I was so lucky for christmas to get a copy of the book I had been after for ages, (but had always found out of stock) Home by Julie Arkell!
I must have picked it up and looked at it every day since christmas, how I love her beautiful creatures. Julie's work is so magical and fasinating, the textiles are so charming and her attention to detail, each creature has their own character and personality often with lovely words and phrases embroidered on. I love that she uses lots of recycled materials, newspaper, books, broken things, and puts them together using papier mache, knitting, embroidery to make things with such homespun charm.
If you don't know her work here are a couple of examples of my favourites.
I know a lot of bloggers out there have been lucky enough to go on one of her workshops and this year I am going on one too, which I am so looking forward to!
As the children went back to school yesterday (hooray!)I spent a little "me" time having a go at making my own JA inspired creature.
I started making the body out of florist wire:
Then the fun paper mache bit! I used pva glue diluted with water. I let her dry between coats, but I think she still needs another coat before I can start being creative with clothes and painting. What fun I can't wait to see how she turns out!
This is going to be fabulous! My little Freya would love to dabble in a creation like this. For her birthday I made her a toadstool house using paper mache. I used glue as well...but I added it to a flour/water mix. Mostly because I didn't really know what I was doing! It took a while to dry because it was winter. It was sooooo hard to hide a huge red balloon covered in tacky newspaper in the house...and still get it dry....and it still be a suprise for a birthday. Strangely enough I still have fond thoughts of paper mache!
ReplyDelete