Missed the date!

I thought to myself, I must blog today, it is 19/9/19. That was a few days ago and was as far as I got.
But it is not that much later, so I can say I have been working on a piece since that date (I can't remember if that is actually true or not, I just know I have something that I have been working on for a while).

Anyway, here it is:
I had thought to try a teapot based on Clarice Cliffe's images. I have done a couple recently so I thought I could give it another go.

Then I thought about what I wanted to do and why:
The Embroiderers Guild, Victoria, is having its annual members exhibition soon and the works are due to be handed in on Sunday. I entered the challenge (you can put in entries before you have made the pieces, something I like because then I have a deadline to work towards - you can also withdraw with no penalty, not even a tsk, tsk). The challenge is called Altered Art and is not allowed to be any larger than 15cm in any dimension. This seemed a bit small for my teapot idea, too fiddly.

I also attended a demonstration at one of our play days in the recent past (that means sometime this year) and we made silk paper - I think that is what we did, or did we just talk about it??
No ... there was a workshop on at the same time as a meeting I was at and they were making and sewing on silk paper!  Anyway, I was inspired to make some silk paper afterwards, with no purpose for it in mind.

This inspired me to make my teapot out of the silk paper - then I realised it would not be particularly strong and I would have trouble putting all the bits together.
I have now come up with the idea of a bowl inspired by Clarice Cliffe.
I found images of bowls and plates that I really liked.
I chose the design from a plate (Windbells) but wanted to make the conical bowl.

I played around with cardboard first, to get the proportions and sketch the design.

After I got the template organised, I looked at the silk paper I had lying around and the image. I realised I had some of the appropriate colours, so decided to lay them on the base too.
As the silk paper isn't very strong, I thought I should put it into a hoop. However, I didn't want to get a mark from the hoop so decided to use soluble fabric to hold it in place. Then I realised that I could lay the other coloured bits of silk paper on the base and the soluble fabric would hold it down.

I did this on both sides and then sewed it. I didn't bother sewing all over the fabrics as I thought the soluble fabric would glue it together and I was right!

I wanted to make the base she had made, which was like a cross but I just couldn't manage it, especially not with flimsy silk paper. So I have ended up with a circular base.

Here it is, drying in a funnel.

It was a bit tricky to sew as the silk paper kept falling into layers.  Then I realised that this bit of silk paper had not had the soluble fabric on it and would be strengthened if I painted some on, after I dissolved it. I painted it after I hand sewed it on. I also layered a few pieces of the coloured silk paper, which I had pulled apart to be a bit more filmy. I caught them with a few stitches but am relying on the soluble fabric glue to hold it on securely. It is currently drying, so I hope it will work.

I might try for a better picture once it is dry and complete - or I might leave that till I have one of it at the exhibition. If it tuns out ok and stands up!