creating a storm

today ...

melting fabrics to create texture

for a new stormy heart

have a good day everyone
I'll be back this afternoon with the art tags

imaginings and lost thoughts

I'm imagining I can find a little time to write here again

it's daunting to imagine I will ever catch up with everything

but the first step is to write something ...

I can't remember where I got to ... with blogging

thoughts are lost

it's time to start again ...

 life continues to be busy on all fronts ...

I continue to work on projects close to my heart

textiles, paintings, sketchbooks and photographic projects
and working on many new pieces for a show in November

over the months ...

many shells have been gathered
on inspiring beach walks

 many new hearts have been stitched ...
seaside stories sewn ...

many fabrics melted and textured

many tags made

many shimmery
beads have been lovingly created



there is so much that I would like to share
over the coming months ... bit by bit ...

I've had the honour to be invited to give interviews
to Textileartist.org and also Artizen Magazine
both of which I would love to share more about next time

and you may be interested to read of the inspiring art shows
visited and viewed both in St. Ives and London
and work that came from these shows

so many beautiful gifts received from and swapped
with some very inspiring creative artists and blog friends

old work ... new work ... work still in the making

and many interesting photos from the jar project
yes ... I'm having so much fun with that!

 it's almost the end of the summer holidays ...

I'm taking a bit of a break from other online places right now
to work on my show pieces, have a few quiet days with my hubby
in Torquay and write here on my blog ...

yes ... I've made a start today
I'm imagining it ... I'm dreaming it ...
and I thank you for visiting ♥

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 ♥

Fabric pebble collage and playing with Photoshop

imagine a shingle beach
large round pebbles
blue and grey
the sea is rough today
the tide is strong
the waves roll in
surf spraying the air
salty and wild
white and foamy
the tide collects pebbles
like you or I
picks them up
and flings them back
repositioning
smoothing life's lines
for all time






















White household emulsion paint on white cotton to transfer an image. This is actually one that went wrong - but I still like it! You may see the mistake - I forgot to reverse the image at the copy stage before pressing my copy onto the paint so the text is reversed. I stuck it in my book anyway because the texture is nice. Later, you will see I used this print to play with photoshop and achieve some different looks















I'm using a couple of pebbles to help keep the pages flat to photograph. The book is bulging with samples so it's hard to keep the pages open!






















This is a little fabric collage I made. The central panel is again transferred using white emulsion paint. I hand stitched round the pebbles in black which gave it a quilted look and feel. I stitched the central panel to silver/grey/black fabric with ripples. On top of that I added torn hand made paper which I painted grey and chiffon which I had previously distressed with heat with free machine stitch on top. I added small "pebble" beads top right and bottom left. The whole piece is very tactile and has nice textures






















Playing with Photoshop

I zoomed in on the pebble column (top picture) and played with Photoshop. Here are some of the effects that can be achieved:

Ocean ripple effect






















Turning the photo around from a column to a row of pebbles












Accidentally blurring the photo - a complete accident but I like it! This is what prompted me to "play"












The row of pebbles inverted













Solarised












Back with more pebbles soon

Carolyn ♥