Saturday, December 12, 2009

Pretty In Pink



When Diane first picked this color to play with, I groaned a little at the thought as I don't tend to use pink much in my work. I was, however, able to overcome my despair, and turn it into an opportunity to explore something I wouldn't ordinarily have done.  I rarely wear pink, I do however sometimes choose pink for my nail polish color.  Last time I had a pedicure I started looking at the bottles of polish and saw all the cute names they give these colors. I wanted to  use these names as a background to highlight some pink polishes, so I typed them up in the computer using different fonts, and printed it out on white background fabric on my husband's extra wide printer.  I had my background, and I knew I wanted to show polish dripping down, but wasn't sure how to go about this.  I ended up setting up a little stage with a white sheet background and taking several photos of spilling nail polish.




After deciding on the above photo, I took it to photoshop and made it black and white, and then printed it out on my thermofax.  After printing it with black paint on a sheer fabric, I just got out my water color pencils and colored it in, easy - peasy!  To finish it up, I machine stitched around some of the edges of the bottles and put a pillowcase backing on it.
I do think that using color as our "theme" is going to be interesting and I'm looking forward to the next challange

10 comments:

Diane Perin said...

Ooh! I love what you did! The way you stitched the partial outlines of the bottles is so striking -- it's clear what they are, but there's an abstract quality to them that is really strong. Is it just me, or does this have a french feeling to it? The way the words in the background and the bottles are soft is really wonderful.

Gerrie said...

Ha! What fun this is. I love all those names for the nail polish. And the spilled nail polish is priceless. Nicely executed, too.

Terri Stegmiller said...

I loved reading the names you have in the background. I had totally forgotten until I saw your quilt that I had a fleeting moment when I thought about doing a quilt with pink nail polish. Love how you did yours. You were even brave enough to let some spill!

Kristin L said...

Sometimes I wonder what it must be like at the offices of a cosmetics firm -- coming up with all those crazy names!! This is a fun homage to pink.

Terry Grant said...

Oo-la-la! It does have a sort of retro French feel, as Diane said. It makes me think of Audrey Hepburn and the Eiffel Tower and mincing poodles. Somehow nostalgic and modern at the same time.

I never use nail polish, so wasn't aware of all the clever names until my friend Beth was telling me about getting her nails done earlier this week. The color she chose was called "I'm not a waitress red." Now here is this same kind of information for the second time in a matter of days!

Loris Bogue said...

I love your piece. It's fun how the background and foreground keep changing places.

kirsten said...

Very cool :)
The techniques you chose are just the right thing. You've captured the sheer quality of nail polish. Tres chic!

Debra Dixon said...

I love everything about your piece--and how clever to set up the piece beforehand and photograph what you needed. Cool!

Diane Perin said...

Funny, I saw that "I'm not a waitress red" at the nail place last time I went. I picture a room full of women drinking cosmopolitans and tossing off nail polish names to come up with some of those...

Françoise said...

I love it Karen. This is so original. I like this idea of setting up a little stage.
Do you like pink a little more now?
;-)