Well worth seeing....

Made a trip down to Portsmouth to take in a few sights last week, namely the Overlord Embroidery and HMS Victory. For anyone who likes embroidery (and indeed even those who don't particularly!), the Overlord is well worth a visit. Designed By Sandra Lawrence and made by the Royal School of Needlework, it tells the story of Operation Overlord, the D-Day landings of Normandy by the Allied forces in 1944.

The embroidery measures 83 metres in length and is split into 34 panels (it is longer than the famous Bayeux Tapestry). Techniques include applique, couching, shading, goldwork and surface stitching. I had seen many images of this embroidery (and indeed a practice sample of it in the collection of the RSN) and was still more than impressed by this piece of embroidery. If you are in the South East of England, stop by!

The Embroidery is housed in the D-day museum in Portsmouth, follow the link below for more information:

D-Day museum and Overlord Embroidery

We also went to see HMS Victory:

It was comforting to see Admiral Lord Nelson's bed was covered in hand embroidered hangings to give him some privacy! Especially surreal on a ship thats only purpose is too fight..

Visiting this historic ship is fabulous, you can see every deck and go right down into the bowels of the ship. There is a piece of the original mast complete with shot damage and a plaque marking where Nelson fell and where he died. You spend most of the visit bent double as the decks are low so don't go if you are claustophobic or have a bad back! For more info click on the link below:

HMS Victory

Competition finalist!

Just thought I would let you know, I entered the 'Bridging arts: British Sari Story' competition and my design has been picked as one of the five finalists! I am very excited about this as the Sari will be made up and I will get to see the design for real. Can't give too much away at the moment, but the design is something to do with the weather. Here is a picture of previous entries on display at Canary Wharf:

Click on the link below to see more about this competition:
British Sari Competition

Critters make it to print..

Look out for my 'Critters on Canvas' canvas and stumpwork project in the next issue of Stitch magazine, which is out on March 25th (ok, I know that's a long way off but it was exciting to flick through the magazine and see it!). I guess the cuddly toys are critters also....

More embroidery training!

Been enjoying making stuff for my Etsy shop. It's nice to make small stuff that is creative and doesn't take hours! Made some egg cosys in needle felt and hand embroidery.

I am in the process of signing up for a distance learning course in Indian Embroidery which I am quite excited about although the joining process is a little convoluted. I've picked which technique I'm going to start with (mirror work, no suprise there!) and have returned the application form, now I just need to work out how to pay and they can send me all the stuff.

The school I will be learning with is Mridula's School of Embroidery and Fashion Design, based in Tamil Nadu in India. See more about them at: www.mridulas.com/. Can't wait to get going. See a piece of my mirror work below...

Getting creative again

Got a few things done and out of the way this month, so now I can relax a little and do something creative again. Still needle felting although I broke my needle last night maing a toadstool! Luckily I had a walk down into Rochester earlier in the day and happened to stock up with another one. Also got some new fabrics for doll making (it's terrible, I have two baskets full of fabrics and I can't help buying more!) so look out for new kits on Etsy.

I have also just finished a couple of articles for Stitch magazine so look out for those also. I think the first comes out in the April/May issue and the second in the summer issue. It was good to work on a summer project in winter, very cheering!

I have also started a newsletter the first issue of which came out in December, and am working on the Jan/Feb issue at the moment. I will try to work out if I can upload it somehow so you can see it...watch this space!

A little sheep

In needle felt...

Still playing with needle felting. It is very sculptural, made this little fella in a few hours. It's also very theraputic....

A new year

Happy new year to all my readers!

Well the new year is here and it's time to get down to work again. There always seems so much to do, how are you supposed to fit it all in in one lifetime? I've made a plan, now all I have to do is stick to it!

I allowed myself some play time over the Christmas period and I've been messing around with some felt making. Below is a felted panel of roses:

The before and after effect are quite different. The colours seem to mix when the fibres are laid out then separate again once the piece has been felted. Felt is great to stitch on, there is no grain to follow for a start! You can bury the ends easily, you can gather it up by pulling the stitches tight and it looks lovely embellished with beads and sequins which are a real contrast to the soft fuzzy look of felt.

The above is a sample I made some years ago of the garden where I used to live. It is wet felted then embellished with machine embroidery, hand embroidery and shisha mirrors. I have also just discovered needle felt (I know, I'll get there in the end!) which I'm very excited about. It is much easier to control than welt felting and much more sculptural. Here are some beads I made in this technique:

Seasons greetings!

Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas and all the very best health for 2010.

A white Christmas?

A snow covered tree, Jonathans bike and my car (after some of the snow had melted!)

I know we have all seen snow, but I don't think I've seen as good a fall as this for about 5 years. I always seem to be somewhere else! It was supposed to be my last day teaching at the RSN before christmas, but when they announced they had shut the main road out of Chatham at 7.30 this morning, I went back to bed!

