A woolly textile picture

I recently gave a talk at a lovely knitting group about textile art. Inspired by this I had a go at making a textile piece using my vary limited knitting and crochet skills. I started at the top of the piece because I knew I wanted the sky to appear smooth and it would allow me to set the size of the finished article. I used the tension guide on the blue wool to work out how many stitches I would need to cast on for the size I wanted to make. I knitted a few rows and luckily my tension was the same so I could keep going.

I knitted the sky and the first layer of hills. I changed wool and needles and continued down the background using rib to make the appearance of rows of crops. Some sections were crocheted instead. For each new section of knitting I cast on stitches through the previous layer so the whole thing was all one piece. I used casting on or off here and there to make uneven edges to each block. Some of the wool was textured, like the pale green which is knitted. Later on I used little pieces of wool to stitch the details like trees, sheep, grass and hedges. When it was all finished I blocked it and then put it in this frame I made.

The  way I framed this is easy and something I have used before for textiles. After you have made the frame it is easy to use a few stitches through the canvas layer to hold your textile in place.  You can put your name and signature on the back too. My knitted piece was heavy so it is stitched all around the edge to hold it inside the frame.

 I start with an artist canvas. I turn the canvas over and use the back so I make sure my artwork will fit into the space on the back.  You can use any depth of frame but deep frames will suit bulky work better.

To cover the staples and edges of the canvas on the back and make it look neater I usually glue some thick card over the sides, back and down onto the canvas as there can be a gap between the canvas and the wooden frame. This hides the staples best but if you press hard they will be visible.

Next I like to cover the card with a decorative finish. I used texture paste on this sample. When I use a paste or gel I use it thickly to hide the edge of the cardboard on the canvas and the staples. Sometimes I use the paste all over the canvas layer too if it will be visible. When it is dry the whole frame can then be painted with acrylics in any colors you wish.

Another choice of finish is to cover the thick card with torn pieces of tissue paper. Like the texture paste this can be painted when dry or if you use colored tissue you wouldn't need to paint it. I don't usually put the tissue over texture paste (it's a waste!) like this sample where I changed my mind on the finish I wanted. 

Both the texture paste and tissue paper finish can be highlighted using metallic waxes like rub'n'buff or Viva Inka Gold.

On the frame above, I didn't use the card and just covered the edge of the frame with glued fabric. I glued the fabric to the sides and then covered the back and tucked it into the gap between the canvas and wood. 

This frame was covered with coarse texture gel or sand gel and painted black. It has been sprayed with green mica spray when dry. I painted the inside of the frame white to make a border between the black frame and the black textile. From a distance it gives the appearance of a matted picture.

 This is an old artwork where I used a deep frame for my mixed media work. I glued on chipboard scrolls from the scrapbooking industry and then painted the whole frame with a thick coat of gesso. Before the gesso dried I used a heat gun to make bubbles in it. It was later painted with metallic paints and wax.

The whole piece.

This is the first time I used the back of a frame for my artwork. It was simply covered with book paper and then tissue paper. You can still see the staples and folds of the canvas so that is why I started covering them up with card. Sometimes you may want to leave them exposed. The choice is yours.

Creating with paper

I have been trying to keep up with the Colour me Positive art journal challenge this year and so far its working out well. I haven't been good at posting them here but I have been busy. 

 Week 14 - This page uses that crayon technique we all learned as kids. I used a white wax crayon to do the drawing and blue for the writing then sprayed over them with some dye sprays. I used watercolors to fill in the flowers and leaves. It was a quick page. 

Week 15 - This page was using the peeled paint technique on the word life. First you paint your image with acrylic paint then when it is dry you spread on some Vaseline or Aloe Vera gel in a few areas. You paint over the top with more acrylics, trying not to smear the gel underneath. When it is mostly dry wipe off the excess paint to reveal the color underneath. The word balance was done with crackle paint, something I haven't used for years. I like the way it looks on the page so I will probably use it more often now.

Week 16 - I wanted to do a doodle page so I could just sit and draw with the one good arm. It was fun to do but not something I would do often.

Week 17 - This week I wanted to make a 3D page so I used foil tape to make the blue door and embossed card to make the red door. It was a lot of fun doing something completely different. I am using this journal as a way to experiment with different techniques and ideas.

Week 18 - I had fun making a collage using previously printed papers this week. I think this page would make a great textile piece so you may see a similar design in the future.

Week 19 - Another mixed media page. I used embossing and paper piecing to make the background and clock. I did get a little carried away with the spattering but it is hard to stop once you get going.

Week 20 - I wanted to use silhouettes this week so I created a background for them using the insides of business envelopes glued to the page. I used the window for the quote and then used ink to stamp the circles for a grungy look. I used stamps for the flowers but also added drawing with a Pitt pen to add extra stems and grass. It is quite a messy page compared to the majority of my work which tends to be fairly neat. I love trying different styles because it stops artist block creeping in.

Several of these journal pages would be great inspiration for textiles. I can imagine week 14, 18 and 20 as fabric images and maybe some of my earlier pages too. That is one of the reasons I keep journalling, I can work out ideas on paper and use them to plan future textile works.

Everything you do has the potential for further exploration. If you are suffering a little artist's block I suggest you go back through your own work and pick a piece that you can see another idea in. Go ahead and develop your new piece using the old one to inspire you. It may be the technique you used, the colors or how they sit next to each other, the image or the composition. It may even be a piece that you think needs improvement and you want to redo it. Go ahead and get creating.

Collage in an art journal.

