Framing Dilemmas!

Finding suitable, affordable framing options for my work is a continual headache!  I'm working on some 'journey' pieces which are long & thin but have to be shown landscape like this one below....colours are a bit odd by the way because I've been playing around in Picasa!

Typically I've made it a size which won't fit into any off the shelf frame comfortably so I've been costing up having it custom framed.  Trouble is, since I use all recycled materials and am now even foraging for colour it kind of goes against the grain to buy anything new!  Equally though I am aware that good framing can really enhance a piece and the work I'm doing at the moment is so delicate & fragile that it would look lost if not framed.  In future though I think I will purchase the frame first so I know what size to work to....hate being constrained like that though! 

Cocoon

It's been so cold here over the Christmas period that I've wished I could spin myself a little cocoon to crawl inside and keep warm until Spring.  As always, my mood effects the type of work I produce so I've been investigating wrappings, pods, protective shells and playing around with free machining fragments of cloth to produce fairly rigid structures....

These are large enough to wear as a decorative cuff but I'd like to try something much larger & perhaps try wrapping them around different natural forms....tree trunks etc.  Crazy I know but I'm loving my textiles in the natural environment at the moment....they look 'at home' there.