More canvas

WEll if your not bored with them already here is the latest in my series of canvases. This one is built over a magazine cut out and I have to say I love it and hate it all in one! I love the flowers and the background and the hair, but the face needs work and I am going back to this tomorrow as I have painted mysef out I think! It is too flat and the lips, what's going on there! They are far too dark and large. I am going to call her "Lacey" Since the word lace is in there!
Then this is the "Little birdy". Again I am happy with these, I think they are turning out really well, nd I can feel the need to start an Etsy shop soon. I would just like to earn some pin money to cover the amount of materials I consume, then I wouldn't feel so guilty! Well am off to have a cuppa before bed in an Ellie free house, she has gone to Mum's tonight so longgggg lie in in order for tomorrow!

New canvas

Here is where I am with a new canvas. I am loving useing a combination of bought collage papers and magazine cut outs, I have been tearing up old bridal magazines at a rate of knots. This is another birdy, to be. All thishas got me finally! thinking about Sharon's TIF for this month. What do I call myself? Teacher? Textile artist? Embroiderer? Artist? I think I am going to go with artist (in general). Not many of you will know how i got to this stage of things, I have been on a very wandering journey. I started out in school wanting to be a fashion designer, and so I took textiles and scraped a C at GCSE (Cue my kids to laugh their heads off!) and then I was not able to take it at A level so I up and moved school. This was a very big deal as I was in a welsh speaking school up until this point. I only got an E in textiles A level, needless to say I hated the new school.

I went on to a foundation course in art and design and got engaged to a lovely boy, I was going to settle down and live near home. My ceramics lecturer saved me from this by filing in my UCAS form for me, so of I went to do Ceramics for my BA hons. Engagement in my wake and a fair bit of difficulty I got my BA and then didn't know what to do with it, and long story short went on to teach. I then regained my love of textiles, and know now that textiles is my medium, and drug of choice! Mainly due to it's versitility.

However, working on these canvases has reminded me that I like to draw and paint, and have a fair eye for it. There for I call myself an artist.

May arch and postcard by the skin of my teeth!

Well by the skin of my teeth I managed to complete my arch for Mags and my postcard for the calendar girls swap. My arch for Mags was to be on egyptian theme, so I have done a few of these and I didn't want to repeat myself. I have always gone for a tomb wall sorta pale before and I wanted to avoid this. I looked at cartouche and found that lots of them are turquoise, now you know I don't need much of a nudge there! I coloured up some cotton with acrylic and then thought about a cartouche, now the internet is a wonderful thing, I found a site that told me how to write Mags name in Egyptian. So I embossed it into a piece of puree tube and added wire mesh, in brass. I then hand stitched and beaded the binding. I love how this turned out, it was fab to work on.

Close up of the cartouche.
The next piece is a card for the calendar girls swap, I used some recycled card from Ellie's birthday gift bags and then I did the collage and acrylics thing as I have been playing with it. For the focal I managed to nab a daisy from Ellie's giftwrap and stitched this down, added FME and the phrase from the calendar. I realy iked this one and thought it was a must, it reads "Friends leave footprints on your soul". I am really pleased how this turned out even if there is minimal stitch and no fabric!

More layering

Last night and today I sarted work on my resolved piece for design for my colour unit. I know I have told you about my children's illustrationidea, but I don't know if I told you that the resolved piece will be a book, illustrated by me, but completely 100% written by Ellie, my 5 year old. I made her a concertina book and she has drawn, and I wrote what I was told down! He stoy is about Princess Vicky and her garden, a monster and a magic key! I started storyboarding it so I have a plan of what i am going to do on each page. I bought a board book at the charity shop yesterday and this has 12 pages, icluding the front and back cover.

Here is the cover starting to come together...
And here it is painted. This is pink and turquoise but the pink is very dark, looks red in the pics.
Finally here is a canvas I am working on too, I decided to use a magazine pic that i love from a bridal mag to try and get a less vacant look on her face than in the last one I did, lets hope I succeed.
What do we think of these girls? Am I going in the right direction? I don't know why but I am not motivated by fabric at the mo.... I know I know sacrilidge! I am sure I just need a break after all the GCSE hoopla! Thankully that is over now, and the moderator, she say yes!!!!
I would love to see what your opinions are on this work?

