The Soul of the Rose

A beautiful title for this lovely painting by John William Waterhouse and one of my favourites by the artist. It perfectly describes the feelings it evokes when I admire it.

I have decided to work within the theme of roses on my experimental journey .....

I've been making lots of mess in my little studio......I'll show you a little bit of what I've been up too

 I wanted to spend more time exploring thread sketching. Some of you may have read my post here about my little play around after seeing it in issue of Cloth Paper Scissors.

So with my theme of roses in mind I had another little play around,

first some sketching.......

I used cartridge paper from a sketchbook

then I added some printed text paper to highlight

I then painted these with artist watercolours and free machine stitched, highlighting the shapes and lines.

 I used an embroidery foot, regular black sewing thread and dropped the feed dogs on my machine.

I forgot to photograph the roses before I stitched nor the stitching process, when I get excited about going on to the next stage I sometimes forget opps

 I also added some gold foil and coloured cellophane from Cadbury's roses chocolates

here are some close ups

textured paper

a leaf skeleton

embossed paper....

pink textured foil

purple cellophane sweet wrapper

I'm pleased with the results..............

here's a better view of the ochre one, I think the paint is a little thick on this, I might wet it and remove some..... see what emerges

 I like the shape and flow of this one....

picture is a bit blurry,

a closer view.

Its great fun to thread sketch .....have a go if you do I would love to see