Christmas card design

This five week block of Mags Bradley’s painting class has whizzed by. I really don’t know where November went, I only realised I hadn’t turned the calendar on from October on the 19th November!

We painted apples, early on. I used some russets from the garden, this year the best (and biggest) they have ever been. I pruned the tree a bit harder than I usually dare, and it paid off, but not so with the other eater, nor the cooker, both smaller and less fruit on them this year. They flower slightly earlier and I think a frost caught them both.

I chose these three for their variation in colour and texture.

We did quick sketches on cartridge paper to start with, and then added some colour. The room has lights that give multiple shadows, so I played around with them a little, just as Mags had said only to put one shadow in! I quite liked the idea of using the shadows to abstract the fruit. Lots of corrections, but we don’t use a rubber as we go along.

I didn’t finish my “proper” painting on watercolour paper, intending to get back to it at home, but the apples had changed too much before I managed it.

The following week we had to take flowers to paint, and these were all I could find in the garden.

I more or less finished this in the class. It just needs a little tightening up in places, in good light, which doesn’t last long even when we do get some at this time of year.

I was a week ahead of myself on this one. We were meant to be doing a little group of three, which it sort of was: one tree, one tin and one felt bird (if you don’t count the handmade decorations in the tin, see the top picture). There were lots of good memories of making or receiving them. I thought if I could paint it OK, it would reduce down (it’s more or less A3 at the moment) to make our Christmas cards.

I thoroughly enjoyed drawing them, and was quite pleased with the drawing. There were a few tweaks from Mags on perspective of the tin, and the suggestion of making the bird bigger. I started painting it in class, and went away with the instruction to keep it simple.

A rare morning of good light the next day so I continued painting, expecting to ruin it at any moment, but enjoying the process. The candles are copper foiled stained glass; the fairy, the one that was topless for many years; calico tree with different stitches and beads and bells; the babousha, Christmas Pudding and bauble and bird are all felt with simple stitching. I’d quite surprised myself by the time I’d finished painting, a completely different style from anything I’d done before.

I didn’t get as far as taking it to the library to have it scanned before this week’s class. I couln’t decide whether to put a cloth or table to ground it all, nor where to put it if so. Mags suggested that I strenghen the colours and add some baubles to the tree, add some shadows under the tree and put some shadow under the calico tree (too heavy – they got softened out).

Right at the end of the class Mags helped with adding a cloth, which I quickly painted in so that I could go and have it scanned on the way home. I need to tweak it down in size and print off the cards, then hopefully get Colin to write them all. The handmade Christmas card with his illegible writing has been our trademark greeting to family and friends for 25 years now!

Trip down memory lane

Stained glass decorations I made years ago

Fetching out the Christmas decorations is a real trip down memory lane for me. Re-kindling a whole range of emotions, remembering family and friends, times and places. It’s made me realise why it takes me so long to put up the decorations. A balance between just doing it quickly without much thought, or being overwhelmed by remembering it all. Maybe that’s why I tend to start in a different area each year.

Last year we bought some big lidded plastic boxes to store the decorations up in the loft. This was a reluctant change, previously most things had gone in Christmas wrapped big cardboard boxes that my Grandad had received as food hampers from where he worked. He was a very conservative eater, and many of the delicious things got donated to the rest of the family. He was 90 when he died, had been retired for many years before that and he died more than 15 years ago. But the boxes were strong and functional, the wrapping paper was ripped though, so it was time for the change. I can see the benefits already as now I can see what is in each box without opening them.

The copper-foiled, stained-glass pieces I made many, many years ago, and usually by the time I come across them the tree is too full to find somewhere to put them. They are quite heavy for the size of them, and obviously fragile. However, as I got them out this morning I remembered that we have sometimes hung them in the front window. They work much better with the light coming through them than on the tree.

Scunthorpe Embroiders Guild have decorated a tree for the Scunthorpe Festival of Christmas trees for the last few years. The first time, we were all given a coloured plastic hoop, to do whatever we wanted on it. I had done some Hardanger for the first time with Alison Larkin earlier in the year, so decided I would do a Christmas tree, and challenge myself to use mauves and purples to echo the hoop.

Hardanger Christmas tree

That wasn’t the main challenge in the end, as you can see it doesn’t hang quite centrally somehow, in spite of the star at the top lining up with the hanging; it all looks slightly skew. Getting the tree to look balanced was tricky too, normally with something like this you frame to the work, not work to the frame. The counted stitches dictate the proportions of height to width, and my original sketches just didn’t work at all. In the end it looked OK, but room for improvement!

Close-up

The following year we were all given a kit, a pre-cut white felt bird, two layers, so the back and front are the same and it can be viewed either way, useful as things often don’t hang just so on the tree. The wings and tail feathers were in a variety of colours. I predictably picked orange, much to the amusement of my friends, but the fuchsia pink ribbon and beads for the feet were a challenge, not colours I would normally put together. They were simple and fun to do, but the whole flock on the tree looked stunning.

Felted bird

I first saw these Santas at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate years ago, and have seen variations on them since. I think the one on the right is the original one. They are done on plastic canvas, and if you gently squeeze on the corners where his ears would be the base opens up so you can put little gifts or chocolates inside.

Plastic canvas Santas

Hand-stitched patchwork is not really my thing, but this was a nice, piece of gentle hand-stitching, just what you need normally amongst the frantic rushing around pre-Christmas. It was started at a workshop at Allsorts, a group that lives up to its name that I went to up to lockdown. We did a mixture of our own work, in-house workshops and the occasional tutor. It was a friendly group that I miss. The challenge on this one was actually to add the beaded edge and to finish it before Christmas.

Patchwork wreath

This apple again was done many, many years ago, in a Carol Money class I went to, and it certainly didn’t get finished the year it was started. It was probably the first piece of patchwork I did, certainly the first hand piecing. It feels beautiful, as the velvet is silk, even more tactile than cotton velvet, and the rest of the fabric is silk too. It really is one to stroke.

Silk and silk velvet apple

This beaded bell was also done in Carol’s class. The pattern needed following like a fair-isle knitting pattern, row by row, with increases or decreases. I can’t remember if it was started at the top or the bottom. One was enough for me, but several in the class went into production in various colour combinations.

Beaded bell

This is just a taste of some of the things I’ve made for Christmas over the years, picked out of the first box of treasures that are stored not in the loft. There are also things given to us by family and friends, ones inherited from my mum and dad, and Colin’s too, a few from my nanna and grandad, and ones we have bought on our travels. Lots with bitter-sweet associations and memories.