New Wall Art Piece - 2

My favourite colour palette acts as a safety net when it comes to my creations as my designs come freely and I know the finished piece is going to be as I imagined.  So, excited to create another wall hanging in a similar style to the one I made for myself, I decided to use a colour palette I wouldn't normally choose.  I had used it once when creating my handpainted bookmarks (middle bookmark in the below pic) and I loved the outcome.  Wondering how it would look on a much larger scale was what piqued my muse:

One good thing about painting the discs is as each piece consists of multiple layers which require dry time in-between each layer, I can work on them in short bursts which suits my schedule wonderfully!

I finished painting the discs earlier this week and pondered on what selection of beads to use and how it was going to hang:

And this morning, I finished linking it altogether using an array of Indian glass, semiprecious gemstones, Mykonos ceramics and Czech glass:

And it's all complete!

Have a wonderful week ahead :)

New Wall Art Piece

Today has been an awesome day!  You know those days where everything works out and there's sunshine and rainbows? Hehe. Yep, today is THAT day for me.

I started the day waking from a wonderful sleep-in with no alarm!  And I spent most of my morning having such a soul-filled conversation with a dear friend of mine which left me in such a great space.  I had planned to spend the whole day creating but it was such fantastic weather that I did some garden tending until lunch and spent the afternoon finishing off a piece of wall art which makes me tingle all over :)

See, I continue on the bandwagon of finishing my unfinished projects.  As each one gets completed in its due time, I'm buzzing to see ideas from recently or from years ago form afore my eyes.  Sometimes these materialisations are stonewalled as I get stuck not knowing how to continue and for some ideas, they just wait patiently.  So is the case for this one.  I designed this on 21 August 2003 carefully cutting out photocopies of my drawing to create the bigger picture:

So over our recent Christmas short break, I brought out my wooden discs again, painting each one.  Then I started the construction:

And last night, I finished the construction:

Then today was the fun part of figuring out how to hang it.  I wanted it to sit flat on the wall so after fiddling about for sometime, I ended up by dressing one of my canvases with Dupioni silk in the most magical sage green and affixed the piece to the canvas.  It is marvellous.  Well I think so anyway hahahha. So introducing "Sun of Yang":

Enjoy your weekend ahead :)

 

For My Studio

For quite some time I've wanted to make a wall hanging for my studio.  We've lived in rental properties for quite awhile, and as you're only allowed to use already existing picture hooks, I've held off making something for me as writing letters to real estate agents for permission to knock a hole in a wall is a bit of a headache.  So in the process of brightening my studio, and now being able to do whatever we like, I thought why not!

Earlier this week, I shared on Instagram the main components for the wall hanging using acrylic on wood:

By midnight last night/this morning, it was done and I couldn't be happier!!  I'm unsure if it requires a fifth strand - what do you think?

Using a selection of wood, Irish waxed linen, gemstones, recycled glass, bone and natural seed pods, it's exactly what I had envisaged.  

Hope you have a marvellous weekend!

Working Through The Pile of Unfinished Projects

Everyone I know who loves to create art always comment that their list of "wants" to create outweigh available time (is there ever enough time? hahaha).  I definitely experience this so whenever I have an idea and zilch time, I sketch, make notes and scribble.  This is so the image in my head or idea doesn't disappear as, more often than not, the best ones pop up at the wrong time!  When I do make time to create, having all these ideas to hand is awesome as, when the creative juice is low, I get to rediscover ideas from years/months back and it reignites the flame.

So last weekend, I sat down and drew up a list (yup, I'm a lists type of gal) of all the unfinished projects and ideas I wanted to trial to give myself little projects to work on when time is stretched.  If I don't keep my hand in my art, I get a little snarly 'apparently' (according to my husband, Heath).  My explanation is:

I purchased these balsa wood bookmarks a while back with the intention to test them out before listing them in my online store (currently on holidays).  So after about um ..... 12 months .... they finally got pulled out.  I always trial every product I buy before listing as I like to know what I'm selling isn't rubbish.

This week, I thought I'd pull out some of my sketches and trial these bookmarks out.  They're a good size [12cms x 3cms] with a smooth flat surface and a slight grain.  I used a range of colours from Tim Holtz's Distress Paint series, as it leaves a beautiful matte finish on the wood when dry and the paint is very fluid and easy to use.  This finish creates a wonderful platform to doodle on when applied thinly. 

So ... I bungled a couple initially.  First, I had too much water on the brush and the paint bled into the grain.  This was remedied by adding extra layers of paint which then caused it to be too thick that when I went to draw on it in pen, it gouged and left crumbly edges.   So annoying when I was so happy with the background! hahaha

So trying again with thinner coats and much longer drying time, here are a few examples:

I love the vibrancy of some of them despite being matte.  Next step is to stamp the back and seal them to protect the paint from wear and tear.  And then to add a tassel of sorts.  I'm thinking a beaded waxed linen tassel.  

Stayed tuned for some finished pics!  

Enjoy the week ahead :)