It was in January 2016 that I started a little project to challenge my mixed media skills. The task was to create one art tag each month, including hand embroidery of course.

Instead of only keeping a process diary in my sketchbook, I decided to share my project with all interested in mixed media and textiles. Initially, I created a separate blog for the project but transfered it here now.

So below are the tags I created during the first 3 months of the year.

 

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JANUARY ART TAG: ONLY FALLING LEAVES CAN FLY

 

My very first attempt at making art tags with stitch and mixed media. I quite like how it turned out.

There are seed stitches, pistil stitches and buttonhole stitches. Scraps of fabric, vintage lace and vintage buttons are assembled.

For the embroidered leaf, I used hand dyed thread (not by me, it is purchased thread) on cotton. I left the leaf portrait outside in the sun for a few weeks, so that the colors started fading. This gives the leaf a very realistic look as if I had picked it up from the forest floor during a walk.

 

FEBRUARY ART TAG: OH THE COLORS OF TRANSIENCE

 

Still an autumnal theme for this month’s art tag (still not white here in February). Exploring “transience”; the beauty of decay and the life cycle of nature…

The cardboard tag is painted with water soluble wax crayon (I am not sponsored or anything, but if you are interested in what wax crayons I use: Neocolor II).

Some vintage lace is glued onto the back of the tag, and I choose a metallic thread for the seed stitches.

 

MARCH ART TAG: OLD LEAVES NOURISH YOUNG SPROUTS

 

“Old leaves nourish young sprouts” – spring is near.

This is the third art tag relating to the subject of life cycle and nature renewing itself each year…

The cardboard tag is again painted with water soluble wax crayon (see previous post for reference).

The buttons are all vintage; three mother of pearl buttons and one “Zwirnknopf” (thread button). These thread buttons were handmade and used in the 19th century in Austria. They are great for mixed media pieces as you can embroider them or sew other material onto them! My research for information about these particular buttons led me to an informative website (in German): feinerfaden.at

The embroidered leaf skeleton is inspired by a photograph I took. On first sight, all leaf skeletons are of a brown-grey-black color mix. But when you look at them closer, you still see traces of colors of the leaf in full bloom!

A piece of birch tree bark completes the picture.