finished work and experimentation

my ongoing Christmas project has resulted in a second finished hot pad

and a pressing need to visit a web site or two to search for some cotton yarn, as the only thing I have left is a small amount of the turquoise color that makes up the majority of this one

I'll be trying to do that in the next day or so

yesterday afternoon I finished the cameo bracelet

this is the first time I've tried to create a bracelet with these separate "tiles" or "links" without using some kind of crystals or beads or loops between them

and I'm really pleased with how this idea worked out

it also has sparked some ideas in my head about some ways to use a similar technique to create a necklace that will fit around the neck in a more flexible way than just doing a collar

I want to play with the idea a bit more, with some variations, so the next piece I start will be another bracelet, but it will involve those variations

this picture is of the fabric that previously was stitched to the Hoffman piece as a vase

part of what is happening for me this year as I work on this piece, is sort of like what a painter does -- when the painter is unhappy with the way something looks, it can just be painted over --- while I can't just paint over it, I can remove it to change it

part of what I was still unhappy with was that the vases just looked "flat" -- and yes, I know, the fabric is flat, but so is a canvas, so there has to be a similar approach to making those vases look more like a 3 dimensional shape in space like a painter does

and usually that is done by using shading -- which is what I've been fiddling with the last couple of days

this picture shows what happened when I got out the watercolor pencils and used the black pencil along the right hand edge of the fabric -- yes! now that is much more what I've been looking for

and I'll be trying the use of some white on the spots that should look lighter where the light source would be hitting the surface of the vase

so this will be a multi media piece in a different way than mine have been --- less bead embellishment, but using shading with the water color pencils to create that whole "painterly" look

I feel like I'm learning a lot