December Blog

Hello everyone on this snowy Thursday evening. Time to catch up on what’s been happening this month of December.

I’m writing this as I listen to a recent discovery for me.  Radio station 106.7 “The Jewel” - our local Hudson/St. Lazare

radio station!  The choice of music has been just perfect.

Our second meeting held at the Community Centre on November 10th, was with Lin Watson, a rug hooking authority.  Lin brought a sample and books for us to look at and gave a talk on the history of rug hooking as well as the variations. Humble materials and amazing results. See our Pinterest board on Rug Hooking for a small selection of inspirational web sites.  http://www.pinterest.com/hudsonfinecraft/

I brought some samples of the method inspired by Alabama Chanin’s handcrafted hand sewn clothing at our first meeting, so for this second meeting,  I thought I’d demonstrate how this is done with a project I’ve recently started.  Chanin’s work is so inspiring and although looks intimidating, it isn’t at all.  If you can do a running stitch on cotton jersey then you’re good to go!  You can also check out her work on Pinterest under Alabama Chanin.

We had a brief break due to the Community Centre’s event “Atelier 394” where several of our members had a space to show their craft.

On December 3rd we met at a new location, Mademoiselle Clifford’s Tea Room on Cameron.  The atmosphere was cozy and delicious pots of tea were served while Anne Letellier brought samples of her exquisite beaded jewellery and demonstrated her technique that included bead weaving.  

Anne has sent a summary of the sources for her supplies as follows.

Following our meeting of last Wednesday, you will find some information on beading supplies for beginners.

First you should begin with a good book on the subject, if you follow the instructions given you should be able to do your beading embroidery in no time and as anything else in life, practice makes perfect.

I first learned to bead with `Beading with Cabochon`by Jamie Cloud Eakin and then for more advanced projects `Sensational Bead Embroidery`by Sherry Serafini. Both books are available on Amazon.

You will find most supplies described in those books at the following stores (my favorites) Bead Planet 7348 St-Hubert and Chaton Bead 7175 St-Hubert.  However you will have to get the backing and the thread on EBAY. The backing is `Lacy's stiffy stuff`and the thread is `Nymo`size B or D ( on the Craft section)

The beading needles, the glue E-600 can be found at Walmart.

If you wish to bead with cabochon stones, the best place to find the best and cheapest ones is on ebay. Look in Jewelry cabochon stone and make sure you are buying the right size for your project.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or make a list of your questions for the next meeting.

see you soon,

Anne

Thank you Anne, it was inspiring and I look forward to picking up where I left off and would love to see who else might want to try their hand at bead embroidery.

I added Bead Embroidery to Hudson Fine Craft on Pinterest to further peak your interest.

photo from jewelrywithsoul on etsy

Now, just for fun, I’m sharing this fun app for the iPad that I recently stumbled upon.

You’ll find the download here

The game is based on William Morris’s classic 19th century textile print the “Strawberry Thief”. In the game you use the Strawberry Thief bird as your cursor to collect fruit and repaint this Arts & Crafts master piece. First you uncover pencil work of swirling vines and intricate flowers on paper, then basic colours fills the screen and finally rich colour and texture brings the 1883 artwork to life.

Our next meeting would be Wednesday, December 17th but stay tuned for more information via Newsletter in the days preceding.

And, as always, I invite you to send me photos of your work that I may include in this blog and/or Flickr, a photo

sharing site.   Send to my email