SmARTaleck Studio

Surf's Up

2012-02-22T11:07:00.001-05:00

While I gather photos to share with you my latest thin thread let me share some fun sites and projects I've found during a quick surf of the net...

Plastic Milk and Bacon Roses? http://www.homemademamas.net/

This interesting web site shows you how to turn milk into a substance similar to plastic called CASEIN (sciencebob.com gives you the recipe - homemademamas.net gives you step by step pictures). This is on my list of things to try (after I paint all my sculpture). Way cool. I just started using Casein paint on my sculptures. It has a beautiful quality. Further down on the Casein page are instructions for making BACON ROSES. I know, I know - why would anyone want to make bacon roses.   Trust me on this. You'll be tempted. When you've been married for over 30 years - you search for something new. My husband would howl if he woke up to a breakfast of eggs, english muffic and a vase of BACON ROSES. I love making him laugh.

Hand Carved Stamp Tutorial http://blogdelanine.blogspot.com/search/label/handcarvedstampstutorial

I'm ready to try my hand at stamp carving. Admittedly, I am a challenged stamper. I just picked up my Speedball Stamp Press from Bonnie's Best Art Tools http://www.bonniesbest.com/ and I can't wait to use it.  I have some other ideas for the Stamp Press that I'll share in another post - but in the meantime I think it was serendipitous that the Stamp Press and I met when we did.    Peruse the rest of Genine's blog. Not only does her blog show her exciting, colorful artwork, you'll love the paintings and drawings of a large variety of birds.

Trophies Repurposed http://justsomethingimade.com/2012/02/repurposed-trophies-cupcake-stands/

For cripes sake! How smart is this? I don't cook - so making a cake plate doesn't interest me a lot
(some - but not a lot). I do however have to hang stuff up. Did I tell you about the box of trophies I got for a $1.00 that had a hunter and baying hound on top? Too cool. Had no idea what I was going to do with them but had to have them (I've used parts since). Last weekend I was looking for parts to make a rack for hanging plastic templates (for easy reach from my work bench). Nothing was "interesting" enough. I relocated an antique oak dresser leg I had put aside from a dresser that was "decommissioned" so I knew that was the platform. But I was still waiting for the hangers to grab my attention. Guess what? I'm going to use my baying hounds! What a hoot!

Brian Dettmer - Book Artist http://karanarora.posterous.com/insane-art-formed-by-carving-books-with-surgi

I've seen Brian's book art in person - truly AMAZING. This web site provides the best pictures of his work I've seen to date. Enjoy! (There are few art/craft areas I won't try...this is one of them)

Just One More...

When A Doll ISN'T Just a Doll   http://fairystudiokallies.blogspot.com/

There are dolls that are just dolls. Dolls that are cute and may bring forth an "Ahhhh" - but they're play things. Then there are ART DOLLS. Miniture sculptures made out of any variety of medium that make you want to stay awhile and feel. Just take a quick look...

If you've made it this far you may be wondering why I haven't included a web site referencing beading. Because I'm stuck on Kumihimo beaded braiding!! This is my newest project...

2012 Declaration

2012-02-17T16:30:00.000-05:00

My "Inner-Me" said to me while driving the other day (she always interrupts when I'm driving)...

"You're not an Impulse Buyer (my favorite excuse for having so much STUFF) -
You're an OPPORTUNITY SHOPPER".

Whew! I was getting concerned. "Impulse Buyer" has somewhat of a negative implication where as "opportunity shopper" puts a positive spin on the hoarding of ephemera.

You too could be an "Opportunity Shopper"...

Top half (4x8) of a wall in my Studio

That it. That's my 2012 Declaration. I'm an OPPORTUNITY SHOPPER. Not earth shattering by any stretch of the imagination. But it's easy to remember. I'll be 60 this year so it's important to keep things easy ;)

If you haven't already - take a look at the Daily Art Muse dailyartmuse.com(a curated collection of contemporary fine craft on the web). It's awesome! All art mediums have an opportunity to connect to one another. A clay piece might inspire a piece of jewelry. Or jewelry might inspire a scrapbook page, etc. PS: The moving advertisements are annoying but, in most cases, worth trying to ignore)

