In case you think I have been suspiciously quiet

about the box that used to be a lampshade - it has been making steady progress.
This unlovely object is the full size mock-up, which for once I made before the real item. I’m glad I did because I decided that the proportions were wrong and that my original idea of ‘leaf litter’ on its own didn't work and it needed a focal point – hence that spray of leaves. [Leaves again – there is definitely a pattern here.]

I also changed the design of the sides after Wensleydale dropped some heavy hints. ‘Are you going to do the sides like that?’ - which always means ‘I don’t like it.’

I have also:

painted and over painted some fabric for the sides and base [not brilliant but most of it won’t show, and I’ve run out of the crucial colour of paint];

Stamped leaves in Lumiere paint on silk organza and machine embroidered them. I love how they look on the fabric – almost too nice to cut up, but I made myself wield the scissors. However I think I will make myself a stole this way ACAG [after C and G];

Finished the embroidery of the top panel, apart from adding beads which I left until I had decided where the spray would go;

Made the spray;

Prepared the fabric for the sides;

Padded the frame for the embroidery and the base and laced the fabric over the base.

I’m exhausted just typing all that!

Busy day tomorrow but I hope to get the frame covered and possibly the embroidery mounted in it – and more work on the sides.

I think I will finish this by the end of June!

No Tuesday trip this week as I was working on the box and Wensleydale was DIYing – but we did have a tripette on Friday. There are currently 2 very different art exhibitions on in Winchester ‘Discovery Centre’. [I hate the name – it’s the Library!]

The first is ‘Art and Artefacts’ – details here – scroll down:

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/wdc/city-space.htm

Immaculate work but many of them are a bit too whimsical for me!

In complete contrast:

http://www.howardhodgkin.org.uk/

We saw Hodgkin’s exhibition at the Tate a couple of years ago and thought his work was stunning – the prints are different but just as good. There is one of a palm tree at the entrance that I would have loved to have brought home - anyone got a few thousand £££ to spare?