Buying Local Hand-made Knitted Goods Is Good For All - Baby Gifts You Will Just Love

These days we might not be attending as many baby showers and parties as usual but that's where Addicted To Art comes in. We will deliver these beautiful and unique gifts to the expecting mothers door and you will be super proud of the gift that gets unwrapped, hopefully seeing via some group chat or internet platform like Skype or Zoom.

I want to introduce this lovely local, woman owned clothing brand Ollie & Quinn because I absolutely love and adore their creations, my babies were lucky enough to wear and be named after a few of the collections. Yes, my mother Isabel and Aunt Gay are the amazing ladies behind these wonderful baby clothes. I am very excited to share this hand-made knitwear with you. Perfect for keeping your baby warm and snug or as a very special and unique baby shower gift. Your babies’ closet won’t be complete till you have all the colours and styles available.

Ollie & Quinn is a collaboration of two sisters from Cape Town who were inspired by their young grandchildren and their love of hand knitting.

Their products are made with more than just love and passion. They only use locally sourced, 100% eco-friendly hand dyed and hand-spun bamboo wool which is perfect for new-born babies and growing toddlers. Bamboo wool is soft to the touch, breathable and has natural anti-bacterial and UV protective properties.

Each Ollie & Quinn product is care-fully hand-knitted and stitched with meticulous attention to detail, making every piece unique.

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Adding A Touch Of Gold To Your Art

I've always loved Gustav Klimt's (1862-1918) works and he has inspired me to try out gold leaf in my latest art commission.

Gold has been sought after, fought over and desired throughout history and its no surprise that artists have used it in their works too. From the ancient Egyptians in their tombs, Byzantine Art to Klimt. Gold leaf reflects light amazingly, looks really ethereal, has and expensive permanence to it and it is now more readily available to the average person - not just royalty.

On Valentines Day my husband and I went on a date night and happened to go into The Melrose Gallery,  I was surprised and happy to see that not one but three of the paintings on display had used gold in their artworks, let me also just say that I didnt see anything on the walls going for less than R 100 000 so obviously even our own local South African Artists are using gold leaf or gold paint in their artworks which are going for a pretty penny.

What is gold leaf?

Gold leafis gold that has been hammered into fine sheets. The process of pounding solid gold into a thin leaf is called goldbeating, and the act of using gold leaf to adorn a surface is called gilding.

How I Added Gold Leaf To My Painting

Step 1: Once I had completed my painting I painted on Dammar Varnish in select areas that I wanted to have the gold on.

Step 2: I cut my gold leaf square into more manageable sections and then flipped them onto the sticky varnished areas.

Step 3: I used one of my brushes to dust off the excess (you can keep the bits for another project)

Step 4: I varnished the whole painting with a spray varnish.

...And that's it

TIPS:

1. Try not to touch the gold leaf with your fingers.I learn't this lesson the hard way and its an expensive mistake.

2. If you would like to buy Gold leaf then you can buy it from Addicted To Art at a special price and get it delivered or go to Honours Boards. Honours Boards specializes in academic, sports honours boards, podiums, pin boards, plaques and they use a lot of gold leaf and gold lettering in their products.

No, Im not talking about the television box

The Perfect Arts & Crafts In A Box - Fluid Art , Jewellery Art, Polymer Clay, Fairy Door , Acrylic Painting, Fabric Painting, 3DArt and Candle Decoupage Kits.

Art kits for you and your kids to get addicted to art and cut down on that screen time. I dont know about you but we seem to be on our phones way too much, well I think getting creative and making things is the solution.

A few weeks ago, I received a call from Ingrid about her kits, we hit it off immediately and I knew they just belonged on my site. As an artist myself I have been putting together different kits which customers are loving but what I liked about hers was that it was all in one box, had instructions and videos and really did give you a chance to see if that craft or arty technique was something you wanted to do without having to outlay tons of money for art materials you might not use. The kits are also packaged perfectly for a DIY art party or team building event for kids and adults. They are also perfect gifts for birthdays or christmas. I am delighted to partner up with Ingrid to bring you these proudly South African Art Kits for you to have fun with and get your creative juices flowing. I am also looking forward to collaborating on a new kit with Ingrid involving dot art. No prior art experience is needed for these kits, so they really are for everyone.

What Ingrid had to say about the kits.

I have been an artist my whole life, drawing from when I could pick up a pencil. I've always wanted to share my love of art, colours, shapes and expression, so I taught at primary school level and had an art shop which had a studio where I taught adults and children the love of art and craft.