Metals - I'm just playin

2012-02-17T13:10:00.000-05:00

These are projects I made for the Bonnie Art Tools http://www.bonniesbest.com/booth at the recent Stamp Festival (the black display cards are made from pre-cut chip board (same boards used for the Flower Press). Black paper was glued to one side and then edged with various paper tape, holes were drilled, grommets set and ribbon inserted to use as a hanger):

Frame pendant and earrings: This one is EASY

1 - 1 5/8" metal frame

Hemp

Metal jump rings

Dangles (key, glass heart)

Pendant: Lightly sand the frame, paint with black acrylic ink and wipe off, leaving only a hint of black in the crevices. Cut frame in half diagonally - Take one half and file/sand the cut ends, drill holes in the ends for the hemp and at the point (see picture) to insert a jump ring and key (or other dangle) of your choice. Attach hemp by tying knots. Attach the key and heart with a metal jump ring.

Earrings: Cut the remaining half of the frame in half again. File/sand the ends, drill holes at the top for ear wires and at the bottom to attach drops for more decoration

Joy Necklace:

1 repurposed chain

Various charms on spring rings (repurposed from a bracelet in my "things to go with other things" drawer)

Metal stencil set by Tim Holtz - used the J, O, Y (whew - I had to hold myself back on this one - the possibilities were endless)

Fishing lure spinners and jump rings to connect letters to chain

Paper Clip Necklace (previous post) and Queen of Hearts (previous post)

PS: The metals for all the jewelry (with the exception of JOY) were remnants of the Metals Medley kit I got from Bonnie Art Tools (some posted about previously).

1 GOOD Excuse, 5+ Reasons and a Flower Press

2012-02-13T19:27:00.001-05:00

It's been over a month since my last post!

First and foremost...Is this the cutest picture you've ever seen?

Gabi opened her dress-up trunk Christmas morning (when this picture was taken). Stripped down to only the tutu, fairy necklace, magic wand and crown, and holding her new Dora Doll - she twirled on one foot until we were dizzy. This is her watching her music box ballerina dance.

A couple of weeks after Christmas my son sent us a picture... Gabi, in her PJ's, had been sent up to bed to sleep. 15 minutes later my Son went to check on her. The picture was Gabi standing in the middle of her room with only her Tutu on and a stethoscope up to her ears - checking out her new stuffed dog's heartbeat.

The time to pull all the pieces of her dress-up trunk together (see previous posts) was worth twice that. What a hoot!

OK fine - I'll get to the "excuse". I spent the week after Christmas in Melbourne, Fl. with my sister Jean helping her de-clutter her garage (we had a TON of fun) and visiting my Dad who was in the hospital (moving soon to rehab). I drove home to Atlanta and was home almost a week when I got the call that my Dad was transferred from rehab back to the hospital. I flew back to Melbourne, Fl - he passed away a week later, he was 84. My sisters and I spent the week following his death planning his memorial and helping our Stepmother get my Dad's affairs and her affairs in order (he was a disabled Vet).

The 5+ good reasons? In between the above...sculpting class started, I discovered "beaded beads" (and taught them to my nieces and nephews while I was in Melbourne), put all the fallout of my Christmas projects away (I was up to my elbows in tulle) AND I made projects for Bonnie Art Tools' display at the recent Stamp Festival in Gwinnett. What a blast! I don't want to inundate you with a mile long post so I'm only including the Flower Press project here.

Supplies:
4 pieces of precut chipboard (they're generally used to make a book)
4 pieces of 7 Gypsies 12x12 paper
Butterfly motif paper tape
4 Long eyelets
1 Identity Plate
2 Regular eyelets
2 Screws with wing nuts

1. Using the Japanese Screw Punch, I drilled two holes for the screws in one of the pieces of chipboard and used it as a template for drilling the remaining three pieces.
2. After aligning the holes in two pieces of chipboard they were glued together using PVA glue.
3. The sheets of decorative paper were glued down on to the chipboard also using PVA glue - one side at a time. The paper was cut around the chipboard with an xacto knife before continuing on to the opposite side.
4. The long eyelets were inserted in the holes but weren't long enough to wrap around the inside of the doubled chipboard so they were glued in.
5. I wrapped paper tape around the edges of the decorated boards, clipping both sides of the tape and pressing it down as I went along.
6. The identity plate was positioned where I wanted it - two holes were drilled to insert eyelets to hold the plate in place.
7. To finish the flower press I cut and alternated 2 sheets of water color paper between sheets of cardboard for pressing the flower and put them inside the covers.

