Cozy analog time crafting and painting

 

Hello lovelies,

Hope this June finds you well. It's been almost exactly a year since I last posted here. I'm not very active online. The analog life I find soothing and enjoyable. Not to say I don't enjoy the online life. There are many beautiful and interesting things to be found. Lots of inspiration for the creative soul.

Reflecting

 

Hello everyone,

 

Or should I say: anyone? Is anyone still interested in the good old crafty arty blogposts? I have to admit, I don't visit them anymore. Then why would you write a blogpost yourself, you could ask. I don't know, I just felt like reflecting on the years I spent here and the art journey I went on because of starting this blog.

 

Updates and hellos

Hello my dear blog friends,

It's been a while since I last wrote you. And I'm missing you and our Simply Neutrals gatherings! And my stash of yummy fabrics and laces, the needles and threads, the papers and glues, making mixed media books... But alas, no time at the moment... Alsn alas no time yet to have another Simply Neutrals party, I'm really sorry.

At the moment I'm over my head in illustration work (as in work I do for study purposes, not for paid jobs yet unfortunately). I hardly have time or energy left to be social besides family time and the social media side of following an intensive year long online study and trying to set up my illustration business.

 

Here is one of the illustrations I made for a children's book class.

And here is something I did for an editorial assignment.

It was the first time I was really experimenting with a more neutral palette and with drawing techniques. 

I hope all is well with you! I'm really sorry I've been so MIA on your blogs. And that I'm not able to do Simply Neutral parties again. I really loved our cozy gatherings and seeing your gorgeous entries come in.

 

But I want this illustration thing to work and need to hyper focus on that right now.

 

For now, wishing you a happy day and sending you big hugs!

xx Wen

The stillness of early Spring

I'm having fun experimenting with several media. I think I will do a whole lot more experimenting because I'm really enjoying it! First of all, earlier I had tea dyed some papers for a junk journal (of which I'm still in the progress of editing the video footage I took of it). I thought this was so much fun that since then I'm begging everyone's used tea bags when their tea is still hot, lol! Then I run upstairs to "paint" with these bags on paper and cloth.

When doing so, a flower head of a bouquet dropped on one of the papers and I noticed the colour the stamens were making on the paper. So I started rubbing some of these on paper and cloth. (Some result are on bottom of the photo above, both left and right.)

I also started experimenting with the copier machine. I copied a bird illustration I painted earlier and really love the result. And when I saw two little leaves that had fallen from house plants, I picked them up, put them under the copier again and again, creating a pattern. I then copied some vintage French text on top of that. (See top right of photo above.) I think this is so cool and will definitely experiment more often with the copier machine!

It's freezing cold outside. We had a tiny bit of snow a couple of days ago, but it's all gone now. The howling wind is icy. "Wind is spoiling skating fun, natural ice still very unreliable" the news headlines read. Dutch people love to skate on natural ice. Well, many of them do, not all.

But the sun is shining happily, making my room comfortably warm. If I didn't hear the howling wind, I would say it's a nice Spring day. But it's not, it's still Winter. There are some first signs of Spring though. In a neighbouring garden the ground is littered with Crocuses. Happy little dots of purple in a neutral coloured surrounding. This gave me the inspiration for an Early Spring fabric heart. Which is finished, but I cannot show it to you yet because it will be send to a dear friend. So you'll have to do with a little sneak peek for now. See on the left of the photo below.

On the right is the beginnings of a small journal, with a birdie I embroidered.

I also gather flowers and press them. Not flowers from outside, not yet. But from bouquets that are on their return. And I have so many flowers and leaves dried and pressed last year. Here are some Hydrangea flowers that I used on a tag. The tag I will show you later, cause again this one goes to my dear friend. Patience my dears :)

More experimenting: I made my first two erosion bundles and put them in the garden. I wanted to try this for some years now, but never did. So here's my first attempt. Now I have to wait two or three months and see what the elements of wind and moist create with it. In the bundles there are papers and fabrics, pieces of lace, flower heads, rusted iron and copper bits, and some cheap water colour paint splashes here and there. I hated painting with this paint and thought this would be a fun way to try something different with it in stead of disposing of it. (Update: I had put them in a little cardboard box and someone thought it was garbage and did dispose of the little packages without me knowing... sigh.)

