Art, Crafts and Creativity
I have always enjoyed art, but tend to lose motivation to find the time to make art and have a bad habit of getting enthusiastic for a short while and then getting too busy and ignoring my creative side. As an adult it's easy to compare my amateur abilities to accomplished artists and feel discouraged. However with the ever increasing 'art' abilities of AI I am determined to get back into art as a hobby. I find it relaxing and it feels great to create something human.
So I am starting this thread for all the accomplished and hobby artists and crafty shipmates to share about their projects and techniques and inspire each other to keep being creative when life gets busy.
My latest pursuit is water colour painting. I haven't really used water colours since school and began with some lessons on activities to teach children that I can use at work and add to my professional development hours. The course came with all the paints, brushes and some paper so I am continuing improving my skills and having fun using Youtube tutorials. I plan to get creative and paint some more original paintings once my skills improve and I get the courage to be more experimental. Today I painted a simple cat and poppies and had a go at a landscape.
So I am starting this thread for all the accomplished and hobby artists and crafty shipmates to share about their projects and techniques and inspire each other to keep being creative when life gets busy.
My latest pursuit is water colour painting. I haven't really used water colours since school and began with some lessons on activities to teach children that I can use at work and add to my professional development hours. The course came with all the paints, brushes and some paper so I am continuing improving my skills and having fun using Youtube tutorials. I plan to get creative and paint some more original paintings once my skills improve and I get the courage to be more experimental. Today I painted a simple cat and poppies and had a go at a landscape.
Comments
And an interesting thread where we can't easily share images.
I've started drawing with biro. I find it freeing as I can't rub out so have to draw freely and loosely.
I have already made a prairie bonnet using some leftover navy blue gabardine (I made the version with the ruffles), and have dismembered an old bedsheet to make an apron. Now I'm moving onto the frock, hopefully making something I can wear again after. I have some very pretty floral fabric, only downside is that it's quite thin and transparent so I'm going to have to line it. Another bedsheet shall be dismembered for the purpose. I'm going to base it on a vintage blouse pattern from my Mum's collection, and add a layered skirt onto it. This is going to involve gathering a LOT of fabric, but I can't think of another way of enfrockifying the pattern. If I have the time and haven't lost the will to live by then, I might finish the ensemble with a frilly faux collar and cuffs.
@la vie en rouge your costume project seems amazing. I learnt to machine sew, but struggled to sew straight seems. I didn't inherit the family dressmaking skills, unfortunately. I have enjoyed cross stitching in the past, however.
I started cross stitching when I was 20 and must have done hundreds of pieces, mainly because many of them are quite small.
At present I am stitching bookmarks to sell at the local Community library. One of the first ones I designed was for a friend and was based on a sign outside a local bookshop that said - " I'm a novel lover but I'm booked for the night".
Years later I spoke to the owner of the bookshop and she said the words came from a printed bookmark a friend from England had sent her. Later, when I wanted to stitch the design again I discovered I'd lost it so I asked my friend if I could borrow the bookmark back - he refused, on the entirely reasonable grounds I'd probably lose it, but he said we could photocopy it. I said, "But you can't photocopy needlework". I was wrong - it turns out you can.
So that is what I'm doing with the bookmarks. I stitch one, photocopy it multiples times, back them with another piece of paper and laminate the results.
As the bookmarks are only two pieces of paper and the plastic thick they don't strain the spine of the book as a fabric bookmark might.
My latest design I backstitched both as a wall hanging for my cat's vet. and a bookmark. It depicts the rear view of a cat with a raised tail, with the words 'Hissed Off" stitched underneath in red. I'm having to produce more copies than usual as people who see it at the Vet's also want a bookmark (some may want it as a wall hanging, but it will only be available as a bookmark unless they stitch it themselves).
Here is my latest spring inspired Cueva de Nerja.
https://imgur.com/gallery/la-cueva-en-primavera-GknSOD1
AFF
Aw! Not fair! Booo!
AFF
I was confused for a moment why I could see it then remembered I have my VPN on which places me in Ireland.
I'm about to go out the door with a bag full of wool and another bag of crochet hooks and knitting needles for a craft event at church this afternoon.