Sunday 20 March 2011

Being Creative :: March

I've completed the March task set by Julia.
I started with much trepidation, but found that soon I was enjoying the whole experience and wondering why I had been so nervous.  I thought you might like to see how I progressed through to the finished piece.


A stark white sheet of watercolour paper - quick get some paint on before I lose courage


That's better ... I had it in my head to have a background of same-colour squares, but out of necessity (due to me being careless) I had to smudge over it with a mix of green and yellow.  The outcome wasn't too bad so I carried on ...




I stamped on white daisies (I so LOVE daisies) and put the paint on thickly to add interest.  I decided that I would have bright orange middles to the daisies and painted a blob on each one.
I then thought it would be good if I accented the first daisy in some way so it would draw your eye into the picture and decided on chain stitching around the petals.  As the paper is 190gsm to withstand a fair amount of water, I thought it best to prick holes around the petals first and sew through them



This worked extremely well, but I hadn't appreciated that the thick paint would crack and flake away, but I kind of liked the effect so decided to keep going. 



What should I do next?  It needed something else and after much deliberation I decided I would french knot the centre of one of the other flowers


And I'm so glad I did as I'm really happy with the finished look.
Ta-Da!


The worst thing has been trying to photograph it!  These photos do not do it justice whatsoever, but they're about as good as I'm going to get them.

For information, I used 190gsm Bockingford watercolour paper, 10 x 7 inches (I seem to prefer working small) and acrylic paints.  The daisy stamp was a freeby with a craft magazine some years back.  I separated the stranded embroidery thread and used two ply for the daisy chain edging and three ply for the french knots.

All in all, I'm over the moon with this, but still feel I could have done better!  I really MUST train my brain to think positively about my own work.  I'm hoping that as the months roll on, my confidence will rise. I'm really looking forward to seeing other members work and I can't wait to get started on April's theme.




3 comments:

  1. You see; I would have never thought of stiching around something that I had painted! I like it and I like the way it looks as if the daisies are dropping off the page. Tick! :)

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  2. This design would be great as towels for your bathroom! Just as a bottom borner or soemthing maybe as the raised stitching might be irritating in the main drying area. Of course the best solution would be to recreate it as a border onto white slub cotton fabric and then stitch the borders to plain towels. What do you think.
    Glenda

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  3. Hello Debs
    I love it! Well done on your beautiful creation, I have my idea for my Being Creative March topic and need to get cracking on this early part of the week! I love stitches on paper, I think it's really lovely and daisies are one of my favourite flowers too xox

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