Art Every Day, Jan 11

We are starting the second part of January, and there has been a lot of great work posted.  Congratulations to those who have persisted, day-by-day in creating beautiful things!


Susan (http://susanstudioarts.blogspot.com/2014/01/i-see-trilobites.html)

Nina (http://mytimedisappears.blogspot.com/2014/01/art-every-day-ha.html) submitted these two images.

Lisa D. has been busy, too:

Barbara K.:

And I've been a little busy, too.  I completed the watercolor of the birch tree that I showed you the draft version of a couple of days ago. 

And, of course, completed my submission for Journal52.

Until tomorrow....

Art Every Day, Day 10

 Here are the submissions for Day 10: 


Susan (http://susanstudioarts.blogspot.com/2014/01/day-6-make-art-every-day.html) is staying busy!

I have been busy today, first up is the background and rough draft watercolor on yupo.

I also finished my Journal52 page for today.  This one starts with a bit of Suminagashi that I did using rice paper and Sumi ink. I cropped it and backed it with plain black cardstock, then put that on a piece of printed cardstock (Madeline collection from Prima) that I had in my stash. I then glued down some fabric leaves which I had on hand, and added a pure white flower from Prima. The flower was too stark in pure white, so I used some watercolor paint in a pale pink to add definition. I was trying to make the Suminagashi piece look like a window with snowy, swirling winds blowing all around it.

That's it for today!

Journal52, Day 3

Here is my journal page for today, Jan 3.   This starated as a scrap of non-woven fabric stiffener.  I used my sewing machine and some metallic thread to freehand stitch some firework bursts here and there on the surface.  I then added some watercolors to the piece.  It was fun, and although it doesn't measure the full 6x6 to fit my journal, I will insert it anyway.  Hope you like it.

Sylvester

 

 

Art Journals For GIfts

This year, I made art journals for some of my stitching friends.  Since I gave them away at our Holiday party yesterday, I can print pictures of them now.  There are ten of them shown.  Each journal has a number of blank pages, some decorated pages, and a pocket page with an enclosed handmade postcard.  Each journal is ring bound, covered with fabric inside and out, and measures 7 inches square. Many of the inside fabrics are hand-dyed to coordinate with the exterior fabric.

Back in the Studio

It seems like it has been a year since I had some decent studio time.  But the last two weeks have allowed me to grab two full days for the studio, and I've had a very relaxing time.   I'm planning a lot more studio time in the next few weeks, now that I've caught up with all the stuff I postponed while on vacation. 

A friend gave me a gallon zip-lock bag of quilting scraps.  She knows I really enjoy working with scraps, and they are always a challenge for me.  This time, I made 31 strip-pieced postcards first.  This is one of them:

After finishing them, I had some small scraps still leftover, so I made some crazy-patched postcards from those.  Both the strip-pieced and the crazy-patched ones are machine embellished with Superior Threads' Glitter Hologram.  I used a about 1 1/2 spools for these cards.  I love this thread.  Used correctly, it stitches like a dream -- no kinks, no shredding, no breaks.    Here is a picture of one of the crazy-patched cards:

Today, I needed some invitations to a party, so I rubber stamped some watercolor paper and hand-painted the stamped image.  I made 16 of these:

Isn't this just a delightful stamp?  It was a fun way to spend this rainy afternoon, with Tropical Storm Andrea making its way through the region.

My Crazy Quilt Challenge Piece: Mirasol

In December, one of my sewing groups decided to issue a challenge:  create a crazy quilted, 3-D fruit.  It would be due on March 28th, and needed to be life-sized. 

I love hot peppers.  Mirasol is my favorite of them, it is a gorgeous plant with peppers that stand high above the plant.  Mirasol means "look at the sun" and that is just what this pepper appears to do.

My challenge piece is finished.   It stands about 20 inches high, and has about 75 leaves, and 11 peppers.  I found an interesting chunk of firewood and drilled a hole in it for a base, since I didn't really want a "real" pot.

What do you think?

The whole Mirasol plant.

A closer view of a few leaves.

The wonderful piece of firewood.

Back to Square One

On a whim, I signed up for the Vicki Welsh/Judy Laquidara 2013 challenge, the  Back to Square One Mystery and chose to use these wonderful hand-dyed fabrics from Vicki's Etsy shop:

The mystery starts tomorrow, and it will be a nice kick-start to the new year.

While I was shopping for this fabric, I was inspired to do several other projects using Vicki's fabrics.  It isn't as though I don't already have an enormous stash....but her hand-dyes are downright irresistible.  Now, visions of placemats, wall hangings, and some sculptures are floating around in my head.

What sorts of projects to you plan for 2013?