Cut Paper Shapes (addendum)

At Sian's suggestion, I have added some slightly wonky shapes, shapes that were cut freehand, following the sketches. Definitely more interesting.

Cut Paper Shapes

I attended our Guild's annual Winter Weekend from January 14 to 18, and was able to get a lot of work on my C&G done!

I have included my "rough" pages here. Using paper, ruler, and compass, I copied the shapes of crosses and stars, in a uniform size. I then traced these shapes onto 3"X5" cards, and cut them out with a craft knife, so I could use them as stencils on my coloured papers.

Although I found this exercise took longer than I had expected, I was quite pleased with the results. I can see there are possibilities for further work with some of the images created.

... carried away ...

I rather got carried away with the stamping ... just happened to have handy a piece of my hand dyed linen, on which I stamped with acrylic paints, then stem stitched to fill in a compass star shape with hand dyed cotton floss.

Coloured Papers

Shown to the right are papers stamped with cross motifs.

Shown here are the papers coloured with inks. As you can see, I finally started colouring out to the edges of the papers. Some of the inks used were Speedball, which unfortunately had no yellow in the range. I switched to Liquitex "ink!", which were easier to dispense (dropper in lid). I used both a sponge brush and a small make up sponge with which I dabbed on colour. I also coloured some paper with Derwent Inktense, which gave a different texture, as the "scribbles" show after brushing with water.

I also have an assortment of magazine pages, and some purchased coloured papers from the scrap-booking shop.

Stamps

STAMPS

I cut four different designs into white erasers...

nail, or carpenter's cross, Toulous Cross (Roman Catholic Inquisition), rusted cross shape from span of rail bridge, and Compass Star. I used 1/4 of each shape, positioning the centre point on one corner of the eraser. Once the shape was drawn on the surface, I used a craft knife to cut away the excess, or non-design portions, taking care not to undercut the suface. On the back of each stamp, I drew a directional arrow, which will make it easier to orient the
stamp as I work. A stamp or stamp block blank the same size as each stamp enabled me to space or "gap" when the pattern required the spacing. I also found that each stamp had a "press point" in the corner where there was the largest uncut area. By pressing the cut block on that point, I was less likely to imprint the background of the block as I worked.

The papers to the left have been stamped with the compass star stamp onto tissue papers, using various spacings and rotations.

I found this to be a fascinating exercise.

Certificate, Module1, Chapter2, Colour Scheme

The choice for colour scheme was a little trickier than I had imagined. I wanted to use the colour of the rusty fabric and nails, but wasn't sure what the complementary colour would be. I found a website that was of great help.

http://www.sessions.edu/career_center/design_tools/color_calculator/index.asp#

There is a Colour Calculator tool, which allows you to adjust the saturation and lightness/darkness of the colour and to choose the harmony (in my case, complementary). Very useful indeed.

I made the necessary adjustments and the complement to "rust" (orange) is a bright primary blue.

Oddly enough, this is a favourite colour scheme, but I have not used it much in stitchery, so this should be interesting.

design board .... again

First....

Apologies to everyone for such a long delay. I had moved my studio to my youngest's bedroom, as he had moved out. I was almost all sorted, when I acquired another set of shelves. These had to be affixed to the wall, so required moving everything out and away from the wall. Shelves were attached and up within two hours of clearing, but..... no one ever mentions how long it takes to put together a room the second time around! It means a total re-organization. I am now within sight of the end. I have table top space in view and in actual use.. not storage. Whew!

Now, back to work.

Here is my latest and last addition to my design board.

You will notice some rusty square headed nails. I used these to rust-dye, onto linen, the image of a cross.

The card shown in the background is a card of congratulations from a dear friend, on the occasion of my being awarded a $1000.00 bursary from the Canadian Embroiderers' Guild London. There was some very tough competition, and I am honoured and delighted to be the recipient. Thank you!