Embossed Copper Flower

Marta had been doing a lot of artwork during her childhood and did rediscover art in her adult years. Now she is having a lovely time making paintings and drawings. She also loves playing with shapes and textures; the copper flower is a good example of both: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9797233

She makes a lot of Art Cards, Editions and Originals, in short called ACEO. These cards are the size of a trading card, 2.5" x 3.5". Art Cards have been traded among artists for some time. They have become more and more popular, and now ACEOs are available for sale to collectors who wish to buy them. Art Cards are highly collectable and affordable mini-masterpieces. They enable art collectors to own a large variety of art from around the world.

She loves to share her techniques with other people on her blog http://sebentamarta.blogspot.com

where she gives step by step instructions about techniques used in her work.

Her etsy shop: http://martaharvey.etsy.com

Magic Yellow Cosmos

The flowers of yellow cosmos are not only a beauty in the garden, they also yield a variety of vibrant colours.

I'll give a short overview of a few colours you can achieve with this wonderful flowers.

The yellow and orange flowers both give the same results. I haven't tried other cosmos.

The wool is first mordanted with alum. A mordant is needed to fix the dye to the fibers. I use the natural rock alum, I am lucky to have a supplier in this area.

After boiling the flowers in water, I put the wool in the dyebath and let it boil until desired colour intensity. This will give a yellow colour.

Now the fun starts. We can modify the yellow colour in many different ways:

-soak in water with vinegar: the colour will turn more into a lemon yellow.

-soak in water with soda: this yields a bright orange.

-soak in rusted nail water (this is obtained by putting rusted nails in water and vinegar for at least a few days): you'll get an olive green.

-soak in rested nail water, rinse and soak in soda water: the wool becomes rust brown to dark warm brown.

I only use natural and non toxic ingredients in my natural dye techniques. This keeps it safe for me and for the planet.

One of my result with yellow cosmos dyes:

brown and orange vest

Silence

This work is a sunset at the sea with a few coconut palms in the foreground.

I felted this wall panel to depict the silence and peace on a quiet evening on the beach with the only sound the waves and the wind in the palm leaves.

The wool has been dyed with onion skins and yellow cosmos flowers, both mordanted with alum and some have been treated afterwards with soda or iron water (rusted nails in water) or a combination of the 2 methods to give a range of different yellows, oranges and browns. The finishing touch was done with stitching.

silence detail

Seasonal Dilemma

It is getting hotter here, in the tropics of Far North Queensland and working with wool makes it even warmer.

Visitors at the market tell me that it is too hot to even look at wool.

So, I started to list winter items in my etsy shop, hoping they will find a new owner in a cold country, while focusing on other local projects.

Time for a change! I am ready to change direction with my business, so it's all fitting in perfectly.

I will still be making felt clothing and also extend my creativity in other areas, something I have been willing to do for years.

I will upload some photos of my wall hangings that I made in the past in a next post.

The challenge with clothing is often the sizes. And because I make mainly one off pieces, I need the right person with the right size who likes the right colour and in in the right season and possibly in the right mood!....

Sno Globe, the spirit of winter.

Isn't this piece amazing!

Hand crafted by Karina of The SecretNest it is definitely a one off sculpture, using mixed media.

It brings a warm feeling, right what you need if you're experiencing winter on the moment.

Karina likes making sculptures that invoke the spirit of different seasons and/or geographical locations. This one is of course all about winter. She is very drawn to color, but sometimes She just loves using an all-white palette.

Find out more about Sno Globe.