And then of course there are some of the photos I promised earlier, of the walk we did on the Utrechtse Heuvelrug. In the land of bogs and woods and heather fields. It's such a beautiful area and it's not far from where we live, so we love to go there often.

There was a thin layer of ice on the water then.

I'm sure it's grown much thicker now with this icy cold.

But the strong winds make it treacherous to walk or skate on it.

In the woods we found beautiful textures of bark and fungus.

 

And I love the beautiful mirroring in the water.

There was no wind that day, so the water was peaceful, like a giant mirror.

Small fungus growing on fallen bark.

You know what I forgot to look for?

Skeleton leaves!

I'm sure there must be skeleton leaves now, don't you think?

Well, it doesn't spoil the fun I had :)

I was just thinking, funnily I named this blog post the stillness of early Spring. But indoor as well as outdoors it's not so still at the moment, with my happy experimenting and the howling wind, lol!

Wishing you a beautiful day!

Big hugs xx

Wen

Autumn

Hello sweet friends,

It's definitely Autumn here, nature changes its colours to beautiful warm tones. There are still some gorgeous flowers showing, like these soft pink roses.

I love the warm reds and pinks of Autumn and wanted to do some embroidery to add to my Book Of Bloom. So I started with a flower and some leaves and I will see where this will bring me. I do not have a design to work from, I just love to embroider like I'm drawing with thread.

I do not have much time for embroidery though, because whatever time I have available for creating, I use for painting.

Like this little painting of a Cardinal bird that I did on a dried and pressed autumn leaf.

But I'd love to do more embroidery, so I will definitely make sure to take some time for that as well! I find the slow pace soothing and relaxing.

Did you have some time to create lately?

Wishing you a beautiful day!

xx Wen

Book of Bloom

Hello sweet friends, remember the book inspired by the woods I made, and the beginnings of the Book of Bloom I shared with you there? Well, here's what the Book of Bloom looks like so far.

I bound all the pages and started to collage and paint on some of them.

Here and there I added some photos of earlier works too. And some laces and fabric snippets. In this book, like in the book of woods, there are pages of different kind of papers. Like mixed media or watercolour papers, book pages, scrapbook papers, and wrapping papers. And I added some fabric pages to which I will add little collages or embroidery pieces.

I haven't finished the back of the binding yet. I'm not sure what I will add to the fabric there. Probably some embroidery on fabric snippets. Or may be buttons?

But flowers... there will always be flowers wherever I go!

They're just a must have in my life, they make me so happy!

I'm very sure there will be dried and pressed wildflowers in my book added here. And painted flowers. Photos I take of flowers. Sketched flowers. Poems about flowers. Flowers everywhere!

Wishing you a happy blooming day!

xx Wen

A walk in the woods

Hello sweet people,

Last weekend we went to my favourite woods here in the area. It's huge (for the Netherlands that is, we are only a tiny country). This time we went to an area of it which we hadn't visited before. And we were in for a beautiful surprise at the very end of the walk, a field of gorgeous wildflowers.

Here's a short film I made, come enjoy this walk with me:

Does anyone know which flowers those are? I googled it and couldn't find it, but would love to know.

Of course I brought back some little treasures from the woods like nuts and sticks. But I left this beauty below where I found it.

The woods inspired me for the art book - or journal or whatever you'd like to call it - I am making. The foundation of the book itself is finished, but I will add more and more later on. I'm going to use it as my nature journal, adding little paintings, journaling, embroidery snippets, found objects like leafs, and so on.

The pages all have something on it, so I will not have to start with a blank canvas. I added snippets of fabric and lace, found papers, I added some paint strokes here and there. The pages are of a variety of papers. Watercolour papers, book pages, fabric pages, wrapping papers, printer paper, scrapbook papers. And the cover is made out of cardboard.

 

Gosh, I really want to know which flowers these are. They're so gorgeous! A whole field of them, blooming somewhere in the middle of the woods.

On the back I added a snippet of fabric on which I did some embroidery. To my book I will also add inspiring quotes that I find. And photos I took myself of all things nature.

These gorgeous wildflowers gave me the inspiration for my next art book, for which I started with making the front cover painting:

Book of Bloom

Which, of course, will be about wildflowers, blossoms and other flowers, but also about blooming as a person.

I make these books with the help of a bookmaking workshop by Nellie Wortman. Unfortunately she retired this class, so it will no longer be available, but you can find other awesome classes by Nellie (and other art teachers) at Creative Workshops.

