Yearn - Dare

This art piece is an unexpected combination of a Gwen Lafluer Art Deco stencil with a self portrait, printed words, square mini-brads, and a real snakeskin. The elements shouldn't work together, but yet somehow they do.

I have always loved Art Deco. I fell in love with the period when I was a college student. When I got my hands on Gwen's Art Deco collection of stencils, I couldn't wait to try them out. I used my favorite go to color--pale aqua--which I painted onto smooth watercolor paper. Once it was dry, I carefully pulled some molding paste through two of the stencils.

Two Art Deco stencils by Gwen Lafluer with molding paste on a painted background.

As an experiment, I decided to add some color to one of them to see how which colors worked and what kind of paint covered the molding paste. At this point it was still just an experiment.

Color was added over the molding paste with assorted acrylic paints and inks.

The color looked pretty good, but the three circles seemed to need something different, so I tried some crackle paint on top.

Crackle paste was applied to the three circles.

I liked the effect, but didn't know where to go from here. So, I put it to the side and worked on some other projects. I kept looking at it and wondering what to do next. That wondering went on for almost three months.

The painted Art Deco background surrounded by sari scraps, Turkmen jewelry parts and other art supplies.

When I received a new shipment from Gwen's shop, I thought some Turkmen Jewelry Parts or Sari Scraps might work with the deco background that had been hanging around in my unfinished art pile, so I "auditioned" some elements. I auditioned old photos and various combinations of metal, coins, photos, and sari scraps. I also darkened some of the color and added spots of brown chalk ink to both the background and in the crevices of the crackle paste.

Audition of carefully trimmed sari scraps on the Deco background.

Audition of sari scraps and old photos with the Deco background. Can you guess who the baby is?

More sari scraps and vintage photo printouts.

A vintage headshot of my mother with sari scrap pearl flowers didn't quite work.

Assorted sari scraps had the right colors, but didn't work well with the background.

A stamped and painted image with Turkmen jewelry parts gave a Medieval feel, but still wasn't quite right.

A Victorian woman plus sari scraps looked interesting.

The Victorian woman with a sari scrap hat and gold Dresden trim also looked good.

Some were so-so, some were dreadful but none wowed me. The Victorian woman with sari scraps and Dresden trim was almost the winner, but the design seemed too safe, too sweet, to cute for that moment.

I started thinking about Gwen's 2018 stencil release and got really inspired by the words on one of the stencils: "What could I do if I wasn't afraid to try?" Although her new stencil was not available at the time I was creating this piece, the words stuck in my head.

With those words in my mind, I threw caution to the wind and grabbed an ATC-size printout of one of my own self-portraits and placed it in the center of the deco background. The printout had been created in Photoshop, using half of a scanned, original oil self portrait placed next to the same portrait with computer-designed enhancements. Weird, but interesting. Kind of fearless. I liked it. I liked the way it didn't go at all with the background. It wasn't at all deco. It wasn't pastel. It looked, on the background, the way I was feeling at that moment, so I trimmed it and glued it on.

The contrast of the self portrait with the Deco background was interesting,
but the beautiful Turkmen circles made it look like a lightswitch plate.

 I didn't love the Turkmen parts combined with the self portrait (although I do adore Turkmen parts!) so I decided to try some words on top of the crackled circles. I rummaged through my collection of printed words and found two that echoed the sentiments that I was feeling: yearn and dare. They were printed on clear Avery mailing labels, so trimmed them and carefully placed them on the top and bottom circles. I liked it, so I peeled away the backing and adhered them to the center of the circles.

The design seemed to need a little something more. I was feeling fearless and a little weird, so I rummaged through my stash of organic supplies (compliments of nature-love and ArtistTribe sister Jackie Neal) and found the skin of a garter snake. It called out to be part of the design, so I glued it on with gel medium. I didn't want it to crumble or fall off so I covered it with matte medium and added some random stamps of an old Julie Balzer stamp with embossing ink, then sprinkled on Seth Apter's Beeswax Baked Texture and heated it until the embossing powder melted.

The snakeskin and part of the background with granular Beeswax embossing powder, just before heating.

