My Spring Wedding

Candles and flowers. Love!

The ceremony back-drop.

The happy couple!

Instead of wedding cake, espresso/chocolate jellies.

Partying into the wee hours.....

  I think the moment my home was at it's most beautiful was last September when we held our wedding in our living room. It was the eve of the Spring Equinox and although I don't slavishly follow such events, it was a great excuse to (vaguely) theme the occasion and use nothing but flowers and candles to decorate the room. This included the invitations which were simply an image of spring blossoms layered and edited in photoshop. I also created a perfumed experience for our guests as they stepped into our jasmine lined entrance, and the lady guests departed with a scented candle wrapped in hand crocheted trim.
Our  existing "succulent" green walls and balcony fairy lights provided the perfect back-drop for our simple evening ceremony followed by supper and dessert party that continued well into the early hours of Sunday morning!
Thanks to Stephanie Newbold  and Pete Bell for the gorgeous images.

Swan

This piece followed the "Paper Stole" in the sculptural, "non-wearable couture" theme, but got me back to my roots in fabric and experimental quilting. All the fabrics are recycled, some retrieved from the stash I inherited from my great-grandmother who's surname was Swan (this in some way informed the shape and lines of the piece which are...well, swan-like and also provided a fitting title)

The skirt frame is manipulated chicken wire. It was rather satisfying getting my hands dirty in the shed with pliers and wire cutters!

Then came the endless task of creating hundreds of quilted circles in various fabrics, each individually embellished with lines of stitching. Then cutting them out carefully. Then assembling the circles to create the skirt overlay, placing them deliberately to appear random (it's harder than you think!)

The circle motif was repeated in crocheted wire and attached to the overlay and the frame, linking the two elements.

The aim of the piece was to explore the idea of repetition. Combining circular quilted pieces with circular crochet pieces on the continuous hexagons of the chicken wire, I feel I have succeeded

..... but boy, was it repetitive!

On display at the Tinning Street Gallery.

Back view.