Ocean Waves

Water is the primal life source and represents our spiritual life and our emotions. All life sprang from the oceans. It is the symbol of the womb, motherhood and feminine energies. The Ocean in a dynamic force and is constantly in transition representing the sum total of possibilities. This is where we find our sub-conscious mind and even our unconscious mind.  The ocean is a dynamic force and represents universal life, spiritual exploration, time, and  eternity.  Ocean swells  symbolize activity in our unconscious mind.  Waves are for regeneration and dreams.  


The waves of my ocean are done with different metallic threads. I have learned several things with working with metallic threads. For the mylar type of threads work with short lengths, don't pull to hard and be careful not to pierce the thread. Although the thread breaks fairly easily it does give lovely sparkle and is easier to hand stitch then you might think. All metallic threads seem to do better in shorter lengths and with regular knots on the back in case of breakage.


I chose to add a bit of surf to my ocean by using some white netting and a pale blue sheer ribbon. I kept breaking threads while attaching it and finally figured that cotton was the best because it was a bit stronger to pull the scrunched up netting in. Regular knots on the back helped, too.

For the most recent photos of my project go to My Web Gallery or Artistic Kreations and Passions.

Stitching Up A Fern

The stitching has started so I am guessing that my posts will probably start coming a bit farther apart since the embroidery work will take a bit longer to do. I have had a headache everyday since the second week in July so things are going a bit more slowly than I might like. I have also been working on a couple of other projects which you can see if you go to my main blog.

I am not sure yet how I will break up all of the stitching blog entries but I think the first couple are going to be by area. That may not work for all of the areas of the piece since I have been doing the handwork in whatever area I was in the mood for so far.

I am using a variety of threads so far for my stitching. For the ferns I used rayon sewing thread and metallic sewing thread both from Sulky. I have been using several different embroidery stitches and some sort of free form embroidery stitches. I am not to worried about whether a stitch is done just so or if it is even a "real" embroidery stitch. I am very much after getting the look and feel I am after. I think having no formal training in embroidery is only to my advantage, not that I have ever been very good about falling the rules. I think in Art rules make good guidelines but are meant to be bent and broken. A favorite quote "We must be fluid, flexible is too rigid" not sure who said it but sure describes some of my design philosophy.

The stitched area that we are going to look at is the ferns that are growing at the base of my tree. I decided to add the ferns and some other items without looking up the symbolism first. I love ferns and find them fascinating plants. They are ancient plants and grow from spores and not seeds. I love seeing the furled up fiddle heads as they grow. A forest floor blanketed in ferns feels very peaceful to me and I love to take photos of ferns when I can.

Ferns symbolism includes magic, fascination, confidence, sincerity, endurance and shelter. It is interesting that looking at the symbolism I probably would have chosen the ferns anyway but the ferns came first. They are on the secret door which leads to the other side giving me the magic and confidence to open the door and see what it reveals.

For the most recent photos of my project go to My Web Gallery or Artistic Kreations and Passions.

A Door Takes Form

In my last post you read about the door getting cut out of the main collage. Part of the reason I chose to do this instead of making a separate door was because I wanted the door to blend into the tree and be somewhat secret.

I started my stitching on the door because it was a manageable size and so that I had a better idea where I wanted to go with the stitching. I used rayon machine thread and embroidery floss and cotton embroidery floss. Some of these are variegated which adds a nice realism to the piece. I started with the wood of the tree, the fern and moss bits were next and last was adding the ivy which is waxed cotton cord couched on with rayon thread and a few stitched tendrils and interfacing ivy leaves. The leaves are only stitched along the center vein so the edges are free


I wanted to use the brass hinges because they would stand out. I want the door to be somewhat of a secret but not completely. I found these and the latch at Michaels, I was hoping I could find them small enough and I did, but how to attach them. I could have just stitched them on but wanted them to look more door like so I found some small brads for scrap booking and used them instead of screws to attach the hinges and latch. To give my door some stability and to help support the brads I used Tacky Tape to attach a piece of card stock to the inside of the door and then cut small holes for the brads and opened them up.





I wanted to have the inside of the door to look like real wood and since I have done some Marquetry for the ottomans my husband made for our living room I happened to have a collection of wood veneers on hand. I painted both sides with clear acrylic to protect the other surfaces from the acids in the wood. I used more of the double stick tape to attach the wood to the inside of the door.

Now I have a really cool door for my piece. If the rest of the piece looks half as good as the door I will be so happy. I LOVE IT!


For the most recent photos of my project go to My Web Gallery or Artistic Kreations and Passions.

A Secret Takes Shape

I will start this post suggesting that if you haven't read my July 13th post, specifically the second half "It's A Secret" that you do so you have some idea where this is coming from.

