Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Le Chiffre D'Armour/Fragonard in 1/12th scale

Last year I took a class of History of Art at the local community college. My subject of interest was French Rococo style in painting. François Boucher is my favorite French Rococo painter. The reason behind was my crazy idea to try to reproduce some of his paintings in 1/12th scale.

While reading his biography I learnt that one of his students was Jean Fragonard who painted "Le Chiffre D'Armour". That painting stroke my attention so hard that instead of working on F. Boucher's painting I decided to reproduce Le Chiffre D'Armour first.

I found an image of this painting in the library book, printed out and I started working on the chart about 6 months ago, sometimes adding just 2 stitches in the chart using my computer program.

I've never been satisfied with the final result, always wanted to add something else or just change some colors. Another reason of my procrastination was that I couldn't find a fine silk for this work which colors and quality would satisfy me, until one day I found The Silk Mill, the finest silk that is more expensive than the other silk, they don't distribute it in the USA, so I ordered it on-line from the UK. I made a post about that fine silk before. So, I swapped the colors from DMC to The Silk Mill fine silk because my computer program allows to make a chart only with DMC floss.

Beautiful colors of The Silk Mill and I used 38 of them for this project!

Anyway, more than 2 weeks ago I decided to start stitching it. During the process of stitching I've still made a lot of changes in my pattern whatever it comes to the colors or other things. This is how it looks now, the little painting in silk:


Closer look:

I hope you like it!


Monday, April 16, 2012

Conversation with God: Update

I haven't posted about the progress on my roombox that is devoted to my grandma for a long time. When I started working on this project I wanted to be done with it before the 15th of April, before the day of the Orthodox Great Easter. My grandma was very religious and that's why this project is called "Conversation with God", but later about it.

Unfortunately, I haven't done too much, just collected some little things.

This crate in the middle of the room will be full of little tiny yellow chicks and covered with an old piece of cloth in a half. I remember how those little creatures woke me up each morning at 5-6 a.m. That was the way my grandma tried to save newborn chicks and ducklings from the cold.

I purchased this little cutie that I will turn into a night potty by painting it in metal (because this is what it was) and will place it under the bed. The reason is that at that time grandma didn't have a bathroom in the house and we all kept our own potties under our beds during the nights.

I also purchased some geranium flowers and put them in this tiny pot. I am planning to make more of them. My grandma had a lot of geranium in the house to protect the clothes and rugs and linen from the moth (yes, moth, not a Moth man, :)))) and red was her favorite color for the flowers. Originally the pots were natural brown, but I decided to add more color in the room. Who knows, I might change my decision later.

My grandma adored any kind of needlework and each evening she worked with the wool. She was мастерица на все руки. I found in my stash this wheel, planning to age it and put in the setting with other needlework items.

I finished grandma's bed with a beautifully weaved coverlet in blue tones, but I am planning to make different pillows and arrange them the way my grandma did. So, it is still in the process.

I prepared some laser cut pieces for the corner shelf, painted them but haven't put together yet.

I also purchased (because I would never paint it like this!) a tiny lacquer Russian box, 1" square (lucky me!) with a beautiful painting on the lead for candles. Grandma kept candles in the box on her table.

I found an icon of Jesus Christ that suits the scale and soon it will be maintained on the corner shelf. I need to start working on рушники - a type of Russian/Ukrainian towels that have been hanged around the icons.

Last year I stitched the cover for the trunk based on some designs of Russian needlework heritage, but decided not to use this trunk in the grandma's roombox because her trunk didn't have the stitched cover.

I actually have had a hard time to remember how it really looked like even though I spent a lot of time inside of it going through all her dresses, pictures, love letters (bad me...) and other keepsakes and treasures. What do you want? Being a girl of 10 what would you pay attention on first? Anyway, I decided to finish my trunk with decoupage imitating painting, and aged it.

I also made a matching bench.

In a word, my roombox still has a lot of work to be finished and it looks like this for now:

Thank you and have a great start for a new week!




Sunday, April 15, 2012

С Днем Великой Пасхи!

Я поздравляю всех православных людей с днем Пасхи и желаю всем здоровья, долгих лет жизни и счастья!


Христос воскрес!

Христос воскрес! Опять с зарею
Редеет долгой ночи тень,
Опять зажегся над землею
Для новой жизни новый день.
Еще чернеют чащи бора;
Еще в тени его сырой,
Как зеркала, стоят озера
И дышат свежестью ночной;
Еще в синеющих долинах
Плывут туманы… Но смотри:
Уже горят на горных льдинах
Лучи огнистые зари!
Они в выси пока сияют.
Недостижимой, как мечта,
Где голоса земли смолкают
И непорочна красота.
Но, с каждым часом приближаясь
Из-за алеющих вершин,
Они заблещут, разгораясь,
И в тьму лесов, и в глубь долин;
Они взойдут в красе желанной
И возвестят с высот небес,
Что день настал обетованный,
Что Бог воистину воскрес!

И. А. Бунин
1896


Saturday, April 14, 2012

New Granny's Slippers

Hi, everyone! I am sorry for not posting on my blog for a while and thank you for all your nice comments and personal messages.

Anyway, I've been busy lately stitching some projects based on my own designs.

Today I would like to show you a new pair of slippers from the series "Granny's Slippers". These slippers are made for a dog-lover, depicting a golden retriever puppy with a pink ribbon/flower. The length of the slippers is about 7/8".

The slippers were done on 60 count silk gauze with The Silk Mill fine silk and, if you can believe it, 15 colors have been used.



Monday, April 2, 2012

Bobbin Lace Miniature Table Runners...

After a long, long break I am back blogging. I didn't do much crafting recently due to some family problems. In between I managed to finish 2 Bobbin lace bookmarks
The patterns were not made for 1/12th scale but I have decided to see if they fit this scale and use them as table runners:
First I wanted to add tassels at the ends but later decided to leave it the way it is in a case if I want to use them somewhere else. What do you think? Do they look in scale?
I ordered some micro pins for working Bobbin Lace in miniature and after I get them I'll start working in 1/12th scale. have a great evening!

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