the other. The purse was closed at the centre with rings. The name was due to the fact that removing the coins was difficult. By the late 1890’s, Miser’s purses were available in a great variety of shapes.
My idea was born….. A Miser’s purse to reflect the pattern of the coral.
The next stage was to sketch the coral pattern and play about with it.
I liked the the lines of the sketch on the right.
Last week I talked about using a satin fabric coloured with an ink tea. The tissues above were all part of that experiment. A large piece of felt was soaked in black Quink ink to take on the colour. It was then wrapped in layers of different fabrics and tissue. Each absorbed the ink at a different rate. Again it was left to dry naturally over a couple of days. The tissues above were used as outer layers to soak up the excess moisture. The blue tissue was closer to the ink and the ones furthest away gave a very interesting effect. There will be more of this in a future project.
I dislike waste so sought a way to incorporate the colourful tissue in my projects. Firstly I needed to decide on my design shape.
A double sided purse or:
A single drawstring bag with small trim.
This was the shape I finally decided on:
with the colour added at each of the pocket ends
Once the design was sorted it was down to the actual making.
This sample is made from some of the tissue paper described above. Who would ever think that the rich egg yolk yellow would come from black ink…. but it did. Tissue was randomly torn and places on a backing sheet of fine muslin. It was further embellished with scraps of coloured organdie and threads of different texture and thickness. I then trapped it with a layer of clear Contact Film to hold everything in place.
I wanted to use this new ‘fabric’ in narrow strips while giving the purse an overall soft feel.
A close up sample of how I wanted the purse to look. The backing layer was cotton with fine strips of my tissue/plastic fabric overlaid with a double layer of tulle before overstitching in a metallic copper thread to form the pattern of the coral.
For the finished item I bound three bone rings, one to slip over a little finger to aid carrying the purse and the other pair to act as closures to guard the coins. I finished the purse with a fringe of the threads used in the project.
A miser’s purse is no good without money…
Did you recognise the coin?
It is not a very clear picture, but the coin is actually a farthing.
The quality of my photos are not good they were all taken on one day pre-surgery so that I would have something to work on during my weeks of ‘captivity’. This post was written this morning at Elly’s house in Dublin before we head up the road for home, and the farthing is at home so at this point I am unable to confirm the date on it.
So with a farthing in my miser’s purse…. I will always have money. ;) Don’t tell the Toyboys!
Rhyleysgranny said,
October 28, 2009 at 9:23 am
Words fail me. That is so beautiful.
Rhyleysgranny said,
October 28, 2009 at 9:23 am
Have a safe journey home
steph said,
October 28, 2009 at 9:44 am
Beautiful colours!
Your middle name isn’t ‘Ebenezer’ by any chance?
kenju said,
October 28, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Very interesting, Grannymar. I like the colors you achieved with the dyes very much.
gaelikaa said,
October 28, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Beautiful work!
Maureen said,
October 28, 2009 at 1:47 pm
That is beautiful! You have such a creative talent!
wisewebwoman said,
October 28, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Oh I love your Wednesdays, GM. This is gorgeous, something I had never heard of the miser’s purse. I come here to learn and admire. Plse take a closeup of the purse when you are all well and healed.
Xo
WWW
bikehikebabe said,
October 28, 2009 at 9:21 pm
I’m speechless!
Grannymar said,
October 28, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Rhyleysgranny - I am safely home once more and ready to hit the hay!
Steph - Neither ‘Ebenezer’ or ‘Ebensneezer’! I just kept my hand on my Farthing!
Judy - I found the colours fascinating.
Gaelikaa - I enjoyed working on the project.
Maureen - I just enjoyed playing with the fabrics like a child building sand castles.
WWW - I will indeed take a few better photos before next week. Maybe new batteries in the camera and a steady pain free body will help.
BHB - Speak to me. Please! We all need your comments.
Darlene said,
October 28, 2009 at 11:33 pm
You are so very creative. I know I could never make anything as exquisite as your miser’s purse. Thanks for sharing.
bikehikebabe said,
October 29, 2009 at 12:13 am
O.K. Here’s my real comment.
Since we both had hip replacements, mine a month before yours, & I’m still walking like a penguin or I have a stick up my butt, AND gathering from my signature you can tell, I think you should be taking even more walks or moving around all day.
Nobody can surpass your creativeness! I commend you for that.
bikehikebabe said,
October 29, 2009 at 12:31 am
When I leave out the details & my husband doesn’t know what I’m talking about, he says, “My mind isn’t in your mind.”
So I’ll spell it out. All that time spent doing the Needle Art, you could be working on exercising your new hip.
Judy Harper said,
October 29, 2009 at 2:51 am
The purse is beautiful! How long did it take from drawing the design to completing the purse? You are so talented! It is beautiful! I love the material color and texture.
Grannymar said,
October 29, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Darlene - I am looking at these projects with new eyes as I relive the making of them.
BHB - The work was all done in 1992 as part of a Creative Embroidery course for City & Guilds of London Qualification. My exercise programme continues posts are written in rest time.
Judy - This project (one of three) was to produce 5 containers for ‘precious’ objects. The whole work was displayed and marked along with a written examination at the close of the year. There were several elements to the years work. We had sessions in drawing, pattern design, use of colour and working in 3D. All aspects of embroidery and needlework were covered… we learned to follow the rules for each technique before learn to break them and allow our own inventiveness come through.
We had visits to Art exhibitions, museums- where we had vaults opened in order to study items not on display to the public, W3e had trips to Belfast, Dublin and Glasgow for other Colleges’ end of year exhibitions and a day in the Palm House at Belfast Botanical Gardens for a few hours sketching for design purposes. If only I had a digital camera back then….
bikehikebabe said,
October 29, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Thanks for the info. about your Needle Art. That was some heck-of-a workshop. I’m impressed.
Grannymar said,
October 29, 2009 at 6:25 pm
BHB - We attended one full day a week, over three years. Each year we had new projects to work on. As the course ended, Jack’s health suddenly took a downward turn, so I set aside all things needlework to concentrate on caring for him. It was not until Elly became engaged that I once again opened the workbox for pleasure. Making her wedding outfit was a privilege.
Alice said,
October 30, 2009 at 7:25 pm
What lovely stories the making makes. And they’ll become heirlooms no doubt with such history as well as “what do you think this is for” and where do artists get their designs? Very creative.
Grannymar said,
October 30, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Alice, when I was working on the items waaay back, Elly was not bothered. Now she is beginning to show interest and ask questions about them.