The Exhibition is Up!!

Help I need titles for four more pieces!

How does everyone come up with titles for their artwork? I need to name them all by Monday and I’m struggling!!

1 Week and 1 Day Left!

Quick Update:

So all my pieces are finished ready to be mounted. I am making 4 of the pieces raised from the background – which is tricky! So that part of it is a work in progress.

The other two pieces I ordered mounts for – but the framing shop got them totally wrong so they don’t fit! I was really upset. They are correcting them, so hopefully I can go and pick them up Friday night (hanging of the exhibition is Monday!)Probably another busy weekend next weekend!

 

Preparing for the exhibition

Ahhh so I have 2 weeks and 2 days until our group printmaking exhibition goes up.

Firstly….I need to actually finish the pieces. Secondly….I need to get mounts cut. Thirdly…..I need to screw all the d rings onto the frames. I sense I’m going to have a busy weekend!

I’m excited though. I’ll add photos when everything is ready!

🙂

 

 

 

 

Patchings Art Festival 2016 (England)

Well I really enjoyed my day at Patchings yesterday, despite the rain!

I’d never been before, but a friend suggested it and said I’d love it. It was quite a drive from me, but I’m glad I went.

There were a number of marques. A large one housed art materials from a variety of companies. I was quite good and didn’t buy anything from there, but it was great to chat to people about new products and to try some out. I also took part in a Derwent Workshop where I had a go with Charcoal and Graphite blocks (who knew they were water soluable!?) and it was interesting seeing the textures you can create with them.

My favourite tent (another large one) was the one with the craftspeople in. I was able to have a really good chat with a variety of makers, including a calligrapher, a felt-maker, a watercolourist and glass carver, a jewellery maker  and a textile artist.

I think it was a really inspiring day. I’ve got lots of different things I want to try and courses I want to do. I don’t know how many other artists try as many different art forms as I have, but it meant that inspiration was literally around every corner!

 

 

Nearly a Year

Well I’ve been offline for almost a year!

Basically my computer was rubbish and I’ve been very busy with my new job etc.

I’ve decided so start up my blog again, but with a difference, now I’ve got a new laptop. I’m going to do the same kinds of things, but with a bit more chat. Talking about the things I’m doing and thinking and seeing, and what has inspired me!

I’m planning on going to an Art Festival tomorrow called Patchings, so maybe I will do a post about that.

 

 

 

 

Printing from Embossing Folders

I went to the Stamp Magic craft show recently and bought this for £5:

So I wanted to try doing something fun with it.

I love my embossing folders, but I’ve been umming and ahhing about how to make the most of them. I thought I’d try printing with them:

So first I opened the embossing folder and pressed the surface really well onto the pad.

Then I just closed it back up and inserted a piece of cheap white card

I ran it through my Big Shot Plus machine

and this is what I ended up with:

I took a second print too:

and you can get different results by using the other side:

The colours aren’t showing too well in these photos, but you get the idea🙂

Do I really need Chameleon Pens?

So I’ve seen the promotional videos for Chameleon Pens. I love the idea of being able to make lighter tones of each colour, but I have LOADS of Promarkers and the Chameleon Pens are pretty expensive.

I wondered….can you do the same thing with Promarkers?

So I bought a cheap colourless blender (99p from The Works) and decided to try them out.

So like with the Chameleon Pens, I tried holding the tip of the colourless blender to the tip of the Promarker. Apparently you have to do it with the blender pen above the Promarker or the colour from the marker goes onto the blender!

I then coloured with the Promarker:

Not all my photos came out well, but you can see from the one underneath that it colours from clear and gradually fades into the full Promarker colour.

I tried it for severall different lengths of time.

So it worked pretty well. Have a go yourself! Feel free to let me know if you have Chameleon pens, how you think it compares!

It seems to work best with darker/stronger colours.

Documented Life Project Weeks 8-9

So this is the finished page. It has the ‘repeating elements’ of week 8 and the 5+ layers of week 9.

 

This is what it looked like after the first 3 layers. I initially carved the feather stamp and stamped the background, then painted it with Inktense. Then I gelli plate printed over the top, and here I have added more feathers and stamped with an unmounted script stamp. I then messed it up a bit by printing with quite opaque pink over the top. So I printed with more white gesso and other colours, added yet more feathers and paint splodges and writing. I think it’s finished….not 100% sure yet. I like that I used my own handwriting loosened up. First time I have risked doing that and I will definitely do it more🙂 I need to get a new dip pen which holds a bit more ink.

Documented Life Projects Weeks 5-7

Okay so I cheated a bit. This is DLP weeks 5-7. That covers the February theme: Layers You Will Love! and the weekly prompts:

week 5:  Art Challenge:  Under Paper (paper on your work table that gets all inky while you work)  Journal Prompt:  What Lies Beneath?

week 6: Art Challenge:  When Not To Stop  Journal Prompt:  “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough!” (Ooh)

week 7: Art Challenge:  Cover Up Good Stuff  Journal Prompt:  Going Undercover

So I might need to explain a bit! I used some gelli plate prints which were lovely (the good stuff, week 7) but were also only useful as a background really (under paper, week 5, I know stretching it a bit, but I ripped up the 2 prints into strips, so it really was from scraps). I layered and layered including the following materials: 2 gelli prints, Inktense blocks, gesso (multiple layers), patterned tissue paper, brayered on layers of acrylic, Possibly some distress stain (can’t remember), layers of embossing powder and obviously alphabet stamps. There were a few occasions when I wasn’t happy with it. So I just added more gesso and then more layers (week 6, when not to stop).

What I might do with the next one is to take photos/scans and show in stages how I did it. Let me know if you’d like to see that🙂