Working Together

It is a Henry ford quote.

I designed the graphic so that I can make something. 

Creating something on a blank page is very calming. 

 

Bindu

Wednesday evening Jewelry project

 I got this chunky beads. So,a stretch bracelet is for me. 

Then there were beads left over. I have 20 gauge wire too. So, had fun with 20 gauge wire and chunky beads. 

Don't you love the end result?

Bindu

Chocolate to MixedMedia project

Someone visited my home. She gave me a box of chocolates. 
The chocolates were enjoyed by my daughters friends. But, I got the box back because I asked to get it back.

There is a tray inside the box that was holding the chocolates. 

I should have taken the photo before cutting them out. But you can imagine how it looked, right?

Now, instead of throwing it out, I wanted to do something with it. You know the feelings? It is something, but you can't figure out what it is. Still in your head you know you can make something with it, but don't know what. The tray was sitting in the den for over two weeks. So, start to look on it. Right up, then upside down...

While surfing on the net, I came across this quote by Maya Angelou: "We come from creator with creativity". I wanted to make something with that quote.

 Remember how I get into mood for art? I have some background papers made when getting into the mood before. 
I cut the  chocolate tray to fit on the paper and the way I wanted. 
The regular glue was not working. so used the glue gun to attach the pieces to paper. 

I needed to improve my photographic skills. The actual work looks much better than the above photo. 
The love from the universe and the divine guidance or intuition are the ones guiding me to make the art. That is the essence I was trying to create. 
{You can say, my south Indian background influenced in creating that guidance in this one. 
You know, many  of the Hindu gods have more hands and heads  than a regular human being?}

Doodling on Index card

A pen and an index card.
Question is "what the eye sees"
The answer is just like this!

Simple pleasure of collaging

 Blue and green...
I wanted  blue and green

Cut them. Paste them. Again cut something else, glue in the middle. Write the words Bindu Designs.

Felt like it is done!

Blue is the only colour for today

What will happen if you are allowed to use only one color on a given day or for a project?

Mixed media art is fun with the "What if" questions. 
What will happen only blue for today? 

But, I cheated with different shades of blue.

These papers were used to wipe out excess colours.
Feeling blue is feeling down. What if we come out of the blues? Kind of awakened? The angel's touch? 

The fiber paste is used to make that image in white. 

Those are not finished yet. I waiting for the fiber paste to dry before adding anything. 
Bindu Designs

How to get in the mood to make art?

For most of the days I don't wake up feeling like a clear idea of what type of art to make during the day. So, after the morning chores, I will start by reading other blogs, checking my email and stuff like that. 
Then, I will bring my supplies out to my desk.

My workspace is an Ikea foldable dining table. I bought a vinyl tablecloth to cover it while making art aka mess. Then i place a bristol board on top of it as an added precaution. 
Usually the first thing is applying gesso to one or two sheets of paper. Once that is done, it will be left to dry.
Now, I can move on to the journal or a gessoed paper to make background. 

While making the background,sometimes, an idea will strike. Usually, I will feel like adding something on the page like beads or threads or text torn from books. I will wander around to bring more things to the table. Sometimes, I will go to work on making an easy foam stamp or finding things to make texture.
Making the things move and giving the freedom to sidetrack works sometimes. 
Before hubby comes home from work, the things has to be cleaned and the table has to be folded. 
How you get the mood to make art? Any particular tips? 

Bindu Designs

Sharing is caring. 

Little things crafty.

Sometimes, I buy T Shirts on sale . It may be the color or the design I like. 
I bought a Guess T-shirt from the outlet mall. At home, I realized, the V-neck is little too wide. 
A little upcycling is necessary. There was another white t-shirt, which is not long enough. So I cut a piece to fit inside the new printed shirt. 

I didn't sew the piece. Used heat bond to adhere the white piece on the red one. The black line is from a washable marker, I used to mark the neck. I am thinking of adding a few red flowers on the white to match the shirt. After that it will have my touch on it. 
Do you like to add your touch to new items bought from the shop?

Bindu Designs

Who am I : a Mixed Media exploration

The piece started without a plan to make anything particular. 
I just applied gesso to mixed media paper. The thinking was just to create a background for future work. I was just letting my mind wander around to think about the frustration of life , work and money. 
At the workplace, sometimes I feel I am not included in the circle. I feel like left alone and kept out of the loop. 
The colors and brush was comforting. 
After applying colours and and wiping them down with paper towel to make the layers visible, I had this feeling to look for shapes on the paper. Then , I felt there is a female body. A bit of tracing around the shape made the body, the eye and a face. 

The coloured paper towels are made by wiping down the brush. Used bits of that to make the dress. 

Cotton yarn was glued on top of it to give more texture and to create the feeling of the dress.  Below is another close-up.

Now, let us see the full view. Are you thinking of seeing a regular female face with this body? 

