Leda's Flowers

Here is a new piece that I finished a little while ago.  Getting the pictures taken and edited for posting takes me forever!  The down side of bloggin! LOL.  This began with a piece of fabric-paper in shades of red and purple, which is a favorite color combination.  So many of my pieces begin after experimenting with a technique I want to try and this is no exception.  This is a remnant of my first piece of fabric-paper, made a couple of years ago.  I also wanted to to try printing images on silk.  I chose one of Leonardo da Vinci's drawings and was really pleased with the way it came out.  This piece includes embossed velvet (so much fun!), embroidery, beading, and stamping (with acrylic paint).

Art Quilting Studio magazine

I had the great privilege to be published in the summer 2011 issue of Art Quilting studio which Stampington and Co. just began re-publishing this year.  When I saw that they had a call for entries I only had one week left to get something off to them so I quickly put everything together and stuffed it in a box.  The only photo's I had were terrible and its taken me forever to get around to taking some better ones.  This piece began when I decided to try out some techniques using crumpled craft paper and painted wonder under.  It just went from there until I found myself embroidering through several layers of paper and fabric.  Whew!  that was a chore.  The mountains at the bottom are made of painted tyvek and paper towels! 

Red and Purple Floral

Titling my art is something I have yet to figure out. In the meantime I tend toward a fairly literal description. This piece was completed earlier this year and is my first official piece of mixed media art. In 2006 I began studying fine arts at the Metropolitan College of Denver. I spent two wonderful years studying and thoroughly enjoying being an art student but I was compelled to leave school when I developed chronic pain issues and could not keep up anymore. After years of struggling to figure out what I wanted to do with my life I am determined to make art, even if I can't finish my degree right now. In my spare time, when I am not in too much pain, I make art. This piece came about after reading Beryl Taylors book "Mixed Media Explorations". I began by making my first ever fabric-paper. The floral motifs in some of the scrapbook paper I used inspired me to work on a floral theme. Like Beryl Talor, I adore fleur de lys and metallic elements. The flowers are all paper or fabric-paper. The fleur is fabric-paper with cut out red velvet wonder-undered and embroidered over the top. The background is cotton and hand embroidered with gold metallic floss. I machine embroidered over all the flowers and added beads. The lace edging is all hand dyed with the same paints and inks that I used on the fabric-paper. I learned a lot from making this piece. Right now it hangs in my bedroom where it matches the red and purple color scheme.