How to choose roving for needle-felting

You might remember the beginner project I did with needle felting a little while ago.  I say "beginner" because I'm one, not because you are!  Anyway, I found a nice little video that shows you some of the wonderful fibers that you can do hand felting with.  Apparently almost anything can be used to needle felt if you have one of the machines, but when you're working by hand, you want to make sure that your efforts will be successful.  Here is Brookelynn Morris at The Yarn Tree Shop to show us how to choose:






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Recent publications: September 2010

 

Cut It, Paste It, Sew It: A Mixed-Media Collage Sourcebook by Chisa Itou

Drawn to Stitch: Line, Drawing, and Mark-Making in Textile Art by Gwen Hedley

Adobe Photoshop CS5 Illustrated by Chris Botello

Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One by Deke McClelland

Dual Image Appliqué by Dilys Fronks

45 Quilt Blocks: Flowers: A New Collection of Designs by Trice Boerens

Crochet It. Love It. Wear It! by Drew Emborsky

Ton of Holland: Contemporary Embroidery by Mattias Duyves and Roos van Put

Kaleidoscope Quilts: The Workbook: Create One-Block Masterpieces; New Step-by-Step Instructions by Paula Nadelstern

From Spain with Love: 11 Quilts Celebrate Mediterranean Color by Roberta Cardew

Quilts: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum by Elizabeth V. Warren


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Twig lettering

The trees begin to lose more and more of their leaves, and it's also easy to lose heart.  Eco-artware has a simple project called Twig Lettering that will help you to take advantage of the bare twigs all around you...especially if you have children who would enjoy an outing in the woods.  Instead of only collecting leaves to press, collect some twigs too!


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Altered books - Foil lettering

Shiny metal foil tape, the self-adhesive type, can be found in hardware stores.  The brand that I found had black ink writing all over it (what were they thinking?), but I removed it easily with some acetone, aka nail polish remover!  Look for a brand that has a thin film on the back that you can peel off to uncover the sticky part.  This makes it much easier to handle until you're ready to stick it in place.

Materials and tools list from Part One

1. Use a stylus, a blunt pencil, or an empty ballpoint pen tip to write on the foil tape.  All you want to do is to incise the letters, not to leave any ink.

2. Thin some black acrylic paint until it is thin enough to run into the incised lines you made.  Wipe each word with paint, and wipe it right back off the tops of the foil, leaving it down in the lines.

3. Peel off the film from the backs of the words and stick them in place on your otherwise completed page.


Part One: Introduction to altered books
Part Two: Mixed text technique
Part Three: Blending in an image
Part Four: Nesting pages
Part Five: Adding tabs
Part Six: Making a frame
Part Seven: Slicing up an image
Part Eight: Foil lettering
Part Nine: Doors and other flaps

Copyright 2010 Cyndi Lavin. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.

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More artsy links!

 

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi plays with a 3d paper sample to create this new card set.  

Beading Arts
Have you seen what you can do with macrame? Don't think hemp, think colorful and modern! 


Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Remember the chewing gum twins, "Two, two, two sticks in one"? Well, Eileen set out to make a monoprint - which means one single print - and ended up with two!

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week at Craftside there is a charming pattern for knitting a shrug, a tutorial on how to make a felted covered bangle, an inside peek (or peck) of some wonderful bird art from the book 1,000 Artisan Textiles and a chance to win a poster by Masha D'yans and a copy of 1,000 Ideas for Decorating Cupcakes, Cookies and Cakes.  

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Artsy blogging round-up!

 

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Don't let the rotten egg smell or safety concerns keep you from discovering the wonderful burnished effects you can create on thin metal sheet with liver of sulfur. 

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Madge has a big new full time job! Read all about it!  

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
See how I am spinning..uh crocheting a spider web skirt inspired by The Crochet Dude's new book- Crochet It. Love It. Wear It! and read a fun interview with master of the hook himself Drew Emborsky!  

About Family Crafts
Enjoy some family time together and make some apple crafts. A perfect Autumn activity!  

