Embroidery | Stitch Witch Cottage

Recently, the Witch of Forest Grove posted a photo of her tarot deck in a lovely still life image on her Facebook page. In it was a pouch I made that she eventually made hers. This photo manifested 4 new custom bags. It can be a challenge when someone wants one “Just like hers” when my goal is to make sure everyone gets something at least a little bit unique. Luckily living in the now and letting the organic process flow makes it easier and also I’m not who I was when the first bag was created and so my style has shifted. There are similarities but the differences are there too.

This little one is for me to replace the bags that were stolen from my art showing last November.

Put A Bird on It ~ Silk and silk/wool threads, velveteen apllique, on wool with vintage white silk lining. Included in the shot but not the bag is the deer skin I obtained from a Makah bow hunter I ran into many years ago.

These following bags are the commissioned pieces. I thought their new owners would like to see a taste of things to come. Almost complete, they need their cords and “tassels,” some of which will be actual tassels and some will be deer skin tassels, all will be beaded with semi precious stones and perhaps a charm. Ladies, they will ship Saturday, July 7th.

For Chris ~ cotton velveteen, green/purple dupioni silk, perl cotton, amber bead, gold brocade silk lining with vine pattern

Also for Chris ~ Wool with silk, wool felt, and cotton velveteen applique, horn beads, perl cotton, blue/purple/red changeable silk lining

For Allison ~ cotton velveteen, green/purple dupioni silk, perl cotton, amber bead, gold brocade silk lining with vine pattern

For Nikiah of Red Moon Designs ~ bone stag with bone and horn beads, vintage silk velvet snake, vintage white silk lining. The rest is a surprise, this bag is special….

Making much progress on the Wheel of the Year project. This is one of the never ending projects. 4 years now I think. I work on it a bit, put it down, work on it, put it down. It finally told me that the segments were complete. I was doubtful as I was thinking “no more is better, more stuff more stuff” and this voice said “no, plenty of stuff, you need white space for the eye to rest!”

Note: These photos don’t do it justice. Made some progress leaning my camera as well so these are the last icky photos…

This piece will be almost 4′ across once complete. It consists of 8 pie shaped pieces, each on representing a sacred time of the Celtic/pagan year. Starting with Imbolg/Candlemas and moving towards Yule (Imbolg, Ostara, Beltaine, Litha, Lammas, Mabon, Samhain, and Yule) it is made from wool felt with beading, embroidery, and felt/and velvet applique. Each piece has an animal and a plant associated with that time of the year, celebrating fertility, life,death, and rebirth.

I’ve finally got the pie pieces connected to each other and have the central motif of the sun and moon begun. Each section will be separated by a green velvet ribbon. It will be backed with green wool felt and have, in each corner, an embroidery of an element (earth, air, fire, water). I’m really getting close to completion and once again I’m excited about it.