A few little bits

A few months ago, I made something called air dry porcelain.  It was a bit like polymer clay, but made with cornstarch and PVA.  You know me, always wanting to make something out of nothing. 
The other day, I decided to do something with it.

I used a few stamps to make some little embellishments.  As you can see, above, I used a stamp made from fun foam, one cut from an eraser and a commercial stamp.

I painted them all with the verdigris base I used here.

Then when they were dry, I painted them with the developing solution.

After a few hours, the lovely blue verdigris developed.
I couldn't wait to play with them, so I put together a few arrangements.

This was my first one from some bits lying on the table.

And another one.

 And the first one after a bit more fiddling.  I had a fun time deciding what to do with them.

Happy creating.

Quick collage

OK, so I missed last week.  But I'm getting into the rhythm.
This week's fabric collage is using sheer applique and is inspired by the techniques used by Melanie Testa and Deborah Boschert.
So without further ado.

Here is the video of the process.

And below is a step through of what I did.

I started with a variety of different fabrics, handyes, monoprints, batting, chiffon, satin, baby wipes, lace, in violet and green (my favourite combination)

I arranged them to my satisfaction, then free motioned them down.

You probably can't see the stitching, but there is quite a lot there.

This is the design I drew to applique my chiffons down.

If you look really closely, you can see the first leaf free motioned and trimmed at the top left.

And here are all the leaves free motioned and trimmed in different coloured chiffons.

 A close or two up of my very 'free' stitching, lol.
I then couched a variegated yarn onto the spiral stem with gold thread, then added some beading.

And here is the finished piece.

And a few close ups of the embellishments.

Hope you enjoyed the process as much as I did.

Happy creating

Some paper work

Although I am actually making quite a lot of fibre pieces at the moment, I have also been doing some journal and sketchbook work. 

This is a page for a journal I have made out of a curtain trimming sample catalogue.  It is quite large and has these thick pages, like scrapbook pages, so is great to work in.
The sun is done with molding paste through a stencil, as is the text in the bottom right.  After I had dried the molding paste, I coloured with a few diluted acrylics in a spray.  The leaves are chiffon, free machined, then burned out and attached.  The writing was cut on my silhouette with sticky backed vinyl.  I think it still needs a little doodling and embellishment, but am sitting on it at the moment.

This one is actually in one of my altered journals.  The background was one of a mottled brown and gold that I did a few weeks ago and didn't like much, so I collaged some sprayed and painted book pages on it.  There was an orange and red baby wipe on my desk from cleaning up after spraying on the page above and so I cut out a big leaf and collaged that down.  I thought it looked a little lonely, so I cut a few little friends for it.  The last thing I did was to add the text, which just came into my head.  It was cut from white adhesive vinyl on my silhouette.  Again, it still needs some embellishing, but I tend to do my journalk in little bits.  Backgrounds one day, layouts another and doodling another.
As I said, I have also been very busy in my sketchbooks, mostly doing watercolour.

Some morning glories.

A simple gum leaf.

Some Gingko leaves (my favourite).

And some seaweed, kelp, but not really botanically correct, I suppose.
I have also done some pages for my Sketchbook Project journal (Thanks, Gina) in pretty much the same style, in fact I work on the two books at the same time to avoid drying waits.

I chose to work on 'beginnings' which is our Tangled Textiles challenge at present, although none of these sketches did make it into my piece - oh well, it was still fun.

This one still needs some work, but I am liking it so far.

Some ammonite fossils - again not finished yet.

Some insect eggs on a leaf - again.......more work required.

A chrysalis, a long way to go, but I like the background.

And finally, Some little sperm approaching an ova - a bit of a take on my biochemistry days, I suppose.
I have actually sketched out all my pages and am slowly working on them.  There are a lot more pages, but I have until christmas to finish and am enjoying the painting.

I am working on a collage to show on Wednesday (missed last week!), so hopefully some fibre art soon.

Happy creating.

You never know what you will find

This morning we went into town to do a little bit of shopping.  While I was waiting for the chemist to fill scripts, I went next door to the opportunity shop to have a little look see.  Whilst I was beowsing, I saw some old knitting machine cards.  You know, from those knitting machines we all thought were really great in the '70s?  I didn't think much about it, but as I was looking at them I had a what if moment.

