I thought that I misuse the technique of Sashiko too much so I tried to do the basic running stitch only, and I enjoyed embroidering it as if I had done it for the first time, pretending I didn't know how to keep the lines straight. And, here we are, it looks very kindergarten kind of work but I like kids' art so I like this too. It has a birdie on the other side.
The upper birdie belongs to a bag, though, another mini bag for little girls.

Three Fairies

There was a theatre play for children in Prague called something like Big Adventure of two Gnomes. Their journey through a forest has been paved with mushrooms of all kinds, the stage designer really liked making them. So, they inspired me to work out her mushrooms even further. The cap is made of foam rubber and leather, the leg from wood. Cutting in foam rubber is fun but it took me a while to figure out a good shape and improve the technique. The material also needed to age so that it would become natural yellow.

These mushrooms served me well this Christmas as palm trees in our Nativity scene.

Find them on Etsy.

Collection 2010

Very limited one.
Pattern on the bag: it is all krtek's (little moule's) fault and instant watching it on youtube, although unwanted. But there are some really nice backgrounds painted and at one point a factory appears, all colorful and decorative. So this is where the wheel and sort of cubes come from.
Birds: Everybody likes them.
It is all on Etsy.

Mushrooms are part of the collection but wait till tomorrow, I will have better pictures.

This thing

is in the shop. Another attempt to reproduce an image of a mosaic or tile floor like they had in Rennaisance. It is quite rich this one, I would like to do something more simple but at the same time I like this "filling up the space".

There are also some new birds there, too.

New Bird in the Shop

Something has been cooking

New goods on the counter. And I will add other things soon.

Encouraged by my short success at Etsy, my husband got into the sashiko thing for a while. He found this interesting website. It is a gallery in Brooklyn that exhibits and sells old Japanese textiles dyed and decorated in one of their traditional techniques (pictures bellow). There is lot of sashiko going on there. Apparently, the owners hunt for the stuff straight in Japan. The most worn out, the most mended and sewn over with patches, the better. I understand their passion. Basically, the more it looks like the Japanese would throw it away, the more it is likely to appear in their gallery. It is interesting how we think of these things as being very artsy whereas their owners (and creators) want to get rid off them.



Finally, I have also learned what sashiko actually is. They would use it on fishermen clothes, they were made of two layers, stitches would hold it together and also strengthen the fabric. It is almost unbelievable that they would go into so much trouble sewing it. And they were making art pieces without knowing it. How many people on Etsy know that what they create is NOT art?

Frenzy

I made this bag, it is in my shop now. I think I reached my embellishing possibilities with this bag, I can't go any further now, otherwise I would slip into the deadwood that dominates etsy from some eighty percent. Anyway, it is still weird enough so that I could stand for it. Next time you can expect more modernist-like stuff from me, simple embroidery, Bauhas and such.

And, if you look for a proper embroidery, classical and nice one, go to Francesca's shop, she knows how to embroider. She also has a pair of stylish bags.