Happy Groundhog Day!

A happy little groundhog

Day!

 

Indigo Dye

Included in my travels in Thailand was a trip to a cottage industry where they dyed fabric with natural indigo. They actually grew the indigo and processed it into the dye. The dye was mixed with water and possibly some setting agent -- I don't recall that any was mentioned.  

The next process was printing with hot wax using carved wooden block prints. The wax is melted and kept hot in vats over a wood fire. We chose a block print from the pile on the table, dipped it in the hot wax, and stamped the white fabric.

After the wax was stamped onto the white cloth it was dipped into a vat of indigo dye several times. It was then rinsed and hung to dry. Here is a photo of some recently printed fabric hanging out to dry.

Below is a photo of my fabric after drying but still with the dark stamped wax design adhered to the cloth. When I returned home, I placed the cloth in between a couple brown paper bags and ironed it with a hot iron until the wax melted into the paper. The second photo shows the printing after removing all the wax. 

 I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  Maybe I will frame it and hang it as a reminder of my trip to Thailand. And, of course, I bought one of their printed tops. It will be perfect for wearing next summer.

Books Adventure Travel Books

Home hobbies is this week's Spoonflower challenge. Arts, crafts, sewing -- these have been hobbies but also necessities. With three daughters to clothe I spent many years sewing and I loved it. But they moved on and so did I. At one point I worked in the DIY industry -- so lots of arts and crafts. Now, in retirement, I'm able to pursue surface design.  Arts, crafts, sewing -- they are what I work at. Hobbies are what I do in my leisure time and for me, it's books and travel. 

My "home hobby" Spoonflower challenge depicts books and travel. When I was still in my teens, I read

The Ant and the Grasshopper

The Spoonflower Design Challenge this week is:

"Teamwork" can be interpreted any way you like – from beavers building a dam to honeybees buzzing around their hive to make honey . . ." 

or ants?

A previous challenge was Garden Party -- so I was already thinking about ants coming to the party.  And who hasn't seen them working as a team carrying cookie crumbs back to their nest? And from there my mind wandered to the tale of The Ant and the Grasshopper.

Egypt

Egypt! I went for the pyramids and the camel. And as you can see, on the first day we went to view the pyramids and took a very short camel ride.  Not the greatest photo but -- hey, I'll take it!

The real surprise was the art in the temples and burial chambers -- the bright colors, the intricate detail.  Art was on the columns, the ceilings, sarcophagi, everywhere! I was surrounded by pictographs telling stories of ancient Egypt. 

This first photo is from a sarcophagus that is displayed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Just one of many such pieces. 

NEW -- Black Cream Floral Repeat Design

 

Just added my Black Cream Flower Collection to my Spoonflower shop. This is a large bold print with flowers

Groundhog Tradition

Holiday decorations are put away; the new year is well underway with cold weather, snowstorms, rain, and wind. What better time for another holiday – one that brings a smile to the face and anticipation of warm sunny flower-filled days.

 About twenty years ago

Groundhog Day

I like Groundhog Day because it's funny, because it's obscure and mostly not celebrated. I also like it because it's right in the middle of cold dark days of winter.

A Real Kenyan Safari

Sunset in Kenya

Those of you who follow me on social media already know that I enjoyed a wonderful family Christmas adventure. Seven members of the family traveled to Kenya for a safari. 

Spoonflower Design Challenge | Insect Safari

Insect Safari is my first Spoonflower Challenge design for the new year. It was inspired by the section Insect Safari in the chapter

Having Fun with Procreate

My daughters gave me an iPad Pro for Christmas. So I decided I was ready to download Procreate and explore the possibilities. It was a little intimidating at first but at least I had already learned to work with layers in Photoshop. I'm really excited about what I've been able to do with just a few of the tools available. I have been learning to do repeats for

Mosaic Series Again

I'm loving the mosaic series. It has been fun making the little shapes fit together and adding flowers and foliage. This time I was inspired by a photo of "weeds" I took recently on a morning walk. I saw these lovely big (maybe) morning glory leaves highlighted by a ray of sunshine. So glad I caught these in a photo -- the next day they had been mown down. Using Procreate, here is my rendition of the above photo. You can purchase a print of my digital art from my Fine Art America shop.

Mosaic Series

Mexico is the inspiration for the Mosaic Series. I was awed by the beautiful bright mosaics and the gorgeous flowers and plants everywhere. Looking through photos from that trip, sparked the idea to play with an arrangement of plants and mosaics -- bringing the joy of the trip into my artwork. So far I have five different but similar mosaic and plant digital paintings. They make me smile. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Here is the first.  Enjoy!

And Then . . ,

 geared up and ready to start a brand new year! I planned to write more blog posts. I signed up for #MAE and #100dayproject, reviewed designs on #SpoonFlower thinking about revising and developing them into collections and explored ideas for new #Zazzle designs.  And, to make this even better, my daughters gave me a new iPadPro for Christmas. I downloaded ProCreate and I was ready to make this a creative year.

New Year New Post

 I remarked to the Molly Maid ladies just before the holidays that I really needed to make a resolution in the new year to clean my studio. I started having them come clean last February after a mishap with my knee but told them to leave my studio room as it was except for the floors. I kept thinking I would clean it. Somehow the COVID thing had the opposite effect on me. I just could not get motivated to do much of anything. Well, I can't really blame it all on COVID -- I've also had a bad knee for the whole year.

Anyway, Molly Maids were due in the middle of January to clean and I suddenly felt the need to follow through on my promise. I started dragging stuff out of the closet, then the shelves. Then I had to do something.  So a little bit one day and a little bit the next. Viola! I did it! Well, except for 4 file drawers full of paper and a trunk full of linens. I will get to them eventually.

Feels good to have a clean mostly uncluttered space with my art quilts hanging on the wall. Still have stuff I need to get rid of -- Facebook Market hasn't been much help this go-round.

No before pictures -- it was that bad.

Winged Skeleton

The Winged Skeleton jumped out at me (pun intended). The American tourist that I am, I immediately thought of Halloween!

The skeleton is a Monument to Cardinal Cinzio Aldobrandini and is located in San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in Chains), a church and minor basilica located in Rome.

My 100 Day Project - Part II

 Inspiration!

For me, it seems that the more I create the more creative ideas I have. That is what happened as I created the Pillow Collection using the floral designs from my #100dayproject.

After cleaning up the sketches and enhancing the colors in Photoshop, I decided they needed to be tweaked to reflect my style. And, what is my style? Having done needlework since the early age of about 5, I tend to see designs stitched. So, I accented the designs with a marker and inked stitches.

My 100 Day Project - Part I

How many of you participate in daily art projects? Do you consider them practice? Meditative? Brainstorming new ideas? In a way, these daily practices seem to stem from social media -- the need to share?   

Wonderful Wacky Holidays

I discovered the Wiggle Your Toes holiday when I was doing research for The Complete Idiot's Guide to Backyard Adventures which was published in 2008. (Unfortunately, the book is no longer published. However, I do have a few copies available in my eBay shop.) While my Wacky Holiday chapter did not make it into the book, there is an appendix of A Year of Holidays to Celebrate. Of all the wild and wacky holidays I found, this has got to be my favorite. This might be the crazy year to seriously celebrate --

Wiggle Your Toes!

Lovely Gardenia

The Lovely Gardenia Collection in my Zazzle shop is based on this photo. Last spring I added new bushes to my side yard which included two gardenias. What a wonderful surprise to have blooms the first season.

For the collection, I used Photoshop to make the photo somewhat transparent and gave it a more painterly look. I printed the photo and added pen/ink markings to accent the edges of the petals.