Art

I was searching for a way to rapidly brighten up our summer dining table yesterday, and this super fast DIY was born, with leftover paint samples to decorate glasses and vases to fill with garden blossoms.

I used a water-based emulsion paint to get a layered look.

I wanted a decoration which I could wash off later – if you wish to produce a permanent effect, use oil-based paint plus a primer.

I utilized vases from IKEA, inexpensive as chips just $2 each, along with a lovely clean, smooth shape like retro milk bottles.

Roughly mix your paints up – in my case a sky blue and pure white – and use masking tape to specify the area you wish to paint.

Layer on your paint, then apply your finger or brush to blend to produce the look that you want.

Peel away the tape after the paint has dried, and you are ready to move to the next stage.

Vases can look good in rainbow or with stenciled initials or motifs.

Handle the completed product carefully. Splashes of water will not damage your creation but when it’s freshly painted it can be susceptible to scratches and knocks.

To remove your paint just scrub in soapy water that is warm.

It’s a great way to brighten up a room and infuse a dash of color into a drab area. Here are more ideas on how to paint a vase.

Embroidery might sound like an old grandma’s kind of pastime but if you look a little deeper into it, you’ll find that it’s actually a fascinating art form that requires a lot of skill. These days, embroidery is experiencing a renaissance, with many contemporary artists getting into it.

Lace

Lace is used contemporary artists using needlework instead of painting. Two talented lace artists, Laura Owens and Angelo Filomeno, have created beautiful works.

Filomeno’s picture of a skeleton, stitched silk shantung with metallic threads and adorned with crystals, is an explosion of opulence.

Owens’s chinoiserie motivated flowering tree embroidered on tussah silk is more discreetly luxurious. Filomeno, a former tailor’s apprentice, and Owens, who trained with a painter, have eroded the distinction between the fine and the decorative arts.

Silk

Another medium for artists is silk using delicate wisps of silk, cotton and artificial thread on translucent muslin.

One well-known modern artist Ghada Amer has made creations that raise eyebrows around the world.

Amer has replicated definitions of the word fear from English, French and Arabic, a nod to the experience in all three civilizations, the text is partially obscured by dangling threads. Some artists trust the charm of lace to revive tired topics, not always successfully.

While the works exaggerate the indignities of the pixelated digital reproduction, they don’t add much to the originals. A few of the most intriguing works reinvigorate the tradition of the sampler, a piece of lace which offers a religious or moral saying.