So many people are intimidated by the fact that "they can't draw a straight line", but the beauty of Fluid Acrylic art is that straight lines are banned! Anyone can do it! It's a case of selecting the colours that move you and a technique you, like the look of, and then just play! There are no mistakes. If you don't like the look of what you did, simply scrape it off and start over!

The fluid art concept is designed to make yourself feel good. It's also fantastic therapy. It takes you out of your stressful day and gets you into "The Moment" and you feel like you have meditated and just HAD FUN!

The kits are also made to have fun and to enjoy yourself. The materials used are of a great quality, so that you can feel good about what you make.

There are just enough items in the kits to give you the exposure to a new art/craft form without having to purchase huge amounts before you know if you will enjoy it. If you find that you love it after you have done a kit, you can then go and buy bigger quantities of what was in the kit. It's experimental without a massive financial commitment!

The teaching I mentioned comes in the form of online tutorials which are available for the kits, as well as techniques of fluid art.

*****

More Art Less Screen Time!

I'm not sure if you have noticed but kids and adults are becoming more and more addicted to their screens and I am not excluding myself. Being a business owner and working from home constantly trying to promote and expand my business is a full time job and I am doing it mostly from my laptop and phone. I'm constantly creating little videos and images for social media etc but then I realized that I have to put it down especially when the kids get home because my 3 year old keeps asking to look at my pictures and trying to take the phone and my 7 year old keeps asking to watch T.V. What is the solution here??? Well, I decided to set a good example and so I put my phone away and started to paint. Guess what happened next? Yip, they came asking me if they could paint and make things too. What a win! These kits are perfect to get you off your phone making something and the feeling you get while doing art is so calming and peaceful and what a great way to spend quality time with your children. There is a real sense of accomplishment after finishing a project which is beyond what you get from being on your phone or watching T.V for hours.

Most of the kits are on my site and we are working tirelessly to get them all up for the holiday season, I will update this blog post as they come online but even if they are not all on the site you can still buy them as they are available to purchase. In the mean time I will just list everything here for now and you can just pop me an email if you would like one of the kits now.

FLUID KITS

STRING FLUID KIT R250

STRAW FLUID KIT R250

SWIPE FLUID KIT R250

FLIP CUP FLUID KIT R250

PARTY KIT R325

CHRISTMAS BALLS KIT R425

ACRYLIC JEWELRY KIT R330

MINI POT FLUID ART KIT R310

DECODEN KITS

BOOK COVER KITS R285

JAR TOP KITS R285

HAIR SALON KITS R285

FAIRY DOOR KITS

WOOD FAIRY DOOR R275

STONE FAIRY DOOR R275

TOADSTOOL FAIRY DOOR R275

ACRYLIC PAINTING KITS

CHILDREN'S ACRYLIC PAINTING KITS R325

ADULT'S ACRYLIC PAINTING KITS R325

FABRIC PAINTING KITS

CHILDREN'S FABRIC PAINTING KITS R285

ADULT'S FABRIC PAINTING KITS R285

We hope that you love the kits as much as we do!!! >>SHOP ALL KITS NOW

The Chameleon Blend Range is like nothing you have ever seen before.

Seeing this range (pens, fine liners, colour tops, coloured pencils and accessories), especially how you can blend the colours or even change colours without lifting the pen is truly new and amazing. In my wildest dreams as a teenager I never thought of it but boy if I did, I would have wanted these! Now, as an adult my mind is blown away by these awesome pens etc that truly do give the ability to shade and colour like pencils but with markers.

Chameleon Art Products design and produce a family of professional quality innovative art tools that will help you unlock the world of colour. They are imported from the Uk to us here in South Africa and I can’t wait for everyone to find out about this range and all the amazing things you can do with them.

Chameleon is for you if you’re a curious kid, aspiring amateur, keen colourist or a creative crafter, Chameleon will help you achieve the results you dream of. Or if you’re an ambitious student, accomplished artist or a design professional, Chameleon will add a new level of control and finesse to your art bag of tricks.

Their patented family of art products is totally unique. Using their tools you can create depth, dimension, gradients, highlights, shading and shadows. In the past this would only have only been possible with an extensive range of art materials.

Chameleon Pens

You can now do a realistic gradation and shading when you have a Chameleon Pen, you can get many tones of a particular shade - all from one marker.

Chameleon Pens are not just an average marker - they give you the power to change colour easily. Each pen goes from as light as a hint of a tint to rich tones.

It works buy Just picking the colour you want, infuse it with the Mixing Chamber, wait for 15 seconds and begin shading. As you colour, you’ll see the tones transform from light to dark - creating a beautiful gradient.

