Work in Progress Wednesday - 19 Dec 2012

I nearly didn't have anything to report, but I've just finished re-stitching the head section on the rabbit piece and also added in the eye.  I think it looks a little odd at the mo, but feel sure that it'll look much better when all the rest of the shading is done.

Probably the main plus is that I actually got it going again!=)

I also finished off the mittens for my green baby layette this afternoon and just need to get ribbon and buttons for that and the matching jacket, which won't happen before Sunday, but I'll be able to show off something anyway.=)

Feels good to get things moving forward, esp. as both of the above mentioned projects are on my to complete in 2012 list and there are only 12 days and 6 hours left of the year....  That's also part of the reason why I haven't been doing as much textile work - I've been trying to complete some of the study tasks too!

Of course, next year's list is already done and ready to go live in 1 January and contains a few things that won't get done, or finished, this year.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

The Sunday Yarn - 16 December 2012

Today we proudly announce:

THE COMPLETION OF THE YELLOW CARDIGAN!

OK, not 100% finished, as I've yet to buy and attach some buttons and it could use a press etc too.  I'm hoping to get some slightly novel ones, maybe flower shaped, but it's getting something both small enough and without any sharp edges that little Vivienne (I don't know yet how they're spelling it, but this will do as a guess for now!) could hurt herself on.

Here's the process of picking up and knitting all the borders.  First I'd to part assemble all 5 pieces and then pick up along the cast (bound) off edges.  Here's a terrific video on picking up and knitting stitches on YouTube.

When that was done, the right hand border came next including the buttonholes.

Then, finally, the plain left hand border. I don't know why, but I struggled to pick up as many stitches on this side and actually ended up with six fewer than on the right hand border.  I doubt it matters though.  I do wish I'd got one or two lower down though as it looks a little bit 'pulled' up to the border from the edge of the front pieces.  You can see the 2mm crochet hook I used to pick up the stitches in this shot.  The yarn is quite fine (4 ply) and the stitches quite small, so I really couldn't put the knitting needle through to pick them up that way.

There's nothing like enough yarn left for me to attempt any of the other things on the pattern (mittens etc).  In fact, I was quite tense to see if it would even stretch to finishing the cardy itself as I only had two balls and I did a size that said it needed three.

The green cardy is also now complete, but I'll save that to show you next week.=)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

Work In Progress Wednesday - 5 Dec 2012

I've done a couple more rows on the centre part of the 'Sunshine and Flowers' sampler over the last day or so.  Oh, and I also added in some cream beads that I'd missed before - 4 of them!  There were actually 2 missing on the chart, but I missed two myself, so equal blame share!!!  Things are progressing fairly well with this piece now, although it takes a while to get the hang of each row.  Next will be 2 long satin stitch rows, or rather boxes, down the sides of the middle and that's a bit of a concern as there's quite some potential for miscounting there...

This afternoon I've also been trying to make some progress with the shading on the stumpwork rabbit, but I really need to come back to this in daylight and have a thorough review of the brown shades.  Two are far too close together to be of any real use in differentiating between shades (and the project isn't meant to be so realistic that it needs such gentle changes), and two are much too far apart.  I'm actually using the prescribed thread brand (it was designed in Anchor, for a wonder!), so I can't blame thread conversion problems.  Anyway, that's something I want to get a look at in the morning, when there's good light where I'm working.  I've already picked out a shade between the two far apart ones, but that now seems too dark....

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

The Sunday Yarn - 2 Dec 2012

As you can see in the photo above, I messed up the shaping of the cardigan's left front!  I'd sewn it in place and pinned the right front on before I realised that I must have read the pattern wrong at some point and ended up with the shaping the wrong way around at the top.  Duh!

Thankfully, there were only a few, short rows to pull out (once I'd detached it from the sleeve again, that is) and it's now back on the needles waiting for me to feel up to tackling getting it the right way around.  I can't think how I managed to do this, (must have missed a row somewhere and there was also at least one error in the pattern - a rogue purl row - that someone else had spotted and warned me of), but I did think it looked a rather odd shape and wondered how it would sew together....

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

Work In Progress Wednesday - 28 Nov 2012

YAY!  Some embroidery progress to post!  YAY!=)

First up is the sampler on which I've made a bit of discernible progress.  In the first photo you can see the spider web roses, the cream beads (instead of palestrina knots, which I can't seem to get to look decent and so refused to fight any further with), the three 'boxes' for more cutwork and the start of the next row.

