The sparkle of the sea

I'd love to share with you the things that are inspiring me at the moment and the colours that are finding their way into my work ... aqua seas, turquoise oceans, pale gold, yellow sand beaches and
soft early summer orange tones

this past week I made two hearts
inspired by the colours of the ocean and beach

as I love to do ... I heated the fabrics to resemble watery textures
and added french knots, beads, shells and gold stitches

in a vast turquoise ocean

the limpet shells came from St. Ives beach and I
added a small dangly of seed beads with an aqua accent bead

and there is some text too ... I love the words

in a vast turquoise ocean

I put the hearts in my etsy shop and was delighted
when both sold almost immediately

resting by the water side
so I wrapped each of the hearts as lovingly as possible
in tissue paper with an art tag, thread and a pretty bead or button

this tag was monoprinted on vintage paper (a fish recipe)
with gold angelina fibres, a button and text

and I'm happy that both hearts are on their way to new owners

the weather in St. Ives has been all over the place recently
with thundery skies, heavy rain and squally gusts

but it never stays like that for long before the sun shines again

and since I started writing this post we have had
nothing but rain and Cornish mizzle

so I've been keeping busy painting new beads for the shop
as I've almost sold out save for one packet

and while I had my paints out I've been monoprinting
and painting on bondaweb which I will use on more tags

in the colours I associate with St. Ives

they remind me of beach streams and the seashore's edge
and I'm stitching into the transfers so will show soon

we had more moody skies on Wednesday
and I loved the way the sunlight was falling on the sea

sparkling

Porthminster beach

I also love this painting by Stewart Edmondson
which has that lovely shimmering sunlight sparkling on the sea

I saw his original work in a gallery in Dartmouth earlier this year
and I fell in love with the work of this artist (take a look)

all of his paintings are beyond beautiful

Stewart Edmondson

magic of the sea

also loving this painting by Elaine Pamphillon
which reminds me of the landscape, seascape and countryside
I visit quite often between St. Ives and St. Just

only last week I had a trip on the open top bus
to Geevor, Morvah and St. Just
(more about that in the next post)

the views are exhilerating no matter the weather
but it's almost always very chilly on the open top bus
(worth it though!)

Lamorna

these are a few of the monoprints I made

with acrylics and luminous paints
on vintage recipe pages and tissue paper

love monoprinting - it's fun!

then I tore them up to make art tags for my parcels

this one looks nice tied with thread and a gold anchor button

the luminous paint shimmers like sunlight on the sea
and I added some gold paper, chiffons and a few little beads

the sparkle of the water

this is the other heart I made which is inside this parcel

it has many layers of chiffon ocean
decorated with beads, buttons, copper curls and little stitches

an accent bead dangly

and fibres couched down add a bit of texture

layers of the ocean

this one is called "sun bathed coast"

and now it's on it's way to Australia

more of my textured beads made from Tyvek

inspired by this tangle of fishing nets and rusty chains
from the pier at St. Mawes a few weeks ago

and this is a photograph I took on St. Ives pier
of ropes and fishermens' pots

love that view of St. Ives cottages
through the gap

the colourful ropes inspired a colour study
in this mosaic for Mosaic Monday two weeks ago
(I'm afraid I'm a bit behind with everything)

fragility

1. Broken 2. She saw it differently 3. Skin memory.1 4. || 5. Autumn leaf II 6. My best profile 7. Tansy indigo 8. R036 Mel_Sheridan 9. Mother's day bundle 10. Means 11. Jar No 120 close up 01 12. A snail's pace 13. Ready to bud

thank you to my flickr friends and faves
please click on the links above to visit the artists' photos

found

and any spare moments I get I am beachcombing or
experimenting with textures and colours on my photographs

I hope you found some snippets of inspiration here today
have a wonderful creative week ahead

Carolyn ♥