Personalised Engagement Photo Canvas with Calligraphy

My daughter wanted a canvas for her friend's engagement... something to do with New York as they got engaged on holiday there.... a love quote.... neutral colours.... a splashy heart?... or maybe something with words repeated in the background... new york, love, forever, etc...? As I looked at  photographs of New York scenes & skylines, I thought of "borrowing" some of their holiday photos ... black & white... printed on canvas & collaged onto a canvas that I could write a quote on... still with words in the background.... or maybe not... keep the background white... mmm, maybe red writing...

So the conversation went, & as usual I couldn't explain what was in my head or how to work in K's ideas... & she just wasn't sure how what I suggested would look. To be honest, I didn't really know myself at that point.

As soon as I started I went for a grey background... with darker streaks & wisps of white. K hadn't been sure about frayed edges to the photos so I trimmed them straight & 'scattered' them across an 8 x 19.5 inches ( 20 x 50cm). I do like the longer, narrower dimensions & loved this layout, but wasn't sure about the red lettering even before I wrote. It's ok.... but I wanted white...

I'd already painted a few canvasses (I rarely ever do just one) & had played with some photo collages previously, so the final version came together in no time.

Love does not consist of gazing at each other,

but looking forward in the same direction.

 I have pages of quotations typed out & this is the one K chose... Quite appropriate for them as they look forward to marriage & spending their lives together isn't it? The photo was printed onto canvas & I frayed the edges to soften the look... (yes, she did like them frayed when she actually saw them). The canvas is 10 x 12 inches & the image approx 6 x 4 inches.

I believe the bridge is where he proposed.... and they loved their gift!

The Handmade Wedding Catalogue

I am lucky to have been included in The Handmade Wedding Catalogue, curated by Shana Mattheis.

It is huge... Shana has scoured Etsy to produce 138 pages full of photographs showcasing more than 200 shops & includes plenty of resources to assist with wedding planning.

 A couple of my book pages feature early on in "The Proposal" section. I've never got as far as listing calligraphy services for invitations & place cards etc on etsy yet, but it is something I offer & I have a steady stream of people buying both original work & prints as wedding or anniversary gifts.

On my browser the instruction 'click to view' appears twice & the 2nd time it goes to the 

full screen view...  it's so worth viewing at full size! 

Each photograph is linked directly to it's etsy listing, as well a link being given from the page index, so no one has any excuse not to find out any details of anything they like the look of!

Ideas are grouped by theme & by colour....

...  & I defy any bride not to find some inspiration amongst these pages.

It's impossible to pick favourites at first glance, but I am taken by the 'Earth Friendly' ideas.

There are also pages of resources interspersed throughout the catalogue... ideas about what to do when & comprehensive guides to planning offer reassurance to anyone not so sure & confirmation to those more confident in their organisation.

CLICK HERE to view the online edition of The Handmade Wedding Catalogue 

and thankyou so much to Shana for pulling the whole thing together!

Shana blogs at This Amazing Life
Shana's Etsy Shop

Shana was aided by Candice at Silk Florals by Candice, so a big thanks to her too!

What the Postman Brought!

They're old & battered...

...they have broken spines & their covers are stained.

They are literally falling apart with loose & missing pages....

But just look at the colours & textures of the pages in these old french books...

*swoon*

They will be finding their way into the shop after I have had time to savour them a while... most likely packed as bundles of vintage french book pages. If anyone would like a book or two just give me a shout!

These however, have been in my hands for a while...

I am now offering mixed packs of old french dictionary pages 

& pages from a french literature school study book.

 I thought the combination of words with studies of authors 

& poets would complement each other.

You can find them over here

My Workspace This Wednesday!

When you work in a small space (ie the top of the cooker) it probably doesn't need a brain surgeon to say that deciding to switch from painting pale sandy backgrounds to black, isn't the most sensible of ideas. But while one canvas was drying I spotted some little wooden plaques with moon photos stuck on.... that i was going back to finish off 'later' more than a little while ago!