This second shot shows where the project is right now with a row of double pekinese stitch and one of feather stitch also completed.

I'll soon be coming to a small decision point as, as you can see from the photos, the variegated thread I've been using thus far is a cool green and wine purple mix.  In the pattern, this shade continues only on to the next row, then it changes to a more olive green with petrel blue mix.  I'm considering whether to change shades as per the chart, or to keep it all one.  I love purply shades and so am tending very much towards not making a change.  Of course, I only bought these two skeins of thread to go in this design and have no other real use for them, which is a small argument in favour of changing, but having said that, I'll no doubt try and sell one or both of them anyway once this sampler is complete (they're Needle Necessities threads and hard to come by, so may well find a buyer as past sales have shown), so one skein being complete may be good. You can see the colours in this photo.  What do you think?  Would you stick to one shade or go for variety?

Another change that I certainly will make is the large square cutwork section in the lower part of the design.  You can see here in the left hand photo that the cream one is done like a gate with garden showing through, whereas the lilac (and green) one on the right is just done as a piece of fancy work.  I must say that I prefer the more realistic one and am almost certainly going to do that version instead.  99.9% certain, I would say.  The flowers you can see through it are worked on a separate piece of linen, then attached to the back of satin stitches and the whole thing seems to fit better to me.  What do you say?

I haven't done much more on the other two projects yet, but those of you with good memories may recall that I wasn't pleased with the shading - the darkest colour wasn't dark enough as I'd picked the wrong one.  So, I took that colour out and here's bun, ready to have the dark patches on his jaw and around his eye restitched, bless him!

What have you been working on this week??

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

Knitting and Stitching Show - Harrogate 2012

No photos of the show itself, sorry.  I had my camera, but there were so many 'no photography' signs in various booths that I didn't like to take an overall shot in case someone feared I was up to no good and I got into hot water!!  However, there's nothing stopping me taking a picture of the things I bought there, so here they are:

I spent the most money at the Colourcraft stand.  They're a company located near to me, here in Sheffield and they make all manner of paints, dyes, glues and craft things.  I'm very keen to visit their factory shop as soon as I can work out how to get there on public transport!  They were very good too in that, when I asked how to use the silk paint gutta to best effect as I'd had some trouble with my silver and clear before, the chap, Mike, promptly gave me replacements for them and asked for more feedback when I'd done a small sample with them!  I was so impressed with their attitude!  I bought the starter set of 8 metallic paints, 2 more silk paints in green and white (to add to my collection of primaries and black), and those two sprays you can see in the top left hand corner of the photo.  These are amazing!  They contain very fine glitter pigment and, once well shaken, you can spray it on either fabric or paper backgrounds and it gives a wonderful sparkly effect.  On the recommendation of Mandy, the demonstrator, I got the bronze and blue shades as good generic warm and cool tones.  I'm really looking forward to putting all those goodies to use!

Along the bottom you can see the results of my visit to the West End Embroidery stand.  I also got some cream seed beads (which will star in tomorrow's WIPW posting), but I couldn't resist the temptation to do a little stash building and get these 4 packs of petite seed beads in berry colours.  Of course, the shade range is considerably more limited, but these are good basic shades (I already have black) and the green one with red centres is unique to the petite range, it seems!  The Weeks Dye Works skein was something I felt had real anniversary card or gift potential for Sir - colours not too different from those he chose for his hard drive cover.

Finally, on the right hand side you can see 3 rolls of metallic fabric I got from the Bits and Pieces stall, who, sadly, don't appear to have a website.  This isn't your ordinary sheer fabric, but quite a bit more sturdy, although I've forgotten what it's called!  It's part of the goldworker's portfolio anyway, and if anyone can remind me of the name, I'd be grateful.  I saw it and thought stumpwork flower piece.  I also got the small bag of bright check #1 from them as I'd never seen it before.  I hope to put that in the flower centre.  I bought some ordinary sheers from The Golden Hinde too, but they're folded away in my fabric drawer and are too springy to keep on taking out etc!!

