Mermaid Play

What do mermaids do when it is time to have fun?  My latest design, Mermaid Reef Country Life Reds illustrates just what mermaids get up to when they relax.  This design was created for a Spoonflower contest whose theme is to design a mermaid themed pattern for girl pajamas to be made by CWDkids.  Please consider voting.

 

 

Happy Valentines Day!

In honor of valentines day I am posting a couple of small projects with romantic themes. 

First are three small hearts (~4 in.) for a hearts for a Dollstreet Dreamers heart exchange.  Each heart is made with a different African wax print fabric that I hand drew and then machine stitched. I painted each portrait with kissing lips using Jacquard acrylic fabric paints and added detail with Micron and gel pens.  I embroidered X's and O's, the traditional letters representing hugs and kisses on each heart.  I then embellished each piece with beads collected from South Africa and the United States.

 My second project is for yet another ATC swap with a mermaid theme.    The cards are drawn with colored pencils and ink on card stock.  These drawings are inspired by my daughter and her love of princesses.

Mermaid ATC

This Mermaid ATC is for a resend.  All of the items I mailed that day through the South African post have disappeared.  This mermaid is in colored pencil with glitter paint.  She is based on a contortionist.

Mermaid ATC

I love doing the swaps at Swap-Bot.  They give me incentive to create small pieces of artwork.  Sometimes it just feels good to get a piece done.  This Artist Trading Card (ATC) is a break from the collage oriented pieces in the past.  The swap theme is mermaid and I decided to just draw what I had in mind.  This mermaid was drawn in pencil and then I outlined the above water area in Pigma pen on teal linen cardstock.  Oil pastels to give the watery, immpressionistic feel and then I have painted the 'wet' areas of the card with high gloss varnish. 

Most Recent ATC's

Lately, there have been several pulls on my time; packing for our move to South Africa, baby, the boys, emergency gall bladder surgery. ATCs are so great in that they are tiny and I can feel like I got some 'art' done even though I have so little time. I accomplished the above in little bits of 5 minutes here and there over the course of a few weeks.

Finished Ithaca Doll Artist Show Entry

I have finished my entry for the Ithaca Doll Artists annual show at the Tompkins County Public library. While I no longer live in Ithaca, I am please to continue associating with the wonderful people in this club. http://www.ithacadollartists.com/About_IDA.html The challenge for the library show is to base a doll on a character from a children's book. I have chosen The Merbaby written by Teresa Bateman and illustrated by Patience Brewster. I used Arley Berryhill's Minerva Mermaid pattern for the doll. Her hair is mohair, her body craft velour and cotton painted with various acrylics, her face is colored pencil. I have also added wire, beads, and fibers to the ensemble. Her rock 'throne' I designed myself using floral foam, glue and paint. I have named the doll Vellamo after a Finnish Sea goddess.