New tutorial download for wildlife brooches

A quick update on another new downloadable tutorial. This time the 'step-by-step how to' show you how to make wildlife brooches using six original templates designed by me. It was inspired by some little polymer clay brooches I had as a child. They were so cute - a hedgehog, a rabbit and a sheep - and I wore them religiously. These brooches, although made of paper, are long lasting thanks to a coat or two of varnish and simple to construct.

The animals that are included are a fox, a seal, a bear, whale, a bird and a hen and were designed by me specifically for this tutorial. Each one is roughly 1.5 inches (4 cm) at its widest point.

There are 12 pages of instructions, 26 full colour photos and hints and tips on decorating them. However you can also use them for other kinds of jewellery (imagine some really cute little earrings) or for scrapbooking, card making and other paper crafts

I love these little guys. In my opinion they are just as cute as the polymer clay brooches I had as a child.

Sew, time for a change

At long last, I finally managed to get some hand embroidery patterns up on Etsy. I have been embroidering for over 30 years (boy, does that make me feel old!) but I always struggled to find the kind of patterns I wanted to embroidery. Now, with embroidery being so popular, I am seeing other people embroidering using the kind of images I like. But those stitchers are still drawing their own patterns. Would you believe it took me this long to draw my own animal images to embroider? I guess I'm a bit slow. I am hoping others might like to embroider wildlife too so I have made the patterns available for sale on Etsy.

First up is a collection of six mammals - one rabbit, one hare, two red foxes and two British badgers. The picture below is of some of the pieces I have stitched. I used stem stitch and seed stitch for them all but have mixed things up with the badger by using acrylic paints to paint the embroidered images after stitching. The fox on the mini cushion was appliquéd using Bondaweb/Under Wonder then machine stitched into place.

This little rabbit (one of my favourite patterns) was embroidered using stem and seed stitch with a little satin stitch for the eye and made into a needle case.

Then there is a collection of six British garden birds - two robins, a wren, a coal tit, sparrow and chaffinch. Again I used a combination of hand embroidery stitches (stem stitch, back stitch), acrylic paint on the robin in the picture frame and appliqué on the robin on the cushion.

The coal tit on the notebook cover, however, was free motion embroidered. This is my first successful free motion attempt and I am really pleased with it. It took a while to accept the wiggly nature of free motion embroidery though. I guess I'm still a perfectionist at heart.

 

Another painted wooden pebble

A quick pic today - a hand painted wooden pebble with a British robin. It might be a bit early for Christmas themes but I have been making samples for Gina-B Silkworks' show next weekend and it is Christmas related. I think it inspired me to think of the robin.

Wooden pebble painting

The spring and early summer flowers are in full bloom in the garden at the moment - even if the sun has forgotten to show itself again. That is only to be expected in the Scottish spring/summer though - one day hot and sunny, the next cold and grey. The flowers inspired me to make a little 'thing' by hand painting some wooden pebbles that I found on Ebay. This type of folk flower reminds me of honeysuckle so I had to paint it in the colours of one of the honeysuckle plants that flowers in the garden during the summer.

However, I started thinking about what else I could paint on a wooden pebble and figured some of my wildlife paintings might work well. The pebbles are about one and a quarter inches wide by one and a half inches tall so it's a small surface area to work on - though not as small as the wooden beads I painted previously (see here and here). But they work really well.

This is a little blue tit that I painted on one. I don't use acrylics very often but they actually work really well on wood.

Of course I could not leave out a badger from my painting experiments. Unsurprisingly this might be my favourite.

More hand painted wooden beads

I managed to get a few more wooden beads painted this week. More wildlife and more flowers. I have to say, it's a lovely change from the paper beads. It combines my love of beads with my love of animals and painting. What's not to love? Some of the flower beads are sold already but some of the wildlife beads are already listed in my new web store here.

Return of the wren

For some reason the local wrens don't spend a lot of time in my garden. Every other species of bird does including sparrowhawks and kestrels. I suspect it's the bounty of small birds that bring the birds of prey. But wrens come and go, never staying too long. This week the wren has come back. Who knows for how long. I did manage to get a photo though and managed to draw this graphite pencil piece.

I know!

