New York, New York!

New York was unbelievably amazing, I enjoyed it sooo much more than I thought I would. I was actually quite upset to leave, 1 week was nowhere near enough and we're already talking about going back for a holiday (we were thinking of going in the winter so we can get a carriage round Central Park in the snow to match the ones we had in the sun:) )

As promised here are a few pics of all the touristy things we did for you -

Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge and Empire State (that's actually the view from our room!) are just a few of the places we went, didn't want to make you too jealous :)
 
I'm back now, no more getting sunburnt from the 43 degree sun and starting dissertation research. Anyone want to write 5000 words on how womens fashion changed between 1900 and 1950?

#New York #Empire State building #Statue of Liberty #Brooklyn Bridge #Chrysler building #Central Park #Dissertation

Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today...

Well I'm all handed in, phew, and now packed to head off to New York. I'm a little bit excited!
Had a bit of a fiasco when I was given the work I had to take to Surtex - turns out it wont fit in my suitcase unless I bend it which wouldn't be a good thing to do - so hopefully it'll be ok sticking out of my hand luggage.
I suppose I'll see you in a week, I'll take a photo of the Statue of Liberty for yous :)

#New York #Surtex #Statue of Liberty

New Stuff :)

I've been super busy today (which is like being normally busy but I was wearing a cape :) ), I had quite a bit to do today anyway for deadline on Monday but we had meetings all day which was rather annoying - but I still managed to get some stuff done. Here are some of the things I made from those feathers I was making earlier:

Ta Daaaaa, I do quite like them. They are (Left to Right) earrings, necklace, necklace, brooch, table top ornament.
I've still got a few more at College to do some stuff with and might make some more over the weekend (who needs sleep?) so there's something a bit less expensive than Azadi for people to buy. I showed the earrings to one of the girls in my house and she's already bagsied them for after I've handed in!

#feathers #earrings #necklace #brooch #embroidery #whats the use of wings

Alright, I give in...

I've been sewing more and more feathers - these are bigger ones to hang around my cage in the degree show - and I keep forgetting to photograph them but here are some I prepared earlier (I feel like I'm on Blue Peter lol)

And I've been shouted at for being mean and not showing you Azadi so here's a little preview...

:) I'm not spoiling the surprise by showing you the whole thing

Here's a pretty sunset to cheer you up...

#feathers #bird #cage #sunset #myna bird

Azadi

I finished iiiiiit! My cage is all sewn together and Azadi doesn't look like he's walked into a wall anymore, I'm so happy.
Now, I'm not going to show you a photo of it - you can see it on opening night when everyone else can see it :) but you can look at this feather I'm sewing instead:

#feather #sewing #bird #cage

So much pain...

I've still not stopped sewing but it keeps going a bit disasterously. I got very excited after I'd made my wings on the weekend so I decided to sew my bird together (I've decided to call him Azadi - it means 'Freedom' in Hindi or thats what google translate said, I hope it doesn't mean 'shoe' or anything) and managed it after breaking my new sewing machine, fixing it, and going through 3 needles. But the beak moved when I was sewing - they're sneaky like that - so it looks like a cartoon bird that's walked into a window which wasn't really the look I was going for.
I spent the last 2 days sewing my cage together and it's still not quite finished. It's just being awkward really - the wire keeps breaking needles (I've gone through about 10 the last 2 days) and it wont fit to sew in a circle and the base is too small so everything's got to be re arranged. It wouldn't be too bad but because of how it's been made a lot has to be hand sewn and I've folded the fabric so it doesn't fray then folded it again to sew into a bar so every piece is 4 layers which is great fun when I'm sewing folded bits which are about 16 layers of fabric. I gave up about 5 hours ago and still haven't got all the feeling back in my thumb.
I did have come cookie dough icecream to cheer me up when I got in so I think tomorrow's gonna be a good day. Everything will get finished cos there are only a few more little bits to do so it can get photographed for the degree show catalogue on Thursday. Oh god I hand in in just over a week!

#myna bird #cage #hand sewing #icecream #deadline

Wings...

I've spent the whole weekend locked away in my room in my own little nest trying to finish sewing my wings together:

 hours and hours and quite a few stabs to the fingers later my wings have been sewn together! I do still need to sew the wings to the body and the body together and give it legs and make the cage but I'm celebrating this step anyway. Celebration cake anyone :)

#sewing #wings #embroidery #celebration cake #myna bird