Little treasure chest

Last week I linked up for the first time to 'What's on your work-desk Wednesday' and am doing the same this week, It is a great place to share ideas and visit some great new creative blogs.
Over the weekend I completed my first little decorated box. I have been collaging bowls and dishes recently and wanted to try my hand at a little treasure chest.
I found some little plain plywood chests from the craft mill in sets of five. They are very small and have magnetic catches to hold them fastened.

I covered them with various mulberry handmade papers and paint. I finished it with several coats of acrylic gloss medium to seal the surface.

The little Scottish sheep are made by layering texture bead gel over white gesso. This gives a raised rough surface to the woolly fleece.

It was one of my very dear friends birthday at the weekend and my little sheep box made a perfect gift.

Linking up to WOYWW

Dragonfly dish

Collaged Plastic

 You may remember my mermaid bowl I completed a couple of weeks ago.

Well I loved the idea of working in 3D and creating little 'objects of desire' which I could collage. The bamboo bowl was bought plain and then covered in paper and paint. Over Christmas I kept a lot of packaging I would normally have thrown away into to the re-cycle bin , I really wanted to use an object which would otherwise be discarded; Plastic seemed the right choice  as I had loads of it..but....

.......can you collage Plastic??? 

I thought I would find out.....

I first of all covered a clean empty plastic pate container in tissue paper and PVA glue making a base for paint. It also created an organic crinkly texture.

I then cut  a few little Dragonfly from more waste plastic packaging.

 The transparent cellophane was perfect for the translucent wings.I painted a metallic medium onto the wings to make them glisten.
I used violet acrylic to cover the tissue paper base.

I then went over the black body in textured silver paint

 The organic tendrils were made with a hot glue gun. When dry and cool I used bronze acrylic paint over the raised surface.

small beads were used for the eyes

So YES!! it is possible to collage plastic and make something out of nothing!

 Linking up this week to The Artists Playroom

 and Paint party friday

Also for the first time WOYWW ( what's on your work desk wednesday)

The vintage birdcage

collaged papers,acyclic, pebeo liners, modelling paste, embossing powders

This is a little tale of the magical colour-changing songbird!

It was a commissioned piece I finished over Christmas. As you can see below the little bird started off yellow, but something was wrong. He gazed out from behind the bars of his silver cage and wondered....

first he was yellow!

What if I could sing...
What if I could sing so loudly the bars would open and I too could fly with the butterflies....
And he did..
He sang, and he sang, and slowly he changed, from yellow to a warm golden peach,
The clear blue air began to surround his silver cage, melting the bars and setting him free.

Detail ( mixed media on canvas )

                                                                            The freedom to fly

This piece is a very good example of how my collaged paintings change and evolve. I often decide colours don't quite work together and change things after a coat of gesso, I like working with textures and layers so another layer just adds to the fun :)

Linking up to Paint party friday
and for the first time moo-mania now the challenge is accepting larger formats of art

The mermaid bowl

A very Happy new year to you all!
 This is my first post of 2014 and I wanted to share a little piece of what I have been up to over the past few days in between the seasonal revelry and mince pies.

I love a type of pottery called Cloisonné. It uses enamel and wires on top of a formed base, baked in a kiln to produce fantastic vibrant effects. It is very ancient form of art used as far back as ancient Egyptian times.

18th century cloisonné Chinese plate ( Wikipedia commons )

 This type of work uses metal and ceramic and as you know I am more at home with paper and glue, so this is my attempt at a collaged cloisonné style bowl.

 I bought a plain bamboo bowl, painted it metallic blue and collaged a little mermaid onto it using left over scraps of Christmas paper. ( always looking for a way to cut down the excess waste of Christmas!) On Christmas morning I did annoy some by insisting they unwrapped their gifts carefully and fold up the discarded paper carefully but there is method in my madness.....

 I used lots  of the shiny gilt pieces for some shimmer.I am a bit of a magpie when it comes to shiny paper!

I then gave it a wash of deep ultramarine and added the mermaids hair, again cut from gold wrapping paper.

Being collaged the bowl isn't usable it is really only for decoration, but practicality and me are not always the best of friends :)

I like the result, and although not cloisonne I think it has the feel of enamel.
 I am trying other projects using re-cycled bits and bobs and I am hoping this year as my resolution to get my etsy shop finally up and running so anything I make can go straight on there. When I do I shall pass on the details.

 may your new year bring lots of creative light!

Linking up to the Art share website Paint party Friday
And as a post script linking very happily to the Artists Playroom Newly opened for artists to show and share what the week has brought in terms of creative fun.

2013 roundup

Hello hope you all had a lovely Christmas!
As we are almost at the years end I thought I would have a little look back at what the past year brought and post a few pieces you may have missed.

