Composition and design theory

I used the information I gleaned from this book Beata recommended called "Picture This".  FABULOUS book with unforgettable lessons about the principles of design.

Balance

This was OK. I am OK

This image was "overwhelmed and in fear"

This is supressed

RAGE

Confusion

Keeping confusion at bay

Serene

It has been loads of fun creating the images of emotions. You should give it a try!!

More brown bag fun

gessoed brown bag

smack scraps

Watercolors and pastels

Beach combing booty and top center a card that came from Gwen Hedley with the CD's of her photographs that I had ordered.

Some marks and an embroidery project

Here are some marks I made using a collograph, graphite and pastels.

And this is my butter soft linen with a colored image transfer that I will embroider at night especially during this huge snow storm coming tomorrow (Feb 8th)

I have cut a piece of synthetic felt as backing for the stitching and it is like sending a needle through butter. I LOVE this linen.
On the downside it was so soft and drapey that the stitches were flopping around. I thought of trying stitching the linen and felt backing to a very soft piece of sheeting (actual sheet) and hooping it.

Perfect! Now I just need to wait for the sari yarn...

Playdate with Judith

 JUDITH!!!!!!

 whole piece 12" X 12"

I like this too

Not loving the orange but the other bits are nice

I like the different textures here

This was just to cool not to include

Windy Playdate with Judith

More 50 mph winds today (sigh) but Judith braved the snow drifts in the road and made it for a planned "Paste Paper Playdate." Boy did we have fun. It did take Judith a while to understand the medium and how to work with it since this was her first exposure to it. She will have her work on her blog soon. Although everything was too wet to carry and imagine trying to jockey wet paper to your car in 50 mph winds...enough said!! She did take her photos home though and should have her side of the playdate online soon. Her paste paper was unlike any I've ever seen and AMAZING art!!

First I have two photos of my tea cozy which was strictly utilitarian until Nienke suggested it was a bit bland for an artist's cozy which I then dyed. I took a picture of it laying dead on the table with frayed edges so now it has serged edges and is gracing my tea pot.

After show and tell, Judith and I tried to carve stamps from left-over laminate flooring fom Brian's room. We had limited success but at my urging, Judith took all the remaining scraps homes to work with.

It seems the foam backing on the flooring was formulated to withstand moisture so printing was problematic both with black ink

and red acrylic paint

The fuzzy image was printed on a hard surface; the crisp image on my padded ironing table.

 foam side with my embroidered piece in the works behind it.

exposed flooring

carving material

 first  smacked piece

detail

 Looking through Plexiglas smacker at paste on paper

Smacker after lifting

Below is the paste paper I made

18X24

detail

 First I did a half sheet of the spectrum then wetted the other half sheet and took a print. You can see the difference in color.

Then after drying a bit (we ate lunch) I brushed on black paste and used a tool to create the design

Finished piece 

Kind of a sampler of designs I like 

The other half of the spectrum print

Cretacolor aqua sticks (water soluble pastels - highly pigmented)

wood graining tool for false wood grain (see below)

and last but not least

This will be your only warning....mwahhahaha

Image Transfer and brown bag

I actually sacrificed a piece of "That Cloth" (super soft linen) and did an image transfer with a copy made from a copier using a toner cartridge. The purpose of making this transfer on to soft linen is so that I can go back into the design with stitch. I printed these designs on cloth and found the cloth itself very difficult to send a needle through so I will keep these fabrics and use them as printed "fabric".

I have been doing some needle work on this linen piece which I will expand on in a future post. In working I found I wanted to use some sari yarns and couch them down but I need to actually buy appropriate colored sari yarns so I'm at a bit of a standstill for now.

Use CitraSolv to transfer the copy.

A patchwork made from a brown paper bag, stitched in sections and gessoed.

Close-up

Oil pastels on stitching with watercolored surface

Colored pencils, pastels and watercolors

Close-up

close-up

More brown bag fun.