The heated Beeswax embossing powder worked, but the design needed just a little something extra.

The piece seemed almost done, so I left it alone. But it also seemed to need just a little something more, so I slept on it.

In the morning, I added three square metal mini-brads on the left top to balance the snakeskin on the right side. The color and shape of the brads enhanced the piece's balance, and the squareness and metal echoed the strength of the words yearn and dare.

While I was making this piece, Gwen's words had me thinking about what I dreamed of when I was younger, and how fear held me back. I remembered that as a teenager I dreamed of being a fashion designer, but I was afraid that I wasn't a good enough seamstress to be accepted in design school. I was also overwhelmed by the application process, and by the idea of creating a portfolio. So, I studied the field that my parents thought was a good choice, and got a degree in a subject that I didn't like. I was yearning for an art career. After getting my bachelor's degree, I decided to apply to a special one-year program at FIT. It took me an extra four years to believe in myself, but the yearning was there, and I finally did dare to go after the career I wanted. I studied fabric design, then became a fabric designer and print stylist, happily working on New York's famous 7th Avenue for many years.

British Royals ATCs

I know next to nothing about British royalty, and pretty much don’t care—except that some very distant relative with the surname Edkins was the official gun-maker to the king—a fact that has no bearing on my ATC-making whatsoever.

One thing I did know was that I didn’t want to get all sentimental, with photos of Princess Diana and images of a candle in the wind. I didn’t want images of the newest royal baby either. I opted to research British royalty, and selected the oddest and most interesting faces. I explored King Edward III; King Edward II; Queen Alexandra, Princess of Wales; Margaret Tudor; Mary Stuart; Queen Elizabeth; King Henry II, King Henry VIII; King John and the homeliest image available of Queen Victoria.

On some, I manipulated the images in Photoshop®, trying different filters and colors. I printed everything out on cardstock, then cut, pasted and puttered with arranging them on my ATC blanks. I fell back on some old favorite techniques: using my white over-stamped painted backgrounds, adding my favorite sheer lace, embellishing with gold dimensional paint dots, and edging with liquid chalk stamp pads.

There were a couple of favorite images that I really liked and made extras on—King Edward III with a gold crown on the background of roses and music, and the pretty Queen Alexandra, Princess of Wales.

 

Retro Canning Tag

While looking through the archives on The Graphic Fairy’s website, http://thegraphicsfairy.com/I found a beautiful old canning tag. Alone it was quite striking, but I decided to play around with different images superimposed on it. My favorite one to combine with the canning tag was another Graphic Fairy image, a big botanical pink floral, which added a retro feel.

In Photoshop, I sized the canning tag to standard tag size (4_3/4” x  2_3/8”) for the first layer, then added the floral, with the white background removed, in another layer. I duplicated the floral layer twice, then changed the size slightly and moved it around until I had an image I liked.

Next, I printed the tag on cardstock from a color laser printer. Using white printmaking paint, I stamped over the design with a delicate William Morris-style floral, and, once dry, aged the tag by applying liquid chalk to the edges.

Butterfly ATCs: Lift Your Glistening Wings

The heARTist Trading group’s August 2013 ATC exchange theme is butterflies. What could be more summery and lovely? I have a soft spot in my heart for butterflies—my daughter’s middle name is Kamama, which means butterfly in Cherokee, so butterflies are extra magical for me. I also love the butterfly bush, which smells heavenly and really does attract tons of butterflies.

I made a number of collages in Photoshop, layering the images and using a soft eraser brush set at 50% to give some transparency. I combined various butterflies with flowers, old newsprint, textures and words. Many of the flowers, patterns, and butterflies were from The Graphics Fairy. http://thegraphicsfairy.com/ On several, I inserted (using an assortment of fonts) words from Society’s Child, an old favorite song by Janis Ian:  “…one of these days I’m gonna lift my glistening wings and fly…” On others I used the words kamama, papillion and mariposa, which all mean butterfly.

