Goddess With Gold Earrings

 

Late the other night, as I was testing my new Berber-inspired stamps designed by Gwen Lafluer for PaperArtsy, I was thinking about all the things I could make with them—greeting cards, journal pages, tags, ATCs—and debating what to do first. A couple of the stamps really spoke to me, especially the diamond-shaped one. It called "earring!" rather loudly. I thought for a moment about stamping it on shrinky-dink film, baking it, and creating a pair of earrings, but I was worried that with the shrinking, I would lose the details.

Using black archival ink, I tested Gwen's new stamps in my art journal.

An idea of a goddess with big golden earrings began to formulate in my mind. I did a quick pencil sketch of my idea and went to bed. The next day I was looking for the right paper to start the project and found the beginning of a portrait I made a few weeks ago. I had a lot of paint left over from a gelli printing session, and had used it up on a big sheet of watercolor paper by making a face shape, randomly painting the background, and stenciling with my Lemurian Leaf and Lemurian Vines in white.

Left: the start of a portrait; Right: my pencil sketch of a face with possible stamp placement.

I put the diamond-shaped stamp by the ear and discovered that the half-started portrait was just the right size! Next, I place the other stamps around the painting to see where else the stamps would enhance the design. I decided to use the zigzag shape as lace for the bodice, the smallest stamp as a neck tattoo, and maybe the arrow shape as a hair clip. The other stamps would be used in a subtle way in the background.

After penciling in the positions of the basic facial features, neckline and hair, I got to work on the earrings. First, I stamped the diamond shape with VersaMark clear ink under the earlobes, sprinkling them with Ranger superfine gold embossing powder, and hitting it with a heat gun. The stamp printed beautifully; all the small details were enhanced by the gold embossing powder.

After stamping the diamond shape underneath the earlobes, I sprinkled gold embossing powder liberally.

Left ear: the diamond shape after applying heat. Right ear: the unheated embossing powder.

Next, I used white embossing powder with the zigzag stamp around the neckline, and added the small rectangular stamp off-center along the neckline.

I used painters tape to mask off the background and keep the white embossed zigzag exactly where I wanted it.

After all the white embossed stamping was in place for the neckline, I added a wash of white acrylic below the embossing to create the look of a sheer dress bodice.

With black archival ink, I used the tiniest stamp along the right side of the neck in a vertical trio.

In this closeup you can see the neck tattoo, white embossed lacy neckline, hair, and background stencils. 

Then, I finished painting the face and hair. I pulled out my stash of PaperArtsy paints, watercolor pencils, and brush-tipped markers and got to work. 

Once the hair was in place, I used indigo archival ink and white acrylic to stamp the other three pieces from set EGL43. Here's some steps along the way:

I used PaperArtsy mud splat paint to start the hair.

I added green patina and aquamarine PaperArtsy paints over the mud splat.

While my stencils in the background looked lovely, I wanted to use the new stamps as well. I used Archival indigo ink and white acrylic to unite the foreground and background.

The goddess was almost finished, but needed more detail in the hair, eyes and lips.

Once the background was done, I went back to the face and hair and added darks, lights, and accents with paint, markers, pencil, colored pencil, and chalk until she felt finished. Here are some detail shots.

Here you can see details of the eye and subtle use of stencils in the hair and background.

The yellow and white stenciled design behind the earring shows through behind the gold, adding dimension and interest.

The uneven neckline and sheer white paint adds to the softness of the goddess portrait, and contrasts with the colors on the neck and trio of tattoos.

My First StencilClub Set: Textile Elements!

I am super excited to have designed my first ever StencilClub set, Textile Elements! The two new stencils reflect my love of pattern, design, fabrics, and sewing. Inspired by my years as a textile print stylist in the fabric business in New York City's Garment Center, I created the stencils as a tribute to the many designs I selected, colored, and printed over the years. 

A journal painting was the inspiration that started me thinking about designing the Club Set. On my lunch break, I often painted to unwind and relax. I kept a small 6" khadi watercolor journal in my desk with a few other supplies: Derwent Inktense blocks, watercolor pencils, and a brush. One of my favorite lunchtime paintings was the inspiration for my StencilClub October set.

