A Little Hand Stitching

Posted on March 13, 2015 by ruthlane under hand stitching

I printed this piece of felted wool blanket with thickened dye and cut pomegranates a long time ago. It was white at the time and I over dyed it at some point. I decided I wanted to start a hand stitching project as I haven’t done one for quite some time. It’s nice to have a project going that’s easy to pick up and stitch for a few minutes when I get time.

It is really hard to see in the photo of the entire piece, you can barely see the stitching I have done. It’s pretty subtle.

I am using tiny seed stitches to denote (of course) the seeds.

I am using wool thread that I hand dyed and I am thinking of making the piece into a notebook cover but I haven’t decided yet. Hope you have a good weekend!

Merry Christmas to Me!

Posted on February 27, 2015 by ruthlane under journals

I got a gift card from Dick Blick from my husband’s son and his family. I hadn’t decided what I wanted to get so I was savoring the anticipation of ordering. But I finally ordered my new goodies.

I got a couple of my favorite sketch books, a pencil case for my colored pencils (I already had the pencils), a set of High Flow Golden Acrylics and a couple of empty pens that you can put the acrylics in and then make marks.

I love the pencil case, it holds all 72 pencils easily. I had a tin for them but the pencils were always falling out and it was hard to travel with the pencils that way. So usually I just haven’t been taking them with me. Now they are all together and easy to get to without having all the other pencils roll around everywhere.

And I’ve wanted to try the high flow acrylics for a while now. Of course, since I made two videos today for online classes, I didn’t get to try them yet. But soon. Thanks Chris, Andie, Ashley and Connor for the wonderful Christmas present!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Painting Party

Posted on February 20, 2015 by ruthlane under surface design

Last week when my local group got together we had a painting party. We started with a 4 yard white piece of cotton and then went a little wild. First we added Dye-Na-Flow paints to cover all the white.

Once the paint was on, then we dried the fabric with hair dryers and heat guns plus a little ironing. After that we used a combination of oil paint sticks, metallic paints and markers to add more detail. Throughout the process, we all kept moving around the table never staying in one place for too long. That way everyone added their own touches to the entire piece.

Once we had the fabric covered, we ripped it into six pieces and everyone took a piece home. We are supposed to make something from the fabric. I haven’t decided what I’m going to make yet. Last time we did this several years ago I ended up making a book and some cards.

I am working away on my online class and got another video completed today. Hopefully, I will have the first module ready to go in another month. I’m hoping to start the first class “Paper Fabric Lamination in Nuno Felting” in May. I’ll let you know when it’s ready to go.

Mixed Media Pieces from Last Month’s Get Together

Posted on February 13, 2015 by ruthlane under mixed media

I have shown you the pieces that I started at my art groups last meeting. But I thought you might like to see what the others created. Bunny forgot to bring hers so I’ll have to get photos of those later.

This one is by Sally. She is really channeling spring. I love the colors and the writing showing through in the background.

This one is by Carole. She is thinking about adding a single real leaf as a focal point. You should enlarge this and take a look at all the texture. Really cool.

This one is by Louise. It is one that she had used as a sample to show us how to get started. Look closely at the cheesecloth along the bottom. She has some kind of new stuff that will rust anything. Rusted cheesecloth!

This is another one of Louise’s. She said that she didn’t like how it was going so she put more plaster on both sides and then repainted it. She suggested I could do the same with my iris piece.

The rest of these are also by Louise. She has been really busy making some beautiful pieces, hasn’t she? The black, white and blue one is fabric from one of our deconstructed screen printing sessions. Today we met and did a whole cloth free form painting session. I’ll show you photos soon. Hope you have a good weekend.

Quit While You’re Ahead

Posted on February 6, 2015 by ruthlane under mixed media

If only I would listen to my own advice. But no. I decided to try adding some fabric to the mixed media iris piece.

I had some lovely silk fabric in green and blue violet. The fabric looks much bluer than the iris in the photo but it isn’t as blue as the camera shows it. I thought that by adding the fabric, it would frame the iris and crop out some of the background. I decided that I liked the upper right corner formation.

So I used matte medium to glue it down. I painted over the entire piece and then left it to dry. The fabric was flat against the canvas when I left but when I checked it later, there were bubbles everywhere under the fabric. Sigh.

And I should have quit while I was ahead. But I thought I’d show you anyways. Everything doesn’t come out perfect or as planned. Of course if I had planned a little better I might not have gotten this far and gone overboard. Oh well. Live and learn.

Ruth Lane Art

Experimenting with Arts Endless Possibilities

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