Pendants For Kathryn

I have finished the miniatures for kathryn's order. These were so much fun, I really had a blast painting them.

My favorites by far, are the butterflies. I took so many great photos of butterflies this summer, I really wanted to put them to good use and paint some on a few pendants.

It has kind of inspired me to do a whole series of butterfly miniatures now.

Kathryn's favorite themes were Hydrangeas and Roses so I did a lot whith those 2 kinds of flowers. I also tried to vary designs a bit to keep them interesting for both her and me.

I'm really looking forward to starting on the Emu Egg brides' box and should be getting that going later on in the week. I will post pictures of the naked egg before I start painting it so you can see what I'll be working with. I'm so into the idea of painting jewelry boxes now that I think I will get some more of these going and add a new section on my ETSY site, just for jewelry boxes.

Dahlia Watercolor Progress

I've made a good amount of progress since my original post on the Dahlia watercolor. As you can see, I've finished the background at this point. I've also started basing in some of the petals. The above is the photo that I started with.

I could have approached where to start in a few different ways but in the end, I just started wherever I felt like. My next step will probably be basing in more of the petals that surround the ones that I've done.

After I've filled in some more, I will go back and darken and brighten. The colors of the petals as they are now, are just the start. A lot still has to be done to achieve the colors that I want. You never just put down one wash of color and call it quits....many more colors are added afterward to give the flower real depth. I think a nice orange/red will do the trick.

This photo shows how the picture looked after it was cropped. This kind of close-up and this particular view, is what I wanted to actually create my painting from.

Honey Bees Everywhere

I recently finished a mailbox & plaque set that I had a ton of fun with. A customer contacted me because she wanted a special mailbox and sign for her family. Her husband is a bee keeper and also sells honey and she wanted a special set of pieces reflecting that passion.

I really wasn't totally sure for awhile how I wanted to approach this design. I had some ideas but nothing had been set into stone. So, when the time came to start the project I asked my husband Chris to print out a font that said "bees" to him. He chose the font you see here. When I saw it, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the design, I knew I wanted to take a very whimsical route. So in this particular case, the font gave me inspiration for the design. It isn't the first time that this has happened actually. I painted colorful bees flying all around, trying to fly toward their whimsical little hive. I also decided to do something really fun by painting the black short lines behind the bee......kind of like what I've seen in cartoons in the past, showing where the bee has been flying.

Bloomin' Hydrangeas

All of my Hydrangeas seem to be in full bloom now and are enjoying life in their new home.

I have all Mop Head Hydrangeas although recently I did find a little Lace Cap Hydrangea at Lowes that I picked up. It's a tiny little thing but will do well I'm sure as it gets older. The above Hydrangea has always been a midget of sorts. When I bought it along with a bunch of others, they all grew really large except for this little guy and one other. However, it has gotten bigger over the years, even though it still looks like the baby of the bunch. It does produce the most beautiful raspberry pink flowers, it is truly a lovely bush.

Hydrangeas have been doing some blooming inside as well. I completed a mirror order last week for a customer who wanted a mirror full of Hydrangeas.

These photos were taken before the mirror was placed inside.

Now Complete with mirror in place. I just placed it inside the frame for the photo but this week, it will be secured in the back of the frame and then the frame will be papered in the back and finished with a hanger. Then it will be ready to go.

More beautiful blue and purple blooms. To me, the Hydrangea is such a happy and carefree flower. When I have a big enough yard, I plan to have a whole area dedicated to all different colored Hydrangeas.

New Things For Me

For a change, I painted something for myself. We desperately needed a new mailbox and I thought this would be a good time to make one because we are moving in a couple of weeks so, new house, new mailbox.

I have a plaque that I made some time ago for my front door that I painted with Hydrangeas, one of my favorite flowers. I decided the mailbox should matche the plaque so I did the same flowers but added my Little Spring Bluebird I've been painting on pins as I thought it would go nicely. I also have a planter that has been painted with Hydrangeas so I think the 3 items on my front porch , will look very beautiful.

