Hooks and More Fabric

Hi there

Here I am again - so soon - but I couldn't wait to tell you all - and show you about my arrivals in the post yesterday.

Just look at these GORGEOUS hooks I found online. I got this set of Japanese hooks from an ETSY vendor. Saw them and could not resist. They remind me of those pretty jelly shoes we used to wear on the beach as kids:) They have yummy soft handles and are shaped for great grip etc. The brand name is Hamanaka.


They come in a lovely clear plastic box. Aren't they just great. I also got my FolkWear pattern for my dressing gown - i am pleased with it. Really gets me into thinking about costume. I intend to print / dye some fabric and use it to make up some pieces that are costume or costume inspired.

I know that some of you enjoyed the photo of my screen printed linen. Here is another peice I'm working on too. It had two layers of space dyeing - to give the lovely greens etc. Even before it was dry - I had rinsed the fabric after dyeing it and had hung it on the line at the studio - to dry. I walked past it again and again back and forth to the tutors house during that lovely sunny afternoon last autumn.

One of the other students that day had mixed up some blackcurrant thickened dye - used for screen printing - with procion dye - so that the hand of the fabric isn't changed. She was using it to print using this big square foam block - the colours were so lovely. i love deep purply / aubergine colours.

Well I looked at that fabric again - it just would not let go - so lovely blowing about in the sunny breeze - and suddenly I saw it - it told me it needed those words printed using the blackcurrant paint. i was very pleased with the result and when I'd printed the blue linen the other day with the metallic paint I liked the dark gold and it is good as another layer ontop of the blackcurrant. it's not yet finished - will probably need more printing - I have a couple of ideas for it - but need to talk them through with my tutors.

The words - in case anyone is wondering are : from Tennyson's Morte d' Arthur - about the Lady of the Lake.

"A voice of the waters, for she dwells
Down in a deep, calm, whatsoever storms
May shake the world"

I was struggling with several major issues in my life about a year ago - and through using some ideas/themes that I started with during city and guilds and at a workshop with the committed to cloth tutors - I 'found' that quote in the poem - and it was exactly what I needed at the time. It summed up so much.

Here is a closeup.


The other item that arrived in the post is my pattern for the dressing gown. it's the Entari - shown clearly on the diagram of the separate garments.

Here is the pattern I will use for the gown. I'm also just - as I'm writing this - that I might print and dye a lining - not with metallic ink - but procion dye. I had wondered how I would deal with the sleeves as they are so long and the wrong side of the fabric would show - the inside of the sleeve - but dyeing and printing some fabric for the lining might be what it needs. I am thinking that with no facings etc on the gown that dyeing some silk might be the answer for a bias binding finish all round the edge.

Off again to the studio on 15th and 19th - so hoping it will develop then - I'm sure it will.