Tuesday, 24 November 2009

Magical & Mystical




This was for a 'Madeira' competition in 2006 [was awarded 'highly-commended']
Mixed Media - painted background, digital printing, applique, machine and hand embroidery, beading, found objects.

Monday, 23 November 2009

Screen prints with dog


Screen printed fabrics, dyes, cut & pieced, applique, machine embroidery. The same screen printed dog is on both samples.

Sunday, 22 November 2009

Flowery Doodle


Friday, 20 November 2009

New York in the rain



Mixed Media

Thursday, 19 November 2009

Patterns Doodle


Another one from a sketch book. I quite often do a doodle or sketch with just a black pen, then colour it in at a later date usually when I can't think of what to draw. 

Wednesday, 18 November 2009

Squirrel & Bird Sketch


One from a sketch book - pens

Tuesday, 17 November 2009

Consumption Poster


Vintage poster at Beamish Museum about consumption, known nowadays as tuberculosis.

Monday, 16 November 2009

New York - buildings and taxis


Another applique from my New York collection - they were actually bag designs [but not made into bags].
This one has screen printed fabrics, dyed fabrics, applique, machine embroidery and has a plastic top layer, hence the strange look on the photo.

Saturday, 14 November 2009

New York - Statue of Liberty Applique


In my picture the statue of liberty has finished her shopping and is hailing a taxi in the rain.
The buildings are screen printed fabrics [mainly furnishing fabrics], the statue is painted fabric, the bag & umbrella are painted pvc, the taxi is a digital print on fabric, the background is black velvet.

Friday, 13 November 2009

1st experiment with Coarse Molding Paste





I was eager to start my first experiment with Golden coarse molding paste but couldn't find the evolon or lutradur that I wanted to try it on [found it later] so I used a [new] Sarah Smith microfibre cleaning cloth [which I thought felt like a similar fabric & it was just waiting to be used!]. I painted the paste on with a brush together with golden fluid acrylics, when it was dry it felt a bit like sandpaper. The fabric looked a bit dark on it's own so I decided on the white flowers. As I wanted a crackle glazed effect for the flowers I decided to paint them in emulsion and then add a coat of crackle glaze, however this didn't work [maybe because it was fabric & not a hard surface, maybe because I should have put a base layer of medium or gesso under the emulsion, maybe because my crackle glaze isn't very good...]
The flowers looked a bit shiny because of the glaze so I painted over them with watercolour paints. I then stitched the veining and the french knots in the centre. I was surprised that it was really easy to stitch through even with the molding paste. After I finished the sewing I put some wadding on the back & wrapped it around a canvas frame.
A tip  - on the 3rd picture you will see a rectangular mark around the design [where it would bend round on the canvas] - this was made with a coloured watercolour crayon & can be rubbed out with a damp brush afterwards. It is useful for drawing on a design too, but check how it works before doing it on anything important.