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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Mini quilts

Tags

fabric, flower, quilt, spoonflower

My fabric designing has been on hold for a little bit while I waited for my test swatches to arrive. I’m planning to do something using my spectrum palettes and I wanted to check the printed colours before I got too invested. While I was waiting I decided to fill some empty frames with mini quilts made from my previous set of swatches.

It’s the first time I’ve done quilting and I found it pretty addictive.

The mount windows are about 9cm x 9cm which is dinky, so they were tolerably quick to make.

I made these last week. Today my fabric swatches arrived, and I’m pleased with them so they are now for sale on Spoonflower.

New vessel – Interconnectedness

Tags

ArtVessel, flower, pen jar, polymer clay, pretty, white poppy

Here is my latest vessel. I made it as a birthday gift, so I had to wait before showing it on my blog. It’s a large glass jar covered with mixed media, decorated with polymer clay, intended to be used for storing pens.

Interconnectedness by Cate van Alphen

I don’t always have a title for my work, but while I was making this the phrase “the interconnectedness of all things” kept repeating in my head. I wasn’t even watching Dirk Gently at the time.

I’ve included a few of my white poppies in the design. And the pink flowers are just for prettiness (and to add a some colour).

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.

Fabric design challenge

Tags

fabric, flower, Japanese, spoonflower

I have been playing around with more fabric designs. This time I made a pattern for the current spoonflower competition. The theme is “Japanese Garden”.

Japanese Lacquer Flower pattern by Cate van Alphen

I guess I still had inro on my mind when I designed this!

Your chance to vote for the winner is open till the 27th if you’d like to join in. There are over 700 entries so make sure you have a cup of tea with you before you begin.

Polymer clay challenge week 41 – toggle

Tags

2015PCchallenge, button, flower, flower power, polymer clay, toggle, virtual retreat

This week, for my Polymer Clay Challenge, I made a flower power toggle. I started with two different sheets of blended colour, and then I cut and replaced flower shapes to create a pattern.

Flower power by Cate van Alphen

It’s a variation of the technique I learned earlier this year in Anke Humpert’s class on the Virtual Retreat. (You can still join the 2015 retreat as all the classes will be available for a year after the last sign up.)

Flower power button clasp by Cate van Alphen

The flower shape means the button I created from the cut out fits through the hole easily as it is longer across the petal tips than between two petals. I noticed this when I made my indigo mokme gane pendants back in week 31. I’m still planning on adding an edging to finish off the components.

Flower power focal by Cate van Alphen

I drilled a hole through the thickness of the loop so it could be attached discretely with a seed bead anchor. Or the hole could be used to secure a wrapped attachment so it doesn’t slide away sideways.

Flower power components by Cate van Alphen

There is a different pattern on the other side created from the second blend of clay.

Polymer clay challenge week 31 – focal

Tags

2015PCchallenge, blue, Cate van Alphen, flower, Indigo, mokume gane, pendant, polymer clay

This week I made a mokume gane pendant using my indigo colour palette. This was partly because I’m doing a polymer clay summer workshop next weekend, and I wanted to check I still remembered how ;). I can’t believe that all of a sudden it’s August!

Flower pendants by Cate van Alphen

As you can see, I used the shape that I cut out from the larger pendant to make the smaller one. There is similar patterning on both sides so the pendants are reversible.

Flower pendants by Cate van Alphen

That’s about all I can say about this week’s 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge piece.

Polymer clay challenge week 28 – focal

Tags

2015PCchallenge, blue, flower, focal bead, handmade bead, necklace focal, polymer clay

I wanted to do something a bit different for the blue focal beads I made this week of my 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge. I started off with some dissolving packing peanuts which I threaded onto wire and wrapped with strings of polymer clay. I couldn’t find my extruder, so the snakes are more irregular and shorter lengths than I had intended. Then I added some spots and dots both for decorative purposes and for structural support to keep adjacent strings joined.

Necklace focal detail by Cate van Alphen

After I’d baked it, I dissolved the packing peanuts in water. I left gaps because I wanted the interaction of internal and external space, but I think I took it too far. As I was contemplating if it would be structurally sound, I dropped it and it broke in two places. I set about repairing it with liquid clay and more dots, but each time I baked it to cure the new clay it broke in a new place (I think due to the polymer clay being softer when warmed up).

I also made a focal flower bead using thick slices of cane which was safer bet both structurally and aesthetically.

Focal flower bead by Cate van Alphen

Blue polymer clay focals by Cate van Alphen

Then I decided I liked the two pieces together, so I attached the flower bead using fine wire and glass seed beads.

Blue flower focal by Cate van Alphen

Blue necklace focal (back) by Cate van Alphen

I added a few more dots to cover up the wire joins and when I baked those it broke again :(. Now we’ve reached a truce – I won’t touch it, and it won’t break anymore. So it’s an interesting look, but I need to work out some structural issues.

Polymer clay challenge week 5 – focal

Tags

Cate van Alphen, flower, flower power, orange, pendant, polymer clay, spiral

This week I made focal pendants. I was practicing a technique wich would enable me to feature symbol or simple line drawing on the pendant.

Focal beads by Cate van Alphen

The small focal is a hollow hemisphere with a spiral doodle.

Spiral dome slider pendant by Cate van Alphen

I added a bit of copper mica powder to the back attachment.

Back of spiral dome slider pendant by Cate van Alphen

The second pendant has a flower design because I just can’t shift the orange + brown = flower power equation!

Orange flower pendant by Cate van Alphen

The back of the pendant is a blend of colours.

Back of flower pendant by Cate van Alphen

Christmas gifts given

Tags

art bead, bead, Cate van Alphen, earrings, flower, jewellery, phoenix, polymer clay, polymer clay bead earrings

Here is a proper look at the polymer clay bead earrings I made as Christmas gifts this year…

Pharaoh’s flower necklace by Cate van Alphen

I made a pair of earrings to go with one of the first necklaces I made back in 2009 (dodgy photo is from then too!).

Pharaoh’s flower earrings by Cate van Alphen

Next I made a pair of earrings to go with the necklace I made for the May ABS Challenge.

Blue and gold earrings by Cate van Alphen

Finally I was commissioned to make a pair of earrings like my phoenix charms but with a black background. The front of the earring features a feather and the back has the phoenix.

Midnight phoenix earrings by Cate van Alphen