Fish Brooch

Over the weekend, I felt the urge to do something – I needed to be creative :) So instead of making something for my dolls, I decided to make something for myself. I did not want to sew anything, but rather embroider and embellish something. And then I stumbled over Michele Caragher’s website and I knew what I wanted to make – a fish brooch inspired by her work. Make sure to check out her galleries, she makes amazing things, pieces of art, actually! I spent quite some time figuring out how she did the fish and I came up with my own method. I’m sure that there are easier and faster ways to achieve what I did, but I thought it might be interesting to share the process with you!

I started with felting a fish shape in different tones of blue and white, to give it more three-dimensionality. Also, I don’t have to stitch so much, as the felt is supposed to shine through.

Next, I embroidered the head and stitched along the side of the fish with regular sewing thread in light yellow, blue and green. I also added details to the head – the eyes and the mouth. Then, I sewed on little gold sequins, which represent the scales.

I continued adding glasss beads in various colours and made tiny loop-stitches to give the fish more texture.

And that’s basically it! I cut the fish out, turned the edges under and sewed a piece of fabric onto the back, to give it a cleaner finish.

What do you think? I am really happy with the result, I hope you like it as well!

skies #20

Salzburg, 05.05.2013, 19:58

another summary…..

It seems to be the only thing I can blog right now – a summary of the last weekend and the following days… So, shall we begin?

As mentioned in my last post, I saw Star Trek: Into Darkness on monday, but I also saw it two days earlier with my brother.. 2 times in 3 days? Sounds a bit crazy, I know, but I love going into movies twice – and this one was certainly worth it. I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone, who hasn’t seen it yet, all can say is: great cast (Benedict Cumberbatch is simply The best), great storyline (not as confusing as the last Star Trek), beautiful design (future London looks fantastic)…. I could go on and on, but that would probably reveal to much… So if you haven’t seen the movie yet, go and do so!

The rest of the weekend I spent with my family in Vienna, mostly visiting museums. I finally cought up with all the exhibitions I wanted to see. The picture is from the Kunsthistorisches Museum. It is totally over the top, but somehow it works for me. I visited the newly renovated ‘Kunstkammer’ there – so many beautiful pieces, my had was spinning when I left. I also visited the secession, an Art Nouveau building with Gustav Klimt’s famous Beethoven Fries inside – sadly, I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures :(

Yesterday was also the ‘test day’ for my summer job – I will be working at the Salzburg festival for classic music (Salzburger Festspiele), in the costume department. It’s a dream coming true! I will work in several ‘sub-categories’ there, including millinery, dressmaking, tailoring as well as in the painting and shoemaking department. I’ll start at the end of june and I’m alreday so excited! It’s a big opportunity for me, as I come from a regular school and normaly they just take students, who need an internship somewhere, in order to stay at their school. I really had a lot of luck! :)

skies #19

Bregenz, 03.11.2012, 16:29

What is going on?

So, where have I been the last week? As I said in my last post, I had my matura, or to be precise, the writing part. I was really scared about maths, but it turned out to be not that difficult. German was more tricky than I expected it to be, but spanish and english were easy – I hope I’ll get good grades there. After 4 days (on day off – sunday) of concentrating for five hours and studying all afternoon, I am pretty exhausted. But strangly, I am bursting with ideas and just want to start new projects! But first of all, I completely turned my room upside down and cleaned it from top to bottom. It took me the whole afternoon yesterday and I’m still not completely finished – studying 4 different things for a month makes everything pretty messy – papers where flying around everywhere! But now my room is cleaned and I have time to makeup my mind as well! There are so many things I want to do, now that the exams are over – the rest is in 5 weeks, so I have plenty of time.

Do you remember my stairs-diorama? I planned to finish it at Christmas, but now it’s nearly one year old and still not ready. I actually tore one wall down as the cardboard lost it’s shape when I attached some paper-maché – I plan to make this part out of wood now.. My goal is now to finish it in the summer holidays – I should be able to do that! That’s how the back street looks like right now:

But let’s talk about some prettier things, shall we? I am currently in love with embroidery. I don’t know why, but I just want to embroider everything. I bought the new Marie Claire idees 2 weeks ago and there was a whole chapter about embroidery, inspired by different countries, so I guess that’s where it comes from!.. I want to try out the collar, inspired by India (picture is a property of Marie Claire, via here), although I think I might change the colours..

I am also looking forward to seeing several movies, especially Star Trek: Into Darkness. Although I am to young for ‘growing up with it’, I remember my brother talking about it and I think he also had a little miniature Enterprise… Anyway, I saw the movie from 2009 and I loved it. I bought the DVD immediately and hoped for a sequel – which comes now! I was already excited when I heard that they were going to make it, but when they announced, that Benedict Cumberbatch was going to play the villain – I couldn’t believe it! (: I think I’ll go on monday… I also can’t wait to see The Great Gatsby – originally they wanted to release it on Christmas, but now finally, 5 months later: My expectations are really high, but I am confident, that the movie will be able to fulfill them! (:

That brings me also to my mini fashion collection for dolls, I’m currently working on. It’s not yet finished, but I think it will be next week. I have another sneak peek for you though:

And now I think I’ll relax a bit in the sun on my balcony, before I go to Vienna over the weekend!

skies #18

Salzburg, 13.04.2013, 18:52

Please note that this will be the only post for this week, as my Matura (I think you can compare it to the A-Levels) starts on friday with german, followed by mathematics on saturday and then continues with spanish and english. The oral exams are at the beginning of june, so there’s still plenty of time, but I’m a bit worried concerning mathematics and that’s why I rather study than write blog posts! I hope you can understand!

skies #17

Salzburg, yesterday, 12:08

Salzburg, yesterday, 20:00