I made some earrings

I made some earrings the other night, with some left over beads and a pair of earrings which really needed to be remade. They are all bright and colourful, and very light to wear.

I'm thinking of making a few styles in the different colours to complement my handpainted silk clothing which I sell online.

The act of making the jewellery [jewelry] is almost therapeutic, one must be patient and have total concentration on the task at hand. It's a good idea to put the beads on a soft fabric to work out your design before you start putting the earrings together; you can also buy a jewellery tray with little troughs to lay the beads in.

You can find the jewelry tray, glass beads like these and a whole range of jewellery/jewelry making supplies online at Dick Blick. Click on the DickBlick logo on this page to view everything you need to get started. Search for jewelery or beads. Have fun! Send me photos!

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Adding artwork to my Art Studio walls

The white walls of my art studio are crying out for some paintings, and luckily I have a few of those I've done myself. All I have to do is ...work out a way to attach them to the cement walls.

I'm going to speak to a couple of mates of mine who are 'handy' and hopefully they'll have suggestions about the easiest way to do this.

If I can find a simple solution, I'll be happy as Larry!

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Bought the trestle tables!

These are about 4 feet long, and oh so light to carry! Made it easy for me to climb up the two sets of stairs without difficulty. I'll be able to use these end-to-end, or side-by-side, depending on the size of frames I've stretched with silk, or if I'm teaching art classes.

Very exciting day! Woohoo!

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Painting 3 layers of colour on silk

Yesterday I added 3 new photos to my online silk painting Gallery [click here to view them], to show how I painted a silk chiffon scarf in 3 colours.

If you click this photo to zoom in, you will see the 'silk claws' I used to attach the silk to the frame. [read more ...]This particular frame is a perfect fit for the silk scarf I used, you can see the claws on the right side of the frame [and at the bottom of the photo] are attached to the wood with a coloured thumbtack. [I find these are the easiest to remove when I'm finished.]

On the left of the photo, the silk claws have narrow ribbon tied to them, which is then pulled to make the silk tight enough to paint on, and then the ribbon is attached to the wood with the thumbtacks.

Here is a close-up of the claws, closer to their real size. These are the best little invention around for silk and textile artists. When they appeared on the market I fell in love with them, they made my life sooooo much easier! When I first started painting on silk all those many moons ago [I wrote a bit about it here and here], my 'teacher' [boyfriend living in Paris] had made his own frames, and had hammered nails in all along the two sides of each of his premade frames. The silk was cut to size and then stretched over the pointy ends of the nails, to hold them in place.

This was his version of what I came to know as the 'sharp teeth' - we had to be careful when putting the silk on the frames. In French, there is a word for these teeth - 'picot', and you can buy them in long strips ready to nail or screw to the wooden lengths - much sharper than nails, and shorter, they don't rust, but very very sharp. When I can find a photo, I'll post it here.

ciao for now,
Teena!


Where to buy products: You can find the silk claws and silk dyes at Dick Blick - simply click the logo in the right margin, and search for silk or claws.

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Ahhhhhhhhhhh - stunning silk, what could be more perfect?

The cushion covers I made with inexpensive pieces of satin, for my cane 2 seater sofa which was on my patio/verandah outside my backdoor when I lived in the tropics recently].

The silk chiffon scarves are a melange of sizes - long, short, square, in my trademark bright bright colours.

Did you know I don't like wardrobe doors? They block the view of my kaleidoscopic clothing :) and wherever possible, I leave the doors open so I can see this rainbow every morning.

Some people think I'm mad, but when I wake to this fiesta of colour, I smile straight away and my day is off to a perfect and happy start! Hey - don't laugh - you should try it!

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Fabulous colours in silk chiffon

I was just sorting through some digital photos and thought you might like these. This photo is a handpainted silk chiffon sleeveless vest [painted for a client] - don't you love the rich vibrant colours? Well, maybe not - but I certainly do. :) The photo shows a piece of silk approx 20 inches across by 25-30 inches long [50x6-70cm].

The silk is still wet, and you can see the lighter shade of pink around the hot pink colour - that's where the dye is starting to dry. Eventually the white will be overtaken by the hot pink and orange, as it slowly spreads.

When I'm surrounded by fabulous handpainted silk I feel alive and able to achieve anything! When I learnt to paint on silk in Paris, I was used to listening to French music, and to this day I play French tunes when I paint - it transports me back to a place and time which is very special to me. Do you have favourite music you play when you paint or create?

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