Aileen's Musings
Don't be araid to live out loud is Aileen's motto! She demonstrates this with her front door redesign, stop by and see her boldly painted front door!  




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Altered books links from the archives

Altered book cover frames

House book

Found poem altered book page

Altered book artists

Altered book communities

Design ideas for page layouts

Sculptural books

Complete list of book arts posts




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Book review: 500 Judaica

I love the Lark 500 Series books, and this one is no exception!  500 Judaica features just over 180 artists who work at making ritual objects used both at home and in the synagogue.  One would expect to see lots of beautiful menorahs, Shabbat candlesticks, and seder plates, and yes, you will find many amazing examples.  But you will also be thrilled by gorgeous ketubot, Kiddush cups, tallits, tzedakah boxes, and more.

The artists featured work in metal, wood, ceramics, paper, and fabric.  An introduction by Daniel Balasco, a curator at The Jewish Museum in NYC, discusses the various trends in contemporary Judaica.  There is also a glossary which is helpful for those who are not as familiar with the names and purposes of the various ritual items. 


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My current favorite color scheme generator

This is an amazing little palette generator! Let’s say that you’ve created a picture in one medium, and would like to turn it into a different medium…like for example, I want to make a beaded piece that uses the palette of the digital image I’ve already created. Which I do, by the way! Run your image through the palette generator, and you’ll have swatches of the colors, complete with the html code.

Here’s a link to my more complete list of Online Color Training and Tools post.

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Adorable bracelet by Kirsten

Isn't it so much better to make your own then to spend...say $385 on a bracelet?  That's what Kirsten, aka milesapart714 on Craftster thought!  I'll bet that a lot of you have all the materials hanging around right now to make a bracelet like this, either for yourself or for your teen.  Thanks Kirsten, for the ingenuity and for the excellent photos of how you did it!


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Altered books - Slicing up an image

One way to add a bit of mystery or interest to an image is to slice it up.  Sometimes you might even want to slice it up and rearrange the pieces, but in the spread shown above, I kept them in the same order and simply allowed some of the background to show through.

Materials and tools list from Part One

1. Paint your page or spread a bold color that contrasts with the image you will use.  A more subtle look can be obtained by keeping the background color closer to that of the image.

2. If you want your cut up image to be precise, use a transparent ruler and an X-acto knife to slice it apart.  It is not necessary to be precise: some wonderful effects can be gained by cutting images up in random sized pieces. 

3. In order to achieve precise placement, I adhered the left column and then the top and bottom rows first, filling in carefully with the inside pieces.  Add a layer or acrylic medium to the top when the pieces are all in place. 

Part One: Introduction to altered books
Part Two: Mixed text technique
Part Three: Blending in an image
Part Four: Nesting pages
Part Five: Adding tabs
Part Six: Making a frame
Part Seven: Slicing up an image
Part Eight: Foil lettering
Part Nine: Doors and other flaps

Copyright 2010 Cyndi Lavin. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.

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More artsy links!

 

Jack o Lantern Pumpkin Cheesecake Balls
A fun treat to make for those fall and Halloween parties.

Beading Arts
Wool roving for a necklace? Cyndi's tutorial is finished!

Creative Dreamer
Part b of the cutie Halloween pumpkin... and in next week's link, the wrap up and pattern! 


Cthulhu Fireworm Scarf - Free Crochet Pattern
A fast and easy crocheted scarf for the geek in your life.

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Many artists and crafters find it helpful to set goals for their art but do so in different ways. How about you? Do you have any goals or methods for improving in your art? 


 

 

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Artsy blogging round-up!

 
Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week at Craftside there are tutorials on how to make a wire wrapped stamp and purl stitch with beads, 4 of the hats from the Sculptural chapter from 1,000 Fabulous Knit Hats, a bunch of painting tips, and how to replace a turn signal bulb in your car.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy is brainstorming for ideas to do something craft-y that doesn't require craft-ing!  

