ArtShades

Design Experiments

I started the day with my head full of ideas for new lampshades.  Three different ideas were brewing and I wanted to try them all, at once.

The first involved silhouettes of glass vessels so I played around with the camera for a while, but couldn't quite decide on a design before being distracted by thoughts of a new technique.

  

So I played with dyes and paints, parchment and maps before getting disheartened when I couldn't translate the design in my sketchbook into stitch.  My mind was wandering again.

 

My final idea was prompted quite simply by the two wooden birds sitting on my desk since yesterday when they arrived in the post. 

I sketched a few pairs of birds, their tails reminiscent of my seed-head design, remembered my robin Christmas cards

   

and decided I'd try a pair of love birds from appliqued map.

They look rather flighty in comparison to their wooden friends, 

but I think they will work well as a lampshade.

My workspace is now in chaos!

Three Takes .... on a feather

This week's Three Takes .... was inspired by an email from the lovely Sue Lim at Blue-Ginger gallery.  "..... Would love some of your lamps here if possible.  The theme is 'Fur and Feather'....... but that doesn't help you!  Have you got any map lamps of this area?"

My initial thought was that she was right - animals and birds don't feature in my work, but then I found myself doodling feathers!

 

I immediately saw its potential and a stitched panel soon followed.  I knew this had to be a lampshade, so I stitched another, and another.  I chose a bold colour as I wanted a strong contrast between the stylised feather and the background.

So for those of you who have said they'd like to see how my Three Takes ....experiments result in a lamp, here you have it.

and to prove it's not just a mock-up here it is illuminated.

I must admit I'm rather pleased with how it turned out and can see the design finding its way onto my stand at the Malvern Spring Gardening show in May, in a variety of colourways.  This one is off to Blue Ginger this afternoon (along with some local map lamps) - I bet Sue won't have expected me to view her innocent email comment as a creative challenge!

Which colourway would you like to see? 
 
  

Three Takes ... on a bottle of bubbles

While playing at the top of our wilderness garden the children dug up a couple of lovely old glass apothecary bottles that were intact but full of soil.  They were very keen for me to wash them out so they could study their treasure and were intrigued by the wording on one 'Not to be Taken - Poisonous'.  We left them to soak.

Knowing they wanted to take them into school the next day, I had another go with washing up liquid before I went to bed and was intrigued by the pattern made by the bubbles left inside.

The cellular form caught my imagination 

 

and lead to this week's quick creative experiment.  The little hints of aqua where the bubbles touched inspired my use of paints in soft water-like colours

 

For the stitched version I used a combination of plant-fibre papers I had not put together before.  As I cut away the layers the exposed colours excited me and I knew I'd found a new colourway for some spring lampshade designs.  It wasn't until I went to photograph it that I realised the colours are very similar to those in my favourite mug which I use every day!

I'm enjoying this weekly challenge I set myself - it's both satisfying and fun to make small experimental samples, without worrying about neatness, making mistakes, or the end result.  So often when making new work I bypass the experimentation and go from idea, to drawing, to stitched lampshade panel and then feel frustrated if it doesn't quite work as the finished article I had pictured in my mind.  Often it is my enthusiasm to see my new idea brought to life that makes me impatient.

How about you?  Are you good at experimenting first before creating something? 
 
 
 

Three Takes .... on a Scrabble board

It's strange how a simple combination of coloured squares can provoke such a powerful emotional response.  While reading the paper in bed this morning I turned the page and was immediately transported back to a happy place full of family fun. What I'd seen was a grid measuring less than 5cm x 5cm.

 

The faded colours of the Scrabble board evoked happy memories of good-natured competition - I remember watching my mum and dad play when I was very little, playing as a family when I grew older and then playing with my husband when staying in holiday cottages in more recent years.

The first thing I did after dropping the children at school was dig out our old set.  It's exactly two years since I've played it. I know because inside there is a score sheet and on it I've written "and she does it again all these years later.  S won. The Lakes, Feb 2008".  Not that I'm competitive you understand!

   

So there it was, this week's quick creative experiment. 

I tried a watercololur interpretation. There is something very therapeutic about painting little squares of colour.

  

Then I raided my paper offcuts for appropriate colours, stitched a quick grid and began cutting out little squares, layer by layer.  I love this combination (where I have left out the pink).

 

I enjoyed the experiment.  I'm not sure it has inspired a lampshade design (unless one is commissioned by a Scrabble fanatic), but I may well use this colour combination.  What it has done is inspire me to teach my children how to play Scrabble - their spelling ability is just about at the point where they'll make good opponents.

Scrabble Facts:  Did you know that over 100 million Scrabble sets have been sold in 121 countries around the world in 29 different languages, making it the world's best selling word game?  Visit the Scrabble website to find out about its history (make sure you have your speakers on as you open the European site - the sound sent a tingle down my spine).

Do you have fond memories of Scrabble?

Three Takes .... on a Gothic arch

Yesterday's day out has inspired this week's quick creative experiment.  I couldn't get those Gothic arches out of my mind and felt the need to do something with the shape.

I wanted to capture the 3D aspect of the arch itself,

so I printed out the photo, cut away the arch, tucked it underneath the page in my pad and used a wax crayon to take a rubbing.

This formed the outline I needed for my layered, stitched and cut paper piece.  I like the simplicity of the lines and the monochrome colourway,

but could see it working in other colours for lampshade designs, so had a little play with the colour balance tool in Photoshop.

 

If I scaled the width of the arches to fit the diameter it would make an interesting continuous design for a straight-sided drum shade.  What do you think?

(To see my other quick creative experiments in the 'Three Takes ....' series click on the link in the sidebar under Categories).