Summer of Colour Week 6

Well, the final week of Summer of Colour is here and I have managed to complete something for each week - which was a bit of a surprise to me, as I'm not terribly productive in very hot weather!

This week the colours are Sage green and Sepia - lovely gentle, subtle shades.  As my studio is a converted roof space it gets sooooo hot, so I have worked in my cool and shady computer room to texture and enhance this photo of Hawthorn blossom I took earlier this year.

Summer of Colour Week 5 and WOYWW #124

On my work desk this week I have a selection of silk paper I've been making, and a small card I made for the Summer of Colour challenge - the colours this week being candy apple red and yellow.  I'm afraid my offering this week is very meagre - too much time spent in the garden in this glorious weather!

To see what's on other people's desks why not pop over to Julia at WOYWW.

Summer Of Color Week 4 and ICAD

Well, this weeks colours of charcoal grey and pink for the Summer of Color challenge have been an unmitigated disaster!  I have long had a love of Japanese gardens - I think the order and symmetry appeals to my slightly obsessive compulsive personality!  To me the colours conjured up the simplicity and tranquility of Japanese gardens, and I tried to capture the essence of it, leaving some areas unworked and keeping the design quite minimal.  However, what was going on in my head wouldn't transfer down through my hands into the work!  I don't think my ideas gelled really - the colours are too 'thick' - maybe a more watery delicate background, like a translucent colour wash would have worked better.  I don't like feeling this is unresolved so I might have another go at it!

I'm also linking up to the index-card-a-day challenge over at Daisy Yellow.

Summer of Color week 2 and ICAD

For this week over at Summer of Color the colour scheme is hot pink and orange.  I decided to combine this challenge with the index-card-a-day challenge at Daisy Yellow.  

I ended up doing six cards based on a coral theme - I had to work hard at not making them red as that is the colour I had been using for my coral based work a few weeks ago.

I used gelli prints for the backgrounds and prepared a selection of cards ready to use each day with the backgrounds already glued on.  The gelli prints looked too dark against the buff background so I painted the cards cream.  I then spent about half an hour a day machine stitching, gluing and hand sewing them.

Some close-up shots

Summer of Colour - Week 1

   This week's colour prompt for this year's new Summer of Colour was Citron Green and Turquoise.   For inspiration I played about with gelli printing using just those two colours, and I then used a couple of the prints for the background.  I also used a stamp I carved of a fern leaf, and added stencilled dots and shapes.   

Some detail shots - showing the 3D butterfly, and details of the background gelli prints.

The two colours haven't quite gelled for me in this mosaic, but I thought I'd include it anyway as I'd done the work on it!   The cat was made by my mum who loved working in clay, the butterfly wing and beetle are from my collection of dead things - isn't he gorgeous!  And as you can see from the Alchemella Mollis in the centre, we've been having a lot of rain! 

WOYWW and ICAD

For WOYWW this week my desk is covered in gelli prints I made for the new Summer of Colour 2013.  The colour theme for this week is Citron green and Turquoise.  I didn't know where to begin on this so I've printed some backgrounds and started playing - I thought that might be a good way to find a starting point - and I'll see where I end up!   

Also this week I have been taking part in the new Index Card a Day challenge (ICAD), over at Daisy Yellow.

My idea for the cards started with this gorgeous fern that I planted in the garden last summer while in the throws of the Summer of Colour 2012 - it helped feed my obsession with pollen and spores!

  

It has settled in to the garden beautifully and is looking very lush and quite spectacular - so of course it had to be photographed!  I used the 'design' of it to hand carve a stamp, which became the basis for the 7 index cards. 

SUMMER OF COLOUR - WEEK 6

It's sadly the last week of Kristin's Summer of Color ice cream challenge and this weeks flavour is Watermelon Ice - in other words bright red with dark brown (for the choc chips!).

I've really enjoyed this colour palette and ended up doing two sketchbook pages continuing my pollen theme.

