I have recently received two beautiful postcards in the mail. The first one came from Doreen my cyber friend in Australia. I've peered at it for ages, but just can't decide how she worked the background, although there does seem to be a bit of angelina on there, maybe it is felted. The hand couched threads and other stitches are just lovely. If Doreen drops by my blog, perhaps she will tell me how she did the background. Thanks again Doreen.
This card is from Carol in Scotland, and is amazing. I can see the background is stamped with a swirly and an angular design several times, the gold looks to be the final one, and is stitched with gold thread, but somehow the punchinella (sequin waste) is on the top, without the background showing through. Just exquisite - thankyou Carol.
Carol was also kind enough to send me some Lutradur (and Evolon) to try, as I had no idea what it looked like (white piece in pic.) I also bought some 'paper fabric' from the local Florist(75p. mtr.), which looked very similar although a lot thinner (blue and pink in pic.) I'm going to have a play with these on Sunday, so watch this space!!
I've been collecting a few childrens' board books for some time now, together with lots of info. and ideas as to how to 'alter' them, so I have been playing with one recently. The two above are about 3 and a half inches square, and the little one only about 2" square.
Here we go, having rubbed the very shiny surfaces with fine sandpaper, stuck a torn piece of embossed wallpaper on the front and then covered the whole book with gesso.
I then painted the front and back very quickly with blue paint and a bit of purple, then did the inside. While it was still wet I painted the same colour on a seperate piece of paper and then pressed that onto each page (which creates texture!)
When that was dry, I stamped a couple of words and stuck a couple of pictures and some lace etc. on the pages, then I painted the whole book with yellow Neopaque (which allows colour underneath to show through)
I then painted all the book with BLUE paint which of course turned it all green!
I added some rub on Treasure gold in places, and painted the edges and the motif on the front with gold leaf......
and finally added some ribbons and beads on the spine. I've tried to create a 'fairy' feel to this little book and hope to 'alter' a few more with the same theme, perhaps different colours, although I can't seem to get away from the woodland feeling, it seems to fit fairies very well.
I must admit, I had some problems with the Challenge this month, in that I could not really reconcile the challenges in the book with those Sue B had set, if you didn't want to work in paint. The August Chapter/Challenge in The Artist's Muse Book is actually called Pouring On Creativity, and the challenges are about pouring paint......
Sue suggested we take 6 to 12 fabrics, all sorts, and tear into strips, then weave them. I knew what the end result would be, that was my problem. I could not get them to look anything other than woven strips of fabric (no movement at all, not like runny paint that you slosh all over the place!) I have, in the past, done 'curved weaving' where you cut random curves into two pieces of fabric, then weave them together, but as I say this uses only two large pieces, not many strips.
However, I eventually decided to cut the strips up and stitch them back together, hopefully creating some movement in the lines of weaving.
It worked, to a degree. We also had to make something with the fabric we made - I made these four postcards. The fabrics I used included silk, satin, netting, organza, chiffon, velvet, dyed garden fleece, cheesecloth, cotton, lace and fancy yarns. I should have used a lot of different colours, as well as textures, but I knew it would look a mishmash, and I woulnd't like it, so I controlled the outcome from the start by my colour choice. I therefore missed the point of the Challenge which was(according to the Book) ' to let go and allow yourself to create chaos' and 'give up control' ...... whoops! better luck with the next challenge.
I recently received two lovely postcards in my mailbox. This one is from Anna and is made from, amongst other fibres, Tyvek and puff paint. Anna has a recipe/tutorial on her Blog that she posted on the 29th July that shows beautiful pix. of how she achieved this lovely texture. There are also lots of other goodies to get your creative juices going..... go take a peek!
This card is from my friend Dot, who does not have a Blog, but I am working on her!! She tells me she made the card after devouring Ineke Berlin's book on Landscapes. Dot has been experimenting quite a bit with sheers lately, and if you click on the picture you will get a closer look at all the different coloured snippets of sheers that have gone into this mini landscape. Just magical!
I had a nice surprise a couple of days ago, Sue (Papoosue) at http://randomblethers.blogspot.com/) nominated me for the Nice Matters Award. Thankyou so much Sue, I am most honoured. As most of you know by now, I am supposedly to nominate seven more blogging friends, but as I have only been blogging for about three months, I feel I would rather say here how much I have enjoyed meeting all the lovely ladies who blog, to see all their wonderful art which they so freely share, and pass on this award to all the blogging friends I have yet to meet. Thankyou again Sue.
I want to make some postcards for sale at our (Kindred Spirits) Exhibition next year, and this is my first effort.The theme is Myths & Legends, and I am into Fairies. This postcard is rather fragile because of the face (which is made from a push mold) and the wired beads, and wouldn't be safe going through the post, so I shall be giving this one to a friend for a 'special' Birthday! ('special' being an unmentionable number).Perhaps more paper and less fabric would be better?
I have recently received two beautiful postcards in the mail. The first one came from Doreen my cyber friend in Australia. I've peered at it for ages, but just can't decide how she worked the background, although there does seem to be a bit of angelina on there, maybe it is felted. The hand couched threads and other stitches are just lovely. If Doreen drops by my blog, perhaps she will tell me how she did the background. Thanks again Doreen.
