Butterfly wing heart stamp

I have been making an eraser stamp, carving a linoprint and cutting a stencil based on the Red Monarch butterfly wings....to go with the polymer clay cane I made earlier.  The idea was to have different sizes of the image, the stamp can be for cards and prints; and the stencil will be screenprinted onto fabric.

Inspiration

Looking through my digital drawing portfolio, I rediscovered this "nest"   The background was made by stencilling with acrylic paint (on paper), it would work well on fabric too. The nest drawing would be difficult to reproduce as a screen or linoprint....maybe I will have to learn about using transfer paper.

Every time I go looking for images to use as small matted prints, they seem to want to be used in a textile project instead.          The rose too?  with beading, and a free-form stitched border?

Adelaide House with stamped background

One of my Adelaide house linoprints, with a hand carved stamped background "photoshopped" behind it.
This is my 3rd year at Tech, and houses and birds have featured in my work, all the way through.

The theme seems to be House/home/comfort/family/past/stability -  versus Freedom/flight/independence/developing/the future (and all the scary new stuff)

Adelaide houses - linoprints

As part of my "market stall" plan, I would like to have some small "matted" lino or screenprinted images for sale.
I made three linoprints of houses seen in Adelaide, earlier on, in my studies at Tech.

They seem a bit plain, and need some kind of background, to look more interesting, I think?   It would be good to bring in the iron work "cut-outs" I made. Maybe calico bags would work better.... screenprint an ironwork design, in colour, as a background - and sew the houses on top?    Maybe a sort of collage, with some copperplate script with "fabric transfer" paper?  Polymer clay buttons with old-fashioned key-charm imprints.

Business cards, bags and birds

Last year (while working on my Diploma of visual arts) I was bird obsessed, they popped up in my sketch book all the time, and I had fun using photoshop to create different effects. I decided I wanted my business cards (to be designed as part of the "Drawing for promotion" section) to look handmade, as befitting a crafter.

The Boobook owl in the "photoshopped" image above, developed from a doodle, and I enlarged the design to use as a stencil for printing on calico bags. The filigreed blackbird grew from a sketch of a visitor to my garden....I superimposed "Iron lace" over the silhouette. After a visit to Adelaide, I was still inspired by the lovely houses there, with iron decoration.

Bird tags and stickers

Last year I designed three bird stamps (for the "advertising and promotion" section of my diploma) and had them made up in sizes that would fit a range of tags and labels, but would also look good on a business card.
 I am a crafter, and I wanted my "business card" to look handmade, not impersonal and glossy.

The smallest owl stamp can be used on the back of my handmade origami cards, along with an email/website address stamp. I can also use them on my cards themselves, as part of a design....since stamps are quite expensive to have made up. I wanted to make sure they would be used well.

Embossing folders

Today I discovered that I could use my embossing folders as texture plates.
I wet the cotton fabric and dripped or painted acrylic ink onto it.
When that was dry, I brayered up some metallic acrylic paint, and rolled over the raised images.

I think this technique should work as a decorative background for nuno-felted strips.

Screenprinted owl

Having just bought a silkscreen, I decided to try out an owl stencil that I made last year.  At the time I was trying to come up with a bird logo for my "trademark"   I eventually had this design (and another owl) made up as rubber stamps, to go on business cards and tags.

My first attempts at screen printing didn't turn out that well, next time I will have to put the ink on both left and right hand sides, and draw it into the centre....to avoid the fadeout effect, where the ink runs out.

I decided to experiment with acrylic inks, to add some colour.

Organic look

I think I like the organic effect which appeared when I was playing with a red and brown kaleidoscope cane. The cane doesn't look very interesting on it's own....but repetition creates a more appealing effect.
I reduced the cane to several different sizes, and added a bit of brown bulls-eye cane, in the gaps.

The results have a cellular kind of look.

More polymer clay embellishments

Playing with another kaleidoscope cane, a Stroppel cane, a flower cane and some stripes.

Some psychaedelic looking buttons-to-be....

Rainbow Skinner-blend Jellyroll

Todays' attempt at a rainbow jellyroll: I managed to blend the red, yellow and blue polymer clays together in the "Judith Skinner" fashion....and created the secondary colours, orange and green.
Then the idea was to lay strips of white on the top, to create flecks throughout the cane. This would lighten the cane and create interest; because when canes are reduced down to a very small diameter, they appear darker, and lose their bright and colourful effect, somewhat.

I think I laid the white strips down in the wrong direction, however (horizontally, instead of vertically)

So now I have a cane with odd white stripes, instead of flecks. Never mind! I'm sure it won't go to waste.

Close up....

This photo shows a bit more detail

Kaleidoscope cane buttons

I'm happy with the variations of the cane. I think they will look good as buttons, and may suggest designs for the bags.

Funky Bag

This style is more what I had in mind, for my bags.....over the top, with lots of streamers, textures and bling!
Lots of bright colours though.
It might be difficult to keep everything under control.

The other bags are more focused.

Mini Quilt

A similar idea here.....it would be fun to use printmaking, as well as all the other ways of decorating a surface.

Love all the buttons!

New book

"Creative Quilting with Beads" by Valerie Van Arsdale Shrader.
The book has some nice bags and mini quilts. I was attracted by the designs which include buttons, since I will have to start thinking about where my beads and embellishments are going to go.

I like the idea of making a small print/stencilled design for the centre of a bag....like this one

Kaleidoscope cane

A new cane...I'm trying to decide whether or not to keep it square, or make it triangular (and turn it into a snowflake cane)     I think I like the tube beads made from waste-cane slices.

Beads

Some sanded beads, ready to be buffed.

 I use a small (noisy) rotary tool for the buffing, it is a task that requires patience, as it takes a lot of time.

Glad wrapped and ready to roll

My favourite piece.....

making nuno felt

laying out the wool, and wetting it....nice and soapy

Nuno felting on organza

Nuno felting onto five squares of organza.....here are the finished pieces, with tie-dyed fabrics and embellishments.

Yellow tie-dyed cotton

The yellow dye was not as intense as the blue, it did not dye as many squares of cotton.

Another nuno felted example

The ruching effect is more visible on this one.

Nuno Felting

This is my first attempt at nuno felting. I had lots of "rusted" muslin left over from the (advanced diploma) textiles workshop, and some wool from the felting workshop.

It was quicker and more fun than "real" felting....and I love the ruching effect created by the shrinkage of the wool.

Distortion

Here is an example of distortion....the flesh coloured translucent clay was softer than the fimo clay I used for the features, I think it moved faster. It is difficult to get an even pressure when pulling and rotating the cane in your hands.