 I transferred the tree images using Golden Gel and then heated it around the trees to create tiny little white bubbles to represent a pollen 'haze'.  The band above the trees is made of tiny little beads.

I wanted to say a big thank you to Kristin for hosting the Summer of Color Challenge and also to everyone who has so kindly stopped by and left such lovely and positive comments - every single one has been so appreciated.

Still on the this weeks colour theme I think Lobelia Cardinalis 'Queen Victoria' has to be one of my all time favourite plants - these photos are from my garden last summer as it is late flowering and not in bloom yet - I wish it went from Spring through to Autumn!  I am linking these palettes to Rosie's Color Me Weekly.

  

I have been loving these colours and really enjoyed putting together some photo mosaics for Mosaic Monday over at Little Red House.   

SUMMER OF COLOUR - WEEK 5

It's the penultimate week for Kristin's Summer of Colour ice cream challenge and this week the colours are Wild n Reckless Sherbert - in other words bright blue, mauve and mid-green.

I probably stand alone in saying that this has to be the most unappealing colour combination for me - I don't think I would ever mix these colours for clothing, home decor or even gardening -  I feel mauve somehow kills bright blue when they are next to each other.  However, I decided to mute the colours somewhat and this helped me create this weeks sketchbook page.

I ended up having real problems with this - it just hasn't worked - I think there is too much going on and I've 'over egged the cake' so to speak!

However, not to be put off I decided to get the camera out and try and continue with the colour theme.  The flowers are a mixture of photos from my archives and a couple from the garden this week - the blue Ceratostigma (centre) is in full bloom at the moment and looking wonderful, as is the purple geranium (bottom left), although they are in completely different parts of the garden!  The last two mosaics are of things I found around the house.  I am linking these to Mosiac Monday over at Little Red House.

Finally, I found this beautiful Passion Flower while out and about this week.  The colours were almost right, but the stamens were yellow.  With the help of Photoshop I managed to manipulate the flower to fit the colour scheme - I do think it's rather pretty with the mauve centre but feel a little guilty at cheating like that!!!  I'm linking this colour palette to Rosie's 

Color Me Weekly.

SUMMER OF COLOUR - WEEK 4

This weeks ice cream challenge over at Kristin's Summer of Colour was Strawberry Lemonade Punch ice cream - in other words working with the colours pink and yellow.

 I wanted to continue working with my ongoing pollen theme but the colours just kept taking me to the beach!  I decided to incorporate both the pollen and the beach themes and I used images of shells, silver wire and beads, along with a pink cutout tree that I hope looks like coral now that I've cut the trunk off!

It's difficult to see the wires - they just look like pencil lines - so here's a close up of the wire and beads.

This is pretty much all the pink stuff I own!

But I do have some lovely pink and yellow Rockroses and St John's Wort in the garden at the moment - I have added them to some old photos to make a Strawberry Lemonade Punch photo mosaic to link with Little Red House!

While still in the pink/yellow frame of mind I found these beautiful caterpillars on some Verbascum plants at my local garden centre.  We moved the plants they were on to the back of the display so the staff would hopefully not find them and destroy them!  These caterpillars turn into Mullein moths and boy, can they eat Verbascum at a rate of knots!

I am linking these colour palettes to Colour Me Weekly over at Rosie's Leavesnbloom. 

 And finally, after playing around in photoshop with this photograph I took of a fern against a slab of slate, I rather liked the yellow and pink effect I ended up with.  Quite appropriate for the challenge, but not very realistic!

WOYWW#160 AND TAG TUESDAY - TALES OF THE RIVER BANK

Here's my desk for this week's WOYWW - if you want to know more pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground and visit a huge number of other peoples work spaces - it's great fun!