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Remember the chewing gum twins, “Two, two, two sticks in one”? Well, Eileen set out to make a monoprint – which means one single print – and ended up with two!  

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
See how to make monster ping pong ball eyes inspired by the new book-Me Make Monster!  

About Family Crafts
Sherri will be hosting a blog carnival in honor of Halloween... Find out how you can join in the fun!  

Aileen's Musings
Aileen reminds us that September is Ovarian Cancer month. Stop by and read about the Ties That Bind book she created last year and help spread the word!  

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi discovers the art of making boxes.  




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The seasons change so fast!

From summer vacation (seems like it was just yesterday), right into early fall!

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What we did on our summer vacation...

It focused completely around our delightful granddaughter, Katherine. As well it should!

 Her first fish...she didn't really know what she had done!

There was some time available to do things for her parents too :-)

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Calls for entries and submissions

Brynmorgen Press, book on metal clay rings

Deadline: 11/01/10

No holes barred

Deadline: 11/01/10

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Cutwork without cutting

Photo: Sloan Howard

I was not aware of the product called Fiber Etch until I came across this article written by Jennifer Hasemann about Chemical Cutwork posted on the Threads Magazine website.  How would you like to be able to create fabric designs like this without having to do all the fussy cutting after stitching? 


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Altered books - Making a frame

It takes at least two pages in your book to create a frame, plus whatever image you might want to insert.  In my example, I have sandwiched a piece of velum on which I've written and painted between the two pages of the frame that are attached to my book.  Here's how it's done:

Materials and tools list from Part One

1. Choose 4 pages in your book, and remove a couple of pages on either side of the group. 

2. Open and spread the pages so that there are 2 on each side.  Use a stamp or draw a design for your frame, adding any paints or other color that you wish.

3. Using an X-acto knife, cut out the inner portion of each page (only the top page on each side), leaving the frame intact.

4. Paint or decorate the outer pages that are serving as "mats" if you wish.  You can either adhere images to this mat, or as I have done, you can glue something in between the two pages on each side.  This technique gives you many layers to work with.  It is possible to use even more than two pages on each side, and to cut each page opening smaller than the previous one to create a layered "tunnel".


Part One: Introduction to altered books
Part Two: Mixed text technique
Part Three: Blending in an image
Part Four: Nesting pages
Part Five: Adding tabs
Part Six: Making a frame
Part Seven: Slicing up an image
Part Eight: Foil lettering
Part Nine: Doors and other flaps

Copyright 2010 Cyndi Lavin. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.

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In memoriam

More artsy links!

 
Creative Dreamer
I made a cutie pumpkin for Halloween, and I am sharing with everyone how I did it, and giving you a pattern at the end of the series so you can do it too! Come see part 1!

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Do you know how to avoid clay shrinkage and distortion with clays baked in the home oven?  

Beading Arts
Have you tried wool roving in your jewelry designs? See what Cyndi has been doing with this fascinating material!  


Technorati Tags:mixed media,collage,assemblage,digital art,photography,altered books,art journals

Artsy blogging round-up!

 
Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi has some great samples working with paper that has a white core.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world  
At Craftside this week there are tutorials on how to purl stitch with beads, embellish a softie with a heart, a recipe for a stop chewing spray for dogs, and how to eliminate a side seam on a pants pattern.  

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy asks about your creative muse and shares some information about hers.  

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Many artists and crafters find it helpful to set goals for their art but do so in different ways. How about you? Do you have any goals or methods for improving in your art?

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Confidence is sexy. Madge muses about the power of embracing uniquely wonderful you.  

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
See how I took a bite out of a sweater with inspiration from the new book Vampire Knits by Genevieve Miller.  

About Family Crafts
Did you know that September is National Sewing Month? Sherri has some fun and simple ways you can celebrate with the entire family.  

Aileen's Musings
This week Aileen offers you her gouache painted sunflower tutorial using a black and white photograph she took of her harvested sunflowers.  

