This was taken by my Dad in July / August 1972 on holiday in Looe in Cornwall. Its me, my brother and my baby brother who was 6 weeks old. Apparently my Mum had been to the hairdressers hence the very beautiful coiffured hair.
The base canvas had stone and cream acrylic paint added to it and some old Frayed Burlap crackle paint on top. (I was clearing out old paint and couldn't quite get rid of the neutrals). I also added some ripped bits of Tim Holtz tissue paper stuck down with Gel Medium and some Tinned Peas green added in places.
The fabric layer was made up of an oblong of cotton that had some Fresco stencilling in green dots and lot of layers of silk strips, merino wool, stitching in different variegated threads to make the vertical stripes. I then sliced it up (big deep breath to do this but it was worth it) and stitched it back together. the horizontal stripes of fabric and lace where added to give loads of texture. This was then sewn onto a base layer of felt to give some strength to the fabric and just raise it up a bit from the canvas.
The photo was photocopied and then transferred onto water colour paper using PaperArtsy Satin Glaze. I also sealed it with Gloss Glaze after I'd sanded it a bit to distress (hence my rubbed out brother bottom right!). Edges roughed up and Vintage Photo Distress Ink added. This was attached to some kraft card that had strips of ripped Crunchy Waxed Paper sewn on and more stitched added everywhere!
I have always loved this picture, I don't remember it being taken (hence the into a memory stamp from Sara Naumann Eclectica 6)
but it looks so serene and you can feel the love from my Mother looking
into the lens and the love my Father has because my Mother is
completely in focus whilst us children are slightly out of focus.
I look at this picture and so many thoughts and questions come into my head of my family, of me, where I came from and where I am.
But one thing I do know is that I still smile like this and I still stand like this with my head to one side, some things don't change no matter how old we get.
hugs
jo
xx
Decayed, distressed, peeling, shabby, no I'm talking about me as I creep towards OAPdom (when I do get there I will be doing it elegantly even if bits are falling off and failing!), but about textures I really love and adore. Those gorgeous natural textures that happen over time as the sun, wind and rain (lets not talk about chemical erosion shall we) batter wood and metal from their pristine newly painted / created state.
I've had this photo of a mussel shell for over a year. I took it on holiday in Southwold last July when I went for an early morning stroll along the beach (husband was till snoring in our classy shabby hotel and we've been married too long for me to attempt to wake him for some romantic adventure). The flat east coast light as it came over the horizon was superb and I spotted this and immediately thought it looked like a heart. Experiences like that for me are like topping up my natural battery of happiness, storing away the feelings and memories for days when the battery of life seems a bit flat.
I've manipulated the photo slightly with some blue colour saturation on the PC and printed it out on photo paper. I distressed the edges with a tonic tool, added some rock candy over the top and then some distress embossing powder and walnut stain on the edges to grunge it up a bit more.I took a scrap of kraft card crumpled it up and put walnut stain round the edge then used some staples to attach the photo to the card. The my heart sentiment was from the Sara Naumann 7 Eclectica plate. I stamped it on piece of balsa wood that came with some canvases - you know the "bits" in a plastic bag stapled to the back of a canvas (what are they for???). Sandpapered the edges and did the same thing with a bit of kraft card.
The middle layer is a piece of mountboard that has been thoroughly painted to look distressed! I intended to use really bright colours to remind me of our recent holiday, the expanse of saturated blue sea against swathes of clean yellow sand was so intense. So a first layer of Brown shed to act as a base and then layers of South Pacific, Beach Hut and Bora Bora were added. Then some thin layers of Cheesecake and Vanilla, followed by some more layers of the blues. Finally a layer of crackle glaze and some more Cheesecake and Vanilla, thickly in places, less thick in others to get different grades of crackle.
Round the edges I used Brown Shed, Walnut Stain and rusting powder to get the weather beaten look I was after. Once I'd sprinkled the powder on, spritzed with vinegar (ahh chips) I tilted the board to let it drip down and carry some of the powder with it and left it to set. the longer you leave the powder the "redder and rusted" it seems to go. I added some stamping in Coffee Archival from Hot Picks 1201. My new screw brads were added in the corners.
The frame was another old one knocking around, the old art taken out and the frame revamped with Beach Hut, South Pacific, Brown Shed and Stone. All really thin watered down layers, sometimes left to pool in places other times dripped down the frame. You have to be really patient and trust what you are doing and that the paints will dry much softer than they look when you use them in this very wet fluid state. Lots of sanding to reveal some old texture paste underneath and finally some fish / sea related stamping in Black Archival from Hot Picks 1111 and Hot Picks 1202
This took me quite a while to make but I am really pleased with the outcome. For me making art is a relaxation, not a job with deadlines (although I'd possibly quite like to make it a job and I really should start thinking about attempting to sell some of my art if only to make space for making more!), so slow contemplative creation works for me, just like decaying and rusting!
hugs
jo
xx
Some things just make you really happy don't they? Well this does for me.
