Lyric Art

Friday, February 3, 2012

On-Line Class: The Artist's Toolkit

Registration is open for
The Artist's Toolbox

An on-line course at www. QuiltUniversity.com

based on the book

Art + Quilt: Design Principles and Creativity Exercises

Come learn the basic alphabet of the visual language, the elements and principles of good design.

I'll walk you through each element, explaining them in easy to understand language and metaphors.

We'll observe each element in the world around us both in art and in the natural world.

Finally we'll put what we've learned into practice through practical exercises.

The supply list couldn't be simpler.

Sketchbook and whatever drawing stuff you have

Glue Stick

Fabric Scraps

Registration is open now and the class fills almost every session so don't delay.
Class begins February 17th
(4 lessons, the forum is open for 6 weeks)

Monday, January 30, 2012

guest tutorial: Melanie Testa makes ...

My good friend and fellow artist Melanie Testa is currently a vagabond blogger. Sad for her - lucky for us. We wish her blog a very speedy recovery. In the meantime today I have the great good pleasure of hosting her fabulous

Artspark heARTfest tutorial

Here she goes.....

If you haven’t noticed, I am having blog troubles, yup! it is totally broken! But that doesn’t mean I don’t have fabulous friends that don’t want to help blogless girl out! And don’t worry, I will have a new blog and web site soon. So let’s all thank Lyric for helping me bring a Tute Toot Tutorial to you for our Heartfelt Blog Hop.

When I was a girl, I loved going to the pharmacy around Valentine’s Day to purchase a plastic wrapped box of Valentines. They would come with little envelopes and need to be torn down to size along perforated edges. This was so very exciting to do, and going home to make an envelope out to each person in my class was excitement beyond measure! So I present a tutorial using stamps, sweet imagery and perforated edges.

You will need:

Paper to print on

Sticky back fun foam

Pencil

Exacto knife

Tracing paper

Stamp pads

Tracing wheel

plastic ruler

Fun foam is the way to go, create a stamp (or 4) that fits your valentine design. My valentine’s are 2x3”, so my stamps fit within this size. I drew my design on tissue and rubbed it onto the foam.

Cut your design.

Peel the backing off the fun foam and adhere to acetate or a backing of your choice. I put my tracing paper wrong side up underneath my acetate.

Pencil in a grid to size and begin printing your stamps, using stamp pads, within the grid.

Using the Pattern Wheel and plastic ruler, perforate your design along the penciled grid.

Fold and tear your valentine’s apart.

Write a special message on the back of your design and start giving your special Valentine’s to your best friends, buddies and and of course, your most cherished loved one(s)!

Enjoy!

-Melly

Friday, January 27, 2012

Tutorial: Lovin' my Thermofax Screens

It’s my turn!

Artspark’s heARTfest tutorial blog hop

Let's make a sweet little valentine postcard

Valentine by Lyric Kinard

I’d like to show you how my little love affair with my Thermofax screens can be put to good use.

I've had these collage backgrounds ready to go for a while. They are old watercolor studies (and I do mean old - like from 20 years ago!) that I've collaged with some worn out sheet music. I stuck them on with gel medium and then painted over them with some watered down acrylic paint. Gesso would have worked just as well. I just wanted to knock back the colors and the strong printing just a bit.

Next I took my favorite black pens and doodled random hearts on paper, scanned it and printed it out in three different sizes. I was thinking of creating an overall background texture with this doodle. Nothing too regular or controlled or overpowering.

I send each print of the doodle through my wonderful Thermofax machine along with that green mesh fabric. The heat rollers burn the carbon in the toner through the emulsion coating on the screen.

It's almost magic how that happens. It's a little addicting.

I usually tape my larger screens to a frame to make them easier to deal with. When I'm printing yardage I like to be able to lift the screen with one had while it still has big glops of paint on it and move it to the next paint location.

Smaller screens are simply "bound" with duct tape to keep them from curling.

I mixed up some pink acrylic paint - ProChem's ProFab textile paint, since it was within easy reach. I pulled out some cloth to play with while I was at it and printed away. I ended up only using the medium and the large screens for the collage. I got a little lazy and let the screens smudge on some of the prints. No worries.

Next comes some focal point imagery. I doodled some more hearts and then got sidetracked for MUCH too long - playing with funky new fonts (dafont.com) and words. I don't always have a plan in mind before I begin a project.

Time for some more thermofax screens. I cut out words and arranged them on a piece of paper in order to maximize my screen material. The stuff isn't cheap so I hate to waste it. I made sure to leave enough space around each word or doodle so that I could cut out and tape them.

By the way - if you find yourself needing these screens, I've added them to my thermofax shop.

This time I chose a medium contrasting color instead of a lighter color. Purple just happens to be one of my favorites so purple hearts it is! When a screen is taped instead of framed. I like to use a foam brush and just mush the paint through the screen like a stencil.

Lynn Krawczyk has some fantastic video tutorials for how to do this - and she sells some pretty awesome screens!

Last step? Choose which fun message you want to share with our valentine. These are cut into 5x7 cards. I can write on the back, stick on a stamp and drop them right in the mail.

Super SWEET eh?

Valentine by Lyric Kinard

And yes, dear readers, I do.

Valentines, Lyric Kinard
I love you!
Life is too short not to just say it out loud.

If you are in love with any of these screens you can purchase them here.

Hope you've enjoyed this fun little project.
Keep your eye out for

1/29/2012 Judy Coates Perez

Chocolate Peppermint Cream Heart Cakes

(my mouth is watering already)

1/30/2012 Kelli Nina Perkins
Felted Heart Soaps

(Is it just me or are they too gorgeous to actually USE?)

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Work in Progress: Boro Skirt

Over the holidays we took all the kidlets down south for an absolutely fabulous week at Disneyworld.

That's a good 20 hours of total driving time and I consider it time will spent. I'm very fortunate that Mr. Almost Perfect likes to drive and I don't get carsick so there is a lot of nice open time for hand work.

boro in progress - Lyric Kinard

I've decided to cover all of the raw seam allowances on the outside of the skirt with hand stitching. There are still a number of seams left to go - and then I'll consider it wearable AND washable. I don't think it will ever be "done" because I can think of a million things to add to it. A canvas in progress. A stitched journal. Art in motion. A continual "to-go" project.

If you would like to listen in - Rice Freeman-Zachary and I talked and giggled about this project, among other things on her podcast: Notes from the Voodo Cafe.