Riikka Kovasin - Paperiliitin: Sewing Basket Treasures

Hello and happy Friday! It's the third and last day of my three day blog series as a member of Seth Apter Creative Team. You can find Seth Apter's site here (link) and more about the Creative team here (link). I've included a list of products to the end of the post with links to Seth's own store.

Here's a quick recap in case you missed the previous days. As November is kind of "my month" for the Seth Apter team, I wanted to add something personal to the project. I'm using sewing supplies in three pieces I'm blogging in the course of three days as a homage to my education and work as a seamstress in theaters. There was just little details in the first project, more in the second and most in this third. If you rather see the posts, please see the first one here (link) and the second one here (link).

In the first project I used the sewing items as a detail, like an embellishment, in the second one I used them also to make layers and in this third one I use them as my base. There's the elements I have going on in all of the three - the background, the monoprinted cardstock and lace, but this time the focal point of the project is a little painting I did on top of a piece of felt. If you'd like to add even more of those sewn details and touches, you could then embellish the painting with hand-stitched details, sequins and pearls. I've done a necklace that way (link) and that piece was inspired by a fantastic Finnish textile artist Mirja March.

I've used felt as a substrate a couple of times before - like in that necklace. I love the look of the soft felt but it has it's own tricky treats. Like as it's an absorbing fabric, if you don't prime it, it will suck a lot of paint! The other feature is that you need to see your limitations to adding small details on top. The somewhat buckled texture might cause you to pull your hair with thin lines as they go all wonky. So, be open to see where the material will take you. If you feel intimidated about something representational, try the felt as a substrate for an abstract painting. Or do a transfer on top and go from there. Or collage a piece of photo patterned tissue paper on top and work from that.

I've been referring a lot to elements happening in all of the three projects, which make them a series. If you'd like to hear more of my thoughts and ideas about the subject, I have an online workshop called "Repeating Pattern". It has several elements in common with these three projects but in the workshop I talk more about the mediums and go more into detail about my choices. There's about 80 minutes of video there with about 55 minutes of tuition. If you'd like to take a look at that, please visit Artful Academy's website here (link).

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you have liked the series! I'll share another set of posts for Seth Apter team again next month. Wishing you a lovely weekend!