Silk poppy and iris pictures/ batik Scarborough Bay

These are now framed and awaiting new homes. It's the East Coast Exhibition at Scarborough Art Gallery in January, so I hope two of them will be chosen to hang on their walls!

Handpainted butterflies on silk

Three "original" butterflies, in shades of pink and purple, with a yellow background. Next project - a similar design, using silver gutta outline, in more subtle colours and with a pastel background. Below shows work in progress, with the design outlined in black gutta. The silk had been ironed onto freezer paper.

 

Handpainted silk poppy scarf

 I'm really pleased with the end results here.

I bought a white silk scarf from the internet – hand rolled and stitched edges, Ponge 5, 100% pure silk, A grade.

Below shows the design on Freezer paper, which I ironed onto the back of the scarf. The next step is to outline the design with gold “gutta” – a resist barrier – directly onto the silk. Then the fun bit – using silk paints, mixing, trying to get shading rather than a “paint by numbers” result.

Finally, I removed the backing design and ironed the scarf to fix the paint.

I've finished a silk picture with sunflowers, and am in the middle of a butterfly picture. Both will then need framing - more later!

I also had another workshop day, doing batik, so now have more batik pictures to frame ...

Christmas bunting

My latest knitting project ... a 3.88m length of bunting in Christmas colours

Owl wellington

Another wellington finished - this time it has a dark blue background, with two owls and a full moon design

 

BATIK - owls, seagulls and irises

This was the end result of two workshop days doing batik. I started with white material and waxed out areas to keep white, before either dipping the material into a tub of dye, or brush painting areas with the dye. The process was then repeated a couple of times to end up with the final colours.

 When you dip into dye, you can scrunch the material to get the lovely crackled effect on the owl and single iris pictures.

 For the pictures below, I painted the different dyes on, using a brush, so no crackled effect

  When I had the final colours, I ironed out the wax (lots of newspaper and kitchen roll - and an old iron!)

Silk paintings - poppies and irises

Two more silk paintings ready for framing (I sold the last two at the art exhibition last month). My next silk challenge - a silk scarf - I'm currently designing poppies for each end, and then need to do the gutta outline, before I post a another photo.

Button boquets

A fun way of creating a table centre ...a  stack of buttons, wired together, to make a single bloom. 15 wired together to make a bunch!

Painted welly - goldfinches and teasel heads

This is the latest in the welly collection - hand painted and varnished- ready for a house plant

Silk painted cards, quilled cards - owls and flowers

Poppies and irises, painted on silk - made into cards or ready for framing

OWLS - quilling, with my favourite quote from Mark Twain 

Hand painted wellies

These are my latest painted wellies - the two puffin ones are finished, and listed for sale on eBay, the butterflies are waiting to be varnished and the cream paint on the poppy welly is still drying. Next on my list is to paint one with goldfinches on teasel heads.

Postcard Art

Ayton Art Club - this year's extra challenge for the exhibition later this month - create artwork that is 6" x 4". They will be displayed in plastic bags, blu-tacked to a display board, and all work will be anonymous until bought. The variety of members' "work in progress" is amazing. I've just finished mine - criteria - any media; I've done watercolour, wet felting, oil, silk painting, collage and quilling. Great fun!

 

Hand painted silk - Iris and Poppies

Finally framed!

Professor Owl

Here's Professor Owl, knitted in tinsel wool from a King Cole pattern. Compared to the other tinsel owls I've knit, he's huge!

Iris and poppy silk painting - in progress

I'm planning to frame these as a matching pair - poppies and irises. I started by doing a design on freezer paper, which I then ironed on to the back of the silk. I used gutta for the outline on the front of the silk, painted the flowers and finally added a background colour. After removing the freezer paper, the picture needs ironing to set the silk paint. Next job - take them for framing. Photos to follow. I've done a couple of postcard sized poppy pictures too, ready for our art exhibition.

Collage Picture ... inspired by ...

I was inspired by this stained glass dome in a conference room at The George Hotel in Harrogate earlier this year, and found it fun to try and re-create a part of it in paint and collage

Knitted bag - felted squares

This is knit in one piece, comprising 52 squares. I used 100% chunky felting wool (10 balls) and have lined it in spotty cotton fabric. The second photo was before felting - the size has been reduced by about 30%