On the left: my lunchtime art journal page that inspired the Textile Elements set. You can see in the tag on the right how the lines and shapes of both flowers were adapted and translated into stencils.

ABOUT MY NEW STENCILS

The Textile Elements set consists of two stencils: the Floral Elements stencil, which has interlocking floral heads, leaves, and several stems, and the second stencil, Textile Patterns, with assorted favorite small designs.

What makes my stencils unique is that the flowerheads and leaves each have two parts, which gives more depth and design possibilities than if it was just one flat shape. The poppy, tulip, and two posies each interlock and fit together perfectly, as do the leaves, just as they would in a fabric design.

The Textile Patterns combine nicely with the florals, with each other, or can be used on their own. I included shapes I personally love: a stylized tulip border designed from one of my hand-carved stamps, assorted dots, a repeating tile design adapted from another of my hand-carved stamps, a calligraphy-inspired "button trio" derived from a doodle, a traditional "ditsy floral," and an assortment of stitches.

I created allover designs, frames, and an assortment of greeting cards with my Textile Elements StencilClub set.

Here are some process pictures that I took when testing out the floral elements stencil:

Above, I am carefully removing the stencil after aligning the poppy pieces, which were stenciled with light and dark pink ink.

Here you can see the lime green outer leaf shape and the stencil with the inner shape, about to be aligned.

The Textile Patterns stencil has an assortment of designs that can be mixed and matched or used in the background. Here's a sample with three experiments. At the top, I tested the repeat of the tile design. On the bottom, I tested the repeat on the "ditsy floral." In the middle, I experimented with combining several stitches and dots to create a plaid effect.

On the pastel allover pattern below, I used nearly all of the designs from both stencils. Wouldn't it make a great design for fabric or wallpaper? A summer dress? Or maybe festive wrapping paper? The possibilities are endless! 

Below is a frame I made using elements from both of the Textile Elements stencils with earth-tones. I cut the black, white and beige stenciled papers into 2" pieces and arranged them to create a quilt-inspired frame. Isn't it amazing how the earth-tones give an entirely different look to the patterns than pastels or primary colors?

MY TEXTILE STORY

After studying Textile Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology, I began my art career working for a small company called Leon B. Rosenblatt Textiles. I met with textile designers from around the world, choose designs, selected colors, and went each Friday afternoon and Saturday morning to a small hand screen printing plant in SoHo. There, we experimented with that week's new designs and endless color combinations. 

Each season we produced hundreds of new patterns, each with 4-5 colorways. I also traveled frequently to large rotary screen print plants in Rhode Island and Alabama where I "struck off" new designs and matched thousands of yards of fabric to the hand screen printed samples. 

It was always exciting to see clothing for women and children made with our fabric in retail stores or on models in fashion magazines and catalogues. Better yet was seeing people in real life around the country wearing clothing made from our fabrics.

MY STENCILCLUB PROJECT

Interested in learning how I used my new Club stencils to make this pretty botanical-inspired floral inside a faux-quilted frame? If you're a StencilClub member, you will receive an email with directions to access to the "how to" video as well as the step-by-step pdf of my project. 

My October 2024 StencilClub project: a botanical-inspired central floral surrounded by a faux-patchwork quilt frame trimmed with embossed gold zigzag stitches. 

If you're not a StencilClub member, now is the perfect time to join! Details about StencilClub are on the StencilGirl website. With membership, you also get access to our private StencilClub Facebook group, where you can connect with like-minded artists and participate in the monthly small art trades that I facilitate.

Interested in seeing all my other stencils? Just click here to view my designs, see samples and videos, read a little about what inspired the stencils, and learn about my personal art journey.

Affirmation Necklace

 

About two years ago I took some leftover stenciled paper that I had created using my own designs in pastel colors and punched circles out of it. On the back I wrote affirmations. I poked holes in them and hung them on my bedpost, reading them aloud each evening. It was a difficult time in my life because my husband had recently died and I was processing a lot of sadness, grief, and anger. Amid the sorrow was the "salt in the wound": I suddenly went from a two income family to a widow with half the income. So one of my first affirmations was: "I have a creative, lucrative part-time job."

