POETRY

Last week I noticed the first daisies of the year to be in bloom. Maybespring has sprung. So, continuing withmy daisy creations, two of my tags this week are based on the poem ‘Daisies’ bythe 19^th century poet, John Clare:

Daisies, ye flowers of lowly birth,
Embroiderers of the carpet earth,
That stud the velvet sod;
Open to spring's refreshing air,
In sweetest smiling bloom declare
Your Maker, and my God!

Being a lover of bothtextiles and wild flowers I love the idea of daisies embroidering the earth. The words also go well with my Heart ofDaisies from earlier in the month. I was hoping to make another heart with realdaisies, but there are still not enough daisies for that!

The first daisy tag is afolded one, with the inside of the tag worked on watercolour paper. I started by painting a few blades of grassand daisy heads, I then folded the paper and embroidered one half – using daisystitch to make one large daisy. I usedgold beads for the central disc.

On the other half Iattached a copy of the poem printed onto vellum, so that the painted grassshows through.

On the outside of thetag I made a cover to hide the back of the stitching, I used paper with tinydaisies on it. On the front I put‘Daisies by John Clare’ and on the back I put a snippet of information aboutthe poet. The whole tag is dotted liberallywith tiny embroidered daisies and is finished with a tie of green and yellowthreads.

Aftermaking the paper tag, I wanted to make a fabric based tag with daisies embroideredonto velvet as in the poem. I started bypainting some grass onto velvet. Then Iembroidered some grass using long stitch, then a couple of tiny daisies usingdaisy stitch again, with a single gold bead for the central disc.

On the back of the tag I stuck some ‘grass effect’paper and a copy of the poem.

I have trimmed the topand bottom with white lace. The firsttwo lines of the poem have been printed onto vellum and stuck onto thelace. Again the whole tag is dottedliberally with tiny embroidered daisies and is finished with a tie of whiteribbon.

The third tag iscompletely thanks to serendipity. I waslooking for some scrap paper and came across a small photocopy of somecalligraphy I did 22 years ago! All Idid to make it into a tag was trim the corners, make a hole and attach the ribbon. I madethe original calligraphy picture in 1990 for my Mum and Dad. It is written using watercolours rather thanink. I achieved the variegated effect bydipping the pen in different shades of green every few letters. The words are spaced so they form acircle. I’ve painted spring foliage andflowers in the corners to make a square.

The poem is ‘Far Away’by Helen Steiner-Rice:

The days grow shorteras the year rolls towards its end.

Too soon it seems the light grows fainter and thenights descend.

Brief the journey ofthe sun. December days are drear

But they bring us tothe morning of another year.

At this point upon theroad the heart is strangely stirred

For far away we hearthe singing of an April bird.

With brighter hope andlighter step, we tread the wintry hills

Having caught upon thewind the breath of Daffodils.

The words fit so wellwith this time of year I couldn’t resist making it into a tag! Shame I didn’t find this scrap of paper lastweek, I could have saved myself a lot of work!

I’d love to know whichof the three you think is best, please let me know.

Thank you to all of youfor sharing your lovely tags, and a special thank you tothose who have madelovely comments on mine, it is much appreciated.

Have a lovely week andenjoy the early Spring

Love Jane xx