I know, I'm dreadful at keeping this blog these days. It is so much harder than it used to be. But I haven't totally forgotten it. I did try and use Blogger's automated publishing settings for a while but discovered the post were not publishing at all. This is not helpful when you are trying to be good and publish something semi regularly. The Craft of the Month fell by the wayside because of the amount of time it takes to find the links and write the posts. Ho hum! I'm sure one day I will be able to find a way of running things so that I actually post to my blog instead of just thinking about it. It might just take a while. It's a long way from the days when I posted several times a week. So, as an olive branch of peace I am posting a few sketches that I have done over the last few months. They are listed on Etsy too, in case anyone needs a sketch as a gift for anyone. I have made some new beads recently too and I will post photos of them soon - famous last words, eh? More new beads are in the works too - they have literary figures on them like the Shakespeare ones already in my shop. Anyway, back to the grindstone. There is a watercolour badger sketch and pencil drawing of a wren to be finished.

For the birds

I love painting warm and fuzzies, i.e. mammals. They are undoubtedly my favourite animals. But over the last few weeks I have been adding more birds to my stock of paintings.

My garden is full of birds, from the usual garden birds like blackbirds, great tits and green finches to less common visitors to this area, nuthatches and long tailed tits. Add to that the countryside birds like partridges and pheasants and the garden is frequently crammed to overflowing. Last week while I was out walking I got very excited when I saw a goldcrest in the hedgerow. I always wanted to see one but thought they didn't exist in this area. So I was very excited, so excited that my attempt to photograph it was stymied by my hands shaking with excitement. As a result I have plenty of subject matter for producing bird paintings. The three birds below all visit my garden and now they have been immortalized in watercolour. How many birds can say that?

I have listed these three birds on Etsy along with a few other ones so if you want to check them out then drop on by. There is also a variety of commission that I have been asked to paint over the last few weeks. Check out the 'sales' section on the left of the page to see them.

Challenge Gillian - July

Only three photos of my July art this time. I drew a little rabbit then gave it to someone without scanning it first. Doh! I did the same thing this week with a dotee doll for a swap. I was so busy trying to get the packet packed and sent out on time that I forgot to photograph it. Double doh! If this is what my mind is like at 37 I dread to think what I will be like at 67 or 87.

Anyway, the pictures are of a mouse called 'The Nibbler' (he sold quite quickly so I am pleased someone liked him so much as I wasn't sure about him), the elephant with no name (also sold) and a crested tit among the ivy.

There was a nice surprise in the garden this evening after dinner. I have befriended one of the local phesants. When I go outside to feed the birds she runs up to me and waits for some seed. Well, tonight she brought her seven little ones with her. How cute are these little guys? Very tiny, they are a bit wobbly on their feet. I like the one hiding under the lady's mantle. I think it might be playing hide and seek. The garden is a haven for all kinds of wildlife: voles, foxes, hedgehogs and birds of every kind. The only reason there are no rabbits is because the fence is too narrow for them to squeeze through. But the females phesants have discovered that there is always lots of bird seed. I had started buying a cheaper (or should that be 'cheeper') brand of seed recently but it also had lots of grain in it that the garden birds don't like. The phesants and red legged partridges do like it, however, and come regularly to feed. For some reason the male phesants don't come to the garden very often. I think they may be too fat to get through the fence and too stupid to fly over it.


So, inspired by my little visitors I thought I would post about my altered altoid tin with a bird theme. Made for a swap, it holds some little crafty bits and a mini book. I hope the recipient will like it.





The other two photos are of some pendants I made using some of my own polymer clay beads.

Tea in the garden

Here are my newest pieces for the exhibition. Hand in is tomorrow and the exhibition starts on Saturday so, once again, I have been cutting it a bit fine. But what's new? Both paintings have actually been cropped a little in the framing which I feel improves their composition a bit. But I forgot to crop them in the same way when I scanned them. Typical Gillian! Both are done with watercolour but the mouse, entitled 'Tea for One', also uses gouache for the periwinkle.

Finally, to all my US readers, I hope you have an enjoyable Thanksgiving.

Making an exhibition

At long last I managed to come up with a few paintings for the exhibition. I still have more work to do on some but these two are now complete.



This little coal tit comes to my garden during the autumn and winter to get fed. He (or possibly she) is one of several that come to the feeders, pick out the seeds they like and spit the rest on the ground for other, ground feeding birds to get.

These guys are frequently seen in the field opposite. During the warmer weather some of them can be seen stretched right out in the grass sunbathing. You can't help but be inspired by their cute little faces.

I've got Bramblings!

No, it's not a horrible disease. Bramblings are little birds from the finch family. They come from Russia and Norway and visit Britain during the winter months and I have never seen any before. Usually they are very shy but I read today that they will venture into gardens to feed during very severe winters. Considering we have had more snow that I have seen in years I think February could definitely be considered part of a severe winter. These birds are so attractive with their yellowish chests and mottled heads and tummies. The female is one of the prettiest female garden birds I have seen yet. Usually female birds get to be dull greys and browns. I'm very glad they came to visit. I'm afraid the photos are not great because I took them through the kitchen window which was splashed with rain drops.

