here is the daisy i planted today.
along with a rouge de marmande tomato, a slew of basil and some red and white geraniums (no delphiniums blue though...) the daisy was a replacement for the brave small daisy that was about 4 inches high and just about to flower when the ruthless claw of an escapee chook tore it from the ground and flung it aside. which made me very sad. the new daisy is 2 feet high and i think will be more than a match for any future visigoth chook.
the backgrounds of the title are for my stellar quilt - the second in the 'around the world in 20 quilts ' challenge. the foreground component is done - i used maggie grey's technique of using crayons, paint, ink and painted bondaweb on crumpled brown paper.
the challenging aspect of this piece for me was to use paper and lutradur - the real challenge has been to get the right black for my background. i wanted a black with depth and complexity and had real trouble finding a black that was black enough. i am painting lutradur which is partially transparent and have sloshed on various fabric paints but kept getting a greyish effect rather than a deep black. (in their fabulous book 'lovely lutradur' dijanne cevaal and marion barnett recommend using transfer paints but when i asked for these at 2 artists' suppliers they looked at me as if i were loopy and sniffily suggested i try a craft emporium)
i was quite affronted on opening the jar of paint that promised 'shimmering jet black' to find it was blue - a gorgeous shiny shimmery blue but definitely not what i wanted. when i added some water it turned to grey :(
so far the best black has been a jar of artists ground pigment in manganese black from st luke's in smith street - a gorgeous shop full of colours and wonderful thick rich papers. apart from the pigment (which is made from manganese oxide) i bought 3 tiny stretched canvasses and a large sheet of thick creamy khadi paper
here's another view of the brown paper bit. i loved building up the textures with the painted bondaweb - when the bondaweb was dry i tore it off the backing paper and laid it on the surface then held a steam iron over it and melted it - great fun :)
i also went to the cinema and saw 'burn after reading' - george clooney managed to be simultaneously extremely attractive and off-puttingly duplicitous. really great fillum that i wnat to see again.
and on the way home i saw a shop whose shingle advertised 24 hour mobile locksmith and a phone number. under this was a desperate sounding banner seeking a full time fully qualified locksmith........
1 comment:
You sound as if you enjoyed doing all that! Lutradur was a disappointment for me as I ended up with very muted, shades of grey colours and didn't like them. I found the Inneke Berlin treatment where you saturate the lutradur with dilute paint eg acrylic and build up to more depth, and then cut it up to use as applique was more successful but not overwhelmingly joyous. I decided it wasn't for me and wondered if I'd missed something.
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