Artwords - Home

What a busy week - I can't believe it was Monday when I last blogged!

This week's Artwords theme is "Home" so I am posting a piece I had published in Somerset Studio's "white" edition. It is based around a gel medium transfer onto canvas duck of a family picture (from the first Beth Cote Ephemera book). I then painted and stamped a text background and glued and sewed on a variety of laces and trims, adding some beading and a zipper. It was meant to represent the family in their home surrounded by their particular history/story (the text) and love (the lace). The zipper represented those things being private and closed off most of the time from other people (but able to opened and closed when sharing was desired on a wider level).

In terms of technique I found the canvas duck a fabulous surface for the gel medium transfer as I put it between layers of waxed paper and heavy books to "set" but the paper stayed moist and was very easy to rub off as a result. The canvas texture shows through the transfer. Using the canvas duck also meant I could machine sew on it which made adding the zipper a lot easier.

Think Monday - Think ATC - Numbers

This is my Think Monday ATC for the current week's theme of "Numbers" - I am just scraping in before the new theme is announced tomorrow! All of the stamps used are from Julie van Oosten's Collections range and I have used one of the oil pastel backgrounds I made last week. You can't see it in the scan but it has a lovely golden glimmer from the Moon Shadow Mist (Medieval Gold).

Well like all good things my holidays finish tonight and I am back to work tomorrow. Getting a cold has slowed me down a bit creatively but overall the last couple of weeks have been a great break. Yesterday was quite warm and sunny, so in between loads of washing I made several sheets of fabric paper (a la Beryl Taylor), coloured some small fabric pieces with Adirondack Color Washes and painted canvas backgrounds. I also lost several hours in the evening reading "The Divide" by Nicholas Evans. I really like the way he writes and I couldn't stop myself from finishing it, even though my intention had been to make it last a week. So tomorrow on my lunch break I will be off to the second hand book store or the library in search of a good novel.

Today (after attending to domestic duties of the most mundane variety) I have finished my mini clean-up of the sewing and craft rooms so that I feel a bit more organised. I ALWAYS regret starting these clean-ups as they ALWAYS take far longer than I my original estimate and I start to feel as though I am never going to finish. I have probably "modified" what constitutes "finishing" but I have stopped and the rooms look a lot more organised than they did a week ago. Several piles of things have just been boxed rather than sorted but if they are lucky they will be first in line for the next clean-up!




The photos are of various stages in my fabric paper making frenzy. No pictures of the final results - I'll see what I can do about that tomorrow night. I think I have made my paper too firm again compared with the effect Beryl achieves - it will be usable but it certainly isn't very pliable. I obviously need to dilute my PVA glue more but 50/50 just seems so wet and sloppy!!

Here is a photo of the canvas backgrounds - needless to say I was having a bright day! I don't know about anyone else but I find it a lot easier to start a specific piece when my background or the canvas is already started. I guess it is my way of handling the white canvas syndrome. Anyway I find it very relaxing to just splash paint around because there is nothing specific intended at the time I am painting. I have a great big bag of painted canvases "ready" for projects - the initial colour quite often becomes irrelevant as I often completely change it once I am underway.

Wednesday Stamper - Fleur De Lis

This week's theme for Wednesday Stamper is "Fleur De Lis".

I coloured a small canvas board with three shades of Brilliance Ink (orange, pink and green) using a baby wipe to blend the colours. I then sprayed the board with water and Worn LipstickDistress Ink (straight from the bottle). I blotted the ink so that it only left a subtle glow on top of the Brilliance ink.

I then used a Paperbag Studio Fleur De Lis stamp (I have discovered that I don't have many of this image which is weird considering how much I love the shape) and stamped it repeatedly in various Brilliance and Chalk inks. I did the same with an Acey Duecy text image. After adding a collage image of a woman I punched out several fleur de lis from scrapbook paper using my large Carl punch and dry brushed them with gesso. I glued them onto the canvas and added a few delicate flourishes in black ink. (Everything seems to look better with flourishes lately!)

Artwords - FIGURES

This is my submission for Artwords this week - the theme is "Figures". I decided to use the number type figures as well as the human figure as a change from relying on text as my background.