I got a lot of inspiration from Josephine Storey's display and some good tips from both her and her daughter.  They don't have a website, but you can see her kits on sale here at Wye Needlecrafts and get an idea of some of the things she does.  It was her work that prompted me to get the metallic paints and I realised that nice embroideries on plain, light fabric don't really do it for me anymore.  Not surprisingly as a colour freak (just like Rona from Bits and Pieces, who was pleased to meet a kindred spirit), I'm moving ever more towards more colour.  One thing that has slowed me down on kit making has been the thought of having to either provide boring backgrounds or spend forever creating interesting ones!  I thought of maybe providing a light green fabric instead of boring cream.  Not that I've made any decision on whether or not to go in for that yet....

Last, but not least, I got a pleasant surprise when I discovered that my old City & Guilds teachers, Diane Freeman and Annie Smith, were there amongst the education providers' stands showcasing students' work and promoting their own C&G micro-centre, Castle Textiles Group.  If you live within easy distance of Harrogate and are interested in C&G study with good teachers and a style that actually looks attractive, check them out!  Every folder of work on their table was a work of art in itself before you even opened it!  There's a photo on their blog posting of the event which, whilst it doesn't show much detail, gives an idea.  Last year's photo is even better! My local micro-centre's annual exhibition was all black folders with samples just put in clear plastic wallets - not even mounted!  Such a shame!  If I ever do a course with them, I will try to make sure that my work is as attractively presented as possible.

So, I really must get on and finish my current WIPs so that I can move on to some projects using my new goodies and fill my world with vibrant, sparkly colour!

In the meantime, please don't forget to take a look at my e-bay sales page as there are a lot of nice craft and embroidery things going there as well as clothes and trims for the party season.  All sales end on Friday between 11am and 2pm GMT/UTC and there are a number of 'watches' on the embroidery kits already!  Don't miss out...

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

The Sunday Yarn - 25 Nov 2012 and Things For Sale!

Do weeks fly, or what?  I actually did a little embroidery this week and yesterday I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate, which was great!  I really enjoyed it as it's been four years since I was last able to go and, whilst I didn't buy many supplies, I did get some good fabric colouring things, lots of new ideas and the realisation that it really IS embroidery that I like best when it comes to textile crafts.  I didn't even look at any yarns, knitting patterns or that kind of thing!  So, I daresay yarncrafts will not be a prominent feature here long-term, but I will do some here and there.  I want to learn crochet and pick a few more knitting skills (cabling and colour changes for a start), so that I have the skills under my belt for another time.=)

Here's where the two cardigan projects are up to.  As you can see, all pieces are finished now and they just need preliminary assembly and it's on to the hated 'pick up and knit' part to do the borders etc.  Hmm, the left hand yellow sleeve is inside-out!!  The green bit on the needle is the first part of a mitten, which was rather stupid of me to start when I hadn't done the border and am low on yarn - DUH!

Here's the promised external hard drive cover that I did for my hubby a couple of weeks ago.  It's made with Sirdar 55% wool blend chunky yarn and was chosen by Sir himself.  It's not that the hard drive needed padding (or even keeping warm!!), but he wanted it to be bright and 'unmissable' so that he didn't leave it behind in among all the other dull, black technology things that seem to fill up desks wherever you are these days.  He's pleased with it and you might be able to see that I left a hole in the top left hand corner so that the operation lights can easily be seen.=)

I've just been busy taking advantage of the current free listing event on E-bay UK and have uploaded some things that some readers may be interested in.  There are several really good quality, nicely designed embroidery kits available in cross stitch, blackwork, goldwork, stumpwork, Brazilian and silk shading/freestyle as well as some other counted thread charts (PLEASE someone buy the hardanger angels!)  With two exceptions (listed as 'part kit's), they're all new and complete, although I've opened them up to look at the contents.  I realise that I'm never actually going to work them, so better off to pass them on to someone who will and will enjoy them!  Could that be you?  I hope so.... I've also listed some coloured card blanks with oval apertures, some party-type clothes in small sizes, hair decorations and a few other things.  Please have a look here at the listings as I've made them all available globally.  Someone's already bid on the large Brazilian kit, feel free to compete with her....!!=)  (I did try to put some mini photos here, but I just could NOT get the formatting satisfactory, so I've scrapped the idea!)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

The Sunday Yarn - 18 Nov 2012

I haven't posted a yarncrafts update for the last few Sundays, but I have been knitting!

