17 Fri Mar 2017
Posted in fabric
Tags
I’m still busy designing fabrics. This time I made a patchwork pattern for the Spoonflower Tangram competition. I didn’t use all seven of the tangram shapes, but the design was inspired by the theme so I entered it.
I have some more designs in progress, but the file sizes are getting quite large and my laptop keeps crashing, so it’s slow going.
In the meantime, please pop along and vote for the designs that you like.
03 Sat Sep 2016
Posted in 2016 Polymer Clay Challenge, Art Vessel, My work
Hooray! I have actually made a vessel this week. I sat down to make some black and white beads and ended up covering a glass dish with the leftover canes from my AJE headpin challenge.
Despite taking great care to avoid air bubbles, I was disappointed that quite a few appeared after baking. They are visible as the top surface is glass with polymer clay decoration on the underside. I do have an idea for something to try on my next attempt to avoid this.
The glass blank is a square with curved edges to make a shallow dish. Luckily I have a few more to practice on.
I textured the back and added some gold paint to antique it. I think it could do with a touch of sanding to remove some of the messy paint from the raised areas. But at this point I’m just glad that I made something.
19 Thu May 2016
Posted in fabric
Tags
Here are some of the fabric samples from the first batch of designs I did for Spoonflower. Previously I wrote about how the patterns started out as a photograph of a pair of earrings.
Art Nouveau fabric sample by Cate van Alphen
Surprisingly even though the sections all came from one photograph the different fabrics make some kooky colour combinations. I think they are quite fun together.
Fabric samples by Cate van Alphen
The stripes and patchwork fabrics bring together some of these contrasting motifs.
Chevron fabric by Cate van Alphen
Striped fabric sample by Cate van Alphen
You can view the collection here on Spoonflower.
29 Tue Sep 2015
In my earlier post about my embroidered Bead Habitat, I referred to a slightly related rabbit hole. That rabbit hole is fabric design. For years I have cut and repeated elements to create kaleidoscope patterns, but it never seemed to be a particularly useful habit since the only printing I knew of was onto paper or canvas. Then I discovered Spoonflower where they can print on a wide variety of fabrics. Suddenly I could imagine designing my own fabrics, perhaps even some to use in making more bead habitats.
I find creating patterns pretty addictive. Don’t ask me how, but I went from this photograph of a pair of earrings…
Patchwork bead earrings by Cate van Alphen
to these patchwork and chevron patterns,
Pink patchwork pattern
Chevron pattern
via a few tiled kaleidoscope patterns.
Art Nouveau tile pattern
Art Deco tile pattern
That’s only some of the designs, from one photo, with one colour adjustment :o. That rabbit hole is starting to look pretty deep!
I still need to get some swatches printed to see if they live up to my imagination. I find the thought of using fabric I designed from an image of beads I made as a component in a necklace strangely fulfilling. It’s like making compost from kitchen scraps to grow better vegetables (even though I’m currently only growing some spectacular dandelions in the garden, I like the idea).
02 Tue Sep 2014
Posted in My work
Tags
bead, blue, cane, earrings, handmade, kaleidoscope, patchwork, polymer clay, purple
Here are some of my latest earrings…
These earrings feature a pair of my handmade polymer clay patchwork beads.
Patchwork earrings by Cate van Alphen
These are extra long earrings with sliced kaleidoscope cane beads.
Long earrings by Cate van Alphen
These earrings have crystal spangles, just to rhyme with dangles. 🙂
Crystal earrings by Cate van Alphen
And because every day needs more sparkle.
