Etsy

Hello everyone! Sadly spring break is over and done with; it's back to the books for another month and a half, though summer break is coming closer every day!

~

Over spring break, what with the free time for painting, I decided to open an Etsy shop! Here's the link:  https://www.etsy.com/shop/AmyRustine

and here are a few things I'm selling:

:)

birds and bridges

Here are a couple more pictures I have painted recently...

 8.5 x 11in

2.5 x 3.5in

These were both really fun to paint!

(but especially the bridge...)

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I just finished writing a short story, so I might post that after my mom edits it... 

flowers and birds

 So here are a few more paintings...

Some pink flowers,

tiny Hydrangeas,

and a couple birds.

There are still a few more to come!

:)

shoe makeover

Sorry about the lack of posts...
we have been traveling, and I let the blogging slip.

:(

Anyway, I am back with another post!

-

So....my mom just gave me an old dress of hers. The fabric was beautiful! 

and...

I had this OLD pair of canvas shoes.

 Let's just say they looked their age. Which isn't saying much.

They were practically falling apart.

So I decided to try covering them with fabric, a technique which I saw a while ago.

I cut two scraps of the old dress, one for each shoe. 

Then, I pulled out the old faithful Elmer's glue and started in, coating the whole shoe with glue, sticking the cloth on, and coating some more.  Then I cut edges and folded the fabric into the shoe's hole.

-

 After a night or two, they finally dried. 

 :P

Yes, these shoes won't hold up long in the rain. 

Actually, they didn't hold up long just walking around on a sunny day. 

But if you used Tacky, (which I didn't happen to have) it might be a different story!

(you can see in this picture how dirty and old the shoes were...)

Anyway, they were fun for a while.

If you ever need a different colored pair of shoes and don't want to spend the money, try this!

-

copying Monet

Sorry for the lack of posts...

;)

I had a great trip to Subic for a soccer tournament over spring break. Our team placed second!

Read more about it here: soccer tournament

Anyways...

For art a few weeks ago, I had to copy a painting by Monet.

Here is the painting I chose:

We used to have it hanging up in our house.

Here is my duplicate:

It's ok... 

The sky looks a lot less neon in real life!

I had fun trying to copy it.

But...

I was using watercolors.

They are really hard to layer.

:P

So the poppies turned out looking like washed out blobs.

~
I'm actually copying another picture right now... Van Gogh's "Starry Night"! 

I'll post about it soon.

hearts

A month or two ago, I stumbled across this blog.

I thought the little stuffed hearts looked like a fun project to try.

So I made a couple.

I gave the results to Elise and my mom for Valentines Day.

The first one (which I gave to my mom) looks a lot like one of the hearts on the blog...

It's hanging from our curtains now.
:)

I gave the second one to Elise.
It was focused more on embroidery.

I think I like it better than the first one!
:)

They both liked my gift to them!

Not sure when I'll post again...
I've been pretty busy with soccer!

African batik 2

Here's the second half!

After the fabric was completely covered with wax, I took the pillow case outside.

I cracked the wax a little, by crumpling up the pillowcase.

Then I got out the black fabric spray paint, and went to work.

 

After covering it completely with black paint, I took it back inside on a garbage bag, and let it dry for quite a while.

Next, I ironed it between newspapers, to get most of the wax off.

This is how the first couple of sheets looked...

:P

 

I ironed.

and ironed.

and ironed.

 

and here the batik is, finished!

 

 Sigh. 

I wish I could take better photos.

These just don't do it justice.

:/

 

but I like how it turned out!

African batik 1

Well, here is my quarter project post!

I decided on African batik after finding this neat tutorial.

I found an old muffin tin, bunches of crayons, and a cotton pillowcase.

Then, I lightly sketched my design onto the pillowcase with a pencil.

 Next, I unwrapped a box of crayons...

 

...broke them into chunks... 

 ...and separated them by color into the muffin tin.

I stuck the muffin tin into the oven on the lowest temperature.

After about five or ten minutes, the crayons had melted.

I took the tin out of the oven, and using an old paintbrush, I started painting my design.

Every few minutes the wax began to harden, so I had to stick it back in the oven.

Several people commented on the tutorial that a warming tray may be much better than the oven.

If you're in a hurry, or want to be more efficient, you might want that.

Being the spendthrift I am, 

I took the time-consuming but cheap path. 

:P

Also, the wax hardened onto the bristles of my brushes, and they  became unusable.

So having a pot of boiling water is helpful, to pour over the stiff bristles, and to soak brushes in.

A warning...the container used to soak your brushes in will quickly become covered in hard wax.

Rather hard to clean. 

:P

And note the layer of wax on top of the water... 

