#ARTifacts - April

Experimenting with rusty objects on calico.
#ARTifacts art journal page for April 2017.

Complex Simplicity

Attempting to portray how the creative part of me works with photos.
 Things + ideas + artwork + creative spaces (inside/outside) + feline friend + light.
(raylee).

Fabric for Chairs

Poor tired old chairs...

fabric worn through...

foam stuffing getting picked at by littlies...

dig out the old pale jeans...

chop off the seams...and maybe they fit...

stitch them in place...

and a denim flower now adorns the worn...

then there are the dining chairs..

old patchwork chair covers cut..

and stapled to the straight...

a new life from the old...

Where does the inspiration come from?

A collage acrylic on canvas that I had forgotten to post. Out of sight out of mind as they say. The little deer was from a magazine & the trees I cut from a piece of scrap wallpaper. The texture of the design on the wallpaper was very soft to the touch. The leafy patterns worked well for the trees. As usual I started with an idea which was to incorporate the colours from the floral fabric I had made slip covers from for the outside chairs.

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After a lot of experimenting with colours the painting became a lot more snowy but included all the colours from the fabric used on the chair covers.

The fabric is so different from the finished painting but started the process that created the snowy scene. In some of my first art classes many years ago we were given pictures to paint from, not to copy but to interpret in our own way. A valuable exercise that I use sometimes when I am not sure what I want to paint. (raylee).

Gallery of Crochet

I recently had some sitting down time...

so had to do something to keep the fingers busy...

started with leftovers in the wool stash...

but had to end up buying some new stuff...

ta da...

the end results...

                              

 


                                        

Crochet bag and bunny

and the milk bottles reappeared with a bit of crochet around the top...

great for the kids to carry stuff around in...

or to hold the shampoo bottles in my toiletry bag...

and then the rabbit appeared...

only had leftover bits of cotton to make her...

but she found a home very quickly...

Coffee Bag Footstool/ Seat

Lucky for me my family like most of the things I make for them.
Hand stitched this footstool for my eldest grandson's birthday.
The best thank you is when the recipient says: "I love it"!
(raylee).

Bits and Pieces

and I also had these to play with...

so tried a new shape with the hexagons...

not so sure I like it...

managed to finally finish this quilt...

it has a few different textures...

I've used velvet and lace as well as cheesecloth..

along with the various cottons and blends I normally use...

then I had a play with a turtle...

it's the size of a cushion for little bottoms...

but it doesn't get sat on...

just hugged...

Pillows

had some pillows needing some decoration....

and something to keep my fingers busy...

found some clothing at a nearby op-shop....

got the scissors and started cutting...

no machine so needle and thread would have to do...

Paint & Paper Chair Makeover

 my brother gave me this second hand office chair more than twenty years ago. i am not sure how old it is. it's still going strong, i use it every day at my messy desk.
 when he gave it to me it had a grey vinyl seat & brown varnished back & legs. i gave it a makeover many years ago, but it needed another.
 above is how it looks now.......much bluer,  lighter & summery.
 below:  the back of the chair before i removed the old orange  suede seat covering, then some sanding, a few coats of paint, used wrapping paper from my grandson, an image from a newspaper & a decoupage paper image of a mermaid painting was all it needed for a new look.

 the back in progress....

 & the front......i cut some fish from the wrapping paper & glued them over the sides of the mermaid image.

 old style image on the back......& older still on the front.

 i stitched a new seat cover from an  old pair of  denim jeans courtesy of Simonne, & the blue spots on this piece of new fabric matched the blue of the denim & the fish paper.

i am always amazed at how paint & (paper) can make such a difference.
(raylee).

New animals...

 

these new creations...

went for a photo shoot..

with the photographer...

hippo first...

 

 

a new lizard...

 

a fat zebra...

his legs can hardly hold his tummy off the floor...

 

 kitten has become a lion...

 

and the giraffe...

new theme with the black and white...

attempting to get more realistic colour range...