I have painted a canvas board with acrylics and then added stamped images of the arches (Stampington) and the figure (Non Sequitur) on white tissue paper. These have then been lightly washed with Adirondak Color Wash. I have added two strips of recycled red tissue paper (it has red words on it but you can't see it in the photo) at the top and bottom. This was then all sealed with diluted PVA. The numbers (also NS) were then stamped straight onto the canvas as are all the crackle, text and splatter stamps that form the background (and which are not meant to be particularly noticeable given that I used gray and red inks!). The piece needed something else and the ric rac seemed like a novel solution - I am trying to avoid always doing the same/predictable things to finish off. The board is then edged with gold ink.

I actually loaded the photo to this post and checked the preview - seeing it that way changed my perception of it and I realised it needed ric rac on the bottom as well to look balanced. Quickly fixed and rescanned!

Now to work on my Wednesday Stamper submission...

A bit of this and a bit of that

It was a real thrill to open the latest Somerset Studio and find that my little floral canvas piece was on the same page as creations by two other Aussies! Way to go girls!! Congratulations to Sephi K (first time in SS I think so hopefully feeling very chuffed with herself - top right corner) and Jenny Garlick (bottom left corner). It is another great issue including a fascinating article by the incredible Misty Mawn (and how lucky are we to have her coming to Australia next May?)

So what else I have been up to since the weekend tag marathon? Well I took a bit of a break from the tags and had a look at the Travelling Suitcase Quilt Display that was in Kalgoorlie on Sunday. It is a collection of small quilts made by members of the Western Australian Quilter's Association to celebrate the group's 30th birthday and has "Memories" as the theme. It is part of a suitcase of small quilts that travel around Australia. There were some really interesting quilts and they gave me lots of ideas for future fabric work!

It is a bit of a stressful time at work so I haven't felt really motivated in the evenings and then I have managed to sidetrack myself by looking for things in my stamping room (bad move - way too much stuff in there). Feeling bad about being behind with a couple of trades too - guilt sits heavily on my shoulders (where I would much rather a quilt resting lightly on my lap).

Talking of quilt guilt - I started a mostly handmade birdhouse applique quilt for my Mum quite some years ago and I still haven't finished it even though there are probably only a half dozen hours of background hand quilting to go. Sometimes I mystify myself.

Last night I joined friends Annie and Narelle for a canvas/tissue stamping/beeswax evening. We had fun and each finished a small canvas. I really do love introducing people to my favourite techniques.I'd upload a photo of mine but I want to change an embellishment on mine that just does not look quite right and I have to melt the wax a bit to do that.

Tonight I am going to work on a fabric postcard trade - I am using a felt and tissue background from my Frescos and Fragments workshop in March with the wonderful Dale Rollerson.

So a photo to finish - this was last year's birthday "card" for my sister Marrijane (who is still patiently waiting for this year's one!!) I really don't make many cards anymore - I love to use canvas or book covers like this one. The article that inspired this piece was by Roben-Marie Smith of Paperbag Studios (in one of the early issues of CPS I think).

PS I am having formatting troubles tonight so if this looks yukky please accept my apologies but I am not going to fiddle anymore!

A much more productive day

Today I re-established my bookmark favourites and of course, discovered some new ones! I haven't been able to "find" all of my old ones but I guess most of them will show up as links elsewhere over time. This morning I also finally finished a canvas for Natalie. She has been very patient seeing as I thought I would be posting it more than a week ago. I kept changing my mind about what I was doing, which is one of the wonderful things about working with beeswax! I had better email Nat and let her know not to look if she wants a surprise. (I need to clean my scanner too I think, judging by all the extra little white bits!) All the stamped images are Oxford Impressions. My picture editing is a bit of a dodgy on this one and the canvas doesn't look that great on a black background unfortunately but I was trying to make sure the white wire hanger showed up.

This afternoon I have been working on my alphabet tags which I think I have mentioned before. It is an international exchange and while it is based around the usual idea of each artist producing 26 tags based around one letter of the alphabet (I have "U"), it is also a background technique exchange and must include a heart somewhere on the tag. The tags are to have pockets on the back with notes about the techniques used.

