Stumbling around…

Stumble Upon

Well, I have finally discovered the delights of stumbleupon.com!  It’s an insidious site, so easy to lose time while engrossed in websites that appear that you’d never have thought of looking at – art, nature, crafts, science, space, writing, quotes… The list goes on!  I have so many websites to revisit and spend time with.

It has also provided me with lots of ideas, inspiration too.  Such as this one – little guiding stars.  What a wonderful idea!  I’ve been practising making stars, but my origami skills have never been very good.  I love the idea of putting an inspirational word or quote in side them for someone to unwrap… So, my mind is working on just who I could create such a gift for, as if I didn’t already know!

There were so many more ideas, inspirations…

I know, I may be late in this discovery, but …

Arty crafty cards

Of course I’ve been making more cards.  They’ve been a pleasant way to spend time of late.  Here’s some of the latest crop.  You can see all of them at Etsy.

Inspire Card 1 © Angela Porter

Friend Card © Angela Porter

Congratulations Card 1 © Angela Porter

Thank You Card 2 © Angela Porter

Friend Card 1 © Angela Porter

Love Card 2 © Angela Porter

Dream Card 4 © Angela Porter

Dream…

Greetings Cards

Dream is the message on a three 6″ x 4″ greetings cards I’ve made over the past couple of days.
DreamCard3©Angela Porter 2012

DreamCard1©Angela Porter 2012

DreamCard2©Angela Porter 2012

Each card measures approx 4″ x 6″.  The card blank is made from brown kraft paper card.  The little artwork on each has been created with the use of Sakura Glaze pens, watercolour paints and metallic pens/paints.

The lovely purples, blues and greens relate to Neptune, the planet associated with dreams and visions.  The flowing forms in two of the cards related to the flowing energy of this planet, astrologically speaking that is.  The saying ‘Shoot for the Moon; even if you miss, you’ll land amongst the stars’ has inspired the use of Moons and stars.

I’ve also made some with Thank You, Joy, Peace and Love on them, as well as quite a few with abstract trees on them.  They, along with the dream cards, are available from my shop at Etsy.

JoyCard1©Angela Porter 2012

ThankYouCard1©Angela Porter 2012

PeaceCard1©Angela Porter 2012

LoveCard1©Angela Porter 2012

I’m trying to find my ‘style’ with this kind of thing.  It’s an interesting kind of thing to do, exploring something new and finding my way along with them.  I’ll eventually work out exactly how I want this to work, in fact I’ve just had an idea now as I am tip-tapping away at the keyboard.

I want to create artworks with inspirational words within them, and this seems to be a good way to do that…or a good way to start to do this…

Etsy

I’ve been making a home for my art and craft works on Etsy over the past few months, and it’s an interesting kind of place for lots of reasons.

There are an incredible number of gifted arts and crafts people there whose works are a great source of inspiration.  I can spent way too much time just browsing through the listings …

What is a cause of concern for me is pricing my wares there.  It’s a very difficult idea for me to grasp – that my artwork has value.  What value it has is still beyond me, and trying to price things sensibly is … difficult.

I have had two pieces of work purchased through Etsy – one a custom ordered auragraph/mandala, the other a piece of my textile jewellery, so it has, from that point of view, been a successful venture.  It also means that I am not out of pocket in the great Etsy Escapade.  I’m hoping it will be a way for me to share my art with others, for others to own a little bit of my creativity, to share in the pleasure that creating art gives me.

Having said that, I have had a request from someone on deviantART for a listing for a torc to be placed on Etsy, so that is something I will need to get along with.  First find the photos of the torcs I have created in the past!

Greetings Cards

Greetings Cards 1 © Angela Porter 2012

Greetings Cards 2 © Angela Porter 2012

I’ve been doing teeny-tiny bits of art to turn into greetings cards.  Each card is 4″ x 3″ and the artwork is created using a variety of different media, including metallic pencils, coloured pencils, metallic and iridescent paints, metallic and glitter gel pens, Sakura glaze pens and fine-point technical drawing pens with black ink.

I’ve really enjoyed creating these; they’re relatively quick for me to create, though each one takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 90 minutes to create, believe it or not!  It’s also nice to create little bits of art that are more affordable.  Perfect for framing after receipt of them as a keepsake.

