Fashion illustration

In my last post, I featured Tina Berning's illustrations of women.  Fashion plays an essential part in Berning's art, which is one of the reasons I'm drawn to her work.  When I was thirteen, I desperately wanted to be a fashion designer.  So I spent countless hours sketching new outfits and even sewing my own clothes.  (The first article of clothing I ever made was a hot pink jumpsuit!) 

My mother knew that I was really into fashion, and one day, she came home with this amazing Japanese book.  This book full of fashion illustrations became my prized possession.  I studied the drawings and would try to copy every little detail until it was perfect.  I couldn't begin to tell you how many times I drew this face:

Unfortunately, I can't read Japanese, so I don't even know the title of the book or the name of the illustrator.  Here's the biographical page of the author.  Maybe you can help me out?

Artists I like: Tina Berning

I have 15 tabs open on my browser right now, nearly all of them having to do with art. One of the tabs currently open features the work of Berlin artist Tina Berning.  I find Berning's portraits of beautiful women to be alluring yet so haunting.

Much of Berning's work is done on vintage and found paper.  A few years ago, a collection of her sketches were made into a book called 100 Girls on Cheap Paper.  You can view the 100 drawings on Berning's website.  And while you're there, be sure to check out her diary of daily drawings.  I just finished looking at all 387- what a treat!   

My creative process this week

Here's my latest mixed media piece called summer at the lake.  This work evolved from a lot of editing and problem-solving.  Originally, there were more details around the lake, but I didn't like the direction I was going.   So, I decided to cut out only the elements of the art work that I liked and glue the pieces to a birch panel.  When using a rotary paper trimmer, I miscalculated one of the cuts and sliced through a part of the drawing I wanted to keep intact.  Funny enough, I actually liked the horizontal line effect and made a few more horizontal cuts (as seen in the top portion of the work).  

I debated on tinting the birch panel.  Ultimately, I decided to keep it natural, which complements the warm tones of the sky and the water highlights.  To enhance the wood a bit, I used Gamblin Gamvar varnish.  Gamvar is normally used to varnish oil and acrylic paintings, but I apply it on mixed media works as well.  The varnish seems to give colors a little more pop. 

Although I do love drawing at my desk, most of my creative time this week has been spent on this embroidery piece:

I'm almost done with the embroidery part.  I'm wondering if I should add a city monogram to the design like I did in this piece.  Your thoughts?

Show and Tell: new stuff

Here are a few items I got this week that I'm excited about. 

1.  Manimal Fringe Booties.  I have been drooling over these for a long time now.  These shoes are handmade by Kristen Lombardi in her Brooklyn studio.  As luck would have it, I found a brand new pair on eBay in my size! Check out all of Manimal's fantastic styles here, which includes the most adorable baby moccasins.

2.  Embroidered apron. My mother recently took a trip to Korea. She loved the embroidered aprons that the flight attendants were wearing and brought one home for me.  There are straps that cross in the back, and it's a button closure versus a tie.  I like the full coverage, but it'll be sad when the apron gets its first stain.  It just seems too pretty to be used as a grease guard.

3.  Canon A35F.  My vintage camera collection keeps growing.  This is my latest addition.  It cost me $12.50 at a thrift store.  It just needed a little cleaning and new batteries, but it looks to be in great shape.  Currently I have film loaded in four different cameras.  I'm anxious to see how the roll in the Canon A35F turns out.

The art of pojagi

[image sources: Jung Yul Park, London Korean Links, Sri Threads]

A pojagi is a Korean wrapping cloth, normally hand-pieced together from fabric scraps.  For many centuries, pojagi wrapping cloths have been used in common and royal homes.  In this post, I mentioned digging out from the cedar chest the pojagi my grandmother gave me (top right photo).  My grandmother was a teenager when she made it, so I'm guessing it dates back to the 1920s.

When she first showed me the pojagi, she pointed to the center and said the flower was one of her first embroidery works.  I was amazed by the precise and even stitching.  Embroidery has a long history in Korea, and it's not uncommon to see it adorning household items and clothing.  I recently read here about a debt that a Korean ruler owed the emperor of China during the medieval times.  The emperor requested that the most skilled Korean embroiderers be sent to his court, and this settled the debt.

Whenever I see a tied pojagi, it brings back a lot of childhood memories of my grandmother wrapping containers of food and articles of clothing.  I didn't realize there was such an international following of the art of pojagi until just a month ago!  I was browsing art blogs one morning when I came across two separate posts on pojagi. The Brooklyn-based textile gallery, Sri,  posted these beautiful images on their blog:

And here's a video on pojagi that the Rhode Island School of Design put together.  If only they offered  a class like this when I was in school!

Etsy treasury: street smart

OK, this treasury thing on Etsy can be addicting!  I've got to limit myself to one treasury a month . . . well, maybe every two weeks is fine.  Here's the new collection I just put together.

New work, "Dreaming of Oregon"

Dreaming of Oregon is a new mixed media piece just added to my Etsy shop.  I was sitting by a lake while working on it.  You should be able to see some elements in the drawing that were inspired by my surroundings.

I'll be posting an update on my second embroidery drawing later this week.  I've been spending more time stitching than drawing.  Sometimes the two mediums seem to blur together.  Here's a drawing I did yesterday. 

Easy to make family silhouettes

Silhouette portraits are timeless and treasured additions to any home.  You can find an abundance of options for custom silhouettes on Etsy.  I have been wanting to make silhouettes of my daughters for awhile now and finally got motivated yesterday to tackle the project.  Making the silhouettes was so easy, I made one for each family member, including the family cat!  Here's how I did it:

Some of the materials and tools needed for the silhouette project.

First, I gathered the materials I needed. 

digital camera
computer with photo editing application
fabric in natural (9" square for each portrait) and black (4" square for each portrait)
embroidery hoops (7" diameter)
sharp fabric scissors
fine tip felt pen
tracing paper
pins
fabric adhesive (or a sticker machine)
hot glue gun

Using a digital camera, I took pictures of each family member's profile.  (I recommend that long hair is in a ponytail.) We have a large bright window with a translucent shade that was perfect for a white backdrop.  A white wall can work, too.  Import the images into a photo editing program and increase the contrast of the photo. 

Before tracing an image, make sure it is about 3.5" - 4" in diameter.  Placing a sheet of tracing paper over the computer screen, carefully trace the outline of each profile with a felt tip pen.  (You can print the images in lieu of tracing.)

(My ten-year-old stepped in as photographer as I worked on the project.)

Iron your fabric, and then pin the traced image to a piece of the black fabric.  Cut out the image with sharp fabric scissors.  Next, adhere the centered silhouette onto a 9" fabric background using iron-on adhesive. (I used my handy sticker machine that was a recent craigslist find.)

Loosen an embroidery hoop and center the image in the hoop.  Pull gently along the edge to create some tautness.  Tighten the hoop to secure the fabric, and then trim the extra fabric to 1/2" (or at least shorter than the width of the hoop).

Glue the fabric edge to the frame using a hot glue gun.  If you want to create a more finished look, you can glue a ribbon over the fabric edge.

In about an hour, I was able to create five custom silhouettes.  And since I had most of the materials for the project, it cost me very little.  I thought about embroidering names below each silhouette but decided to keep it simple.