I did one of the lessons from my 21 Secrets workbook a while ago but didn't finish it off. It was called Media Remix and was a lot of fun. We took magazine pages and painted them. I put them together to make a journal and added magazine images for the subjects. For some of the pages I used stencils to cut shapes from magazine pages and stuck them down. It was a fun journal to make and now I am adding details and doodles with pens so I can pick it up and draw/doodle a little when the mood strikes.

Today I am sharing a few of the completed pages. Enjoy.

The painted and stencilled page. I sprayed them with the glitter sprays so they are very shiny and hard to photograph.

This page has little scrapbook gems added. The words were cut out from magazines too.

 These images come from my stash of collage pictures that I have collected over the years. I think these were from the scrapbook industry.

These flowers are from an art magazine. I added outlines as well as a few sketched ones too. This is an easy project to do, especially if you pick pictures that really appeal to you.

Pumice gel on fabric

One of the workshops I did from the Workshop on the Web series was about using texture paste on fabric. I didn't have any texture paste left (my old jar dried up) so I used the Golden Pumice gel instead. I tried it on a variety of surfaces and was quite impressed with how it stuck to everything I tried.

The first surface I tested was craft Vilene (interfacing). I spread the gel through a stencil and left it to dry. It was a little too coarse for spreading but I somehow managed to get it to work. It stuck really well and I have finished it off with some hand stitching.

The next surface is heavy Lutrador.  I added some soft gel medium to the coarse pumice gel to make it more spreadable. It worked great and when I use it again I would do the same, even on canvas. This will be another page in my fabric art journal.

My favorite surface I tried was teabags. I overlapped them to make a larger surface and then applied the gel through a stencil.  Later on I added a machine stitched outline and hand stitching accents. The gel stuck super well to the tea bags and none of it rubbed off when I stitched.

This surface is laminated tissue paper that was stamped and then had fiber paste applied on top (I had used up all the pumice gel). Again I added stitched details.

My final surface was to laminate the pumice gel between two pieces of tissue paper. I really like this technique because you still get the texture of the pumice but as it is trapped below tissue no little grains of sand fall off when you are stitching it. I think for this technique you could even use a little sand mixed into a soft gel medium to get the same effect. I painted the tissue with metallic paint then sprayed on various mica sprays (Moon Shadow mists) to highlight the raised areas. It was difficult to photograph but you get the idea anyway.

Thanks for looking and see you again soon. 

Art journal pages...watercolor and mixed media

 I am sharing some of the watercolours that I have done in my journal each month this year. I got the idea from Gina Rossi Armfield's No excuses art journaling book.

This was June. I used some of the suggestions from Gina's book to decide what to draw and added some seasonal images of my own.

July was a cold month here in Australia so I drew some of the flowers that were blooming then.

August was warmer than usual so we saw the arrival of lots of flowers. It was difficult to limit myself to only a few.

I had a little fun with the springtime animal sketching in September.

A DLP page with the prompt about seeing clearly. I used the quote "...one can only see clearly with the heart. Anything that is essential is invisible to the eyes" to inspire my page. I gessoed and used pan pastels for colour. I added detail with coloured pencils.

Another DLP page inspired by the prompt "If you are going to be weird be confident about it". I glued patterned tissue paper to the page and sprayed it with ink. The characters are painted with acrylics. It was a lot of fun to mess about with the girl and cat.

Inside cover page

I wanted my first page in the new journal to sort of match the colors of the cover because it will show through the transparent cover.

I went through my stash and found these Magenta Stamp Co stickers. They are not the colors I wanted but I can alter them.  I decided to cut off the antennae because I thought they looked a little top heavy. Dragonflies don't have antennae any way.

I used a palette knife to apply gesso through a stencil onto my page. I removed the stencil carefully and let it dry. 

 Meanwhile I colored the stickers with spray. They are cardstock so they colored well. If your stickers are shiny you need to sand them to take the dye inks. When dry I rubbed the Inka Gold over the raised parts of the sticker. I used old silver on the wings and a green color over the body. The stickers are now very different than the original.

My gessoed page is now dry so I used two pink paints over the page and a little bit of yellow spray.  I used a baby wipe to remove some of the color from the gesso so it would stand out more. 

When it was dry I put some washi tape on the page. I used the tape to hold the text in place that was stamped onto a piece of acrylic. I took the backing paper off the stickers and stuck them down.  I used Ice Stickles on the wings to make them sparkle more. That is all I want to add to this quick page. 

ICAD week 2

This week the prompt was to use ink. I mainly chose to use spray inks like Dylusions and Moonshadow mist sprays.

This first card decided the style I was going to use all week. The daily prompt was city or map. I traced a map stencil onto an index card and cut it out. I then drew the Eiffel tower on another card that had been sprayed blue. I mounted the cut out above the blue card with mounting tape. It has a great 3D effect that I liked so I continued that all week.

The prompt here was sun. I drew the sun on the back of the sprayed card and cut it out. 

The prompt was a list of favourites. I chose my favourite ideas that I have seen on the ICAD page so far.

The daily prompt was circus. I had to draw more circus tents and cut them out. I used markers  for the colouring and blue spray for the sky.

The prompt was ivy. I think this is my favourite for the week. The veins were done with gel pen so they are a little raised.

The prompt was junk mail. I cut the fruit from supermarket catalogs and the butterflies from a Target catalog. They were stuck to green sprayed card and cut out, then mounted over orange sprayed card. 

The final prompt was camera. I sketched my own camera and mounted it over a sprayed card. I have enjoyed playing with cut outs this week but will be looking forward to the next challenge. I love to change things all the time, it keeps me inspired.