"Moon" - Art Elements Theme Challenge

This month's theme for our montly Art Elements challenge was "Moon" chosen by Lindsay. It was a wonderful theme for me mainly for one reason (and yes, you can laugh ;) ) - A moon is round. A circle... and circles are an elementary part of my work, especially my abstract mixed media work.

I am still trying to recover from the bad cold I got during christmas. The coughing is still bad and my lung is hurting. Don't worry, I went for a check to the doctor, got a lot of strong drugs and still waiting for the test results because my doctor just let them test... everything?

At least a lot since it seems that I have an atypical version which can untreated end bad. I am taking it slow, take the tram and bus instead going by bike, don't carry anything heavy, and at work I am mainly sitting at the computer.

But I am so thankful for the strong drugs so I won't cough as hard and the pain goes down. It could also be that I am not a good patient... being ill annoys me way too much!

So I also took it slow with the theme challenge.

I had a lot of ideas for earrings and monoprints using a resist technique and vintage moon motives... but I didn't stress myself, I can always come back to these ideas.

I enjoyed playing with different techniques and materials, being abstract as well as whimsical or simply playing with paint.

With every single sketch I learn a little bit more. On my to-do list is to create big, really big abstract paintings one day. It won't be anywhere soon, but the desire is there.

I will need more training before, to better find the balance between complexity,  depth, and simplicity. It is already there in parts in some of my work but I am still not there.

I don't know why but there are abstract paintings that stop me right there. That I could look at for hours without tiring. Where paint and structure, color and composition evokes some feeling inside me.

Once in a gallery tour I saw a painting that felt so alive, I almost could smell it. Cool and rich, earthy... Sadly I never wrote the artist name down and one of the times where I really would have loved to be rich, so I could have bought it.

I love painting animals and flowers and hopefully in the future also more people, it is what I enjoy... but my abstract work is more personal, you will find me in there, it is what I need to create.

And there will be a giant painting... with a circle! ;)

Thank you for joining us! Please have a look at all the wonderful creations :)

Guests:

Jenny

Melissa

Kathy

Sarajo

Hope

Sarah

Rebecca

Divya

Anita

Rosantia

Raven

Cat

Evia

Alysen

Beth

Tammy

Art Elements Crew:

Claire

Laney

Caroline

Cathy

Sue 

Niky

Jenny

Jen

"Ancient dreams" - Component of the month at Art Elements

The start with a new piece is often the most challenging as well as the most enoyable part. My main problem actually is always "the middle". When you found your inspiration, chose and gathered all materials, have made the work halfway through, see already the end with only some minor last steps open to decide... and then I stop. Honestly, I don't now why. There are soooo many UFOs in my stash, pieces that I know I'll love as soon as they are finished.

*sighs*

But that is maybe just how my brain operates. At some time-point most projects come to an end (either way).

This is why I love and enjoy challenges. They push me and give me a tight schedule to fit in. Even more with a component you get from a fellow bead artist.... huh... the social pressure added works even better! (Not a joke, this works really for me and I like to trick myself with this behaviour ;) )

The component of the month (COM) of Art Elements (AE) came not from a member of the AE team but were gifted to AE team members as well as to AE readers by Kristi Ann from Artisan Clay. You can find more of her work here.

Back to how my brain is working... I got the gorgeous pendant from Kristi (thank you again!). As gorgeous as it is, it was way out of my comfort zone. I love circle shapes and crackled glass / glaze surfaces (you would never have guessed, mh?). But this was too big and a little bit too heavy for me (remember, not being objective here, just relative to what I normally work with).

Puh... and then I started with a necklace design where I liked all the pieces but there was not this perfect start with all elements fitting perfectly together. Time was closing and I finished it and just had to wait until I would be able to catch some rare daylight to take pictures. You need daylight to give such a stunning pendant with crackle glass credit, trust me in this.

So sitting late at the evening at the living room which is a absolute state of chaos with my "stuff" my eyes fell on one of my wrapped bracelets. I wanted to label it for our Pop-Up store in Leipzig (Malwatanderes) but it was sitting close to the necklace. Mh... the colours went nice together so I tested how the would look combined. Loved it. So I took the necklace apart, decided to make a kind of decorative art element (or ornament? tribal totem?). It was the right way. The right way since I started to love this pieces, consisting just of two "circles" at this moment, already.

The rest was easy, also close by was one of my ceramic bird skulls I made. I am in the process to test the effect of different glazes and no, originally I thought this light blue/yellow glaze is not my favorite. How wrong I was. Without the light blue accents it would not have fit to the pendant. Now it was the perfect addition. Yes, perfect! For me at least... especially with the piece of bone (that was also part of my table chaos, don't ask).

You can also find some more of my ceramic clay beads, a single czech glass bead and a lampwork bead from Kimberly Rogers (above the bird skull, such a perfect accent colour to bringt the bone, pendant and skull together).

Here you go... just loving it now! Last minute, but hey, perfect timing, no?!

So, please have a look at the other participants!

PS: Seeing the pictures now, it could be also a piece inspired by / for Prince, or not? *sighs* 2016...

