When is a daffodil not a daffodil?

Tags

chiyogami, daffodil, fabric, spoonflower, yellow palette

The Spoonflower competitions this month are floral inspired. Given the time of year, I couldn’t resist doing something with daffodils. I used the colours from my Yellow Palette.

The first theme is “Paper-Cut Florals” so I tried to keep the shapes simple and graphic. I didn’t think the cut-out look was coming across in the preview, so I did another design using elements of the daffodil design as texture. The idea is that the flowers are cut out from ornamental Japanese paper (chiyogami).

Again some of the detail is lost in the preview, but it retains the cut-out look. If you like it please vote (open until 11 April 2017).

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.

Tangram fabric

Tags

fabric, patchwork, spoonflower, tangrams

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.

Mandala fabric

Tags

fabric, mandala, spoonflower

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here. I have been busy clearing the project scraps from my polymer clay work boards (I couldn’t bring myself to simply mush it all into mud). So I’ve made a few beads, odds and ends and cabochons but no finished items yet.

I have just entered another fabric design in this week’s Spoonflower competition. I actually started the image a few years ago, but it fit the theme (Mandalas) perfectly, so I just needed to make some tiny tweaks for it to be ready.

Voting is open until 14th March 2017. I’d really appreciate it if you’d vote for my design (there are other pretties to see too). 🙂

Art Vessel – week 21

Tags

2016PCchallenge, ArtVessel, candle lantern, flourescent, polymer clay, spoonflower

This week’s vessel is pretty late. I did finish it yesterday morning, but I wanted to wait till it was dark to take photos because it’s another candle lantern. I used one of my spoonflower fabric test swatches on a glass jar with an edging of polymer clay. I wanted something a bit irregular, but also something that would maximise the windows.

Mixed media candle lantern by Cate van Alphen

Lantern with lit candle inside

I used flourescent pink acrylic paint to highlight the texture of the polymer clay, because who doesn’t have neon pink decor – right? The photo under UV light doesn’t really look like it does to my eye, but it does show the glow.

Lantern under UV light

I lined the inside of the mouth of the jar with scraps of fabric before adding the polymer clay around the outside. I was concerned about the safety of having polymer clay on the inside of the jar with the heat of a candle inside. I think it looks a bit more finished than just leaving clear glass with polymer clay on the outside.

Kooky Kaleidoscope

Tags

boho, fabric, patchwork, spoonflower

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.

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.