scherenschnitte hummingbird

*stares at title*
Wow, you are long...
...

Well,
No watercolor birds to show yet,
just a single scherenschnitte.

~
Schnerenschnitte
scherenshnitty,
and

scherenschnittay

are  my brother's, sister's, and mother's names for my outrageously named artwork...
Yes.

It's a strange name.

Sometimes I'm not sure even sure I'm spelling it right...

;P

[/end of rabbit trail]

I'm pleased with myself, as this was not a paper cutting I found online.
*gloats*
I made it myself.
 *gasp*

Well....

Not exactly.

I took Microsoft words graphics and played with them until I had a good pattern.
 :P



And...
for a change, I cut it on black paper.

I like the effect!

Ah,
Hummingbirds.
:)

watercolor birds

I've been gone for a while.

Yes.

Excuses.

Our trip was VERY fun and interesting,
(except for an unpleasant flu...)

*grins and nods*

Extras! Extras! Read all about it HERE!
;P

Well, I have been playing around with watercolor, and I recently saw this blog.

So, on to watercolor birds.

To be completely honest, it is only two so far, but it's a start.

And it's been fun.

I'm enjoying it. :)

1st bird.
(as you can see, I messed up right under the beak...)



But I still like it.

And...

2nd bird.

I like the shape of this one a bit better, but maybe that's because I just painted it...

It also seems somewhat more subdued than the other.

Almost pigeon-like...

Hm.

Oh, the flowers are supposed to be poppies.

They ended up resembling roses, or carnations...
:P

And the stem of one unfortunate bud is extremely thick due to a unsteady hand...

But I like it, too.
:)

That is it so far...
There may be more to come.
or maybe not.

It will depend on the whims of the artist.
;D

Oh! I also posted my third chapter of my novel, in case anyone would like to read it...

summer projects

Happy Summer Vacation! 

(for me, anyway...;D ) 

Well, I am trying to be productive with my time this vacation, 

so,

instead of sitting in front of the computer for hours, I am devoting myself to hours of crafts!

Here is my first of 

(hopefully,)

many projects!

Remember those doodled eggs I made awhile ago..

Oh.

I forgot that I haven't posted about those.

Hm.

*rewind* 

Several months ago, I saw this blog post.

Ah...

I grabbed my pen, and began to doodle. 

And you know what? 

They turned out pretty well!

*clears throat* 

At least, the flower ones did. 

I learned from the paisley eggs, that thicker tipped pens work best. 

And that you really DON'T want to draw your design on first in pencil.

AND that the simpler the design is, the better it works.

Anyway. 

Today I was sitting at the table, my watercolors strewn over it.

I glanced over at the eggs, and realized the flower pattern would look really neat in color on paper. 

So I tried it.

1. Sketch flowers all over paper.

Caution:  Fingers may grow cramped.

 2. Add leaves. 

If fingers are not already cramped, you will most likely experience that now.

If so, stop for cookies. ;P

3. After your paper is covered in black sketches, pull out your watercolors.

4. Choose colors.

Confession: Actually, I didn't choose my colors first, I just dove in. Later I found the ones I used, and took a picture of them... ;P

 5. Paint! 

6. And lastly, go over the whole thing in black pen.

Yes. 

Again.

  And voila!

(is that how you spell it?)

 You have a fun piece of summery art! 

 :(

our scanner was not nice to the colors...

*shakes fist at scanner*

:P 

Hope you have a great summer!

recent projects part 2...

Well. 

Here I am again. 

This time I have rediscovered my watercolors, which were buried under a avalanche of art supplies.

*blush*

*hides behind art supplies*

I will clean them up.

Sometime.

*clears throat*

{end of rabbit trail}

So, we have some watercolor paintings.

First, a bouquet...the flowers were roughly sketched with white crayon and then painted over with watercolor. 

'Fraid I can't get over the wax resist technique. 

First on Pysanky, then art...

