Artsy Flowers with Seth Apter products {by Floss Nicholls}

Hi everyone, It's Floss here with you today on behalf of PaperArtsy...and it sure is nice to be back with you again.

With freedom to deep dive into the numerous PaperArtsy ranges of our choosing, I have selected to use some old and some new products by the fabulous mark-making -master Seth Apter.  I have also chosen to combine four of his colour chalk paints into the project.

Yes, you're right...there are so many layers of textures explored here. These include: embossing, surface collage, free motion embroidery and some hand sewing to finish. 

So, where do you start with that many things going on?

Choosing supplies ahead is often the hard part...with so many great mark making options available, I decided to go with some circles and some scratchy text. I liked the idea of using the circles as poppies (ESA18), the script lines (ESA36) for textured backgrounds and bringing the old and new together.

  

The PaperArtsy tissue paper is missing from the photo, but after pulling all my Seth colours out to choose from, these are the four that sang to me today: Gold Rush, Toffee Apple, Purple Majesty and one of my absolute go-to's...Heavy Cream. I deliberately chose two translucent colours as I wanted the layers of colour to show through one another and build upon.

I stamped the circles from ESA18 onto my gel plate using Ranger's Archival black ink and let that dry. I then used my finger to smear Toffee Apple and Purple Majesty in different parts of the stamped images and let that dry too.

Whilst the chalk paint was drying I glued some of Seth Apter printed tissue onto an A5 piece of 350gsm heavy watercolour paper. I applied gesso over some of the page and scratched into it.  I find it very difficult to work on an empty page so like to break it up with some text or some texture.  Some of this will shine through the design as it progresses.

To create some collage papers, I first rolled  the Toffee Apple and Purple Majesty chalk paints onto one side of my gel plate. Where I stamped into the paint on the left side, I transferred the lifted paint onto the right side of the gel plate giving me both positive and negative images of the stamps. I allowed this to dry before using the heavy cream acrylic chalk paint to lift the gel print.

Naturally, the under-paper which I protect my workbench with gets interesting too...I roll the excess paint off my brayer to keep the brayer more or less paint free, and stamp any excess paint over that.

 

So something that protects my table may end up being used elsewhere in my art on this project...or one at some point...

I added some gesso over parts of the collage...and scratched into that...

I then used the brayer over the stamp to apply the rubber circles image to the design using Gold Rush.

I auditioned which circles may look good on the background so that I had good contrast between the 'flower' colour and the background...they didn't quite 'pop' for me so I added eyelets into the centre of them and considered adding something between the flower head and the background.

Here are a few close-up shots so you can see more clearly what I have done.

I used the script from ESA36 with some WOW embossing ink to bring background lightened detail...because the surface was already uneven I decided to use my stamping platform so that I could re-ink my stamp should it not impress fully over an uneven surface.

I used WOW opaque vanilla white (another of my favourites!) and heat set that.

I stamped little crosses onto the design using EM80 and then glued teabags behind where I was going to place the flower heads, allowing some to extend over the flower head but removing the centres, I then glued the flower heads on...

I added some frayed calico down the side of the A5 card on the left side and stitched that using my sewing machine.

I started thinking about the vase and so I stamped the circles from ESA18 onto plain acid free tissue using Gold Rush and the square frame from ESA36 onto a separate piece of tissue using Ranger's Archival Ink. I painted heavy Cream onto the reverse area of the circles printed in Gold Rush and glued that within the frame that was printed using black ink.

This created a vase...

Using my stamping platform again, I stamped the series of lines from ESA18 onto a tight weave calico that had been pre 'rough' painted, again using Ranger's Archival black ink.

I cut and glued that onto the side using some teabag between the layers to give a rugged edge around it..

I drew lines onto where the stems may go using a Frixion pen,  I use these pens because I can apply heat to where the lines are and they disappear. I could not decide whether to collage or stitch the stems.. So I auditioned both ideas.

I like to photograph the options as it's easier to decide something visual if you can flick back and forth between the options when making a decision.

I decided on an amalgamation of those ideas...I liked the stems more delicate than the original collage ones I had planned and the variation of widths made a much better balance of shapes.  I stitched the stems in place.

For more detail, I used an awl to pierce inside the eyelets and used wool to make a cross inside the flower centre.

A rich brown Gutterman thread was used to pick out the detail of the stamped image on the calico, an ivory white thread was stitched around the outside of the calico and the wool was used to 'join' the two dots up.

The LOST AND FOUND statement was applied...it was quite an apt statement actually as I kept losing and finding things whilst making this piece!

The finishing touches were adding some wool across the flower stems...

A very busy textured piece...I do like the colours and the textures together...I hope you do too!

Here are some close ups...

I particularly like the Gold Rush on the heavy cream...printing on both sides of the tissue was interesting...

There are so many variations of this piece that could be made using these stamp sets...I had so much fun creating collage papers that I can go and make several more now...please tag me if you give this project a go, I'd love to see the outcome.

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