Ta Da! Glad to be back!

Merry Everything!

2011-12-23T17:34:00.000-05:00

HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS

Carolers 10" Porcelain - Made by JH c 1999

*Merry Christmas*
*Today...i wish You a day of ordinary miracles.* *A fresh post of coffee You didn't have to make yourself.* *An unexpected phone call from an old friend.* *Green stoplights on your way to work or shop.* *I wish you a day of little things to rejoice in.* *The fastest line at the grocery store.* *A good sing along song on the radio.* *Your keys right where you look.* I wish You a day of happiness and perfection - little bite-size pieces of perfection that give You the funny feeling that the Lord is smiling on You, holding You gently because You are someone special and rare. *I wish you a lifetime of Peace, Happiness and Joy.* *Merry Everything* *and* *Happiness Always,* JANET

Extreme Paper Cutting + Some More (more than 1)

2011-12-22T07:47:00.000-05:00

Found this paper artist http://dailyartmuse.com/

There's more of Karen Bit Vejle's work at the Daily Art Muse. This site highlights magnificant artists. If you like eye-candy, take a look.

I found this on www.dudecraft.com

I don't collect Hub Cabs - yet. But this caught my eye (both of em) on a site I hadn't been to before. This is A LOT of work!

Did you know we have a miniatures supply store here in Atlanta? Well we do (which is good to know since I'm getting Gabi a dollhouse for her 3rd birthday). Miniatures can be used in SOOOOO many mixed media projects. http://www.miniatures.com

That's it - just thought I'd share.

Peace - out...

The 3 T's are Finished

2011-12-20T10:44:00.002-05:00

That's TRUNK, TIARA BOX AND TU TU'S...

The descriptions, techniques and supplies are lengthy so I put them at the end of this post with more pictures...

Aluminum Trunk

Tiara Box

Magic Princess Tu Tu

TRUNK (as pictured on it's side) 26" wide x 16 1/2" high x 10" deep:
This is an aluminum salesperson's trunk we purchased at a display store. Standing upright (you can briefly see the handle on the left and the feet on the right of the picture), not as it's pictured here, it's original purpose is to stack black 1" H x 8" W x 12" L trays that hold inserts for jewelry and/or parts. It has wheels built to the frame for ease in moving inventory from place to place.

Our purpose is for it to store dress up clothes and Princess accessories for my granddaughter. Positioned as shown it will be comfortable for a 3 year old to bend over and retrieve her magic and it will be easy for Mom to slide it under a bed or in a closet when the magic is over for the day.

I had way too high expectations for this trunk that slowed me down. As I got tired of thinking about what it could be - I finally came to own that this was for the imagination of a 3 year old - not a 59 year old. Then it came together.
Inside: Ohhhhh I was going to line it, blah blah. Nope, the inside wasn't irrelevant. I left it alone.
Outside: I was going to air brush her name and magical pictures on it (although I have the equipment, I have little to no experience in air brushing). NOPE again. I started thinking outside my box and decided to use stick on letters. I couldn't find them large enough ready made so I went in another direction and made them myself as you'll see below.
Cushion:

In hopes that this trunk can also be used as a bench I made a cushion for the lid. I purchased, by the yard, a 12" x 24" piece of foam (a couple of dollars on sale) and cut it to size (to fit inside the outside of the lid).
The cover is a simple slip cover made from the pink fuzzy and sequin fabric that lined the Music Box (see previous post) and Tiara Box. Buttons were attached underneath with coat thread as an anchor for the pink elastic I sewed on - used to go around the corners of the lid to hold the cushion on.(making sure the elastic loops were too small to become a choking hazard)

Duct Tape Letters & Butterfly

Name:

Duct Tape not only comes in patterned rolls but also in 8 1/2" x 11" sheets. I chose the pink tie dye and blue tie dye patterns (the solid hot pink was way too loud) to use for getting Gabi's name on the front of the trunk. The duct tape is very pliable and easily molded to the corrugated pattern of the aluminum.
I printed her name in the "Curly" font at 72pt and enlarged it 300% on the copier. It wasn't quite large enough so I enlarged the 300% another 200%. It was perfect.
Next I taped each letter to the face of the sheet of Duct Tape and cut them out.
The letters alone were too loud so, prior to them be adhered to the outside, I outlined each letter with a large black sharpie and, using Stazeon Ink and a large background stamp, I stamped each letter. Much better and more fun.
The star and butterfly were cut out using Sizzix Dies. Again they were trimmed with a black Sharpie marker.