I have just started this week's Summer of Colour challenge - to create art based on the colours pink and lemon for Strawberry Lemonade Punch ice cream.  I have found a few bits and pieces for inspiration and my sketchbook page is in the middle of drying.  On the left are some packets of decorative pins that I recently purchased and haven't found space for yet, and I haven't got round to putting away the hot plate and wax yet - how lazy!

I came across this lovely stamp while desperately searching for some glimmer of inspiration for this weeks Tag Tuesday theme Tales of the River Bank.  As soon as I found it I knew it had to be used!

I carefully picked out the colours in the stamp and made some colour bars as a background, using embroidery silks wound around strips of card.  I painted and splashed a tag to give a watery feel and attached the colour bars.  I then attached the stamp onto the bars with Sticky Fixers and added a fishing fly that I hooked through the stamp.

SUMMER OF COLOUR - WEEK 3

This week the challenge over at Kristin's Summer of Color is to make art based on the colours of Baseball Nut flavoured ice cream - deep red and cream for black raspberry and vanilla - yummy!

Thinking about these colours reminded me of a neighbour's garden when I was a child back in the 60's - they had tall Chrysanthemums and Dahlias in a large plot of garden, all staked out with little paths running between the rows.  

 The flowers were grown purely for cutting and they towered above me - playing with their children the plot became our jungle, hiding place, prison - or anything we wanted really!  

Thank you to the very nice gardener at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight last week, who allowed me to climb over a barrier into the non-public area, and photograph the red Peonies up close!

Still on the red and cream theme I thought this Poppy, photographed at my local garden centre, fitted the challenge perfectly - it looks like it's dripping in raspberry sauce!

And still feeling obsessed with the colour scheme this week I picked these up beautiful Alstroemeria flowers at my supermarket.

I am linking the colour palette to Color Me Weekly and the photo mosaic to Little Red House

SUMMER OF COLOUR - WEEK 2 - MINT CHOC CHIP ICE CREAM

This week has been a real challenge!  Summer of Colour, hosted by the lovely Kristin over at Twinkle Twinkle challenged us to make a piece of art based on the colours of mint choc chip ice cream - green and brown in other words!

Now, I love green - in the great outdoors - but I don't really work with it, wear it much or live with it in my home. 

Anyway, after a week of struggling I have managed to put together a sketchbook page loosely based on my on-going theme of pollen.

I also made a photo mosaic of the very few minty green things around my home - including a specially made cupcake, some marzipan eggs, and two pretty green moths from my collection - and I am linking this to the

Little Red House

And finally I've put together a colour palette that I am linking to 

Colour Me Weekly over at Rosie's LeavesnBloom.

SUMMER OF COLOUR - WEEK 1

I'm taking part in this years Summer of Colour challenge - each week for six weeks we shall be making art based on an ice cream colour combination - how yummy!  This weeks prompt was rainbow sherbert, with oranges, pinks, yellows and a bit of white.

As some of you may already know I have rather an obsession with pollen and seeds, and I decided to continue working along this theme.  

To the Navaho the Pollen Path is sacred.  It represents the source of life and the path to the centre of existence.

The words on the second piece of work are from a Navaho night chant:

In the house of life I wander,

On the pollen path,

With a god of cloud I wander,

To a holy place,

With a god ahead I wander,

And a god behind.

In the house of life I wander, 

On the pollen path.

 I have a small south facing flower bed in a corner of my garden that has become a vivid pink and orange colour scheme - it's wonderful and the colours really buzz in the hot sunshine. I must admit it doesn't look so good on dull days, that's when the pastels come into their own, but it more than makes up for it on sunny days!

So, still being very 'into' this colour scheme, I decided to put together a photo mosaic of pink and orange flowers to link up with Mosaic Monday over at the Little Red House.  

Finally I made a colour palette, still in the same theme of pink and orange but not as vibrant as the rainbow sherbert ice cream colours.  I love how the flowers change from a delicate mauve/pink to the peachy colour as they go up the stem.  I am linking this to Color Me Weekly.