Feeling fizzy

January... cold.. very cold, I really don't like the cold. Nor do I like the post Christmas blues, so this piece was painted to brighten me up. It uses all the colours I miss in winter. Just looking at it makes me feel I'm under a heat lamp!

view from the ufitzi

February.... an exciting month! I had a big birthday and travelled to Florence as a birthday treat. The highlight of my trip was a visit to the ufitzi art Gallery. Home to the 'Birth of Venus' This collage was inspired by the view of the Doma from the ufitzi roof terrace.( My goodness the coffee was expensive, but the view was worth it! )

March..... March was cold and sad, a dear friend passed away. 

I went on a great lino printing course and used some of my lino printed paper to make this Gustav Klimt inspired collage

April.... April brought experiments with citrasolv, this is my little cat Matilda painted onto citrasolv paper.

May..... may was warm and beautiful....this is fishing for dreams, a birthday gift.

June.... one of my favourite months, and the weather was glorious, I painted much of this piece outside in the sunshine on my easel, just looking at it reminds me of warm sunny days.

July.... I finished this piece called 'the sound of Raasay'

     

August brought my eagle of Storr collaged on canvas out of tiny pieces of paper.

  

September and a new challenge, to create 29 faces in 29 days! Here are just a few.

    

October... and some whimsy and one of my 'summer on skye' pieces.

 

November.... unseasonal but I carried on with my Summer on Skye theme,.

                             
December... And one of my Christmas presents! I didn't make this,well not exactly, it was a present from my daughter. She found a lady on etsy who decoupaged boxes and asked her to combine some of my work (Along with klimt) onto a box. I love it!! If you want to find her website it is
Belle cards and gifts

        Thank you to all my Blog friends for sharing my creative year and a very Happy New Year to you all!!   Thank you to to Paint party Friday Who I am linking up to for my final post of 2013.   




                                                           

The Little Christmas dancers

Seasons Greetings

This is a little detail of a commission piece I have just finished in time for Christmas.

The two little girls are ballet dancers, the lady who commissioned it gave me various photographs of her childhood to come up with a fairytale image that captured those memories. She and her sister loved ballet and one of the photographs of them in their little ballet outfits gave me the inspiration. Other elements on the 'shopping list' included a family pet dog, an owl and finally happy times spent in the seaside resort of Blackpool ( famous for its Eiffel-like tower and illuminations)
Combining those elements and a few more into a collage/painting was a little tricky!!.

Initial sketch

I took a while to work out the composition, using an initial sketch to work out where to put the elements I needed to include.

work in progress, created on a substrate of reclaimed timber

The figures were completed last.
I used primary colours, Red, Blue and Yellow. I think primary colours are very reminiscent of childhood with their bright simplicity. Most children's toys are made in bold primary colours so I felt that they would work well, especially as I wanted a night-time deep blue sky filled with sparkling lights.

I gave the girls a coat of Sparkle modpoge.

 Although this isn't a Christmas picture I think it looks rather festive so have linked up to this weeks Inspiration Avenue where their theme is Christmas.

I glazed the finished wooden panel with gloss acrylic medium before I photographed it so sorry about the fuzzy image, the reflections and poor light made it very difficult to get a sharp clear image that was true to life.

little dancing toes! 

finished piece, sorry about picture quality!

               Finally I would like to wish all my followers and those stopping by a very merry Christmas.
May all your wishes come true..........

Linking up to my friends at Paint party friday as well as inspiration Avenue.
also Take a word

red grouse

There is something very Scottish about the Red grouse. I don't know if it is the colours which blend so well into the heather. Or perhaps it's sturdy stance as it surveys the landscape. Maybe it is it's strong association to a famous whisky brand!

Whatever it is the glorious 12th of August always makes me sad. As a vegetarian for more then 30years I don't believe I have ever eaten Grouse, although I know many people who do. Grouse are seem as Game birds and are shot in large numbers, the 12th being the first day of the shooting season.I thought it would be nice to celebrate the beauty of this little bird and recognise how good it looks away from the dinner table.

My collages always begin life looking very messy and this one was no different! At this stage I know what I want to do, but I think many people would have no idea what all the torn paper and glue was going to look like!

I collaged the paper pieces onto an old reclaimed floorboard. I did change the background as I felt the scenery was too fussy. I wanted the grouse to be the main subject.

The male Grouse have the shock of red on their heads so this fellow is most definitely a male. I think he looks rather festive in his red bonnet.

There is lots of texture, I used some Citrasolv paper for the rocks .Citrasolv paper for those who haven't come across the term before is wonderful coloured paper created from pages of the national geographic!
I sprinkled the Citrasolv natural cleaner onto the pages. The product partially dissolves the ink leaving wonderful patterns. I did a post earlier in the year with a LINK to a great youtube tutorial for those who are interested. I often incorporate pieces of this torn paper in my collages.

I love this photo of the sunlight dappling the surface, it also gives you an idea of the scale.

I have a couple of large pieces to finish before Christmas so will be working on them madly for the next couple of weeks and may not have time to post a great deal before Christmas.

Red Grouse

Linking up to Paint Party Friday; a place to VISIT loads of fantastic artists and see what they have been up to this week.