~

Then, we have a freaky, spooky looking castle. 

Yes, I know that does not sound like me. 

I actually saw this in an art book, and theirs looked so neat, I had to try it.

You squirt different colors of acrylic paint in a line along the bottom of the paper, then use a piece of cardboard to drag the paint upward.

You may be wondering at this point why I call it a watercolor painting.

Well...

I didn't have the correct colors of acrylic paint.

So I used undiluted watercolor paints from a tube instead .

T'was all I had, so I used it. :P

And it worked pretty well.

The final touches, like the hanging bridges, birds/bats and trees were added with a felt tip pen.

~

Finally, I couldn't resist putting in a pic of my stone. 

Yes, you heard me correctly.
A stone.

I saw a picture of a stone painted very nicely, with a sweet little bird on the top.

{inspiration}

The next day I walked out of the house, calling over my shoulder:

"Bye Mom! I'm going to go paint a stone!" 

You can imagine her response.

Then again, I think she is getting used to my wild ideas...

That night, we were sitting around joking about it.

(Everyone liked the stone...;P)

Mom suggested teasingly that it would be a very good excuse to use against unwanted future suitors.

(NOT that I'm planning on those anytime soon...*rolls eyes* )

I can just imagine it:

"No, sorry, I'm busy. Have to go paint a stone!"

XD

Well...that's it!

recent projects part 1...

Well...I haven't posted in quite a while. Not that that is unusual or anything...

*rolls eyes*

I've just been busy making so many things.

Yep. Excuses.

Here we have what I made least recently: A posterish thing, with a quote by someone who I don't know.

I like the quote, and decided to make it into art.

Of some kind.

I used water colors and felt tip pens.

It would be hanging on my wall, but I have only so much space, and I like the others better.
Yep.

Here we have perhaps my favorite.

I suppose I should have saved it for last, but I am posting in the order of creation.

A scherenschnitte of a bird on a branch. The background is ripped and torn sheet music.

Terrible of me, I know.

(Consolation: It is photocopies of my music, don't worry! ;P)

This one is a very interesting twist on this interesecting circles tutorial.

I saw the tutorial and thought how fun it would be to make.

I also realized (sadly) that though paint chips are easily come by in the states, they are NOT in the Philippines.

My dad went to look for a good paint for our computer room and came back with a huge loop of paint chips. You had to return them of course.

I doubt the store would be happy to find that most of their paint chips had circles cut out of them, when they got them back.

Change of plans.
I dug out our stash of scrapbooking paper, and found some that I liked.

And believe it our not, I almost like mine better!

Next we have a doodle thing.

I saw (once again :P) a neat piece of art online.

It was a sheet of paper covered in designs made by several felt tip pens/markers.

I lost the link sadly, but I made two similar pieces, one greens and blues, the other pinks and oranges.

I have only scanned the second one, which unfortunately is not as nice. But here it is anyway:

A bit busy, to be sure, but interesting to look at.

I shall try to post a bit more soon!

I still have a few more projects yet to be seen...

Oh! and I think I shall start to post my novel chapter here as well!

Ukrainian eggs

*clears throat*

Well, I'm back again.

Let us not look at the date...

I have a NEW hobby!!

Surprise.
*sarcasm*

Ukrainian Easter Eggs!
or Pysanky, for any Ukrainian natives...
(finally, a craft in time for a holiday!)

Please don't ask how I came to try it.

I have no clue.

Anyway,I found an inspiring website here.

I realized to my dismay that several essential items are required for this beautiful craft.

-A kistka
-Pysanky Dyes
-Beeswax

The kistka is a tool used to apply wax onto the egg.

How to MAKE one....

I googled.

But alas, no instructions for a kistka...
I did find website explaining that a pin will work just as well.

Hm...

Pins don't work.

Don't even bother trying.

I had to make my own kistka.

After a frantic several minutes of digging around, I found a tip of an old pen.

