Monday, June 09, 2008

the latest tray.....a wip story.

All of you regular readers know that I make trays as I start projects. I add to them and take away from them until an idea suddenly becomes clear or that lightning bolt of inspiration occurs.

Well a few months ago, I met Carrie for dinner. Of course in the blogging tradition, there were goodies exchanged. One of the goodies was this piece of vintage lace and mother of pearl buttons. Loving the flowers on this and they will be used for something in the future.



But the part of this lace that immediately caught my attention was this. The leaf shaped bits. I immediately saw them as moth wings for one of my button butterfly girls. Then one day last week I spotted this necklace by Bonzie. Go ahead - click and go over there - it is well worth the trip. Well that image has been percolating in my brain since I spotted it.

And now the layout in the tray looks like this. I still have a few technical details to figure out on getting this like I want it. (things like how to stiffen the wings enough to hook rings to them) Mind you - this thing is large - the wing span is almost 4 inches across.



All of the buttons are vintage mother of pearl. The flat glass bubble that will cover the face is about an inch across (maybe a little more). I think as I wire these buttons together, I may add a few seed beads. I'll see how that looks.
Anyway - this is well on its way to being a real project. I'll keep you updated.
In addition to this progress, I have also started a baby boy crochet blanket for a church shower - I am never going to get ahead unless these ladies stop having little ones. It was too damn hot for much work on the studio, so that did not happen. But for a reality check (verging on the definition of TMI) I cleaned all of my "dead" underwear out of the dresser - you know - those with stretched elastic, holes, the ones you refuse to wear because they crawl. It is so nice to see neatly folded and all wearable ones in that drawer. Come on ladies you know this is one of those things everyone deals with.
How about you share a reality check with us today.
Have a great Monday.

5 comments:

Darla said...

That is going to look great. I think you could stiffen the wings with starch - or there is a fabric stiffener (stiffer than starch). I used the fabric stiffener on some crocheted angels and they are nearly unbendable.

Darla

ellen said...

This butterfly girl is lovely! What a perfect project for such beautiful lace.
O.K. Here's my undie (sp?) story.
I do have a lot of ratty old pairs that are held up by sheer willpower. A few weeks ago I was being driven nuts by my "knickers". They kept crawling not only in a southerly direction, but also east or west, depending on which compass point I was turned to. I finally realized the problem when I showered that evening. I had put one leg through the waist, so of course one of the leg holes was going around said waist. Hence the "crawl around the hips" problem.
Those particular pair have been consigned to bvd Hell and are now gone. Such adventures!

Carrie said...

Wow! The flutterbee is going to be so pretty. I would sugest using spray starch (on the backside)to stiffen the wings.

I went to the independent craft show at Centinal Park on Sunday, what fun, next year we will have to go together.

Anonymous said...

like the buttons and lace I am leaving for Greece so I cleaned the fridge ...OMG!... I live like a certain farm animal... that was one ugly reality...

Very Mary said...

Reality check: I shaved my legs for the first time since January.