Here's the progress on the 4-ply lemon cardy, which is the 6-12 months size:

And here's the current status of the light green one.  This is a 3-6 months one, but is wider than the lemon one (which is a little longer though).  So, I wonder how they'll be in actual use!

So, just the two sleeves to finish and then it's onto assembly and the borders - neither of which jobs are my favourite part of the process!!

Apart from that I've also done an external hard-drive cover for DH, but I'll wait until I have better light to take a picture of that as I had to take the above in artificial light and they're not up to my usual standard as a result.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

Work In Progress Wednesday - 31 Oct 2012

Another Wednesday and here's the current state of play on my Works in Slow Progress. First of all, the sampler:

I've done a slight bit more than you can see here since the photo was taken, i.e. have put in the lazy daisy stitches on the rest of the upper left hand bit of the rose scroll.  You might notice that I decided to replace those erroneous blue stitches after all and I think it looks a lot better now.  The blue didn't make a good contrast, it just confused matters and it looks a lot more like roses now, instead of just clumps of dots!

I also got the stumpwork rabbit going again.  Here's the photo from the book I'm working from with all the threads I'm using as well.

I completed the shading of the head as you can see.  However, I'm not at all pleased with it and am seriously considering starting all over again with it.  I certainly do want to re-do the lower part of the head and the eye area as I've not used dark enough thread - I used the second darkest instead of the very darkest, but it needs to recede somewhat, being the furthest part away.  So, that's up to be re-done.

I haven't done anything on the peacock feather as yet as I haven't been out to get the 9" hoop, (which I'm assured can indeed be bought from Hobbycraft - there weren't any available when I was buying all my hoops a few years ago), but I hope to do that soon.  I'm not in the market for any fancy frame systems and I find wooden stretched frames much too heavy for me to hold and need too much umph to get set up.  So, I'll get the missing size of hoop.  I like hoops.  If they're good enough for the likes of Helen M Stevens, then they're good enough for me!=)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

Work In Progress Wednesday - 24 Oct 2012

Not too much to show off this week, I'm sorry to say.  There are two or three hours work displayed on the sampler here.

It takes such a long time to achieve anything on this one, especially the cross stitched parts as they're so 'bitty' - a couple of stitches here, three in a row there, a single one over here, and so on.  I also discovered that I'd misread one of the symbols whilst stitching the upper part, thus the rose centres ended up being teal blue instead of deep lilac!!  I might replace it, I might not.=)

Oh and Sharon, you may have told me the piece was lovely before, I don't remember exactly, but I haven't the least objection to being told it as many times as you like!!!  Might help with motivation....

Now onto the peacock feather piece.  One or two mentioned last time that they were intrigued as to what I was going to do with it.  Well, I am a bit that way out myself, if I'm truthful!!  The idea is to continue to couch rows of rayon threads so that they end up something like this picture I did from a real feather (I think - it was a few years ago and may even have been from a photo) below:

I haven't done any more of the stitching yet, but I have pressed the fabric, got the necessary threads out and trialled a couple of possible work frames.  If only I had a 9 inch hoop!  Are such things made, do you know?

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

The Sunday Yarn - 21 Oct 2012

This week has seen me working on two baby cardigans at once!  I'm 'sharing' the size 10 (3.25mm) needles between the two patterns, which isn't strictly necessary as there are another two pairs in my mum's needle bag, but doing it this way makes me work on both and not just do the easy and quick one to the neglect of the slower, more complex design with the finer yarn as I have to make sure that the right guage needles are free at the right time.

I've got almost one sleeve done on the lemon piece.  I do like this one - both the snuggly yarn (texture AND colour) and the pattern, but it takes a fair bit longer, of course.  I've 30 rows left to do on this sleeve now.  The first of the two balls of yarn is coming to an end and I'm beginning to get concerned that there'll be enough!  I've decided not to even attempt matching mittens as I'm sure there won't be enough yarn for those.

I've also started this green version of the white one I've already done.  This one is a size larger and, wouldn't you know it, the back is actually larger than the lemon back even though the lemon one is a size larger again! Go figure, as you American ladies say!=)  Anyway, I plan to decorate this one with purple trims and flowers but, as it's a larger size, I doubt I'll have enough yarn for bootees as well, so I'll just settle for mittens this time.

