Wraptious Design Competition

Tags

abstract, art print, floral, flower, greeting card, kaleidoscope

In April I decided to work on some designs for the Wraptious Competition. I already had some kaleidoscope designs printed as cards but I thought they could benefit from a little more texture and complexity. After working on one of the kaleidoscope images for a while I thought it was interesting but still missing something, so I layered on one of my abstract florals that I had digitally painted years ago.

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  Kaleidoscope

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  Turquoise Bud

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  Kaleidoscope with flowers

I really liked the combination so I worked on a few more images. Here are the ones that I have entered into the competition. You can buy these designs on cushions or as art prints until 30th June 2022. You can also vote for free by clicking the green thumbs up on each of the individual product pages, or like and share this facebook post (before midnight 30th May 2022).

Claire Flower Kaleidoscope

Gold Star Daffodils

Orb Fritillary

Pink Glow Lotus

Purple Globe

So that’s what happens when a kaleidoscope design and a flower painting have a baby! I really enjoyed making these and I’ve already got another one in progress. I hope you like them too. Would you be interested in seeing these as art prints or cards?

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And now with more ‘shrooms

Tags

earrings, fungus, handmade beads, mushroom, polymer clay, toadstool

Last year I worked on a red mushroom cane using the colours from my Red Palette. I started off by creating a vector image of my design so that I could test how the pattern would repeat. It took me ages to get the cane built as I wanted to follow my sketch quite accurately, and I was pleased with the finished result.

Original vector sketch for cane design.

Slices from my finished polymer clay cane.

Here are some finished earrings that I made using my mushroom cane. I’m still tweaking the sizing for some of these components and refining the domed stud attachment but I am happy with them as prototypes.

Red mushroom themed polymer clay earrings by Cate van Alphen

This year I have decided to choose some pieces of my art to get printed as greeting cards. While my mushroom vector sketch had enough detail to be used as a cane, I thought it was a little bland when enlarged to the size of a card. Therefore I decided to add in more details and some texture to the background incorporating scans of monoprinted paper. I didn’t particularly intend to make it psychedelic, but I suppose stereotypes happen for a reason! What do you think – is it fun or bonkers?

Fly agaric by Cate van Alphen

By the way, I have done a lot of the work on these projects during my Tuesday morning livestreams. You are welcome to join me for a chat or you can watch the videos on catchup (they remain available for 2 weeks).

Virtually Amsterdam

Tags

amsterdam, painting, quirky, travel, Virtual Paintout

I decided to make time to take part in the Virtual Paintout again. This is a fun project by Bill Guffey where he chooses a destination and then we use google maps to find views to paint. This month it’s Amsterdam.

“It’s Amsterdam, only bonkers” by Cate van Alphen

It was quite near the end of the month when I started, so I decided to focus on something fun rather than strictly accurate. I’ve done some messy gesso in the background on a piece of blue paper. I used paint pens and only slightly exaggerated the tilt of the buildings.

https://goo.gl/maps/tHW4mbwvsg62

I wanted something a little bonkers to reflect the feeling of Amsterdam which is full of fun surprises. For example a museum of Fluorescent Art or tiny houses in a crack between two buildings.

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. 🙂

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