Life book 2016 - Tentacles instead of wings!

This lesson was called "Wings and roots" and I ended up painting tentacles! But since I just love cephalopodoes it had to be some image related to an octopus.

Background and the girl are not so in harmony like I would like them to be, but the tentacles are working beautifully. I love how playful the tentacles are. In the lesson some modelling or texture paste was to be used. I had none available but some sand structure paste. See the three dimensional effect? I think it worked really good for the skin of the octopus!

What I take from this one? Take a picture while the paper is still fixed on the block ;) Use more structural stuff and try to connect background and focal point more. But... in the end I just love her!

So here are more impressions of the details!

  

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. 

Life book 2016 - More mixed media experiments

Normally not my style with the words "True romance". But I found these word in an advertisement for rugs and had to cut them out. I made an image transfer using clear tape and glued the tape on the painting. The letters itself were originally white, so as an image transfer clear. But the contrast was not high enough so I rewrote the letters with some Neocolour II. 

The image started as collage but developed a life of its own. What I take from this painting? Use more contrast and/or interest points, love the colour combinations, use the marks again and enjoy layering! :)

Life book 2016 - Happy traveler

I started only in april, four months into "Life book 2016" and also in the middle of the night in a small sketch book (both pages together maybe roughly DinA5). I see all the details that somehow went wrong, but it way the one to start painting again :) 

There are a lot of elements I'll use again: Colour combination, written and dotted background, organic structures.

Handmade easy stamps and some random thoughts

I actually create all the time, even if time is rare and work is stressing me out quite a lot these days. The balance between my love for research and the stress involved... I don't know. *sighs*

But I joined "Life Book 2016" and also just a few days ago "Wanderlust 2016". Both are mixed media online courses. Experimenting with different materials, techniques, whatever is something I enjoy as well as need. It keeps me sane. I did a lot of painting and stamping a few years ago, then changed to polymer clay, went to jewellery, had a break for metal work and ceramic clay and now like to play with paint a little bit more again. It is all not exclusive. What really changed is that I lost my fear to waste material or to ruin something by overdoing it. I allow myself to play and learn and let my hands remember what they used to do ;)

The online courses allow me for something I enjoy most: To watch how other people create! To see how they use their tool and fingers and everything else! This is getting me to play more, try out some new things and get some tips and tricks. Most of the time the lesson itself is just inspiration.

For one of my paintings I used some of my old craft foam stamps (the tiny dots as well as the negative space). What I made I'll show you the over the next days (hopefully as well as with some new jewellery!). 

The craft foam stamps work perfectly with stamping ink as well as acrylic paint and I just made some more! I used dots (I have a lot of different sizes) that I bought ready made, cut myself some strips and other organic forms... and also there are ready made shapes like the flower or the "blob" that I just glue down on some background like wood to create a stamping block.

Super easy and fast to make, really cheap and versatile and until now none of them broke. I also made some big background stamps with just tiny dots. Keeping in mind how expensive they often are, is even more a reason to create simple shape background stamps by myself. 

As a side note: I dapped the paint manually on the stamps. If you use a roller with acrylic paint or just stamping ink and a little bit more pressure, you'll get perfect stamped images! I just like the irregular ones for my backgrounds. :)

The Bead Peeps Swap and Hop 2016

EDIT: At first a sorry for the late blog entry. I actually set a date in advance because this weekend the 25th wave gothik festival takes place in Leipzig (to think that we are part of this for nearly two decades... hu.. I am old! ^^). But... it seems I made the mistake of setting the time at exactly 0.00 and blogspot understood that this meant from the 15th to the 16th. 

There is something special in taking place in exchanges with (often known but more often unknown) people around the world. It is challenging oneself, at least it is challenging me, and I think this is important as well as really, really enjoyable! Linda Anderson started the bead peeps swap and hop and is actually organizing everything. Moreover, after doing this once, taking on all the workload (which is quite a lot with so many participants all over the world), she did it again! Thank you so much Linda! :)

In short: The general idea is to exchange beads and material, send it out to the other person and create with them! Since you don't know what you get, this can be really challenging. I think we all settle mostly for known material, favorite beads, colours and shapes. To get something unknown and to have a set date until one has to create something, gets me out of my comfort zone.

It also happened this year. My partner is Inge and she actually create lampwork beads herself. What I got was a beautiful collection mostly of her own handmade beads. I have the deepest respect for art beads and the work involved creating them. She added also more beads, from wooden ones to crystal glass, semi-precious stone and ceramic. It filled a whole box!

