Tuesday 26 April 2016

Cornish Piskie Boy nearly finished .

                                     
                                                                Surprise !
                                So there are Cornish Piskie girls out there too !
   I had such fun stitching this little fairy person ,which came from a vintage transfer .
I enjoyed choosing my own Cornish colours and embroidering it ,  in my own way .
 

          Next ...I need to give her a little golden bell on the end of her pixie hood  .
            So out with my Golden Box full of gorgeous sparkling treasure !


Time for a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit , while I play with my golden threads  .
Some say  , that there be gold in the sand , and in the hills and streams in the far South West of Cornwall .

Little Cornish Piskie Boy


                              I,m really enjoying stitching this cheeky little chap !


                                      He has been coming everywhere with me  .

   
 I wanted to back track a little bit and talk about the embroidering of faces .
If there are faces in any embroidery piece that I am doing ; people , animals or indeed fairy folk , then these will usually be , the areas that I stitch first .
  For me it is a kind of modeling with thread and only giving the suggestion of the facial features , works best for me .
 If I am using embroidery cotton or silk thread , then I can put in more detail...but for my little Cornish Piskie boy , I am using crewel wool ...so I must try not to over do it .
  I didn't like those black eyebrows and felt so much happier after I unpicked them .
I hope to do a little more today , the sun is shining , but there is a cold Northerly wind blowing ....hope it's not too cold where you are .


Piskie , Pixie , Pesky , Piskey, Pisky , Pigsy .... fairy folk found in England . Piskies are commonly to be found in Cornwall .

Monday 25 April 2016

Cornish Piskie ..bit more ...


                                    Adding a bit more definition to the toadstool .

Friday 22 April 2016

Cornish Piskies and Doll making


A little project that I,ve been carrying around with me in my handbag is this little Cornish Piskie..(or Pixie as the folks in Kent say .)


 ....but I,ve put him aside  for  awhile , as I,m thinking of getting out my doll making stuff again ......


  My grandmother made dolls , my mother made dolls and I too just love making dolls .
 I haven,t got many to show you , since most of them have been given away to school bazaars , jumble sales , Church Fairs , various charity raffles, or just given to little girls , both mine in the family and friends .There was one that was sadly left on the seat of a London Underground train....oh the tears ! We never got that one back .
 This one above, a cloth doll, I decided to keep for myself , but I also make dolls out of whittled wood and clay .


Here's my Wood Whittling box ....do you remember those Whale thread winders that I made ?

                               ........and here's my first carved spoon : )


                                 ..............but getting back to the dolls....


It is lovely ,especially as I embroider their faces , how they seem to become very real little personalities .


Also in this box , wrapped in a muslin cloth , is a clay doll that I begun a couple of years ago . I still have to paint her , give her hair , make a cloth body and dress her .


Here are some simple arms and legs  whittled out of sticks , this one is going to be a Christmas tree fairy doll , but I was wondering how I could make a jointed limb doll .
 I cant seem to find any clear instructions on how to do this. I think I will need a drill of some sort ( scary ) some wire to pass through the hole..but I,m not sure how to finish the cut off wire at the shoulders and hip joints .....I,m worried about the wire being sharp .
An old book , had a piece of paper glued into the front cover with instructions for a puppet or marionette , which was interesting but still not totally clear .


So then ...... whilst browsing on Ebay ....I came across a simple little doll made of sticks !
  I thought that I could have a really close up look at it and work it out for myself . So I bid on it ......and won !
 Then on enquiring if the person selling it had made it themselves ...I discover that it had been found in the loft of a 500 year old cottage in Kent .....wrapped in a piece of cloth....hanging from a nail in a beam !
   I,m waiting for the postman right now ......

Monday 4 April 2016

A Little Stitch Sampler Book


I had been  working on a much larger project , but we,ve all had  flu and I decided to just do a bit of  easy embroidery stitch practice on these pages of what will be eventually put together as a little stitch sampler book for my grand daughter .


Daisy Stitch or Detached Daisy Stitch 


 Vandyke Stitch ( hate it never want to do this stitch again stitch ! ) and Herringbone Stitch .

                                                   Bullion Stitch roses


                                                  Bayeux Tapestry Stitch


  Whipped Spiders Web Stitch ( Thanks to Anna Scott for her brilliant tutorial ! on her blog  )
                                          So pleased with myself with these ! : )

Angel Wings Silk