Another canvas

I started on a new canvas last night. Completing the collaging and gloss layer last night.
At lunch I used the rubber roller to roller on a blue and turquoise layer.
and this is as where I got to. I have been hankering after doing a portrait. I used a picture in a bridal magazine as an inspiration. I like how it turned out but I think there is something missing so I am going to come back to it another day I think.

Colour combo lottery

My group textile challenges has been having a series of lottery swaps, which have worked out to be challenging and fun. We started with a shape lottery and then this month we did a colour combination lottery. I pulled cerise and green. I decided to upload both pics, flash on and flash off to try and show you what i did and give a truer picture of it. Iused inks to colour up some curtain interlining, this has a fab to coat of a nice quality cotton. I then used the ink to colour up some nice petals tat I comandeered from some hair bobbles. I stitched in cotton perle and then went to work with the metallic and pearl gel pens. I am really enjoying the drawn work at the mo taking influence from Dj Pettit, Kelly Rae, Sharon at Norah's blog etc. Loved doing this and it is now on it's way to Zoe.

Laura's bag finally finished

Well it has taken me long enough to get this done but the bag I owe to Laura H is finally done. I used the mono print I made for the Textile challenges monthly challenge and added sequins and then used a vintage fabric I found in school. It has turquoise and lime flower print on it. I am quite pleased with how it turned out, it is quite firm and nice.Another I am tempted to keep but won't as I have let Laura wait long enough. I took a second set of monoprints when I was at it so I have more to make one for me, or for my C+G unit. Hope your all having a great bank holiday.

WIP's

More progress on 2 pieces. I finally edges the mono prints this week, with a lovely vintage flowers fabric that I found in the rumage bin in school. I think it goes well. I have enought to use for the lining and the strap too. I added sequins, to fill some of the gap in the print. I used some cerise ink cirlces and some green and irridecent flowers too.
Next if you remember was the canvas I have been working on using Kelly Rae Roberts tutorial from CPS. I couldn't decide what to draw if you remember and so I played tonight drawing a bird ornament we have in the down stairs loo. Here are my sketchbook drawings and then me whiting out using a mix of cream emulsion and white acrylic, nearly as good as Gesso.
And this is what I came up with. I need a little peace in my life at the mo, and this is probably a subconcious cry for it. I didn't think that I was drawing a kinda lorrel leaf, but hey here it is.
I drew the outline of the bird with a charcoal pencil as per Kelly rae's instructions and then used a felt pen and finally a pearlise gel pen to highlight the leaves. As a first attempt and a bit of a departure in style for me I think it turned out well. I managed to buy 5 A4 ish sized canvases for a £1 each this week and so I plan to play with them and this technique further.
Love the highlighting showing in this photo.

Progress

Here is my progress on the canvas. I used a rubber roller (brayer to use in the US!) to put on 2 colours of acrylic in one go. This is a lovely technique as you get such lovely serendipidous marks. I then wiped away to reveal the collage papers beneth. Unfortunately this is where I am at a standstill. I think I don't know what to paint! I thought of doing flowers and I am on that Vibe at the mo, so it may well be. Kelly Rae Roberts who's tutorial I am following in CPS paints ladies, but this canvas it only about 4 inch square and I haven't the room for a person. I will think on, I think I am unsure about the colours to use to be honest!
Side view!
Here is the progress on my Mono printing for the challenge on Textiles challenges, my group, I set the challenge of mono printing, but then taking this further and making something, anything! I am making a bag, although it doesn't look like it at the mo!

Under my children's illustration theme I did the stitching all in black. I will be able to show you more progress on this soon as I am working on it right now!
To close a piccy of my darling girl, on her 5th birthday. Bought many a thing, including a rather expensive big girl bike, but choosing on her birthday to only play with a £3 tesco bubble gun! Don't you love em!
Have had a pants day in work today and have feeling a bit blue in general after some bad feeling arose online of late. This has been a frustrating few weeks, so the holidays next week can't come soon enough, I am hoping to garden, go to the beach and maybe camp for the first time with an excited 5 year old! ( + an even more exited 35 year old hubby!) Hope your all having a better time of it than me!

Well, more industry

I thought I would show you the other things I have been onto this week. Firstly I have been fed up with carrying my sketch book to college in a folio and the handle cutting my fingers so I made this bag. I realised after that it is a lovely piece of devore that was in the store room in school.
Then I thought, how about one to carry the folders that the kids use for their course work, I have to carry them home to mark and so I can fit 6-8 in here now, if I can carry that weight!
Then I made this bag, I made it for a swap but I can't bear to part with it, and so I am going to keep it. I love it!
Here the back.
and the detail of the front with dandelions!
I finally finished the commission. It was for a Pearl wedding anniversary album for Kate who works with me, for her parents. I wove the background and printed and then added organza and FME'd over the top. I normally burn back and this time I decided that it was better leaving it as it is.

