Art Elements Challenge: Tidepools

Living near the Oregon coast, I get to have many strolls along the beach!  In fact, looking for treasures in the sand is one of my favorite things to do - irridescent mussle shells, agates, the occasional rare shell, photos of the tidepools, all make their way home with me.  One of my favorite sets of tidepools is at Cannon Beach - I highly recommend a trip there at low tide!

I've been experimenting with using glass in my ceramic pendants and last summer made several of these "forest pools."  

So when this month's challenge was announced, I knew I had to try using this technique to make little portable tidepools!  Here's what I've come up with so far:

These two are currently up in my store (stoneypointstudio.com) with more to come!

Check out the inspiration post at Art Elements here and be sure to take a look at how others who participated were inspired:

Guests

Raven

Kelly 

Cat

Kathy 

Tammy 

Alyson

Elaine 

Mischelle 

Deborah  

Anita 

Jill

Shirlee

Sarajo 

Melissa

AE Team Members:

Jenny

Caroline

Cathy

Claire

Jen 

Laney 

Lesley 

Marsha 

Niky

Sue

Lindsay

Happy Creating!  Deborah

Friday Inspiration - Cyanotype Fabric Printing

Printing on fabric treated with cyanotype chemicals has always fascinated me - I've dabbled in it a bit, but never really explored it more than that.  With all the plant life returning, I'm getting several ideas using cyanotype printing - hopefully I'll have something to show you in a week or two!

So what is it?  Cyanotype is coating a surface with certain chemicals that when exposed to light make a blue-tinted photographic image.  It's been around a long, long time .... British scientist Sir John Herschel invented the process in 1842 and it was one of the main photographic processes used until the early 1900's when black and white photographic prints became more popular.

British artist Anna Atkins was one of the early users of cyanotype, creating this piece between 1851 and 1854.

You can paint the cyanotype chemicals on a wide range of objects - paper and fabric are mainly used.  I'm especially interested in using the process with fabric!  I've shown this piece of Lotta Helleberg's before, cyanotype fabric pieces put together into a quilt.  This is something along the line of what I'm thinking of working on - I just need to do a little more research into how this type of piece could be laundered.

Entanglement, cyanotype appliqued onto linen and hand stitched, 2016.

detail of the above work

See more of Lotta's work here.

Lynette Miller is an artist who works in several mediums, cyanotype being one.  I love the way light works in this print of hers made with old bottles:

And these are fun gift tags:

See more of her work on her blog here.

Arizona artist Annie Lopez uses the cyanotype prints she makes to create clothing sewn from vintage patterns.

You can see more of her work and read about her in this article from Images Arizona here and the Phoenix New Times here.

Happy Creating!  Deborah

Friday Inspiration - Spring Palette

I've been pondering the Second Quarter Fiber Art Challenge and thinking about the colors in the artwork, so I ran a color palette.

I love these colors - a bit of a subdued spring palette.  I do think the yellow and pink need to be added in, though.

With these colors in mind, I went looking for yarn and found some nice matches!

Tosh Merino Light is one of my favorite yarns - so soft and nice to work with.  The yarn above is the Scout colorway, ...

this one is Calligraphy,

and here is Dust Weaver.

Hand Maiden's Casbah Sock is very luxurious with its added cashmere.  This colorway is Laurel.

Also from Hand Maiden, Mini Maiden in Peridot.

Finally, from Northbound Knitting this is Matcha in Merino/Silk Fingering.  I've used this yarn several times and it's wonderful!

I ran my color palette on Big Huge Labs and the yarns photos are from Eat.Sleep.Knit.  Now, back to planning my challenge entry!

Happy Creating!  Deborah

Second Quarter Fiber Challenge

I had so much fun with my first quarter challenge that I'm ready for another one!  This time I've selected a woodblock print by Japanese artist Imao Keinen (1845 - 1924), from his album Birds and Flowers. 

Winter hung on a little longer than usual around here, so the plum blossoms and brightly colored bird look wonderful to me!  Our fruit trees are just beginning to bloom and the song birds are starting to return.  I love the delicate colors in this print, the richly textured tree bark, and the partly hidden bird that adds a lot of movement to the piece.

I'm not yet sure what I'll work on with this - maybe something inspired by the color palette, the blossoms, the bird, or simply the idea of spring itself.  I hope this print inspires you to join me!  Create a fiber art piece (knitting, crochet, embroidery, fabric design, weaving, sewing, quilting, .... ) and share it with us on this blog Monday, July 1st.  I have the InLinkz button down now, so this date should stand!  And I promise to be a better cheerleader this quarter!

I hope you join me!

Happy Creating!  Deborah