In my last post I showed a dragonfly brooch that worked out too large for me to wear so is now on my wall…..my steampunk dragonfly brooch has worked out even bigger! It’s made with painted cotton fabric and various trims cut from lace with metal beads, wire and cogs. I’m now doubting I will get a full outfit made in time for the Lincoln Asylum festival in August but at least I’ll have this humongous brooch to wear!

I seem to have developed a bit of a thing for large fabric insect brooches. Billy the beetle is my latest make. No, he’s not a stag beetle, he’s a rare breed, so far only seen in the Lincolnshire Wolds😜 His body started out as a very simple shape cut from cotton fabric which was stuffed and moulded with a few stitched tucks here and there. He’s been decorated lace and hand painted and this time I added legs, wrapping them with threads and adding beads. He has a lot more character than the previous insects, maybe that’s a beetle thing? I can feel an infestation of beetle brooches coming on and it amuses me that when I’m not wearing him I can stand him on my desk as if he’s about to pounce .….sometimes it’s the little things that us smile!