Zodiac quilt is coming along nicely...

It's only 3 months to go and we will have completed our 12 blocks on the 2012 Bead Journal Project. WOW! It's gone so fast... I've now actually finished beading my blocks, but I still have to embellish them with the appropriate crystals and coloured beads.

Each zodiac has so many associations and I thought I'd make a flat reference guide that would look great on the wall, and be totally useful too.

I've started working round a few of them- I've done 6 now... but I've got 3 months now to finish them all and then start embroidering the texts around the piece.

Here's how it's looking now...

Once this panel is done I'll be adding coloured panels around the outside with the seasons and symbols.

Sun, Sand and Cement

I've been meaning to make some stepping stones for my garden for a long time- just not got round to it due to other projects... but with hubby off for 2 weeks and nowhere to go I thought I'd use the time to do "my" projects and have a holiday too.

As a test run for the cement mix I did a sun and moon using molds from Ebay, but I think they won't be strong enough to handle foot traffic so I painted them up and decided to make a wall plaque for each. As I'm heavily into the Elements alot of my work is tied in to them, either just by colours or reference to the actual element, I thought it the perfect theme for the garden.

 

Acrylic paints cover cement beautifully, but I did paint a sizing layer of diluted PVA on first. Because I used a cement mix of 1 part cement; 2 parts fine sand and 1 part sharp sand, mixed with water and a splash of PVA to plasticize the mix, it settled into the mold nicely and I only had 2 air bubbles, despite some vigourous tapping to dispel any air!

The sun had some fine detail, the moon very little, and the celtic knots are shallow but with lots of detail. Even the knots came out well using that mix. These were also painted with acrylics. Once it's all together it will be waterproofed and sealed.

I laid out my pattern on a table to gauge placement and scale, then set up a trough using one of my silk-painting frames covered with thick plastic. This allows the concrete to be poured into a former that will be easy to remove and remain clean. I also used two straws to create holes at the top for fixing later- it would be impossible to guarantee drilling wouldn't damage the plaque or chip a section out.

I made up a stronger mix for the concrete; 1 part cement, 1 part fine sand, 1 part sharp sand and 1 part fine aggregate. I added PVA to this mix too. This was poured into the former, leveled with a trowel and the sun placed in the centre. With a little wiggling and pushing she settled in nicely and then there was the big rush to add the celtic knots and all the glass nuggets in their respective places. It set a little too quickly so I ended up gluing the tiny mirror tiles in some places. 

I think the overall effect worked out well enough, although I love precision and accuracy, sometimes it's nice to be rustic and natural, especially once it gets a bit weathered and mossy.

 

The coloured nuggets were sunk into the mix, but the clear were added later using an acrylic polymer medium. Once it was completely dry I used a Gedeo waterproofing liquid all over the plaque, and sealed with an acrylic gloss varnish.

This is the sun plaque finished, onto the moon soon... and then I will have the concrete mix perfected for the stepping stones. I'll be using the sun and moon molds again, but the glass will be sea glass that I've been collecting for the last few years.

ART DOLL FUN...

My word, I can't believe I haven't posted for so long... I should have posted last Saturday but it was a nice day and with Father's Day on the Sunday and my parents being away for my birthday later, we went out for a special meal. A very nice time was had by all and the weather stayed remarkably sunny too- a blessing considering our recent wet trend.

I spent a couple of days last week getting on with one of the Elements dolls I'm creating for a Doll Challenge on Stitchin Fingers . We are only supposed to do one, but if you are doing one element, you should really make the set- I think, anyway! If you have followed my previous posts you will have seen I spent some time cutting fabric and designing/ painting symbols on the body pieces last month.

I've been hung up on finding suitable fabrics for the rest of the bodies in the set, but I found some rather nice pieces eventually so I've had to continue with the "Earth" doll.

Here she is complete... I'm not entirely happy with her face, and I plan on making a clay mask that I can paint up for each doll.

She has little suede pixie boots and bag, her own elder wand, and funky earthy dreads. As I said earlier, I want to create a mask for her and at the same time I still want to make a mold for clay hands, which can be smaller and more detailed. So I'm not too displeased with her, all in all. 

She'll be perfect once I make the adjustments.... and then on to another element, with my new sewing machine that should be arriving within the hour... goodbye to my 20 year old Toyota, and hello to my QE404. I'm so nervous it's killing me- I hope it's a good one, it does everything I want but I don't know the make... but for my budget it looked the best- so we'll see. I shall keep my Toyota as backup, no computer bits to go wrong there- it just doesn't do what I need nowadays. I'll be posting some textile work soon I expect- wish me luck!!!

Dolly doodles...

Well, not exactly! I've decided to take part in a doll swap over at stitchin fingers, particularly as the theme is Elements... well, the four, at least. Those of you that know me will understand I just couldn't say no - I've been interested and working with the four elements and symbols for years i one form or another, but I've never made Elemental dolls.

True to form, I start from scratch, so having designed the doll look, I went on to creating a set of symbols to use on the fabrics...

This is the first stage, the pen and ink design....

Air

Earth

Fire

Water

                              

I also decided to make a finished panel for each symbol, never one to pass up an excuse to doodle!

 

The others are done in a similar fashion.....

 

The next stages are countless... drop it into Photoshop and play.... colour them in, add a few filters... and come up with a collection of useful symbols...

I hate that my BA lecturer thinks photoshop is not an honest artist tool- so oldschool- it is so versatile, what she doesn't appreciate is that you still need a reasonable depth of knowledge to get what you want, and still have to master the software to create what you want... so what's the difference to using a paintbrush?

So here's the complete set in full colour, but un-enhanced...

I've painted the fabrics for the bodies using fabric paints, here they are, cut and painted, ready to sew together, but I need to find the right leg,arms and face fabrics first...

I've got till the end of June to finish one, but I reckon I'll have the set done as a whole, just too much fun not to!