An ending, a beginning and stuff in between

Sadly, my stepfather has passed away after a year long battle with cancer. He would have been 80 if he'd lived another couple of days so a good long life. The funeral is on Monday and I've made a flower brooch to wear from a tutorial I found here. It took no time at all and I think it looks quite impressive (apologies for the poor photograph - trying to take a decent picture of black in poor light is nigh on impossible).

On a happier note, my niece, Kelly, has got engaged. Nick popped the question on Valentine's Day and they'll be starting married life together after the wedding in January next year. A 'hen weekend' away is already being planned and I've been asked to run a crafting session for the hen and 22 little chicks! I think organza flower brooches will be just the ticket and they'll have ready made buttonholes to match their outfits for the big day.

I've been making more postcards for the charity I mentioned here, although I think the blue ones need a little something else - maybe some beads? I'll ponder on that....

I dyed a couple of silk scarves. I try to have a few things in the cupboard ready to give as gifts, although I like these two so much I just might keep them for myself.

And I've been experimenting again with transfer dyes. As these were trials of various techniques - crumpling the paper before painting it, printing an image from the computer before painting and after painting, wax resist marks and rubbings before/after, stamping etc - I made them postcard size so I can keep both the fabric and papers, with notes on the techniques used, in a 'flip' type photo album.

Just as well they're only samples. I wasn't particularly pleased with any of them as I'd forgotten (again! ) how different the resulting transfer looks to the painted paper. Most of the colours are far too bright/garish for my taste except, that is, for the last few where I was just messing around using up the colours left on my palette and I quite like these.