I think I have interpreted the kingfishers plumage reasonably well. I like how the colours overlap and how they stand out against each other. The embroidery and beading add the glamour and sheen that a kingfishers coat has! Kingfisher photos from BBC Wildlife Magazine.
It needs to be backed, so for now here is a peak of the messy back.
My jam jars are all cleaned, so my buttons can all go to their new homes. Looking very pretty indeed.
The postman brought me a CD-Rom of the 2008 editions of FiberArts. I shall enjoy looking at this later, whilst supping some hot chocolate. As it is definitely hot chocolate weather here!
Finally, there is a wonderful winter raffle in aid of Rabbit and Guinea Pig Welfare, with some fantastic crafty prizes. See here for more details. Meanwhile, I am prototyping a guinea pig scarf. It is very warm & cosy, the downsides are that it does squeak a bit, is a bit musky and occasionally poops!
My favourite jar is the assortment of novelty buttons. I love rummaging through this, rediscovering old finds. It reminds me of when I was little, my nan always had a tin or two, filled with buttons and old spools. And remember my kingfisher project, sidelined for a little while, well I'm on the home straight!
Other news is that I completed the Midnight Moo with my mum. Ten miles of walking, mooing, and many cow-related puns. All for a very, very good cause. And of course, the route went past a very famous herd.
Now back to the stitching!
Meanwhile I have started to stitch my kingfisher wall hanging, this is heavy going on the fingertips at times due to the layers of silk involved (up to 8 in places!). A thimble & hand cream are a must!
Perfect sewing job for watching the World Cup. Someone was a little distracting though!
They have managed to completely take over the dining table (the desk in the spare room/craft space is currently hidden under so much stuff!). 
In the process I have also managed to make my hands look like those of a smurf...
I just love promarker pens! First things first I sampled paints on the silk, unsurprisingly the pebeo silk paints worked best! I also added small highlights of colour with Markal paintsticks.
Then to the origami, here it would be helpful to have a couple more hands (especially hands that were immune to the heat of the iron!). Folding, ironing & then small stitches to keep in place and voila!
One silk painted origami base crane... now to repeat for all these colours!
I have also been playing around with blue organza & cottons, using crayon coloured bondaweb or angelina fibres as glue, finished off with rough feather finger shapes on the sewing machine. I like the richness of combining the layers and the ghostly fibres trapped between.
I also tried to bleach a selection of blue fabrics I had. However they all resisted the bleach to a more or lesser extent. So I painted the samples with acrylics, trying to show feather movement. 
Next, I have brought some beautiful Indian silk dupion which I hope to use for my final piece, though I better first check how it takes colour!
Then I looked at the origami crane base again, and made different sizes in paper. I am drawn to the shape of this, but need to explore what happens if there is a contrasting colour on the underside? 
Finally a suggestion by Pat Ashton-Smith was layer up pleats to resemble feathers, using three different fabrics I had a rough go. I like how they float over each other.
Kingfishers are very popular this week, as they have become magazine cover stars! Not quite Vogue, but on the latest edition of the Radio Times. Which reminds me to watch a new programme starting on BBC1 today, Halcyon River Diaries as these feathered friends are due to make an appearance!
