Framed Artwork Commissions and a Cake!

I have just had some lovely feedback regarding a framed artwork commission I did earlier this month so it is now safe to share it with you without spoiling any birthday surprises.


I was asked to produce a customised version of my Boating Artwork to sit alongside a customised version of my Afternoon Tea Artwork that I was commissioned to do earlier this year. Both artworks were to celebrate 60th birthdays. It is always so lovely to be asked to produce gifts for such special occasions.

 'Love of the Sea since 12th November 1950'

'Loving Tea since 13 May 1950'

If you would like to order one of my personalised items or would like one of my products customised to suit you then please email me at studio@clairehurd.co.uk.


Now, on the theme of Birthdays; Having received lots of lovely cake making goodies as wedding presents I have been eager to do a bit of baking. The perfect occasion came up with my Husband's birthday so I made this..........

A real chocolate feast! A true 'boy' cake with homemade chocolate Lego men and Lego bricks. I really enjoyed making this. My next cakey makes will be cupcakes so a bit easier to ice!

60th Birthday Artwork Commission

I was recently commissioned to design and make an embroidered and appliquéd framed artwork to celebrate a 60th birthday.

This was a really enjoyable commission and I created the artwork based on the recipient's favourite subject matter, flowers, and the colours she will soon be decorating her living room in. The customer had seen my previous designs for Mother's Day cards and particularly liked my Aqua Flowers design, I therefore based the flower motifs and layout on this card design.

I built up the background using a white pigment print floral fabric and a beautiful lilac silk stripe fabric. I added lace trim, miniature ric-rac and satin ribbon to disguise the join. The flowers were appliquéd on and then detailed with beads, sequins, miniature buttons, lace trim and a combination of machine and hand-embroidery.

The recipient was really pleased with her present and said that she was very impressed with the quality and detail of the artwork and looks forward to putting it on display in her living room.

Wedding Invitation Commission

Now that these invitations have all been sent out and received by the wedding guests it is safe for me to blog about them.

I received an order for wedding (and evening) invitations a short while back from one of my lovely baby blanket customers (remember my Dylan and Ava blankets?). This was the first time I had produced wedding invitations so I welcomed the challenge. My brief was simply to include the text Wedding/Evening Invitation, heart motifs and if possible tie them in to the colour of the dress.

The fabric swatch for the dress proved very difficult to match a craft paper to so I created my own by pasting a textured paper to a black base and painting it with titanium gold paint. I then handmade a heart motif using the fabric swatch I had been given and photographed it. I used the heart motif and chosen text to create a printed ribbon by arranging it in Photoshop and then printing on to t-shirt transfer paper. This was then applied to cotton tape and threaded through my painted paper on the card base. The invitations were finished off with some co-ordinating machine embroidery stitch lines.

I am really pleased with the results. Now I just need to start thinking about designing and making my own wedding invitations!