seahorse & jellyfish/butterflies, blossoms and feathers

It's my mother's birthday on Wednesday, but since we had planned to go to the OB's (post hockey game) we just ended up celebrating yesterday. She asked me, yesterday for a silk scarf to go with a new gray dress. I said I would choose red, but she mentioned salmon (as a colour). Here is what I came up with. I had some striped greyish silk. I printed it with the jellyfish and seahorse blocks in salmony pink.


I had some hand-woven Thai floral silk (oh, the wonders of the Sidney Thrift Store!), which I embellished with butterflies, blossoms and feathers in black, and tints of salmon, peach, orange and pink. Honestly, it's less busy than that sounds:



I painstakingly sewed the two rectangles together. Silk can be tough and finnicky to deal with.





I actually wear a lot of silk scarves* but have never previously attempted to make one.

*Ok, actually, it's a running joke: how many scarves does have on her person at any give time. But they are the solution to style + unpredictable weather: 40 million French women can't be wrong. I have um, several.

Feathers and Snowflakes

This month the Mad Scientists of Etsy challenge is the Feather. As some of you know, I am allergic to feathers. I made a block printed Guinea fowl feather fabric (feather-free, vegan even) brooch.




Meanwhile, the Trans-Canada Etsy Team chose the theme of snow. Bizarrely, we currently have no snow. It felt like spring out there today (though, I'm not sure I believe it... it might change at any moment). I carved two snowflakes (based on microscopic photographs of individual flakes) and printed them on irridescent silk. Here's a sneak peek of a two-brooch set in the works.

Urban Dodo

More pillows!

This pillow front is a patchwork of my hand-printed lino block dodo on handwoven Thai gray silk floral, a cotton print urban scene of many buildings in white on brown and dusky rose upholstery fabric. One of a kind.


I like how my lino block printed dodo turned out on the handwoven silk floral fabric. I think of the pink flower like a parasol for dodo.

The brown fabric is from the R. & F.'s neighbour Snoflake and Dagg's excess fabric sale.

Jellyfish and Seahorse Pillow

Here two of my most intricately carved sea creatures meet up, face to face (do jellyfish have faces, I wonder?) in this graphic hand-printed pillow. The jellyfish linoleum block is printed in pale mauve on navvy cotton. The seahorse linoleum block is printed in gold on irridescent green raw silk. The reverse is a modern print canvas in orange and red on white (complete with handprinted minouette label with tentacles in turquoise on vintage floral cotton). The pillow has a bold, luxurious and modern, yet handmade look. It is indeed one of a kind.

The pillow is 35 cm wide by 30 cm tall (or 13.5 inches by 12 inches).