A Little Look at Autumn.

Autumn in Cornwall hasn't been what I was hoping for so far. Where many of you have had glorious sunshine and hot, hot days we have been experiencing damp, sometimes muggy, sometimes really chilly weather. As some of you say though, it does give an excuse to light the fire - not that I ever need one. And there is beauty to be found even in the dankest of days.



Beautiful seed heads have an almost structural quality to them



which I translate into my handmade covered notebooks



Raindrops catch the fading light and hang from every surface.



Hard to tell these soggy flower tops were once the childlike flowers of feverfew - dainty daisies dancing in the breeze, now reduced to a static display of decay.



All around are the things which give me ideas for my work particularly at this time of year. I somehow relate to autumn more than any other season, though I find things I love in them all. I like having a little reminder like this lavender cushion so that I can enjoy it all without always having to get wet to do so!



When I see such beautiful things in nature it inspires so many ideas which is why I capture them in photographs. These often become a separate art form which inspires me as the lens takes up the shadows and highlights, offering a new image from the one I originally saw. Having these cards in my sewing room is a quick means of having a reference point for me.



There are still plenty of blackberries around, though I doubt they will be there much longer if this picture is anything to go by. See the pretty calyx left by the dropped berry; it almost looks like a flower in own right.



No matter, I will be able to look at these instead in the darker months and know their time will come again.



I picked up these windfalls this morning when feeding the ducks and collected up a pile of wood from the woodshed to use on the fire tonight. I have plans for a lovely roaring fire to accompany my knitting.



Isabella has plans to help me make another plum, apple and blackberry crumble. This one had a sprinkling of cinnamon and a goodly slug of our homemade plum gin to help it on its way.



Yes, even a grey day can be beautiful.



What are your plans tonight? x

Seeds and Grasses.

When will I learn that it really doesn't pay to leave product photography for another day when the conditions are pretty much perfect at the time of making said decision? Yesterday there was soft, golden sunlight where today there is only a dull, flat light which makes it so difficult for a very amateur photographer such as myself to get the product images I need for my website. Hey ho, no doubt such things will eventually stick in my mind and I won't allow myself to be seduced by the thought of lazily quaffing wine on the courtyard as the sun descends possibly not to return for far too long...hmm, or maybe I won't.



So, here is the Grasses Lavender Cushion, the first of my new range. It is one of two lavender cushions inspired by the grasses and seedheads I see everywhere I go at the moment. Whether I am in our garden, roaming around the lanes or by the sea the colours and textures of autumn seem to leap out at me and this is my interpretation of what I see.



I have changed the way I work slightly for these pieces using a mix of freehand machine and hand embroidery to get the effect I was after, that of wispy grasses waving in the breeze layered with the bulkier, denser forms of seeds and seed cases.



The second cushion - aptly named Seed Lavender Cushion - also has a little applique, my working of the granite rocks glimpsed as a backdrop to so much of the landscape in Cornwall.



A little close-up of embroidery detail.



Each cushion is approximately 12cm square, quite small to be called a cushion really, but somehow sachet or pad didn't fit with how I feel about them. I have given them each a string handle to enable them to be hung if desired rather than tucked away in a drawer(far too pretty for that methinks!) My hope is that whoever sees them will view them as miniature pieces of art (if that doesn't sound like I'm blowing my own trumpet?), something which will add to their home and be a little heirloom in the making. Well, that's my hope anyway.



Each one will obviously vary slightly due to the nature of handmade items, but that is the charm of something handcrafted isn't it: something unique and worked from the heart, which these certainly were. More items to come over the next few days - if the light returns that is!