I measured and drew where I wanted my blocks to sit on the piece. Since I am painting the blocks I am including the landscape in the paintings so I have to have the placement settled so that I include the correct parts of the landscape in the paintings. I am going to do stitching/embroidery on the collage so this also lets me know where not to stitch. After I had all of these marked it was time to mark where my secret door was going to be. I felt a bit of trepidation at this point because not only was I marking this on the piece, (unlike the other markings it isn't going to be covered up) I was going to cut the door out of the main collage. Yes I actually cut a hole in my collage. In the 2nd photo you can see, yes there is now a whole in my collage.


In my July 13th post I mentioned that my current idea for the inside of the secret door was a mosaic of mirrors. In the last 2 photos you can see where I am on them and what it will potentially look like. I will need to get more of the Delicas that I am using for the beaded bezels when I go to Bead Fest in Philly. I haven't run out yet but will before I get all of the mirrors done. I am using peyote stitch to create the bezels using Delicas and 13/0 charlottes (sp?).


After I bezeled the first mirror I butted the next one up to it and used the connecting side as part of the bezel just adding a new lip for the new mirror. I think I am going to like the effect of this .

I don't have to decide on this yet since it won't be attached to the piece for a while yet.

Remember if you want to sign up for e-mail alerts when I have a new post you can sign up with Feedblitz on the top right of the page. For the most recent photos of my project go to My Web Gallery or Artistic Kreations and Passions.

The Tree Is Planted And Gets More Leaves

After lots of fun and experimentation I was ready to collage my tree onto the landscape collage. I used more acrylic matte medium/water mix. I covered the surface of the collage with the mix, placed the tree on top of that and then brushed more collage over that. I added 2 more coats of the medium to firmly secure the tree to the background.

I liked the effect that I got from the fusible web leaves so much that I painted some more for the middle layer of leaves, these would go over parts of the branches and the trunk of the tree.

The second photo is of the painted fusible web once I pulled it off of it's paper backing. You can see the grid of my cutting board through the webbing.



The next photo is detail after I added the new webbing "leaves". It gives the tree that extra bit of depth and more realism. I am really liking how all of this is turning out. The project has kept me very excited from the first and I have never gotten bored, blocked or felt anything but joy with it.

To show my joy with the piece I decided to use some pressed flowers that I found on clearance at Michael's during one of my visits there. It does give the collage a more festive spring/summer feel.

For the most recent photos of my project go to My Web Gallery or Artistic Kreations and Passions.

Leafing Out

More painted interfacing, this time painted mostly in greens. After making the tree with the painted interfacing and liking the way it felt and looked I decided that it would make good leaves. Most of the other ideas I had were going to have larger leaves than I thought I was going to want on the finished project. With the interfacing I could make them any size that I wanted.


I drew the leaves with permanent pens and after drawing out a group of them I would cut them out. I have done this so far in several different sessions so that I wouldn't get bored doing them. Besides the leaves for the tree I wanted to have ferns and Ivy on the piece so I drew those leaves as well. The fern leaves I drew onto the back and once they were cut out I flipped them over I had the parts for my fern.

I may need to make more leaves but since until I start sewing them on I don't have a very good idea how far they will go. I have more of the painted interfacing so I can make more as I need them. The fern leaves will be collaged on with the tree, the ivy and tree leaves will be stitched on when I do the embroidery work for the collage.


For the most recent photos of my project go to My Web Gallery or Artistic Kreations and Passions.

Every Tree Needs Leaves

My tree wouldn't be very healthy looking with out some leaves now would it? I have had so many ideas for what to do for the leaves of this piece and there was no way I could use all of them. I really liked the way the painted fusible web looked and thought that it would work great for background leaves for the tree. When you look at a tree, all you see of the leaves further back is color and pattern so the fusible web would work great to give me that. In my post on July 10th I discussed painting the fusible web. I could have cut out shapes and fused those onto the landscape but I wanted an organic feel so I pulled the fusible web off of the backing paper (a butter knife or a bead scoop helps those areas where it wants to stick to the paper) and tore the fusible up into smaller pieces.

I did the fusible in more than one layer. I first put down a layer and used parchment paper to fuse the web to the background. Already I was liking the effect, getting the effects I was getting would be very challenging if you were just trying to paint directly on the surface of the piece. After I fused the first layer I placed the tree on top so that I could make sure I had leaves behind all of the branches, even the lower ones.


I ended up with 3 layers of fusing the web on, the layers overlapped and the colors/values melded together when they were fused. The parchment paper worked great for the fusing. Once I fused the web on I let the parchment cool a little so the web didn't stick to the paper. As you can see from the last photo where I just placed the tree on top to see how it looked already the tree looks happier.


For the most recent photos of my project go to My Web Gallery or Artistic Kreations and Passions.