I was browsing the shop where I got the lemon yarn and found two balls of the flecked peachy-pink below going for only 99p each. There were also stacks of yellow ones, but I liked this one best and the shade seemed to me to be far more suited to a Chinese baby's colouring than our blue-ish pinks would be.

That's all for this week, I'm afraid!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

Completed 'Rolled Roses' Brazilian Embroidery

I'm delighted to announce the completion - and successful framing - of my long-in-progress Brazilian embroidery piece!  HURRAH!

Here are the last two WIP shots from last week.  The first one was what I got done during the rest of the Wednesday that you last saw pictures on and the second is, I think, from the next day's work.

After that, I just pressed on to completion and didn't take any more photos until the whole piece was done!  This afternoon, I stretched it in an 8" embroidery hoop after spraying with a clean water spray to wet the fabric.  It dried beautifully taut and ready for framing.

Last, but not least, I put it into one of those Anchor Flexi Hoop Frames (which I'll be detailing the process of soon, alongside some regular framing as Sir and I are doing a few of my pieces on Sunday afternoons together) and here is the completed item ready to be given as a gift to a lovely Japanese lady who put us up in her Oxford home last winter.  I promised to do an embroidery for her and I think she'll like this!

Do you?

So, that's my first Brazilian piece done.  How do I feel about it?  Well, I'm quite pleased with the finished results, but it was rather tricky to work some of it.  I'm not sure if I really enjoyed it in the final analysis and I can't really see myself ever working the larger kit I own - although I am interested in doing some small sections of it.  Jury's out on this one, I think!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

Work In Progress Wednesday - 17 Oct 2012

I haven't done much on the sampler this week, but this how it looks just now with the light flowers completed and the rest of the leaves put in around them.

Next up for completion is this funny looking object that long-term readers may remember from 4 years ago and my City & Guilds work.  It's a sample in appliqué and couching and, when complete, should look rather more like a peacock feather than it does now!!  So, I need to give some thought to how to proceed with this one and start doing a little on it as often as I can.

"But wait!"  I hear you cry.  "What happened to the Brazilian Rolled Rose piece?"  Nothing bad has happened to it, in fact, I've finished it!  I just need to stretch it a little before the final photos are taken and then it will have a post all to itself.  Look out for that later in the week, all being well.=)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

A Little Ribbon Embroidery

I've had a couple of Crafty Ribbons kits in my kit drawer for a while now and have been meaning to get them worked up.  However, when looking at the designs, I couldn't help but feel that the best hadn't been made of its potential.  This is the 'original', what do you think?  You get a small square of black fabric to work it on and, yes, it's plenty big enough for the design, but really nothing like big enough to put in a hoop.  In fact, although this is my fourth kit of this brand, I've never once used the fabric supplied in the package owing to its over small size.

I decided that the first thing to do was to create a new background and, as I had three small projects in mind that I wanted non-plain backgrounds for (including another kit by CR, the colour choices for which make me wonder how they could bring themselves to put it into production....), I decided to have a go at a bit of painting.  Below are the materials I thought I'd use, meaning to do natural, landscapey sorts of things with them.

And below again are the materials I actually used!!

This is what the piece of fabric with the three painted sections looked like when wet.  Notice that I wet the whole area I wanted to paint first so that the colours merged and spread out well on the fabric. 

And this is what it looked like dry - considerably lighter.  As you can see from the tubes of paint photo, I've used watercolours and I really should have remembered how much lighter they dry.  Having said that, I didn't really mind the change too much as I've made the mistake of having an over-poweringly painted background before.  I also learned that Sap Green' dries with quite a hard edge (as does Permanent Rose to a degree) - something to look out for another time.

The middle of the three was the one intended for this ribbon piece as I wanted to give the impression of a pot of flowers in a yard with a wall/fence (the brown-ish colour) and some greenery (the green spots dropped into the brown whilst still wet), on a paved area (the grey at the bottom).

The embroidery itself took around an hour and, as it was done in evening light and was a quick stitch, there are no WIP photos this time, but here's the finished piece, mounted in a card and looking a lot nicer, I think!

Do you agree?  I do like the general design and love the plant pot button - in fact I'm planning to get hold of a few, probably from the Crafty Ribbons booth at the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show, presuming they'll be there.  So that part was good, but I think the black background, to say nothing of the awful slightly blurred and totally 'flat' photograph on the kit was a big no-no.  Not surprisingly, I got this as part of a sale on their website - discontinued kits.

