Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Stashbusting Vibrant Color Challenge Winner!

I'm pretty sure if your blog handle is "The Amazing Taracat," it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. This goldfish appliqued Laurel dress was by far and away the winner of April's stashbusting challenge.



If you haven't checked out the details of this amazing dress (those sequin bubbles make me swoon), go take a gander and then see if you don't want to join me on the fainting couch. And I promise I didn't rig the vote just because her blog's named after a cat!

Even though the AP Exams are over (for me, at least...they're still going on for other subjects for another week and a half), I'm still busy getting things done for Elaine's wedding. I've been making good progress on the ketubah, though!



I haven't done any watercolor painting since freshmen year of high school, so needless to say, I was a little nervous doing this. I know, I know, it's just a basic wet-on-wet graduated wash, but controlling the colors got a little dicey since it's such a large area. Real painters may laugh, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out! The Durin's Door design was drawn on with a gold marker pen, which went quickly since I was just tracing over the lines I transferred on before.

A closer look at the San Francisco cityscape that's hanging out between the trees: the Palace of Fine Arts rotunda, the Ferry Building, the Japantown thing, the Transamerica Building, the Coit Tower, and of course, the Golden Gate Bridge!

Since it didn't really make sense to have the emblems of Durin in the middle, I designed these two kissing elvish-style cats (Elaine and her fiance are cat people too, and have a couple of them!) and added an open book (they're also into reading and learning). I also subbed out the runes at the top for their actual initials. 

Still to come: the most important calligraphy I've ever done before!

My color and font size experiments. 

9 comments:

  1. Thank you so much, you are so kind! And I promise I didn't vote for myself ;) I think Laurel is the ultimate stash busting dress pattern, so it may make a reappearance. And the original Taracat was actually the absolute twin of Walnut, it would be hard to tell them apart. Thank you again, I am really flattered that people liked my dress.

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    1. Heh, I trust you, especially because I'm pretty sure InLinkz won't let you vote for yourself...I agree that shift dresses are good for using up those smaller pieces...I especially like how you pieced both of yours to feature some stunning fabric.

      I'm sure Walnut would have liked Taracat. Or not, because he would be upset that there was another cat as good-looking as him.

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  2. That truly IS a great dress! =)

    Your artwork is wonderful! I completely understand the nerves with creating it - it's been ...oh, wow! just did the math... 12 years since I've tried my hand at watercolor. (Took a class in college.) My husband has asked me to paint a portrait of our dog like I did for our last dog, but I don't know if I still could!

    Your ketubah is going to be so beautiful - can't wait to see it finished!

    ~ Brooke

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    1. Oh, but your painting of your dog was so sweet! At the same time, I know I would never dare to paint Walnut, for fear of not being able to capture his essence. The nice thing about sewing is you can use the seam ripper, but there's no seam ripping when it comes to watercolor or calligraphy, short of starting all over!

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  3. That dress is amazing!! Thanks for highlighting it - I'm off to see what else she's done. Your watercolor and calligraphy look great too! Every few years I make an attempt at calligraphy, and then give up in frustration. You have so many skills!

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    1. Haha thanks! Although I'm really the epitome of jack of all trades, master of none. I only know how to do one font in calligraphy, but I can't be bothered to learn/practice any others.

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  4. That dress is to die for...I love, love, love it. Thanks for pointing it out!!

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  5. So cool! What a great dress!

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  6. Wow, your art skills are incredible! I love the watercolour, teh calligraphy, the little cats and the skyline. Is there anything you can't do?

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