Artist inspiration-C. Klein, or Catarina Klein (1861-1929)

Today I am sharing an artist with you that I just love. Her name is Catarina Klein,  born in East Prussia in 1861. She worked out of Germany and produced thousands of gorgeous Victorian watercolors for the postcard market. Her work is often signed C. Klein, and she was sometimes called Catharine Klein, to avoid German association during WWI. She died in 1929, and in her lifetime created over 2,250 images with over 75 major publishers. Sadly, her originals are extremely rare, the result of a lack of appreciation for the "lowly" illustration market. Her postcards can be found, most for under 20.00 with rare examples over 250.00.

 

 She unknowingly painted flowers  and plant life which are now considered to be heirloom species, thus preserving the heritage of flora and fauna in the Victorian age.

 

Her bird and animal life pieces are especially endearing, and brighten up any day with prospects of spring and sunshine.

 

I picked up these pieces from the Etsy shop Vintageflowers. I try to collect some of her images, hoping to do some inspirations pieces from her work. 

Wierd Roses in the garden

This is a wild and wooly looking Crested Damask rose. This is a once blooming rose with very ornate buds covered in frilly green sepals. The green parts are quite scented like rich pine needles. They are similar to moss roses.

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 Small deep magenta pink rose buds open nicely into ruffled roses with a rich rose scent.

                             This damask rose is nestled with a lovely Rouge Cardinal clematis.

 

Here is a Green Romantica rose. It has not opened out yet, and will soften to a greenish cream when mature.

This is another weird rose called a chestnut rose. As you can see it looks like a chestnut, only it will open to a pretty mid-pink rose with a nice scent. It has a fine leaf pattern with little thorns and looks like a old fashioned rose rambler.

Saturday Rose Bounty

 This is the harvest collected this morning from the rose bushes. About 2/3 of the bushes have come into bloom, but there are some slow goers out there that have yet to catch up.

These were gathered three days before. It is good to cut as many as possible, to keep the roses productive. The roses were separated into three color groups and photographed.

 Golden Celebration rose, Abraham Darby rose, scabious, and iris.

 Pink Traviata, Falstaff, Ferdinand Pritchard, Sir Edgar Elgar, Red Eden, and Valerian for filler

Abraham Darby, Queen of Sweden, Alnwick, La France, Kathryn Morley, Wedgewood, and green Nicotiana.

The tomato and strawberry bed is getting going. I snuck in some peppers and basil also.

This A-frame trellis came from Lowes, hopefully it will support the tomatoes as they grow. The initial tomato I planted is gigantic, hanging down from the bed and growing over the other bed. Can't wait to see some red fruit!!

Watts Atelier Interview

              Here is an interview I did with Jeff Watts regarding teaching and development at the atelier.

New bonnet-Regency Mourning bonnet

 This is a new bonnet commission. My client requested a black mourning bonnet with accents of purple, cranberry and gold. She wanted a tall bonnet with feather.

I try to use as many antique materials as  possible. The bonnet is made from antique silk satin with a low sheen. It was a narrow width silk, probably intended for millinery use. The edges are bound in this unique crinkled silk organza from an old Victorian dress.

The base of the feather has some of this same crinkled silk as well as silk velvet ribbon and gold cord accent

 

 I wanted to make a silk flower for the front of the bonnet. Most of my vintage millinery flowers have too modern a look to them. I made this using a wire base, with hand sewn iridescent silk. Each petal is covered in this unique antique metal mesh called tricotine.It was used in the edwardian and 20s era for adding a subtle shimmer to millinery accents. Each petal also has antique French metal sequins from the turn of the century. The base is wrapped in a French silk chenille cord.

 Here you can see the metal sequins. The center has vintage stamens that are lily shaped.

The inside is finished with a black cherry colored silk and antique pleated silk net veiling.

 The back is finished with an antique ribbon, gold cording, silk tassel and button. They are all over 100 years old.

 These antique silk taffeta ties are in great condition, so I used this as the means of fastening the bonnet.

Saturday portrait demo

 We started the Spring semester at Watts Atelier this week. This is my demo portrait of the model Brianna.

Roses in the rain

 These are the first roses to bloom. Pictured above is Mme Isaac Periere. This rose is highly loved by most rosarians, but quite frankly was a real stinker last year. She was covered in mildew and produced small ugly flowers. However, this first flush is quite lovely, and the color a much richer pink than the camera could capture:

 Below is Carding Mill. This is my second bush, the first one died last year, after 7 years of wonderful production.

 Wedgewood Rose, a big bloom making pale pink rose. This is a very healthy rose with little to no problems.

 We left for a 5 day trip, and came home to giant tomato seedlings, these need to be transplanted ASAP. I have to say the soil block method is my new favorite seedling method.

 Clematis bud waiting to burst open. Most of my clematis have buds already, even though some of the vines are only a foot tall.

 My favorite Nicotiana, this is a lime green version. I also grow the pink and white, but the green is super hard to find. This was started from seed, and has taken two years to bloom. There is another type out there called strawberry lemonade, with lime green face and pink outer petals, that is next on the plant list.