PS, In case anyone's wondering what's planned for the other two painted backgrounds, the simple answer is nothing.  I found the green on the left hand one just too vibrant and felt it didn't go with the ribbon piece I had in mind and the right hand idea just no longer works for me.  I was going to do a small sampler with a crazy quilt appearance as a support for my catch-up on TAST.  I still quite like the idea, but don't think this one worked and so will consider trying another one soon.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

The Sunday Yarn - 14 Oct 2012

I haven't done much knitting over the past week to be honest.  My readers who are really only interested in my embroidery will be pleased to know that I've been pressing on with two projects there - one completed and the other not far off (no, not the sampler!!), so knitting has been a little neglected.  Having said that, I managed to finish the back of the current baby cardigan I'm working on last night.  What puzzles me is why the right hand armhole (when viewed like this, from the back) looks so much lower than the left when it really is only one row!  Odd.

Another Ravelry (a HUGE yarncraft forum) member said she'd worked this pattern and that it had mistakes in it, so I'm a bit concerned about how it will go from here given that I'm only in the elementary stages of learning to knit.  From looking at the pattern and comparing it to the photo, I actually can't see how the pattern corresponds to the top section of the left and right fronts, so I'll need to go carefully there.  I think I'll take a break from this one for the time being as this is a 6-12 month old baby pattern and I still have a couple of 3-6 month ones I want to do.  Doesn't make sense to do it this way around!!

The other day I got one of my stitching magazine IKEA files off the shelf to put away the latest issue of 'Stitch' (and the first one I've bought in over 3 years) and came across this:

I'd been looking for it all over the place!  It'sf from a 1972 women's magazine and my mum must have saved it back then.  She gave it to me in the early 1980s and I'd kept it ever since, just mislaid it recently when I decided to take up knitting seriously.  It details how to work 60 different patterns, some with one colour but using cables and other fancy patterns and others with up to four different colours.  Just what I wanted to learn some more pretty stuff!

So, I might do a little playing around with some of these and make some small samples soon.  I wonder if anyone else has a copy of this still??=)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

Work in Progress Wednesday - 10 Oct 2012

Today I have two photos of each WIP to share! Such richness!!!LOL

Firstly, I discovered a better way of getting the colour to be more like the real thing than the camera shows and so you may notice that the photos are not so yellow-green as they have been up to now.  Today's shots are more like the real colour of the materials I'm using - cooler than the older photos where too much blue was removed, but warmer than the original shots which were far too blue.  Here you can see progress as made over two or three sessions work this last week:

Moving onto the Brazilian piece and I've been filling in yet more greenery.  Sorry about the bleached out look in the foreground of this first shot.  Actually, it's not as ill focused as it looks, it's just that the variegated thread goes quite pale at this point and the light reflected off it to quite some degree.

In this second one you can see that I've already begun to add in some of the fine work on the lower left hand side of the piece as well as replacing one dodgy bullion in the top right part of the main rose section.  It used to be baggy and ended up making the rose look triangular, now it's rather too long and sticks up, so I may have to do it yet again.  I might try anchoring it down more first as I'm not anxious to add any more bullions than I need to to my work list!

Putting in this other detail has improved both my mood doing the piece and the look of the whole thing.  The fabric puckering is a problem, but it gets covered with fine stitchery, so I don't need to trouble myself greatly about that.  Light still reflecting quite a lot on the lighter green shade of the main stems.  I'll have to find a way to improve the lighting by the time I'm ready for the final shots at least!

I'm hoping to get a few more areas done by next week as I really want to finish this piece in the next fortnight or so and then move on to completing the old peacock feather.  Clearing two pieces this month and making good progress on a third will feel great!

I was very disappointed to discover the other day that Webshots is closing down!  I have over 300 photos of all my work on there and am now looking for another free photo hosting site that allows for creation and easy viewing of albums and that, unlike Flickr, doesn't restrict you to just 200 photos.  I also don't want to use a service which requires others to sign up for it in order to see my pix.  I also have a Photobucket account, but I'm not keen on how albums work there.  So, if anyone has any ideas and recommendations, I'd be interested!  I'm looking for free hosting with a decent amount of storage and good album functions.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012