Italian Lessons

Yesterday I finished a collage that had been kicking around for some time. I decided to scan the background, an old book page on watercolor paper on which I had drawn a grid. Then I scanned the individual elements and played around in photoshop. You can see the entire development on the tumblr.

Star Cross Triangle Blocks

 

I'm not sure if either of these will become fabric but I had fun playing with the colors today.

The Lotus Frog Saga

My first business in New Hampshire was Toad Hollow Jewelry, named after my lovely old run-down house and barn which sits on the edge of wetlands. The property was named by a former owner who forged letters like one forges horse shoes and hung them over the barn door. Today the sign on the barn says "Anita's Beads" but I still keep renewing the "Toad Hollow" business every year and use it for my jewelry and minerals. I have the original letters stored away in a box.

Some 15 years ago I created a little logo from a lotus flower, turning it into a frog. So today I decided to try making it into a design for fabric. I did not do a very good job of it for a number of reasons. I am coming down from a very manic, creative period. I don't think I have posted here so frequently in a long time. An effortless stream of fabric designs have been flowing, and I've been building up Spoonflower swatch samplers and putting stuff on my Tumblr.

The Tumblr site has been attracting amazing attention. First, things were getting reblogged which is a compliment. Then Tumblr contacted me to become part of their Artist Spotlight. In just one day I have gone from 22 followers to 93 which is absolutely amazing.

So, on top of being tired (and now depressed) from staying up late on the computer Photoshopping, I'm afraid that any new thing I put up now will not measure up to the spectacular run I had going. But I forced myself today to keep working on the lotus frog because I like it, because it has personal significance, and because I needed to distract myself from the workers who were here all day fixing my falling-down porch and my rotting kitchen wall. I will refrain from going into details about that here. You can read about it on my Temporary Blog when I write about it there.

Before I came up with the Lotus Daisy, I did just a straight repeat in alternating colors like a checkerboard.

It's kind of boring but might be cute at the right scale if I can get the colors right. But the good thing that came out of the exercise was that I finally figured out how to make a triangle in Photoshop. I'm proud of myself over that little victory in logical thinking!

You can bet there will be more triangle designs coming along in the near future!

More! More! More! More!

I was blown away this morning by the discovery of these two Vimeo videos about the creation of a logo for More4, the British digital television channel. The design consists of a beautiful and colorful moving array of right isosceles triangles.

The second video documents how the effect was produced. This must have been a budget-breaker.

What an amazing moving street sign I could create for Anita's Beads if I could figure out how to adapt this on a smaller scale. Thinking larger, I could apply it to the entire front peak of my barn. Now that would really stop traffic!

Bravo, ManvsMachine!

Triangular Design

That triangle stamp from Obock really set me off in a new direction. I like the fact that a combination of six equilateral triangles will give me a hexagon. Brings me right back to my "Grandmother's Flower Garden" quilting days.

I love the patterns that can be created out of various elements. I have some portrait drawings which would make nice collages in a style similar to my second Blanche (which is in the collection of artist Charles Kartsonis). I will use the triangle patterns as backgrounds and as frames.

This technique is highly suitable for folks with obsessive tendencies. Since I don't have a punch for triangles, I trace them with a template using a black ultra-fine Sharpie. The outline is retained and when the triangles are positioned on a black lined grid, the double outline effect adds dimension.

I'm using a bead sorting tray to keep my colors separate. Each triangle measures 23/32. It fits on my thumbnail and my nails are short. This technique works best with thin paper. I'm using Thai unryu and another type called Chiri.

The technique is a quilters joy, really, with all these ready-to-apply shapes: custom colorforms applied to gridded 140# watercolor paper. Coat area with Golden's acrylic gloss medium, apply shape, and coat completely with medium.

Ritual Object, Perhaps

I've been playing with triangles and materials close to hand. That green feels like it should be something else.

Here's that quilt again with some red:

It's just so cool how easily colors can be changed in Photoshop!

I think I like this the best so far:

From Scott to Obock

I'm off on a triangle tangent. It started with the Hemingway cover I found. I'm making it into a collage that is so far limited to blue, yellow, black, white and gray. I couldn't find the right map of Spain so I started looking for postage stamps.

I love the type face on this dump find:

Flipping through I began to wonder if all triangle stamps have a camel on them. I adore these fantastic ones from Obock: