eastern promise

Well, I didn't get to do any real work on my Carmen Miranda headdress tonight because:

(a) the hardware store sold me the wrong inserts for my new glue gun! grr... (everyone should know by now that I don't read packaging!); and

(b) I broke the basket by trying to use the power drill on it.

Sob. I was devastated.

So, I had to make this instead:
I'm quite excited by the latest finished object (which I started and finished last night) although it is rather goofy, really.

So why do I like it? It seems like my first real attempt at blending knitting, crochet and mosaic - and it's 3-D! (without glasses), at least when you look at it from the bottom up (which I realise would be awkward for what is intended to be a wall hanging... unless you're as short as me, that is).


Cool, eh? Sea glass, a sari silk sea bed - and silk flowers!

I don't know that the photos capture that this piece is actually done in two layers. Here's how:

I took an old glass frame with two panes of glass in it, spraypainted the back one blue, and put these two swatches (both Super10 except for the orange which was Super3) on it:

After that, I inserted the top piece of glass and shoved in some unretrievably fankled (JJs word) sari silk:
I then grabbed a bunch of freeform crochet shapes which I had done on the TTC some time back and which have been patiently awaiting a home since (This freeform was accomplished with more than a little help from Freeform Knitting and Crochet by Jenny Dowde. We type A monsters love books that tell us how to be spontaneous!!)

The flowers in the front are made from two types of sari silk and Handmaiden Silk Spun. The spirals are made from Mission Falls Cotton (teal) and Fleece Artist of unknown name that I scored at a yarn swap recently. Let's not forget the vintage buttons which I acquired at the St Lawrence flea market some time back and which are now front and centre in the flowers!

The "sun" is Belle Print silk.

I glued these all on using contact cement. I then added sea glass, tiles, glass beads and stained glass in no particular order and with no real rhyme nor reason.

And - voila!

Why is it called "Eastern Promise"? I don't really know. The colours remind me of Greece and what I imagine Turkey to be like; it has sari silk, Fleece Artist and Super 10 all from east of here; it has mysterious spirals... take your pick! The theme is not so consistent... originally it was just supposed to be flowers on a sea bed and a sun but things kind of went haywire.
Anyway, it was a lot of fun and didn't take very long. I am thinking of gifting it to a friend/coworker but frankly I don't know that anyone but me will like it... I'll take it to work today and see what happens.

Warmest regards to Rudolph Valentino on this fine November day - The Sheik opened on 6 November 1921, making him famous! (Eastern Promise... Sheiks... hmmm).