Hand stitched brooches

 Recently I have been inspired by a fellow blogger,  Hens Teeth, who makes gorgeous pieces with free hand stitch and selected scrap fabrics. She also makes beautiful badges and brooches with students on her workshops. I would love to attend one someday.

In the meantime, I have been playing around with my own attempts! Inspiration was provided by Hen's Teeth work, and this brooch (right) which came with a blazer from River Island once upon a time. Sifting through my collection of broken jewellery, old stamps and patterns, cut off's of forgotten fabrics, idea's started to form...

This piece consists of old maps, dress making patterns, upholstery fabrics and a key hole print from a previous work. Hand stitched together it gives a real 'homemade' feel, which I love.














Here I finally got a chance to justify my collection of used screen print tape! I love the 'overprint' shadow you get once a screen has been printed several times and the print gets picked up on the brown tape. I knew there would be a use for it one day!

Hand stitched in the centre like a mended broken heart.
















What can you see in the print of this brooch? I will give you a clue..it's a ship. There is also a Chinese stamp in there too. I like the colours in this. Keeping colours tonal and similar creates a calming, pleasing piece.













Clashing colours going on here. This piece probably works best as a patch on a bag or clothing as it's bigger than the others. Here I have used more stamps ( Yeah I used to collect them..what?) mixing colourful scraps and printed pieces. True mixed media. Mmmmmm, mixed media.