Horses - Theme of the month at Art Elements (AE)

Horses were the theme of this months theme challenge at Art Elements! Jenny chose the topic and put together a wonderful collection of inspirational images. Have a look here!  

My personal inspiration was this little wooden horse I found at a flea market. In one of my planters on our balcony we have some moos growing, so I used it as background.

I struggled a little bit what to do. Seems my usual line at the moment, which is strange, because I am creating a lot at the moment. So while I started with some polymer clay, I stopped that and went back to monoprinting again.

I love the magazin resist technique Birgit Kopsen showed at the Gelli Arts blog. I use it now to create a kind of "collages" with monoprinting. I often use several layers of paint, removing some parts of every layer before I pick it all up with the last one.

I so love how the paint looks through!

I used detailed pictures as well as abstract silhouettes. Still not sure what I prefer.

I also remembered that I carved a Pegasus based on a vintage image years ago. 

So I had a look where it was and played with it. 

As much as I love the stamp, I probably won't use it for monoprinting again.

A really simple technique I probably will do with the small kids in our family. Simply stamping with a waterproof ink and then some water colour on top (the ink acts as a resist... mh...maybe I should try that also for the monoprinting? Have to try that!).

And here is my work in progress piece made with polymer clay. Not sure whether I will work further on it or not.

I also used my handmade coffee water colour (yes, real coffee!) for a quick sketch. I used to paint a lot of horses as a kid and teenager, but I was better during that time than now. Seems I have to train again ;)

Also another fast middle in the night sketch where I went a little bit over the top with the colours. 

Please have a look what everyone else made for this challenge!

PS: Thank you Cathy for taking over the challenge reveal! :)

Guests:

Alysen

Anita

Beth

Catherine

Jill

Paulette

Raven 

Sarajo

Tammy

AE Team Members: 

Caroline
Cathy

Claire (you are here)

Jen  

Laney 

Lesley 

Marsha 

Niky 

Sue

Critters at the hotel (Jeju island, south corea)

The hotel at Jeju island was really beautiful and also a little bit over the top but in a way that made me smile. The service was perfect, as well as the food and everything else. I don't like to go around an expensive hotel (with a Louis Vitton and similar shops inside) and take pictures. But seeing the critters I just had to! :)

Like little tiles for your ear!

This dragon fly over script is one of my favorite images at the moment! I made it with gimp (freeware). I really like this program to create layers of images! 

Of course more of the gorgeous nepal horse images!

And a little frog over a dark textures background...

You see: I use old card board to store my earrings!

Also some little frogs over script... and some ship wrapping octopus ^^

If you want some of the images: You can find them at bibliodysee! There the original sources are all also linked, love it! :)

And now another one of my favorites:

The pattern... the colours... arn't they great?!

And they are all to be found at the Galerie Sued in Leipzig! 

(Of course you can mail me if you want some too and can't come to Leipzig ^^)

Nepal horse book - Earrings

Again some earrings I made with polymer clay. For the image transfer I use the polymer clay brand fimo. But just the fimo classic works really well, not fimo soft. It seems that with fimo soft the colours get more "sticky" and will smear on the clay even if there is still a lot of the paper left from the print. And also even more problematic: It doesn't keep or rather transfers the colours like classic! The image will be really faint or with too much paper left...

If you don't have other polymer clay at hand than fimo soft: Use it. But maybe not for the first time trying some image transfer because the chances are high that you will get disappointed. 

I like the rough edges of the images on the clay. They create the feeling of a little tile worn over time... 

I use quite a lot different resources for my images and this horses come from Bibliodysee. The original images are taken from a nepal horse book, which may be dated to the 18th century. More details over at  Bibliodysee  :)

Bigger glas magnets...

With my crow...

...and of course again the little chameleon and snake skeleton from Karen (the graphics fairy)!

I am still experimenting how to get the snake with the best effect on fabric ^^

I displayed my magnets on an empty whisky package which is made out of metal. 

Okay, without glas nuggets some stars. But I also love them :)

The horse silhouette I also created from a graphic from Karen and the tree from a foto I made.

Some stamped airdrying clay... i didn't smoothe the edges... I wanted to see the effect it created.

 

Post it's with magnets on the back... like the ones of the advent calenders last year.

...and even some colour under glas ^^

Horse silhouette / stencil...

I am sure you missed my stencils / silhouettes! (at least hoping so :) )

Here is a fast one again!

While still fighting against the chaos I found some prints of a vintage horse image
(of course from Karen @The graphics fairy :) ).

I had in mind to cut the horse silhouette out to get the black/white silhouette image and the horse itself at the same time (to use it in a collage later somehow).

I worked a little bit on the brightness and the contrast of the image (a foto of the cut out silhouette) with gimp.

All went into my folders. Ha! Sorted! ^^

Silhouette cards and tags... (I love aceton transfer!)

I just had to make some cards by aceton transfer now that I have some prints from a new laser printer (No, not mine *sniff*). I thought that the combination of the cardboard and the pictures you get with an aceton transfer would go great together.

And yes, in my point of view the old cardboard with the little bit rough structure of the surface and the worn out / rubbish (a little bit vintage, shaby...? don't know the actual nomenclature ^^) look of the black ink turned out to be a real good combination :)

I made a little collection of cards...

My crow stencil...

...you see my little mistake? The script is mirror inverted!

...of course the zebra isn't missing...

...one of my earlier loves from Karens graphics fairy!

To the left you can see the print after the transfer...

I tried several different methods (or better said a little bit different procedures...). I won't write them down just concetrate on the most important thing for the transfer:

Lay your print onto the desired surface (also wood or fabric is working quite well!).

Put a little bit aceton on a paper tissue and NOT on your print!

Now you have to be fast:

Press the paper tiessue with the aceton on your print.

And I mean "press"! It is only during the first contact with the aceton (or other kind of solvent you are using but aceton works best for me) that the colour starts bleeding. As soon as the aceton dries again the colour won't ever be transferable again (regardless how much aceton you would spill over the print). Also without the pressure the colour won't bleed into your target but stays in the print.

Look at the picture below: On the left side I used some pressure but put the aceton direct over the print. On the right side I used the procedure described above.

In short I would say: Pressure and aceton should be used at exact the same time!

And of course I used some of the tags I cut out yesterday ^^

You see how my skill improved?

The horse is an image from graphics fairy. I also made the cat and the swallow stencil from picutres from graphics fairy (Oh, I just love her collection!) The crow and the tree stencil are my own graphics :)

I have a lot more stencils and things I made by using them, just have a look if you like or jump over here for how to make your own one :)