my peacock lady corset

The corset exhibition is looming and my poor corset was still looking a little sorry for itself.  Everyone who's worked on it has produced stunning results, and I love all the bits, but a few people haven't had it yet so when it appeared in the vicinity I grabbed it to do a bit of 'pulling together'!  I'd already got out my sari ribbon from Crafty Notions to put on it before I saw that Glo had had the same idea.  I love how she's put it on the suspender hooks.

Sorry the light's not great on this second pic.  I added sari fabric, shiny bits, and quilted the beautiful peacock feathers added by Carol.  This photo really doesn't do it justice but it shows why I didn't get the Sunday Postcard made.  I will, because the subject is 'fish' and I discovered that a seahorse is a fish.  When I told my husband he said "well, what did you think it was?"  I don't know, but I love seahorses, have the new Elusive Images stamp and am determined to make the postcard :) 

inspired by Paulette

I love blog hopping, and keeping up with what other people are working on, and often do this when my creative juices aren't flowing. And it's paid off! I was the third person to work on this corset and I added the lines of lace and pearls and painted the boning blue but it needed some 'pizazz'! What better than to have a go at 'picot beading' along the bottom edge. So thanks Paulette, it wouldn't have happened without you!! Or Julie, who 'met' Paulette before me on an internet forum!


I find beading very relaxing, as long as it doesn't get too repetitive, hence the variation in beads along the base of the corset. I also added beads randomly spaced along the lace. Above is a piece I made a few years back when I had glandular fever - beading is something you can pick up and put down whenever the mood/energy strikes!

last corset ... well, kindof!

Well, I've worked on all eleven corsets and just passed the final one, Monet, on to the next person. My original idea was to fill in with altered flowers as, if you've ever been lucky enough to visit it, Monet's garden is full to bursting with flowers. However, I've been really loving doing the fabric snippet collages so right after working on 'field of dreams' I carried on collaging on this one. I picked a space between another person's work using kunin felt.

A couple of altered daisies snuck in there, and some lace flowers I'd painted with Stewart Gill paints.

One of the corsets is looking in need of a bit of pizzazz so I've brought it home to add some bits to it. I truly am trying to resist the collage, and think I should do some kunin felt work on it as the person who owns this latest corset has done a lot of work with this material on other people's so I'm guessing she likes it! It's called 'Gwendoline Grace' after her Grandmother and I'm going to be able to indulge my button ..hmm, was going to say fetish but not sure that's the right word!!! ;)

Oh, and Becca's got details up on her website re the corset display in September '09.

catching up

Gosh a whole week without any blogging! I've been busy on my next corset, 'Field of Dreams', and loved every minute of working on it. This one is nearing the end of the round robin so involved some 'pulling together' and filling in of gaps. Apart from buying a bird necklace from Primark to take apart, and borrowing a friends gemagic to add shiny bits, I really didn't know what to do with this one. But it all came together once I painted up the sky near the cloud, then put fabric over the straps that hang out of the sides. I got very carried away adding flowers and texture and gems and only stopped cos there are two more people to work on this and I had to leave space for them!

I have absolutely no idea why blogger has turned this photo upside down. It's the second time I've tried to post it so I'm afraid its stopping. This is the whole corset laid out.

I spent today tidying and sorting. This is my dining room table, not even the workroom one! Everything was in such a heap I couldn't find anything so I piled it up into boxes, took it down to my workroom in the cellar and started putting away. My daughter was very impressed, my husband just declared there was a lot of 'stuff' and the fact that other people had more than me didn't mean I didn't have a lot!!!! Still loads of putting away to do but there was enough room for me to make an envelope...

My fabulous US friend Julie sent me a package of goodies a while back (there's another on the way, I can't wait :) ) and in it was a paper shoe. I drew round it and used all the bits on my desk to decorate this envelope. In fact, if you head over to her blog here you can be in with a chance to win some paper shoes like this! Well, actually they're posh compared to mine ;)

gathering lilacs

I've been working on the latest corset in Paddy's round robin this week. It's Paddy's own corset that used to belong to her Mum and the theme is 'Gathering lilacs'. I added paint, embossing powder, tyvek and handmade paper with beads, lace flowers and some metal butterflies which I coloured with alcohol inks. It was very relaxing, I love working this way.