I'm An Addict

....to lace

Last Friday for my birthday I did some shopping at Michaels and a couple of other art/craft shops and have two large bags of supplies to put away. I decided I better organize and do a thorough cleaning of my little room first and thought I would start with the 6 drawer tower that I store my beaded and metallic laces in. These drawers now contained other laces and bits and bobs (I tend to throw stuff anywhere and everywhere when I'm working). They were a mess.

The pic above shows some of the lace from the first 4 drawers of my tower AFTER working for 5 hours yesterday

I'm now starting to refill the first three drawers as I sort and organize

I was initially going to also go through my upstairs room where I have my vintage textiles and clothing stored but wisely decided against it - I do hope to get to work on a figure this weekend!

Last evening I looked like one of these gals - blurry eyes and totally covered in lint and 100 year old lace dust.... and due to the huge mess that I have now created in my room, I'm pretty sure I still have a defeated glare on my face .

Where did all the dust and lint come from? Some of the metallic and beaded laces were still attached to remnants of 1900s dresses, primarily silks that had shattered. As the lace and any salvageable trimming is removed, clouds of 100 year old dust poufs up. Pieces like the part of an Edwardian bodice below:

By the end of the day, my sneezing, coughing and itchy eyes clued me in that I really should have been wearing some kind of protective gear

Workplace hazards? Probably, and if I have anymore fabric/lace to dismantle today, I will wear a mask. A huge perk to a thorough organization like this however is finding pieces of laces that one forgets they have. The three shown below are an example of some trims that I came across yesterday that were tucked at the back of a drawer, their beauty totally forgotten. I still have two drawers of the tower to go through...........hee - like finding treasure!

Before I do anymore sorting though, I'm going to check out the antique lace on Ebay and Etsy. My name is Sue and I'm a lace addict.

♥

Wordless Wednesday

Library of Congress

(again, I almost forgot to do this today)

Lemonade from a Lemon

Over a year ago I posted about a disaster I had using some old Prosculpt. What should have cured a soft pale colour, ended up a dark mottled tan/brown. I didn't trash the piece, thinking that someday I would play around and just see if I could save her.

My poor little fae "fresh" from the oven.

Originally I thought of using the darkness of her skin and doing something earth (or dirt) related, but this didn't overly inspire me. Last month, the ADO Monthly Challenge was "Spring Enchantment". I was responsible for this challenge so obviously had to create something. I pulled the poor little fae above from my discard basket and started painting.

She received a coat of gesso, three coats of Titan Buff (Golden acrylics),a coat of Green Interferance and some Burnt Umber wash (to give her a slightly antiqued look). I painted her features, wigged her, costumed her in antique laces and netting and used the wings I had made from fantasy film. She is holding a small nest I made with two little eggs in it and sitting on a "stone" (actually a repurposed resin candle stick) pedestal.

My ADO Spring Challenge piece ..."Rebirth"

I have a couple more pieces that I have thrown in my discard basket and one of these days, I may just see about making some more lemonade out of one of them. For now though, I'm on to some completely new work - using clay that I know will cure properly.

Mother's Day

I think moms everywhere can relate to this video

Wishing all moms a very happy day!

♥

Wordless Wednesday