something modern and experimental

steampunk (water)gun

Pimp my steampunk-(water)gun (all materials found from home, so I did not need to buy anything.) This is my 1st version, next one will be much more steampunkish.

Materials used: Watergun from Biltema, ocre and black acrylic paint, copper dry pigment, glossy miniature lack, about 14 2mm (fake) pearls halfs, 2 4mm diamande stars, UV reactive lakc, Glow in the dark- lack and real gold

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Birthday card for one friend

I made this simple card for my friend last week.

New project

I started this scroll yesterday. It is going to be handed out at Aarnimetsä's Investiture. Wish me luck!

R.I.P Mick Aston

Yesterday I heard really sad news. My biiiig hero Mick Aston died few days ago. I even cried hours, so sad I am still.

We will miss you so much Mick...

Latest project

I can finally report about my latest project, as I gave the present to my friend yesterday.
This is the better part of the project, 14th century german brick stitch with naturally dyed wool and silk. Later I will post pictures of finishing touches of it.

new dress

This is picture of the fabric I (aka my seamtress Mom) am going to use for my new Cthulhu- dress. We have big historical dances few times a year and this dress should be finished just before RopeCon. It's not going to be historical dress, more like geeky,as there will be bling blibg- tentacles on the dress x)

I finally found way to use my handspun linen

I finally figured out how to use my handspun linen. Yay! This is 'bathmitten' for my friend. The 'design' aint as good as I hoped, but its usable and functional. I used dalarna stitch to make it, not the normal finnish one.

Just testing how to post from phone

As the tobic says, I am just testing. And adding a new photo of Frienshiibooks I made. Theme was 'Favorite actor/actress'

I just need to finish the outlines... The man, who ordered this from me, was really excited when I showed this one. All I need to do is black outlines and then it's ready to be attached to his light blue tunic.

Celtic pattern, silk on linen
Dark pink and pink: www.pipers-silks.com
Yellow orange: Bought brom my local SCA-friend
yellow: www.thesilkmill.com
Black outlines: www.pipers-silks.com and www.thesilkmill.com
Linen : Piece grantmother's dowrylinen (from late 30's)

Another new embroidery...

This is my new, very simple, project I started after I decided to take a short break from embroidering my silk on silk order. I have actually dyed that green wool by myself, with red onion peels. I love that color. The canvas is, if I remember right, 16count, so each 'normal' stich is about 3mm long. The whole embroidery is going to be about 14.5 x 9cm

Lately I have been thinking about selling few of my embroideries over Etsy.com. I am just not sure should I sell them as final product (like needlebook or bag) or just as simple embroidery (so the buyer can use it as she wish). Any suggestions/opinions?

Comission progress

I have namaged to done quite a lot of this celtic embroidery. I also started my other commission work, but it's a bit frustrating atm. I have never done silk on silk and that's a bit problematic. Idon't like the outcome at all and I may even undo the embroidery and start again. I'll post pictures as soon as I managed to do something decent.

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Reason of silence: The Elder scrolls V: Skyrim
Lenght of silence: N/A
excuse of silence: It was my birthdaypresent, I HAVE to play it....

Audiobooks and sewing seams

I started to make my new late 14th cent dress a month ago. It's 'red wine' wool and the pattern is very simple with short sleeves. I found, well...actually it was my man.... the fabric from small shop. The boutique was closing down, so they had huge discounts. I paid about 7e from 4m of the wool and I also bought gray 'herringbone' woolblend too. The grey fabric is sooooo soft! I'll be reposting about it later on.

Sewing the 10+ meters of seam goes quite well when you are listening an audiobook. Atm I am middle of 'Clash of Kings' by R.R.Masrtin... yup... it's part of the  famous 'Game of Thrones'

This time I don't have any pics to post, I have not done anything pictureworthy lately. Well, actually I have done, but it's going to be a present, so I can tell you about it after I have given it away x) ... till then... Adjöö o/

Scanno, Italy

Last summer I visited Italy. This picture is from Scanno, Abruzzia. The trip was epic and I definitely want to go there again.

Sulmona, Abruzzo

Somewhere between Scanno and Sulmona

Scanno

New order halfdone

I hurt my foot week ago quite bad. It took over 5 days to be able to wear a shoe without pain. I still have some pain, but I am able to use one pair of shoes. So, as I have been forced to sit a lot, I have also had change to embroider a lot.

This is it, the order I have been embroidering lately. It's going to be embroidered with silk and attached to my client's tunic later. I have had some problems while ordering new silk and as this order is quite important, I can not wait till May to get new floss from my normal supplier. So I decided to start with the colors I already have and hope they will last long enough. I found another place to order silk threat. They should arrive tomorrow, I hope. I really wish those new colors are suitable, this new company had like 5 different kind of silk, and I have no idea witch ones would be similar to those I have already used. Don'r worry, I will report as soon as I get the threats.

Something else

Previously I talked about starting projects too late. This one is one of those. I got the inspiration about 24h beforehand. And I had to make 6 of these, because I wanted to surprise 6 of my friends at the same time. Each of these are A6 sized and they look different, althou the theme and image is the same. This card was given to my friend Sanna, as she likes steampunk (like I do too)


Yup, that's Cthulhu wearing a Santa's outfit ;)

Comission

Yay! I got comission embroidery! 2 years ago I made 2 tunics for my friend and now he wanted some embroideries done. He picked up 3 different celtic dog images. The blue tunic will get quite elaborate embroideries around neck and the greyish brown one will get border on the hemline with 2 different images repeating (4x square and 4x round). I totally went mad when my customer gave me money and said 'you can choose the colors'. So I spent 3 mindblowing hours trying to deside the colors. ( I ordered the yarn from www.thesilkmill.com) Yup, Im going to make silk embroideries. I love working on with silk. I love the sheen and how soft the embroidery feels.