I had such a good time designing the Photoshop collages that I made about 30 ATC printouts, output on cardstock with a color laser printer. Going back to my tried and true favorite technique, I printed over them using white printmaking paint applied to some of my favorite commercial and hand-carved stamps. The edges got an aged effect by dipping them in distress ink and/or liquid chalk. Pictured are the 11 I liked best…but I can’t pick a favorite, can you?

Zentangle Kaleidoscope ATCs

For my zentangle ATCs for a recent heARTist Trading exchange, I had what I thought was a brilliant idea: draw a zentangle on a rubber block and carve a stamp. While the idea was solid, and the carving came out pretty good, the prints were terrible; they came out weak and indistinct. So, I put on my thinking cap, and decided to scan the bad print and see what kind of repairs could be done in Photoshop. I bumped up the contrast and played with some filters (finally choosing a “stamp” filter) and got a workable image.  Since I am a fabric designer at heart, I couldn’t stop myself from playing with the image more, and I step and repeated it with a kaleidoscope-like mirror image and added a red border. I printed them on cardstock, and then backed them with fusible lightweight interfacing for strength since I planned to add some stitching. They still needed something more to make each one unique. I tried hand-stitching red and white buttons to the corner and center, but it was a bit corny. I auditioned an assortment of beads, sequins and ribbon but nothing worked. I finally remembered some black and white rubber beads from bracelets that I found in a Michael’s sale bin a few years ago—each one was just a little different, and they were just the right final touch.

4” x 4” Mixed Media Digital Collages

 Themes for art trades are a double-edged sword—they can spark creativity or they can squelch it. For me, they are often too narrow and specific and make me feel boxed in. When the idea of doing 4” square art pieces with no theme was posted to heARTist Trading, I felt like I had been released from the box. I toyed with the ideas of needle-felting, “scrappy” fabric, watercolor, collage and even a small paper doll sized to fit a 4” square. At the moment, I have some serious space and time constraints, and my sewing machine is packed up, so I decided to go with my latest loves—layering vintage photos in Photoshop and combining the Photoshop work with stamping, stenciling, chalk, inks and/or colored pencil.Thanks to the abundance of Graphics Fairy free digital vintage images available, I had a great time puttering and tweaking in Photoshop, trying out different layers, brushes and filters. For “Helen” (otherwise known as my mother) I used a pink mum, decoratively scrolled sheet music, an aged promissory note, and a photo booth snapshot of Helen from the 1940s. After laser printing my Photoshop creation on cardstock, I applied an assortment of stamps with white printmaking ink, and then aged it with Ranger Distress ink and spots of chalk for color accent.

The second piece, “Soap,” shows my love of vintage typography and romantic flowers. I layered both sides of an advertising card (one side with a rose and the other with the typography) in Photoshop and laser printed the finished work on cardstock. I was particularly drawn to the advertising card because the soap manufacturer was in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where, in the 1980s, I spend many hours as a textile print stylist “striking-off” new designs for Leon B. Rosenblatt Textiles.

I used white paint on a variety of stamps—among them two of my favorite: a paisley and a fish—purchased at a Tibetan store in New York’s East Village. After the paint dried, I aged it with a brown liquid chalk ink and Ranger Distress ink. The finishing touch was a strip of my favorite sheer lace from M and J Trim.

Winged Children ATCs for The Trodden Path

Well, I joined a new cyber art group. It was kind of accidental…an artist I know posted a photo of friend’s work to Facebook, which led me to The Trodden Path. http://thetroddenpath.ning.com/ Mostly it is a place to share and learn by taking classes, but it is also social. They recently had an ATC trade called “Winged Children.” I couldn’t resist that. I gathered up my old photos, paper scraps, paints, markers and file of Graphics Fairy  http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/images and got to work.

The top one is a Graphic Fairy angel.

I changed the face in Photoshop, printed it, cut it out, added color and paint and glued it to a background made from recycled teabags that were stamped and painted. The middle card has Graphic Fairy butterfly wings, the stamped background, and words I try to live by: Love what you do; do what you love. Any guess as to who the little blonde-headed girl is?

The bottom card uses yet more Graphic Fairy images for the wings and little girl. I added color to the wings, cut my own dress out of one of my fabric designs and added an OM stamp.

