I have tried all sorts of mediums of art over the years. From pottery, lamp working (glass beads), to wood working, and glass blowing, but I had never really explored watercolour painting.
I had used water colour paint in my time working in daycares, but cheap tempra paints, in very primary colours, and never with time to sit and really explore.
So, when a group of chocolate lovers came together over the pandemic to create art and it was decided watercolour would be the medium I was excited to try. This group of artistic chocolate peeps joined from around the globe and we painted together once a month for awhile. It was fun getting to know people as we painted together. The only common thing each month was that somehow what we were painting had to do with chocolate.
I painted the chocolate covered strawberry with this group at one meet-up and the cacao pods at another.
While I do enjoy exploring watercolours and how they work and bleed and layer, it is not my preferred way of creating. I love to work in 3D forms, which suits my goldsmithing perfectly, so working on a flat surface and getting texture and shape was a learning curve.
It was fun, and the pieces that turned out lovely I made into stickers that I originally included in Happy Mail for Chocolate Lovers Monthly Envelopes.
These are three of my favourites, made from scanning watercolour paintings into my computer and editing them slightly. This really means just touching up the edges to be sure they are smooth. Honestly, I am not a huge fan of editing photos or art work. Touching up colour isn’t my thing, so these are pretty close to the originals, just a few edges or smudges on the paper were cleaned up digitally.
The larger cacao pod sticker is one I sell often.
Sometimes they are sold to folks who work with chocolate and they add it as an extra or just because to orders. They are great stuck to anything, notebooks, water bottles, or even your laptop. I have them professionally printed so that they are high quality, and durable. I have had one stuck to a travel mug for well over a year now and it barely shows any wear.
The cacao pod magnet is a smaller pod, and the painting style is freer and looser. It’s got a bit of fun to it. A little style of its own you might say. The strawberry has all the little seeds which were fun to learn to paint so they looked like they popped. The cacao pod sticker was created from layers and layers of paint to get all the little details right. These items were created surrounded by other chocolate lovers, with much love and fun going into them, as it goes into everything I make.
You can find these all in the shop right now. They are also available wholesale at any time, if you are interested send me an email and we can talk.
Now if you could have any chocolate themed sticker what would it be?
Check out the other blogs in the How It’s Made Series:
How it’s made: Wooden Cacao Pod Earrings
Cacao Bean Necklace – silver, bronze, or patinaed bronze