My swirly, curvy, spiralling style of abstract art is very much featured in these little creations, as is my love of colour.  The inner raven has been kept happy by the use of metallic, iridescent, shimmering colours and highlights.

All the cards are for sale on Etsy.

I’m going to be creating more this afternoon I think.

Calm

Calm 24 June 12 © Angela Porter 2012

Approx 19 x 12 cm.  Technical drawing pens and black ink, Derwent Inktense pencils with water wash, Uni-Ball Gold pen.

Earthy Mandala 13 June 2012

Earthy Mandala 13 June 2012 © Angela Porter 2012

Approx. 8″ or 20cm in diameter.

For sale on Etsy.

New Textile Art

Nebulous contours 7 June 2012

Nebulous Contours © Angela Porter 7 June 2012

Approx. 17cm x 11.5cm.  Needle felted dyed goat hair on a black felt background.  Patterns picked out with copper ‘Japan’ threads, various beads and metallic threads.

Inspired by the flow of gases in nebulae and of contour lines on maps.

Nebulous Rainbow 7 June 2012

Nebulous Rainbow © Angela Porter 7 June 2012

Approx 11cm x 10.5cm.  Needle felted rainbow dyed synthetic fibres on a black felt background.  Patterns picked out by gold ‘Japan’ Thread, various beads, sequins, polymer clay tiles and metallic threads.

Shapes and patterns inspired by contour lines and also the flow of gases in photographs of nebulae.

New Items in Etsy…

I have just spent the last couple of  hours taking photographs of items for sale on Etsy.  Included is some of my beaded/stitched/felted jewellery, including this

GoldPurpleCuff©Angela Porter

It all takes time, but it’s a good use of time.  The worst problem I have is pricing my work – even looking at other work on Etsy it’s hard to find something similar to compare it to.  I guess it’ll be trial and error for a while.

Everyone has to start somewhere!

Abstract Rock 2

Abstract Rock 2 © Angela Porter 2012

13cm x 13cm.  Rotring pen, Inktense pencils with water wash, gold metallic watercolour paint.

A small section of the previous Abstract Rock 1 reworked.

Abstract Rock 1

Abstract Rock 1 © Angela Porter 2012

Rotring pens with black ink, watercolour paints, Derwent Inktense pencils and wash, and gold Cosmic Shimmer watercolour paint.

The shapes and colours in this experiment were inspired by a photograph of some Australian sandstone.

I’m not happy with the middle more ‘scribbly’ bit, though the gold highlights have helped to make it part of the the whole. It’s similar to other work, yet different too.

A busily creative and productive couple of days off work – at long last, hurrah!  I do so feel out of sorts when a busy life gets in the way of creativity.

Energy Flow1

Energy Flow 1 © Angela Porter 2012

16cm x 8cm.  Sakura Glaze pen in black, Derwent colorsoft pencils, Derwent metallics pencils and Cosmic Shimmer iridescent/metallic watercolour paints on black card.

I started this one before my return to work a fortnight ago.  I noticed as I was completing it this weekend that it’s a little disjointed in places which may symbolise how I was feeling about the return to work.  The photograph really doesn’t show the colours properly, nor the shimmer and shine of the metallics.  However, you do get an idea of what it looks like.

Returning to work.

I made it back to work for the start of the Summer Term.  My voice, however, is still not right.  Work have referred me to occupational health and for speech therapy.  Also, there’s a microphone/speaker system on order for my room so that I won’t have to raise my voice.   My doctor has referred me to ENT to have my voice checked out.

The worst thing of all, is I still can’t sing.  I love to sing, have always sung with one choir or another since I started secondary school.  I join in the singing at any gathering where there is some.  This bout of laryngitis has affected that part of my voice, and I really, really do hope it will return properly and fully.

Not the car, again!

The handbrake broke on the car a couple of days ago.  As I’m writing this, I’m waiting for my nephew, who’s a whizz with cars, to come and see what needs to be done.

This is on top of a water leak from the toilet cistern a couple of weeks ago that came through the downstairs ceiling.

The ‘earphone’ on my mobile has stopped working too.

I hope that’s the triad of breaking done with!