Distressed planet Earth in textiles

Just a quick post with photos of my distressed piece completed this week















The piece represents the rising tide element of global warming ... melting ice pushing water levels up combined with distress. I used distressed materials to represent distress caused by global warming, distress to our planet, looking particularly at distressed holes and layers, perhaps holes in our ozone layer which is a contributing factor to climate change















I describe the process in the previous post. On top of my distressed fabrics I have added irridescent snowflakes and french knots in a thick variegated rayon ribbon, cotton threads and metallic threads















I was thinking of adding even more detail to the surface embellishment with more french knots and beads but I think they would be lost in the piece, which is already full of irridescent shimmeryness, colours and textures















Distressed planet Earth




















































I'm really pleased with the watery (and earthy) colours and textures in the piece

Carolyn ♥

Mixed Media Textile Art - Global Warming

This is the piece I made for Cathie in our swap. I never got round to showing it earlier

The piece is part of my “Global Warming” series of work. It's a subject close to my heart and a theme I like to come back to every now again, to raise awareness in an approachable way






















The background piece is very delicate hand made felt, made with Cornish fleece with fine wool tops and metallic fibres running through it. The holes are intentional. They represent the holes in our ozone layer which is the main cause of global warming

I have many ideas for further pieces that I want to make that explore holes and distress. I shall work on these next year for an exhibition I'm having. I will anounce details of the exhibition at a later date















The central stitched piece was made on a calico backing with layers and layers of fabrics such as silk, felt, cotton, metallic fabrics and heat distressed chiffons. I distressed the chiffons before stitching them to the base. I like the idea that the distressed fabrics symbolize the distressed state of our planet

I added some hand stitches - French knots, fly stitches and beads in groups here and there - really just where I felt like working in little groups















The colours are my representation of global warming

The red denotes solar energy, the sun, heat, the hot element of global warming that is melting the ice caps and causing distress to our planet















The white represents ice, the polar ice caps, melting ice, slush turning to water































The blue represents water, the consequence of melting ice , rising sea levels and the possible threat to all aspects of life on our planet

To go with the piece I made this card for Cathie fom hand made paper, dyed scrim, a Cornish mussel shell, a few french knots and a bead




















As soon as I see this blue I think of St. Ives and then global warming

Fabric and beads from Cathie










For me, it all comes back to global warming ...

My global warming moo cards




















Enjoy your Sunday

Carolyn ♥

The Effects of Climate Change

This is the felted piece finished - my latest piece raising awareness of global warming

















You may remember the piece of pink felt that I wet felted (see earlier post). I added satin, gold threads, sheer snowflake ribbon and silk tops to it and embellished it some more. Then I cut it up and re-arranged the squares on another piece of hand-made felt. I added more wool tops, orange and gold metallic mesh and the squares and felted the whole piece again (see last post)

The final stage - I added free motion machine embroidery, hand stitching, beads, text and some of my beads made from Tyvek

My general theme and the idea behind this piece is that as our planet is getting increasingly hotter globally, the polar ice caps are melting at a much faster rate than ever before, sea levels will rise alarmingly as a result and this will have knock on effects socially and ecologically

IMPORTANT
Please click on this link: The Effects of Climate Change
From the UK Government's official website:

Embroidered Bag

My embroidered bag
















Made using the reverse applique method I experimented with. On a calico base, I layed down lots of different fabrics, sheers, metallics, velvets and cottons in shades of pink and silver. On top of that I layed down the pinky mauve fabric. On the calico side, I drew my zig zag design and machine stitched through all the layers. Then, I turned it over and cut though the top layer to reveal the pink and silver underneath in a random manner














I machine stitched the edges of the zig zags with satin stitch, then added lots of hand stitching. I used fly stitches to look like coral all over both sides of the bag and I sewed on Swarovski crystals in clear, pink and mauve and little star sequins














The bag is fully lined with the mauve fabric and has a row of beads along the top edge. The strap was made from some mauve/silver cord which I plaited and attached to each side leaving little danglies

Cushion Cover

I made a cushion cover as a finished piece for this project. I chose the circle, triangle and rectangle with some of the patterns inside the shapes

I used black fabric with a layer of sheer over the top. Several layers of fabrics were placed under the sheer fabric and then I cut back the shapes (reverse applique). I added threads couched down around the edges of the shapes, hand stitching and beads

















Inside the rectangle I used copper curls which I couched down by hand on top of some upholstery fabric
















On the back I used these "African" triangle buttons to fasten the cushion