a natural progression

morning!

Having signed up for a Valentine's themed mail circle swap type affair on Instagram, I was probing my brain the other day for ideas. I'd seen a wonderful photo on IG of two framed hearts ~ one filled with badges and I think the other with buttons. This then reminded me of the wonderful stamped heart project in Geninne Zlatkis' book Making An Impression and prompted the following series of ideas...

I initially sketched out my rough plan on the Paper by 53 app on Paul's iPad ~

I then raided my stash with the intention of using up some of it along with some bits of w-i-p that having been loitering for a while ~

In all honesty, this wasn't really doing it for me and then I realised it was because there wasn't really any sign of me or my style in it. A quick faff and play and then this ~

Ahh much better! A bit of doodling and an actual theme to the composition and my heart was happy again! Then it was on with my favourite bit - the inking of the design...oh, the calm contemplation this brings me is priceless.

Inked up and now for a sit back and look...a few tweaks later and it is almost done~

...though I'm still undecided about the wording (let love bloom).

That hasn't stopped me ploughing on with Heart Garden II though ~

inking up the design

close up of the detail

and here is the second finished Heart Garden ~

I'd love to know what you think!

One of them is ear-marked as a gift, but I was thinking about doing a few more and putting them in my shop. I'd probably leave them on the full sheet of paper and then it's up to the recipient to decide whether to cut it to frame it, or to simply tack it to their wall with a bit of washi tape :)

Plotting and planning, and working through an idea can be so rewarding.

Sarah

x

inactive...inspiration

Whilst the serious making is on hold for the time being, I thought I'd share with you some of my recent inspiration...Cloth•Paper•Scissors.

Probably not new to any mixed media artists out there and it wasn't new to me either but, whilst inactive & needing inspiration, I asked the mister to buy me the latest issue whilst he was out & about (the newsagent in the Town Hall car park in Skipton stocks a wealth of hard to get publications & a lot of them arty/creative).

Back he came with the Jan/Feb2012 issue & I swear I have never devoured a magazine quite so thoroughly & with such pleasure! I carried it around with me for the first week, dipping in & out of certain articles as they caught my fancy & trying out one of the tutorials...Word Birds by Ann Ellis.

I have wanted to try collage for a long, long time but seeing the amazing creations other people dream up, very much stopped me from trying it myself. Silly really but when I see collage and mixed media art I'm always struck by how free the artist must be to pull it all together so naturally...I was worried I wasn't 'free' enough & that anything I created would look forced. So, with the idea of filling a whole canvas being a monstrously daunting task, I hadn't bothered even trying.

Until I came across these birds! They were the absolute perfect size to break my teeth on...and so I just got stuck right in, drawing and cutting out 8 bird shapes and their wings [this is another problem I have...I can never just try 1, it had to be 8 *shakes head at self* ] & then pulling out tissue papers and the like ready to make. Now I will say that after gesso-ing all the shapes (I'd used old Graze boxes which are brown in colour & I didn't want this showing through) and pva-ing 6 of them & gluing on the torn tissue bits, I did start to think I was wasting my time.

You know that "what AM I doing feeling"? But I persevered & even dug out the paints for a couple of them. Once the wings were on I could start to see them come to life and quietly lost myself in the process for a couple of hours, playing with colours, sticking on embellishments & writing out little sayings.

Now, you can see that they are hugely influenced by Ann's own designs but I am so pleased with them - they were such fun to make that I'm having a crack at some of my own designs but using a similar method & hoping to use them in a different way. 

Well, I've become very sidetracked with telling my birdy story when what I intended to do was to tell you all about Cloth•Paper•Scissors *tsk* *tsk* Ms Ditsy!

I loved this issue & I think a lot of it was down to timing...the whole mixed media/collage slant plus my break from making-to-sell giving my creative mind time to think, ponder & stretch a little. Wanting to feed this stretching, I registered with the CPS site and my, oh my, there is SO much help & information & inspiration & wonderful free resources...and for all sorts of media. I urge you to take a look when you're next on the pc or your phone and having a little internet browse. You never know what it may spark off so remember...

x