I added foil pearls and mother of pearl buttons and of course pearl beads.

I decided that it needed a focal point and so I added a padded heart and beaded over and around this. I love this it turned out so well. I used a piece of foam board to build on and it has made it very crisp. I wanted to say thanks to Sue Bleweiss as she has given me some great advice in working this piece. I decided to line it off in the end Sue, I think Kate will prefer the cleaner lines! Thanks again Sue.
Finally, the closing gambit,One happy lady! We got her bike today and of course she had to have a go on it. She is being closely guarded by my Mum! See that happy face! We were in bits as she is barely strong enough to push the pedals round going up the street, she didn't half give us a laugh!!!!

What i have been playing with this week!

Well lots to show this week so if you don't have a cuppa go get one now!!! I am starting with what i have been playing with tonight. It is a little 4 inch square canvas that i am going to try out a tutorial from Cloth paper scissors onto. It is a tutorial on surfaces by Kelly Rae Roberts. i love her pics and so as I am looking at children's illustration for this unit of C+G I thought it mght fit in well, plus I have had this canvas for ages and this is a lovely size for playing on. I don't know what I am going to do on it yet but not a figure it is too small, maybe a butterfly or a bird or something.


The next is my piece for my challenge on Textiles challenges, my group. We are looking at mono printing this month and I decided to play on the garden theme for my C+g and for a swap I have this in mind for. I have been dying to get going on this but there are only enough hours in the day at the mo.








The next pieces are an exercise from college where we were drawing to music. It was really fun. i found it hard at first and found i was bound by the rules, the metre of the music. If it was 4 beats to a bar I had to make 4 marks! After 2 goes I started to loosen up and this is the third, (EDIT) (Title removed for competition!)


The next thing we did was to draw on a big huge piece of paper all together, swaping positions every 2 minutes. We drew along to It's in your heart by Rod Stewart. Then when we were done we had to select a piece and say why we liked it. I chose this piece which I had drawn. It was probably the strongest image on the page to be honest!

We then had to trace off an outline and use the tracing to make a kind of a one sided stencil. We then loaded this up with pastel, oil and soft, and smudged it off onto black paper. Mine turned out well
I also saw this little tute on the Crafty crow blog. It was meant for kids but I thought looked like my mono prints and so I have a go, and so did Ellie. I will have to show you Ellie's next time. incidentally she turns 5 on wed!
It uses ike a watercolour wet in wet method, but I used acrylics!


I made these this week too, a little helper/ mouse had helped himslef to a hole in my seat covers over the winter so new ones were called or, love this print, I have been harbouring it for a while!

I finally finished my sister in law's canvas for her new house. She wanted creams and brown, so I added gold too. I went with a klimpt theme and added stencilling in gold and a variety of inchies, in satin and silk.


And because I know you love a close up!!!!!!

Well hope your not too exhausted reading about it! I am knackered personally so am off to bed. I hope to show you more on the pearl anniversary commision tomorrow or monday, it has to be with the client by friday so I want it done this weekend if I can! I expect there will be some birthday cake picks this week, as i have always made my own, however Ellie wants a high school musical one this year for her party so that has to be bought, but I no doubt will make one for her real birthday on wed!

Aren't my friends clever?????

I thought i would share with you some of the talent in our group. These are fnished pieces, I am not going to show all the works in progress as we will be here al day!
This piece belongs to Deb and is her finished piece from the Angie Hughes workshop (Ashamed to say mine stil sits unstitched!) She chose Hundsenwasser(spelling ??? arg!) and isn't it just lovely. She sells her painted fabric online Here, so get your buts over and buy some if your a quilter in particular!!!
This piece is by Michelle, and is free machining into copper, extensively! Michelle is havng a hard time at the mo, so send her your good vibes.

These last two belong to Enid Davies, my lecturer and are both metal inclusions. This first one has lots of reclaimed metals and even plays a tune whe you wiggle it!
This one has copper mesh and a print on Plywood? I think. I love it don't you.
Well I thought I would share, they are lovely aren't they.
I am of in marking and commission land at the mo, I have a piece that has to be finished by the 23rd and I have a LOT left to do!