Song Of Herself

I bought a new book yesterday, Frida Kahlo, Song of Herself by Salomon Grimberg. Its really very good, it gives a whole new insight into Kahlo's life, she truly was an inspirational artist.

On a completely separate note, here's something I've been meaning to add for a while, one of a number of tags I've been decorating in various ways. Once I've dug out the others they'll be joining this one so if you like it keep checking back.I made this using various K&Company products, including Amy Butler's Sola purses, and added PaperMania brads. The result is quick, simple and I think, effective.

Cards Cards Cards!

Its been a while since I updated this blog, certainly less than I had hoped, but as with all creative people on occasion real life rears its ugly head. I've been dealing with some things in my personal life which has meant creatively speaking, things have been somewhat slow. I don't feel any particular compulsion to over-share on here, but I would like to thank the family and friends who read this for everything they have done for me over the last few weeks.

So.... in the spirit of saying thank you....here follows a selection of the thank you cards I've been making- just to show that no matter how absorbed I've been in the madness of my day to day life I very much appreciate everyone else's efforts.

First up, this was made using a selection of products from the "Mira Colle" range by Brenda Walton for K&Co. I may have mentioned before that I'm relatively new to scrap booking products, not being a scrap fan, and I can't quite remember what it was that got me hooked-although I think Amy Butler's Sola and Belle fabric ranges had a lot to do with it!

This card marks the first time I've used one particular range of products exclusively in a piece. Often I tend to combine bits of my favourite ranges, but Mira seems to fit perfectly. I started with a base from the Mira matte pad, (at the risk of sounding ignorant, does anyone know what a matte pad is actually for? As I've said I'm not a scrapper) since this card is intended for a visually impaired relative texture is doubly important.

I then began adding embellishments. Rarely do I plan my cards at length, I'd had a couple of packs of Mira Lantern Grand Adhesions that I'd been wanting to use for a while, so I went with the string of lanterns idea presenting in the packaging. The copper wire is secured by brads, both supplied in the pack (an idea I will definitely be borrowing!) and I picked lanterns with plenty of raised patterns to feel, and tassels and ribbons to finish.

Since my background choice reminded me of a hazy summer garden I decided to go with it, cutting and trimming Mira glitter stickers in gold, copper and red to create flower stems in the foreground. The flowers were created using Mira Mulberry paper flower brads. K&Co Grand Adhesions and brads are usually made up of three layers-in this instance I swapped a few layers around, and only used to top layers of some of the adhesions to create different depths.

I then finished the whole thing with a smattering of embossed paper dragonflies and a couple of pretty birds on the wire.

Close up of the lanterns: I fell in love with this particular set of Grand Adhesions right away. Each one comes painted, embossed or foiled with different pattern which are incredibly multi-layered. They are all finished with little ribbons or tassels at the bottom- undeniably gorgeous!

Ah, the lanterns are back again! Those of you who have read this on a regular basis (my condolences, but thank you anyway :-D) will notice the similarity of this card to one I posted on here a few weeks ago. You would be right in assuming its the same, I did a couple in a similar way, but when I saw it against my more recent efforts I figured it looked a bit unfinished. I'm still not 100% convinced the composition works with its latest addition, but I do know the intended recipients will appreciate it and that's what matters.

This is possibly my favourite- Brenda Walton's designs come out again, this time in the form of dresses from her Dollhouse chipboard alphabet, and a few bits of Mira Colle too. The Dollhouse range is one of those collections that I think works better when mixed with other pieces, use together and its all a bit too sugary. Having said that, the alphabet box these shapes came from is absolutely one of my all time favourites.

Like with the first card I used a patterned page from a K&Co matte pad (McKenna I think). I decided that in keeping with my current love affair with the wire suspended on brads combination, to follow a theme that popped into my head every time I went rummaging through my crafty bits looking for chipboard shapes.

It might be a little obvious, but the pretty little dresses from the Dollhouse box lend themselves perfectly to being used as part of a quirky domestic scene. I added small strips of brown paper to create clothes pegs, and like in the first card I used Mira Colle glitter stickers to create swirly flower stems. The flowers themselves are a mixture of silk flowers, Mira cut-outs, and cut-outs from the "Smitten" range with various metal brads at the centres. I fixed some of the flowers using foam pads, while simply gluing others flat to create the illusion of depth to the composition.

Close up of clothes: One of the occasionally great things about K&Co chipboard alphabets and shapes is that they are all double sided. I say occasionally because often I like both sides equally, which results in the need to buy two of everything (such a pity!) and sometimes I end up with a major case of too much to choose from. Luckily in this instance I feel I made a good decision!

Ordinarily I would have put the least heavily embellished shape in the centre (the one on the left) but as its shape was similar to the one on the right I decided to aim for a little symmetry.