1940s Inspired Mother Tribute ATC

  

Flowers speak to me, and so do vintage photos, especially portraits. Typography, beautiful handwriting, and painterly techniques also call my name. So, what could be better than trying to combine these elements?

 

I started with three images—a vintage photo of my mother, one of those old photobooth pictures, that was taken when she was probably in her mid-twenties in the early 1940s; a giant flower head; and some antique handwriting, both from The Graphics Fairy. http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/

 

I combined them in Photoshop, and puttered around until I had an arrangement I liked. I made the flower oversized because that is what was popular in her day, and flipped it upside down for fun. I added a little soft color to my mother’s cheeks and eyes to give the effect of an antique hand-colored photo.

 

I liked the effect, so I printed it (sized down to fit a 2.5” x 3.5” ATC) out of a color laser printer onto white cardstock. I was able to fit 8 of the images onto my paper. Somehow, the design—although it was pretty—didn’t seem to have my personal touch, so I decided to try adding a little lacey white texture using white printmaking paint with a variety of stamps.

I tried about 10 different stamps so each ATC looks a little different. I laid trading paper over the face and, after drawing the outline, cut around it so and laid the cutout over the face during the printing to mask it out and prevent the face from getting white paint on it.

Adding the white paint over the flower enhanced the 1940s feeling, which was appropriate since that is when the photo was taken. To finish each card, I added Tim Holtz Distress Ink in crushed olive to the edges and smudged a little here and there on the ATCs to give them an aged look.

 

 

Hocus Pocus ATCs: Maltese in a Hat

The Roses On My Table http://rosesonmytable.ning.com/ latest ATC trade had a theme called Hocus Pocus. Naturally I thought of a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat—but wait—what about pulling a Maltese out of a hat? And what better little doggie than my own wee boy, Coco? I mixed him up in a Photoshop collage with some Graphics Fairy vintage images that seemed magical: butterflies, insects and a moon, then added some beaded fringe, faux gems and gold edges. The background is my own painting, an image of my Favorite Abstract Modern Painters ATCs before I cut them down to ATC size. http://lindaedkinswyatt.blogspot.com/2012/02/favorite-abstract-modern-painters.html

Manhattan Skyline

 

Sky. That was the theme in my new ATC exchange group, heARTist trading cards. http://heartisttradingcards.blogspot.com/ I struggled with the concept for weeks, debating whether to use sky as a color—and if so what color? Blue of a sunny day? Gray of rain? Night sky? Day sky? Sunset? Or things that are in the sky, like airplanes and hang gliders or snow and hail? Should I use a country sky or a city sky? And then there was the question of whether to use an actual sky image or whether to use the word sky as a graphic element. I worked on it on my lunch hour, on my small window of art time on Sunday afternoons, and a little in the evening after work. I counted 13 different ideas in my digital folder, and a couple more ideas that I did with paint, fabric and paper that didn’t quite work out.

I collected photos of skies that inspired me, artwork with a sky theme by current and past artists. I decided to do what I know best, what is dear to my heart, and settled on the New York City skyline. I began with a photo I took of an antique boat that was cruising up the East River one afternoon. It was such a strangely delightful sight to see on my lunch hour—the modern Manhattan skyline contrasted with the old ship going under the century-old 59^th Street Bridge.

 

I manipulated my photo in Photoshop®, and added layers of several unrelated photos. Some layers were artfully added with soft brush strokes and semi-opaque color, others were added with rectangular shapes and sharp edges. The end design that I printed from my color laser printer was a combination of Monet softness, Mondrian shapes, and Sheeler industrial paintings.

I edged the ATCs with Tim Holtz sepia distress ink, and also added accents of the ink to each piece, along with a bit of yellow ink for subtle highlights. The last touch was enhancing the ATC with chalk pastels—white on the ship and pale aqua and white to the sky and water.