It helps to clean that off with a bit of paper every so often, or else every time you lift out a brush, it will be re-coated in wax.

And...

Here is the fabric completely painted!

 It took maybe five or six hours to paint it all.

Phew!

Sweaty work in such a suffocatingly hot kitchen!

:)

I'll post about the last half of the project in a day or two.

purple flowers

Well, we are back to school.

:(

My art assignment this week was to paint something outside.

I was at a loss for ideas.

Then I noticed the beautiful bouquet of purple flowers sitting on our table.

So I painted them. 

They came from outside, after all. :P

I liked how it turned out!

The buds are actually light green, and the flowers are purple, not blue, but our scanner didn't recognize that.

:P

I will post about my quarter project soon...

I know, it's long overdue!

Ukrainian eggs

My kind sister used her amazing photography skills,
(see her blog here for even more amazing photos)
to take pics of my eggs!

Here they all are:

~

Now separately, in order of creation:

 This was my first one...

...which after making, I startled my family greatly by skipping through the house exclaiming how well the kistky worked.

:P

 ~

Next, a bird on one side...

And a flower on the other.

And yes, the leaves are blue.

*sigh*

Still learning...

;)

~

Then I decided to make an untraditional egg.

Traditional eggs mostly have geometric patterns, very even and uniform.

Untraditional eggs are...

ungeometric.

:P

So I made a peacock, 

 with it's tail flowing almost all the way around the egg.

I like the effect..

~

Then we have a very traditional egg.

An eight pointed star, which symbolizes the sun.

Actually, I didn't know that until after I made the egg. 

:P

~

Lastly, my latest egg.

I liked the way this one turned out. 

By now most of the lines are looking fairly straight!

~

And here are the eggs all together.

Well, five is all the eggs I have made so far, but I'm pretty sure I will make some more when I get time.

Phew.

Quite a few photos.

 Of course, I had around 70 pics, just of the finished eggs to sort through. 

:P

I'll do one more post on Ukrainian egg/Pysanky history sometime soon!

illumination

You may be thinking at this point that I am blogging about lighting.

No.

I'm studying the Byzantine Era in art right now.

Medieval manuscripts...

Ok.

What I meant by illumination:

or

(No. Sadly I didn't make those. :P)

Anyways.

My assignment was to research illuminations and make one.

I decided to illuminate a letter 'A'.

I wonder why...

:P

Gouche, a type of paint, was often used in illuminations, most often in green, royal blue, and red.

I thought about using watercolors, but they are way thinner than gouche.

Gold leaf is used a lot too.

It was rubbed onto the illumination with a tool tipped with a hound's tooth.

:D

Tinfoil just doesn't compare with gold leaf.

I don't have any hound's teeth either.

I finally remembered a sheet of gold origami paper I had stored away in my closet.

Just right!

Well, maybe not just right, but it does look much more like gold leaf than tinfoil does.

;P

Then I found a few brightly colored markers/pens,

and set to work.

It isn't nearly as intricate or detailed as true illuminations, and the colors aren't right

(though they are much better in real life. Our scanner once again mangled the colors... :/).

The gold paper actually looks fairly realistic

(in real life..),

but the markers just can't do an illumination justice.

I need to find gouche paint...

:)

stamps & stamping

Hey!
I'm back again.

This time, I am posting about my stamping experience.

No, I don't mean store bought stamps.

I mean handmade stamps, of course.

I was inspired.

This lady makes reeaalllly nice stamps. 

So cute, intricate, and pretty.

*sigh*

She uses an artist carving block for her stamps.

And a linoleum cutter.

I have neither.

Of course, by now you should know that probably won't discourage me much.

I improvised.

As usaul.

;P

Craft foam does an admirable job masquerading as carving block, and an ordinary craft knife seems to fit the job of cutting foam pretty nicely!

I like birds. And flowers.

So those are the stamps I made.

I layered my foam and glued it together, as it was so thin.

Then I cut out the shape I wanted for a stamp.

 I carved some details into the stamps. 

I made sure to carve deeply enough that you can see the marks, but not all the way through the foam.

That wouldn't have been good.

 :)

Lastly, I glued the foam shapes onto a piece of cardboard.

Then I tried stamping.

They worked!

I was very happy.

:D

I stamped on scrap paper...

ripped brown paper bags...

and pretty patterned card stock.

Then I made bookmarks.

:) :) :)

It was very fun.

And I like the final products, too! :P

(I also stamped on cloth...I haven't made any thing with that yet. We'll see if any thing comes of it...)

And that's all for now! 

My stamping fiesta is recorded.

:)

I will try to post again somewhere in the nearish future! 

;P