It wouldn't really have mattered if any black splashed onto the canvas at the back as it is due to be re-pianted. Honestly, for something that is supposed to be simple with a "white beaches across the seas" sort of look, I've been having a major dilemmas! Although it is textured this version is just too... bland. And the spacing is a bit 'off'. I could 'rescue' it but it isn't feeling right & it's taken a fortnight or more to see that it needs to be landscape format... which I'd originally avoided because of the length of the poem & the canvas size.

 

Suddenly it feels so much better....A few layers later & this is where I'm at.... except I now want to reverse it to have more 'beach' & less 'sea'... & tone down the colour a touch so it won't fight with the lettering... why it took me so long to get to this point, I really don't know, but sometimes that's the way things go (or don't!).

And no... I didn't splash any black.... but i did get a bit of white on a couple of moon pics. My plan is to collage some lettering on to them anyway, so I'll sort them out "later"....

A Gift For A New Grandma

Babies are born with a need to be loved

and they never grow out of it.

It goes without saying that a new baby in the family needs to be loved...

... and a new grandma, especially for the first time, 

is definitely going to provide some of that love!

So isn't it a lovely idea to give her a momento to treasure, 

that she can frame if she wishes... 

... and tie it up with a pretty ribbon.

I love this paper with cornflowers in... they're such a gorgeous blue & the natural cotton rag paper is gorgeous to write on. It's a bit hit & miss where the flower petals are though, but part of the fun is selecting an area that suits whatever wording I'm doing.

Of course it's not just Grandma that might appreciate a personalised gift for a new baby, 

Mum & Dad might just like one too!

Let the beauty we love be what we do. 

There are hundreds of ways to kneel & kiss the earth.

~Rumi~

Human Elephant Foundation

Thanks to Ruthie for pointing me in the direction of the Human Elephant Foundation. The home page images of elephant sculptures in situ are amazing. Andries Botha creates life-sized sculptures made from recycled materials, which are situated in various locations worldwide.

The elephant is a metaphor that awakens the yearning for forgotten conversations between humans, the Earth and all living things.

~Andries Botha

The foundation aims...

... to encourage every person to do something meaningful with his or her life. It can be something small at home. Or a major global solution. Something personal or something collaborative. Whatever it is, it should be life affirming, and it should be a worthy legacy to leave the next generation.

It is well worth a visit http://www.humanelephant.org  

Brush Textures

There's something satisfying about just playing 

with textures & layout without using words...

white on black always looks dramatic.... 

a little silver powder is dropped into wet paint on the top one...

 a single chinese or japanese calligraphy brush gives a variety 

of stroke widths depending how you use it..

as well as being visually pleasing, they also serve as inspiration 

for layouts to use with words at some future date...

Forever...

...today starts the real journey...

The first phrase of a poem written by S for his beloved... and having spent time composing her a tender expression of their relationship he wanted a special way of presenting it to her & liked the idea of a canvas. Three kinds of butterfly are mentioned though we didn't want them representing directly...

...perhaps using the textures of earlier work

 Or maybe using patterns of butterfly wings...

I don't really present my ideas very well. I'm either working on a piece 'properly' or I'm not, and I'm sure S wondered at what he would get after seeing my initial thoughts that I don't think he wasn't particularly impressed with! Once I started working though, things came together... layers of colour first, then some black, and a bit more colour lashed on quite thick & scraped off & back on again & scrunched with cling film...

Dr Martins Bleedproof white is a good solid white that stands out beautifully on a dark background... I didn't want the lines of text to be too rigid so let them drift a bit....

It could have been finished at this point, but I felt it needed a little something... so i went back to the butterfly wing snippets and scattered them in the space that needed filling.

Even if you thought the first photo was ok, you can see that the final three squares make all the difference. S approved...

Oh My its awesome!!!!

I absolutely love it Suzi…you are going to make a woman cry! 

And it seemed that she liked it too...

Suzi you made  pretty girl cry like forever...

It seems like part of my job description is to make people cry!!