Ally Brancato's Designs

24/11/2024

Some previous project photos

01/04/2021

17/04/2019

Recent Bullseye fused glass pieces before being fired in the kiln

24/05/2017

I only started patchwork & quilting in 2013 as I hadn't even machine sewn for around 10 years before that (especially due to my disabilities). So I'm a beginner/ intermediate at it & I'm slowly learning the craft, a long with the other crossover crafts I love to learn about & do, especially as due to my disabilities & poor health I'm physically not up to doing crafts most of the time as my health goes up & down a lot & these days I have more bad than good days, but often on the not so good days I can still read books & magazines about the crafts I love & dream about what I could make one day (if I ever finish the many projects started). Dispite being ill I always seem to be busy & try to push myself do as much as possible on the few good health days I get & sadly as I have a variety of degenerative medical conditions my health & disabilities will only worsen with time, so that's what drives me to try to do things while I still can eventhough it's very physically difficult & painfull for me & I'm about 20 times slower than everyone else. Also I have 2 mischievous & funny beagles that entertain & look after me (although it's actually supposed to be the other way round!). I might be slow, not have the best or most accurate technique, take forever to work on projects & hardly ever finish projects but I persevere as I love the challenge of doing things I'm considered not physically capable of or well enough to do. And everyone needs something challenging in there life so they can get some sense of achievement & fulfillment in their lives which every soul needs.

14/11/2014

Stained Glass Course With Sarah Glover 08/11/14 - 09/11/14; This is my art deco style leaded stained glass project. The pattern didn't look too difficult at first glance, but when I started cutting the glass I noticed the pattern (which I'd photocopied & enlarged from a pattern book & then changed bits of) that it was wonky & as it's a geometric & mirrored pattern if any matching pieces were bigger or smaller than other pieces it would look really obvious, wonky, odd & annoy the hell out of me. So I had to cut every matching piece of glass to the exact size with no margin for error, which sounds easy but it's really difficult to do when working with glass. I also ended up using quite slim H came as there's lots of difficult lead joining angles, but that also means the glass edge margins were tiny so every pieces of glass & lead came joint has to be exact, which made it ten times more difficult, but they do say that you learn from your mistakes. It therefore took ages to start the leading process & was very intricate to do all the difficult angled lead joins & not helped by my shaky hands & other medical problems, so sadly I didn't finish all the leading by the end of the course, but I spot-soldered certain joints to hold it in place so that I could transport it home. So I've still got to finish leading it & then solder it both sides, then clean, cement & leave to set for 24 hours, then clean & patina. That doesn't sound much but that's lots of work. So I will get around to finishing it at some point, a long with the other projects I've still got to finish & when I do I'll post the photos. ###

25/10/2014

Deco Stained Glass Panel Project: I was doing this project on a Copper-Foil Stained Glass course with Sarah Glover. I came up with the design for this (which took some time) & time to accurately draw it. I cut & grinded all the glass, (which sounds quick & easy but actually takes many hours), but I tried to rush it & put the copper-foil on too quick & tack-soldered to temporarily hold it together so I could temporally move it. But I wasn't happy with it so took off all the solder & copper-foil, so I still need to copper-foil it again & then fully solder it. But at present I still haven't got my glass craft table area sorted out so haven't had a chance to finish it, a long with all the other projects I need to finish. Taken 15/05/14.

25/10/2014

Forest Mini Quilt Course: It doesn't look much laid out like this, but will look so different once done. I got about half way doing this quilt on a course at Lady Sew & Sew & haven't yet got around to finishing it as I've so many things on the go & I'm donkey slow at getting stuff done with all my medical problems /disabilities & 2 mischievous beagles to entertain. I'll get around to it at some point! Taken 15/06/14

24/10/2014

Song Bird Project: Wet felted, shrunk, stretched, dried, attached backing, ironed, needle felted finer details & machine embroidered, stretched & mounted. It was a made panic to finish making it as it was supposed to be 1 of my entries in an art competition class at Swallowfield Show that very morning & I had a nightmare as I didn't have enough plain white merino wool for the underneath, so I used some white merino wool pre-felt to build it onto to save time. Only problem was when I had finished wet felting white fibres were coming off everywhere, so I had to trim them off & wet felt more & stretch & dry again. Then just as I was about to apply heat I luckly noticed the white fibres didn't like it, so concluded there must be a small amount of synthetic fibres in the white merino wool pre-felt sold to me ages ago. So I was not happy when I discovered that, but it took a lot of extra work to save it because of that. Turned out alright in the end & won a 2nd in the show. Taken 24/08/14

24/10/2014

Under The Sea Felting Project: Photo of pre-wet-felted process, but sadly haven't had a chance to finish off wet felting yet. Once fully wet felted I'll need rinse, shrink & dry, then to needle felt fish details on to it, then apply a backing onto it, then iron, then machine embroider it all over. So lots to do. Taken 14/09/14 on felting course