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There are times I would find Wikipedia very useful especially when I am deeply curious about a historical figure or a particular mysterious place, like the Bermuda Triangle.
My recent search was Georgia O’Keefe. A great American artist and woman as an example to other aspiring artist too. I made a mental note to research about her when I was watching the 67th annual Golden Globe awards. At first, I was surprised that there was a biopic on our great artist, and later on thought our movie industry should expose the lives of the artists from our past more. I had goosebumps when the biopic was nominated, haha!
Born November 15, 1887, daughter of dairy farmers Georgia Totto O’Keefe was a great figure in American Art in the year 1920s’, created an edge in the modern American artistic style of art. Georgia was known for her paintings of flowers, rocks, shells, animal bones, and landscapes in which she would transform them in expressive abstract forms.




Surfing for her paintings to show examples to my readers, I just want to share one thing which I hope some can relate to me. “Her colours are vivid, expressive and bold. She gives life to each of her paintings. It’s like she is silent, and she speaks with her brush.”


Georgia has a heart of a true woman and a lover. She is beautiful in her soul. Georgia attended art lessons when she was a child, and learned from a local watercolorist. Throughout, she received art education and studied it avidly. Probably thinking she would never paint, although somehow she was inspired to paint again sometime in the 1912 and attended summer classes at a university where she learned how to express herself harmoniously through her compositions with light and dark contrasts. Her gift flowed from then on. Georgia served as a teaching assistant and later returning to Texas to teach in an art department at a local university.
Everyone’s got a lover. Everyone’s a lover deep down, and the amazing thing is how art brought two people together in love. Georgia met the man of her life, Alfred Stieglitz, an artistic photographer. Maybe it was love at first sight; he was immense in her art and beauty. They both wrote letters to one another, finally one day; Alfred left his wife for her. Love is mysterious, beautiful yet dangerous.



Georgia spent her life painting, she made a name and many were moved by her paintings. I would say she definitely led an adventurous life making art and falling in love. When I look at her photo which was taken in year 1950, she looked mysteriously beautiful as ever even though she was old. Maybe the blooming flowers with vivid colors and close up meant something. Maybe all flowers were love to her. Maybe painting bones meant death to her. That at the end of the day, when our time is up, we are nothing. Our body is nothing but matter. And in this materialistic world that we are in, has tormented everybody mentally and physically. In March 6, 1986, Georgia died at the age of 98. She lived a very interesting and remarkable life. If ever you have a chance to watch the biopic of Georgia O’Keefe, or read about her, please do so. Coincidentally, I planned to write this article in February without realizing I am actually only releasing this in this month, March; Her death anniversary.

In Memory of Georgia O’ Keefe

Oh Georgia, No peace, no peace I find.

Just an old, sweet song,Keeps Georgia on my mind.

Other arms reach out to me,Other eyes smile tenderly.

Still in peaceful dreams I see,

The road leads back to you.

(Georgia by Ray Charles)

*Note: Information, photos, lyrics and links courtesy of Wikipedia, Google and Ray Charles lyrics.

Links:
www.okeeffemuseum.org/
www.georgia-okeeffe.com/

I am giving away my one and only Simply Handmade magazine.

Specs:
Secondhand
Outdated
But filled with assorted scrapbooking, paper craft and more tutorials.

Defect:
Slight scratches
A small tear (but hey! it is for free at least.)

Want this? 

Email me NOW at theartsycraftsy@gmail.com

First come first serve basis!

I told myself that in the midst of this blog’s revamp, I would hold back from posting up new posts; but what the heck! How can I resist NOT blogging? Haha!

It’s been a great year blogging on The Artsy Craftsy, especially in making things come true on the blog’s to-do list. I enjoyed finding a voice for the blog the most and repositioning it into a Blog for Creative Inspirations.

I would like to thank my readers the most for contributing to the pageviews. And I am very happy that my readers often return to find inspiration in this little humble blog.

Ever since The Artsy Craftsy domain went official, some of my blog posts went “most reads”; to commemorate the moment (as we say BYE to 2012 and HELLO to 2013); I would like to recap The Artsy Craftsy’s POPULAR 2012 posts to share it with you. To view, click on the titles

Pop Article Titles:

Top 10 Creative & Therapeutic Hobbies

Intuitive Painting

Magic of Colouring

How to Balance Your Life with Creativity

How to Upcycle a Mask

Colourful Emotions

Pop Featured Titles:

Interview: Friendly Fashion Founders

Interview: Crafter. Irene Sin

Pop Review Titles:

Handpainted Apparels by KakenC Designs

Fabric Fanatics: Going GAGA over fabrics

Khoon Hooi Fashion Au Naturel Grecian

Deeper Than Fashion

So Sweet Fabrics at Sew-Sweet-Designs

Pop Contributors:

View here

Aiko Chan

Handmade Jewelry Club

Connie Steinberg

Marina Khramkova

Sonia Subash

Playful & Snazzy

Paper Bags Galore

A Girl for All Time

That's it for 2012. Seeing you soon again in 2013 to celebrate the blog's birthday with me!

A Happy New Year Creatives!

Get creative with quotes to stay motivated. Here's a tip for you:
You can collage one on a postcard (above) and pin it on your board
so that you can stare at it everyday at your desk.

