Some New Products in our Society6 shop

We have three POD or Print on Demand shops online. For those of you who’ve never heard of POD, it’s basically taking the technology of printing into the 21st Century. It used to be that if you wanted to create a print of a painting for instance, you had to, for cost effectiveness, get it printed in the 100’s or 1000’s and then hope you could sell them. But today, with printing technology it’s possible to just print one at a time and even better, just as it’s ordered. Hence Print On Demand or POD. Very cool. We have POD shops on Society 6, Zazzle and Red Bubble.

It’s something that has been kind of fun and interesting for us. Fun in that you can take a design, artwork, mosaic, photo or collage, and apply it to all sorts of “products”. And there really are ALL sorts! You start with the usual things like art prints, and posters to really fun things that you didn’t really think of seeing your artwork on….like shower curtains, pillows and curtains and even lampshades and runners! BTW just click on the photos to go to the Society6 Summerhouseart shop

And you never know just what these companies are going to come up with next to showcase design and art … like these credenzas

The credenzas have a shelf inside, have a choice of wood, a choice of legs and come flat packed for shipping.

Triange Treat Credenza by Summerhouse Art on Society 6
Blue and Orange Credenza by Summerhouse Art on Society 6

They recently added curtains which you can order in either black out….

Triangle Treat Credenza by Summerhouse Art on Society 6
Moving Parts black out curtain by Summerhouse Art on Society 6

or transparent….

Moving Parts Sheer curtain by Summerhouse Art on Society 6

Trust us, these are just a small sampling of what is on offer from our Society6 shop. Enjoy!

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A Foray into Fabric Design

A while ago I created a mosaic from broken dishes, in a few of my favourite colours and patterns, all the pieces were Triangles.

Mosaic in Broken Dishes, Helen Bushell, summerhouseart.com

Now we are a couple who do NOT just sit around doing only things we already know how to do.  Oh no!  We sit around in front of youtube and watch tutorials on things like creating seamless patterns for fabric design.  And eventually we’ll manage to make a lot of designs, because it’s kind of fun.  Zazzle, which is a great Print on Demand company, happen to have fabric by the yard in Print on Demand.

So, after much work and learning, we created a seamless pattern based on the above mosaic.  We are rather pleased with the result. We called it Triangle Treat.  We’re offering it by the yard, in Combed Cotton, and you can also order Swatches and Fat Quarters of it for the Quilters.

Triangle Treat fabric, close up, Zazzle, Summerhouse Art
Triangle Treat fabric, close up, Zazzle, Summerhouse Art

Triangle Treat Fabric, on Zazzle, SummerhouseArt

BTW, it’s really worth it to check out Zazzle and get on their email list because they are constantly having sales. Check out a little sample of what we have on Zazzle in our Zazzle shop page, where you can click directly to the shop itself.

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Glass Windows to Paper Lampshades

Close up, Momentum, stained glass composition by summerhouseart.com

It’s funny how things progress one to another. First you bring home some old windows from a garage sale. Who knew what we might use them for? Cold frames for starter plants perhaps? Next, have a birthday and get discarded shards of stained glass as a present. And everything just sort of sat about for a while. Then one day, inspired by some stained glass designs made on old windows, I decided to create a few compositions of my own. Except, instead of the usual method, I chose to glue the glass shards to both sides of the window. I quite liked the results, a couple of windows with flowing abstracts.

Momentum, stained glass compositon by summerhouseart.com

Of course they were rather breakable, what with being made of glass. Not something you’d want to ship out anywhere. But we did enjoy them, set up as they were, in our greenhouse.

Airborn, stained glass composition, summerhouseart.com

Then, this year I started to see other possibilities for these fragile compositions of glass on glass. Prints!

So the windows transformed into designs on paper. And we had created a few prints and other products earlier in our shop on Society 6.

Composition-in-blue-and-orange131768-framed-prints Society6 by Summerhouse Art
click on image if you would like to see this in our shop on Society 6

Then I remembered that Zazzle, another Print on Demand business, happened to have lampshades you could print designs on …..and well, it’s not hard to progress from the idea of light coming through stained glass, to thinking of a lampshade, with stained glass printed on it.

Stained glass tripod lamp on zazzle by Summerhouse Art
click on the image to connect to this on Zazzle

The pendant shade is actually a merging of the first window and a few choice bits of the second one.

Stained glass pendant lamp on Zazzle by Summerhoue Art
click on the image to connect to this on Zazzle

Oh the wonders of cut and paste, etc, in Photoshop. But it does look kind of cool doesn’t it? Imagine light shining through these shades. We rather like them. I wonder if anyone else,shopping for a new lamp, will enjoy them too.

