Final Mixed Media Painting

Posted on June 13, 2014 by ruthlane under mixed media

I finally finished the last mixed media painting. I changed course a bit in the middle as I was planning on adding orange lichen to this piece. But I just couldn’t get it to look like I wanted. I had a few left over leaves from Ice Flowers and liked how they looked.

And I liked how they looked. So I made more as well as machine stitched cord and then glued it all down.

I really like how it brings out the look of bark.

I glued the “bark” down to a painted wooden canvas.

And the leaves are all three-dimensional. I think it would look a bit better if the leaves had more variety of green. But it works. Hope you have a good weekend and thanks for stopping by 🙂

Making Stencils

Posted on June 6, 2014 by ruthlane under surface design

I decided I needed a few different stencils to use with paper fabric lamination. I remembered that I had made a couple of voided shape designs in my Level 2 Stitch class that would be easy to convert to a stencil.

I used this photo of a butterfly to develop a design by “voiding” the shape. You really have to simplify the original image to do this.

This is the the piece that I made in my stitch class.

I have this thin plastic that Carole gave me. I”m not sure what it is. But it works great for stencils. I traced my butterfly design.

And then started cutting it out with a craft knife.

Here’s the finished stencil.

I tried it out in my sketch book with stamp ink pads.

Here’s the other design I developed in stitch class.

And this is the piece that I made at that time.

I followed the same process and here’s the other stencil.

I used acrylic paints first but it was a little messy so I tried again with the stamp pads.

This one was much cleaner. So now I have a couple more stencils to use for paper fabric lamination. Hope you’re having a great day 🙂

With or Without?

Posted on May 31, 2014 by ruthlane under artist challenges

Yesterday I showed you gold leafing on the back of my Stewart Stephenson challenge piece. I put that photo into Photoshop and made a “brush tool” out of the gold leaf bits. I then added that in several layers over the challenge piece photo so I could see what the gold leaf might look like on the front. The gold wouldn’t be in the exact same places or shapes but it would still have the same feel.

So what do you think? With or without? I’m not sure why the gold leaf photo is bigger – it’s from the same original photo. Weird.

Mixed Media Finish and Gold Leaf Experiment

Posted on May 30, 2014 by ruthlane under mixed media

I have still been busy making samples and writing my online class. But in between, I did manage to finish two of my mixed media pieces. The first one I already showed you but I did add a coat of Dorland’s wax medium. I’m not sure you can see in the photos but it gives it a richer finish.

Here it is completely finished. Now I have to work out how I’m going to frame it. The edges are uneven and I don’t think I’ll find a commercial frame that fits.

Here’s a closer view. It has a lot of texture on the surface.

This is the second one. It has a photo of aspen and red twig dogwood printed on silk. I covered the edges with tea bags, used several different colors of paint and added a branch of red twig dogwood. Again, not sure on the framing possibilities.

This is the back of my Stephenson challenge felt piece. I still think it needs just a bit more ‘oomph’ so I was considering adding some gold leaf. The process worked well so now I just have to decide if I want to add it or not. It would be organic shapes and would probably be in 3 places or so. I need to decide where to place the gold though.

To remind you what the piece looks like, here it is. What do you think? I think I will put the photo into Photoshop and try applying the gold bits from the photo above to see if I like it. Hope you have a nice weekend and thanks for stopping by.

A Few Odds and Ends

Posted on May 23, 2014 by ruthlane under free motion machine stitching, mixed media

I have been working on my online class making samples and writing up the course. But I do have a few things that I can show you.

Mixed Media Painting “Fragments”

I have nearly finished a couple of the mixed media paintings that I started quite a while ago. This is one of the ones that was plaster on burlap, cracked and then painted. I glued it to a wooden “canvas” and covered it with Dorland’s wax medium.

Mixed Media Painting “Amorphous Circle”

This one I had thought was finished and then decided I should sand it to take off some of the paint. I didn’t like the result at all. So I added some oil paint (from paint sticks) in darker blue. It still needs a few coats of wax medium after the oil paint dries for a few days.

Stitched Felt Cord

I had seen on Facebook that Lisa Klakulak of Strongfelt was machine stitching on felt cords so I thought I’d give it a go. I had an orange felt cord that I made a couple of years ago. There was already blue thread in the sewing machine so I started free motion stitching. It was a bit of a pain and I should have stitched more but I wasn’t really enjoying the process.

Machine stitching on felt cord

This photo shows you the rest of the cord and the stitched cord below it. The stitching flattens the cord right out and really stiffens it.

Bracelet from felted cord that has been machine stitched.

I put a bit of velcro on each end and made it into a bracelet. It’s unlikely I’ll wear it but it was an interesting experiment.

Ruth Lane Art

Experimenting with Arts Endless Possibilities