I've loved this stamp Crafty Individuals Alice Palace Crowned Bunnies stamp ever since it came out and it took me ages to find it (very popular it must have been) and for a couple of days once I'd parted with hard cash for them I just looked at them and sighed (and occasionally stroked it has to be said) .
But then I plucked up the courage to use it.
I took some fabric and scraped some Grunge Paste over it and let it dry. On the reverse I added a thick layer of PVA to strengthen the fabric. When that was dry I turned it back over and stamped those lovely bunnies with WOW Pepper embossing powder. Added some text stamping using the lovely Mini 26 with Cinnamon fresco paint.
This was stitched onto some crunched up PaperArtsy crunchy waxed craft paper that had some Snowflake added over the creases and I also added some grungy staples. This layer was then stuck onto some distressed Kraft card that was edged with Walnut Stain Distressing Ink.
The frame was an old one I had knocking around. It had already got some sort of texture paste (Grunge Paste would do it) on it that I'd stamped into. Originally it had some green Inka Gold on it so I added a couple of layers of Concrete to cover that up. Then I added some thin layers of Mocha Mousse and lots of sanding to distress even further. It looks sort of blue because I think the original Inka layer is showing through but it looks fantastically distressed I have to say. Finally some more stamping with the same Mini 26 around the frame.
I think these gorgeous bundles of loveliness may have to come to work and sit on my desk so I can gaze at them in times of stress (that's most of the time then).
hugs
jo
xx
... a lot of things including: you really should finish some projects, your craft room could do with a bit of a tidy up, did you really need to buy more stash last weekend and it doesn't matter how many layers of paint on a canvas there is, keep going until you are happy.
There is a lot of layers on paint on this canvas because I couldn't quite get the effect I was looking for - an old tree with lichen and moss subtle toning but bright not dingy. I take loads of pictures of trees when we are out and about. On a regular basis my husband will find me smiling at a tree, stroking it and have my camera lens as close to the rippling peeling bark as I can get it. So when I saw Helen Chilton's Barn Owl on the PaperArtsy blog this week I thought I'd spend Saturday creating my interpretation using some the techniques and ideas.
To get the dark brown background colour that I kept returning too I mixed Cinnamon and Little Black Dress to get a really dark shade, the chalkiness of the Fresco give a really matt finish which strengthens and deepens the colour a lot.
I used grunge paste through the wood grain stencil to add a layer of texture, not too much as I didn't want deep lines. When it was dry I also gave it a light sand.
Then the fun began in terms of adding layers and layers of colour. I tried: Concrete (like this but I needed a different background), Mocha Mousse, Cinnamon, Beach Hut, Mermaid, Guacamole and Tinned Peas. All weren't quite right and ended up looking too dingy and muddy and not quite the effect I was trying to get.
I started again this morning with a dark brown layer and this time I lightened what was left on the craft sheet with bit of Concrete and gently wiped that on with Cut and Dry. I didn't put too much paint on the Cut and Dry and wiped it on a bit of kitchen roll to get the excess off as I wanted a light shading of colour not a full opaque coverage. Next I added in places very watered down Honey Dew to look like lichen staining. Finally I added embossing powder to the wood grain lines to highlight them. The embossing powder can stick everywhere so I use a brush and my fingers to brush away what I don't want.
Wise owl was stamped on tissue paper and thin layers of Honey Dew added to the back. He was stuck on some corrugated card with added grungy staples and a bit of thin string. I wanted him to look like a notice stuck on a tree rather than living in the tree if you get what I mean.
So I'm now off to follow more of wise owl's saying and finish some of my other projects on the go!
hugs
jo
xx
So it isn't the bigger canvas I want to work on but it is carrying on the theme!
Tonal neutrals are my favourite to work in and when I marry them with texture, well let's just say it makes me happy!
I limited myself to Concrete, Elephant and Snowflake and a small tiny smidge of Little Black Dress Paper Artsy fresco finishes here to paint the canvas. A layer of roughed up Grunge Paste which was stamped with the Mini 22 numbers and embossed with Pepper embossing powder.
Round the edge of the canvas I sprinkled Frantage Aged Silver embossing enamel. Because it's not sticking to anything you nee to hold the heat gun at quite a distance to stop it blowing away, one it starts to melt and therefore "stick" you can move in a bit closer.
