Hello Friends,
Here are the photographs from my recent column on decor8. I am going to try to explain more about what I do in these color series as a friend of mine said it may be interesting for you. I am a little challenged when it comes to explaining what I do so please hang in there with me!
In this photograph I use some of my vintage ribbons and threads which I have purchased from the California Millinery Supply Company in Los Angeles. If you live in the city it is worth checking out this interesting shop! I laid the items on a watercolor pattern I painted for the series. I wanted to bring in a geometric pattern so that the photo was not too "fluffy". Do you know what I mean? I usually like to combine really feminine vintage items with something more modern and geometric. As I mentioned in the column I am really inspired by Anni Albers, Gunta Stolzl and some of the other women who studied at the Bauhaus.
A rather cluttered collection of my watercolor patterns, my photographs and some fabrics that I thought worked well with the palette. The little garland I made from printouts of some of my scanned in watercolor patterns.
In this photograph I used vintage postcards and stamps that I purchased at the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena. I really love the color of the yellowed papers with lavenders and mauves and then adding a touch of darker brown.
All of these fabrics were purchased at Michael Levine in Los Angles. Except the top mustard colored fabric which I purchased in Tokyo while I was there last month. If there are any particular fabrics you are curious about leave me a comment and I will try to find an online link for you.
I picked up these lavender colored bottles at the Flea Market and apparently they go darker in color if left outside in the sun? Hmmm...I must try this experiment, but I have heard that the bottles are referred to as sun colored amethyst and they date back to the early 1900's.
I could not get over the colors in this old photograph postcard of a sailboat in Florida! Just a dollar at the Flea Market brought me a lot of inspiration for this series! I have it laying on more of my watercolor patterns and you can see the palette similarities.
In looking at this photo I wish I had a less shiny ribbon to use to make the garland but I could not find anything in my ribbon bin except for this very shiny and very inexpensive white ribbon from Michael's. If I was to make this again (which I will) I would sew the pieces onto a thin grosgrain ribbon or onto some kind of bias tape. For this garland I just hot glue gunned the pieces onto the shiny ribbon. I scanned in my watercolors of the dahlias and the patterns as well as some vintage book pages and then printed them onto inkjet canvas paper. Once I drew the right triangle shape onto card stock I cut it out and used it as a tracing guide.
I always enjoy putting together these "mood/inspiration" boards for you. I usually start my photographic series with the board and from there I work on the other photographs...on occasion I get stuck on the board (like I did with this series) and I then have to start shooting photos and then come back to it. I feel like this kind of board is relevant for me right now because I find endless inspiration from paper crafts and patterns. I usually try to do a "craft" board that incorporates what I am inspired by and what I have been inspired to create for the series. Then after I take a few photos I try to do a second "board" type shot that is more decorating inspired. To help you visualize some ideas for the palette in your home. As much as I love photography I also enjoy creating things...
Here is a detail photo of my watercolor painted dahlias that I accented with white ink. I learned about the use of white ink from the uber-talented Geninne of Geninne's Art blog. I then cut out my water colored flowers and scanned them into the computer so that I could print out multiple copies of them to use for various collage crafts. I used a merchandise tag punch to create the tags as they come in many sizes and are easy to use. You can get them at Michael's or like myself you can order them off Amazon. I glued copies of the vintage book pages, portions of my water-colored patterns and cutouts of the dahlias onto card stock and then just punched away with my Uchida merchandise tag punch. I then used a 1/8 eyelet punch and 1/8 white metal eyelets for the holes. For much more tag inspiration please visit Sharilyn's post on her lovelydesign blog.
I hope you enjoyed this series and my little explanations...I could add more? I am always curious about what you enjoy the most or what you would like more information on so please do not hesitate to leave a comment or email me.
I am in Canada enjoying Canadian Thanksgiving weekend! I hope you are all having a wonderful October and are finding time to do something creative.
xo leslie
