Making Shoes, DYI

While I have been working on my sewing callouses till the wee hours of the morning on my latest piece I saw this today and verily I say, "it is good".

In the depths of my email folders that I am currently trying to organize, I found this gem from non other than the good people at Maker magazine. How to make shoes, while I do have the Mary Loomis book, this blog is more modern and has some great diy tips.

With their blog they answer any questions that you might have.



Enjoy!

Winning the Lottery

Winning the Lottery
Originally uploaded by A.K. Miles

I'm having a lot of fun with this one. In the lungs-type shape there are dollar signs. The lotteria card is made of a felted in book cover with hand stitching. This one is still in progress, I am working on the lotteria card more and it will have some 3-D aspects to it. The upper part has a layer of gold sheer silk that has been stitched over to create little pockets of texture.

A large piece of plasticized cheesecloth was felted into the ground. Many hours of hand stitching remain to complete this one. I haven't done any embroidery or hand stitchery in a very long time. I am enjoying it immensely.

Life Aquatic

Life Aquatic
Originally uploaded by A.K. Miles

This is a piece that was made with many layers of netting (vegetable and tutu), thread, yarn and found cloth. I was trying to channel Jaques Cousteau and the title come from the spooferific movie with the man, Bill Murray.

The ground was made with raw wool and hand dyed cheesecloth hand felted together. My goal above the scene itself was to create a super textural piece.

First Bloggins...

I have been experimenting with different fiber techniques for a while, I really enjoy felting, shibori, and free-form/hand machine stitching. Experimenting with plastic embedding and well as combinations of metal and fiber has been very fun. Going about it in a non-traditional manner interests me because I am free make my pieces in whatever way I find appropriate.

Right now I am using a lot of thread that would be normally useless, at least for sewing. As the thread ages it losses its integrity but with my more is more mentality, strength is in numbers. The more thread I layer the stronger the overall piece becomes. I think as I go on my work will become more and more influenced by folk art.There is a sense of spontaneity, lushness and honesty in folk art that I love.

What I working on right now is a piece that is initially a "canvas" of hand felted raw wool and strips of red raw silk. A one line drawing of a male bust was then formed with black wool yarn. Then many, many, many layers of fiber and thread were made, the lotteria card is hand embroidered over a book cover that was felted in to the fibers.