Landscape Pillow

Quite a few years ago,  I had a chair covered with my needlepoint.  This chair needed a pillow - don't they all?!  A couple of vacation photos inspired the design of the pillow.

  

Sketches were drawn combining pleasing elements from both photos.

The pillow is made of hand painted silk dupioni.  Several layers of silk organza stitched in place represent the mountains.  Dark green silk dupioni stitched over top represents the trees.  The topmost layer consists of light green silk dupioni (flower stems), raspberry silk dupioni and ultra suede (flowers).

Narrow piping made of lilac silk dupioni adds a finishing touch to the pillow.

I prefer an eclectic style of decorating.  The landscape pillow looks happy in its new home.

I'm in the Mode....

I've been working my way through several Photoshop Elements books.  The result of layering two or three of my own photographs, adding blend modes, changing the opacity, levels, etc. is amazing and addictive.  There are at least 3 different ways to accomplish the same task.  Learning the shortcuts is a big time saver.  I only recently discovered that by pressing down the Shift Key and the + key repeatedly allows one to toggle through the blend modes - seeing how each blend mode affects the layer below - tres cool!

European Flower Market

 Scanned brown paper bag

Gaussian Blur added to first photo layered with brown paper bag blend mode Difference; an additional layer of black brushed around the outside of the layer - Gaussian Blur added 

The above layers were merged and layered over top of another photo of coneflowers.  This is still a work in progress...the possibilities are endless!

layered photos I took of the Statue of Liberty, beach sand, cactus; color removed, several blend modes added.  This is my personal favorite!

color removed from a my photo of granddaughter, Emily, then color brushed on

layered photos I took of granddaughter, Abby, pavement, then eraser

See what I mean - addictive!

Supporting the Arts

Whenever I travel, I like to seek out local artists.  My collection of original art is growing.  It's not always necessary to spend the big bucks either (although I have dropped a lot of money on some purchases!)

Last weekend I flew to Chicago for my granddaughter, Samantha's high school graduation.  Sam and I took the train downtown and explored the Art Institute of Chicago, which is fabulous.  After lunch, we wandered over to the Chicago Cultural Center and took a look see at "Project Onward."  We had our portraits done by two of the Project Onward artists.

Portrait by David Holt

Portrait by "Chuckie" Johnson

This is an affordable and fun way to support the arts.  Color portraits are $10; black and white $5 - such a deal!  The next time you find yourself in the Windy City, check it out.  

"Queen Anne's Lace" - A Mixed Media Quilt

This little mixed media quilt (19W x 16L) was constructed using silk, felt and paper.

Dictionary pages and tissue paper were painted, stamped and/or inkjet printed.  Machine embroidery enhanced the green silk stems.  The flower buds are made of "zapped" Kunin felt.  The borders are stamped silk.  Hand and machine quilted.

Queen Anne's Lace detail

It's fun and interesting to mix it up a little!

Check out the other  Pink Saturday blog posts - you find lots of interesting things there!

A Project Using Image Transfer

I've been experimenting with image transfer techniques - now what do I do with all these images?  

I chose to display photos taken on trips I made to Europe over the last few years.  

Materials Used:

3x3 and 2.5 x 3 canvas frames

18x5 wooden trays

French dictionary pages

vintage fabric tape measure

rubber stamp

found objects

E-6000

How I did it:

wooden trays, backside of canvas frames

front side of canvas frames one coat of gesso

experimenting with placement on trays

wooden tray primed; dictionary pages adhered with matte medium

 tray painted gold; papers "aged" with water color, rubber stamped

measuring tape adhered to back side of canvas frame

  (dictionary papers were inserted into the frame later)

Different image transfer techniques were used.  

flowers transferred with DASS SuperSauce and DASS transfer film; doors transferred with Lazertran turpentine method

hardware found on Ebay; images transferred using DASS method

button sewn to canvas frame; images transferred using Lazertran turpentine method
adhere frames and found objects using E-6000

This was a fun project.  I think it's a really cool way to display the photos.  What do you think?

Check out the other  Pink Saturday blog posts - you find lots of interesting things there!

Sprite

I have tons of my own hand-dyed fabric.  It's fun to make not only quilts but dolls using this unique cloth.

"Sprite" (2010)

Sprite's head, hands and feet are needle sculpted then painted; her body and legs are made from cotton fabric which I dyed using a deconstructed screen printing method and MX reactive dyes.  Hair made from knitted tubing; wings of a metal-like paper cut to shape and enhanced with dimensional paint.  The little boobies are made of felted wool; arms from carpenter ruler.  The flowers are made of polymer clay.  She sits atop a seat made from cardboard tubing and cereal box, coated with acrylic ceramic tile adhesive and finished with gold paint.

I'm happy to say that "Sprite" sold at her first public outing a couple of weeks ago.  I know she found a happy home.

Thanks for visiting my Pink Saturday blog!