TIARA BOX (as pictured here) 10" Wide x 7" Deep x 3 1/2 High:
Geeze - A princess and/or ballerina needs a secure place for her Tiaras. Again, I had to scale my design ideas down to a 3 year old. The final result was to paint and decorate a blank wood box (purchased at Hobby Lobby with a coupon).

Inside:

Fabric - the inside was covered with the same fuzzy sequined fabric used in the music box (see previous post). In the lid I used a thin chip board covered in the fabric and scored in about 1/2". The corners were clipped to create a slant to the sides.
Mirror - I had (for at least 10 yrs) an acrylic mirror in my stash that was originally intended to be used in a miniature Christmas scene as a pond (hence the odd shape).
Decorations - I used rub on stickers.

Tiara Box - Inside

Front

Top

Back

Side

Outside:

The box was first painted with white gesso. Then the sides and bottom were painted with an iridescent air brush paint (using a foam brush) and the top with regular acrylic paint.
The decorations are a large mix of various stick on and rub on embellishments.

TU TU's and Princess Dora Skirt:
I purchased a tu tu first. It just didn't have the grandness a Prima Ballerina needed. So I decided to make her a Tu Tu AND a Dora skirt so she could share when her friends came over to play.

Tu Tu:

You Tube is a wonderful thing. I bought a pattern AND I searched the web for Tu Tu instructions. I settled on the most simple construction there is and never touched the pattern.
Cut strips of tulle (either bought by the yard or smarter than that - buy the tulle sold in 100 yd rolls in the bridal section that's already cut 6" wide) and knot them around elastic. I bought 2 yds each of shimmer pink and blue by the yard and a roll of fushia. This was the most simple of all the projects I took on for Christmas.
I knotted every third set of tulle pieces and ribbon for interest.
Boy is it fluffy.

Princess Tu Tu

Dora Play Skirt:

Gabi LOVES Dora. I purchased 2 yds of Dora material. Cut two sections 10" each and sewed them end to end. For the ruffle I cut three sections 7" each, sewed them end to end, folded in half and ran a long gathering stitch the full length of the folded raw edges. After gathering the ruffle I attached it to the 10" body. I made a casing at the top of the 10" body piece and inserted elastic. Easy Peasy.
I didn't have Gabi's measurements so I left the elastic to be sewn together after she tries it on at Christmas. I'm hoping it's long enough to just reach the floor.

Dora Skirt

Miscellenous Trunk Accessories (basic Grandma overkill):

I didn't get Gabi's foot measurements until I was done, done and done (I was going to make Dora Ballet slippers to match the skirt). So I purchased Ballet slippers (OMG! How Cute!) and made little clip on's for the elastic across the foot.
I embelished a plastic wand with ribbons.
I also added a hot pink boa (couldn't resist) to be put away until she's older.
A Dora doll in a Princess dress lies waiting to be discovered under all the Fru Fru.
A play set of Disney Princesses and books also lies in waiting at the bottom of the trunk.

Now - I realize that this may be a little much for a three year old who is in charge of everything she surveys. But I'm hundreds of miles away and when she is old enough to really get into dress up I may be traveling the world. Here's hoping she'll grow into the dress-up trunk. That's my story and I'm sticking to it;)

Vintage Ballerina Music Box - Renovated

2011-12-18T18:05:00.001-05:00

Renovating this Music Box was a lot of fun. In the next few days I'll post the Tu Tu, Dress-Up Trunk and Tiara Box that were made to go with the music box (some days it a very thin thread for me ;)

Spark (more like an explosion) of an idea: My granddaughter loves to wear her tu tu and spin and sing to music. I thought recovering this music box with a spinning Ballerina for her would be fun. Before I go too far, my children are adults and, with my granddaughter in Miami and me in Atlanta, I don't spend a lot of time in toy stores (actually any store - unless it has art supplies). If I had I might have realized that they still sell these little boxes and bought one instead ;)

Results First: If I had given myself more time to design and think about this I would have decided on the outside decorations first and worked backwards.

