More than just brooches

I have been really pleased with the reception which my floral brooches have been getting on Folksy. A few of them have sold almost straight away. Strange how things come about! The items which tended to get the most viewings, in the winter were my floral scarves. Not really appropriate for the summer, and wanting a vehicle for some embroidery, which I love doing, the brooches began. Obviously, brooches are not seasonal in the same way as scarves, which is great. However, not everyone is a 'brooch person' and I have been trying to design other items which can be decorated with my style of floral embroidery.

Some of my brooches are embroidered on appliqueed backgrounds.  This gives quite a distinctive appearance, part of which depends on the design of the fabrics which I choose. These designs are easy to apply to many textile based items. My most recent brooches are embroidered on hand-made felt. I feel that these are more distinctive and I like the effect which I can achieve by blending the colours and fibres which I use in the felting process. I place the felt on top of a backing fabric for stability. The combination of the felt and my backing fabric are pleasingly easy to stitch through and allow the easy passage of the ribbons which often feature in my designs. The first few layers of stitching help to stabilise the felt and the finished items are firm and suitable for use as a brooch.

Items, such as purses, need to be more robust to stand up to the 'scuffling' around, next to keys, pens etc., to which we subject them in our bags. I have been trying to devise new backgrounds for my embroidery which will be more suitable in these situations. I hope to complete one or two items, over the next few days. These have backgrounds which have been knitted and then felted. I have used space dyed yarns and intend to try a few more using blends of various yarns and fibres which will felt. This seems to be producing fabric which is firm enough to stitch onto and yet allows for the use of ribbons and thicker threads, whilst remaining distinctive, if a little different to my brooches.

---o---

These are a few of my latest brooches which I must add to my gallery: