Henna Designs!

As mentioned in my previous post, I will be sharing some more henna designs with you. There's not many but there's a few to keep things flowing. As Eid is nearing, I hope to take some more photos of actual Henna and share them with you. The designs are accompanied by my lecture notes, as mentioned before I like to doodle :) 

This is just a quick jot, to prevent me from snoozing during long lectures...

Excuse the messy handwriting :-]

A more colourful design...

So this is where all the coloured ink went :-P

This is a not so clear design as it has been jotted down in pencil

These are just some brainstormed ideas, from where I can take inspiration when actually doing Henna. The last picture shows some kind of calligraphy in the back. This is something else which I like to do. I have written peoples names in Henna using this particular style of calligraphy, it always looks so good when completed. This leads me to another idea...I will share this idea, when I get round to completing it! 

Until then it's all about Ramadan and preparing for Eid. I still need to start my reading for next year, plenty to do. The page designer has still not fixed its self, so I'm stuck with left hand marginalised blog posts :( The hot weather's taking it's toll in England, and with the Olympics just around the corner, I wonder how the games competitors feel. 

* All the above images are owned by Tutu's & Glitter, unless otherwise stated *

Bookworm

Amongst my creativity I also make time to read. I enjoy reading books of all sorts, i am a true bookworm.  I will share with you some reviews on books i have read, or maybe books i recommend for you to read. Firstly, I'd like to share with you all Jane Eyre. Sound boring? i used to hate reading classics and novels with all their posh and oxford dictionaryfied English, but this was a book i fell in love with. My first read of it was when i was a 14 year old, and had to read this for an English Language Assignment at school. Although at 14, I was pretty much satisfied that Jacqueline Wilson was the only decent author around.  

Once i started reading this fiction novel, i just couldn't put it down. I only had to read a few chapters of it, for my assignment but chose to take the book home with me and finish it off. I'm sure, you'll want to do the same. For the same reason, i was put in front of a old school TV and thought i'll be bored with watching this novel, however i loved every minute of it. My favorite character in the book was obviously Jane, who at that age gave me determination. From my thoughts of it sending me to snooze through boredom, and tears springing to my eyes from the oxford language, it actually kept me up at night with mere determination of finishing it. 

so a message to you all out there, there's more to the book then what meets the eye. Don't forget you don't judge a book by it's cover. It is a good read, and shouldn't be missed.

P.s There's a free copy of Jane Eyre available on Kobo! x

Bow tastic

The trend of bows is never out of season. Lately every dress seems to be accessorized with a bow or two.  They come in every shape and size under the sun, and are not only on clothes but used on bags and shoes quite some bit lately. I'll share some of my very own bows with you! 

This is the way to go!

Let's share some bow's...

A dress full of bows and some matching jelly flats. What a bow tastic outfit this makes! This teamed with a pair of black skinnies, to preserves ones modesty, is the outfit to go! Not only is it up to scratch with the latest trend going, but can be worn up or down.

A Ted Baker handbag, with a BIG bow in the middle!

See what i mean? Bow's are everywhere

A yellow dress, with a matching huge bow at the front. The bow is the statement piece of the dress as it seems to catch all the attention. the dress is delicately decorated with the odd flower made of sequins and goes well teamed with dark blue skinnies and a blue cardy!

Let the sunshine, Let the sunshine....

And finally, another bow i own. Although the main theme for this dress is obviously nature as it is full of birds, the finishing bow is just the icing on the cake!

A final bow!

Eeek! So many bows, now i must not buy anything else with a bow on it! But they're ever so pretty (already giving in are we?)  :)

*All of the above images are owned by Tutu's and Glitter unless otherwise stated*

Sunset :)

Once upon a time 4 years ago I decided to challenge my creative side and set upon embroidering my own clothes. The first task at hand was to choose the fabric I will use. The 16 year old me chose a loud and bold, shocking pink coloured cotton.  As this was my first challenge, I chose a not so complicated design. I contemplated over the colour scheme for a while and decided upon more of a sunset colour scheme. So this was pinks, yellow and oranges, for a more bold and daring colour I chose some sequins which had a dark background and were irradiated by light. I found a nice sunset coloured skein, which fitted in perfectly with my colour theme! I had a quite simple design printed on to the fabric I intended to use as a guideline (and if you look carefully the stains of the ink can still be seen on the fabric in some places). As my embroidery skills were limited at that time, I chose to use the skein for some chain stitching and also to add colour to the circle of the flowers and found some gold coloured petal cut-out shapes which I would use to make a flower around the embroidered circle of the flowers. The sequins were used to add more emphasis on the stems and leaves. I started off with this...

As the photo shows the sequins are illuminated by light, the little gold petals you can see are not only pretty but also pretty easy to sew on. I chose for a more simple design and again more simple haberdashery as this was my first attempt at embroidering. Although I had chain stitched before this, I had little experience of other stitching I could do. Therefore, I opted to use prettier haberdashery and put the haberdashery in the limelight! This was the result...

As the years have passed so has the colour of the haberdashery I used. But I suppose I could still keep the clothes as an achievement if nothing else :-] below are some more photos of the embroidery, including some up close shots which show the little details. Let me know what you think of it, any comments for improvements are also welcomed!