Indulge Your Senses ATC

Some artists shun any commercial use of art—but I have always loved beautiful, commercial work. Packaging design is one of my favorites. A display of items to scent the home caught my eye in a local drugstore. I snapped a photo, which sat in my camera photo file for about a year. When the color prompt “Tiger Lily” came up, I flipped through my photo files and vintage images for inspiration, and found the drugstore photo.

 

 

I began with a photo of an orange, and, in Photoshop®, mixed some vintage images from Graphics Fairy http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/ with some of my own fabric designs. The words “indulge your senses” came to me as I looked at the design, so I added that in a calligraphy style font.

After I printed the various arrangements on cardstock, I added sheen with Modge Podge® and a gossamer strip of sheer gold ribbon, which I attached using colored mini brads. The finishing touch was a little gold acrylic paint on the edges. It is not exactly like the original photo—mine is darker and has less calligraphy, but the mood is similar. My New Year's resolution might be to practice my calligraphy so I can get exactly the effect I was aiming for.

 

 

Dare to Be an Artist—Art Quilt and Tutorial

After making my first Zetti-inspired ATCs a few weeks ago, I felt the need to go bigger. The little ATCs (2.5” x 3.5”) seemed too small to show all the detail. I also felt, for the first time in a very long time, inspired to do a series from my Zetti ATCs. Fortunately, I had designed them in Photoshop at 5” x 7” with a pretty high dpi, so enlarging them was not a problem.   I wanted to translate them into fabric and combine them with my own fabric designs, which I printed at Spoonflower a couple years ago. This is the first piece I did. Another Zetti art quilt is finished, and two more are cut and pinned.  I haven’t decided if I will keep them as separate pieces or put them together into one big piece. Here is a little tutorial if anyone is wondering “Hmmmm…how the heck did she make that?”

 1-Find images you like, either of your own, or some royalty free clip art. I used two Graphics Fairy images http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/, the teacup and the bird, and combined them with some of my original artwork that I scanned—a small painting called Mystery Woman of the Flowers and a pink monoprint. I also used a b/w harlequin on the left, which is a pattern from adobe illustrator, and the b/w positive/negative “expanded square” on the right, also known as a notan, is my own design.

 2-Combine the designs in photoshop or similar program. I used a soft brush eraser to take out the background from the teacup and bird, arranged the bird on the edge of the cup, and arranged the cup on the head of the mystery woman. I put the pink monoprint in the background and the notan and harlequin on the sides.

 3-Add any words you choose in fonts that please your eye. I added the words in photoshop.

 4-I was working in photoshop and saving it as I went along as a TIFF, which allowed me to have different layers for each image that I could adjust as needed. When I was done, I saved the image as a jpeg.

 5-The artwork I made for the ATCs was 5” x 7”, and I wanted to make the art quilt larger, so I increased the size in photoshop so that it would fit on an 8.5” x 11” paper in my inkjet printer. My printer cuts off about ¼” on all sides, and about ½” on the bottom, so I sized to 8” x about 10.25” so that nothing would be wasted. [NOTE: You can also do a drawing or painting that is about 8.5” x 11”, scan it, and print it out of an inkjet printer.]

6-I flipped the enlarged jpeg image in photoshop, then printed the flipped design out on Avery t-shirt heat transfer sheets.

7-I trimmed the white edge, and ironed the design to 100% kona cotton—heat only, no steam.

8-After it cooled, I peeled away the backing. You can also use printable cotton or silk sheets, but you do not need to flip the image. With the t-shirt transfer sheets, the finished design feels thick and rubbery, but the colors are brighter than with printable cotton or silk. NOTE: Please do NOT iron the design once you have transferred it to cotton. It will melt and be ruined!

9-Next, I chose strips to edge the piece. I used 1.5” pieces of various cotton fabrics and puttered with them until I found an arrangement I liked, then pinned them together.

10-I used some felt-like batting behind the design and a piece of cotton to back the quilt and create the “quilt sandwich”. Next, I carefully pinned all the layers together.

11-I used a zigzag stitch to connect the middle to the fabric strips, a straight stitch to quilt the middle, and a random curvy stitch to add a little visual interest and give it loft.

12-I trimmed the piece and used a machine blanket stitch on the outside edges.