Painting A Thousand Words

Unbelievably, its been a whole year since my husband, Ed, and I got married. To celebrate this, we visited a part of the country very close to both our hearts - Cornwall.
As you're all probably aware, the traditional 1st year wedding anniversary gift is paper. Because of this, we decided to invest in a painting together whilst on holiday in Cornwall. It is a beautiful part of the country - full of inspiration, with picturesque views and colour splashed absolutely everywhere, making it a perfect location to find our anniversary gift!

One part of the county I was extremely keen to visit again was the charming St. Ives. This beautiful seaside town is understandably home to many artists and chock full of galleries (including the Tate!). There was no doubt in our minds that if we were to find our painting anywhere, it would be here.

As an Arty-Farty individual myself, I couldn't help but photograph nearly every colourful, chocolate-box nook and cranny of this town! It is so clear to me as to why artists move down there. 

After taking a walk down Smeaton's pier and watching the ocean for a while, Ed and I decided to wander in and out of all the art galleries we could find. The lovely thing about St. Ives, is there is a gallery for everyone. Whether it be a large, realistic style canvas you are after, something a little more abstract or the more modestly-priced print - it is here somewhere! You can spend a few pounds to a few thousand pounds and find something beautiful to display in your home. 

The view from the pier!

We were both very keen to find an original, and so had to bear in mind that this would come with a fairly sizable price tag. Although we budgeted, art is an extremely personal thing. If you fall in love with a piece, you have to be prepared to go over budget - do not settle for something you are not in love with! This is my one piece of advice when buying artwork.

There were a couple of galleries that stood out to us:
Porthminster Gallery - displaying the likes of Nick Bodimeade 
The Blue Bramble Gallery - displaying the likes of Sara Bevan 

But the art gallery that interested us the most and actually housed the painting we bought, was The Island Gallery. Home to the talented artist Bill Waldron and his work (along with other artists' pieces), it didn't take us longer than a cup of coffee to decide that we were more than happy to go over budget and buy his work.

The painting is of Smeaton's Pier, St. Ives, captured on a crisp February morning this year (2015). We loved how cool, bright and calm it looked. I admired the way Waldron had captured the sea, and Ed was taken by the sky. 

Not only was it a beautiful painting, but it was of somewhere that meant something to us. It was perfect.

A photo of where we thought our painting was captured from - minus all the people!

If you haven't already, I would definitely recommend you pay a visit to St. Ives. Not only for its art, but for its views, atmosphere, ice cream(!)... oh and the exercise you get - its very hilly and the walk down from the car park is steep! 

I would love to know what you think of our find. In fact, I feel we are both quite lucky we found a piece we both love equally as much. And if you do visit this lovely little town, pay the Island Gallery a visit - it's seriously worth the look.

Keep watching this space!
Zo..x

Weekend Project

Hello everybody and Happy Sunday! We all live for the weekend, and when it arrives (finally) we each like to relax(ish) in our own little ways. I myself like working on little projects. This particular one was inspired by the creations in Kirsty Neale's book 'Hoop-la! - 100 Things To Do With Embroidery Hoops'. I purchased this little gem a few weeks ago and adore the creative ideas inside it. She really has thought outside the box - or hoop in this case! I thought I would share with you what I designed and made.

So after flicking through quite literally 100 things to do with embroidery hoops, I wanted to have a go at making my own. Knowing I had a spare hoop in my sewing box, I had a look through to see what else I had hiding in there. Deciding that I wanted to make it up as I went along, I just pulled out the key items I knew I wanted to use:

- Spare fat quarter of retro style fabric from 'Haberdasher's Hub' for the background

- Bright purple embroidery thread for covering the hoop

One thing that is explained in the book is different ways to cover your outer hoop to make the overall look tie in and more interesting. I loved this! 

I covered mine by wrapping embroidery thread around it, secured with double sided tape lining the inside of the hoop (as advised by Kirsty Neale). Although this was a little time consuming, the end result is so rewarding. I can't deny that it was also quite therapeutic.

Once this was finished, I picked out my favourite part of the fabric to display inside the hoop. In case you are not familiar, embroidery hoops are made up of an inner and outer hoop. To display fabric, you take your inner hoop, place it underneath the part of fabric you want to display, and then place your outer hoop over the top of the fabric. You then use a screw-driver to tighten the screw at the top of the outer hoop, which then pulls the outer hoop in and traps the fabric between the two. You then trim the excess fabric.

As you may have seen from previous posts, I love cross-stitching and so I wanted to incorporate a little embroidery into my design. I picked out certain parts of the pattern and followed them in corresponding threads using either back-stitch or satin-stitch. The photo above shows satin-stitch being started on the center of one of the flowers.

I then wanted to add a pop of colour and came across some fluorescent pink felt in my sewing box. Seeing as this was just a fun little decoration, I thought I would add my initial. I drew up a 'Z' template and then used it to cut out a pink felt 'Z' shape. I really feel that the pink works so well against the dark retro colours of the fabric. What do you think?

I could have removed the fabric from the hoop and machine sewn the 'Z' onto it. However, I was having fun just hand stitching and thought I would keep this consistent. So I back-stitched it on by hand instead. I really like the texture and detail the finishing touches add to the fabric and am so pleased with how its turned out. 
To finish off, I lined the inner hoop with some more double sided tape (to the back of the decoration) and stuck down the excess fabric to keep it looking neat.
The best thing is, this is something you can knock up in a weekend and is so fun to do. The design possibilities are endless too. I would love to see some of your versions!

Ta Dah!

Thank you Kirsty Neale for your wonderful inspirations! I cannot wait to get crafting me some more of these.

Next time you all have a free weekend, give this a go. It would be great for the kids as well I suspect. 

I usually find that some of my favourite items are those that I've made up as I've gone along - happy accidents if you will. This way of working is so much fun. Do you have any Happy Accidents you would like to share? Tweet them to me @ZibZobHandmade. I would love to see them!

I hope you enjoyed the read and that I've inspired you to do some crafting next Saturday.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend... Keep watching this space!

Zo..x