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AfricanColours

Nakato and Abirye

Ben Bukenya

I found a fabulous website recently, full of mixed media pieces and other works, all by contemporary African artists.  The mission of AfricanColours is to provide a platform and to promote a "viable contemporary African art scene that is internationally recognised and technologically savvy."

If you search specifically on mixed media, you will be take to a page that just burns with color.  Visit the individual artists' portfolios for a fabulous artist date!


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Creativity and the periodic table

Here is a fun online tool for you to bookmark. The Periodic Table of Visualization Methods has been assembled by a team of media, communications, and management specialists. It’s primary target seems to be business people and engineers, rather than artists, but it's still a brilliant piece of work ;-) You can roll your mouse over the “elements” to see an example of each strategy.



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Results: What did you name your business and why?

Eileen, The Artful Crafter, writes:

We named our website business 2nd Chance Websites. Above is a scrapbook layout I did about forming the company (also about working on the road - lol) and here's the blog post.

We came up with the name because we were - and still are - so grateful for the "second chance" God gave us after losing most of our retirement savings in the dot.com collapse.

The name's okay; but with 20/20 hindsight we should have chosen something more descriptive of what we do. Sometimes people ask if we are programmers who take failing websites and give them a second chance at success.

No, we're a team (married for 43 years) of: two writers, one artist/crafter and one super-smart guy who has taught himself html and CSS (and lots of other acronyms I haven't a clue about), who were given a 2nd Chance at success and security.



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Why suffer with ugly steps?

You won't have to live with ugly steps anymore, if Lara Berch has anything to say about it!  With about $25 and a couple of free hours, you can transform your plain concrete step into a masterpiece like this.  Lara shows you how at the link above. 

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Altered books - Adding tabs

There are many ways to add a page or some tabs from a different source into your altered books.  One of the easiest is simply to glue it directly to an existing page.  But sometimes it's more interesting to add the page or tabs in a more "free-standing" manner, especially when they are shaped and you don't want the underlying page to be distracting. 

Materials and tools list from Part One

1. Choose or create the inserts that you wish to add to your book.  In this example, I made three shaped tabs that I wrote on, front and back.  Choose where in your altered book you are going to add the tabs or the page. 

2. Carefully use an X-acto blade or a sharp pair of scissors to cut all but about an inch away from two consecutive pages in the book.  Paint or decorate these "stubs" if you want.

3. Your tabs or page can be sandwiched between the stubs by either gluing, stapling, using eyelets (as shown
above) or brads, or any other means of attachment that appeals to you.  

Part One: Introduction to altered books
Part Two: Mixed text technique
Part Three: Blending in an image
Part Four: Nesting pages
Part Five: Adding tabs
Part Six: Making a frame
Part Seven: Slicing up an image
Part Eight: Foil lettering
Part Nine: Doors and other flaps

Copyright 2010 Cyndi Lavin. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.

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More artsy links!

 

(Simple) First Communion Scrapbook
Sometimes the photos are all you really need to make a great scrapbook.

Creative Dreamer
My FAVORITE treat is candied ginger. I love, love, love it...especially when it is dipped in chocolate. I've made some... come see! 

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Here are directions for creating a hat-shaped card. Eileen made a Red Hat card but the directions can easily be adapted to make a cowboy hat, a Mexican sombrero or a frilly lady's hat for an afternoon tea or luncheon.


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Yay for Coleen!!

Coleen Frank is the winner of the free e-book chapter, Dimensional Beading!  Congratulations, Coleen :-)

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Results: What did you name your business and why?

Bonnie Ferguson Butler writes:

I call my blog and informal business, "Potomac Artworks." As a primarily plein
air painter, I often work and photograph along the banks of the Potomac in view
of nearby Maryland. I kept the name general so it could include all the media I
work in, using artworks as a sort of parallel to ironworks, as in a place to
produce.

Above is City Perspective, which is a mixed media with semi-precious stones,
of Washington DC and the Potomac River.You can see more of Bonnie's work at these two sites:
bfbutler.blogspot.com
www.workhousearts.org/bonniefergusonbutler





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