Getting geared up

 I’m getting ready to start working on my recycle piece. The show is not until April, but I want to get started on it. The theme this year is “on the books.” My idea is to make a raven standing on the top of a stack of books. Some of the books have Poe titles on the spines. I have created my sketch/pattern. The piece will be 14 inches by 14 inches and will be framed.

I’ve pulled the plastic bags that I will use from my bag collection. You can see that I have quite a few different values.

I have cut my piece of Pellon 70 stabilizer. I use that instead of batting.

I have a translucent piece of plastic that I think will work for the moon. I’m debating whether using a scrap piece of Stonehenge fabric behind it is appropriate for a recycle challenge. Here’s what that would look like. I will have to think and experiment with that idea. Or just make some gray features behind the translucent piece.

The next steps will be to pick a background plastic and start cutting pieces. The pieces will need to be glued in place. I actually use Steam a Seam fusible for that. It sticks great to plastic. Of course I don’t use an iron on it!

Thanks for reading.

Chris

House portrait done and ready to ship

I finished the house portrait for my sister. It’s painted and stitched on one of our dad’s vellums. 

The photos are not great. I’m getting reflections when taking the photos. 

Now onto the recycle project  

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Ready for stitching

My sister’s house on our dad’s vellum is painted and ready to stitch. I back the piece with a Pellon stabilizer and machine and hand stitch. That process will start tomorrow. I’ve done this on several pieces so I know it will work. 

Thanks for reading. 

Chris

House portrait started

 I’m making a portrait of my sister’s house for her birthday later this month. I got an image of her house from Google Maps. I added her cat and dog. They are not longer alive, but I felt like I needed to add something to the portrait. 

So far I’ve traced out the image on one of our dad’s drafting vellums and I’ve started to color it in. I’ve also played with how to address the bricks. Siding is so much easier.

This is what I have so far as well as a photo of her house.

I’ve done 2 other house portraits on our dad’s drafting vellums. One for our daughter and one for my other sisters.

Once I finish coloring it in I will machine stitch on a pellon stabilizer and do some hand stitching.

Thanks for reading..

Chris