Chameleon Colour Tops

It’s pretty much impossible to blend marker colours especially if they are totally different like purple and green for instance. Well, that’s where using Chameleon Colour Tops come in because you can now you can give your artwork seamless blends of multiple colours.

Add Chameleon Colour Tops to your Chameleon Pens to get over 1000 colour blending combinations. Even opposite colours like orange and green can be blended together without a seam!

Chameleon Fineliners

These new Chameleon Fineliners can instantly blend color for all your writing, journaling, drawing, doodling and colouring needs.

Chameleon Fineliners are perfect for artists, crafters, journalers, students and professionals.

They work by instantly blending colours, all you need to do is switch caps, leave for a few seconds and then you can make colour to colour blends.

Chameleon Pencils

Chameleon Pencils come in a 25 Set but with 50 colours. They are dual ended pencils with two perfectly matched complementary colour tones, ready for you to create beautiful, precise blends. And they’re so easy to use. Just flip to blend.

You can still get lighter and darker tones by varying the pressure on the pencils, but now you can easily blend between the colours with Chameleon Pencils. Simply flip the pencil and tap into the range of tones provided by just a single pencil.

Chameleon Books, Paper & Cards

Playing with highlights and shadows is what gives your artwork that life like depth and dimension. Chameleon Colouring Books and Colour Cards are designed to help make shading much easier to do, and made with high quality in mind so that your work always looks beautiful.

Enjoy colouring with this amazing new range.

From Natasha at Addicted To Art

SHOP CHAMELEON PRODUCTS NOW

Why I think every artist or aspiring artist should have an easel.

An easel allows you to work vertically which makes your painting more accurate because that is how your artwork will be displayed or hung when it is complete. Generally, people are vertical and view things vertically, using an easel then can help you to have a better and more exact perspective in your art. Easels also protect your art work from spillage of paints and whatever else could be easily knocked over on a flat desk or surface by a stray elbow or running child. Dust also settles less on the artwork if it is standing up rather than horizontal.

For me the two best things about having an easel is that I can step back and look at it from a distance and see what needs to be done to improve my art and I can swivel it to the lighting that I want.

What types of easels are there and which one should I get?

1. Canvas Easels sets

Cheap and cheerful canvas (table) easel sets in 4 different sizes, great for kids, kids parties, art parties, party favours and team building art activities. You could also create your own art gift for a friend or family member with these. Click to go to Canvas Easel Sets and choose the size you want.

2. Table Easels

Table easels are great for working on smaller art work and allow you to sit at the table with your art but you still get the benefit of working vertically. I have  wooden table easel and the more popular aluminium table easel which can fold away neatly when not in use. The Aluminium Table Easel is lightweight and portable, designed for table top use with a sturdy hinged shelf and non-slip rubber feet. It has fold up arms to support larger works too. They have a foldable design for easy set up and carry. Click to see full easel range.

3. Portable Aluminium Easels

Black and silver aluminium easels are available on my store. I own one of these easels for my own use and its really great! They can't handle massive works, I would say A1 would be max but A2 more comfortable. This easel can be used as a table easel and as a standing easel as it has 3 adjustable sizes. It's also so light weight and comes with a bag, so you can take it anywhere which is a massive bonus if you want to paint or sketch on holiday or if you travel to paint landscapes. Click here to buy a Black Aluminium Easel or a Silver Aluminium Easel Now.

4. Display Easels

Rustic Pine Wooden Display Easels

I have a kiddies easels and a Larger Adult one. First off, the kids will love to paint their artwork on these and secondly, they adjust to match your childs height as they grow. You can put a chalk board on it or canvas for painting

The Larger adult one is more of an extra-large easel as far as I am concerned and its very sturdy too, so it is perfect for large and small art works.

These easels are given a coat of varnish but can come raw but I personally dont like to touch raw wood. They are attached to the back leg with a stron string and not a chain.

ETH Wooden Display Easel

Is a large easel for display or painting and has a chain connecting with the leg at the back, holes for the pegs also go lower to handle an even bigger Canvas.

If you want to support local then all 3 of these easels are ideal because they were hand crafted right here in South Africa which also makes them very affordable. Click here to see the full range of easels available on Addicted To Art. Read more

5.Wooden Lyre Easel

This Lyre easel has a higher quality finish but does come in a flat pack so there will be some minor asembly needed for set up. Lyre easels are also known as A frame easels, are adjustable to suit a sitting or standing artist. They have two legs in the front, and a rear swinging leg at their back.

