What to do?

So, my sister sent me an amazing birthday present, two different versions of an Alexander Henry fabric called "Osteology":

They're so great! But what should I do with them? I need amazing projects for this amazing fabric!

Things to do in London in May

Three free things to do in London this month...

Saturdays and Sundays in May, beginning 5th May: Magnificent SevenDeadly Sins, a public art exhibition in the mausoleum at Nunhead Cemetery. Elisabeta Chojak-Mysko, Desiree Ickerodt, Jolanta Jagriello, Debora Mo, Ara Moradian, Jill Rock and Sara Scott each examine one of the seven deadly sins.

12th - 13th May and 19th - 20th May: Dulwich Festival Artists' Open House. Lots of artists and craftspeople in Dulwich will be opening their studios and houses to the public over these two weekends, but I want to give a special mention to Lucy Duke, who will be exhibiting on the first weekend.

14th - 19th May: East London Textile Arts will be exhibiting patchwork and embroidery at St Martin-In-The-Fields, Trafalgar Square.

More weird armour...

Over the weekend I designed a backplate to go with these breastplates and I spent today fitting together the vilene pieces. In order to make this I started off with small paper templates, (which I figured out through trial and error), I then enlarged these using a grid. I printed the enlarged templates onto the vilene using heat transfer paper, cut out the vilene, folded it into shape and sewed/pinned the pieces together. Not at all laborious and long-winded!

Batik

Two batik pieces made on Tuesday.

The spiralling vegetation is loosely based on the design on the helmet below. The helmet is part of the collection at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, which I completely recommend visiting. Entry is free!

This piece, (which came out looking like a pair of aliens in the process of dematerialising), was done using a stencil based on a sketch I made at the Wallace Collection. The sketch is included below for comparison.

Breastplates

I have been doing and making things lately, but I haven't really felt like writing about any of it. Unlike other bloggers, I make no excuses and offer no apologies!

I'm back at college after the Easter break and making breastplate-like forms from paper, pelmet vilene and heat transfer paper.

Crochet update

At some point in the last week the movements of crochet became unconscious. It turns out that it's a better craft for public transport - easy to pick up and put down without losing your place and unlikely to unravel in your bag.

Armour part 3

I'm still working on the felt armour mentioned in previous posts. It now has a backplate, a paper helmet and some embroidery, but is currently missing its left arm piece, which was broken off somehow. I'm planning on reattaching that and creating a breastplate after the Easter break.