a spring giveaway ~ link-up and.. sneak peek!

and i’ also linking up with my friend vicki welsh’s giveaway {hand dyed fabric anyone?!!}  she’s doing a little spring cleaning, and i think it will be well worth a few minutes of time to go check it out!

in the meantime, i’ve been faithfully fusing, cutting, and preparing fabrics for my newest collage… and i’ll be adding a few of my favorite flowers to my giveaway package, too.

here are a few {more} of my tips for cutting floral motifs:
— cut leaves with your flowers, and group them together.  they can always be cut off later if it works better in the collage.
— those little tendrils of leaves and dots, are great textural shapes to add a bit of natural organic lines, and sparkly movement in a piece!

 — i like to cut a bit of a tiny smidgen of a border around some of my shapes… especially if they aren’t defined by an outside line/color of some kind:

— i have learned through this series of working in collage, how smart it is to have a bowl, or some other receptacle to put your cutting scraps into.  it can be so messy!  so keeping it to a “dull roar” is vital to my need to keep the clutter a bit more manageable as i sit and cut.

 and as i’ve said before, i group the shapes by size and color as i cut so i can keep track of them, and store them easily:
— i also put them away in the same manner.  smaller flowers are put into smaller baggies, within the same large baggie as the same color way.  and because i’ve cut a lot… this also helps me find my shapes, and keep my sanity!

 — as to cutting.  cut what you think you need… and double it! that would be variety + shape + size!

 i encourage everyone who is interested in this technique to do this:
— choose a color theme, keeping it to three colors.  
— then choose from those three colors, values in light, medium and dark values for each of those colors
— the same thing for large, medium and small shapes, in each of those values.
— don’t forget how dark and light {black and white} can add much needed punch, as well as a place for the “eye to rest” within the collage.  they are already very busy, so some “quiet time” in the design is essential {i think}.

at least i’m trying to learn that concept!

 — pick shapes that are lined, solid, tiny print… and vary the shape, from round to oval, multi-petaled, teardrop, squarish… they all add a wonderful variety and texture to collage work!

 and so all of those shapes seen above, their color, value… light and dark of each, are part of the overall design theme  for my newest collage of a rocky mountain bighorn sheep,  from my initial sketch, which is the basis of the imagery for the overall design:

his color theme is brown, blue, and pink.  therefore, i’m playing with shades of brown, blues and pinks, going lighter and darker within those colors, and also choosing a variety of size in shapes in each of those themes, too.

as well as a terrific background base of hand dyed fabric from miss vicki welsh!

i’m working through some nuances of my pattern writing, and hope to have him published in a week or so after i change things up a bit!  it’s time for him to go up on a design wall, and for me to step back… always a good thing.

i need to tweak the nose a bit more, and those horns are going to be a challenge, for sure… and the eyes too.  but i am thinking big and bold for the horns… we shall see!

i’m excited to see how that may turn out… so what do you think of him so far?

i’m needing some inspiration for a name, too… anyone have any suggestions?!

i’m so glad you stopped in ~ thanks for visiting!
xo
leslie
soli deo gloria