I'll post pictures when I have something to show. I have not yet got the embroidery floss....

Me? Crocheting? no way!

Yup, I have been lately only crocheting. I have finished 2 scarfs so far. I have started them both months ago, but since my work ended, I have not had time to finish them.

Unfortunately I can not post pictures, as they are going to be presents and both recipients may read this blog x)

I also started to crochet a present for my friend. His birthday is in 3 days, so I am in hurry. Why, oh why I get all ideas only few days beforehand? I am pretty sure I am not the only one, but I am getting annoyed, as I have stressed out too many times. Yup, this aint the 1st time this happens. Last time I got the inspiration 24h before I needed the presents and I was finishing the items middle of night.

To-Do list

- Turn your gray woollen dress more authentic aka cut sleeves, turn backside to the front and open neckline. MAYBE also fix the lacing too, but that's optional

- Cut off (and tidy up) about 15cm from your veil and use the cut of piece to make another wimple.

- Start to embroider late 14th cent bag's another side IF you have had money to buy more silkfloss.

- Continue to sew your 14th cent. wool dress.

- Ponder what kind of decoration to add to your new dress.

- Make late 14th cent. dress from linen. You need authentic clothes (/that are not very hot under scorching sun)  for Grünwald.

- Try to have time to finish your crocheted scarf.

- Play with indigo dye ;)

Shall we guess how much I manage to do. And how many new projects, not included this list, I'll start (and finish)

oh! You are so original aka another embroidery

 

That's another German brick stitch I made. This design is actually done by me. Again the fabric is 24 count evenweave and tread used is silk and wool.  it's 5cm x 13.5cm. I have no idea what to do with it, haha xD Maybe I'll try to sell it...

And more german brick stitch

Yup, I have yet another embroidery to show, haha. You can not stop me...


 

These patches are both 5.5cm squares. Left one is Bargello-design (sorry, cant find the pattern anymore :( ) and the right one is from here.  Both are wool on linen 24 count evenweave. I guess I'll make small lavender-pillows (to put inside linen closet etc) or pincushions. I am definitely trying Bargello again. I'll probably make more modern versiosn, as Bargello aint authentic enough to be used in other medieval society I am involved. You see, Bargello is 17th cent technique and the other society's timeperiod is 1000-1400.

more German Brick stitch...

Do you have problems with adding photos? I have not been able to add pics straight from my HD, and I have to store them 1st into my photobucket album before I can add them into my posts. Really annoying...

This time I'd like to post yet another pic of my embroideries. Last 2 weeks have been really crazy, all I have wanted to to is embroider, embroider and embroider a bit more. I have even skipped World of warcraft to be able to finish my little patches of German Brick Stitch.

so... here's one I made. I have these really odd skeins of random floss and I have been trying to use them as good as I can. In this embroidery I used all the colors from the bluish set of floss. It ended up pretty goodlooking (minus the one single mistake on the left side of the embroidery). Fabric was 24 evenweave and each stitch is 3mm long. Cream outlines are silk, interior is mostly wool, I guess. You see, I have no idea what material this bluish set was, as i came without any tags etc. But I assume they are wool, at least they feel like wool.This is 14cm x 8cm

 

And no, I have no idea what I am going to do with it. I might make a needlebook, but I may do something else too

Viking drawing vol 2

Here is the second viking picture I drawed for one calendar. Made on A4 90mg pergamanata using black ProMarker and Black  MUJI pen (0.38mm, 0.5mm and 0.7mm)

German Brick Stitch : 1/2 of small bag

 

Here's pic of my finished german brick stitch. It's 22 evencount and made with silk (from Silk Mill) As you can see, plenty of mistakes xD I also ran out of the reddish brown floss and I ordered new skeins... from wrong color. Soooo, I decided to use it after all. I tried to make the transition line as smooth and even as possible, so maybe some people would think it was intentional colorchange xD  
I have started to embroider other side. This piece and the unfinished one are going to be a fancy little bag to accompany my  new late 14th century dress.
(Pattern here @ Medieval Arts and Crafts)

Problems, updates and new settings

It seems blogger does not want to add any pics. I hope this is just momentary problem. I was about to add some new pics from historical jewelry, but I have to postpone such entry.

As few of you might have noticed, I have changed the layout and background of the blog. It's not as scary as it was previously ;) I hope you like new new look as much as I do.

I also changed the settings. Now anyone are able to comment my entries, althou I will moderate them all. I hope all the spammers will stay away for a while.

Oh well, I might report that I AGAIN started new German brick stitch embroidery, ahahhaha  xD We had childrens' weekend at the castle, and I wanted to make embroidery kids can touch. I almost fainted when 10 kids started to caress my finished, silken German brick stitch x) I should not be so scared about it, but I did not want even the tiniest smudge or grease onto the embroidery.

See you later,
Lady Amal

Viking drawing for calendar

i made this drawing for one calendar. remember to click it. From biggger pic you'll see all the details.

Part of the ormanent from carved animal head post (Oseberg, Norway)
Paper: 90mg pergamanata
pens: MUJI black 038, 0.5 and 0.7 mm
size: A4

Historical Jewelry

Lovely miniatures

 Today I decided to  post few pics fro my work. We actually have only few jewelry sets I don't like. I wish I could be as good miniaturepainter some day. I have not done that kind of miniatures at all (like in the picture above), but I might some day. I guess oil paints would be the best for practising. Actually I have not painted with oil in years. Maybe I should give a try ;)


This pearl set is one of my favourites too. I was stupid and I did not take details from these sets and now I can't remember anything at all. This probably was early 19th century set... or late 18th.... maybe I'll take new pics of the sets with correct information included. 

 

Pearls and filigree