New fabric design – Orchid and Navy

Tags

burgundy, fabric design, landscape, navy, sand picture, spoonflower

I have done another fabric design for spoonflower. This one was for their limited palette challenge. They provided the colour choices, I chose the pattern. It was only afterwards that I realised the colours were very similar to my blog header image!

I was inspired by those pictures made from sand, water and air bubbles between two panes of glass. When you flip it the bubbles rise and cause the sand to dribble through slowly like an hourglass to form different landscapes (search for sandpicture and you’ll see what I mean).

If you’d like to vote, you have until 20th February 2018. There are a lot of entries, so bring a snack!

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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.

 

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

ABS June Challenge

Tags

bead, faux ceramic, freeform peyote, landscape, mountain, polymer clay, ruffle, sea, seed bead

This month I have made a bracelet for the Art Bead Scene monthly challenge. This time the inspiration piece was a landscape and luckily the colours were perfectly matched by a gift bead included when I bought the Cosmic Ceramic tutorial by Iris Mishly and Hilla Bushari.

Jackknife Village, 1926
Franklin Carmichael
Watercolor on Paper

For my piece I wanted to capture the undulating landscape elements. I have been experimenting with freeform beading but mostly I end up with chaos on a string (one day I may share a failed monthly challenge piece…) so I decided to retain a little bit of structure. I made three strips of peyote beading and plaited them together. I used different sized beads in the strips so they had a slight ruffle to them.

Featured Painting

Tags

feature, landscape, painting, polymer clay, polymer clay daily, polymer clay painting, Virtual Paintout

Yesterday I had problems with my internet so I only discovered today that my polymer clay painting of Tasmania had been featured on Polymer Clay Daily. This is only my third painting using polymer clay so I’m really pleased.

I’m still not entirely sure why I prefer using polymer clay instead of traditional paint, but it seems I do! I even started a group on Flickr for Polymer Clay Painting so if anyone else has work (or tips) they’d like to share please stop by.

“Sisters Beach, Tasmania”

“Upwards, Thailand”

“Last Light, Latvia”

Virtual Paintout August – Tasmania

Tags

beach, landscape, painting, polymer clay, river, shadow, sisters beach, Tasmania, trees, Virtual Paintout

Despite my best intentions, I have only finished my virtual paintout picture on the last day of the month (again). This month it’s Tasmania.

“Sisters Beach, Tasmania” by Cate van Alphen
Polymer clay, 10cm x 10cm

Virtual Paintout – Thailand WIP

Tags

jungle, landscape, painting, path, polymer clay, polymer clay painting, skinner blend, Thailand, trees, Virtual Paintout

This month’s Virtual Paintout location is Thailand. It is a really interesting location and I wish I had more time to explore, but I haven’t even managed to finish the painting I started.

**Edit – I’ve now finished this painting.**

This is actually only the background half of my picture as I’m only just starting to work on the interesting bits (have a look at the original location to see what I mean). Here is a look at the work in progress.

As you can see the painting is pretty tiny – 10cm x 10 cm. I started off with 6 colour mixes (see the tiles to the right of the painting) plus black and white. I made some skinner blends to increase my colour variety as I haven’t managed to get them to mix nicely on the canvas (as I used to do with oils). The flowers are pure carmine from the packet.

I’m working on a thin sheet of pale blue polymer which has been baked, on which I’ve drawn pencil guide lines. I prefer to do the whole painting before curing as I often go back and change earlier bits as I progress but at this point I’m worried the uncured clay will crack if I don’t finish soon.

I still intend to finish this painting so there will be another blog about it eventually. In the mean time have a look at the flickr group to see some other finished polymer clay paintings.

I also need to work on my Bead Soup pieces – due 11 August. At the moment I have actually finished some pieces but they don’t use either the toggle or the focals I received (I received a LOT of beads!).