Shisha work and Sari yarn
One of my latest ebay spends is the delightful book Embroidery techniques from East & West by Munni Srivastava. Embroidery is combined with quilting, and heavily flavoured by Indian influences. The colours are bold and the embroidery is rich in texture. This is certainly a great book to look through and feel inspired! From this book I decided to have a try at Shisha embroidery (mirror work). Not having tiny mirrors to hand did not deter me, I made some shiny circles from a drinks can (If you are trying this at home, mind your fingers!!!!!). I filled the background with some stitches commonly used in Indian work. 
I must be having an Indian themed week, as yesterday my order arrived from fibrecrafts. One of the many things I ordered (they have an amazing selection) was a hank of recycled sari yarn. I am not quite sure what I am going to do with it, but at the moment I am happy admiring its beauty!
I must be having an Indian themed week, as yesterday my order arrived from fibrecrafts. One of the many things I ordered (they have an amazing selection) was a hank of recycled sari yarn. I am not quite sure what I am going to do with it, but at the moment I am happy admiring its beauty!
Gosh, it seems like you & I have something in common: namely, an addiction to buying beautiful fabric/yarn/threads just because they look too lovely to miss out on! LOL
ReplyDeleteI hope you can come up with a make-use idea worthy of that fantastic hank of yarn- I'm sure you will!
Great work on the Indian embroidery, and kudos on coming up with the drink cans idea for the mirrors- how did you manage to cut them? Hope your hands aren't too badly wounded!
Cheers for the comment. I was trying to rationalise my purchases for specific projects only, but couldn't resist the yarn!
ReplyDeleteThe drink can mirrors... its actually a can of lager! I cut the top and bottom off after stabbing it with a pair of scissors,and flattened the middle section in to a rectangle. Then cut out little circles. The circles wern't quite as sharp as I first thought, but the stabbing of the can was a little dangerous!!!! :)