I finished a… thing

Tags

abstract art, bead, freeform beading, handmade, mixed media, polymer clay

A few years ago I made a Bead Habitat. You may have noticed that all the pictures are fairly tightly cropped. This is because I hadn’t finished the edges.

I had intended to frame it as a picture to go on the wall, but my mother objected, saying that it was too tactile for that and needed to be explored closely rather than hung from a wall. After that it got buried under all the debris on my beading table.

As part of my recent tidying, I came across it again, and decided to finish it. I’ve done a bead edging and a backing fabric to hide my workings. I had to try really hard not to embellish the back too!

I’m not entirely sure what it is. It’s a kind of sculptural, 3D painting, abstract, mini landscape, ornament… thing. It’s purely decorative and quite small, so I’m thinking of it as “coffee table jewellery”.

It’s a mixed media piece including some of my polymer clay beads and components, silk covered wire, embroidery and glass beads on fabric.

Let me know what you think it is. Sometimes feel that I don’t make these things, I’m just there when it happens. 🙂

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Lost Masterpiece

Tags

gelli print, mokume gane, mono print, pendant, polymer clay

Here’s another of my lost projects. This one was inspired by Syndee Holt’s Mini Masterpieces class on Polymer Clay Adventure.

The project included several techniques including gelli printing and transfers. I didn’t make the exact projects, but I used some of the techniques separately.

I really liked her bezels so, while I waited for my gelli plate to arrive, I created a couple of pendants using some polymer clay domes that I had already made from a mokume gane sheet.

Once my gelli plate arrived, I spent a morning mono printing onto paper to make into greetings cards.

Unfortunately the photos are not great. I just had time to take a few snaps before quickly hiding my paints as it was time to fetch the children from school (it’s extraordinarily stressful when they get hold of paint).

These photos don’t really convey the layers of colour and shimmer from the metallic paint and pearlescent paper that I used. I’ve since taken the cards to sell at Craftworkshop, so I can’t take better pictures. They were loads of fun to do, so I’m sure I’ll do more soon.

Angel of the Blank Canvas

Tags

angel, Charity Auction, Grenfell Tower, polymer clay

After deciding to do a charity auction for the British Red Cross, I knew I wanted to include an angel painting. She is made from polymer clay on canvas.

Angel painting by Cate van Alphen

The angel is based on Barbara McQuire’s class on Polymer Clay Adventure.

Barbara included the word “Hope” in her image, but as I was thinking of the unfolding layers of horror emerging from the Grenfell Tower fire I had no words. So she is the Angel of the Blank Canvas. I can only hope that the survivors are able to heal the holes in their lives and make space to start over.

Angel painting detail by Cate van Alphen

Still she is not completely alone. I’ve added some swirls to the surrounding space which when seen in the right light are silver. This represents all the people who are working to help the victims and the generous donations that are flowing in.

If you like my angel and would like to make a donation of your own, you have until 9th July 2017 09:50 BST to bid on her. 100% of the proceeds will go to the British Red Cross. Even if you don’t want to bid, you could really help by sharing the link – Thanks!

 

Charity Auction

Tags

angel, art, Charity Auction, necklace, polymer clay

There have been a couple of terrible incidents in England recently but the one that has haunted me most has been the tragedy at Grenfell Tower. I kept thinking: “If only I could send some of the love and care that I lavish on my beads to those involved.”

Angel painting by Cate van Alphen

Finally it occurred to me that the most practical way to do this was to convert some of the things that I’ve made into cash. Therefore I have decided to run a charity auction on ebay. 100% of the proceeds will go to benefit the British Red Cross who are helping the survivors of the fire and those involved in the terror attacks.

Heart necklace by Cate van Alphen

I have made some items especially for the auction and collected together a few other things that I have made recently, or which seemed appropriate. I’ll be writing more about the items individually in the next few days.

Here’s the auction link, although items are only scheduled to go live from 10am on Sunday morning. I’ll be starting the bids as low as I can so you may get a bargain, but I hope you will bid generously.

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Polymer Clay Challenge – week 11

Tags

2016PCchallenge, Fimo, howgills, landscape, mountain, polymer clay

I’m afraid that for this week of my 2016 Polymer Clay Challenge, my vessel (the lantern) is still in progress. I didn’t even get ballet-time to do some beading :o. However I do have a 10cm x 10cm tile I have made for the Fimo 50 World Project.

