27 April 2018

GREAT little cloth bucket


This is a tiny cloth bucket I saw on my friend Penny's website. When I saw it I knew it would be perfect for holding spools of thread as I switched them on a project. I put it on my bucket list (see what I did there?) and finally had a chance to make one. I wanted to use my pink spotted fabric and hand dyed olive. The spotted fabric was very robust and I knew the bucket would be great. Thank you Penny. Here is her blog post. The original tutorial for her work is here.

Penny is an amazing artist and has shown her work in a number of shows. Check out her blog. Her adventures in silkscreening and experiments to make them crisp in varying colors ways is worth reading about as well.


Thank you Penny for sharing your work with me.





  Thanks for reading,
Beth

24 April 2018

Nothing much


These are a few pictures of three book covers I made. One was requested made in burgundy and gold. These are not my favorite colors so I had few fabrics to pick from.






This was one I had made (part of the 120 book covers) that I trimmed down to fit another book. I am betting Miss. Burgundy and Gold will grab this Laural Burch print book cover instead.


This cover is for one of my books but I thought I'd thow it in this post. I really love the fabrics.





When I set up those half pans with Intense Blocks I started trying to cut it but I wasn't successful and had lots of color "crumbs" which I dumped on this spread in my sketchbook then sprayed. I sprayed some more then closed the book to mush the colors up.



And another dog jacket from the same sweatshirt I used before. This time I showcased the graphics. Not really sure where this college is located but it was a great sweatshirt!! 





Thanks for reading,
Beth

20 April 2018

Something different

Many years ago I took an upholstery course in Adult Ed. I loved refinished antique furniture and upholstering old pieces. Those days are long gone but I found myself with a project. I go to a meeting in a church that has this huge weird chair. It never had a back cushion. It is HUGE and finally the chince fabric tore. This chair gets hard duty with possible coffee spills and sometime visiting dogs with dirty paws. I picked out this fabric because it matched the wood, was subdued, and was busy enough to hide dirt.




Cushion safety pinned with a table cloth


Fiber fill to create the missing back cushion


Cutting out the pieces made with a paper pattern I made.



As you can see I still have to cover the springs on the bottom of the seat. Meanwhile, we can sit in comfort.


Thanks for reading,
Beth

17 April 2018

MidSummer Maine Supplies are coming in




These contain book board and chip board in two weights. There is also a ream (500 sheets) of the fabulous paper I use to make my sketchbooks. We will start the weekend by making a coptic stitched book. Also arrived are bamboo pens, gesso, matte medium and a squeegee. Already arrived are brush pens and permanent ink pens and I will be ordering inks and Golden open acrylics for monoprinting on both paper and fabric.

 Thanks for reading,
Beth

13 April 2018

More Derwent products



I went online (I think I LIVE online) and checked out the Derwent site. They had some short videos; not useful. Then I went on YouTube and found a woman who did half hour plus long videos about many art supplies. It is called Claudia Sketches. I used the info to order another product, Inktense Pencils. I had mistakenly ordered Derwent Watersoluble Pencils on Black Friday. They were a steal because they weren't Inktense. However Claudia said these were one of her favorite pencils so I felt a bit better. The Derwent Watersoluble Pencils are more muted colors and are best for landscape and nature studies. The Inktense are INTENSE colors and permanent on paper or fabric just by drying. They are inks. I did a color study of the dry color next to the wet color on both sets of pencils.


24 Derwent Watersoluble  Pencils


Color chart with each box holding both the dry and wet version of each color.


This is a tin of 36 Inktense Pencils


Color chart of all 36 colors with each box holding a dry and wet version of each color. The last box (L.R.) is a liner pencil for outlining a sketch. If I were to use a pencil for outlining I would use a Derwent Watersoluble Graphite Pencil so the outline would melt away with water. I am very happy with both of these tins which will stay home during my trip.

Thanks for reading,
Beth


10 April 2018

Getting ready for my trip

I want to go as light weight as possible because I am carrying a backpack. I want light weight art supplies so I went online and found a tin paint box about 4.75 X 2.75 inches with two nice pallets and 12 empty half pans.



The I bought a box of Inktense Blocks



 This was just a crazy idea I had to break off 1/2" segments of the Inktense blocks and stick them in the half pans. I will probably be using a permanent ink pen to sketch with and using the Inktense block to add a bit of color sort like a blush to liven the sketches up a bit.


Before the "breaking". By the way, the knife didn't work. Snapping did.


Half inch bits two by two in the half pans.


 Finally I painted a sample card just to see what it would be like to use these. Very vivid inks.

Thanks for reading,
Beth
.

06 April 2018

Festival of Quilts UK





My son and his family live in Malta. I wanted to visit them but not in Malta. We decided I would pick a place and they would meet me for a visit so I picked the UK during Festival of Quilts. I'm sure you've already grown tried of me talking on and on about the Kemshalls. Well, this year Linda and Laura will be featured artists. After I booked my tickets, my son mentioned they will be in Bali during my visit to the UK.
So far I have booked a B&B in Stansted for my arrival and departure and in Birmingham for Festival of Quilts. Now I need to find where I will spend the rest of the two week trip. I'd love to go to Edinborough (Edinburgh), Wales by the sea and Yorkshire. I'll let you know how my plans are developing. Other than Festival of Quilts and meeting the Kemshalls my objects are to talk/listen to people, visit art museums and sketch and paint.

My son bought me a great backpack which may be a tad big as I am a thrifty packer but we will see. I am really looking forward to this adventure and I will be blogging about it as well.

03 April 2018

OK, last time

I went to the store to buy James some toys. Neither of my other dogs ever played with toys so I've never had any. They wanted between $5.99 and $7.99 for a little dinky toy most of which were really too big for James. I found a Spider cat toy for $1.50 and bought that. I cut off the spiders legs and removed the bell.


Then I figured I could make him a few things to play with even though they weren't representational so I started with a "ball" made from a scrap of old T-shirt material.




Then I made a rectangle and put the bell in the center of the polyfill.


Acrylic felt




Then I spotted a scrap of sweatshirt material I had trimmed off and made a triangle.




I think he liked them.