(BTW, if you’d like to make a comment, just click on the title.  It’ll take you to comments….and we do appreciate comments )

 

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A Couple of Mosaic Studies Transformed

Triangle Treat-mosaic-prints by Summerhouseart on Society 6
To see this product on Society 6 just click the image

My last post was about a couple of rather colorful mosaic studies made with broken dishes, one in small squares and the other in triangular shapes. These days we look at everything we do and wonder where else we can take that design. With all the print on demand opportunities you have a huge number of products you can put that artwork on.

We’ve both become interested in fabric and surface design and have been teaching ourselves how to take an idea and make it an all over pattern. So the mosaics presented an opportunity for experimentation. It was one thing to just take the original and make a print of it. Which I think worked out rather nicely…

Square On mosaic-prints by Summerhouseart on Society 6
Click the image to go to Society 6

But to create more with it, especially to create an all over pattern required days and days of trying things out, experimenting, and repeated trips to youtube tutorials as we refreshed our memories on the steps to take. Then back to Photoshop and Illustrator.

The triangles were actually quite successful as an all over design. We took out the grout digitally, of course, and basically blew the triangles further apart, did a bit of rearranging and created a quite seamless surface pattern with it. It looked quite wonderful on some of the Society 6 products like leggings

Triangle Treat-mosaic-leggings by Summerhouse Art
see this on Society 6 by clicking the image

or a phone case…

Triangle Treat-mosaic-cases by Summerhouseart on Society 6
click the image to see this on our shop on Society 6

and even entire comforters.

Triangle Treat-mosaic-comforters by Summerhouse Art
click the image to see this on our shop on Society 6

In fact, in the future we may even venture into fabric design with it.

The squares were a bit more difficult and in the end we decided to go with just more or less tiling the pattern, which is basically taking the square and repeating it over and over as it was. This too, looks quite good on a variety of products. Society 6 also allows you to scale the pattern so that you can have it larger on some things, like a tee

Square On-mosaic-all-over-print-shirts
click the image to see this on our shop on Society 6

or travel mug,

Square On-mosaic-metal-travel-mugs by Summerhouseart.com
click the image to see this on our shop on Society 6

or even smaller as an all over design on a duvet,

Triangle Treat-mosaic-leggings by Summerhouse Art
click the image to see this on our shop on Society 6

or a rug or shower curtain. But we’re not done yet and are coming up with even more products on other sites. We’ll have those up soon. It’s proving to be fun and challenging all at the same time. What more can you ask?

(BTW, if you’d like to make a comment, just click on the title.  It’ll take you to comments….and we do appreciate comments )

 

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Two Mosaic Studies Created With Broken Dishes

 Studies are like sketches or perhaps experiments. I quite like the idea of doing studies, just to see where an idea will lead, curious to see what it will look like when done.

Just working on small 6 inch by 6 inch pieces of wood as a base for the mosaic studies, I went through my many many containers of dish bits and put together a small set of colors and textures that appealed to me. The first piece was made using bits of dishes that I’d cut into only rectangular or squarish bits. The pieces aren’t exact or tidy rectangles or squares like you’d get with normal mosaics, but the uneven, variances that you get when cutting up dishes which I think adds to the surface interest.

I arranged them in an intuitive order, balancing the colors and textures as I went.

Mosaic in Broken Dishes, Helen Bushell, summerhouseart.com

Then, looking at my work table, I realized I had quite a few triangular pieces scattered about and decided that, as my next study, I would use only triangular bits of the same dishes. An entirely different composition but still fun to look at.

Mosaic in Broken Dishes, Helen Bushell, summerhouseart.com

Looking at them now, I’m quite enjoying them and seeing many possibilities as well. We’ve become interested in surface design in the last few years and Will and I have been having a bit of fun teaching ourselves how to make repeat patterns. And we’ve also been applying our work to all sorts of other products from prints to pillows on our various online Print on Demand shops like Society 6 and Red Bubble. Looking at these studies, I can see some fabric design ideas, prints and other possibilities. It’s a whole new avenue to explore. Watch this space to see what we make with these…..much more to come.

(BTW, if you’d like to make a comment, just click on the title.  It’ll take you to comments….and we do appreciate comments )

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More Stained Glass Scraps Transformations

Stained glass composition, Helen Bushell, summerhouseart.com

Today, another stained glass scrap composition….up close, from the side, in the sun. Love seeing the edges of the glass. Cool eh?

I’ve been enjoying this view for quite some time in our kitchen window while having my breakfast. Love the light bouncing through the colorful and textural glass. Ok, I do have a weakness for lots of color. And this is even better, it’s glowing colour!

Stained glass composition in window, Helen Bushell, summerhouseart.com

I call it “Floating Black”, my attempt at a descriptive title. We took this one and did a bit of transforming magic in Photoshop. And now we have it flattened into a composition of colorful shards on a white background.

Stained glass composition, Helen Bushell, summerhouseart.com

Makes a lovely print in our shop on Society6. Just click on the pic to go to our shop.

Society6 print, summerhouseart.com

And if you look through our shop on Society6, you’ll find it as an iphone case too.

Society6, iphone case, summerhouseart.com

(BTW, if you’d like to make a comment, just click on the title.  It’ll take you to comments….and we do appreciate comments )

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Just A Few Scraps of Stained Glass …

You just never know where a few scraps of stained glass will lead to…Blue and Orange stained glass abstract, Helen Bushell, summerhouseart.com

I’m one of those people who never throws much out. As artists, we can see potential in old chipped dishes, old furniture, old scraps of paper and magazines, and even old scraps of stained glass. Back in 2010, I’d been given lots of small stained glass scraps by someone who was cleaning out “junk”. Well, as it’s often said, one persons junk is another persons treasure. My friends know me well, and later that year, I got a couple of boxes of stained glass scraps for my birthday and I did make some mosaics with these scraps.

Abstract glass mosaic, Helen Bushell, summerhouseart.com

And then, everything sort of sat around for a bit. But I did happen to have an old illuminated sign box that I use as light table. Now the thing about colored glass, what really excites me, is what happens to all that color when light shines through it.

So a few years ago I started to have some fun applying shards of glass to glass, first old windows then those glass frames you used to be able to find where you have to sandwich the picture between two sheets of very thin glass. Now, I wasn’t interested in creating the usual stained glass where you surround the piece with leading, because what really interested me was the layering of color in the light. And I got a bit frustrated gluing glass on glass until either Will or my son Dave, walked by and said, “Well, why don’t you just glue glass to both sides of the glass?” Well, duh. And that is how I got onto gluing glass on both sides of the glass.

Also, I wasn’t interested in creating pictures with glass. What I played with was just using the scraps as they were and creating abstracts with them. Which turned out, at least to me, rather well. I loved the look and the windows have been sitting on windowsills in the house ever since I made them. Here’s another view of the glass piece at the top of the post.

Abstract Glass in Window, Helen Bushell, summerhouseart.com

Now the beauty of having a mind that’s open to possibilities is that you never know where you will end up next.

I’ve always wanted to do more with those compositions, and I looked at light boxes and all sorts of things for a while and then just sort of forgot about it all. Then a few weeks ago I was looking at prints, and print files and looking around for what I could convert into prints. And in one of those ah hah moments my eye lit on the stained glass comps in the windows of the kitchen. So, together with Will, who is more of a master of photoshop than I, I played around with it and found that the glass transformed really well into abstract compositions on paper. Which we immediately ran through our new printer and loved the result.

We do have some print on demand shops, one being our shop on Society6. So today, I’m happy to show the first of these new Stained Glass Prints,

composition-in-blue-and-orange131768-framed-prints Society6

already converted into a few fun home decor products, one a pillow, and much more to come yet. Just click on the pics to go to Society 6.

stained glass society6-pillow by summerhouseart.com

 BTW if you’d like to comment, and we do appreciate comments, please just click on the title to bring up the post with a spot for comments at the bottom.)

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We’ve Got a NEW Shop on Etsy called FoundMadeArt!

Beach necklaces by Will Bushell, summerhouseart.com

We’re a couple of artists who are always open to new ideas, new avenues even. In the last few years we’ve been exploring some new ways of selling our work online. We’ve got lots of work up in some Print on Demand Online shops like our Summerhouse Art on Society 6, Summerhouse art on Zazzle and Red Bubble. It’s been a bit of learning curve but lots of fun too.

Which brings me to our latest venture….FoundMadeArt

So, a little lead in….  We’ve always been in love with beach combing. I’m one for watching tide charts and finding just the right day to head out to Sidney to look for beach pottery and beach glass.

Sailboat in Sidney BC summerhouseart.com

And we’ve made a few things like Bird baths

New Mosaic Birdbath by summerhouseart.com

and mirror frames with it.

Beach Pottery Mirror by Helen Bushell, summerhouseart.com

One day Will started playing with the idea of making jewelry from driftwood and beach glass. Off he went researching and learning everything he could about wire wrapping online and at the library.  Honestly, there is nothing that hasn’t got a tutorial about it somewhere. We love that generosity. And with his natural sense of design he was soon creating some really lovely necklaces.