A Lyre easels shape allows for it to be placed in a corner or other small spaces. The rear leg can also sit completely flat against the body of the easel to allow for easy storage.

This Wooden Studio A Frame easel is fully adjustable and can support canvases up to 127cm in size and can be used in the studio or to display art works.

Whichever easel you choose, have fun creating! Please leave a comment on which is your favourite easel and why.

https://www.addictedtoart.co.za/EASELS
#easel #adulteasel #kidseasel #AddictedToArt #artaccessories#displayeasels #galleryeasels #exhibitioneasels

Crafty With The Cadence Art And Hobby Range

A fun morning out crafting with a group of mostly ladies, trying out different techniques using Cadence products which are imported from Turkey and are available online.

This is what we created and what I learned from the experience;

Project 1 - Stencilled Mirrored Wooden Tray

*** Step 1 ***

Asuming you start out with a primed tray, which we did. Take your stencil brush and stipple the tray with the Rusty Patina, dont brush it on because you will loose texture and get brush strokes. Cover the tray. I didnt paint the bottom as this wont be seen. Leave to dry.

*** Step 2 ***

Take glass that fits into tray, spray back of the stencil with the Cadence Stencil Adhesive and place on the glass. Sponge on the Cadence Multi-Surface Acrylic Paint, remove carefully after a few minutes and allow to dry.

*** Step 3 ***

Spray the glass on the painted side with the Cadence Mirror Effect Spray, used almost all the bottle for the size we used. Allow to dry. You can use a varnish over the mirror to protect from scratching if you like but we did not.

*** Step 4 ***

Place glass in tray and Done!

Products used:

1. Primed wooden tray

2. Cadence Mirror Effect Spray

3. Cadence Stencil Brush

4. Cadence Butterfly Stencil

5. Cadence Rusty Patina

6. Cadence Multi-Surface Acrylic Paint

7. Cadence Stencil Spray Adhesive

8. Cadence Sponge Set

Project 2 - stencilled Stretched Canvas

*** Step 1 ***

Spray canvas with the different Cadence Mixed Media Sprays. Spray from far to get an even mist and try to keep spray bottle as vertical as possible to avoid big blotches. You can also dab with a cloth to give it a more even finish. Allow to Dry.

*** Step 2 ***

Spray stencil with the Cadence Stencil Adhesive spray and place stencil on canvas. Smear the Cadence Rusty Patina, quite thickly and smoothly. Allow to dry a bit so that you can remove stencil without smudging it.

*** Step 3 ***

Spray some Cadence Shake and Gilt to give it a glittery finnish and done!

Products used:

1. Square Stretched Canvas

2. Cadence Mixed Media Spray Ink

3. Cadence Butterfly Stencil

4. Cadence Rusty Patina

5. Cadence Lettering Stencil

6. Cadence Shake and Gilt

7. Cadence Stencil Spray Adhesive

Thats how I learned to get crafty with Cadence Art And Hobby Range for the Morning.

SHOP CADENCE RANGE NOW

Here are some other crafts that can be done with the Cadence Range;

Hosting a themed DIY art party

I have a passion for art and was recently offered a chance to host an arty party for a customer based on some of the artwork she had seen of mine online. I accepted the challenge but it very quickly dawned on me that I would have to actually stand in front of quite a few people and teach them how to paint. Being quite a shy person, this definitely frightened me so I decided since my birthday was coming up why not test this out on a small group of friends first.

This is what I did.

1. I chose a theme: Frida Kahlo

Frida is one of the most famous women artists ever and definitely one of my favourites. I also loved the Mexican colours and being the month of Halloween October I liked the idea of incorporating the Mexican Day Of The Dead theme as well.

2. I chose what we were going to paint: A Delicious Monster Leaf

Quite on trend at the moment and I wanted something people would actually like to put up in their houses and not at the back of the garage.

3. I started to buy Mexican decorations and to search Pinterest for ideas on decorations I could make myself.

I visited China Mall for table cloths, cups, plates and hanging decor.

I then found some of my favourite images of Frida which I colour printed and mounted on black mounting board using Bison Spray Glue, foam board which has a sticky side and cut all this using an art knife and my special Cutting Mat.

I created a Photo Booth with the black mount board and decorated that with some plastic flower clips that I found at China Mall.

I made some photo booth accessories using paper plates and my Molotow Acrylic Markers, which my 6 year olds help, I left some blank for my guests to decorate themselves when they were done with their painting project.

