It is has been a beautiful weekend here in Lawrence ~ busy and good. But there is always time to make a little bit of art. This weekend I am going to re-purpose a canvas my husband picked up for me at the thrift store. I wanted to create an homage to the cicada, to summer, to slow nights in the twilight filled with cicada song. When Ella was little, she loved to wander around the neighborhood collecting the shells left behind by these strange-looking, summery insects. I still have a jar of the shells I keep in my workshop.
Always room for cicadas in my house :)
The French consider the cicada to be good luck, and I suppose my daughter did as well. And now, the thought of cicadas and their welling, summer song fill me with joy and sweet memories.
So, this weekend, an homage to the cicada ~ to the full moon ~ and to seizing the moment and making our life in an image we find pleasing!
Some music in the background ~
1. Here is the canvas my sweet husband picked up for me:
2. I tapped craft paper over my desk and on the wall I propped the canvas up against.
3. Got my paintbrushes out and some black and white acrlyic paint.
4. I knew I wanted a full moon image in the design and pulled this image of the web:
5. I pulled it into Powerpoint, cut the moon image out using the photo edit functions, enlarged it to fit on my paper and printed it onto vellum. 6. I also pulled cicada images of the web, pulled them into Powerpoint and printed them out onto vellum. Then carefully cut them out with small, sharp scissors.
7. Okay, with my moon and cicadas ready I went to work with my black and white paint on the canvas.
I just painted by dipping in and out of the white/black until the canvas looked how I wanted. Then I painted a thick black strip in the upper-right of the canvas to create some "dripping".
I painted a white circle, the size of my vellum moon so that the moon would stand out when affixed to the canvas.
A little help from my friends :)
8. I affixed the moon to the painted canvas using these plastic/rubbery bumpers I found at the hardware store, I stuck them to the canvas and then used a dot of E600 glue to affix them to the vellum. This gives the finished project a 3-D effect.
It is the beginning of my spring break ~ I have had the stomach flu and am recovering enough to start thinking about what to do for the "make something, anything, every weekend challenge". Ella didn't want to participate (she is busy rehearsing for an upcoming musical) so I am on my own for this challenge.
All art, begins with some sort of inspiration or drive ~ the best way I can explain my inspiration is by sharing some of the images/music that lead to the end product of this weekend's challenge.
I want to share this quote, because it really sums up my ideas on creativity and "art" ~
So the challenge and "Cicada Moon Workshop" are really about being alive, and in a way that is joyful and adventurous. That can look like anything!
The inspiration:
This weekend I am thinking about one of my favorite artists and her sculptures:
I love her use of old wood, a box enclosure, human sculpture with a mystical touch. She also sometimes uses other natural elements (cicada wings, stones) and words.
So, I keep this idea in my mind and then turn up some other pieces of inspiration, all of which you will see hints of in the final piece:
All of the best adventures begin at Goodwill ~ Ella and I ran there before our Friday night family dinner and picked out some basic black clothing. And then for good measure, I stole one of Trey's black t-shirts to add to the collection, but it is seeming highly unlikely we will see him wearing it any day soon (who knew?? :)
Your ingredient list: black clothing of your choosing; bleach; water; spray bottle; funnel if you have one; sponges; old toothbrush; small paint brushes (or you could use toothpicks in a pinch); acrylic paint: purple (we had to mix our own shade as I forgot to buy some at the store :), blue (we used cobalt blue, navy blue, island blue), orange (terra cotta), white, black (if you want to correct something); something to protect you work surface (we used a roll of craft paper); paper plates to hold your paints while painting; outside work space for bleaching
NOTE: you can use fabric paint if you prefer
Click on the slideshow below to get a quick peek at what we started with:
And as we like to say . . .
1. Okay, as already stated you will want some black or dark clothing. We used all cotton blends, and you will find out when you begin that different types of material bleach differently. Which is cool and adds to the adventure.
2. Then you will need to mix up some bleach and water. Our tutorial said 1/2 bleach and 1/2 water but our bleach stains weren't turning anywhere even near to white so on our last bleach attempt we kicked up to 2/3 bleach and 1/3 water.