PPS: I had to take the pictures at work, since it is dark when I leave home... and already dark when I come back home. So they are not my usual quality (and not my preferred background style). It was long enough winter time, I am ready for summer again! ;)


Guest Designers:
Sarajo Wentling
Lola Surwillo
Beti Horvath
Kate Kemp

Art Elements Team
Susan Kennedy
Lesley Watt
Claire Fabian (you are here right now :) )
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Jen Cameron

ATC - a little bit of paper piecing...

I know I show a little bit more "paper" related things in the last weeks over here. It is not that I didn't make jewellery but either I can't show it until now because it is made for special occasions and persons... and I also didn't manage to get got pictures during the last two weeks... so... paper "stuff" it is!

This little artist trading card I made for the challenge over at Paper artsy. This is the second time I take part but I really, really enjoy challenges! It is all about playing and exploring for me with different techniques and media. Even though I like the results most of the time, often the result may not be "me" with a new technique. But I only get to know this after I tried! Also I learned something from it ;)

The challenge now at paper artsy is "Paper piecing" (go over here to have a look for yourself and see what other people made). 

Surprisingly enough it seems that paper piecing is something I enjoyed more than I would have thought! I took a print of a bird I had laying around and cut out all shapes with different colours and glued them on paper scraps I had. This includes some gelatine monoprints I had that I made on a little bit heavier paper. I wanted to have a slightly raised image.

And yes, even if it can't really be seen now (only if ou look at it closely): All the different colour / body areas were made from different pieces!

I glued everything together, went over it with acrylic paint, water colour, markers... and added a stamp I got at a destash (from Laura, I follow her blog "Bugs ans fishes" for years now ;)) because it missed a little bit of colour.

What shall I say? Love the result! It is more grungy and organic than I would have thought and that is actually me! :)

Life book 2016 - Effects of colours and materials

Sadly my digital camera is not able to catch all the gorgeous and subtle details of the colours, paint, texture and background. I'll look at some services that scan paintings profesionally but they all seem to be expensive *sighs*

But I started to record (sometimes) the creation process. So here we go :)

Since I take the pictures in between under not perfect light conditions, the colours seem to change more than they actually do. 

"Dreaming" - Bird mask made with polymer clay

Do you know this kind of surreal feeling: Hey, I actually made this? 

I have it with this bird mask. 

It is made with polymer clay (Fimo classic as well as a lot of other scraps of clay I had at hand... some of it even neon yellow!). At first I used a paper template to cover with metal foil and then a first layer of polymer clay and bake it. In a second step (a step that took weeks, I just worked on it from time to time) I created the beak and added the feathers. Every single feather was cut in shape and formed onto the mask. Just a very basic and simple shape with clean lines to make a feather but because they are all different, it is working really well. 

I covered the baked mask with surface prep from Christi Friesen "Swellegant", added a first layer of black acrylic paint and then several layers of "Swellegant" silver. It will fill out little gaps and small details are lost. But that is perfect because then it looks more and more like one single piece and not a combination of different pieces. In the last coat of silver I added the darkening patina while it was still wet. After it dried I coated it at first with the sealant before I added highlights with the silver again on top. I am using this order now since I sometimes had the problem that even after waiting for several days to let the metal coat and the patina dry, if I would add new metal to highlight raised areas it would also oxidise.  

The curve of the side nicely goes into the curve of the beak. 

Just look how well it turned out with the beak and the nostrils and the tiny wee feathers around it. The beak was just smoothed out by hand before baking and I left it as it was afterwards. This has the effect that in all that irregularities the silver and patina formed their own organic pattern.

"Captured moments" - Necklace

Don't ask me how many times I tried to capture this necklace on camera. It was really, really hard. The etched brass is quite dark and while I love the organic, worn, rough and edgy look... and the nice contrast to the shimmering and bright beauty of the pearl... my camera hated it. You see: The pearl is way too bright... but the only way I could somehow capture the necklace ;)

I created several necklaces with my etched brass pieces... but already sold several without having a chance to take a picture. Actually I sold them to one of the persons I shared a booth with at the christmas market. She said she would send me some picture where she wears them :)

Experiments... with polymer clay and silver solder

Another bird skull made with polymer clay and my new surface treatment. Just a few fast pictures because the skull and the ring were for a friend and just finished before she left again and... just in that moment my digi camera run out of energy. At least I got a few pictures ^^

I have to admit that I really like this simplified, maybe (if it wasn't for the surface) even comic-like shape. Due to the crackles and colours it rather gets a tribal look for me. I'll have to make more!

The only useable... at least you get an impression... picture from my first ever made silver ring! Okay, silver filled with copper.... but still! Hammered, soldered, oxidised with liver of sulphur... at the same time easier and more difficult than I thought but I learned a lot! One day it will all go together, the polymer clay, the metal etching, the soldering, the recycling, the fabric and of course all the beads!

And everything else I may find ^^

A beaded little bird - made by Lachafa a long, long time ago!

You know this moment, when you unexpectedly find something you had for a long time while looking for something else? Something that just makes you smile? This was true for me with this beaded little bird. A colibri my sister made for me years ago... years... something between 8 and 10 years I think... I tend to ten. 

She made it with silver wire and seed beads. I have more beaded little things from her but I especially loved this bird! It was part of an advent calendar she made for me. 

The orange and white belly...

And sitting on my hand... :) I will have to find a new place for him, he should not be hidden in a dark box anymore.