4. Art Supplies For The Paint Party and what you will need for approximately 10 guests

I bought 10 x wooden Easel and Canvas sets which are available from my online store which are cheap but get the job done.

I bought 11 different colours of Primo 300ml Acrylic Bottles but you could just get the primary colours or if you would like to do the Delicious monster, you could get the greens, white and black but I do own an art supply company and wanted a big range of colours to try out. I still have left overs so it does go a long way.

I had tones of brush from my years of doing art but if you need my Hog Brushes would be fine. I would suggest a minimum of 3 each, Large #10, Medium #5 and small #1 for detail.

For mixing palettes you could get the small plastic one which look great or just use a paper plate which is what I did.

I bought a bulk pack of plastic aprons from Makro for about R70 which gave me a couple hundred for future use.

We also used paper cups for washing brushes.

5. Food and the amazing pinata

I was lucky enough to meet and make friends with a lovely and creative lady with many talents, who made the most beautiful Frida Pinata, Frida biscuit cookies and who decorated my cake with fondant, So I have decided to sell her themed cookies and themed pinatas on my store too. Obviously, we would need advanced warning of about 2 weeks for her to make the orders and I’m looking at selling her party boxes too.

Gluten doesn’t really sit well with me so I ordered and bought a banting cake from Yolande at www.cravecakes.co.za It wasn’t cheap bet well worth it and very delicious. I chose a naked red velvet cake with cream cheese topping and my friend Margaretha whom I mentioned earlier put on the Frida Fondant.

On the day of the art party

Thanks to my mom and friends we set up, unfortunately it rained so we had to set up inside and not outside under a tree as I planned but it worked out.

I borrowed a few trestle tables from family members and did it in my dining room.

I also got a lovely easel for my birthday which is available to buy from my store WOODEN ADJUSTABLE EASEL which I set up in front of every one.

I was quite nervous so when I started the class my voice cracked a bit and I felt a bit shy but I told everyone to have fun and try not to criticize their work and that they can use any colour they like.

Each person got a colour and a black and white print of the delicious monster and either traced it onto their canvas from their window, used carbon paper or free hand drew the pic on. It went quite well but there were a few things that I learned

• Paint your pic before and do one on the day. Its really quite hard to do your best work and have everyone scrutinise it when you are pouring paint, helping someone and finding a brush. so have your amazing example done prior.

• Don’t judge yourself too harshly, I told everyone not to be critical of their work and then I wasn’t happy with the one colour I used for the background and I used a bigger canvas for them to see but it was out of proportion, so this was also lack of planning on my part which made me doubt myself a bit.

In the end it came off very well, everyone was chatting and a in a good mood and loved doing something different for the day. We took some funny pics in the booth, ate some nice cake but never got to decorating the scull masks.

Please comment below if you need help with hosting your own art party or your successful actions for hosting a successful one yourself.

CLICK HERE SEE OUR DIY ART PARTY SUPPLY OPTIONS

I went to visit the manufacturers of Artiste Oils, shot a short video clip and interviewed one of the owners and this is what he had to say.

What makes artiste so special and how does it compare or how is it different to other oils on the market?

We think what makes Artiste Oils so special is that they’re proudly South African. Although a lot of the ingredients have to be sourced from overseas we are proud of the fact that such a great quality oil paint is being made locally in South Africa. The recipes also cater for the South African landscape colour palette with some unique colours like Grey of Grey that was introduced in collaboration with feedback from South African artists.

How long does it take to make a tube of paint, what goes into manufacturing these awesome paints?

From mixing the recipe to milling and tubing a batch of paint, the whole process takes a full day for one colour.  Remember all our paint is triple milled which takes up a large amount of the manufacturing time in the manufacturing process.

Where do you source the ingredients?

We source as much as possible locally but when it comes to pigments and oils we need to source product from all over the world. For instance, we have to import safflower oil from India, which we use in our Titanium White, as they are one of the biggest Safflower Oil producers. We can’t use traditional Linseed Oil with Titanium White as it has a yellowing affect which stands out on the white so we have to use Safflower Oil. Also certain pigments are more prevalent to certain geographic areas which makes it difficult to get here in South Africa.

How did you get the recipes perfected and the quality to such a high standard?

Artiste was originally started by Dawn Connell over 30 years ago. Her son Garth got involved in the business and just happens to be an organic chemist. He worked in the background fine tuning and perfecting the recipes used today. Our recipes remain our closest guarded secret and are without a doubt one of the most important keys to Artiste Oils success.

See Professional South African Artist Matt Z's review on Artiste Oils