Ties that bind project

I make absolutely no excuse for once more mentioning the Ties that Bind project. Almost 100 artists from all over the world are raising money for Ovarian Cancer Research. We made decorated ties (see mine above) and beautiful charms and together these were made into an almost life sized doll which you can admire on the Ties That Bind Blog. All the art is there and guess what, you can actually become the lucky owner of this fantastic girl with all the ties and charms thrown in, simply by buying lottery tickets here (or you can use the link on the right of this blog). Only $20 and the doll can be yours. You do need a US address however. The doll is quite fragile and overseas postage would just be too expensive.

There is just over a week left to contribute to this very good cause, so grab your chance and buy that ticket!

You can also buy the accompanying book from Blurb, a real treat, and again all money raised by the sale of the book go directly to Ovarian Cancer Research.

Go on!! Do it now!!

Ties that Bind book

If you read this blog regularly you will have noticed the two Ties that Bind tags on the right hand side by now. One will take you to the Ties that Bind blogsite and the other one to the place where you can buy lottery tickets to win the doll (only for those who can provide a US address),

The Ties that Bind project is a co-operation between almost 100 artists worldwide who together created this art doll in order to raise money for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. Some of us made decorated ties and other artists produced charms which were put together by Jan Brown into a wonderful, almost life-size doll. The charms were used to decorate her corset and the decorated ties form her skirt.

In order to raise even more money for Ovarian Cancer the artists who started this co-operation i.e. Kris Henderson, Aileen Roberts and Jan Brown decided to publish a book featuring pictures of the doll with details of all the art. All proceeds from the book will be donated directly to this very good cause and you can buy it here. The front can be seen above. You can also read more about this project in the most recent issue (Volume 7, Issue 3) of the Art Doll Quarterly magazine.

I was over the moon to see that a detail of the tie that I decorated is also in the book together with many more beautiful pictures and quotation. I know I will treasure both the book and the great art project that I was a small part off and I urge you to buy this book for yourself.

If you want to read about how I made the tie, you can find this here on an earlier blog!

At the end of the day

As you may have noticed I did not post over the weekend as we were subjected to some very severe thunderstoms here in the Scottish Borders so I did the bare minimun on the computer and left it switched off the rest of the time.

But we did some marvelous sunsets to make up for all the sound effects, and I'm sharing one of them here.

With this peaceful view, I also want to point you in the way of a new button which I have added at the right hand side of this blog. It is about the the Ties that Bind project. A group of artists made an almost life sized doll which is embellished with ties (one of which is done by me) which form her skirt and with charms (hanging from her corset). This doll is being used to raised money for Ovarian Cancer Research and we are hoping to raise at least $10.000 by selling raffle tickets. You can buy them (6 for $20, or $4 for one) by clicking on the button concerned which will take you to the relevant site (where you can also see pics of the doll) . It uses Paypal for donations. The doll, due to its size, can only be mailed to a US address, but you also have the option to donate without getting raffle tickets or you can nominate a US address if you have won and organize your own transport onwards. Hope you'll all help us raise money for such a good cause.

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.