“The Road Home” by Cate van Alphen
Polymer clay painting

I was starting to get intimidated by the gorgeous entries on the facebook page, so I thought I’d better do something before I chickened out completely! It seemed like a good reason to finally get around to completing this painting. I planned this image ages ago, so I don’t actually live in that valley anymore, but the name stuck.

 

Bead habitat

Tags

abstract, bead embroidery, handmade bead, polymer clay, spectrum, textile painting

I’ve been a little bit distracted the past couple of weeks by a new tangent. I’m fascinated by the discovery of gut flora and the concept that our bodies are more of an eco system than a single organism (since there are more microorganisms in a human body than human cells). Sometimes the wonky polymer clay beads I make have some personality, so I think of them as “creature beads”. I put the ideas together to make a bead habitat where my creature beads could live.

Bead habitat by Cate van Alphen

I suppose it can be described as an abstract 3D textile painting. I tried to make something lush and varied like a rich ecosystem (something like a garden or rock pool). I used scraps of fleece fabric that I had to hand, but I think it would have benefited from having another layer of more decorative fabric over the top. The fleece gives a nice dimensional structure, but I found the solid blocks of colour a bit of a challenge visually.

Bead habitat detail by Cate van Alphen

It also includes some of my handmade polymer clay beads, glass seed beads and silk covered wire spirals.

Bead habitat detail by Cate van Alphen

I actually finished it last week (at least I think it’s finished), but then I discovered another, slightly related, rabbit hole which I’ll tell you about soon. Don’t worry, I still have some polymer clay beads ready for tomorrow.

Sedbergh Sheep Fest 2015 – part 3

Tags

Cate van Alphen, kaleidoscope, landscape, miniature painting, pendant, polymer clay, sheep, Sheep Fest

Here are the last of my Sheep Fest pendants. Click here for part 1 and part 2. These are a combination of polymer clay and heat set paint to pick up some of the details.

Painting pendants by Cate van Alphen

I made the green picture first to test the frame idea. It’s 100% polymer clay with a little acrylic paint to antique the frame.

Green landscape pendant by Cate van Alphen

The back is inspired by the ubiquitous slate walls in this area.

Back of landscape pendant by Cate van Alphen

For the next pendant I used marbled polymer clay to form the landscape which I accented with a bit of texture, and painted in the details of the sheep and background walls.

Sheep painting slider pendant by Cate van Alphen

Again the back was inspired by dry stone walls.

Back of sheep painting pendant by Cate van Alphen

The last pendant is larger, more of a medallion than a miniature painting. Again I started with marbled polymer clay to form a basic landscape which I accented using heat set paint.

Sheep landscape medallion by Cate van Alphen

The bail and edging is intended to suggest the dry stone walls.

Stone wall edging of pendant by Cate van Alphen

The pendant is a hollow lentil which I made in two parts and joined together. The back makes slightly less sense as it is from a sheet of kaleidoscope cane veneer that I had left over on my work surface. It makes a nice pendant on its own, but perhaps it doesn’t work with the rustic stone edging. However, instead of making a more refined faux metal bail, I decided to be true to the front of the pendant. It probably would have made more sense to make a faux stone back too.

Back of sheep medallion by Cate van Alphen

Hello world

Tags

abstract, colour mixing, genesis heat set paint, painting, spectrum, sunshine

Last night I finally got to try out my new Genesis heat set paints. I haven’t dared try to paint recently, since with little children I know as soon as I’ve mixed up some colours I’ll get called away and they will be left to dry out on my palette. Because the Genesis paints remain usable until heat set, I thought they’d be a safer option. I decided to buy them with my birthday money, but I wanted to wait until after we’d moved. My birthday is in February so there has been some antici… … pation!

Hello World by Cate van Alphen

So here’s my first little painting. It’s really just a little doodle for me to test out the spectrum of colours. I think I need to get a magenta to pep up the purple since the one I mixed from red and blue was not bright enough for me (I think the red is too warm). The yellow is pretty warm too so I couldn’t get a cool green. I think I’ve gotten used to mixing with 5 primary colours (from using the Fimo Professional True Colours range).