Klimt in the Garden with Rumi : Beginnings

Soooo excited about this new project. 

I've joined Effy Wild's online offering A Year of Rumi. She is approaching this class as an opportunity to build a body of work over the year and I initially had an idea about doing each prompt as mixed media journaling and as small art quilts since I really want to include stitch as much as possible this year. In 2017 I made this lovely mixed media collage box which I called "Klimt in the Garden"

I currently have cardboard inside to keep its shape but it would be lovely develop this ideas as a container for mixed media cards inside on the same theme...Put these two ideas together and you've got "Klimt in the Garden with Rumi" - this is my first project on this theme. I am so excited and inspired by this idea ♥
Although this class is for 2019, our first lesson has been released this month and is our cover or warm-up lesson. She encouraged us to find our own Rumi quote as a good entry point to begin. I've chosen "Let the beauty we love be what we do". My base cards are going to be watercolour paper - 300gsm cut to 5 3/4" square.

And here they all are inside the box - will be fun to see what they look like at the end of 2019.

Next up - gatherings - a sampling of things like textural fibres/ribbons/decorative embellishments so when I consider my theme for the month I'm reminded of what kinds of media I can include.

And I've got plenty of Klimt-like fabrics in my stash...perhaps I will make a quilt as well after all! 

It's Summer Solstice on Saturday here in New Zealand - so I'm thinking Pohutukawa and fantails in my garden with red/white/gold/green for my colours. It's only a small card so I'm going to have to edit but I have 12 months ahead to try lots of new things...So I gathered this much smaller selection of fabrics and fibres (even this selection is large for my 5 3/4" square but I like to have choices)

and then started with Effy's lesson using paint and inks 

before I started layering with fabrics and stitch

Love combining hand stitching, beads, machine stitching, and seeing frayed edges

The quote was printed on some old book paper and the fantail stamped on fabric. Both were attached with gel medium - the rest are all attached with stitch

I decided to choose an appropriate fabric to go on the back - attached with zigzag around the edge and wrote the month of making with a micron pen.

I am so happy that this new project combines my love of art journaling and stitch. I can't wait to make the next card in January.

Find out more about this class HERE. Bundling is cheaper for payment if you are keen to take more than one class. Early bird pricing ends 31st December. You can also enjoy this class by joining Effy's Patreon account and paying monthly.