Flower Carpet Roses & Dragonfly Egg

Something that just started blooming in my garden are my Flower Carpet Roses. I love, love, love these roses as they are so prolific with blooms all spring, summer and fall but they are also the most disease resistant roses I've ever come across. These particular blooms are salmon colored and I also have pink and red in the garden as well. They are the most beautiful, no fuss roses I've ever come across.

Well, my poor little Dragonfly Egg is no more.......a couple weeks ago, I was packing up my china cabinet for our move up the street. We're having movers but hey, I figured I would treat my china and precious items with a lot more care then they would right?? Well, it didn't really work out that way....this little guy came crashing down on my hardwood floor and smashed in a lot of pieces. Had there been carpeting, the little egg would have been fine but it just couldn't take hitting the hardwood floor like that, from so high up.

I had it listed on ETSY for all of a couple of days, until I broke it and had to take it down. I thought atleast it could appear on my blog and get its day in the sun, since that is the only glory this little egg will receive at this point.

Back To The Garden Center & Painting A Hummingbird

Today I went back to the nursery I love to shop at, actually, I visited 2 garden centers that I love. Chris and I made an afternoon of it, he went with me and we had lunch, dessert and yes, my extra hot vanilla chai latte with spices as well. Then we went shopping for some more flowers for my summer pots.

I bought some more Geraniums as well as Potato Vines to put in my hanging and large standing pots. I think the Potato Vines I bought last time, that I've already potted, have been growing longer and longer. They look very pretty potted with the Geraniums. I also bought Dahlias this year and I'm very excited about adding those to my potted collection. After talking last year with a lady up the street who loves her Dahlias, I decided to get some for myself. It was a tough decision let me tell you because there was a whole huge greenhouse filled with nothing but all different color and varieties of Dahlias. In the end, I settled on 3 I really liked, a red, a pink and a pinky/peach with yellow. They were all so beautiful, it was hard to decide.

Well, aside from buying plants, I have been painting as well. I painted the above miniature the other day after I saw a hummingbird right outside my kitchen window, he was flying around by my hanging Geranium pots. I was so inspired by this little guy, I got busy painting right away and the above is my own version. Now that planting season is here, I'll be mixing art and flowers a lot more in my posts. They are both interconnected for me anyway so I'll be able to show a lot of inspiration pieces.

The Dahlia is a flower that I haven't painted yet so, I hope to take care of that this summer by creating my first watercolor Dahlias.

A New Addiction

I've discovered a variation on a favorite surface of mine. I love painting decorative eggs and now I've discovered eggshell jewelry. I cannot tell you how much fun these were to paint. These pins are all handpainted onto goose eggshells. There is a pin attached to the back of each shell so it can be worn that way as a pin or could fit onto a chain or ribbon and be worn as a necklace. The above design is called - Ladybug - no surprise there.

These are called - Pink Roses - I look at each eggshell in size and shape and decide what the subject matter should be. I've done the backgrounds on all these eggs in watercolor, sometimes mixing several colors to get it just right.

Once the watercolor paint is dry, which is pretty quick, I then sketch out my design right onto the eggshell. Purple Hydrangeas above, as well as all the other pins have the main subject painted in acrylics, right on top of the watercolor background.

Once I'm done with the design, my husband Chris sprays them with a protective coating so the design is sealed onto the eggshell pin. It is the same finish he puts on mailboxes so it is extremely durable. The above is - Pink Tulips.

I painted my Dragonfly design on a burnt sienna background. I can do a little bit of erasing if I mess up my drawing , although it does sometimes take some of the watercolor paint off. I can go back easily though and do a quick fix. Some of the designs I thought needed a little something so I added Swarovski crystals to certain ones.

The Ladybug & Hydrangea pin was one of the first that I painted, I think I was hooked after that. It's actually quite different then painting on a whole egg, more difficult because you have a lot less space to work on, you cannot wrap the design around, all you have is a slice of the shell to work with. I actually went out and bought 4 new paint brushes just to do these because I didn't have small enough brushes already at home. I would not have been able to paint these without those tiny brushes.

Well, these are my first 6 and I'm now finished with number 10. I just haven't photographed them yet so, the above is all there is to show for now. I'll be adding the rest soon though....

I have them for sale on my etsy site: http://www.eleganteggart.etsy.com/