Mystery Object Revealed

 

The object is an old quarter plate camera made by the Lizars company in Scotland.

 

The company started making cameras in the late 1890s, but this one, a Challenge model, I think dates from a little later than that.

Mystery Object.

                                       This is the lock on the outside of the old leather case.

                                                        This is the Trademark on the item

                                        And these are vital components of the mystery item.

Autumn.

Judging by this picture it must be Autumn, but the weather is still so warm that it's hard to believe that in fact it's almost Winter.

Another Needle Felted Book Cover.

 I  placed random bits of toning wool fleece onto a piece of stabilizer and felted them all down,
then, added strands of a fine mohair yarn and finally the flowers.

These were made of commercial acrylic felt with fine strands of wool fleece on top, then each one needle felted to the background. Unfortunately the acrylic felt started to break down having been worked on initially as a free standing piece and then onto the background. Still it looks O.K.......from a distance!

All the Embellished Items to Date.

With a class in using the needle felting machine coming up later in the year, I'm making a collection of sample pieces whenever I have the time to do so.

Back to the Embellishing Machine.

This book cover is made of randomly cut pieces of shiny fabric, overlaid with a sheer toning organza and then worked over lightly with the needle felting machine. I made a mistake in using wadding that was a bit thick, but it does make for a sturdy piece of fabric for the cover. The book cover is hard to photograph, as in reality the edges of the pieces of underlying fabric don't show up as clearly as they do in this picture.

More Doors.

Monthly Challenge Piece.

Well it's finished, but I'm not at all happy with it. I had a great deal of trouble with the binding, it kept rolling under, and I wish that I had added more leaves to the design lower down on the stems.

More ATC Work 2.

          The butterflies are finished, so I moved on to the next in the list, or I thought that I did.

I was sure that it was catterpillars next, so I duely made a catterpillar ATC.  Then I checked the list and found out that it should have been boxes!  Oh well, boxes can come next.

Monthly Challenge.

 The culture that was chosen for this months challenge was American Indian. This is an illustration of a bag taken from a book, unfortunately I can't acknowledge the book as it was borrowed from a library by one of the group members and I don't have any details.

This is the beginning of the piece and what a challenge it was!  The thread kept breaking and I even managed to break 2 sewing machine needles as well.  Luckily this is just a starting point.

Butterfly ATCs.

The next ATC challenge is for a butterfly card, right up my alley, but I'm running out of time so I'm going to cheat.  Well, just a little! The background fabric is one of my screen prints that didn't quite work for the original intention, but it makes excellent backgrounds for this purpose. The butterflies are cut out of commercial fabric, the cheating bit, but I will do some stitching as well.

An Amazing Flower.

            This amazing flower has just opened and there are at least 2 more buds still to come.

This is actually a spike of many flowers and the white 'hood' is an enlarged bract, just like an Arum Lily.

The Last Wasp.

The last of the Potter wasps appears to have burrowed out and left the nest. How symetrical it is, except for one who burrowed out too high!

Coffee Time.

                                    Nothing better than a good cup of frothy coffee/chocolate.

New Project, Doors.

I'm starting work on a new projecy and have delved into my collection of photos of doors, taken all over the world.

 These are from Egypt, but unless I go to my diary I really can't remember where I took them. Possibly in the Oasis of  ? in the Western Desert.

The wind keeps driving the sand into the villages and burying everything.  Once a door is covered up by sand and can't be opened, the people just build another storey and move up.

Finished.

This is a little clutch purse made from the Embellished felt with the smallest butterfly added for decoration.

Embellished Butterflies.

Here pieces of silk, patterned and plain have been Embellished over a background piece of felt.

                                  The details have been added with pen and sewing machine.

Needle Felted Fabric.

 Here is a piece of felt laid out with various ribbons and yarns prior to needle felting with an electric Embellishing machine.

                          This is the reverse side with the items punched through from the front.

Samples for a Class Using an Embellisher.