And then, I look at them all, my creations (creatures?🙃) and they are just there, looking at me, full of craziness, weirdness but also full of beauty and gentle smiles. I catch myself smiling back at them and I cannot help but feeling better and pretty proud and happy I made them all❤️
Sometimes I am not sure about what and why I am doing this... Sometimes I really feel frustrated, stuck (add all the negative emotions and feelings you can think of). I suppose this is part of the journey but it is still difficult to accept.
And then, I look at them all, my creations (creatures?🙃) and they are just there, looking at me, full of craziness, weirdness but also full of beauty and gentle smiles. I catch myself smiling back at them and I cannot help but feeling better and pretty proud and happy I made them all❤️
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Only one more day until we reach the end of 2021 and I wanted to reflect on what the last 12 months have meant for me and my Little Bird of Paradise new business adventure.
After the first lockdown had somehow sucked out any creativity out of me, I got back to my beloved needles and fabric stock with delight at the end of the second lockdown. I decided to make a doll. Just one little doll for me. It was fun and I made another one. Soon enough, I had made lots of little characters and I just loved them all! I loved their imperfections the most, it gave them life and characters. I posted a few pictures on Instagram and somehow, some people started liking them too so I decided to open my shop again and see what would happen. One year later, I am so happy I did it and I feel so grateful that the Little Bird of Paradise did really well through the months. Making my little ladies bring me joy (and sometimes a bit of frustration when things do not work the way I want, let's be honest😅😂) and it is a great feeling to hear beautiful feedback from my customers. I love learning my dolls have been named and I love receiving pictures of them in their new homes (or on top of the Christmas tree!😊). After a few years of creating mostly with ink and paint, I am back to my first love and I am now faithful again to my sewing needles.
Lately, I have been making art dolls inspired from primitive dolls. Like always, I still love to work on small format so do not expect big artworks. So far I have been selling them on Etsy but I have now decided to update my Big Cartel page and see what happens from there. Here are a few pictures of the dolls that I have been creating so far, some of them are still available in the shop As I have said in older posts already, I find really difficult to find time to create with textiles since I am either working part time or at home with my 4 year old. She finds it very difficult to play on her own so it is hard to find the time I need to play with my sewing machine....
Still, I have find a way to stay creative while I can also stay close to her and today I wanted to share with you some of my illustrations. Lately, I have been drawing a lot. Although I am still far from being able to do all I want with a pencil in my hand, I am getting more and more comfortable with sketching and even more important with learning to let go and slowly get "my style". So here are a few pictures of some houses illustrations. Some of them we see everyday on the school run. Others are from a French little town close to where my family lives. And finally some are just out of my imagination! When I work on painting a "real" house, I work from Google Map :) It helps to keep a wonky feeling!! Some of them are made on regular paper and some on watercolor paper. It has been a while that I had been wanting to give this technique a go. These last holidays I finally managed to try and I am really happy with the final result :) The picture I chose is one of my daughter I took last year while she was having plenty of fun at the park :) So I started by sketching the silhouette on a white paper, trying to figure out what were the lines to highlight. Once this was done, I chose a cute fabric for the main focus of the work and started stitching on my drawing. And once the coat was finished, I did the other parts of the silhouette and finally added another fabric as a background line. And I love, LOVE the final artwork! It is aesthetically pleasing but even more important, it has this special feeling about it as it is my little girl' s silhouette on the wall.
These last days, I have been unfaithful to my sewing machine and needles and I have dedicated all my free time to canvases and brushes... For the first time of my life I have had the occasion to paint on BIG canvas wit BIG brushes and I love it!!! I am having so much fun , it is really great! Now, I wish I could find some time to go to some courses with a tutor to learn about techniques, dos and dont's etc.... maybe this summer :) For now, internet is my best friend and I am mainly learning from... well, my mistakes :) So, here is my first ever painting :) It's quite dark and gloomy but I really love it! Because it is full of shadows and dark tones, it is very difficult to photograph but I did my best. I didn't plan anything for this painting, it just build up slowly while I was working on it. This is my first character. I left the face features for the end and was really afraid I would mess up as it is the first time I tried a new way of making her features. It went fine, and I really like her expression :) This is the third one, another character and this one is not finished yet. I still need to work the background and her hair. I am really proud of the Tee shirt part! Et voilà ! Hope you like them :)
I now need to varnish them and from I read online, I need to choose the proper finish for my varnish because it is going to have a real influence on the final result... Some more stress involved :) Happy Sunday! It has been quite a long time since my last post, oops! A lot has changed in the meantime as we are now in 2015 (Happy New Year!!), I have lost all my datas with a computer crash but most of all, I have found a part time job!
Although it is really not an interesting job, it is still a great news for the family as it will help a lot with everyday life :) Now, I must admit it is not such a great news for The Little Bird Of Paradise.... I am now working every day while my daughter is at preschool and when she is not, well, I have to take care of her... So, to make it short, I really struggle to find time to go in my sewing room and create... Can't wait for Summer when days are longer and the nice light helps staying motivated :) Anyway, today I managed to finish this hoop art. Hope you like it! It could not have happened at a worst moment of the year but both my sewing machines are having problems I don't know how to fix yet…. The old Singer's pedal (we had changed when we got the machine) did not resist an intensive free motion session and started to melt again :( We are starting to wonder if the problem does 't come from the motor itself….. As for my Janome, something is really wrong but I have no idea what it might be! I am waiting for some sewing machine oils to be delivered and hopefully it will do the trick! Fingers crossed! But it is a real shame as I have sold quite a few things in my little Etsy shop lately and I am slightly out of stock, just before Christmas :( But hey, there is nothing I can do about it now so I might as well concentrate on the positive aspects of the situation. I decided to make the best of my time and to work on an idea I have had for quite some time : make some little oil pastels paintings of imaginary (of course )cottages. And to add even more little houses in my shop while satisfying my love for textiles this time, I have hand embroidered a cute little country side scene with cottage, tree, flowers and …sheep!
I think it is one of the creations I made I love the most! Lately I have been enjoying a lot working with oil pastels again!
I have been focusing on simple shapes and lines and lots of colours. Here are a few pictures of some of my last drawings, all available on Etsy : https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/LittleBirdOfParadise |
Marie CharroisFrench creative living in the United Kingdom. Click to set custom HTML
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