Beautiful Sister

A portrait of my beautiful sister, made in 2009.

A little extra present I gave her for her 20th birthday.
I've used acrylic colours, and I believe the painting is 50*50 cm. 

Don't ask me why I chose to make a swirly greenish background!
In the original picture she was standing on a boat with lots of trees and water in the background - I just couldn't be bothered painting so many details!

I'm sorry about the poor quality of the photos - they have been snapped with my mobile phone camera.

As you may recall, I posted a silly drawing of my two sisters making funny faces a while ago.
Click this little image and it'll take you to the original post. 

Orange Swirl

New abstract 3-piece painting made with acrylic paints.

This is no complex painting in any way, but it's only a bit of doodling. I simply needed to fill a space on our livingroom wall that looked extremely empty, so I got inspired by the decorations that were already in the room and tried to match the colours. As you can see I've got a thing for orange ;)

Inspirational wedding headpieces

The second term of my jewellery making course just started this week, and I found out that my class mate just got engaged and is getting married later this year. I am so happy for her! Naturally, I started thinking about wedding jewellery. Would this be something that I could create in jewellery class? I've had a browse online for wedding tiaras, and I've understood that I'm far from being able to create anything as gorgeous as this!

That didn't stop me looking though. I know I couldn't possibly create vintage looking headpieces such as the one above - there are way too many little complicated details. But I am sure that with some practice I would be able to create something more simple and contemporary. 

There is an evening course in millinery at my college as well, which is a fancy word for hat making. Perhaps if you mixed the skills you would gain from that course with my jewellery making skills, you could create some pretty side tiaras such as these:

After having had a proper look online for some wedding headpieces I found my favourite one. I absolutely adore this vintage looking piece with a dragon fly. I love the whole motto of the dragon fly - to seize the day.

Carpe Diem

Some old finds from back home

Happy New Year everyone!
I went home to my family in Sweden for Christmas, and I haven't really realised before - but oh my they've got lots of my old paintings and sculptures up in their house! Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I only snapped a few bad quality photos with my mobile phone. Here are a few of the things I made between 2003-2006. Nothing great, but it's fun to get reminded of them, and think back about the time when I made them.

This black rose with the barbed wire and the blood drop (I know, how dramatic!) was made during my college years, either in 2003 or 2004. It was simply my dark period, and I loved everything black. This painting was made with aquarelle (water colour) on normal paper.

One of the first things I made in ceramics class in college was this swirly vase made of red clay.

Vibrant colours - african women. Two tiny little aquarelle painting made on A5 paper, and mounted together in a big wooden frame. Made in 2004.

What can I say... feet. Imagine them sticking our from underneath a duvet. Acrylic painting from 2005.

A simple red rose with a drop of water that I painted for my lovely grandma in 2005. Nothing special about the painting, but it's very simple and it has got a lot of contrasts.

These two paintings are about opposite feelings, or something like that. "Dream, Fear" and "Light, Dark, Love, Hate". They were simply made on a rainy day when I had nothing better to do than to take out my acrylic paints, and doodle and splash on a couple of canvases. I must say, drenching the brush in red paint and splashing it on a pretty much finished painting was a surprisingly good feeling.

An antique fork turned into two rings

As I've been mentioning quite a few times now, I am taking a jewellery making course at Leeds College of art. No putting beads on threads here, but proper metal work! What I am most proud so far is my project of turning an old antique silver fork into two rings - one out of the handle and one out of the head. The fork is only a tiny dessert fork, and it was just about enough for two rings.

I really like this ring below made out of the pointy bit of the fork. The swirls really disguise that it's actually a fork, don't they?

The handle on the fork had a really swirly pattern, which is one of the reasons why I chose to work with an antique fork. Modern cutlery just don't have that little extra, but they're all very plain. So even though this is a very simple ring it looks extraordinary cause of the pattern. 

Nautical 3-piece painting from 2011

When I first moved in to my boyfriend's house I realised he didn't have any decorations whatsoever. I went a bit mental with the empty rooms since I am one who loves decorations, and who always had my walls filled with all sorts of things, such as drawings, photos, etc. In my opinion every room needs a small decorative item - even the tiny guest bathroom in the hallway! That's actually where I hung up this nautical inspired 3-piece painting of mine. I was inspired by the round window in that bathroom, which very much reminded me of a window in a boat. What better theme to have in that bathroom then than a nautical theme ;) 

This 3-piece nautical painting is made with acrylic colours, and the swirls you can see are simply painted pebbles glued on with superglue. I really think that 3D objects in paintings make a huge difference, and they really draw attention to the painting as a whole. Below you can see each painting as a close-up.

I really wanted to paint a compass, and as you can see that is the main piece of the painting. I thought the text "Wherever you go, take me with you" really suited it, and it sounds really sweet.