"Do not grieve if you are poor; for your true value is not determined by your bank balance"
- quote by Tzu Chi Society.

Colours play an important role in our daily lives. When I was just completing a fashion-related article, I realized how almost every day, I chose my choice of attire based on its colour and how it makes me feel.

As an individual who recently reconnected back with colours, I recapped back that in my previous journey of learning creativity, I had two amazing teachers who taught me how to appreciate colours; when I was doing my formal course on how to be a Certified Pebeo Fabric Painting Teacher & Artist, teacher no.1 made me realized that I had poor colour combinations. It’s a good thing because I unlearned to relearn.

Years later, during my creative life coaching course, teacher no.2 helped me reconnect back with colours spiritually and that helped me improve my colour combinations altogether.

If I were to combine my lessons learned from teacher no.1 and 2, I would say that both journeys has helped me discover my own way of reconnecting with colours spiritually and skillfully by practicing “Colour Swatches”making.

Moodboards and swatches can come in handy for almost everything you need. This unique post is specifically about making Colour Swatches for Fabric Painting as it will be useful for you in future fabric painting projects or fabric crafts related.

I personally think that it would help textile artists and fabric painting artists much more because unlike painting on wooden/paper surfaces where you can paint white to cover your mistakes, painting on textile/fabric requires precision. Once you’ve painted on the fabric, you can’t go back on it anymore. But if you really made a mistake already, then the only way is to waste the fabric and start painting on a new one.

What you need to Get Started

To make your own colour swatches, there are few things you need to gather first to get started. First and foremost, basic stationary items like:

Scissors, PVA glue, marker pens and sketch book / drawing block

These are basic necessities (like your toothbrush) when you explore art.

A Ring-Folder

Any size would do, it is up to you. For me, I like cute and small so I used an A5 size ring-folder

Optional: You can also opt for sketchbook instead, but I reckon ring folder for convenience.

An Off-white / plain white fabric remnants and fabric paints. 

Not to forget, brushes too!

Tip: Go to Fabric stores or Ikea and look for their discount-bin. 

There will be a lot of CHEAP remnants for sale!

image credits to Can Stock Photo

Unwanted fashion magazines or any other type

Among all, this is the most important item to start with.

What sort of Fabric Paints to use

There are various types in the market; but I strongly recommend Pebeo SETACOLOR fabric paints. It comes in various collections ranging from their basic fabric paints- Opaque and Transparent, Seta Soleil for Tie & Dye, and Fabric markers too. They also have a special range for Silk Painting, called Seta Silk.

(If you are from KL, you can actually purchase this range at Craft Haven, 1Utama, Damansara, PJ)

You might ask:

Why must it be fabric paints? Why can’t I use acrylic paints on fabric/paper instead to make swatches?

My answer:

There’s a big difference in the result of fabric paints on fabric compared to acrylic on fabric/paper. The colour result of fabric paints is vivid, not paste-like like acrylic. When you paint on fabric using fabric paints, the colours blends in with the fabric material. It has an almost silk-screen print-like result. And if your fabric paints comes in opaque or transparent base, there would definitely be a much more obvious outcome when painted on the fabric.Almost similar to watercolour or postercolours, where both have different result on paper. So, when you create swatches with fabric paints on fabric, you will be able to see how the colours blend together on a piece of fabric.

Creating Your Own Set of Colour Swatches

There are many ways to do this; but as for me, I always like to make use of things that I already have lying around. Perhaps there might be a need to spend a little bit of money such as paints, etc. but if possible, try to save by upcycling unwanted stationaries.

For starters:

1. Based on the size of your ring folder, prepare the base paper using your sketchbook or drawing block.
2. To prepare a base-paper, cut the drawing paper according to the size, but if you are using a sketchbook, just find one according to your size.
3. Punch holes on the base-paper so that you can file it up in the ring-folder

Making swatches:

1. Cut your fabric pieces in small-medium or smaller square pieces.
2. Then, cut out pictures based on your choice of colour combinations or colour themes.
3. Spot the colours, and then start painting the colour combinations on your square pieces.
4. Arrange your painted swatches on the base-paper and glue it. Then, glue your cut out magazine reference at the side of your swatch to support your research. You can even write notes at the side.
5. Put it in the ring-folder

So, the next time you come up with another inspiring colour or spot one in the magazine, you can create another one and file it up.

Ideas! Ideas!

It is very easy to create a collection for your reference. But before you start, here’s a BIG TIP!In my opinion, Colour combinations usually comes in 3, 4 or maximum 5 hues at the most. And they usually complement one another. 

Here’s what you can do with Colour Swatches:

Colour combinations

Cut out pictures from magazines based on the colours and combine them together.

Theme-Collections

Autumn Colours, Grunge Colours, Gothic Colours, Vampire Colours, Asian Colours, Party Theme and more

If you are a textile artist or a decorative artist with a client base, you can bring it along with you to propose colour combinations to your customers.

Note: To share your colour swatch set with me, or get advice about your creative work, feel free to email me at theartsycraftsy@gmail.com

*Photos and colour swatches: Copyright Toh Shia Lynn 2012. All Rights Reserved

*Magazine image courtesy of canstockphoto.com