Celebrating Spring

At last - spring has arrived! We had a week with lots of sun, such a welcome change from the normal grey skies.
And here, just a simple picture of a tulip from the bunch which my daughter bought for me.

Aboriginal inspired paintings

My sister is an expert at interior decorating on a budget. She has all the patience and persistence to find the perfect fabrics, affordable furniture, coordinate colours of fabrics and paint. And she even upholsters some of her own furniture as well!

So when the giraffe fabric finally gave up on her lounge chairs - thanks to her cat's claws - she was in the market for a new couch. Since she also sews her own curtains she felt it was time to invest in a major makeover of the living room.
Within a few weeks she had found everything she needed - except something for the wall. We were exchanging ideas over the phone about painting the wall. But then I got a call from her after she had visited an art gallery where she had seen Aboriginal paintings.

To make a long story short: I got three canvasses from her, a piece of the curtain fabric for the colours and some pictures of the paintings that she loved.
I decided not to copy the designs of the paintings, copying is just not my style, but to design different patterns. I felt that the Aboriginal paintings looked like simplified bird views of different landscapes and used that as a guide for the design.
Every coloured part of the painting has been lined with little dots - how I did that will remain a secret, well - more or less...
By using gesso, sand and loads of layering of paint, the pieces have a visible texture when you view it up close. This often makes people wonder whether it was made from leather or fabric.
Anyway, she loves her new art in the living room. And I am glad that I do not have to paint her walls, even though it would have been so much quicker...

Altered book: Historical colours

Last month I received Julie's altered book from England. She had found an old book with the title: A tint book of historical colours suitable for decorative work.
The book is divided into chapters that refer to different cultures, ceramics and textiles, and their colour schemes. What also makes the book special, is the handpainted colour chips that show different colour schemes 'suitable for decorative work'.
Julie asked us not to cover the colour chips completely, so that the original part of the book still remains visible.
I chose to work in the spread with the Beauvais Tapestry colour scheme. I would have loved to add some tapestry stitches to the pages too, but that would have destroyed the back pages and their colour chips.
The book has been wrapped now and is ready for shipping to Germany.