You can see the beads a little bit more detailed below. See the ammonite (actually one of the beads I still didn't use although it is my absolute favorite!) below? It sparkles with silver below. Also some of the other beads had sparkling accents but hard to catch on camera.

I also did something I really hope Inge won't be too angry about (or hopefully not angry at all!): I actually took some of her beads and etched them. I like the shades of blue and green and wanted to get more into the impression of "sea-glass". I think it enhances the pattern on her beads even more.

I wrote about the challenge a blog hop like this can be and actually, as beautiful as Inge's beads are, it was a real challenge for me! The reason was actually the size of the beads. I am not used to work with such big beads. I know a lot of other people who do, but not me. I do create big earrings and big necklaces, but the parts they are made of are mostly not big. 

Strangely enough the really big wooden beads helped me to start. I loved them at first sight and it was really fast to find some beads in my stash to go with them: Petrified wood, african recycled glass beads (yellowish! You know how difficult it is for me to use yellow ;)), more wood beads, matte czech glass beads and old bone beads (upcycled from an old necklace). The necklace is simply made with knotted linen cord (not waxed and a little bit rough to my hands, but not rough to wear). This is also my favorite from all I made :)

Some weeks ago I got some faux leather cord from a friend. I have never used it before but liked the combination of blue/turquoise and brown. As different this bracelet below and the necklace above are, their colour scheme actually fits quite well. I also used the claps Inge send me!

The etched beads also came together to become a bracelet. I am not sure if I'll leave the metal (silver plated copper) so shiny or if I want to oxidize it to get a more organic look. Still undecided...

These earrings are all made from beads Inge send me including some of her own lampwork beads! They dangle lovely (and you know, dangling is one of the most important properties of earrings for me). 

I played a little bit with wire and used some more of Inge's lampwork beads to create earrings. I am also not sure if I should not oxidize all of them! ;)

(Please ignore my finger tip! Just saw it now and it is already to dark outside to take more pictures...)

Something I learned this time: A different shape and style to create necklaces. I used two of the focal lampwork beads combined with a second big round bead. The necklaces are really long and they look quite cool on person! A little bit 20ies style last century... Sadly I won't wear them because my upper side is a little bit big and long necklaces look funny with this kind of "natural spacer". ^^

But how beautiful would the look on the right person! *sighs* They move and seem to dance, still, they are heavy enough to not be flimsy... and look at the gorgeous beads! The flowers on the beads below are different all around!

I just have to show you another image (and I tried really hard to restrict myself so the blog post won't go one forever ;) ).

Here a last impression of the beads I started with and what I created with them! 

Thank you so much Linda and Inge! 

Have a look at Inge's creations here and to get to all participants, just jump over to Linda's blog here (as well as what she made). :)

Polymer clay pendants... some colour play...

Not really a lot but a little bit play time with polymer clay. I think they look like they just came out of a painting. I enjoy the effect! :)

These ones were meant for the art bead scene monthly challenge. Life happened but I like how they turned out! Maybe I'll use them someday soon (hopefully!)

The other two pendants you can find in my etsy shop (house and cup of coffee).

Inspirations: Reflections (Leipzig, our balcony door...)

I like how strange and surrealistic the reflection of the world around was looking in the glass of the door. I was standing on our balcony, just turning around and the reflection looked like a door into another world.

"Memorabilia" - A kind of mixed media earrings, between new techniques and childhood memories

I was inspired by old paintings refined with gold leaf on wood of saints or virgin maria. There were some quite old ones in our home and they are a childhood memory for me. My father had from his travels and my grandparents these typical paintings. Thinking of it, I have to say, that they are actually a kind of mixed media work! It is this style that you somehow often find in temporary work (even if the topics and motives are different). 

The image is transferred on polymer clay, the halo was refined using gold coloured leaf (not real one) and the small charm then covered with resin. The sides are roughly cut to enhance the impression of old charms. My last image transfer on polymer clay was done quite some time ago. I don't know why sometimes I am "forgetting" a technique and why I start using it again from one day to the next. But this is my first transfer that I overlaid with resin. There were some troubles but it all worked out in the end. 

The ear wires are pure brass while otherwise the used metals are a combination from bronze alloy, steel and brass giving an old, vintage impression. I really love them!

The dark red glass beads move beautifully and even while the earrings are quite long, they are not heavy!

You can find them in my shop here :)