Heaped in a corner was a pile of beautiful silks sourced from Thailand, shimmering materials with subtle graduations of colour, their only defect a square cut out to provide a sample for the finished product. I collected an armful and came back to buy more. I was greedy but I was right to do so; if the pop-up shop had not existed, all the fabric would have been incinerated.
The silks are an inspiration and a delight. My first project was to use some as lining for a Kindle cover but I decided it would be a shame not to celebrate the rich interplay of colours. The textile also has an interesting quality: it is not particularly stretchy (not so good for a lining where measuring is not my forte) but it is quite malleable. Hence the decision to create the brooches below.
The flower petals bunch beautifully and the addition of the felt disc at the front and back creates a solid little brooch. The fibres of the silk retain the tension of the running stitch (and fortunately don't seem to fray), resulting in an interesting organic shape that can also be sculpted.
Every piece of craft has a story. My buttons are usually sourced from second hand shops and vintage fairs. The blue button that provides the centre of the flower here however was in a end of season box in a haberdashery shop in Coleraine. At 75p it was a bargain, because this was a fashion button made in Spain or France. The seller also showed my shopkeeper buttons at £25, a snip, but my canny Coleraine businesswoman was not tempted. Apparently the UK no longer make fancy buttons...
