Tuesday, 25 August 2015

Making ATC

"My Favourite..." is the theme for the latest Artist Trading Card swap ran by Ali at VeryBerryHandmade. It's a great theme, but... it leads to too many choices... Don't get me wrong. I probably would be the first one to complain if there were not any choices in life but if there are too many choices, I struggle. I struggle sometimes with making decisions, with choosing, choosing the right one. So... it took me a while to decide what was really "my favourite" and what I was going to make for my partner.


I started with a list of my favourite things, it turned out to be quite long. Poems, novels, children's books, paintings, songs, places, activities, foods, seasons... Writing the list didn't make the task any easier. I could see that some of my likes and favourites changed, grew together with me over the course of my life, I could not simply choose between my favourite books or paintings, or anything else. I kept thinking, was there anything at all that didn't change or something one of it's kind? And then it came to me. There is one thing that never changed. Lily of the valley!


As far back as I can remember myself, lily of the valley was always my favourite flower. Every year I waited impatiently for the spring to come so I could enjoy this delicate, beautiful flower, its unique sweet lovely scent and enjoy the white pearly drops shyly hidden among large green leaves for a quite short time. During cold long winters I missed that flower so much, that I even grew it in a pot at home. It bloomed in December. Just a single leaf and a single stem with a few flowers but even a few tiny flowers were enough to produce its beautiful scents.


I started my ATC with silk ribbons of different width in green and white colours. First I embroidered the leaves, then the steams, then flowers and finished it off with a small patch of moss. Making moss was a lot of fun. I used a small piece of white silk chiffon that I dyed with brown and green ink. After folding the piece in half, I used a pair of slightly opened embroidery scissors to fray the edges.




Around the card, I added a very delicate frame of backstitch in a pale yellow embroidery floss, just like the first rays of spring Sun.


The card is ready to be sent away to my secret partner. I hope it won't get lost on its way just like the card made for the Christmas swap. The funny thing was that once I realised that the card was lost, I made exactly the same one for Carole and sent it to her again. But a few months later, not long ago, I received the first card, it travelled all the way back from France because it didn't reach the recipient because of a small mistake in the address. So off I go to the post office with a hope that the card won't get lost and that my partner likes what I have made. Larisa xox
Posted by at
Labels: , ,

12 comments:

  1. Admin25 August 2015 at 02:38

    This is simply beautiful! Loved the idea of using green ribbon for leaves! Will borrow that idea later if thats alright! ;) x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Larisa27 August 2015 at 06:31

      Thank you very much, Ann! Absolutely, go for it. The idea is not really mine, it's all thanks to silk ribbon embroidery technique that I always wanted to give a try but never found the right project for it until just now. Silk embroidery ribbons are very delicate, they fold and twist nicely and they are easy to work with.

      Delete
  2. Catherine25 August 2015 at 05:21

    It is absolutely lovely - you are so clever. I wish it was mine!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Larisa27 August 2015 at 06:37

      Thank you very much, Catherine! I am afraid it's not going your way... sorry.

      Delete
  3. Craftylagare26 August 2015 at 01:13

    So delicate Larissa, I agree about the choices, I just thought that I like so many things and wouldn't exactly call them favourites, so this ATC became a challenge! Yoi have, as ever, come up with something amazing!x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Larisa27 August 2015 at 06:45

      Carole, thank you so much! The theme seemed so easy at first but proved to be a bit of a challenge for me as well. So hard to choose... but I am glad because it gave me a chance to try out this new technique.

      Delete
  4. Sharon - creativity and family26 August 2015 at 11:51

    That is beautiful Larissa. I love the moss effect, so clever. Your partner will be so pleased I am sure.x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Larisa27 August 2015 at 06:51

      Thank you, Sharon, very much! I really enjoyed making it, it took me a while to decide what to put at the bottom of the flowers... a bow, a pot, cross-stitch grass but then I saw a piece of white silk chiffon on my desk and had a lot of fun making "moss". :-)

      Delete
  5. Bossymamma26 August 2015 at 14:09

    Larisa you have created a wonderful representation of Lily of the Valley.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Larisa27 August 2015 at 06:53

      Thank you very much, Dina! I hope my partner likes it.

      Delete
  6. agnes26 August 2015 at 22:37

    Beautiful! I've always wanted to try ribbon embroidery but it looks difficult. The flowers came out perfectly!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Larisa27 August 2015 at 06:58

      Thank you very much, Agnes! It's much easier than it looks. Just make sure to use the right silk ribbons for the embroidery, they are easy to work with and the effect is amazing. I already want to make something else using the same technique. :-)

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)