A bunch of grapes

by | posted in: fruit brooch, gift for her, gift for mom, gift ideas, grapes brooch, grapevine brooch, hand painted silk, handmade berry, handmade corsage, mother's day gift | 0
I truly believe that a really great silk flower artist should be able to create diverse things. Yes, everybody loves roses. Yes, bridal accessories are always in demand. But one can not just make roses or white bridal flowers although I am not saying they have to be taken of the list. No way! But sometimes I want to take a break from popular designs and make something wacky, unconventional, but cute 🙂
For a long time I was planning to make a brooch with grapes. I saw it in several books of mine as an interior  arrangement of a grape vine in a vase. But I wanted a brooch. So this week I finished my grapes brooch. It is a bunch of blue and purple grapes surrounded by 3 shiny leaves. It is finished with a brooch pin for easy attaching. The grapes brooch can be made to order. It will make a perfect gift for any woman who appreciates unique handmade accessories.
Here are the pictures of the grapes brooch:

 

 

Fabric strawberries

by | posted in: cloth fruit, fabric berry, fabric fruit, fabric strawberry, handmade berry, handmade flower, handmade silk flower, handmade strawberry, strawberry plant | 0
Textile is a very versatile and pliable material and since there so many different varieties of textile one can say that there’s got to be a fabric for any job imaginable. When we make flowers we choose nice lightweight and medium silk fabrics, shiny or matt, sometimes almost transparent depending on the flower we are creating.
But what if we want to make a … strawberry? What fabric to use to make the work look nice and the process easy and smooth? Probably something relatively thick? Like velvet?
This is what came out of my fabric berry experimenting:

Materials: Japanese velvet, Japanese melton, satin, Japanese lining silk.
P.S. Whatever you see in the picture is a small unfinished interior arrangement. But I think that a little brooch with strawberries would look really cute!
How would you make use of these juicy berries?