This makes it all quite fiddly and I have been experimenting with creating a pocket that doesn't impact at all on the front of the tag. I have done all my backgrounds and I'm at the stage of stamping up all the little bits that have to be cut out or punched out and layered and stuck on. Of course the circle punch that is the right size jammed* and I had to go and buy a new one. It is actually marginally bigger and is better suited to the round alphabet stamp that I am punching out. While I was in the shop I had to buy a beautiful colour of Brilliance inkpad that I didn't even know I was missing until I saw Annie's on Wednesday evening - "Pearlescent Olive". Yummy!

* Really really jammed - even my usual unjamming technique of throwing it hard on the floor (carpeted concrete) several times didn't work!!

And guess what this means...yep, soccer season has started here. We'll see a lot of yellow (gold) and black on the clothes line over the next several months!

Preparing for a garage sale...

I am so glad we have a Public Holiday next week - this garage sale I am planning for Sunday is taking over my life - I am looking at everything twice and thinking "are we REALLY going to ever use/need/want that again?"

So far I have stuff stacked everywhere - in the lounge room, in the entrance, in my little reading nook, in the study, literally everywhere. I have left my craft room(s) out of the sale altogether - I figure if I have to part with anything there it is probably better done via ebay.

Magazines are the major hassle - I don't have the storage space to keep them all but I love having them for whenever I want to flick through them. I can't be bothered cutting out and filing special articles but I notice a lot of them don't sell on ebay - you can't even give them away a lot of the time. I am, however, incapable, of chucking something that still has potential use/value in the bin. Guess I'll be re-evaluating storage options!!

The little canvas at the top of this posting is a simple little mini canvas I made for a couple of friends who recently had a hand fastening ceremony to celebrate their commitment to each other. I do a lot of vintage style and colour art and I mostly wear black, but I actually love a lot of colour in my life, so for this one I cut the heart from a really bright piece of hot pink and orange silk fusion paper I made. The canvas was painted in shades of blue and then I used a new favourite decorator napkin over the top. I used a white gel pen to add the dots and rub-ons for the word "love". I am ashamed of myself really - fancy using rub-ons when I have an enormous, but what will remain unspecified, number of rubber stamp alphabets that I could have used! My excuse is that stamping on a stretched canvas is (or at least, can be) difficult.

Last night I continued working on the backgrounds for my alphabet tags - I think I have decided that I need to change the image I was planning to use - I just can't get it to look right on the background, no matter what I do with the colour of the image. Anyway, last night I used bonding powder and foil to create a sparkly night sort of sky look on my tags - which had previously been coloured with denim Adirondak Color Wash and then sprayed with a purple and gold Moon Shadow Mist. (The Gossamer Gold is just magic and my all time favourite - I really must try it on fabric) . Unfortunately the whole foiling process took ages for the 30+ tags so I didn't get much else done, although I did cook a really nice stir-fry for dinner.

Weekend Wrap-up

Well, as usual I had way too many things planned for the weekend so I ended up feeling a bit flat last night. But, in the light of morning I have a bit more perspective and can see that I did get quite a lot done really:

• I did get through sorting the contents of several cupboards for next weekend's garage sale (the rest should be manageable after work this week);
• I did get my summer clothes packed away (and my winter clothes out);
• I did get to most of my domestic "duties" (wouldn't want to get too carried away there!);
• I did get to the 7 of the 8 shops/stops that were necessary on Saturday morning (it was one of those mornings where new prescription glasses were ready to be picked up, scripts needing filling, the lawn mower was ready to pick up from the repair shop etc etc and Joseph who would normally do all of this stuff was driving back from Wiluna);
• I did get the backgrounds done on 40 alphabet tags (doing spares in case of stuff-ups!);
• I did get a whole pile of printing done for my tags (including cutting out the images); and
• I did get a couple of cards made.

The list of what I didn't get done is pretty long too but I am focusing on the positives here! So to reflect my Monday morning state of mind before I head off to work, today's photo is of a collaged canvas board that I made last year titled "Serene". This is one of my favourite pieces and my Mum now has it as she loves it even more than I do. I really like knowing someone else gets pleasure from something I loved making (for me a lot, not all, but a lot of the pleasure and satisfaction is in the process of creating).