Antique Indian Embroideries

On Saturday I was so excited to buy these two pieces of embroidery at the local auction house.
They came from a country house sale and I would love to find out more about them.

The frames and mounts are decidedly grubby but the frames will clean up well and I’m going to remount the embroidery and hang them in our Indian/Boho/Hippy sitting room. 

The needlework is very fine and they look as if they were made as panels.
If anyone can help with a date or geographical area I’d be very interested to know. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time?.....

Where is my time going atm?  The weeks seem to be flying by.  
Maybe it’s the dark nights, making the day feel as if its finished at 4pm?  

When DS started at High School I knew my day would be longer - he leaves at 7.30am rather than 8.30am and arrives home at 4.30pm, before it was 3.50pm.
But I still feel as if I am catching up from the summer holidays and now its nearly Christmas.

I was hoping to have the new website up and running and the first workshop available this week.  
However, I decided not to stress and the launch date is now next week.

I will let you know the web address very soon.
I just want to make sure its all ready before I tell the world about it.

So what HAVE I been up to?

 

Well I made a draught excluder for the kitchen door from an Indian Wallhanging

 

I’ve cut up this beautiful piece of hand dyed silk velvet for a very good cause (don’t worry I have two pieces that are identical!)
I can’t show you what I’m making just yet….. you will have to wait a few weeks. 

 

 

Most of my time has been used up constructing these new Mini-Jewelled Towers.  
These are for my first online workshop.
I do hope someone is interested in purchasing the information after all the hard work!
 

Autumn holidays

Hello!

Seems AGES since I last posted.  
We are almost at the end of the school holidays and its been a great week.

I’ve been working on…...

*drum roll*…… some new online workshops (finally!) and a new website for these workshops.

I’m hoping to launch in mid-November.  
Watch this space!

So what did we do in the holidays?  
Well, we escaped to Keswick and had fun doing the usual things - walk to the Lake with (the best ever) chips, shopping in Mayson's (whilst the boys were shopping in George Fishers), relaxing and drinking coffee, stone throwing and taking photos.

 

Autumn Colours on the shore of Lake Derwentwater

 

Derwentwater and Catbells, lit for a fleeting moment in the sun,

 

Borrowdale from Friars Crag.
(One of my favourite views in life).  

Boys throwing stones and having a good time.
(I love photographing them laughing) 

 

Sunset at Castlerigg Stone Circle.
You KNOW this is my favourite stone circle already don’t you?
It never makes fails to make me feel I’m somewhere REALLY special. 

 

Excuse the cross posting with Facebook, but I had to show everyone photos of my favourite places.

Talking of Facebook don’t forget you can find me there too, click the icon below to go there.

 

 

 

 

 Poppies.

Simple, delicate flowers.

For me that makes them harder to draw - there simply isn't much detail to excite me and I always find it harder to draw an object without detail, so I'm playing with colour too and exaggerating all the colours and tones I can just see….and I have chosen a flower captured with real movement and not a cliche round and flat poppy flower.

Pencils are Coloursoft by Derwent, about A5 size (the drawing, not the pencils).

Loosening up on A2 sized paper with charcoal and wash.

And loosening up even more with fluid acrylics (Golden), sprayed water and dabbled with fingers (great fun).

And here are the new storage units, I think I am in Studio Nirvana.
They came from a local private school that has closed and were a real bargain.

Finally the studio is tidy (yes that great pile of fabric has been sorted Sue), its been decorated, hoovered and dusted and is all welcoming again.
*sigh*
At last it feels right to be back in there.

At least I managed it before the next school holiday starts!
 

Don't forget you can find me on Facebook, always something different and new to see.

 

https://www.facebook.com/HelenCowansTextiles

Autumn Light

We have a beautiful Autumn morning here, cold, sunny, damp and misty.
Magical.

I was off out of the door with DS at 7.35am and headed up the hill for an hours walk.
I'm just enjoying a cup of coffee and then I'm back to painting cupboards in the studio.
The redecoration / clean up is going well and should be completed soon.

Thought you would like to see some pictures from this mornings walk. 

 

 

Another book pile

To keep the tidying up energy flowing I put peppermint oil in the diffuser and started on the sketchbook / notebook pile.

 

Or rather, piles of books.

The After Shot;

Took me all afternoon as I couldn't resist flicking through pages.
A really early book from 2000, Motherhood has turned out wonderfully, though maybe not quite as I expected it to as you can see from this cartoon. 
I'll have to redraw with one very special, floppy eared, suffolk lamb. 

Pugin, from 2004/5.  
To be resurrected as inspiration soon.

 

Roses from a C&G sketchbook.  Back in the day when you had to photocopy and paste, I hadn't found Photoshop then.
We have an old rose that grows by the Victorian Level Crossing gate posts.  Its beauty is brief, but stunning.

This sketchbook was created for part one, the designs were used for  a Mediaeval styled bodice.

Still one of my favourite pieces of work.

 

Stonewall studies, also from C&G days but later - Diploma in 2003/4.