Daily Fiber

Autumnal Equinox 2021

Posted on September 20, 2021 by Laura Kate

Today I want to celebrate the changing of seasons. Weather-wise, it’s still summer here. But a cool front is expected here in the next 12 hours.

I am hopeful for cooler breezes.

With the idea of using non-traditional materials for this art piece, I started by rummaging through my paper storage drawer. Among the half-used scrapbook pads, pages from old calendars, brown paper bags, pieces of card stock and carefully saved rice paper, I came across this:

Yes, your eyes do not deceive you. This is a paper towel that had been used as a wiping rag. If I had to guess I would say this it is covered in fabric paint, because it was fiber artist Cindy Walter who suggested that I save my used paper towels.

https://www.craftsy.com/class/fun-techniques-with-fabric-paints/

Well, why not, I told myself. This could be made into something, by applying a little imagination and some carefully chosen marks.

The towel was quite fragile, so I started with a 4B pencil. Flowers, I thought. Working through the blobs and streaks, I decided to include other living things that associate with flowers. These creatures are currently busy preparing for the coming of winter. I drew beetles, bees, caterpillars and a curious cardinal. Soon the paper was full of pencil marks. I considered adding color. In the end I did put a tiny bit of blue paint onto the stems, but refrained from adding other embellishments, due to concern about damaging the paper towel.

HAPPY EQUINOX TO ALL.

May this fragile drawing remind you of the frailty of life and our pledge as stewards of the earth to preserve it.

painting

Sunday Sketching – Flowers

Posted on September 19, 2021 by Laura Kate

This month I signed up to take a class taught by the frugal crafter, Lindsay Weirich.

https://lindsayweirich.teachable.com/p/loose-juicy-watercolor-florals

Since today is Sketching Sunday, I am sharing a few of the quick and loose flowers that I have painted while following her instruction.

None of these took longer than fifteen minutes to do. They certainly help me fill up the blank pages in my watercolor sketchbook.

How are you spending your week-end? I hope you are making time for fun stuff.

painting

Watercolor Wednesday

Posted on September 15, 2021 by Laura Kate

I have been saving this image from Unsplash for the time when my skills were sufficient to paint it. I think I’m ready now.

There are several challenges:

Painting the pink flower with shading and without losing its delicate transparency.
Making the background black enough while keeping the crisp edges of the foreground.
Rendering the texture of the leaf in the foreground

It took me a few days and several stages.

**Pencil outline of the flower and underpainting of the leaves. I added some colored pencil on the foreground, but these lines completely disappeared under subsequent glazes.**

Before I proceeded to the next layers, I reserved the edges by coating them with masking fluid.

**First layer of paint on flower and background, second glaze on leaves.**

**Second layer of paint on flower and background. Once it dried, I rubbed off the masking fluid.**

Final painting. To render the curves of the foreground leaf, I decided to add a dark color band which doesn’t exist in the original photograph. I used a blue Prismacolor pencil to draw in the delicate veins which are visible between the large ribs.

I like the glowing look of the flower. The crimson petal tips really come forward visually. I’m happy with the foreground leaf. I’m wondering if I need to darken the leaf in the background.

Maybe I will wait a day and see how I feel about it.

Painted on Fabriano Studio cold press paper with Winsor yellow, quinacridone magenta, alizarin crimson, prussian blue, viridian, gold green and sap green.

drawing

Sunday Sketch – Add Watercolor

Posted on September 12, 2021September 9, 2021 by Laura Kate

About two weeks ago, we received a text message with a surprising photograph.

To the casual viewer, this may look like an ordinary, but happy day for my two loves. But this was no ordinary day for the little one. She had just received her first haircut! Gone were the messy locks, constantly hanging down over her face. Gone was the daily task of putting in the band to make the wonky ponytail. These delighted expressions and giant smiles just grabbed my heart.

I had to sketch this scene.

Sketch with lines drawn in black Ultrafine marker.

Final portrait with watercolor wash added.

I’m delighted that I was successful in capturing the emotion that I saw in the photograph. The portrait was sent along with Lu’s birthday present in yesterday’s mail. I can’t wait to hear about her reactions when she opens the box.

knitting

Wednesday WIP

Posted on September 8, 2021 by Laura Kate

This project got its start as an example for a shawl design class I taught in August. It is also a response to the situation I’ve been griping about called Left-over Sock Yarn.

Some of you may remember this photo.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Once I truly looked at the yarn that was in the bowl, I realized that I had the makings of a multi-color garter ridge shawl. After discarding the red and green yarns, I took a cue from my own advice about color value and separated the leftovers into two piles – darks and lights.

The medium blue ball in the center is the connector between the lights and darks. I also tossed in the very pale blue full skein with a thought that it could make a good border.

The light yarns went into one bag, the darks into another. Starting with the medium blue yarn I cast on about 30 stitches and worked three ridges of garter. Initially I chose yarns by randomly drawing balls from each bags, alternating light and dark and knitting as many rows as I felt like before changing colors. But very quickly, a desirable pattern emerged – four ridges of light alternating with three ridges of dark. The extra ridge of light separated the color changes.

After working the black yarn, I started over with the darks – blue, brown, royal blue, teal, black.

I call this my Sea and Sand shawl.

Once I get up to around 300 stitches, I’ll choose a color to make the border. My creative juices are flowing as I consider pattern options. Since it’s a shawl border, the pattern must be very stretchy. First I thumbed through Barbara Walker’s fabulous “Treasury of Knitting Patterns”(published in 1968) where I spotted a few possibilities. Here’s three that meet my criteria: