Most of today was spent helping to get tickets ready for Expo, so I unwound with a bit of hand stitching – fly stitch in black:
A subtle texture, not sure whether to add a line of fly stitch in a single strand of white to go over these, or if that will be too bright. Maybe in teal?
I relaxed today with some lovely hand stitching, all these white crosses. I think they’ve really lifted the area, and hopefully drawn the eye in to see the black ones that I did previously, a dark texture.
My brother in law is visiting, so we spent the day playing board games, looking at a new house we were considering, and then watching Eurovision. I did find the time for a bit more image manipulation.
I started with a range of images that I’d taken several years ago in rusty railcards and slate mines, originally used for inspiration for mine and my husband’s wedding rings.
Original: 
With colours and textures tweaked:
I then added a Tunnel effect:
I thought I’d add another tunnel effect, then a few more! My husband’s favourite is the simple one above – which is yours?
Then I added a mirror effect: 
This was part of a steam engine: 
I played with the colour and texture, and added a bit of a wave to get this:
After a play with x and z shift, I got this:
This slides the pixels either horizontally or vertically over each other as if they were identical colours but in two layers, making some interesting colour combinations:
Next I started with this image of rusty machinery in a slate mine in Wales, one of my favourites that I’ve ever taken, I think: 
To this:
With a pleasingly watercolour paper-like texture in the background.
And finally a bit of tweaking with this image, lumps on a boiler in a railyard:
Via lots of effects about edges and texture, to this:
I think this one could have a bit more done to it, but by that point Eurovision was starting, and I was responsible for recording our scores.
Today I finally made some time to hang Phosphene I, and take a good look at it from afar:
I’m pleased with how it is coming along, but wanted to add more bold stitching, particularly in the middle. A lot of the stitching I have been doing has ben with one or two strands of thread, which is good when viewed up close, but now I need to add some layers that will draw the viewer in from further away.
I finished the fly stitch across this edge:
And added some more right down the middle:
I also couldn’t resist a bit of image manipulation, so here’s a tweak:
Another long evening spent sorting Expo cloth spreadsheets, so tonight I did some image manipulation. I went through my photos, looking for ones which would make good masks. I feel like I’m getting a better eye for good candidates now.
This was the mask photo:
To this mask:
Which I combined with this photo of a Spanish sky:
To get this image:
Rather dynamic, almost feels like a quilt and some appliqué. I did it with triangles and some messing with colours.
And then this mask of pebbles between beach groynes:
With this rather uninspiring photo from an aeroplane window:
(They never come out as beautifully as the view!)
To this:
This one took a bit of work to get it to feel cohesive. I eventually took the mask off and then did a Glass effect over the whole thing, but a bit less opaque to allow the layers underneath to show through.
And lastly, a photo of carved faces in Alcoi, as part of the Moors and Christians festival:
With my favourite swoopy paint background, and some gentle messing with colours:
All in all, a lot of fun,
As well as machine stitching strips of cloth together for the UK Games Expo, I did some more hand stitching on Phosphene I:
A bit more fly stitching.
Today I did some hand stitching on Phosphene I, stitching black crosses over gaps in the printing to emphasise them. Some of the stitches don’t show well in the photos, but I am pleased with the effect:
Today ended up rather long, so I spent my 15 minutes of creativity further exploring icolorama. I decided to try to use some of my photographs as screens, rather than starting with images of my textile art.
I started trying to apply a range of screens to the same image, with a ‘glow’ effect:
Palm fronds:
Arch at White Ladies Priory, Shropshire:
And then I used these two masks together with an image of swoopy translucent paint. Very pleased with this.
Palm tree at Alicante Castle:
Statue on the battlements, Alicante Castle:
Today I continued learning icolorama, focusing on making masks from my images, and using these to edit other images. Here are a few of my experiments.
Mask:
Results:
Mask:
Results:
Results:
Mask:
Results:
Mask:
Results:
Mask:
Results:
Mask
Results:
I love these! All the masks (except the lemon, which is a photo I took) are from my own artwork, and the start point for each image is my artwork too, so they feel really personal.
Another set of image manipulation, as today was spent cutting fabric for UK Games Expo, and sorting out our wardrobes – we got rid of two big ikea bags of clothes!
So, I started with this image from my sketchbook:
First step was Tone – Lomo:
Then Preset – Tritone:
Style – tensor:
It’s gone a bit squidgy, let’s get it out with Effects – Raise:
Adjust – Channels:
Form – Deforms:
Fun! Might have a go with another image manipulation app.
