Rag dolls

I have always made rag dolls and felt animals since I was a child and given them away to family and friends. I thought I would see whether they were suitable for selling, so I have opened a shop on Etsy at
http://www.etsy.com/shop/paulasmithdesigns?ref=si_shop and I will see how it goes!

Pictures and printing

For the last few months I have been trying some new ideas. I have made two pieces for an exhibition in the village. The theme is 'Resistance' and after some thought I remembered a Women's Voluntary Service badge which my granny had from the war. I was thinking about the roles women played in WWII, and after some research came up with two ideas. The first shows the Morse code for the slogan 'Careless talk costs lives' and the second shows a factory worker wearing red lipstick. I understand that red lipstick was used as a propaganda tool, encouraging women to boost their own morale as well as that of the troops. Red lipstick was often included in the parcels of clothes, blankets etc sent over from USA to Britain to those who had lost homes in the Blitz. There was also an underlying feeling that women might lose their femininity by having to do traditional men's jobs and that staying pretty would help to stop that happening, how times have changed! Both pieces are on 50x50cm canvas with acrylic paint, fabric collage and hand and machine embroidery.

I have also been learning relief printing as I have often been told that my designs are very suitable for printing and I am enjoying a break from textiles. So I have learnt how to make lino cuts, select different papers and use washable printing ink as that is more suitable for printing on my kitchen table that oil based inks. I have used as a design drawings from my investigation of cell microscopy. In most cases there are 3 or 4 layers of different colours of ink in order to achieve the results. Sorry the photos aren't great!What do you think?

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The last is a collagraph print with just white ink.

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Moods I and II

A couple more of my embroideries for a local exhibition. The photos of the framed finished pictures aren't very good so I am posting them as works in progress.

The first is machined in layers then ripped back and distressed in order to reveal layers of colour.

This second embroidery is hand sewn and cut back. I have used silks and cottons of varying weight, hand dyed in order to create the layers. The variations in colour are often due to the changing colours on the hand dyed cloth, often space-dyed.