Painting the Apron

Last year I painted an apron to submit to the Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine for the Mixed Media Apron Reader Challenge.  It was selected as a finalist, and I was really thrilled to see it in the July/August 2016 issue.

      

The apron was created in layers with fabric paints and my own designed stencils and masks.  Below are some pictures of the process and some details.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

The background was created with stencils over a round Tyvek stencil with a sponge.  The idea was to cover the background with interesting shapes and different colors.  I think I got a bit carried away with the colors :)

Using leaf and flower stencils and masks, I added a watery layer over the background.  I held the flower masks in place, and pounced with the sponge around it.  The leaves were done with the stencil first (painting the inside), then a mask over it, to get the shapes inside the leaves.

The leaf and flower shapes were outlined with a fabric pen.

Next the shapes (from the first layer) were now outlined inside the flowers.  Shadows were added to the flower shapes to make them stand out a bit more.

Some of the background shapes were still too strong and competing with the foreground, so they got a layer of white dots through sequin waste.

Finished!  Added some doodling to some of the leaf shapes, and put it away so I wouldn't keep messing with it :)

While it was gone, I started another apron and a tea towel with some of what I had learned.  I got Textile paint and decided to go with greens and blues.  Below you will see the first step and the finished pieces.

Challenge #212 and Pattern Inspired by Indian flower

Challenge #212: "UMT: Fanz by Susan Goetter"

This week's challenge was to use the Fanz tangle created by Susan Goetter - you can see step-outs through a link in the Diva's challenge page here.

I loved this tangle (the one on the top right) as it is very forgiving.  I decided to try out a few variations, but you can just have them quite plain and it looks really nice!  I can't wait to see everyone's entry in the challenge - they are always so inspiring!

Pattern Inspired by Indian Flower

When I was in India last month, I had a weekend "free" and visited several temples and palaces near Bangalore.  As my mind has been stuck on patterns recently :), I took some pictures I would hope would inspire me to create new designs. 

I have not yet created anything with the patterns other than sketch some of them, but saw the sculpture of a flower, that inspired me to create this very simple hand-carved stamp. 

When you print it all the way around (4 times) you get this pattern - and you can see the flower in the center.

If you print it again but with the "flower center" towards the outside corners this time, you end up with a very different pattern (I love this one).

I tried it out again, now printing it 4 times across and 4 down, starting with the flower center at the corner.  You can see how different it looks from the one below where the stamp was pointing the other way.  These were finished with colored pencil, pen and ink, and Sakura gel pens 

(to highlight the shapes - cross vs. flower)

This next set is the same, except these were painted with H2Os (shimmering watercolors) and finished with pen and ink.

Earth Day and Cloth Paper Scissors Challenges

Earth Day Challenge - Diva's weekly challenge #164

I'm really enjoying participating in these weekly challenges; it forces me to do something every week, and also post consistently on the blog :).  You can see this week's challenge and all the wonderful submissions from other participants here.

Because the challenge was for Earth Day, I decided to use recycled paper - used tea bags - and because the Earth is round, I went with the round tea bags.  I used Sakura gel pens, Inktense, and colored pencils.

The challenge for me was then to create nature inspired art with tangles.  Some are very obviously organic in nature, but I enjoyed using others which may not be so obvious.  I definitely could keep going, it was so much fun!!!

Top:

• Left - Sedgling Forest
• Center - Angel Fish Tree
• Right - Isochor Flowering Trees

Center:

• Left - 'Nzeppel Flowers
• Center - Rain trees
• Right - Tipple, Printemps, Amaze, and Flux Mountains 

Bottom:

• Left - Aura-Leah Plant
• Center - Flux Plant
• Right - Eke Plant

Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine Reader Challenge

Cloth Paper Scissors is one of my favorite magazines; I absolutely love it.  Last year they had a challenge to create a mixed-media stitched square (6" x 6" - around 15 x 15 cm).  I decided to enter and submitted my piece below, which was then published in the January/February 2014 issue.

So, here is the finished piece and some of the in-progress pictures.  I hope you enjoy them.

Finished Piece

Finished Piece - close-up

Background - started with a piece of my husband's old jeans
and layered old book pages, stamped and drawn-on tea bags, gesso, and inks. 

Drew and stitched a tree, and then started adding flowers

Close up of the tree branches and flowers

In the end I added more color with Inktense as you can see in the finished piece and stitched it to a piece of felt.

It was so much fun to open up the magazine and see my art in it :)