Nature Journal: Inside Back Cover

Presenting the inside back cover of the nature journal - it is an amalgamation of flowers done using various techniques and stuck together randomly on the page to give the effect of a colourful and wild floral garden.

On the top left corner is this Nasturtium flower created using pen marks on a printed photo.

The middle of the page is covered with monoprinted poppies, using the technique described in my last post. The purple stalk at the left corner of the picture below was inspired by a blossoming stick of verbinas that I once had in my garden.

The bottom left is again a clump of red and black flowers made with sponge prints and sketch pens.



 The red, blue and green paper flower in the picture below was made by my daughter by using sketch pens and markers on wet paper. It faded over time so I added a layer of waterproof inks to brighten it up. The pen drawing at the corner is my interpretation of a sunflower.... or it could be a gazenia too!



Hope you like my wild floral garden on the inside back cover of the nature journal. It makes for a striking contrast to the low-on-colour December page.



Now only the back cover remains to be shared, and the journey of the nature journal shall come to an end.... at least for now. Look out for that final post next month.

Poppies with Printmaking

Finally the grey, foggy days of winter are here sending shivers down the spine. But this winter I won't whine.... the unusually hot December was rather worrisome when you think of what we are doing to our planet. Anyhow, to distract myself from such issues, I decided to try my hand at some monoprints using regular stuff lying around the house.

Using two shades of blue and a contrasting red ink pen to fill in the details, I created a bunch of my favourite poppy flowers. Incidentally, our garden did not get any poppies this year (despite getting loads last year), so this was a fitting way to revisit them.

Believe me, no fancy products are required. All I used were a block-sized piece of synthetic foam, some brushes, acrylic paints and paper to print on. And a cutter or knife to carve the design into the foam block. Don't worry if you don't have those; even a ballpoint pen without ink works wonders! I used such a pen as you can see from the pictures below.

Once the design is carved, paint the stamp with acrylic colours of your choice and voila!.... let the stamping fun begin.

Sounds simple enough? Now try some yourself and send me your pictures. Would love to see how my readers get inspired. :) I also created some red and mustard poppies for the inside back cover of my nature journal. You can look out for those in the next post.

Nature Journal: December Discources

The first official post of the year but it talks of the one big project I started, and successfully completed, all through last year! So proud of this.... As the year drew to a close and the days whizzed by faster than usual, the December page of the Nature Journal proved to be a challenge to complete. First the morning chill made me lazy and I stopped going for my regular walks. Result was very few specimens to show in the journal.

And when I did pick up one of my favourite leaves from the park, I couldn't identify it! I searched high and low for its name, befriended the 'maalis' and asked the gardeners. But it all drew a blank. Then I resorted to good old Google, searching through innumerable sites. Till browsing through endless botanical names and species finally yielded the name - Silver Oak. The tree is native to Australia (wonder how it came to India) and the name is derived from the silver coloured underside of the leaf.

That brings the year-long journey of my Nature Journal to a close. I admit I'll miss filling up more pages with interesting stories on our flora and fauna, and our experiences with them. But then as I just about finished the back cover, so you'll have one more post to enjoy the swan song of the Nature Journal. The next edition of the Nature Journal will get written only when I move locations or after 5 years, whichever is sooner. In the meanwhile, here is hoping some of you will start one of your own and share your journey here!

Happy New Year 2016

Creative Rumblings wishes its readers, followers and fans a very happy and creative 2016!

 

 

Thanks for being with us on this colourful journey.... looking forward to new adventures in the new year. :)

Henna design bottle

This has been a year with the spotlight on my hand-painted bottles. My unique form of bottle art has gone places, literally. So many pieces have found new homes, within the country and overseas. Sometimes I feel it has all been a dream.... such amazing exposure for my humble art.

I have a huge stock of bottles waiting to get done but am giving myself a break from bottle painting, as I explore other forms of art. Only occasionally playing around with a bottle; today I share one such creation. Most likely the last bottle to feature this year, this henna design bottle was made on commission for a friend.

I love how the pearl shades show up so well against the dark green background. Makes for a striking piece, in daylight or in artificial lighting.

As the year draws to a close soon, I am hoping the next year will be bigger and better for my distinct style of bottle art. Looking forward to another creatively satisfying year in 2016!

Nature Journal: November Nuances

November was a slow month, mostly because it was the fag end of the festive season (and I swear, between celebrating all the festivals, birthdays and anniversaries, I do get a tad tired by this time). But the collections for the journal were on track, and I finally compiled everything together on the last day of the month.

The owls at the local park kept us super occupied with their antics through the month. Playing peek-a-boo almost everyday, posing happily the days one didn't carry the camera and throwing royal tantrums on the days one did! Sometimes too sleepy to even care how close we crept to their cubby hole, all in all they were fun to watch. Now they are off for the winters.... not to any other place but snuggling deep into their tree-trunk home, in hibernation I guess.

We are keenly looking forward to having some organic peppers soon, planted by the kiddos! Other veggies growing in the garden include beans, tomatoes, chillies and spinach. Here is a  glimpse of the Oct-Nov double spread.

Feels strange to think there is only one more month to record in the Nature Journal, and then it'll be complete. I have already started working on the back cover pages and am really enjoying the process. In the meanwhile, if any of you did start a nature journal of your own, or are planning to, I'd love to hear from you! Do share your experiences in the comments section of this blog or write on my Facebook page.

Paper Beads Necklace

So I decided to take a detour into some jewellery making! Howzzat?!! Those of you who keep an eye on my Facebook page would know about the paper beads I had been making a couple of months back.

I posted pictures of the sheets of abstract art that me and my daughter created.... just random splashing of paint followed by equally arbitrary designs! No stress of creating art, this is just having fun with paints. And mostly we used the thick sheets that come in with the newspaper as advertisement inserts; their paper is glossy and thick enough to hold a decent amount of paint. So there, recycling was duly done.

These gorgeous sheets of painted paper were then cut into strips and rolled with pencils and toothpicks to form paper beads.... loads and loads of them, in all shapes and sizes. Well, finally we had enough beads to string together a long necklace. And just see how gorgeous it looks!

My daughter had a field day wearing this creation all through the festive season in the last couple of months. I just love the fact that it goes with any kind of attire - western or traditional. And between ourselves, we got a load of compliments for this unique paper bead necklace! :)