My New Blue Art

I've been a little extra artsy lately, and thought I'd share some of my recent work and how I made it. Blue. Lots of blue.

Glazed ceramic platter

For Mother's Day, several of my daughters gave me a gift card to All Fired Up, a local pottery painting studio. I went last week and took my youngest daughter along; she painted a hedgehog. We picked them up yesterday and I was quite pleased with the result! I chose words from my Vision & Values board that encourage me to be my best. 

Method: I mixed two shades of light blue for the base color and painted the whole platter. I added the words with a teal paint pen. I highlighted the fluted border with a medium blue shade, and added in little pictures along the edges. The studio fired it. My total cost for the platter, materials, studio time, and firing was about $40.

This is before firing. The colors get much more vibrant!

I use it on my bedside table to hold my phone and eyeglasses at night.

Seashore picture board

I saw something like this in a store - minus the shells - and realized I had already purchased sectioned boards at a craft store and could make them myself. My 10 year old daughter made one, too. We used shells from a recent trip to St. Augustine Beach.

Method: I alternated blue and green for each section. I also added in a little coral paint for a streaky, weathered effect. I glued the shells and miniature clothes pins on with tacky glue.

The picture boards are hanging in our seaside themed school room.

Tie dye t-shirt

I made this shirt for my oldest son, but my youngest son thought it was an extra and gave it to a friend at school who had admired his red t-shirt that you can see in the background. So I'm buying more white shirts and doing another batch. My middle son is going to make another for himself, too. You can see more tie dye work (from last year) here: Tie Dye Radiance. 

Method: I pleated the white shirt horizontally (narrower at the bottom), then rolled the resulting pleated strip into a coil and put on the rubber bands. This is what it looked like after I applied the dye with a squeeze bottle.

Distressed ceramic cross

Method: I bought an uncoated ceramic cross at Michael's. I started experimenting by dripping blue dye (from my t-shirts project) onto the cross. It absorbed quickly, leaving a mottled texture that I really liked. I made another batch of dye to complete it. The only problem is that I put so much dye on that it saturated the ceramic. The dye sank in, but as each layer dried, white smudgy powder appeared on the top. I tried sanding it down, but the white stuff kept appearing as it kept drying. I left it overnight and sanded some more, and then it stayed blue. The sanding also gave it the vintage distressed look that I was trying to achieve.

I traced the "Abide in Him" words from a metal ornament. Then I went over the pencil marks with black ink and filled it in with blue permanent marker. Then I added a little cross-hatching to the letters. The cross had originally come with a twine hanger but I replaced it with white raffia cord. I gave it to our (former) youth pastor and his wife as a present on his last day. We'll miss them!

Seven gifts board

This project has its own post over at my This Mom Grows Up blog. It's a bedside reminder to take care of the gifts I've been given in life.

Method: I bought the blue board (with rods on it already) at Target. I painted mason jar wooden tags with acrylic paint and did the words and symbols with permanent markers. I tied them on with blue lace.

There you go! Five blue art projects!

Having fun,

Virginia Knowles