Sunday, July 27, 2008

StudioJournal-Dingbat

StudioJournal-Dingbat
StudioJournal-Dingbat,
première mise en ligne par Vero de la Fare.
I've discovered dingbat in this week lesson.
They are fun to play with, especially used in Wordarts.
The page with color is an extension of the dingbat exercise. This time I made the drawing and painted them by hand.

Studio Journal (shape and frame)

DSCN2100
DSCN2100,
première mise en ligne par Vero de la Fare.
This time, I made the drawings. From a clipart.
I've tried to duplicate the shape of the bird in different frames.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Studio Journal - week 4

My creation
My creation,
première mise en ligne par Vero de la Fare.
Those are the first results of the second exercice of week4.
Starting from one simplified picture (the one in black and white), I've tried chopping, rearranging, weaving and changing colors.
I've never done that before, so it feels weird, but I see possibilities. It has been addictive, too, bringing some "what if".

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Cat-sitting

The weekend before last, I did some cat-sitting. This young lady lives next door. She weights the third of my smallest cat. But she managed to scare two of them. :-) The last one told her to watch her manners, which she did.
I let her sleep in her home, but took her with me when I was home. She felt comfortable at once, and played around a lot, until she was exhausted.




Oh, her name is Plume (Feather). I guess she will be a regular visitor.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Studio Journal - gathering pictures

One of the exercices of this week starts with the gathering of pictures of the same categories, e.g. triangles, circles, lines, etc.

When I travelled through Sweden last year, I did that, gathering pictures to be used later to create art. Since then they have been waiting to play their role. Here are some of them:



By the way, it is so much easier to take "weird" pictures when you are not near home, or not with your daughters...

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Sweden

Because Annica has started it, enjoy a few more pictures from Sweden


Sunday

Yesterday has been a gorgeous summer day, with a very bright sun. But this morning, it was all gone. We had dark clouds everywhere, a bit of thunder, heat and humidity. Resulting in this mood: Would you believe it is the same cat who proudly brought me this prey?
Ain't this ciccada beautiful ? Surely Morphee (that's her name) knew I needed one for my journal...
PS: for those interested, my flickr gallery is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/verobirdie/

GTS

Green Thumb Sunday

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I've produced the first two from seeds. No big deal I guess, but it is the first year I'm growing plants from seeds...


And this is the second amaryllis that is blooming outside this summer. Will I have some in winter????



Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Studio Journal

Playing with the kaleidoscopes has led me to those color wheels:
I remember that I've spent hours drawing rosaces when I was a kid...
Then I reviewed the whole course of week 3 and added some cutouts:


Those on the pink background have been created in Photoshop Elements. I really must get familiar with that aspect of Photoshop...




Thursday, July 17, 2008

Studio Journal - kaleidoscopes

Sharon sent us to http://krazydad.com/kaleido/ to have us play, no, excuse me, to have us work on design.

She warned us it is very addictive. I confirm it is :-)

From this:

I've made these:


From this:

I've made this: From that cat:

I've made these:



and I could fill several pages this way!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

TIF and sewing

Thank you for your nice comments. I'm a bit behind in my blogging. I've tried to answer to you though.
And here is why I've been busy:
Last Saturday, we, patchwork bees, spent the whole day together. We made each one pair of pants. And I decided I needed a top to go with it. So I spent Monday in front of the sewing machine: In between, I managed to finish the July TIF:
Quite simple, eyelets and knots. To me it looks like a night goddess with stars.
Have a nice evening all!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

GTS

Green Thumb Sunday

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Graham Thomas is blooming again, and hosting a honey moon:
The althea has its first blooms, with visitors too:
The fox tails are growing pretty:

and the lantana is in full bloom:

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Happy Sunday all!

Friday, July 11, 2008

TIF - July

This is what Sharon proposes for July:
The challenge this month is perhaps a bit obvious but I am going to ask …What is it to be at the half way mark?
For me three word lead to a mix of ideas. “Half”, “Way” and “Mark” all lead off into interesting directions that can be represented in all sorts of ways. So that is the challenge for this month
The
colour scheme was taken from the screenshot of the design produced by the Flower maker I wrote about yesterday.


As I turned 50 a couple of months ago, I've done quite a bit of thinking about been half way mark, kind of at least. And I don't want to do that thinking again :-)
The palette, then? Not exactly my comfort zone either...
Oh by the way, I'm working on Sharon's course about Studio Journal. Right? isn't it the right opportunity to test what I've learnt so far? OK Let's go.
First painting the pages, with bubble wrap to add some interest. Then glueing the palette, for inspiration. So far, so good. What next? What about finding some threads that would fit? OK, that's easy too, although I did not know I had threads matching this palette. I just had to look at them differently to find they did fit.
What next? Inspiration? oh, A friend has sent this nice postcard by Anne Cluzel. I said I wanted to translate it into textile, someday. The day might be right here.
Technique? Fabrics? I don't have many fabrics that fit that palette, but I do have some felts, boiled wool and color catchers that do. Then obviously, the embellisher will step in. Oh, the difficult part is done. I just have to do it now.

Here is the journal:and the result so far:

I had a pinker hue in mind for the arm and the head, but it was a color catcher, and it disappeared almost totally under the embellisher. I've tried to put a second layer, but it kept disappearing. So I applied a greener felt, which worked OK. The background of the dress is a sturdier color catcher. With little bits of silk on top.

Now I have to think embroidery. I guess some kinds of eyelets...