sticks and stones and skulls and bones





'The skull is natures sculpture' - David Bailey

The first embroidery I sold on my Etsy shop was a vintage pink hanky with a detailed skull embroidery in a bright pink thread. I don't often embroider skulls anymore, keeping up with the sales of quotes and sayings meant these were kind of on the back burner. However, I've had some time recently and added these two skull embroideries, which come in a vintage frame.
Available in my Etsy shop.

huh?!



OH MY GOSH.
I was receiving a lot of custom orders and emails after this piece sold and couldn't figure out why it was so popular. Then someone emailed and said 'after seeing your work all over Tumblr, I need this in my life'. This tumblr page posts pictures and links of goods they find on Etsy that they love. Turns out they added a link for this 'home is where them fuckers ain't' embroidery. Then, with the internet being a vortex, lots of people started re-blogging it, adding comments and emailing me. LOTS of people. The last I heard, my friend from Sweden had seen it on a friends page and even an app that posts funny photos and memes had posted my work too.
I can't quite get my head around this.
Obviously, with the majority of my embroideries being re-worked vintage items, no 2 pieces will ever be the same. However, customers seem to love that each piece I make will be totally unique to them, it just means that the person that bought this piece, now has the tumblr famous embroidery.
Incredible. I'm so overwhelmed, even more so with the fact that I made the sentence up on a whim after a few fallouts with people in my hometown and dreaming of moving back to Liverpool.
I love you guys, thank you a million times infinity for all your support.

Kalopsia


 
Kalopsia (n)
the delusion of things being more beautiful than they really are.

Such a beautiful word with a lovely meaning. Perfect for the day dreamers, the optimists, the lovers of life and the believers of a beautiful world.
Hand embroidered in navy thread on a vintage tray cloth. The cloth had original floral embroideries that leant itself perfectly to frame an equally lovely quote.

Peg it up, pin it up or frame it.
Measures 14" by 10"
 
Available here.

a photo a day keeps the doctor away








 
 
My Instagram feed isn't just full of work-in-progress embroideries and scribbles (or selfies, although, obviously, there's a few).
You can follow me at @leighjennings

the meaning of life is a life full of meaning


 
 
 
"It was as if someone had taken a tiny bead of pure life and decking it as lightly as possible with down and feathers, had set it dancing and zigzagging to show us the true nature of life"
- Virginia Woolf
 
Scribbles of dead birds to plan out future embroideries. I've completed one already of a song thrush, available in my Etsy shop here.
I loved making this, playing with layers of thread and trying to capture something so delicate, turning the morbid into something beautiful.
I'll definitely turn this into a series of embroideries.  

'and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant'



 
I've made a few embroideries now with this beautiful poem from E.E Cummings. They never seem to hang around in my Etsy shop for long. This one was extra large, measuring at 33" with original crochet and rose embroidery. This one already has a new home, but I'll be sure to re-stock them once I have some equally beautiful fabric to make the most of this wonderful poem.
 
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)
 
 
 

I know, right?



 
 
RAD
Floral embroidery is pretty rad, right? Vintage things are pretty rad too, right? It's probably not the definition the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and super mega awesome kids had in mind, but I think embroidery can be pretty rad.
Small vintage linen with original floral embroideries, re-worked with pink and purple thread in the typically 'rad' font.

Peg it up, pin it up or frame it.
Measures 5"
 
Available here.

more and more and more and more

 
So many new embroideries have been listed in my Etsy shop recently, they sell quicker than I can blog about them. The super positive response I'm having recently from everyone is overwhelming, I'm so pleased to be able to make something I enjoy and to then know it goes off to a good home.
Thank you. 
 

WARNING - NAUGHTY WORD

 


 
In recent years, this taboo word is making a massive come back in our every day language. From a word that started out as a synonym for female genitalia, it has been dragged through the dictionary and thesaurus backwards, resulting in an offensive and derogatory term. I could write forever about the leading connotations that a word so widely considered as offensive, will have on the original meaning - and therefore upon women. With films using the word, feminists writing about the word and celebrities supporting the word, slowly, 'cunt' is getting back its power.
We've all said it at some point, right? Whether we mutter it under our breath at the rude bus driver who short changes you, or call your best mate a cheeky one in the most endearing sense, infact some even use it as a word as common as 'and'.
I've just discovered this dissertation http://www.matthewhunt.com/cunt/ and from what I've read so far, makes for a fascinating read. I'm keen to see where this word leads to in the future, I know it's forever going to cause a debate but I'm excited to see the doors it can open for the power of women. Yes, a word really can have that much power.
 
Either way, it's a versatile word that I've immortalised with embroidery, only one left, available here.
 

just a reminder,

 
 
 

Do you often find yourself sucked into an internet vortex watching videos of talking dogs? Do you get really, really, mad when your Wi-Fi isn't connecting? Maybe it's time to step away - use this hand embroidered art work as a reminder.

Hand embroidered text in black satin stitch on white fabric, framed in a vintage cream plastic frame. Glass not included so as not to interfere with the embroidery.
Measures 5.5" by 7.5"

Oh the irony, it's available to buy here.

Who runs the world?



Girls.
Apparently there's a petition to ban the word Boss and Bossy, even considerations to re-examine the word Bitch and the connotations surrounding it. Personally? I don't like these words. Bossy is a word that only ever seems to be directed at women and Bitch can't be used without there being some venom behind it. Also, what are the male equivalents to these words? A man can be a boss, but why have stereotypes turned a female boss into a derogatory term?
Just a thought.

Satin stich on vintage fabric, available here.

burger babe

 
 
To be honest, I started this embroidery just to see if I could. Friends and followers on Instagram loved it which is nice. It's off to a new home though, a birthday gift to Mark - a serious burger connoisseur.
I'm considering embroidering spaghetti and hot dogs.

1 = blue, 2 = green

 
 
Yeah, I bought a paint by numbers. I've done most of the sky and some of the horse, then I remembered how great some of Andy Warhol's paint by numbers (below) were, and how I should think about what areas to leave unfinished and what to complete, any patterns I could make or painting them in opposite colours etc.
Paint by numbers isn't so straight forward any more.
 

practise, practise




Playing around with more satin stitch, it's so much harder in thin cotton thread rather than silk embroidery thread. I'll bare this in mind for future projects. As much as I love this piece, I haven't put it up for sale because it's not quite up to scratch quality wise as some of my other embroideries.
I might just keep this one myself.

single and ready to mingle

 
 
Sometimes us girls just want to run free, breaking hearts and moving on. Sometimes we don't want to be a stereotypical girlfriend or a 1950's housewife. Maybe, we ain't no wifey.
Hand embroidered on vintage floral fabric, this 'ain't no wifey' quote totally contradicts this stereotypically housewife style craft.

7" tall and ready to hang.  Available here.

finally,

 
 
 
I've got some stickers on their way, to use for packaging etc and the back of cards.