Last week I managed to capture a brilliant image by pure chance. I just happened to press the shutter button on my camera as the action happened. A poor old blackbird fell off a snowy branch and splatted in the snow. I couldn't have taken that photo even if I tried. He didn't fall far - just a couple of inches - and he got up and ran off after another male blackbird that was trying to eat his food.

Boxing clever

I made this little box as a Christmas present for my Gran. She always says she doesn't need anything at gift giving times but always seems to like the things I make. She doesn't read my blog so I'm OK posting pictures of it. The box is a wooden, shop bought box, coated in acrylic paint onto which I painted a cardinal. Now, we don't have cardinals in the UK but I think they are are beautiful birds. I found the pattern in a book called Joy to the World: Painting Holiday Heirlooms by John Gutcher. It was my buy of the year as I picked it up for a few pence. The box has been filled with Gran's favourite candy sweets so I hope she will enjoy it on all levels.

The ATCs are for a swap entitled Arabian Nights so I had to take part. They are done in shades of purple and pink with mulberry paper, metallic paint and a little bling. Also shown are some magnets I made out of mini collages. I put some on Etsy to see if they are of interest to anyone.

Fly away, birdies

The sky is thick with housemartins and swallows today. Soon they will depart for warmer climes but today they are performing wild feats of acrobatics, swooping and diving outside my window. I don't think I have ever seen so many in one place. They congregate on the telephone wires in large numbers but over the last few years their numbers have been low. The experts suggested it was due to disease, many being killed off both here and in Africa (their winter destination). They must be back on form this year though.

More pictures

Just couple of piccies I came across. One is a pop-up inchie. It is 2x1 inch when opened. I also made a castle one but I have to decorate it first. The second in a birthday card. The colour looks a bit manic. It isnb't quite as vibrant as it looks. I cannot get the reds to scan well. If I try and adjust the colour in my photo editing programme it looks even worse. The card is actually a nice, rich red instead of manic orange-red.

Embarking on an adventure

Not much to report at the moment. I have spent the last two weeks writing my final assignment for the Leonardo da Vinci course and feeding my neighbour's cats.

Either I am getting particularly fussy as I get older or the standard of courses is slipping with the OU. Kindergarten kids will know more about Leonardo than I do after this course. I am sure there is a wealth of information available on this man but the course just dusted over a whole lot of detail. That makes two Open University short courses that have not hit home for me. Time to try something different. So I signed up for an art course. This course will give me a qualification in Pet Portraiture at the end of it which means I will finally have a piece of paper to qualify my skills. People like to know that the artists they employ have been through art school but I am self taught. It shouldn't negate my skills but it does. Hopefully this will redress the balance a little. The course covers coloured pencil, pastel, acrylic and oil - all of which I have very little experience with. It will be a bit of an adventure for me.

Meantime this is a piece I was trying out using some tiny paper weaving. Those little Medieval birds insisted on being part of the projects.

Pingu & Co.

Having just spent a week and a half in bed with a mystery illness there has not been much going on in the realms of artiness. I have been trying to catch up with a few random ideas that have been floating around in my head for a while though.

There is a growing trend on internet craft sites for making decorative paper arches. The arches come in a variety of sizes, from long and thin to small a squat and every other variation in between. Some are vintage, some are modern. I happened to come across this phenomenon a few weeks ago and thought I would have a go myself. My first attempt is small in size and Medieval themed, including one of those ubiquitous Medieval birds. It all adds a bit of variety.

Inspired by the arch theme I also made an architecture themed ATC. I love the randomness of using embossing powder with a glue stick. I got some great bubbles in the bottom left corner.

I also took another route in my papercutting adventure. My penguin is made up of layers of cut paper - a full bottom white layer, a black layer cut to the shape of the black on the penguin's body and an inlaid piece of hand painted paper for the yellows. I am quite pleased with the result and have been trying to come up with some other ideas that might work in a similar way.

Finally, my little bee heart. I don't actually like hearty, romantic themed crafts but I had some chipboard heart shapes that I was given and have been trying to use them up. The bee was a painting I did ages ago. It dawned on me that I can scan my art work, print it out and use it as images for my collages. The only trouble was that it was too fiddly to cut round the legs so I cut them off and redrew them once I had stuck the image down.