Close up of flowers: As I've already explained how I achieved this look I just wanted to give you a closer look at the patterns on the flowers, which may otherwise be missed.

Close up of Butterfly: Just because they're pretty!

As Seen.. um Somewhere Soon....

Audrey is number 2 in my open series of art dolls, this one follows much the same process as doll number one (see images below) but combines my new discovery of chipboard shapes and joss paper from the Chinese supermarket.

This picture entitled "Midnight Feast" is a very recent piece, and a rare example of a piece that is purely painted, I've resisted the urge to embellish and stitch into the canvas and it is actually quite free-ing to be able to go back to basics. The theme is probably quite dark in terms of my usual fairly cheerful subject matter, but I am interested in the darker aspects of nature, and natural impulses that occure. It came to me while watching a friends cat tormenting a moth, and put me in mind of the dead birds we used to find in the garden- often killed by a neighbours cat. I wanted to paint in the style of Halloween Whimsy art, but couldn't resist adding a little gold paint however, and I actually think it works!


Carousels are something I really enjoy, I see them as useable sculptures, very much a multi sensory experience, and they tend to crop up frequently in my work. This piece depicts a carousel horses head in close up, and eventually I think it would be fun to recreate a whole entire horse in fabric collage on a large scale. This piece is very much a "re-cycled bits of old scraps from the bottom of the sewing box " kind of picture, and is another example of layering pieces to create a whole image. In keeping with my usual style I've used bold textiles, and embellishments.

When I was in Paris a few years ago I came across an abandoned carousel dumped in the oddest place. The image stayed with me and inspired this 20cm by 20cm one of a kind piece.

The piece is made up of different fabrics layered and stitched together and embellished with beads and sequins. The carousel horses are re-cycled from a christmas decoration which I then painted over because I'm quite picky and I din't like the manufacturers colour scheme. This picture reflects my approach to colour and texture quite susinctly, I tend to be drawn to create very bold pieces. The background is red felt, attached to a canvas frame, the back of which is painted red, and the whole thing is surrounded by black ribbon tied off in a bow at the bottom of the frame. The bow on reflection could be considered a bit excessive but considering the piece as a whole I felt it a little pointless trying to tone it down!

This piece has been somewhat on-going, up until fairly recently I kept going back and adding extra bits, and at one point re-created it completely. Now I have finally decided it is finished and I must say its about time!

I think my biggest hurdle with this picture was my limited colour pallet, (a self imposed constraint I thought would be easier to stick to than it was) there are only four colours in use, which means I used texture and embellishment to combat the sense of unfinished-ness (I know-!) I felt with the picture.

As a general rule I tend to dislike line drawings (not by others-mostly mine, its a skill I wish I had), for me colour livens a piece up, and I rarely limit my pallet, I tend to have a "more is more" approach. The struggle I felt with this is at odds with the serene image of the laughing Buddha, but I actually feel very happy with this now, and I particularly like how the limited but strong colours complement each other, and my embellishments are subtle- not usual for me at all!

Number one (Mariella- a homage to the song I was listening to at the time) in an open series of art dolls, in the style of Russian Matryoshka dolls. This doll measures around 11cm high, and at its widest point 6cm, and 2.5mm thick. I created each doll by layering different designer scrap papers mixed in contrasting patterns and textures to add interest. I had the intention to do this without being too fussy about whether things matched, the idea was to make the colours and patterns "sing" without being too caught up in the usual rules when working with colour and pattern.

The faces are hand painted and details have been picked out using paint and ink. I sanded the edges between layering to smooth them out and soften them and then finished with a wash of ink. I've used rhinestones, flower cut-outs, paint and image transfers to embellish each doll. I'm fairly new to the merits of scrap paper, I don't scrap book but I am naturally drawn to bright colours and shiny things so I imagine I will be creating quite a few collages in coming weeks just to use up all the items I've already bought!

Though this piece is relatively small it is detailed and a great deal of work has gone into its creation. Each doll comes signed and dated with its issue number on the back, and I intend for the series to continue until I run out of ideas, and eventually I will being using these pieces in my canvas paintings too. (I decided to make this a custom project too, so if anyone wishes to commision me with any specific requirements, size, colours , etc please let me know).

One of my more recent pieces, this started out as a comission for a set of greetings cards, though this is the original. The piece is a mixed media collage made from recycled paper, painted with metallic acrylics and embellished with sequins, mounted with designer scrap paper. The framed image measures 12 inches by 9.5 inches.

The inspiration for this painting came from an earlier sketch I did of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi, and for this picture I recreated one of the peacocks I used in the drawing, mainly to see if the techniques I had considered using would work for that piece, and to explore the use of metallic paint. The picture is currently for sale on Etsy, though I would be willing to recreate it to any specifications required should the need arise.

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