I appear to have forgotten to post that I’ve created my tenth tag for my Twelve Tags of 2012 series, featuring the flower of the month, Calendula. Or at least my approximation of it! And I’ve learnt to use my new camera and MovieMaker to do a ‘how to’ video as well. Please let me know what you think!
[youtube=http://youtu.be/NyeP7octFCw]
For those of you that aren’t familiar, or are a bit rusty at, or may be just want to have some good tips and tricks to improve, I’ve written a photo guide to heat embossing for beginners, complete with troubleshooting tips. It’s over at the WOW! Embossing Powders blog if you want to know more.
I had to hit the ground running this week, with the first day back at college for Year Two, Term One. We’re starting off with six weeks of Jewellery, several weeks of Drawing, Life Drawing, Painting and lots and lots of Ceramics. Later on we’ll be doing some more Print.
The theme this term is ‘collections’ and we’ve been researching ‘artists who collect’ from those that seem to curate lots of objects (e.g. Portia Munson) to those who do assemblage (e.g. Joseph Cornell). I have to say I fail to appreciate the artistic creativity in curation, but I’m sure someone will put me right! I know these curated collections are art by definition, given it is commissioned and displayed and appreciated, but not what I would see as creative arts by any means.
Painting this week was set to stretch our comfort zone. We were handed bamboo pens, black Quink ink and told to draw our collections and then use clean water to move the ink around the page. We were encouraged to explore the media and work loosely. My collection is of beads and buttons, just in case you can’t tell from these images!
The ink has so many different colour pigments in it, more and more become obvious as it moves with the addition of water. Wet-on-wet creates more feathering, and translucent wash layers can be built up. I left the paper-white areas as highlights. It was difficult to add more ink back into the image as the paper had become more absorbent and spongy. I think I did ok…
Well I don’t think these will win any prizes! They are a quick and somewhat crude card, using punches and Bazzill card stock. What’s punched out of one, fits into the other. The colour strips were added on top, and the sentiment is cut using the Cricut Opposites Attract cartridge. I made them for a quick entry to the Less is More challenge, and I think they show I’m a little out of practice!
I still don’t ‘do’ Hallowe’en, but when you’re on a design team, you have to do what you’re told! I’ve created this card for Wow! Embossing Powders for their Hallowe’en theme this month, and used several different mixes to get the shading. Find out more here. And the template for the pumpkin sections can be found on my templates page.
