Mixed Media

 i have just completed a few pages for a scrapbook journal of inspiration. The images are not glued but stuck down lightly so I can use them in a mixed media piece. Following along with @lalymille in a free artist retreat online. She is very inspiring and so gentle in her teaching. 

I have done a few of Laly’s online classes and return to them from time to time as there is always something that enter’s into my art practice. 

These are Laly’s words but I align my textile work and consequently hand work with them as well. 

Rememberer, Creator ,Collector , Connector

 

This pice has photographed sideways but I decided to leave it that way as it is giving thoughts of an abstract landscape. 

All the little scraps I have saved now are useful when developing colour studies, shapes , textures, marks and compositions.  Really looking and seeing what colours I am drawn to . Peaceful greens with highlights of orange pinks. 

More drawing

 

Self portrait,using non dominant hand and looking in a mirror without looking down at the paper.

I might stitch this onto some vintage fabric. 

A little sketch

 This sketch was done from a very small and old photo of my sister and I when small girls living in New Zealand with our parents and younger brother.

I have been wanting to develop more stitched pictures after seeing many really inspiring ones in some of the online images from artists I follow. I decided to use this image. It is amazing how this brings back memories and even though I don’t recall the action , day or place I do know from family lore that we were showing the ducks our dollies. I am the smaller of the two and you can just make out the head of a doll that I am holding.

We are wearing beautiful warm hand knitted beanies , made by either our mother or grandmother, as both were avid knitters and we needed warm clothing in Wellington, NZ. We are wearing woolen coats and leather shoes , warm trousers possibly corduroy, as I recall a lot of corduroy as well as tartan, knits, vyella and flannelette. 

Ducks in duck ponds form another special tale in our family’s story. Once my sister and I were swinging on a chain between two posts on the edge of a duck pond when the chain broke and we went flying into the pond. My sister was mortified but I recall finding it highly amusing, possibly more so by her tears and stress . 

The first gift my Dad bought for my daughter, his first grandchild even before she was born was a small  ‘rubber’ ducky for her bath. I still have it in my bathroom now. 

Feeding ducks in ponds is for many, a highlight of childhood activities 

Experimenting with weave

 I have had this bead weaving loom for awhile but of course as per usual I collect all the tools of trade but never get around to using them. Same with fabric and other textiles I collect but am very slow to work with them. 

So today I got some crochet cotton and warped up , or is it wefted up? I have added a beautiful piece of rusty wire I found on the road only a few days ago. 

A bit loose, tricky but truly mesmerising once in the flow. Not sure how far I’ll go or what I’ll do with it or what I might add but hey that’s what sampling and experimenting is all about. May be I’ll rust the piece when off the loom. I might somehow add the rusted washers from a few posts back , stitched on , not woven in. 

Maybe now that I am looking at this  might weave in the loop of the wire on the right.

Imposter

 

This was developed to this stage several years ago. Acrylic paint lightly washed over cotton quilting fabric. The image is of Katy Perry from a picture I cut from Brisbane’s Courier Mail when she toured Australia years ago, I think she was still with Russel Brand then. Traced onto tissue and machine stitched. The stitches came out very loose and I was not happy with it so put it aside ,where it mulled away until now . I needed to find an image to post on the gram that symbolises Imposter. 

So here she is . Katy is not the imposter though ,I am.