Lately I've been creating for the art gallery but I've decided to take a break from that and create something for myself. Eight months ago I started a felt applique project because I was inspired by something I saw on the internet. This is a picture of the beginning stages:
To read my first post on this project and to see photos of my inspiration piece please go to:
http://kimagination1.blogspot.com/search/label/Felt
I love the way this piece is coming along (since I rediscovered it) but how do I hang it? This piece only measures 8 1/2" X 11" so what I decided to do was to buy a huge piece of felt, sew this to that, extend the design and mount it onto canvas. It isn't complete yet but here's a sneek peek at how it's going:
This has inspired me to try fabric applique but still using felt as my background. I like bright colors so my first idea was to do an underwater theme with bright coral and fish. I knew I was going to create the coral out of felt then I wanted to find fish fabric. I've never appliqued before but I remember watching my mom create a beautiful wall hanging when we went to England in 2000. (What a great idea for a future post huh mom?) It seemed easy enough but time consuming because it was very tedius. I love hand stitching now so I've checked out a few books at the library and bought a few online on applique and I get the general idea but I'm not one to follow a pattern so here is a sneek peek at underwater felt piece:
The embroidery floss in the coral is metalic green and really pops but the picture doesn't do it justice. This piece isn't finished yet because I haven't added any beads yet but I have beautiful blue ones to add to the water (and little black eyes for the fish, etc.)
If I finish them by next Thursday they may be in our new gallery show starting Friday and I stress the word maybe.
When I pick up a paint brush I tend to go for the bright colors in my "paint box". I consider myself a quiet person but when it comes to design I'm bold and very colorful. I've always wanted to paint a very whimsical chair with bright colors but never have because my utilitarian side of me kept saying "What would you do with it?", "It doesn't go with anything in your house!" Now since I have studio space at Olde Towne Art I can create the most bold, bright and off the wall things and display them there.
So my hunt for the perfect chair began!
I looked at new chairs, unfinished wood chairs and used chairs... then I found it... my magical chair! It is a child size chair with arms and I fell in love with it. I found it at a thrift store right up the road and when I got home I was so excited to start painting I forgot to take a "before" picture. So imagine this chair without the white primer:
A few days later (after it was well primed) I started the "coloring":
Again I was so excited to paint this that I didn't take too many "before" pictures but here was the end result:
And a view from the back:
Close up detail:
My Magical Chair is now for sale at the art gallery (Olde Towne Art) in Portsmouth, VA.
Wow has it been a busy week around here! My kids were out for spring break last week so hopefully tomorrow my life will get back to normal (and I'll get out a bunch of posts that have been stored in my head!)
A week ago (April 6th) we had a new show opening at Olde Towne Art and I've been meaning to post these pictures but spring break got in the way. My last post was about these new fabric bowls I've been making and I'm happy to say that I have three in the new show: (and yes everything is for sale!)
For a long time now I've wanted to paint a whimsical chair but other ideas seemed to keep crowding that one out. I finally did it and this is displayed in the front window as well:
(There will be an entire post on the process by which I painted this chair next week).
And finally, the last thing I made for the show was a quilt I named A Kaleidoscope of Candy. The alternate name was going to be A Modern Twist on an Old Pattern simply because if you are a quilter you know this to be the log cabin design but traditionally they were made from more muted colors. It is lap quilt size and if you are the lucky person who buys it it is totally machine washable and dryer safe.
Please be sure to stop in if you're in the Portsmouth area and check out all 23 local artists. We each have our own style and some of us do custom orders.