I coloured a sheet of Grunge Paper in Snowflake and Concrete and then cut out various shapes using Tim Holtz on the edge dies. I was looking for A Ben Nicholson neutral abstract composition here (love his work and want to explore on a bigger scale). Some shapes I stamped others I dry embossed in a swirly folder.
Those that were embossed had White Fire Treasure Gold added and some Little Black Dress paint on the edges just to "dirty" it up a bit!
The Chipboard shape was painted in Elephant, Snowflake lightly dry brushed on and some white Fire Treasure Gold gently dabbed on.
The tag was painted in Elephant, some crackle glaze and a Snowflake with a dab of Concrete to make a lighter grey top layer. Mini 23 was stamped over the top in Elephant.
Everything was stuck down with a glue gun to help give more height and I think the flowers just finish it off in terms of colour and that final top layer.
So, yes a continuation of a theme, but its a theme I don't think I've fully exhausted yet, expect more and as I said previously - bigger!
hugs
jo
xx
I've been reading some stress management self help books recently to try and get some hints and tips on how to manage my time and workload and still enjoy life. One of the hints was to use your senses to distract you, to focus on something more calming, I suppose to find your happy place.
Making, seeing and touching art is one of my happy places, as is making and eating food and the quiet of early morning with just the birdsong.
Recently I've been using fabric and stitching again in my art along with texture paste, in this case Grunge Paste. To create different layers and textures, smooth and rough, light and shade (there is probably some art therapy tick box I've just ticked there in that sentence in terms of the frenzied state of mind).
I love the fact that texture / grunge paste is so smooth and silky looking in the tub, yet when you apply to something you can really rough it up to create a completely different look. As I said in a tweet a couple of weeks ago I wasn't aiming to pass smooth icing class 101!
I wanted to see if you could use embossing powder on dried texture / grunge paste to highlight the roughness so you could see the texture more, to pick out the lines I'd created with my palette knife . It did and I also got the addition of a molten glass like look as well where there were large areas of embossing powder.
I really like what I've created here, it is such a tactile piece. I love the neutral brown base layer (Chocolate Pudding and French Roast and a smidge of Squid Ink in the corners) over the texture paste but I love even more the coppery tones created by the gold stitching, embossing powder, paint and twisted wire.
What I really want to do now is work on a much bigger canvas to create similar kinds of work in different colour schemes, um how big can I go?
Right another happy place for this morning - rugby. It's the Lions Second Test, it could be noisy!
hugs
jo
xx
It's been a while I know.
I made this "recently" some time in May (see I can't actually be sure when I did make start it or indeed finish it) and I've been meaning to show it all week, but ...
Anyhow, what did I do?
Well the base is mount board that has loads of layers of Paper Artsy Fresco paints in Butternut, Pumpkin Soup, Haystack and Old Gold. You know the drill, add paint, wipe off, dry, add paint, wipe off, dry and repeat.
I then added some text stamping using Monarch Orange Archival. The lovely medallion from Lynne Perrella 004 was stamped in Archival Blue Violet. I love this colour for background stamping, it's dark but not too dark.
Over this were layers of Smoked Paprika and Autumn Fire. these make the background stamping fade nicely so sometimes there is just a hint, just a shadow of an image. and then on top of this layer I stamped the postage stamp from Lynne Perrella 009 in Blue Violet in a grid pattern, some of the images are the second and third stamp to continue the faded look.
For the pale lady I carefully painted a page torn from an old Brewers Phrase and Fable* bought from a junk shop with Smoked Paprika. I then painted just the face from the beautiful large collage stamp from the Lynne Perrella 009 plate with Snowflake stamped this on the page, quickly cleaned the stamp and then added more layers of snowflake on the page to create a pale background for when I stamped the image again in Black Versamark. The edges of the page were torn and she was glued on using PaperArtsy Satin Gloss.
When it was dry I added some Treasure Gold in Renaissance, Ruby and Florentine around the edge of the stamped image. I also flicked some watered down Old Gold to give some splats.
In the corners of the mount board I sprinkled on some Fran-tage Aged Spice Embossing Enamel and melted it to give more texture. The edges then had more Treasure Gold on them to frame it.
This took me quite a while and there were a few mishaps and versions on the way with the pale lady but I got where I wanted to be and the journey was good!
Hugs
jo
*Brewers (as it's know in the trade) if you haven't heard of it is a reference work that is packed with definitions and explanations of
many famous phrases, allusions and figures - pick a page at random and learn loads of stuff both useful and useless.
.
