caro-rose-creations

On the beach

We have one small stretch of beach on our reach of the Brisbane river and it has been covered in logs and trees brought down by the last flood.  Now someone has built a Dragon Boat out of the driftwood. (We have a big dragon boat club not far from here.) Since I first saw it a sail of flags have been added.

There is a printed sign on it asking for name suggestions.

The explanation at bottom of the page reads;

When Oblix and Asterix came to New Farm for the French Film Festival last month they borrowed a ship from Geriatrix which was known to be in poor condition and was wrecked.  We think this could be the site and are trying to put it back together so they can get back to the village in Gaul to feed Dogmatix.

It doesn't look all that seaworthy to me but that dragon is fierce.

I think it could almost breath fire.

Both adults and children keep checking it just to make sure it doesn't come to life and make a nuisance of itself.

The clothing

Besides the young man,s wedding coat there were three other pieces in the exhibition.  A widow's dress from Palestine.

You could tell it was owned by a widow because it had been torn down the front.

Those cross stitch patterns are so distictive.

Then two outfits, with different embroidery designs, from Pakistan, or near Pakistan.  They both had coins from Pakistan sewn onto the pieces as decoration.  Both were very heavy.  This was caused by the metal that was sewn onto the surface and the material used.  The material was a heavy cotton but the fullness at the bottom of both pieces was formed by adding lots of inserts, with lots of seams.  They would have moved beautifully when the person wearing either of them moved.  They were made for movement. The sleeves in both pieces are a work of art in their own right.

Outfit No 1

The coins, beads and metal pieces added to the weight and the fabric inserts came in from under this.

Press studs were used as decoration as well as coins.

And buttons.

You an see Pakistan stamped on this coin.

These sections on the sleeves must have taken ages to stitch.

Outfit No 2

Not as much metal used in this one, but lots of buttons.

and beads.

Then just to finish, from some other pieces.  There was this use of herringbone stitch.

 And this well used rug.

With small squares of fabric appliqued in place around the edge.

Some elephants from the exhibition.

Sorry about the quality of some of these images but I love these wonky elephants and wanted to show them.

Applique.

This is a very wonky one.

I love those pink feet and that closed herringbone works well at covering a large area.

One of the few embroideries I have seen of this God.

I like how they have used negative space to define the ear.

Tomorrow some of the clothing.

Helping hang an exhibition

I spent a day helping hang an embroidery exhibition in a large gallery at Bribie Island north of Brisbane recently.  The bulk of the exhibition was antique Indian embroideries contained in clothing, wall handings and curtains for doorways.   It was hard but enjoyable work.

There was one display bay that was painted blue.  No-one wanted to use it, I thought it was great and immediately took it to display a young man's wedding jacket and a selection of skull caps.

I still haven't got my camera back so these images are taken with my iphone.  (Lots went into the trash and some are a bit fuzzy.)  Four of the five skull caps are cross stitched, the fifth is Shiska mirror work.

This image is fuzzy but I liked the colours and the design.

Considering these pieces date from the mid 1980's the colours have kept their brightness.

This one is stitched in tent stitch.

The mirrors used in this one are very small and the fabric is worn and fuzzy, it's not me shaking the camera.

More tomorrow.

 

A bit of vintage

I have some photos of my granddaughter playing in her room and in those photos was a Fisher Price Activity Centre.

I bought this for my first baby over 30 years ago.  It hung in the cots of all three of my children and they all loved it.  I packed it up and put it away for when they had children and now my grand babies love it and play with it as well.  I have a whole heap of old toys put away for them to play with.

I found a French site where they sell vintage toys today and got to thinking about why I had kept it and the other toys.  I didn't have any old toys of my own, my mother got rid of those before she died.  I do have some books that I had squirreled away.  What I do remember was an old bear that my Grandmother had in an old cupboard.  It was my father's teddy and I loved playing with it as a child.  Fancy my father being a child?    I hope my grandchildren think that as well when they play with their father's old toys.