Friday Work in Progress

Here I am working on 2 watercolour paintings of the Mayfield lavender field. I started with the skies for both then worked on the building and underpainted some shadow areas in the trees.

Green Silk Necklace

I made this necklace by painting some silk in fresh woodland greens and embellishing with gold gutta swirly lines. This is combined with gold plated beads with a floral motif, some green glass beads and a vine leaf charm.

Silk Necklace

This is my latest necklace made with hand painted silk in Autumnal colours, with beads. The necklace is adjustable and ties at the back with silk rouleau painted to match. It is colourfast.
More details here in my etsy shop

Lavender Landscapes

I have been working on these two paintings over the last few days and think they are now just about finished.
The frames and mounts are ready and waiting. They are going to an exhibition at the Denbies Wine Estate at Dorking on Thursday morning along with some other paintings.

More Glass and one for Button Wednesday

Last week I had my second lampwork lesson and here are the results. Helen is an excellent tutor, As well as making lampwork beads and tutoring she makes wedding tiaras and jewellery, do have a look at her website here
One of the things I enjoyed doing in the first lesson was dipping the hot bead into frit (tiny coloured pieces of glass )and melting it onto the surface of the bead. This time I made swirls by prodding the hot fritted bead with a stringer and twizzling it. A stringer is like a thick wire but made of glass. Please see earlier post here.
I used the same colours to make a button. I found this very difficult to do. A mandrel with two prongs is used and the molten glass has to be positioned carefully, too near the end and the holes will close over and too far from the end and the button might not come off the mandrel when finished. It got really out of shape and the holes got nearer and nearer to the edge of the button. Helen got it back into shape for me. The side that I have photographed had frit sprinkled on. The other side which could be dipped has more frit and some of it has developed a silvery effect. I will make something special for the button probably either a journal cover or a bag.
The heart has 22k gold on clear cobalt glass and was fun to do.
The pink bead on the right is has murrine melted onto the surface. These are little slices from a glass cane that like Brighton rock has the pattern running along its length. Millefiori is glass decorated in this way. In Italian mille means a thousand and fiori means flowers. I used just 3 on the bead. I love the effect. Helen gave me some spacer beads to match.

and here is my button for Button Wednesday! More buttons here

I will photograph the other side of the button when the sun comes out.

voila!

The Pink Tiger

Over the weekend I painted some silk ties. The subject for the europeanstreetteam challenge is stripes. Of the three I made I chose Tiger stripes for my entry. You've heard of the Pink Panther now meet the Pink Tiger !

I like stripes and choosing the combination of colours that can be put together. I have some Missoni towels that are beautiful enough to be displayed as wall hangings. I first saw them in a fascinating Missoni shop window in Bellagio on Lake Como. I gazed at the shop window for ages as I don't think I had seen Missoni stripes before.

On the subject of tigers I was interested to read that each tiger has a unique pattern of stripes.

I painted the stripes freehand so the pattern on this particular tie is also uinque.

Another tie that I painted is shown below. It is called Candy Stripe and makes me think of a kind of cylindrical sweet that is soft like marshmallow and has different colours swirled together.

florum Exhibition

My 7 paintings ( including the oils shown in the previous post and the Iris below )are now bubble wrapped and ready to go off to this exhibition with some Giclees and cards. The iris is another version that I have just painted like the one I showed several posts back. This is the one that I have chosen for the exhibition.

florum

Exhibition of botanical and floral works and landscapes with flowers in various media by invited artists

11 - 18 September 2010 Open daily 10 - 5

Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, Bradbourne Vale Road, Sevenoaks TN13 3DH

The Reserve is off the main A25 and is well signposted. Follow the track past the Riding Stables and bear left when it divides. Continue as far as the Wildlife Centre where there is ample free parking.

There will be works in different media including watercolours, oils, mixed media, etchings, machine embroidery on painted silk, silk paintings, coloured pencils, jewellery etc. and different styles and subjects including botanical, floral and landscapes.
62 different artists are taking part, many of them professional artists or tutors and over recent years nearly £10000 for the work of the Wildlife centre has been raised from sales at the exhibitions.

Right next to the centre there is a garden, a bird hide with information about birds and a lake as well as more extensive walks to other lakes and hides. Ideal for a family visit or for artists wanting to work en plein air!


The visitor centre where the exhibition is shown has displays illustrating the prehistory and history of the site, the creation of the nature reserve, its habitats and the wildlife which they support.Visitors can handle all sorts of 'treasures' such as nests, feathers and thirty-thousand year old mammoth teeth.