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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Spoonflower Florals

Tags

fabric, floral, flower, satin, spoonflower

I have finally got round to photographing some of the fabric samples I got printed by spoonflower. It took a bit longer than expected because they were shipped from USA – just be sure that if you are in the EU that you don’t pay using paypal! These are my abstract floral designs.

White Floral fabric sample by Cate van Alphen

Lacquer Flower fabric sample by Cate van Alphen

Hosta Green fabric sample by Cate van Alphen

I’m already thinking of projects that can use these 8×8 inch samples. I just need to excavate my sewing machine from under the ongoing beading projects.

My bead soup has arrived

Tags

bead caps, Bead Soup Blog Party, beads, embroidered focal, embroidery, floral, flower, lavender, purple, Wendy Chamberlain

I was delighted to discover that my bead soup had arrived this morning from my partner Wendy Chamberlain. Here’s an explanation of what the Bead Soup Blog Party is.

But what’s inside?

Yummy! I have noticed that my camera does peculiar things with the colour purple so the various shades of the beady allsorts don’t show up well in the photo. I’m really excited to have a selection of bead caps and charms to play with. 🙂

Here’s a close up of the elegant embroidered focal pendant. I love the flower toggle, it’s so pretty. The crochet beads are amazing, I wonder how they are made!

Rose Garden Treasury

Tags

art bead, artisan bead, etsy treasury, floral, flower, lampwork, Paul Klee, pink, polymer clay, purple, red, rose garden, spiral

This month I have made another Etsy Treasury inspired by the Art Bead Scene monthly challenge painting. I loved the colours and the repeated spirals of the roses.

The Rose Garden, 1920
by Paul Klee
Oil on cardboard

‘ABS February 2014 Wishlist – Rose Garden’ by Fulgorine

Icy Floral Lentil Winter Hol… moonrakerbeads $10	Pink Hollow Glass Beads. Han… NadinArtGlass $24	Raspberry Pink Lampwork Spac… LoriBergmann $12	A set of 4 bicone beads, but… Shygarshop $8.5
Hand Dyed Silk Ribbon Garden… flowerseedpape… $4.5	Glass Headpins – Dotted tear… IcedMoments $5.7	Polymer clay buttons purple … Cofanetto $8	Dusty Red Fabric Roses Handm… BizimSupplies $15
SERENAS BLEND ROSES Unique A… SerenaSmithLam… $16	Polymer clay orange/pink fau… SpottedFrogDes… $3.99	a translucent red purple & y… PolychromeBead… $23	Glass pendant by Andrew Gron… AJGglass $30
Destash Polymer Clay Beads F… beadhappilyeve… $12.95	Handmade Lampwork Bead Set (… SilverReflecti… $37.5	Fantasy flower pendant in pu… APolymerPencha… $22	Embroidered Roses Garden Bro… GalinaPerova $42

Sequintastic Flowers

Tags

abstract, beads, blog hop, floral, flower, polymer clay, polymer clay painting, sequin, sequintastic, stylized

I’ve been a little bit quiet in blogland as I have been suffering from almost constant morning sickness, and looking at the computer screen has not been good for the queasiness. I discovered the Sequintastic blog hop during the Bead Soup Blog Party and I thought “No problem, I’ll be feeling fine by September”… unfortunately not quite, and I have been so exhausted that I’ve hardly made anything at all.

As I have never done anything with sequins, and I have some special ones saved from my wedding dress fabric (it was already embroidered and I had to unpick areas so I could sew the seams), I decided to focus on this challenge.

I knew I wouldn’t have time for the Virtual Paintout this month, but I really wanted to do another polymer clay painting, so I decided to do an abstract flower and embellish it with beads and sequins.

“Jewel Flower” by Cate van Alphen
Embellished polymer clay 10cm x 12cm

I also made a pendant with another stylized flower painting in polymer clay with sequins and beads sewn in for the centre. I inserted it into a metal bail and then covered it with a layer of resin for protection.

Have a look at all the other Sequintastic participants. Happy hopping!

Long way round – petal pendant

Tags

beads, floral, flower, hollow, pendant, petal, polymer clay, teal, tutorial

I have been having great fun making hollow polymer clay doughnut pendants, however I have found it slightly irritating that the back of the pendants end up being sucked in and not completely flat (it still looks ok, but sometimes it’s not what I want).

Therefore with my latest doughnut pendant, I tried baking the backing disk before adding the domed front. This was a BAD idea. Firstly I had imagined that by using liquid clay I could get the front clay to stick to the back when I cut out the hole – this didn’t work. Also I had planned to cut out the corresponding hole in the backing while the clay was warm (I forgot this step until it had cooled completely so I don’t know if this would have worked). Besides once it was baked I decided I liked the solid back visible through the doughnut hole and I decided to keep it as a decorative feature. I drilled a small hole for stringing instead.

After baking, the edges of the doughnut were mostly stuck down, but the central hole had puffed up so it wasn’t touching the backing clay (sorry there’s no picture to explain). With some struggle, I managed to stick the front of the doughnut to the back around the hole using super glue. To do this I had squished the two together which resulted in the nice flat backing disk ending up domed so that the two could meet (this is what I was trying to avoid in the first place!).

Bake again and… disaster!

The super glue had stayed stuck, and the back went back to being flat causing the front to crack and go with it. I really loved the mokume gane surface of the clay so I didn’t want to abandon the pendant. So plan C? D? (I’d lost count by now)… petals!

I made three petals to cover the gap repair between the front and back, and I put a layer of micro beads around the edging.

The back of the pendant is beautifully flat. (I used Tania Podoleanu’s method to create the wavy pattern.)

I love the final result of this pendant, but I got there the long way round. Hopefully I can find a more elegant way to get a flat back to my hollow pendants. I’ll let you know if I do.

Merry Christmas

Tags

Christmas, floral, hair barrette, polymery clay

I was still working on Christmas gifts until late Christmas eve, so I did not manage to get proper photographs, but I did manage to get a snap of this hair barrette in action today.

I hope you had a happy day and have lots to look forward to in the new year.