These are some of the cards.  They are made of a thin white plastic and have little holes punched in patterns all over them.

These were out drying after I had used them.  You can probably guess what I did by the state they are in.
I suppose that is how those old machines worked out what to knit.  They reminded me of the key punch cards I had to use at university to write programs for computer science, lol.  No keyboards and mouses in those days!
Anyway, I couldn't wait to get home with them.  I got out my journals and paints and went to work!

I used them as stencils!  And wow what great stencils!  These ones above were the first ones I did, with my dobber bottles and you can see my techniques was not great.

I used my stamp pads for these, and although they are sharp, they are not even - and used a lot of ink!

These were done using diluted acrylic paint in spray bottles, and they worked really well.

Here are some more - absolutely fabulous, if I do say so myself.
Of course after I sprayed them, there was a ton of paint on the top, so waste not want not,

I turned the cards over and stamped with them, getting a positive image as well.  I loved this one, it looked a bit like lace.

And here I stamped a whole lot on one page.  I am really liking these and sure I will use them in my journals a lot.  They are about 5 by 12 inches, so quite large.  I wonder what all those lovely dots would look like stencilled on sheer organza!  Or any fabric for that matter!
I showed my hubby what I had done and he suggested that I could make more of them with different designs with my silhouette as well.  What a creative hubby I have!

So I am quite happy with my 50 cent purchase this morning.  That is why I love junk shops. 
You never know what you will find, or what you can use it for.

Happy creating!

A little bit rusty

Something I've been playing with over the last few weeks is Langridge  rust and verdigris bases that we have got in our cupboard at the art studio. I wanted to see what sort of finishes I could get on paper and fabric.  I do love the look of rust and the blue patina you get on copper and have rusted fabric before, but I wondered if this might be an easier way to get it.

Above is the rust base applied to - from left, cardstock, fabric fused to cardstock and a piece of plain fabric.  Both bases are very dark, thick pastes which I dabbed on with a brush.

And the same for the verdigris base.  At this stage they look very similar except the verdigris base has a bit of a coppery sheen.

I also had a piece of fabric left over, so I added both to it.

When the paper and fabric had two coats and were dry, I added the patina solution (but I also found, while waiting for the solution to arrive in the mail, that a solution of vinegar and salt also works well).
The patina takes a few hours to develop......

Above are the card samples, which worked really well.  Verdigris on the left and rust on the right.  These samples were just what I was after and I will probably use them in my art journals - or on them, they would make a great cover.

I cut my fabric samples in half and washed one half.  As you can see above the rust base worked well, and washing removed a bit of the black unreacted iron in rust base sample on fused fabric, but left a great rusted fabric.

This is the rust sample on plain fabric (somehow, in transferring my photos to my hard drive, I ended up with a few missing ones), but the washed sample was similar to the fused sample above.

The verdigris samples did not stand up to washing, although I got a great blue effect before washing, the blue all washed out.  I should have known, being a biochemist that copper sulphate is soluble in water!  This is the fused fabric sample.  The plain fabric sample was the same (again, lost photo).

This was the rust and verdigris sample, which looked great, although the blue washed out, again.
The surface of the fabrics is a bit gritty.  This doesn't matter for the paper samples, as they can be sealed with PVA, however I am not sure if I would want to stiffen the fabric that much.

All in all, it was a very interesting experiment and now I am looking for ways to use these samples in my mixed media work.  I think the patinas would look nice layered with embossed metal embellishments and charms.  mmm.... new collage ideas.

On the sewing front, I have just started a workshop at joggles, called Tandletons,  which are little tatted, needlelaced and embroidered buttons.  Here are my first samples from week 1.

I have used milk carton caps as my base for these, which is not the way they are taught in the workshop, but I do love recycling stuff!  Below are some others I have also made, previously on my own.

I have showed these before, but it was easier to just pop them in rather than find the link, lol.  If you remember my red art quilt, which I made for the Tangled Textiles challenge - you will know that I love buttons!

And the return of the digi inspiration!
Have fun creating!