We used an old windex bottle for bleach/water mix ~ you will need some sort of spray bottle to make this work.
3. You are ready to move your party outside. (for real, move it outside, bleach and the inside of your house aren't going to be a good mix!) Lay your clothing on a flat surface and smooth out any wrinkles or creases, then focus your spray into several spots of the front and back ~ we found that the more organic looking the better, and not too many ~ we had about 3-5 concentrated spots on the front, then 3-5 on the back. Let them "marinate" for an hour or more, check them to see if they are whitening to your taste. When you are happy with how they look, rinse them in cold water and let them dry. To be truthful, we did this step 3 times! Each time we weren't happy with the degree of bleaching or some of our patterns were too neat ~ on the last time, we strengthened the bleach/water solution to the 2/3 bleach and 1/3 water recipe which worked best for us. We also used the final time, to make our shapes more organic and messy ~ it looked better to our eyes.
4. Okay, once your pieces of clothing are bleached-up, rinsed out and dried it is time to PAINT! We did this inside, so we had to prepare our surface. We just covered our dining table with craft paper, but you could use an old sheet, old towels, newspaper. We didn't cover the floor, and if we had been working on carpet we would have regretted this ~ the floor was covered in paint (oooops!) So if you are't working on a floor that is easy to sponge clean you will want to cover the floor with an old sheet before you start.
Just to recap you will need: sponges, old toothbrushes, some small paintbrushes, acrylic paint (purple, blue, orange (or red), white), paper plates (to hold your paints), glasses full of water
We cut our sponges in half and only ended up using 2 half sponges each. One sponge for the purple, blue and orange (got pretty messy but we liked the surprises we got) and one clean sponge for the white.
5. Our table is covered in craft paper and the clothing is spread out and ready to go. Let's get going. You will notice that bleach looks different on different pieces of clothing ~ who knew??
6. You are going to start with the PURPLE paint, squirt the paint onto your paper plate and then dip your sponge in the water. Water down your paint and then outline each of the bleach spots in purple, then drop purple here into the dark parts of the fabric. I also took some very watered down purple into and/or across the middle of my bleach spots. The more haphazard the better. At one point Ella noted that it was the "mistakes" that ended up the coolest and she was absolutely right! So the trick ~ abandon reason and perfection, be messy and have fun and you will make something cool.
7. Now you are going to come in with your BLUE paint. We had several different shades: navy, bright blue, and an aqua. We just re-used our purple sponge and the purple plate. You can start fresh if you feel the need, whatever you want :) Add the blue to the outer edges of your purple paint, remember to water down the paint, you can also water down "too bright" paint directly on your piece of clothing if you feel the need. Add the blue into the purply/black sections of the fabric.
8. Now, into the ORANGE paint (or you could use red). We used a terra cotta shade and were happy with the results. You are going to take the orange and blend together your bleach spots into the purple paint.
Ella used used her fingers more than her sponge :)
9. Now it all comes together. You are going to finish with your WHITE paint. For this step, we got fresh water. A fresh plate and new sponge. You will add white to your bleach spots to add dimension and make them pop. Then you will play around, make a BIG mess making your stars :) To make the tiny stars, you will use an old toothbrush. Wet it in water and dip into your white paint. Then you turn the toothbrush towards your clothing, and brush your thumb over the bristles. You may want to practice outside until you get the hang of it. To get the big stars you can use your tiny brush, dip the tip in the white and make a tiny "x", here, there and wherever. Or you can just use the tip, to make a dot. That works too.
10. Now let them dry . . .
11. And the finished looks . . .
12. To set the acrlyic paint, throw your painted pieces in the dryer once they have air dried for 24 hours. Put them in for 40 minutes on medium heat. We are washing our hand-painted pieces by hand, just to be extra careful with them. And never iron these hand-painted pieces with steam (it will not be a happy day). You can iron, on a low to medium setting with a DRY iron.
13. Now you know exactly what you are going wear on your next little adventure into the universe!
