My Etsy Store is Open

My new store on Etsy.com is now open for business. You may purchase prints of some of the artwork you have seen in these pages. I will continually be adding more prints, note cards and greeting cards, big buttons, and jewelry so stay posted. Click on the links at the top right side of this blog to go straight to the shop. Many thanks for your continued viewing of these pages.

A is for Art

Here is another example of one of my favorite techniques of collage art. Claudine Hellmuth is one of the most prominent artists using this technique today. It consists of gathering vintage photos and using part of that photo, usually the face of a relative or in the case of the above art piece, oneself. Yes that is a photo of me in one of the cute little hats my mother made for me. The face is mine as well as the hands. The rest of the piece is drawn, painted and collaged. I started with a heavy application of white gesso onto an 8"x10" stretched canvas to provide the texture, then added the blue for the sky with Liquitex acrylic paint, a dark turquoise green for the ground with a lighter, more neutral green brushed lightly on top to reveal the darker green underneath. The purpose of the different layers and the texture is to create more interest than just one solid smooth color could do.

The band across the top was created by layering different papers and distressing them with Distress Ink Pads. I used a commercial rubber stamp for the letter "A", and outlined it with dimenional Scribble Paint in gold. I hand lettered the word "Art". The word "Love" was hand stamped onto a sheet of shrink plastic and heated in the toaster oven until it thickened and shrank in length and width to about 30% its original size. Again, I outlined the shape with dimensional paint in gold.

Simple shapes were drawn and cut from decorative papers for the dress and feet. A little bit of line drawing was done with a waterproof fine tipped felt pen for the shoes and socks and the number on the dress was stamped onto paper and outlined with the gold dimensional paint. All collage elements were adhered using either Liquitex acrylic matte medium or gel matte medium depending on the heaviness of the material. As I went along I coated all collage elements with the matte medium as I adhered them and brushed on the medium over the entire canvas when I finished the piece. The number 12 refers to the date of my birth in case you didn't guess. And I don't mean 1912. I mean the day of the month. That's all I'll say.

I would be glad to answer any questions about the techniques used in creating this piece. Just leave me a note in the comments section for this post.

Handcrafted Jewelry

These two photos show examples of my handcrafted jewelry. The top picture is of a necklace made of polymer clay beads and copper wire. Polymer clay has to be conditioned before it can be shaped. Then the bits of colored clay are mixed to create the desired pallette and through various techniques of combining the colors and shapes, and baking them, incredible designs are created. Inclusions, and embossing powders can be added. Designs can be stamped into the clay. Sanding, polishing and sealing complete the process.

The bottom photo shows a shrink plastic necklace. A special plastic sheet is stamped with my original handcrafted rubber stamps, then color is added with inks or chalks. I cut the designs apart and heat them. They shrink to about 30 % of their original size. It's really fun to watch the pieces transform in the shrinking process. They curl up and look like they're about to die, but just when they're on the brink, they straighten out like a yogi in shavasana and just lie there in the toaster oven until you come to retrieve them. The design and colors intensify. More color may be added after heating. Sometimes I use sanding to distress the finish and fixative to preserve the piece if the materials used warrant it.

Strength Courage Peace

This small collage/painting was created on a stretched canvas with acrylic paints, hand carved rubber stamps on polymer clay, shrink plastic sheets, and fabric; copper wire, paper, glass beads, linen chord and metallic paints complete the piece. I've always liked the practice of breaking out of the borders and off the surface of a work.

My Etsy Shop is somewhat delayed in its opening due to the setting up of PayPal which should be finished by next week.

Believe In Love

These photos are details of a painting/collage done in acrylic, with a foundation of torn paper and accents of shrink plastic, fabric, rubber stamped letters, and dimmensional acrylic paints. They actually work as two separate pictures, but they add up to one. You'll have to wait to see the whole thing. How's that for a tease? Today I received my shipment of 100% cotton rag paper for making archival digital prints of my artwork. I will have prints, blank note cards, jewelry, and buttons for sale in my shop on Etsy. There will be a link from this blog to the shop. The buttons, shown below, are great for adding pizzaz to all the fun knitted items that so many are creating. Art quilters will appreciate them as well.

The buttons are coming! The buttons are coming!

Yes, they are finally here after years in the making. Polymer clay buttons you can really sink your teeth into.......NOT! Seriously, these are one of a kind original designs made by moi, having worked on my polymer clay techniques for many years. You actually use a pasta machine as part of the process for creating these little works of art. Colored clays must be mixed and conditioned by kneading, rolling and generally abusing the clay until it is soft and pliable. That's where the pasta machine comes in. You must laboriously roll sheets of the mixed stuff through the machine about 20 times. You do this for each color you are creating. Then you are ready to start putting the colors together in various shapes and combinations to create logs of clay that you can slice into geometric patterns that dazzle the eye. You can also stamp, paint, carve and sand the clay to allow endless design variations. I also make jewelry out of this clay which I will show in another post. I will in the next couple of weeks be posting my paintings, prints, jewelry, buttons and note cards on ETSY, an internet website for artists to sell their handmade wares.

Cindy's Buttons Little Works of Art