I was browsing through the photos on Alisa Burke’s site earlier (on this post) and her picture of the 3 shells reminded me of reading many months ago about a process to create a natural colour palette that can be used in any art or craft.  I grabbed a picture of the new shoots in the polytunnel to demonstrate this idea.

Open the picture in your photo editing package of choice…ours happens to be GIMP; we’re massive fans of Open Source, particularly Ubuntu which makes it so easy to install whatever type of package you need and were considering given some faceless conglomerate a few hundred pounds for the privilege of owning.  Check it out…although I digress.

Open the photo and use the colour grab tool to sample the different parts of the picture.  Create some layers and drop the sampled colour onto each layer.  From this point you can build a natural palette on which to base your sewing, knitting, painting, interior design…anything!

The first colour came from the leaf that you might be able to spot to the left of the photo.  I tried so hard to sample the brown of the soil, but it turns out it’s not brown, it’s blue-grey.  The greens are from the shoots.

Because these colours occur naturally together they are pleasing to the eye…nature will never let us down in that respect.

The idea is further demonstrated on the Colour Lovers website, where they grab colours from various images to show trends.

A quickie again today (I’m exhausted) to share with you the work of Meagan Ileana who I came across via the Feeling Stitchy blog.  She has such amazing patience and artistic ability.  Check out all these tiny stitches…

Meagan says:

I draw from true moments in relationships and also from bodies. Things I return to: plants, babies, nudity/anatomy, queer relationships, friendships, private moments and sweet nothings. The most recently finished piece is the one that inspires me to keep going, It’s like an addiction. Sometimes even the stitches themselves are what excite me about starting a new piece.

Check out her Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Meaganileana.  Her work is incredibly reasonably priced given the time and effort, not to mention the skill, required to create such pieces.

I came across Irish artist, Anne Ellard’s Sketchbook Project while browsing through Issuu.  I just love these silhouette’s she’s created with collage.

(c) Anne Ellard 2011

You can find out more about Anne and view some of her other artwork here and here, or follow her on FaceBook.

Just a couple of bits of news to share with you today, with it being Sunday and with me having spent the day away from home not making anything.

Alisa Burke has announced her online sketching class this week to start on Feb 7th.  Sign ups are open now for the most reasonable price of $50.  It’s a five week class with ongoing access to the lessons when the classes end.

Alisa’s sketchbook is a true work of art.  I wish I was even a fraction as good as she is at, not only sketching, but also incorporating a free and seemingly effortless style into everything she does.  She’s a true devotee of colour and I am often gob-

smacked at the beauty of her work.  Of course, we shouldn’t covet another’s style and should try to develop our own, which Alisa’s class should help with.

(c) Alisa Burke 2011

The next piece of news I want to share with you is that there’s a series of instructional posts over at While She Naps showing the method Abigail uses for making her amazing soft toys.  I’ve not had a chance to have a proper look yet, but there does look to be some really helpful advice contained within the posts so far.

(c) Abigail Glassenberg 2011

Abilgail is the author of the upcoming book, The Artful Bird: Fanciful Feathered Friends to Make and Sew which goes on sale later this month.  I do covet this book and it will be mine!

Regular readers may remember a post I made a few weeks ago, Trial by Clay, in which I featured a rough attempt at a clay bird, I’ve since refined the notion and have been merrily creating a range of slightly smaller free standing birds with a simplified design in red and white, the scheme works well with the copper legs and necks that I’ve been giving them, recycled from our on-going rewiring project.

Available from Etsy and Coriandr

As well as the free-standing birds I’ve also been busy making hanging birds for use as Christmas decor, their not quite finished yet since I need to source some nice ribbon for the hangers and I just haven’t seen any that I think is suitable yet, bit of a WIP in that respect, although I’ll hopefully have them in the shops soon.