The Before: This was a $1.00 garage sale find. As you can see it was in rough shape. The size is approx 4" x 6" and is thin wood covered with a paper print. The Ballerina and hinges worked. My thought was to strip the box, recover and reuse the original hinges and plastic mirror in addition to the Ballerina and music mechanism.

The During: I stripped the box using the insides as templates for the replacement fabric.

- The original hinges were sanded until they glowed but it was just too difficult to get the pointed spikes back into the wood without damaging the new coverings. So I took out some hinges I had in stock that used screws. Since the box was wood they worked like a charm.
-I had installed the original front clasp before realizing I wouldn't be able to use all the original hardware. Taking the clasp out left minor slits in the fabric so I took a very LARGE metal ornament top, flattened it out, cut it inhalf and screwed it to the box at the same time I installed the new clasp.

-the adhesive backed fabric I was determined to use was 12x12 and would not cover the outside sides in one piece. I thought if I used the paper catty wampus I could sqeak by - but Noooooo. So I pieced the paper at a diagonal on the sides. Because I cut both pieces on top of one another the seam met perfectly and couldn't be seen but I felt better putting the pearl decoration over it.
-On projects like this one I use an empty candy holder that I rescued from being thrown away at a local store (this one held plastic eggs with candy in them) to keep track of the parts of my project as well as any small parts I may be considering for the project. AND it was FREE. Note: Keep a look out - there should be a lot of these types of displays sitting empty on the shelves during the holiday season.

Supplies:
-Exterior: Adhesive backed fabric from Paper Chase. I removed the adhesive back leaving a thin layer of paper that prevented glue from seeping thru.
-Interior: Furry pink fabric with sequins sewn on (kids love furry things / I used the same fabric for the cushion on top of her dress-up trunk and inside her tiara box). Fusible web was ironed onto the back of this fabric prior to cutting out and adhering to lightweight cardboard to stop glue from seeping thru.
-Ballerina: Repainted her base leotard. Added a tulle tu tu with rhinestones and a crown.
-Decorations: Disney stick on, trimmed to fit. (this was difficult - I wanted to paint something) / highlighted with sparkle dust, pearls and plastic rhinestones.
-Four 3/4 round wooden balls painted, written on and then painted again.
-Lightweight cardboard
-Ultimate Glue

Vintage Floppy Disks = Jewelry

2011-12-15T10:25:00.000-05:00

We had dozens of floppy disks (they weren't really floppy - they were 4 x 4 hard disks). I hesitated to throw them away because although we couldn't get information from them anymore some clever thief might find them in the trash, have a relic of a computer laying around the den and get all kinds of information (none of which we remembered) from the disks. What a dilemma!

So - I dismantled each one. When I saw the cool parts I knew I should keep some of them for the unknown future. Hence the jar of metal & plastic tabs and bits of floppy inserts.

I found that the metal & black plastic tabs are thin enough to cut with scissors and the metal can be stamped with metal letter punches (see the "P.U.S.H." tag below). Depending on the punch you might be able to punch out basic shapes like the ornament, bird, plane & bugs shown below. This metal, to my knowledge, doesn't rust or discolor with age. If you rub it with steel wool first, it takes alcohol inks

Use caution when you try punch out shapes in the metal with a paper punch. There may be slight variances in the thickness of metals depending on the manufacturer of the disk and your punch could jam. The same goes for the pliability of the plastic. The ornament punch did fine on the first metal piece I punched but broke on the second one (because I hit it with a hammer). If the punch cuts gradually, at an angle, from back to front (like most of Martha Stewarts) chances are it isn't a good candidate for this project. The punch cuts thru beautifully at the beginning but loses force as it proceeds forward and the metal gets stuck in the punch (repeatedly I might add). The inside floppy film could easily be punched. Any of these can be blinged to blindness - the possibilities made me dizzy. You may have a desk drawer FULL of free supplies - go check.

PS: P.U.S.H means Pray Until Something Happens

This and That

2011-12-13T09:34:00.000-05:00

smARTaleck: Fun with old floppy disk parts.

Look what I found when I should have been crafting my Christmas gifts...

