Festive Lights

The Christmas tree the children decorate has signalled a new grown up era this year, with the decoration maturing with them. It's always bitter sweet when they grow up and I felt I could not confine the fairy's we have collected over the years to a bag in the garage, too many memories of shopping trips scouring the garden centres, vintage shops and Past Times for fairy memorabilia are caught up in them and signal the days when my daughters truly believed in fairy's and father christmas, with this in mind I decided to decorate my light fittings with the fairy's (Keeping them away from the bulbs) and i'm really pleased that they remain on display this Christmas

Vintage Style Christmas

Well Christmas is just around the corner now and here at The Vintage Dressmaker i've put uni work to one side today and gone back to my interiors experience to make Christmas Day that little bit special. We've had a bit of a tough year as a family so I wanted to show them just how much they all mean to me and decorate not just the dining area, but also the bowls that we will be eating from. Each dinner guest will have their own decorated bowl to take home as a gift and memento of a special family day.

The beauty is, a lot of this can be planted into the garden afterwards

Bowl with silk robin print trapped into the glaze and footprints in porcelaine paint

Personalised and a pretty keepsake for each guest

Soda Sea & Architectural arches

The base pattern appeared on my blog some months ago however it was only a few weeks ago I started to work into the pattern after I printed it onto silk.

The base pattern was a digital manipulation of a watercolour of the sea I painted and the pink a happy accident as I feel like it highlights the green moss like patterns which represent the moss covered walls of Venice. Ive accentuated the moss by means of machine embroidery and then taken a drawing of one of the many churches I sketched and free machine embroidered them onto the fabrics using the stone like tones. The windows appear to be crumbling into the sea, reflecting the plight of Venice today.

This is more the colour pallette I will be working with, this is now ready for the embroidery work to begin

Just a rough sketch of the Scuola Grande si san Marco I will be using to embroider with

A little bit of Christmas Magic

Things have been really hectic at the Vintage Dressmaker since university started again and design has taken a back seat while the dreaded dissertation takes priority. However I got a little request from my gorgeous little princess of a niece asking if Santa could bring a childrens version of my In Memory of WW2 dress. I could not let her down, and bearing in mind I have no little fairy helpers, I was in a quandry about time however when I spotted a plain red dress which seemed the perfect solution. As it was similar in style it meant I was able to customise the dress and transform it into a unique gown fit for a princess.  I had some left over felt and laser cut silk petals that I didnt use on my initial dress so a few hours later, some machine embroidery and voila, the dress is transformed. The added bonus is that all the Poppies are sewn onto brooch fastenings so not only can they be removed when washing, the wearer can also make her own designs with the Poppies or simply attach them to another outfit.

But sssshhhhh, its a secret!

Shoulder detail

Fully removable decoration

my original dress

For further information or commissions, please do not hesitate to get in touch

xxx The Vintage Dressmaker xxxx

ionised ocean

The background print is produced from a photograph I took of the sea surrounding Venice, the sunlight was just reflecting off the sea which created the light areas of print. Around Venice, there was so much rust and decay I felt I wanted to produce a piece that reflected the metal states. It seemed natural to add the light reflection back to a piece so I added a foil and silver thread however the burnished copper represents the rust that starts to form after being exposed to the elements for a period of time 

Umbrella's

The Inspiration, 

Using some of my digital prints and using the church windows to frame them

this builds up a pattern to convert into an umbrella pattern

Paper mock up of umbrella design

The romance of a snowfall...

I am loving this Wedding dress editorial from Selvedge, the combination of the stunning vintage gowns the Husky and the snow laden surroundings are sublime. 

Survey on the concept of beauty

I am at present swamped in books trying to read everything from Burke's Philosophical Enquiry to Wolf's Beauty Myth,  Klimt to Titian and Vogue to Heat Magazine. The reason? I am currently working on my 3rd year dissertation which looks at beauty, the past masters work and what their inspired beauty ideal was, the fashion and beauty industry, and not only how they may or may not instil a sense of insecurity about our figures in order to sell their wares but also what both the male and female perspective of beauty actually is compaired with the images the industry presents to us. I will also touch on cultural beauty too, which I feel will need to be handled sympathetically.

If anyone at all can spare just 1 minute of time to help me by completing the survey, I would be very grateful

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/D9LJ2TM

Many thanks

Deb xx

sea turns tiger for a day

These patterns are just the tip of the design iceberg. Some will not be taken any further and left as simple samples of digital designs however others will be worked on much more and these designs may become just a small part of an overall design.

