So many possibilities. I immediately knew that I was going to embroider this Hamsa hand. I actually drew it on the black linen back in July with the intention of stitching it then. As is always the case, I put it down to work on other projects. So it was a wonderful coincidence that Laney chose eyes and I had it already planned out. Just a matter of thread selection then I could get started!
The Hamsa hand is a palm shaped amulet and has been predominately used in Jewish and Islamic religions for protection & to provide defense against the 'evil eye'. It has also been called Hand of Fatima, Hand of Mary, Hand of Miriam and Hand of the Goddess. I just happened to be reading The Power when I drew this in July. It's a dystopian novel where young girls and women have an enormous electrical power. The main character calls herself Mother Eve and each of her hands are tattooed with an eye in the middle of the palm with tendrils extending out.
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Close up of Hamsa hand |
Here's the full view of my version of the Hamsa hand
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Hamsa hand framed in 10x10 frame |
While I was working on the above embroidery piece I was thinking about what else I wanted to create. I remembered that I had bought an amazing lampwork dragon eye from Laney a while ago. I knew I had to use it for this month. It was perfect since Laney was hosting and the eye is truly a one of a kind piece. It is a bead but I decided to treat it as a cabochon and glued it to stiff stuff to do the initial beading. I did stitch through the bead hole to further secure it to the stiff stuff.
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How about those fish scales? So cool for dragon skin, right? |
I happened to have some leftover fish leather from my octopus project from August. The green fish leather came from Lisa Peters Art and was perfect for the green eyed dragon. The fish scales resemble dragon skin/scales.
Sadly, the black matte size 11 beads I had to edge stitch were not Japanese they were Czech and not equal in size so the edging is a bit wonky. But it kind of goes with the asymmetrical shape of the fish leather and the asymetrical beading around the dragon eye. I was a bit stumped about how to create a bail since I had no idea what type of necklace I was planning to create to hand this pendant from. I got the idea of using the fish leather while perusing Pinterest. I figured I could either use leather as a necklace or some hammered metal. For photographing I used 5 strands of 1mm black leather cord and I really like this look, so I will use this for the necklace. I have some end caps that the 5 strands fit in perfectly. So it's almost finished!
While trying to figure out the necklace portion for the dragon eye I was playing with some beads and pendants lying around on my work table. I sometimes have a habit of buying new supplies and not putting them away immediately. I bought this cute polymer clay skull pendant from Tammy Adams of Paisley Lizard Designs and it was staring at me from my work table along with some blue evil eye headpins that I bought from fellow teammate Sue of SueBeads. I decided the skull needed to have one of these evil eye charms dangling from her. She doesn't have a necklace yet to hang from but I think I will do a hand knotted necklace using a combo of white agate beads that have a hint of black in them along with some of the same dark blue & black glass beads like I used to dangle off the pendant with the eye headpin. The 'evil eye' or Nazar is really used as a talisman to protect against the evil eye. It encourages good karma.
In between working on the first embroidered piece and working on the dragon eye, I also wanted to create a couple of small embroidered eyes. So here is my thread sketched version of an eye.
I really like the dramatic effect of the black on the natural linen. I used ONE single thread for most of the stitching so even though it's small it took longer than expected. I think I may be doing more of these 'sketches'.
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Thread sketch of an eye |
I haven't finished my last embroidered eye. It is going to be a Nazar or evil eye talisman of sorts. A stitched version on black linen like the Hamsa hand. If I finish it tonight I will add it tomorrow before blog hopping.
Finished late last night-the final eye
I can't wait to see what the art team members and all the guests have created. I have seen a few sneak peeks on IG and FB so I know there will be some stunning pieces.
Grab a warm beverage and go have a look for yourself.
Here's the list of participants:
AE Team Members-
Guests-