as promised...

a close up of my screen-print framed with an embroidery hoop
another shot taken from a little further away

a made this screen-print quite a while ago, and i was going to use it to make a pillow. since my sewing machine is not currently functional, i thought this might be a good use for it. i like how the mustard yellow and red look against the pale grey walls in the dining room. i might just try more embroidery hoops...i think i'm hooked:)

introducing

this is a photo of my husband, ernie, and our boston terrier, penny. penny is wearing little boots in this picture, which she is none too happy about! they didn't stay on very long.


"mon petit chou" means "my little cabbage" in french. i fell in love with this phrase when one of my friends used it as a term of endearment. i decided it was perfect for my design!

i've been working on a screen-print of penny for quite some time. i just can't seem to get it right. i took a picture of her, edited the photo in picasa, and burned it onto the screen. the problem was that the whole left side of her face was just black and a lot of the emulsion rinsed away. i've tried twice, with the same results, so it's back to the ol' drawing board. screen-printing requires a lot of trial and error, or at least it does in MY experience:). once i figure out how to post links, i will share some websites and tutorials that have been helpful to me.

i'll soon be posting some pictures of the red squiggle painting i started the other day. hopefully that will happen sometime this afternoon. i keep getting sidetracked with house projects (i.e. cleaning kitchen, washing floors, laundry, etc.). that's the hard thing about working from home, especially when you're a little compulsive about cleanliness. it might be time for my second espresso!

typewriter tea towels coming

today i took a picture of one of my favorite thrift store finds. it is a retro smith corona typewriter, with lovely aqua blue accents. i've been thinking about making a screen-printed tea towel for quite some time, and decided this would be the perfect subject for my design. the first picture is the original, and the second is the edited version. i printed the design onto a transparency. i just need to cover the screen with photo emulsion and wait for it to dry before i burn the new design. i hope it turns out!

photo before editing:


















photo after editing:

for my new grey dining room

okay, i admit it. i am OBSESSED with painting and repainting every room in my house! i have a problem with commitment. i just repainted my living room from a terrible minty green/light blue color to a lovely chartreuse (before and after pictures coming soon). i am now fixated on repainting my dining room from a dark brick red to a pale grey. the name of the chosen color is filtered shade, by valspar. i first saw this color on design sponge at: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/look/look-amys-bright-yellow-bed-049599. sorry for the lengthy website address; i haven't figured out how to add links yet (yes, i know, i'm behind the times!).

while it may be putting the cart before the horse, since i haven't painted yet, i decided to make a new piece of art to hang in the room. for the background, i painted the entire canvas with a pale blue. i actually used the paint that i painted my upstairs bathroom with (the second time). i then created a screen-print, using drawing fluid and screen filler.

this shot shows a full picture of the screen-printed canvas.
once this paint dries, i'll screen-print overlapping designs,
so there won't be any spaces in between. i'm hoping for a
brice marden-esque squiggly design...we shall see!

this is a shot of the screen i created for this piece. i drew my design
onto the screen, using drawing fluid. i then squeegeed screen filler
over top. once it dried, i rinsed the screen and let it dry again.

i'll post more pictures, as i continue to work on this piece!
hopefully i'll have some before and afters of the dining room, too!

happy thursday! it's almost the weekend:)