Paper fabric is fabric made with layers of paper and other bits and pieces, in this case glitter and threads, covered with a whole layer of tissue paper.  I used an old sewing pattern instead of plain tissue paper.  All of this is glued in sequence on top of a piece of muslin with watered down PVA glue.  The effects are interesting and the resulting ‘fabric’ is very easy to sew.

When I first started to make my piece of paper fabric I worried that it was too haphazard and it would look too messy but as you can see, once sewn into a finch the effect is quite striking.

The legs are made from some of the recycled copper electrical wire from the rewiring of our house and the whole bird has since been varnished with clear lacquer for a very shiny finish.

I’m now in the process of making a blue one to keep this one company.  Colour is added simply with acrylic paint sprayed with water.

Available in the shop

Regular readers will realise that there has been something of a focus on gardening, growing, polytunnels and stuff on this blog over the last few months … in fact some might say there has been a general focus on grown stuff, given that I have decided to launch a new site focusing purely on this grown stuff, so much so that I’ve decided to call it GrownStuff.

GrownStuff.co.uk will be the repository for all my gardening posts from now on whilst MadeStuff will continue to focus on the arts and crafts, that’s not to say there isn’t an overlap though, photography remains an important part of what I do and the garden offers a wealth of photographic opportunities that interest me.  So in that vain at least I will continue to post images here that I deem ‘pretty enough’, such as this pair:

Clicking either image will take you to the new post.
See, now you get the pretty pictures without the ‘boring’ back story!

It was about two years ago that someone suggested that I should have a go working with clay when they saw the wood carvings I was turning out, at the time it wasn’t a suggestion I took particularly seriously, not to say that I wasn’t interested I just couldn’t get my head around it as a medium.

Fast forward to 2010 and I finally plucked up the courage to get some clay, a reinforced air-drying variety that means I don’t need to worry about getting access to a kiln … although I can think of at least two people who might be able to provide access if I asked nicely!  The images here are representative of my first tentative toyings with the substance, and show a distinct lack of adventure on my part …

… first up is a clay version of the bonnie birds …

… the bird here is about 5″ or 6″ tall to the tip of it’s tail.  Whilst this little lady below is more like 3.5″ tall …

You may notice that both pieces use the same palette, there’s a very good reason for this.  I’m tight.  That is all … lol

I’ve been wanting to try lino printing for quite some time now but I don’t have the correct tools or the inclination to buy the tools.  I do however, have a pack of vinyl floor tiles and a series of gouges that Alasdair uses for his carvings.

Ever the type to make do with what I have, I decided to see if the vinyl tiles could do as good a job as lino.  I think the outcome is passable although nowhere near as clear as those I’ve seen from lino…this could also be to do with my lack of ink and brayer and my improvisation of kids paint and a spongy paint roller (also designed for kids).

Not at all bad though.  I printed the outline shape and then cut the same piece of vinyl further to create lines, which I then painted black.  I love all the extra bits that are created from the carving.  Many would remove these ridges but I think they add something of a handmade quality.

I’m thinking of combining this technique with some of my handmade paper and a more elaborate picture for some more luxurious prints.

I don’t think I’ve owned a pair of plimsolls since, ooooo, forever!  If I had to make a guess then I might suggest it’s been at least 25 years, certainly not since leaving primary school!  This is something that’s been pulling at me for some time to do and, Mmmmmm, there’s nothing quite like the smell of new plimsolls is there – or does that just make me a bit weird!?

Anyway I’ve been noticing images of customised plimsolls ever since I joined up with DeviantArt a couple of years back and I’ve got to say they are something of an inspiration, even if my own initial efforts are a far cry from those featured in that link – these pictured here really are an initial effort.  If nothing else it gave me a chance to try out taking photo’s in my new light-box!

The lass has made me promise to do her a pair and I can envisage something in pink/lilac with love hearts for her and she seems happy with the idea.  Of course if I do a pair for her then no doubt the lad will want a pair too so I guess I’ll need to do two more pairs at the very least.