Now put on your hiking boots and have a stroll outdoors, my friend. I know we spend way too much time indoors and also behind our computers. I know I do.

Big hugs and happy day wishes,

xx Wen

Linking this to Nature Notes

The inspiring coast of Cornwall

Cornwall had been on my wish list for a long time before we made it there. I grew up in a coastal town myself and really longed to visit the south west end of the UK. And I was not disappointed. Now I really long to go back there again and again.

It's that's feeling of really being on vacation, that I also always have when we drive to our local coast and pass the sand dunes. On these coasts the trees are lower than inland. There's more bushes than trees, really. You hear the seagulls and smell the salt of the sea in the refreshing breeze. And of course there's the sea. The waves splashing on the beach over and over again.

It's the hours spent beachcombing.

Finding treasures in shells, stones, sea glass and pottery pieces.

It's a place so inspiring, I take loads and loads of photos to bring back home some of the beauty and memories. At home I wish to capture it all, studying in threads, fabrics, paints, and so on.

And I don't mind the weather on coasts like this.

I want to stay outdoors for as long as possible. You really have to drag me home then.

The hills and cliffs, the beaches and sea, they inspired me to experiment with crochet. I used a version of the so called wave stitch, and varied with working in back loop, front loop and both loops, to add some depth to the piece. I also started adding some tiny flowers in embroidery. Where this will lead me, I have no idea, but I'm having a whole lot of fun anyway :)

And the colours also inspired me to get some paint going as well, as you can see.

I love paintings worked in detail and abstracts equally. It's just like nature. Nature paints in wild landscapes, flora and fauna, magical small worlds in details, and abstracts and patterns.

Here's an abstract painting by nature:

Isn't it just gorgeous? Plant life holding on to ancient coastal rocks, washed by the tidal waves. 

Waves that bring little treasures to the coast: sea glasses, pottery, shells.

Found in rock pools and harbours.

Here the ocean has withdrawn. But only for a little while. You have plenty of time to do some beachcombing, but make sure to keep an eye on the tide and go back to dry land in time. I didn't, and got wet feet. Luckily I was close enough to the beach. Others had gone a little further and had to swim back. They had fun though, and got back safely.

I can see why so many artists are inspired by the Cornish coast.

Here are some of my favourite Cornwall inspired artists (in alphabetic order):

Amanda Richardson

Carolyn Saxby

Hannah Cole

Kirsty Elson

Melanie McDonald

Serena

The only thing that I regret, is that I didn't shoot more video on this trip.

Oh well, next time!

Is there a particular coast you have fond memories of or which you would love to visit?

Do you love beachcombing?

xx Wen

Grey Sea

I took up my paint brushes again.

Grey Sea ~ an acrylic painting.

Inspired by the cleansing and calming feeling of the waves

while standing in the short break last weekend.

Wishing you great tidings

and peaceful moments.

xx Wen

Wondering

Hej da!

Wondering...

... If you know what "Hej da" means?

(If you do, you probably have spent too much time at Ikea, like me...)

Wondering...
... How your week's going so far?

... How my new camera works and if I'm going to like it or not...

(Just start pressing buttons and see what they'll do. "Woops, that's not what I had in mind... Oooh, there is a manual too...")

... What to do next with a new handmade book in the making...

... And what I will do with this little bird I've been sketching last week.

It's all about WONDER at Our Beautiful World this week.

I wonder what you're wondering? And if we could wonder along with you about your wondering by your linked up wonders, I wonder?

Never mind me. It's bedtime.

Sweet Shahrul from Malaysia has chosen this magical theme and I'd love it if you join us with your photo(s)!

Info

About the prompt at Our Beautiful World and how to join us: Please check our blog.

About my photos: Taken with my new (!!) camera, a Sony Cybershot DSC WX300; editing with PicMonkey.com (filters Tranquill and Dust).

Not sure yet if I'm completely going to fall in love with this camera though. There are some features missing that I did use on my dad's camera (up till now I used to borrow his, most of the photos on my blog are taken with that camera, and I really love that camera, but ya, it's not mine and he'd like to get it back...). But good cameras are so @%#^!%^*!! expensive! It's a lot better than my own old crappy camera though and oh yes, it's such a luxury problem!

Why this text is edited differently? Dunno...

Now, where's Wen's "Off" button I wonder...

Ah, there it is!

.........

(hugs!)