This set of affirmation discs was made with stenciled paper, beads, a handmade tassel, and stamped shrinky-dink charms.

I looked at the old affirmation discs about a week ago, and flipped over each one to read what I had written. They had all come true. Yup, the perfect part-time job came to me. My health improved. My panic-disorder receded. 

What manifested was not exactly as I had imagined it, but the five things I wanted and needed had come into being. I realized that manifesting does work, and decided to create some new circles using the one of the latest stamp sets, EGL40, designed by Gwen Lafluer for PaperArtsy.

I stamped all of the new designs on circles of hot press watercolor paper, then added color with ShinHan watercolors, brush tipped markers, and posca pens. 

Next, I selected five of the 10 new affirmation discs and sorted through my stash of beads and decorative doodads looking for just the right pieces to construct the affirmation necklace. (Although I call it a necklace, I will hang it off my bedpost rather than wearing it as a piece of jewelry.)

Here's the "how-to" photos:

Using a punch, I made a hole near the top edge of each circle.

I used grommets with a grommet setting tool to reinforce each hole.

A metal ring was threaded through each grommet.

10 circles with grommets

All 10 circles with the metal loop inserted

"Auditioning" beads and baubles to go between each of the circles. I threaded all the pieces onto thin ball-chain for added strength.

Here's a close-up of three of the affirmation discs that I used for the project:

If you are interested in how to write an affirmation, here's an article that explains the process.

Yoni Girl

A few nights ago, I couldn't sleep and was up late watching YouTube music videos. I realized that there were so many songs I loved, and jotted their names down with plans to download them. The next day, as I was checking titles against my existing music list, making notes, and listening to snippets of songs, I traced the shape of my iPhone and doodled inside it. 

I took a look later at the doodle and wondered if it was symbolic, so I asked in my women's spirituality group if anyone had any insight on it. Moments later I realized it looked like a Yoni, an ancient symbol of female divinity and fertility. 

This is a close-up of the symbol doodled in my journal. 

I decided I would incorporate the design into a portrait, and use the symbols on the neck, as I had done on my old "Broken Chakra Girl" artwork from around 2006. 

The Broken Chakra Girl design was done on white cotton using fabric markers.

The Broken Chakra Girl was scanned, combined with several of my fabric designs, printed on cotton, and stitched for this art quilt. It was included in the 2008 book 1000 Artist Journal Pages by Dawn  DeVries Sokol.

I set to work tracing the doodle and transferring it to a piece of primed chipboard that had some pretty splashes of pink and yellow.

The doodle was traced, then transferred onto the neck of the sketched figure.

The painting went through a lot of phases. I couldn't get the doodle symbol to look right, and kept painting, then painting over what I had already painted, until I finally realized it was too hard-edged. I softened the symbol and lightened the color, making it much more subtle and feminine, and it finally came together.

The last things I added were stenciled leaf shapes with one of my favorite old stencils from my first StencilGirl collection, and a Rumi quote that popped into my head as I was painting. I had scribbled the quote on the back of the painting so that I wouldn't forget. I handwrote the words with a gray posca pen to keep the soft, feminine mood rather than grabbing a harsh black sharpie.

Here's some photos of my process:

The painted chipboard and my journal with the Yoni symbol.

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The design was transferred and outlined with black sharpie.

The symbol was too harsh, so I painted gesso over most of the design.

Even after layers of paint and gesso, the sharpie lines kept showing through.

I decided she needed a heart; it's color and wholeness are in sharp contrast to the broken heart on the figure from 18 years earlier.

I added strong brushstrokes of thick white acrylic and finally covered up the sharpie lines.

The painting seemed incomplete without adding one of my own stencils, so I used my Lemurian Leaf to hint at wings and give her a goddess feeling.

Above is the almost finished painting, before a favorite Rumi quote, "The wound is the place where the light enters you," was added.