When the snow started to fall yesterday evening, we also had thunder and lightning. I have never experienced that before...

And the winner is....

Richard Wright, winner of the Turner prize:-

An excert from a review in one of the newpapers sums it up well in my opinion:

"And here’s a sentence I never thought I’d write about a Turner Prize winner: the result is so damn beautiful you stand transfixed in front of it."

It's almost that time I'm afraid...

...time to buy those christmas presents!

I have lots of new peg doll items for sale! They are hand made and original and would make great stocking fillers. Buy something unique for someone you really care about...

Lavender Scented Sachets:

These peg dolls are scented with lavender and can hang in your wardrobe (hanging ribbon attached), or lie in your drawers to keep your clothes smelling fresh.

They come beautifully packaged in cellophane to keep in the scent until they are ready to be used. They are completely hand made, and all clothing is stitched and not glued so they won't fall apart. The faces are hand painted. Some have painted hair, and some have embroidery thread for hair.
They stand 10cm (4 1/2 inches) high and available in the above colours.

Mini peg people

These mini peg dolls are only 6 1/2cm tall (2 1/2 inches)! Each is hand painted and the clothing is again all stitched and not glued. They are supplied with a fastening of your choice from the following options (please state which when ordering):

 (L to R: Charm, Brooch, Silver coloured keyring, Swivel clip, gold coloured keyring)

Check out the new range on http://www.sarahhomfray.etsy.com/.

To purchase:

Purchase from Etsy(see link above) if you are outside England

If you are in England please contact me though this blog or through my website (www.sarahhomfray.com/contact) for prices in sterling....

Something to ponder....

I was looking at results of the Hand and Lock 2009 prize for embroidery on their website. The idea behind the competition is as follows:

"The aim of this prize is to promote the use of hand embroidered surface embellishment within fashion, costume and soft furnishing. All in the hope that contemporary design and other fresh approaches will be inspired to embrace hand embroidery, to acknowledge and value its quality and expertise."

This prompted a discussion on one of the points of the brief:

"Ensure that the finished product is both practical and commercially viable"

Many of the designs (the winning one included) used mainly forms of bead embellishment, the quickest and easiest way to cover a piece of fabric. So my question is, in the age of machine embroidery and cheap labour from the east, can hand embroidery (and not bead embellishment) truly be practical and commercially viable?

This is a great challenge indeed, and maybe the only way to find out is to enter the competition. I was interested to see that many of the entrants, from my point of view I hasten to add, seemed to have missed this point completely. Although only 5 marks were given for commercial viability, the whole project was based around this idea. Many of the entries were very beautifully embroidered, but were not commercially viable and I think it was that reason only that they didn't win.

Hand embroidery by definition is never going to be as quick as machine embroidery. So it boils down to, how do you get someone to appreciate the skill and quality of something made by hand? I guess if we knew the answer to that, all embroiderers would be millionaires!

The theme for the 2010 competition is Militaria and you can choose from different briefs. If anyone is interested in answering my question, you can follow the link below:

http://www.handembroidery.com/prize-conference/prize-2010/brief/

I little bit of restoration....

This is a peg doll I bought off E-bay. Unfortunately his highway man days looked like they had seen better days so I thought I would put him right. He had been glued, and the glue was showing through. The jacket has also comefree as had his hat and the base,

I took everything off that would come off easily and remade a waist coat in a new piece of felt. I remade the piece exactly and sewed it back on instead of gluing. In hindsight I should have given the new waistcoat more felt to give myself something more to stitch into. I sewed the bead buttons onto the jacket to secure them (also glued on), then redressed him. He had only one pistol remaining so i fashioned another one just like the first out of a matchstick. 

The finished result:

A busy time

I came back from a successful trip America to go almost straight to Winchester to teach Jacobean embroidery for Embroidery Now.

The level of experience of the 8 students was quite high, but I think everyone went home with some new knowledge. Took the opportunity to have a look around Winchester and was lucky enough to see an embroidery exhibition and separate quilt exhibition both on in Winchester library (Winchester Discovery Centre). There were some fabulous old quilts including one reported to have been stitched by Jane Austen:

Jane Autsen is buried in Winchester Cathedral, and while there it is worth checking out Antony Gormley's 'Sound II' art installation in the crypt:

To see what else is being taught in Winchester, have a look at http://www.embroiderynow.co.uk/. Classes are soon to start in Brighton also if you find yourself in that neck of the woods.

Greetings from the US of A!

