Ties that bind

Some of you might have noticed the new button that has appeared in my sidebar recently. It signifies the start of a new project in support of ovarian cancer research and you can read all about it by clicking on that button. In short a group of artists will be involved in the creation of an art doll, whose top body (corset) will be decorated with hand-made charms and her skirt will consist of altered and decorated men's ties.

Being an artist working mainly in fabric I was asked to decorate one of the ties and although initially slightly daunted, once I started it was a lot of fun! First I was over the moon to discover a tie in John's cupboard which was the right size and also the right colour. Teal is the colour of the ovarian cancer ribbon and this tie came very close. I thought long and hard about what to decorate the tie with and thought about various ties. Of course the ties that bind human beings together can be many things but for me the most important one is love and marriage.

So I found one of my vintage postcards, in a quite sorry state but with a lovely couple. After some restorative work in Photoshops Elements the pair was printed out onto self-adhesive cotton sheet (from Crafty Computer Paper). They were layered on top of a vintage lace piece which was further adorned with a flower trim, pearl and seed beads, all in blue.

Underneath the couple I stitched a vintage ribbon with another vintage (and teal!) trim, both laced through a charm from LostArtCreations. These were layered on vintage blue lace, also with a blue pearl bead. I also added some flowers to the wedding bouquet. I found a suitable text: At sight of human ties, which was glued on. Finally I buttonhole stitched by hand along the edges of the tie and added a Swarowski crystal at the very bottom point of the tie.