La soffitta del tempo perduto...

....è là , nella mente e nel sogno, dove è possibile recuperare le speranze e le aspettative, dove volere è potere e tutto diviene possibile, dove la fantasia e la creatività non vengono strangolate dai ritmi di una vita frenetica ed il tempo scorre lentamente, dove la mente vola libera senza restrizioni, dove finalmente si è liberi di essere e ci si può rifugiare e prendere un respiro.

The attic of the lost time....is there, in the mind and dreams, where is possible to recover the hopes and the expectations, where what you want is what you can and everything becomes possible, where fantasy and creativity are not strangled from the rhythms of a phrenetic life and time flows slowly, where the mind flyes free with no restrictions, where finally one is free of being and can refuge in and take a breath.

The Pomegranate - PDF instructions available

The Pomegranate - PDF instructions available
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mercoledì 19 giugno 2013

Elizabethan Sweetbag inspiration.

When I saw the picture of this Elizabethan Sweetbag from Fine Arts Museum Boston n.3813.44  I fall in love and decided to try to reproduce it as best as possible using the same tecnique and similar materials.
Here you can see I'm half way on the stitching of the flowers and background; have changed a bit the position of the flowers as this work is inspired to the original one and will not necessary be an absolutely  perfect copy concerning the pattern as I'm really much more interested in learning the making process.
The bag is worked on 35ct linen with Pipers silk threads, gold and silver passing on silk for the metal stitches surrounding the flowers and for the braids.
The handle and drawstring will be made in 5 loop square braiding, as in the original. The drawstring ends tassels will be made covering a big wooden oval shaped  bead using the Spanish Hitching tecnique which was used at the time to make them. Many interesting informations and tecniques are explained in Carey's book "Sweetbags" that has been fundamental for me in the making up of this project, together with a lot of personal research too.
Still there is a lot of work to do to finish it so...I must go stitching !