Original sea inspired watercolour 

Scanned, colour boosted and a ripple effect added

CAD altered with angled strokes

Crystalised effect to reflect the water and the architectures patterns

with a little bit of paint dropped in via CAD it can transform the appearence of the design

with other colours removed and more added again, further transformation occurs

Simple CAD manipulation on a procion dye watercolour

Colour boosted & cropped scan of original watercolour

Adding in a Sumi filter

and then sumi plus crystalise

Then I then put into reflection inorder to make a complete pattern. This can be just the basis of the pattern tho as I can then embelish over these images, rescan and then maniplulate further

Solarized

I tried the solarized as part of the turn on the lights mini theme which are shown below however I doublt it will feature in my finished work as this was not the direction I hoped it would take

Guest blog from Visual Artist Lauren Curtis gives us something to look forward to as winter beckons

I am so excited to be able to show you the work of this visual artist from New Jersey. Her stunning photography is actually making me for once look forward to winter! All Laurens work is available to purchase from the links i've attached, but please join the queue benhind me

Icicles

Winter Ice Branch

winter berries

Hello Bloggers!  First off, since Deborah was kind enough to have me as a guest here, let me tell you a bit about myself; I graduated with a BFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University (NJ, USA) in 1988.  I enjoy working in a variety of media, including oils, acrylics, pen & ink, watercolor and photography and am happiest when creating pieces that represent my love of nature, wildlife, travel and spiritual subject matter.  In many of my paintings, the symbolism and mythology of ancient cultures such as Egyptian, Greco-Roman and Celtic are fused with the symbols of modern-day , natural spiritual practices (Wicca), to form a unique and eclectic style.  These images are often portrayed through the woman’s perspective, showing the importance of “The Feminine” , which is sometimes over-looked.  My photography, like the pieces included here (all NJ winter images after snow storms), focus on the beauty of Nature and the creativity of other cultures I experience through my travels.  I want to convey the beauty in diversity, as well as the similarities, that run through various cultural belief-systems.

I'm now a full time visual artist and have had artwork and poetry published by greeting card and crafter companies, magazines and historical organizations, including the Middlesex County NJ Cultural & Heritage Commission.  One of my pieces was selected for the permanent

collection of the Joyce Kilmer Library (Edison, NJ).  My work has been displayed in private collections, healthcare centers and galleries and I was selected for a solo exhibit at Johnson & Johnson World Headquarters, July-August, 2009.  I'm proud to continually participate in shows and so far I've been in over 95 solo, group & juried exhibitions and am also a member of several NJ Arts organizations.  My artwork has been sold throughout the US and in Europe, and can currently be seen in venues in NJ, NY, MA and PA.

Please feel free to visit my websites and blog...I not only create fine art and photography but have my own lines of original t-shirts, greeting cards and hand-crafted jewelry (commissions welcome!).  I look forward to connecting with you & thanks for reading!

http://www.LaurenCurtisArt.com (commercial & fine art)

http://www.laurencurtisart.mosaicglobe.com (fine art, photography, art updates)

http://www.laurencurtis.imagekind.com (cards, T-shirts, photography, illustration)

http://laurencurtis.wordpress.com  (my Blog!)

http://www.facebook.com/LaurenCurtisArtTalonArt (Facebook Fan Page)

Balcony Detail

I took this photograph in Split, Croatia and love it however it does not fit in with the theme I am currently working too. I thought it such a shame to justy leave it in a file on a computer so thought I would post it to my blog instead!

New Photographs to add to my Venice Collection

The first two photographs have not been manipulated at all and are just achieved using a function on my Lumix G1 camera. it combine a series of images into one, and as the boat was moving slowly, the images were captured in a staggered phase

Shore line lights, Montenegro i

Shore line lights Montenegro ii



This is a detail of the reflection of the castle into moat in the bay of Montenegro

Reflection of the past i

With Venice experiencing drastic levels of climate change and many times St Marks Square has been submerged under the sea level, a lot of my images in Venice concentrated on the tide lines which leaves a permanent reminder to us of the fragility of structures we build upon forces nature control 

Tide line detail, venice i

tide line detail, venice ii

I am just starting playing with my photo shop so maybe a little early to be posting these images however i felt a bit of neon was apt for a Saturday night!

Renaissance in neon

Adding a bit of metalic glamour to spring/summer 2012

SS-Bailman

SS-Givenchy

SS-Bailman

It's all about texture for spring/summer 2012

SS-Kenzo-Morgan

Sacai-SS-Morgan