Chain stitching is a stitch which I was taught at school, in Textiles. However, the stitching we were taught in Textiles was limited; this was because we were taught other techniques such as quilting and stencil printing alongside stitching. For my Textile GCSE I made a wall hanging, for which I used a variety of techniques as well as a variety of haberdashery. I have set myself other little challenges, such as making patches for a patchwork cushion. You’ll be pleased to know I have since brushed up on my skills ;-p

*All the above images are owned by Tutu's and Glitter, unless otherwise stated*

Aboriginal Art

Sitting back in the Art class, I took an instant interest in 'Aboriginal Art'. At the tender age of 13, this was just a new concept in my yet developing dictionary. However, it seemed to interest me. Learning about aboriginal art, started off with defining 'Aborigine'. Sounds boring and not very alarming to a 13 year old, but I took an instant likeliness to the subject. I learnt how aboriginal art is based on a foreign culture. To develop our understanding, we watched a film. Watching a film at school was always an exciting and rare occasion. However, this sometimes depends on the genre of the film we would have been watching. The film we were put in front of was called Rabbit Proof Fence. 

The film gave a really moving picture of the suffering faced by people of the Aboriginal culture. The title of the film refers to to a 1,500 mile fence separating outback desert from the farmland of Western Australia. Three young girls have been taken from their mothers and and transported to a training school, with the purpose of being trained as domestic staff. this assimilation program is governed by a racist Government policy of which the purpose was to assimilate coloured people into a white society. The girls were taken as they were deemed 'half-caste' - they had one black parent and one white. The film depicts the struggle of  the girls in escaping the training school and getting back to  their mothers. After seven weeks and an eighteen hundred kilometer journey, they reach home. It is a moving and emotional recollection of the events which took place in the 1930's, it captures the harsh reality of the events which took place. 

Moving on, the aboriginal culture is displayed well in this film and gives a further insight to the culture. The purpose of watching this film was to depict the culture portrayed in it. The art of the aborigine culture is simplistic yet tremendous. 

From learning the culture of aborigines, we were to portray our own picture using the technique followed by the aborigines. The simple technique they used to display they're creativity was creating painting using small dots. In order to do this in the 21st century we used the top of our paintbrushes but in the 1930's twigs, fibres and finger tips were used. This portrayed the depth of their creativity, as they used simple everyday objects to create something which was so imaginative. The colours they used came from grinded natural extracts such as Ochre, which gave them Red, Orange, Dark Purple and Brown colour. Ochre was found naturally in rock stained by iron. Furthermore, Yellow came from mixing clay, or collecting pebbles which contained a Limonite stained form of Kaolin. Black came from charcoal, which was mixed with Kaolin to create Grey. Finally, Dark Green was made from plant colourings. 

The purpose of highlighting the technique used by the aborigines,  is to display the level of creativity in people in the 1930's. All the products used in those days were natural and most likely had little cost. Whereas today in order to create a painting you build up costs. You have to purchase durable paper, if not a canvas and then paint and paintbrush. Something sooo simplistic yet soo creative and unique. If we went back to using the techniques used in those days, not only would we have a project on our hands to pass the dull and wet days , we would also save! 

Holidays :)

The burden of results day has finally been lifted, I am now on an official break away from uni for 2 and a half months. Waheyy! I have soo much paperwork to do before second year begins and have loads of ideas as to how to spend my holidays. During the holidays i am hoping to get in touch with my creative side and do some more embroidery, I will keep you updated with photo's. In the meantime, i am reading some more books and hope to update more regularly...keep in touch :) x

Pretty things

Pretty things are rare, so i tend to grab my camera at the very first sight of something I would call pretty. Although there is probably a wider definition of pretty, my definition of pretty is something which is sparkly, delicate and is an eye opener, a 'must have' in other words.

Due to my girly girl tendencies, I have some very pretty things around me. Most of these are little details, but make a huge overall change to the atmosphere around me. In addition my deep love for pink, tends to overrule the colour of my atmosphere. Pink is a calm yet bubbly colour which can -At times- turn out to be something tacky or yet soo cute and classy!

Firstly, these are mirrored butterfly cut outs, which brighten up my white and boring bedside table and chest of drawers. They come in a set of 5, and are a must have to brighten up those boring drawers.  Although they are a small detail to the room overall, they change the whole atmosphere of the room. From having something boring and white, the mirrored butterflies have set an aroma of their own. However, they are not pink! As they are mirrored the reflection of daylight usually brightens them up.

Pretty aren't they? 

On the subject of butterflies, I have a pink butterfly garland which hangs near my walk in wardrobe. Although it is a garland, and garlands can even come in the form of paper garland, the delicate design on this is so unique. The colour of the garland was not only my favourite, but the garland runs in shades of pink, there's even a few white butterflies in there somewhere. 

Too pretty to ignore! 

As you can see the close up of the butterflies show's the design on the wings. Although these are only painted on, the fine detail of the paint design are really inspiring. They fit my criteria as an arty farty lover. I mean, if the shoe fits, why not?

P.s Not everything pink is pretty :-P

*All the above images are owned by Tutu's & Glitter unless otherwise stated*