I am in with a group of amazingly talented and inspiring women.
Artist, all of them. We all work in different ways and different mediums and have our own style.
This last meeting, we decided to set ourselves monthly inspiration challenges.
We decided to make mushrooms the theme for the first month and see how many different ways we can come up with incorporating mushrooms into our work and our chosen mediums.
There are quite a few amazing watercolours and even one super cute crochet mushroom doll already!
Not only do we work on our own interpretation of the month's theme, but should we stumble across other artists that catch our eye and inspire us, we share their work (always credited) with the group and this way get introduced to a wide variety of styles and new influences.
It is really incredible. Inspiring. Motivating.
So far I have made three different interpretations of the theme. One little fabric prototype for a larger mushroom I have in mind to make, a new hand sewn face mask, and another experimental piece.
I always save the used tea bags. They are great for texture in junk journals and art journals. But lately I wanted to try something else with them.
I have previously embroidered on my tea bags and painted on them. While searching for new ways to use them, I stumbled across some posts on Instagram of tea bag quilts. I believe it was by the artist Tessy Watt, if I am not mistaken.
Basically one basis the tea bags to fabric and then embroiders on them.
I have always just embroidered on the tea bags, never with fabric under it. That is rather challenging, as you can imagine, so the idea of of backing them with a more embroidery friendly material was very inviting.
A few weeks ago, I emptied another batch of tea bags and glued them into larger patchwork. We usually use the folded and stapled kind of tea bag (we use a lot of them for our sun tea).
A few different ones had made their way into my collection. So I made them into their own little 12 patch.
Then I started sketching what I wanted to embroider. One thing led to another and in the end it became an illustration, rather than an embroidered piece. But it was fun and I loke it none the less.
I like the wrinkled texture and the colours the tea stains bring to the table. Instant background noise, but subtle enough not to really distract from the image.
I want to make more lol. I think a bigger piece. An octopus for my bathroom possibly?
Next I have to find a frame for the snail. I think I will part with it. (Email me if you are interested, before it goes in the shop. Shop update coming soon.)
Details: ink, watercolour, coloured pencil, pencil and embroidery on tea bags, mounted on fabric.
Size approximately 7.5x8.5 inches (19x 21.5 cm) unframed
$75, plus shipping as is, $95 plus shipping once framed.
#recycling #art #bellinghamartist #seattleart #pnwartist #pnw #snail #mushrooms #magic #heart #embroidery #teabags #tea #teastains #illustration #ink #watercolour #aquarell