Flower Pounding - Wendy Thwaites June 2022

  Wendy arrived with armfuls of flowers and leaves that she had picked from her garden and were suitable to flower pound. She explained that if the flowers and leaves were too fleshy the juices would spoil the print when pounded.

Wendy explained that when the flower was pounded the beautiful veining and patterning would often show up as  in the photos of the flowers below.

Samples of flowers and leaves were passed around so that we could see the kind of prints we could aim for.

Wendy had kindly brought us some fabric already prepared for dyeing so that the colours would last longer. We were shown how to lay the flower face down on the treated material removing the stalk and fleshy bits. The flower was held in place with masking tape and then the piece was turned over and hammered from the other side. It was very noisy but seeing flowers and leaf shapes emerge was quite addictive.

As members got into the swing of the method there was no stopping them and they started building up pictures and patterns.

The results were very pretty and delicate which is the exact opposite of the method which was very noisy and far from delicate!

Once you have some flower pounding prints you can do a variety of things with them.

You can embroider them particularly around the edges and the centres, add beads and make into a picture.  They can also be completed with a fine drawing pen.

Sandra had brought her bobbin rolls and suggested that the flowers were ideal for adding to bobbin rolls.

Sandra explained you could make a bobbin roll out of anything and was a neat way of saving some embroidery pieces. Any snippets could be added to a strip the width of the bobbin shaft and then embroidered and embellished with beads Suffolk puffs and English paper piecing etc.. When completed it could be glued to the shaft.

To make a flower pounded bobbin roll the flower/leaves could be pounded directly on to a strip and then embroidered or the flowers could be cut out in squares, embroidered, fringed and then applied as patches to the roll. On the roll at the top the patches have been linked by a twisted cord.

One member got as far as starting a bobbin roll as you can see below.

It was a fun and enjoyable day and some beautiful prints were produced. Members took home lots to embellish at home and some to turn into bobbin rolls.

A big thank you to Wendy for introducing us to this technique and being so generous with her material and time.

Thank you to Sandra for suggesting Bobbin rolls as a way of using snippets and flower pounded pieces.

Requirements list for Flower Pounding - June Meeting

 

Under the Sea - Raffle Colours, June Meeting 2022

 

Dyed Snippet Cards - Thelma Todd, Tuesday 3rd May 2022

 We all arrived eagerly with our bags of dyed snippets from March's meeting, ready to use them to make cards with Thelma. The range of colours was wonderful from brights to muted.

Thelma had brought a range of samples with her [see below]
to inspire us and show the range of stitches and items that could be used as embellishment to bring the cards to life.

Thelma showed us that we would need a support for the fabrics and suggested felt.  We would then layer and overlap the different kinds of fabrics. Members set about arranging their fabrics;  some needed ironing and some were left creased for texture.

 When we had made an arrangement that suited us we could embellish first with stitch and then with items such as ribbon, braids, buttons, Dorset buttons, beads etc.

We were advised to use stitch and colour to link the different areas together.

The items like buttons, beads, crochet flowers etc.
were added to the surface to add another dimension.

One of our members joined in even though she was taking her ease on a canal boat! She was inspired by the dandelions along the banks.

Many of our members finished at least one card and started a second. The unfinished items were taken home to complete.

A big thank you to Thelma for leading our workshop and sharing her skills with us. It was an enjoyable and productive day.

Holiday cards

Wendy B has sent us some more pretty cards that she has made on holiday.

Thank you Wendy, anyone would be pleased to be sent one of these.