Perfect.

To finish of the homemade kistka, I twisted a strip of tinfoil into a handle.


Now, just hope it doesn't melt...


I used some hardened waxed to fill the kistka, and dived in.

After patiently running the kistka over the egg design,
(which I simplified drastically as time progressed...)

I came up with this:

I'll admit,
not what I was going for.

Despite that, I was thrilled.
I had made a kistka that actually drew wax onto an egg!

Time for the first dye bath.

Now what to use for dye...

I fell back on the faithful food dye option.

For my first egg I had only two colors:

Green and Blue.

First into the green, for a great rule in Pysanky is:

"dye from lightest to darkest"

Then the tedious process of waxing all areas of the egg that are destined to be green in the final design.

Then into the blue dye bath.

Next I scraped off all the wax and TA DA!

A genuine Ukrainian Easter egg using NONE of those hard-to-find items required!

The last one on the left is my first egg.

As the line progresses the eggs are more recent, so that the one on the right I made just today.

As I made the next eggs, I found several helpful bits of advice.

Such as:

Raw eggs are suggested for Pysanky, but I found that a blown egg works best for me,
for several reasons, the top being that when I blew the first egg after it was dry, the dye ran... :C

Prick a hole on both the top and bottom of a clean egg.

Then blow through one end and watch in amazement as the egg streams out the opposite hole.

also,

when I had finished my most beautiful egg and was scraping off the wax, tragically, the egg shell cracked.

Yes, I should have known that could happen.

But it was devastating all the same.

My next egg,
(with a similar design)

I used a blow drier to melt all the wax off. It is much faster and safer to the eggshell.

I have now grown much more proficient with my rough, homemade kistka and some lines actully turn out looking straight!

I have greatly enjoyed creating the eggs, and (joy of joys!) I am getting a real kistka, beeswax and Pysanky dyes for an art class in school next year!

Ah....

can't wait till next year.
;P

origami architecture

I'M BLOGGING AGAIN ALREADY!

And It's only been 6 days!

Wow.

*holds out hand to quiet loud applause*
;D

I have found a new interest.
(big surprise)
Brace yourselves for another long name:

~Origami Architecture~

Ok, not that long.

I was searching for origami, when I ran across an inspiring photo.

Amazing.

Sadly, there is no free pattern.

After I recovered from this sad fact, I set about searching for more creations, but with free patterns.

My search, (rather unsuccessful) eventually morphed into a pop up cards search. Not sure how I got of onto a rabbit trail like that.

But I did.

I wasn't looking for simple pop up cards. Something more like this or this.

Yes, I definitely was nuts to think I could even try to make something like that.

Also,

these patterns were created by a Ingrid Siliakus.

A leading artist in this type of work.

Apparently she doesn't want to give them away free. ;P

So, I had to find something else.

Easier,
but not too easy.

Hm.

Most artists wanted to sell their patterns in books.

Sigh.

I finally found a great website: Baud and Bui.

Free, downloadable patterns.

Not too hard.
Not too easy.
:D
My first attempt:
A pagoda

I thought it looked pretty neat...

Sadly, it isn't pop up.

It just....stands there collecting dust.

It sure looks neat, though.:D

After that, I found another site with some free patterns.

It's in Spanish (I think...), so I can't read it, but I could still figure out the diagrams!

It's called:
Libros
The patterns are a bit harder.
:)
The best patterns I found were at the bottom of the most recent post.

Here is a city/town mirror image.

Turned out better than the pagoda.

*nods*

The last place I found was this blog.

It has a few neat patterns, and lot's of other neat craft ideas!

Anyway...

I have now journaled my quest for Origami Architecture patterns.

If anyone finds any other good sites with free patterns,

I would LOVE to know about them!!!

Maybe I'll just have to buy a book from those artists who won't give free patterns away...
;D

Another post about Valentines to come shortly!
(I hope...)