Beachcombing treasure summerhouseart.com

 Which brought us to where to sell it all? He’d made quite a few. So we looked into Etsy. This time though, we couldn’t use our usual name of Summerhouseart since it had already been used in one form or another. But Will soon came up with the perfect new name. So, drum roll…… our new shop is called FoundMadeArt.

I love the new name since its all about finding things, like beach glass and driftwood and making something artful with it. And it leaves a lot of scope for other things that we like to work in too, like collage, assemblage and mosaics. The plan is to start with jewelry now and add a variety of other “found art” as we go along.

Here is a little introduction to what he’s been creating lately. We like to think of it as Surfer, beach jewelry. You can just link to the Etsy shop by touching the pic. BTW, you may notice in the photo of us, we look kinda young. But never mind, we decided to use it anyway since that’s how we still feel as long as we stay away from mirrors. Young at heart, that’s us.

 SOLD Pink Sea Glass Pendant by Will Bushell, FoundMadeArt Etsy shopDriftwood pendant by Will Bushell, FoundMadeArt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sea Pottery Pendant by Will Bushell, FoundMadeArtSea Glass Pendant by Will Bushell, FoundMadeArt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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New Scarves on Red Bubble

Royal Jester Scarf by Will Bushell, on Red Bubble
Royal Jester Scarf by Will Bushell, on Red Bubble

We’ve been adding new products on some of our Print on Demand sites.  Red Bubble has come up with a lovely scarf and we’ve been having a bit of fun applying some of our designs to them.  As you can see, they are HUGE and would look lovely wrapped or tied. The fabric is soft and light.  Here is Red Bubble’s description.

  • Large 140cm square ( or almost 56 in x 56 in.)  so a lovely size for wrapping and tying.
  • Full print is visible on the front and reverse
  • Microfiber polyester with a slightly transparent effect
  • Hand wash only. Do not dry clean or tumble dry.

Another example is my design Spread Sheet Tango on both a scarf and also matching Pencil Skirt.

Spreadsheet Tango scarf by Helen Bushell on Red Bubble
Spreadsheet Tango scarf by Helen Bushell on Red Bubble

Pencil Skirt,Spread sheet tango by Helen Bushell on Red Bubble
Pencil Skirt,Spread sheet tango by Helen Bushell on Red Bubble

Then another of my Painted Daisies design….

Painted Daisy scarf by Helen Bushell on Red Bubble
Painted Daisy scarf by Helen Bushell on Red Bubble

And also of a Collage done by Will titled “You May Know One”

Collage scarf by Will Bushell on Red Bubble
“You May Know One” Collage by William Bushell on Red Bubble

and another lovely collage by Will, Tuesday Afternoon, which is really a favourite of mine.  But we hope you’ll have a look at all the other designs we’ve posted too.  And if you see something you would like made into a product we haven’t done, just drop us a line.

"Tues Afternoon" collage scarf by Will Bushell on Red Bubble
“Tues Afternoon” collage scarf by Will Bushell on Red Bubble

 

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Just a few more products on our Society 6 store

We’re really enjoying Print on Demand these days.  Such fun way of getting our artwork out there at affordable prices and good quality too.  We really got excited this week because Society 6 has come up with “all over print T-shirts”.  So now you can have a design all over the T instead of just a little design on the front.  Plus, we thought, may as well try out some leggings too.

We’ve been busy adding more products on our Society 6 store.  I can never get over how a little sketch can take on a whole new personality once you put it on other items….

Spreadsheet Tango by Helen Bushell summerhouse art on Society 6

Take this little sketch I did on a scrap of spreadsheet paper.  Just having fun with pencil crayons and some felt pens.  Looks quite different on a pillow or a T-shirt

Spreadsheet Tango pillow on by Helen Bushell, Summerhouse Art shop on Society 6

Spreadsheet Tango T-shirt by Helen Bushell, Summerhouse Art shop on Society 6

And a couple of my paintings, one rather tropical and the other an abstract of our garden take on a whole new look on T’s.

Tropical Delight by Helen Bushell on T shirt in Summerhouse Art shop on Society 6

Our garden by Helen Bushell Tshirt in Summerhouse Art shop on Society 6

Will took a border from a card I’d done years ago and gave it a whole new spin.  I do like it on leggings…

Royal Jester design  on leggings, summerhouse art on socieity 6

and here’s how it looks as a T shirt in lilac.  It really looks good as a shower curtain too.  Check it out and many other designs on our shop on Society 6.  We’ll be adding more designs to the new products as we can.

Jester by Will Bushell Tshirt in Summerhouse Art shop on Society 6

 

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