Well it's been a busy few weeks and I've finally found the time to catch my breath.
Spent a week teaching traditional samplers which was great fun and very creative. Everyone came up with such original ideas and really unique designs. If anyone is reading this and would like to show off their work send me an image! Thankyou to Lori and all my students for a great week. You all worked so hard and it shows in your samplers. Below is a detail of Adam and Eve from my own sampler:

I spent the weekend with my friend Erin from Cyprus. We went camping for the night to Astoria on the Oregon coast which was brilliant fun. We managed to talk our way into a sapce on the fully booked campsite which was lovely and despite the rain we managed to stay dry! This is us on the beach with the Pacific ocean in the background:

If anyone is in the area, the trails in Fort Stevens State park have the most incredible moss covered trees. Just pay attention so you don't miss the turnoff (who would do a silly thing like that?)

I am trying to start drawing again. I was so good in Cyprus doing some nearly everyday, and my drawing improved no end. Since I left I have been very bad at keeping it up. I am now in San Fransisco staying with my friend Lucy and we popped into a shop called Flax Art and Design in Downtown San Fransisco. I bought a small sketchbook (there is nothing like having a new sketchbook to inspire you!) and have decided to do a drawing everyday. It's only a small book so there are no excuses. Today I even managed 4 drawings. I was really taken with this design of Quails from an old childrens embroidery book that Lucy found for a bargain price (doesn't she always!):

That's it for today. Perhaps I will post more drawings as an incentive to keep sketching.....

Art for sale

I have added some of my botanical art to my Etsy shop. This is a watercolour painting of 'Morning Glory' vine, painted when I was in Cyprus.

There is also some new jewellery on there with more to come....so don't forget to check back regularly! follow the link to my Etsy shop at the side of this blog.

 

I've got 4 weeks of teaching coming up next week so it's going to be a busy month. I'm teaching goldwork, embroidery design and intensive CC for the RSN. I believe there are also still places left on the Jacobean course in Winchester in October. Visit http://www.embroiderynow.co.uk/ for more details.

  

I'm still interested in peg dolls and have bought some beautiful vintage ones off E-bay. I will take some photographs and post them here. You will be amazed what can be done with a simple wooden clothes peg!

Watch this space....

Smallest peg doll in the world?

While searching the world wide web, we came across a small wooden doll someone had made out of a matchstick. Not to be outdone when it comes to detail, Jonathan announced he wasn't that impressed and could do one much better. So it was that while other couples where out partying on a Saturday night, he was

peering under a magnifier creating this little sailor. The match stick it stands on is a normal everyday matchstick in case you were wondering making little sailor peg 7.5mm high.....

The Guiness Book of Records will no longer accept anything under the genre "The smallest....." as apparently it gets ridiculous and things end up so small they don't actually look like the thing they are meant to represent. We however, think this could possibly be the smallest peg doll (and by this we mean actually peg shaped) in the world. If anyone knows otherwise please don't let us know as I will have to spend another evening on my own while Jonathan makes a smaller one....

He is available for commissions!

New shop!

My kits and other embroidery items are now available on Etsy, a website selling all things hand made (see the link on the right hand side). It is an American website, so all prices are in dollars. If you are the same side of the pond as me and would like to buy any of the items you see in my Etsy shop, get in touch with me directly through my website or this blog.

There is a lot more stuff to add, including some watercolour paintings so keep checking back if you would like to see more!

Follow the link: http://www.sarahhomfray.etsy.com/

Back into the swing of things

A new class:

I am running a Design for Embroidery class soon which is a good excuse to do some more drawing, something I have not been very good at keeping up with since I got back from Cyprus, (It doesn't take long to get back into old ways!) By the end of the class (5 hours) I'm hoping the students will have an original design complete with stitch plan and colour ideas, having just taught them basic drawing skills, composition and tone! I'm hoping I haven't been too ambitious, we will find out soon. I'm also teaching a traditional stitch sampler for a week and a one day goldwork class.

For anyone interested in Crewel Work, I'm running a one day Jacobean class in Winchester in October. More details can be seen at: http://embroiderynow.co.uk/

I also have an entry for the British Sari Story Competition to complete and I'm setting up a shop on Etsy for embroiderers across the pond. Busy busy busy!

Something new

I have been interested in peg dolls since I was little girl. I have a collection of the small wooden keepsakes which I add to occaisionally with a design of my own. I thought it would be nice to share these in the form of a selection of new kits.

A lot of peg dolls can be a bit crudely made, so I have attempted to make one that was simple to do, but high quality at the same time. The result are these 3 figures below:

Included in each kit: Peg, pipe cleaner, felt, fabric, ribbon, beads, sand paper, comprehensive instructions and pattern pieces.

Make the peg unique by drawing on your own hair and face and choose the length of the skirt you would like. There are 3 colours currently available. Flower Power, Opulent Orange and Beautiful Blue (see below):

They are suitable for the young and the young at heart and are available from e-bay for an introductory low price or buy now from me for £5 each (e-bay prices will soon rise to this price).

Send me a message or get in touch through my website via the link to the right.

I'm doing some research into this subject and would be very interested to hear from anyone who has peg dolls from their childhood! Please get in touch.