I am still not sure to keep her the way it is or to change the face to more human like. 
My daughter thinks it is great. She think the eye is just perfect and the texture is amazing. My husband thinks it is weird. He thinks the face is a goat, and my daughter thinks it is a giraffe.  
What you think of it?
At present, I just left it on top a bookshelf in the living room. 

Bindu Designs

Story of the tree: Mixed media project

The tree just came to me. 
What the tree wants? 
Tree wants a lot of sunshine, a lot of green leaves and give a lot of shade. The tree want to have flowers. It also want to live peacefully with the plants around it. It don't mind staying in one place and feeling the surroundings without seeing it. 
It didn't talk to me much. It was not seeing me. I felt like the tree is meditating.When I try to meditate, thoughts comes one after another. I felt the tree is trying hard to empty its mind. I felt the unrelated thought pieces wandering through it's mind. 

The Process

I used mixed media paper and started with Gesso. Used first layer as light blue, mixed with white to make it even lighter. Over that I painted watered down beige.
Pasted a piece of leftover patterned paper using fiber paste. 
I didn't make much texture . Just a crocheted sun.
I used the stamp made from foam sheet on the tree to give it some texture. 
How do you like the tree? I hope, the tree can stay there without being afraid of getting cut down by humans.  

Bindu Designs

Collage Greeting card

I was really trying my hands on collage. Remember this post?

The  Bio Art Girl suggested I should have a focal image on the collage.
So that is what I did.

I cut out the picture of a cat from an old calendar. ( I love cats and dogs. But, I don't own one)
It looks so cute on the collage back ground. 
I can't wait to put the cat on something. So I placed it on a blank greeting card.
Now, I have a cat greeting card. 

It is pretty as it is, right? I am thinking of making it a birthday greetings.

Bindu Designs

Trying collage on Index card

I wanted to try my hands on collage making. 
There are some magazines, which needed to be recycled too. I am not ready to commit on a large project. So, I chose an index card. 
I wanted to try triangle shapes . 
With a glue stick and cut down triangles from magazine pages, I am ready . The triangles are chosen for their textures. A wooden cutting board, an avocado, a bowl of pasta...Textures are everywhere. Then combined with some painted papers from my stash, I got this one:

It is fun and easy. This can be used in some other mixed media projects, I guess. I am not sure is there any theories for making collage. This is pretty basic, i am thinking. 
May be I can add a focal image on this one to give it some more importance. 
Any suggestions for collage making? I appreciate all kind of suggestions. That is how I learn more. So, please help me with your suggestions.

Bindu Designs

When there is no inspiration for art...

It is canada day again! Rain in the mid morning was not that annoying. Actually it was just fun to watch and listen the sound of rain.There is something in the sound of rain. It was just a pleasant rain. Not angry rain. 
The rain didn't make me interested in making more art. So, in the afternoon, I decided to just use some paint. It wasn't big fun. Yet, I created a background page on the journal.

The left page seems like a background right? The right one looks like a kid played with paint. It tells you about my dry mood to do art.
Then, the odd thing from my mystery box was asking me to make some texture. Since the lavender paint is not making any ideas, I choose pink and an index card. 

Now, that is something nice.It can be used later. 
 Now, I have this idea to make a greeting card. So, picked up a blank card and added some sort of paper edging. Then I dipped the  brush in black acrylic paint to write.

That is not finished yet. I left the card for drying. It needs some glitter and some color, don't you think?


 Happy Canada Day!

Share for fun

Bindu Designs

Haapy as a butterfly: Mixed Media Art

Butterfly is the symbol of growth, vulnerability,celebration and also soul. it also represent symbol of Love in some cultures.

I think, butterflies are happily accepting the changes comes in life and they are easy going.

When growing up in southern India, we had several butterflies always in the yard, flying from flower to flower. The colours on the wings were amazing. 

Here is my butterfly, flying over the fence, looking for happy flowers.

Process of making 

The paper was painted with gesso first. Then added fiber paste all over. Made the fence like markings with a fork. 

Then, layers of painting and stenciling added. The butterfly wings are filled with tiny beads. 

I felt a finished feeling when this much was done. Now, my inner critic is telling me there is not enough flowers,not enough plants,...

Any suggestion from you? 

How to add "Reply" button or Threaded comments to blogger comment

I like to read blogs and leave comments. Some of the blogger blogs I visit have the "Reply" button so that the author of the blog can add reply to the comments. 
It is also good to add threaded comments. Like, I can add a reply to the comment on the post.
But, I couldn't find that option easily on this blog. So, after doing a lot of search, and doing the unsuccessful editing of the blog code in the "layout" section, I found this easy method here. 
So, as suggested, I went to the Dashboard. You know, the place you can see on the left side things like "Overview", "posts", "pages", etc.?
The last one there is "Settings" with a picture of a wrench.
Click there.
Now you can see under the :settings" some words like "Basic", "Posts and comments" etc.
Click on "posts and comments.
Now, you can see, "Posts" and you can make changes to "Show at most" etc about the posts. But, I want you to go down to see "comments" 
Below that, you can see "comment Location" Right to that there is a box, and select "Embedded" there.Now, find the button that says, "Save Settings" on the upper right corner.
Now, again, under "settings" all way left side bottom, you can see "Other" Select that one.
Now, you can see "Allow Blog feed  ? " Click on the box there and select "Full"
Again "Save Settings".
You are all done.
Check one of your previous posts with comments on it to see how it is working.

