Heading to Oz

There's a bloghop over at Lost Coast Designs - they're not in Kansas any more. And Asylum Anne is breaking out -  I've never been in Kansas, so I can sympathise... or not!   We are told to Catch the Tornado to the Emerald City.   Well that's a bit of me - public transport can be so handy when travelling out of town!  But none of the DT have offered one for me to ride.  So it is up to me.  It isn't compulsory to use their stamps, and there's no tornado in their catalogue, but I have had one for years from Third Stone Stamps, and one from Silver Crow Creations.  I can also be inventive, and those 2 might be too small.  I slept on it.
Carmens Verandah have a birds nest which I've used before, and what is a tornado but a whirl of debris with a hole in the middle?  Just like a nest really, random twigs etc.  And somewhere in my dreams it would be done as a Stuffie!
Indian ink pad is nice &juicy, onto some brown silk fabric, then stitch running/gathering threads that will get pulled up to create ripples.  When stamping on fabric, I'll use any juicy ink pad - Stazon, dye, or Indian ink  And I've recently managed to get an Indian ink reinker bottle woohoo!!!  Because of the gaps between the woven threads, you'll not end up with such crisp detailing of the image as on paper.  But so long as you're ok with that, then all is well.  Pinking shears give a raggedy cloud-edge all round, so although I've got the basic shape already, there will be a bit more fabric-trimming once I've finished stamping and figured out the final size.

CONGRATZZZZZ Asylum Anne!

Winner at Lost Coast

And some more stamping of the tornado.  Can you imagine a face shrine as part of a tornado?  I could...

Now for the back piece, before it gets stitched to the front and stuffed, with some rebar tie wire inserted to maintain the shape.  I used a straight stitch on the sewing machine all round, relying on the pinking shear cut to minimise future fraying.  Brown netting/lace mesh was layered over the silk to create the pocket holding "Salldorothy".  Salldorothy?  Read on...

  I imagined that all sorts of farm equipment, as well as people would go whirling up, so there's Dorothy, caught in the mesh of farm fencing in the tornado  - except I don't have a Dorothy stamp, so I used Sally - complete with umbrella (well it rains around tornadoes: I've seen episodes of "Stormchasers", so it stands to reason if Dorothy were out, she would have a brolly with her).  And although I don't have enough flying monkeys to prove it, plenty of witches (background stamp) would be out & about to get caught up in it too.

OK, so that's the backside view of the tornado finished with. And it's going to be about 17 cm high (roughly 7") The thing about using silk fabric is that lustre, makes one think of silver linings that clouds have.  But it's a pain if you're trying for a "moody" photograph!

Now the front full view, with the gathering threads serving double & triple duty holding embellishments, and creating texture with French Knots here & there, colour-changed sometimes.

Some closeups for the detail - charms coloured with Pinata alcohol inks, die-cut cogs, pens applying random streaks of colour & lightning etc:

Well where there's a red shoe, can Dorothy be far away?  That's what the Tin Man and Toto are wondering, looking a bit dishevelled and dizzy after the tornado got to them (allow me some poetic licence here - as far as I know, the Tin Man never travelled by tornado, but never let the truth get in the way of a tall tale)

OK, so they're not the traditional-looking characters, but I thought it was just a mis-labelling in the catalogue - Daisy and Robot.  Well, same thing isn't it???

 So now we've got a tornado to take us to Kansas.

Now I'm going to ride it back to see who else is playing the Oz challenge.  ALL ABOARD!!!  http://lostcoastportaltocreativity.blogspot.co.nz/2016/03/dt-blog-hop-were-not-in-kansas-anymore.html

Somewhere though, Evil Froggy is lurking, keen to pounce on your dark, weird creations this month, so show them off here:  http://www.dreamindarkness.blogspot.co.nz/2016/03/march-new-challenge-and-make-it-crafty.html