I’ve been working on some new imagery for some cedar plank plaques. Sometimes we visit the Chateau Ste. Michelle winery just to see the beautiful peacocks that live on the grounds. I have yet to hear their loud cry but from what I understand, they can make quite a racket.
I’ve been really inspired by all the beautiful handmade beads I’ve been seeing on the web lately. Some of the bird beads are pricey to buy so I thought I’d try making my own. Well, as it turns out, it’s really fun and fast and I’m thinking of projects to incorporate beads and more beads. Here they are drying on bamboo sticks. They look like yummy little candies.
What is more fun than being inspired by special friends on Valentine’s Day? Whoo hoo! After baking some polymer hearts, I covered the sides with Washi tape. I covered the fronts and back with images from my painting stash. I added some cool numbers that were from an old TV set. I coated everything in Triple Thick for sheen and dimension. A few more embellishments were added such as gold leaf pen accents and a metal eyelet. I strung them on colorful banana fiber and they were ready to go.
I found these lovely rubber coated beads that have such a sparkle to them that I wanted to add my own imagery on top by punching out some circles from other card designs. I coated the images with Glossy Accents to give them some protection and a nice sheen. The beads are double-sided and I can’t wait to string them, perhaps on a bracelet. When I hold them in my hand they are like shiny little candies.
Blue birdy flying over a color field in blue. The background was made with collage and pastels that I smeared with my finger. I love how the colors changed and bled when I painted them with matte medium. Looks like watercolor but isn’t.
Bursting with energy, and bright color. I made this postcard to be a backer to some Valentine heart pendants. I started by dividing my art journal page into quadrants and then worked on all four corners at one time. This was one of the quadrants and the bird above was another. The other two didn’t turn out as well so only these two made it to be actual postcards.
A promotional collage postcard. My favorite part is the tiny bit of starry night peeking out from behind the theatrical set up. The leaf and shell are like the actors on stage and the ribbons along the side are meant to be the curtains.
Here are the rest of the backer cards series that I package with pendants. The cards are approx. 4×6 and all of the photos I took with my camera, not knowing what I would end up doing with them. I played around with real paint chips and then arranged them to come up with my own “paint sample’ collection. The funnest part was naming each color.
Putting together a batch of cards to go up on my upcoming Etsy shop. It’s been a time of busy production and can’t wait to have it up and running.
Here is my latest pendant design with matching art card. I have 7 more designs that I’m making pendants for. I adhere my image to a bead. It is double sided so that when the pendant swings, it is reversible. I plan on making many more of these.