Do you know, threaded comments are great to create conversation with your readers?

Bindu Designs

Story of Sue: mixed media on Cardboard

Sue loved books. Sue loved poetry. I caught her staring on the tree branch sometimes. She said, the leaves were doing dancing for her. She finds so many things interesting, which normal people don't even care. 

Sometimes the girls in the class called her "the writer". She doesn't seem to care. But, looking back, I think, she was trying so hard to fit in., trying hard to look ordinary. Still, she was sticking out, somehow. I am not sure what was it... 

Let me present Sue:

Do you have a Sue in your life? 

Bindu Designs

Curiosity: A mixed Media work

Many of my mixed media trials were done on watercolor paper and just cardboards. I got bended/bulked pieces when things are dried. 
Then I came to know that, there is this paper called 'Mixed Media Paper". The nearest art and craft store where I can get those is DeSerres.
My hubby was in a good mood last week to take me there.(Usually after work, he don't like to go shopping) I got Gesso and multimedia paper from there. The funny thing is, I wanted to look around shop and he wanted to go home right after getting the necessary things. (Do you take husband to do window shopping with you in craft store?). All of a sudden, the thunderstorm started and we were really stuck in the store for about 20 minutes. He watched rain, and walked around the store.

I was scared to do something on my precious Mixedmedia paper... You know the feeling of what if I ruined it...Anyway, I got enough courage to work on it. I used the DIY foam stamps that I showed here, on that one. 

A piece of hand embroidered fabric is also used in this one. Above the eyes, I used the punched out foam dots to make the blue hair. I call it "Curiosity". I was feeling like a child peeking through the curtains to see what is going on outside. The white thick lines are created with homemade fiber paste. I used Kelly's recipe to make it.  You can see recipes for Molding paste and chalk paint also on that page. 

DIY Stamps for Mixed-media art

Many mixed media artists are using stamps to add texture in their work.
 The other day, I went to Deserres, I saw many pretty ones. The  ones I like (kind of patterns big enough to go on my work) were expensive to me. 
 So, I was thinking of making something to add textures. Yes, I tried to cut flower shapes and added them before. 
Then, I found these foam sheets in my stash. Then I felt like I wanted to try something.
So, I draw  simple spirals on the foam with a blunt pencil. (I tried a knitting needle, but it was too sharp.) 

I used a paper punch to make holes on another sheet. I folded the sheet to punch circles all over it.

I tested them on the new piece I am working on.

Can you see the spirals on brown colour? The purple dots are made with my punched foam sheet. 
I am waiting for the paint to dry completely to take another photo. 
Since the DIY ones are unique and the pattern ideas are endless, I think, can try making more.
Do you make your own stamps and stencils? How you make them? 

 Bindu Designs

Mixed Media on Card Board.

I wanted to do something... anything, with the box, the crackers came in.
So, I cut it to the size of a printer paper. That is the size of the photo frames I have.
I have done it before.  The Dark Emotions, do you remember that one?
But, the cardboard got bulked with all the wet paints.
So, I was bit reluctant to try again... But, it is just an experiment, right?
i searched on the net to see how others did it. Got this video



Like in the video, I added two layers of newspaper to the cardboard. When I was adding more layers, the paper layer happened to rip a bit. So, I had to add bits of paper on it again. 
I am happy with the background:

For the focal point, I added picture of a cat. I cut it out from a calendar. Added little bit of paint here and there, it looks like done.
So here, is my Mixed Media Cat:

Before the piece got completely dried, I put it under a stack of heavy books. So, it is not bended like the "Dark Emotions".

PS: I made fiber paste and used it in this piece too. 

Bindu Designs

Linking to the link party here

Mixed Media Greeting card

Haven't you keep a lot of blank cards to make handmade cards?
I keep few in my stash all the tim. 
sometimes, you get them on a bargain price, like these ones:

 In the cover they looked so lovely. I loved the prints.They came in a pretty box with a memo pad with same prints and a set of index cards. It was in my stash for months now. 
This year, I am going to give handmade greeting cards for Christmas. That is going to be fun.
I am also trying to learn few hand embroidery stitches. So, combining fabric, paper, thread... 

I am not sure it can be called mixed media greetings card, because, I didn't add any paint on it. 
The embroidery stitch is called interlaced running stitch. 
Should it needs some sequins? or beads? Or just leave it as it is...
What you think? Any suggestion is helpful.

Bindu Designs