It’s 8:30 am, not too hot & humid, so I felt like doing. Sometimes I get into what I call a creative frenzy and I have all these ideas for projects that I want to do. So this is what I have done so far today:
I worked on a mixed media piece I started and thought I completed 3 weeks ago.
I wasn’t sure how to finish it. I put it on a black background, then decided it might need a frame. Last week I bought a frame & yesterday I thought “a-ha! Try it with the collage!” I had to cut a back for the frame and the use the nails to hold it. The frame is 4” longer than the piece. Now what? (I seem to do this a lot. I go ahead with a project before I work out the details. I think I like the creative challenge of coming up with solutions.) I started working on ideas to fill the space. Add to each side? Black? Maybe put it all on 1 side? I played with a few ideas.
This morning I kept auditioning papers for the space. I tea dyed some white paper – oops, used green tea & it came out a funny yellowish. I had experimented with different teas for color & they all seemed to come out light brown. After my second cup of coffee I used the dregs on the paper (it didn’t work.) So it must be the fault of the paper. This is the paper, not sure what it is or what it’s called?
Over breakfast I was flipping through a magazine and saw a painting I wanted to emulate. Kind of misty, ephemeral greens with dabs of flowers. See below. So I decided to try this even though I’m not a painter, I wanted to give it a try.
I bought some canvases at a garage sale last week (with the frame mentioned above) so I had it at the ready. I thought the project called for watercolors to get the right effect. I looked up using watercolors on canvas (why did I do that! I should have experimented for myself) and it said not a good idea. So I pulled out all my green acrylic paints and set up outside on the picnic table. I laid down the first 2 layers and I’m waiting for them to dry.
Yesterday I found some fuchsia flowers on the ground and decided to rub them on muslin to see if it would stain the fabric – yes it did!
So today I found more blooms on the ground and rubbed them on the fabric. Then I decided more experimenting was needed. I cut up pieces of muslin and picked some more petals from different plants. That’s daylily, phlox, and fuchsia. The phlox gave a subtle color & effect that I really like. If I had more flowers I could get more color but phlox did not do well this year.
Purple coneflower and black-eyed susan didn’t yield any color. I hate picking flowers because I like to see them in the garden, but it happens. I don’t know what I’ll do with these muslin swatches or how I’ll use this info but it was fun to play. I’ll probably keep trying different flowers. As I’m typing this I’m looking out the window at my impatiens, thinking of goldenrod. Darn, missed violets! I have to admit, I just stopped typing and ran out to get queen ann’s lace and tried it on a pink fabric it did nothing.
I’ve been working on an upcycled vest (Salvation army) and decided I should attach the last sleeve, again (2x so far).
All sorts of things went wrong, that’s why I don’t like sewing and I don’t really know construction. Machine didn’t work, oops cord pulled off machine. It kept running, found foot pedal wedged under a box. I broke a needle on one of the beads, changed that. Then found out I sewed part of the vest itself to the sleeve and had to rip it out. So I stopped that project. Badass vest complete and on my Etsy site.
And of course, now, I’m writing this blog.
This is the finished painting. It’s already in the pile to reuse. Told you I couldn’t paint but it doesn’t stop me from trying.
It was a busy, creative day. Once I get an idea I need to do it. Then I rested.