DIY: Harry Potter Embroidery Sampler

I've had my eye on a certain wall space in our house, right at the top of the stairs. It is a cute little space and it needs something. So I've decided to work on a couple of things in the next few months to use to style that area. The first thing that I created was an embroidery hoop with a cute flower pattern and a Harry Potter quote. Perhaps I haven't mentioned this before on this blog, but I am a GIANT Harry Potter fan! Check out HERE for the inspiration for this DIY.

As I mentioned above, I love me some HP! However, if you're unfamiliar with the movies or the books. "Always" is a beautiful quote from one of the most misunderstood characters. Severus Snape ends up with the most beautiful and heart-wrenching story line. 

I used some lightweight canvas fabric that I had lying around. I also had a small embroidery hoop, a needle, and some embroidery floss. I chose some colors that I think will look nice with the other items I am planning for this space. However, something like this can be changed to suite whatever color palette you have in your house!

After gathering my supplies, I sketched out a basic idea of what I wanted to do and got to work! I used a back stitch to create the letters. I did two rows, right beside each other so as to make the letters thicker. I'm considering going back and adding a third layer to make them stand out even more? Thoughts?

After that I added some embellishments around the outside. I wanted to keep with the embroidery sampler look from my inspiration but I also wanted to make it my own. So I came up with some vines and small flowers and some daffodil/tulip like blooms at the bottom. 

I think the final project is going to look great on my little wall space! I'll keep you posted as I add more to the area and what it looks like when I'm done!

What's Going on in the Classroom: Photography- Shutter Speed

Just an update on Photography students! Students just finished up learning about and using shutter speed successfully in their photography to blur and freeze motion and paint with light. Look at the amazing results they achieved!

A Peak Inside my Portfolio: Figurative Sculpture *UPDATE*

Sculpture Class is over! Last night was our final critique. It went fine and I can officially say I'm done. One more class and a thesis until I get that Master's Degree! Now if you remember from my last post, my figurative sculpture suffered some damage in the kiln. I did decide to use Kintsugi to repair it and I love it!  But before that, here's the final image of my subtractive sculpture:

Turned out just great! Now moving on to the 'happy accident' piece... After some serious epoxy use, both to repair my piece (as best as I could) and secure the posts for weaving, here's what my piece looked like:

The I used acrylic paint and water to create a stain for the piece. I used brown, black, red and brilliant yellow straight out of the tube, watered down, and layered over the clay. Then I covered the entire piece in a wash of black, watered-down acrylic. The places where there were missing pieces, you can see I left un-painted. That's where the Kintsugi comes in.

If you click on Kintsugi, you will head on over to a webpage with some wonderful info about the art form. However, briefly, it is a way of taking broken pieces of pottery and putting them back together to create a new and possibly more beautiful piece. I just used some gold leaf and gold paint, nothing like the actual gold resin used by professionals. Regardless, I still think it turned out pretty nicely. The weaving looks great as well!

A Peak Inside my Portfolio: Subtractive Sculpture

My sculpture course for my Master's work is almost finished and it's been a very bumpy ride, but I am happy to say that my Subtractive Sculpture went pretty much according to plan! I wanted to create more of a non-objective piece that evoked the feeling of cradling or swaddling; the idea of being held safe and warm and cared for. We used a carving method on heat-insulating kiln brick. Here is the progression of my work.

This is not the final image, I haven't taken one yet, which is my fault. But it's fairly close. I believe it turned out well and I'm happy with my first attempted sculpting  of this type of material. On another note, I have some sad news, there was a kiln incident and my Manipulative Figural Sculpture took a beating. Some of it was, no doubt, an air pocket in my piece, but some might also be due to another student's bust that exploded into many tiny fragments. I've done my best to repair it and I'm considering adapting the destruction and doing a take on Japanese Kintsugi to finish the piece. Although I'm very upset since this was my favorite piece of the term, I'm hopeful that it will turn out all right.