Blue Hues in a Can

Posted on 27th March 2013 by perfectly4med

It’s a ‘Favourite Colour’ theme over at The Crafting Cafe, and I decided my favourite colour this month is blue, and used the fabulous Floral Watering Can from their sponsor Delicious Doodles for my base image. I recently fell in love with Letraset AquaMarkers, bought the entire set, and played with them some more for this card.

I started by printing two copies of the image onto 90gsm watercolour paper using my laser B&W printer. I added AquaMarkers to the crosshatched areas of the design (as these will be the darkest) and dragged the colour across the rest of the space with a waterbrush pen. I added extra layers of colour where needed by allowing the first layers to dry before painting on colour picked up from a palette (draw on a plastic sheet with the AquaMarker). That’s how I built up the mottled watercolour effect on the can and the shadow.

For added depth (not easily seen on the pic) I coloured in the second copy and cut out selected items, edged them in black and layered them decoupage stye onto the flowers. Try to choose things that aren’t overlapped by anything else and you’ll get the foreground elements perfectly.

Pens used:
Can – Pebble Grey
Flowers – Deep Sapphire/Storm Blue/Vintage Blue/Mediterranean
Background – Pebble Grey/Frost Blue

Mounted on black card over Bazzil on 14x14cm ‘linen’ style card. The metallic strip at the bottom is by Letraset and helps ground the image.

Let me know if you’d like a more in-depth/video tutorial on using AquaMarkers. I think they’re fab!

Demo’ing again – NEC 23rd-24th March

Posted on 18th March 2013 by perfectly4med

Hi all – I’m demo’ing again for WOW! Embossing Powders on their stand at the Hobbycrafts exhibition at the NEC this coming weekend. I’ll be there on Saturday and Sunday either on the demonstration table or leading the classes, so do come and say hello. Here are three samples of techniques I’ll be demo’ing – and apparently there will be new moulds to demonstrate too!

I’m a Certified Powertex Trainer!

Posted on 18th March 2013 by perfectly4med

Yesterday, I had a very pleasant day workshop with Brit from Powertex British Isles. Powertex is a range of products based round a liquid fabric hardener. Having completed the workshop, I’m now certified to train you how to make figurines such as these:

They are 19 inches high, and constructed from wood and plaster formers, foil, masking tape, pressed mulberry fibres and old t-shirts all coated with Powertex and pigments. Let me know if you’re up for a training session in my new studio later in the year!

College – Term 5 – Final Major Project – Paper crafted light shades

Posted on 11th March 2013 by perfectly4med

It’s already March, and only two weeks before we finish Term 5. One more term to go, and that’s my college course done and dusted. If it weren’t for my new studio to look forward to working in, and the list of jobs to do in the house, I know I would be dreading the end of college. Though I was unwell last week, I did carry on with my final major project. It’s grown out of looking at Islamic geometric patterns – I’ve learnt to construct geometric shapes with a compass and ruler, transferring them into Illustrator, and then finally applying them to 3D polyhedra. I settled on a truncated cuboctohedron as my main construction, and played about with various construction techniques.

Here are just four of the anticipated dozen final pieces. Some are uninspiring in daylight, but come alive when internally lit. Others inspire in both lights. I can tell you that I got a blood blister in my finger tip from all the scoring of folds. I can reveal that the shadowfold light required 360 separate knots. And that I stuck down each of the 400 petals on the frilly one! All are handcrafted (though I did use the Cricut machine to cut out the shapes to my design!) and nothing more than fabric or paper and glue. They are roughly 6-7 inches in diameter and designed to sit over an inexpensive battery powered LED light (£1 for two in Poundland!).

Nabu – tangle pattern

Posted on 9th March 2013 by perfectly4med

This is the last tangle pattern I’ve based on Islamic art pieces in the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum. This originally appeared on a glazed terracotta tile in the Nabu Temple, Borsippa (near Babylon) in around 600-500 BC. It seems that all the doodles we do were being done since way way back when! I found it easier to do the teardrops in the border starting in each corner and looping toward the centre circle, rotating the page for each corner.

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Arabian-style Lantern

Posted on 6th March 2013 by perfectly4med

I’ve created this Arabian-style lantern from scratch – paper crafting at its most time-consuming! For this version, I’ve used WOW! Embossing Powders to coat most of the surfaces and more pictures and instructions are here. A template for those brave enough to do the cutting is here.

Throne Room – tangle pattern

Posted on 2nd March 2013 by perfectly4med

The third of four tangle patterns based on items of Islamic art in the British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum. This one is based on glazed tile decoration in the throne room of Nebuchadnezzar II in Babylon, around 605-562 BC. The colour scheme is white daisies on a royal blue background with orange highlights and the centre diamonds in a pale blue. This pattern will repeat well as a border, or keep repeating the diamonds to fill in an area.