CREATIVITY: A blog that contains information on sites holding design calls for one time designs, challenges and/or an opportunity to become a design team member. They're generally scrapbook (as the name suggests) or card related but I saw a couple related to mixed media. If you like to play with others, gain recognition and/or are in a rut and need a spark to get you going again - check this out.

http://scrapbookcalls.typepad.com

TOOLS: I LOVE, LOVE, tools and new products. In fact most of my impulse buying is on new things I find in the arts and crafts stores (generally on my 2nd pass down every isle). I need to take the new items home to "kick the tires" so to speak and see what else they'll do that's not listed on the instructions. This site critiques arts and crafts products. They do a real good job of it too.   I've seen products here I haven't seen in the stores yet AND they're holding 12 days of Christmas giveaways (they're on day three).

http://www.craftcritique.com

CREATIVITY: I found this swap site by reading comments made in the above give away.   You can host swaps, join swaps, and chat with other swappers from all over the world. I haven't tried it yet (I'm supposed to be working on a tu tu) for fear I won't get away from my computer until next week.

http://www.swap-bot.com

TOOLS: One of my favorite jewelry tool websites is Kelsi's Tooltime Tuesdays by Melissa Muir.   I'm not associated with any jewelry groups so I don't get to have conversations one on one with like minded folks on their experiences with various tools and design ideas.  Her critiques on jewelry tools are well written and relevant (a good jewelry plier can cost between $30 and $50). She's moving and since her updates aren't every Tuesday I've subscribed to her blog so I don't miss any.

http://design.kcjewelbox.com

METAL: I've mentioned this one before. It mostly pertains to stamping metal - which can be used to adorn cards, scrapbook pages, jewelry and/or mixed media. It has Outstanding videos and a large inventory of products. PS: I own their book with accompanying CD "Make Metal Stamped Jewelry" - every bit as user friendly as their website.

http://www.beaducation.com

BOOKS: Atlanta Bookarts Collective has found a home to hold meetings. Their first meeting of the new year will be at SCAD in Atlanta. I'm a member of this group of talented artists. We're all in different places in our pursuit book arts.

http://www.atlantabookarts.blogspot.com

CREATIVITY: This one isn't exactly new to me but since I get SUCKED in every time I get on it I thought I'd share it. This site allows you to have "boards" of favorites where you post a picture of a place, product or thing that you like. You can access one board to view all of the posted pictures under that category (for example I have a "sculpture inspiration board" and a "places I want to visit board") Each picture retains it's original web location so you can refresh your memory if you need more informaiton or instructions on how to make a craft item you saved. I use this site for a repository of ideas that I don't want to print out and put in a book or add to my favorites only to forget what I have in my favorites. I've found some of the most inspirational items EVER from other peoples posts. Downside: it's like being dropped into a deep hole full of fun and adventure - before you know it your husband is in bed and will get up for work in an hour ;).

www.pinterest.com

13 More Sleeps Til Christmas

2011-12-12T15:28:00.001-05:00

A lot has happened this month...

My long list of "firsts" without Mom is at an end (first Birthday, Easter, Mother's Day, etc). She passed away December 3rd, 2010. I could hear her talking to me as I was lamenting my need to make this year's Christmas cards. First she would tell me how pretty the cards were, then she would sigh over how busy I was and how much extra work making cards was adding to my load and then she would suggest I just go buy a box of cards. Boy I miss her.

Chick & Janet 1982

Our 30th Wedding Anniversary was December 5th (I still get the date confused with the 6th - Chick just rolls his eyes ;). He wanted to do something special that weekend. I reminded him that we went all the way to Italy and that most people would consider that special. Never the less we drove the back roads from Atlanta, GA for two hours to Columbus, GA - destination an antique mall. We walked the mall (it was HUGE), went to the Columbus Museum (it was not only free but it was beautiful - would definitely go back) went to a movie (OMG - two tickets, popcorn and a soda - $12 TTL) and decided to stay the night. The next day we came home via Alabama (Chick saw a City on the map he wanted to go see) and then came back thru Newnan, GA stopping along the way. It was a great weekend. To be honest - it doesn't take much for the two of us to be entertained ;) PS: I bought a working 1950's portable sewing machine for $5 at a roadside yard sale.

Gabi 2011

I've been gathering Princess and Dora The Explorer supplies to make a dress-up trunk for my 3 year old Granddaughter for Christmas. To include tu tu's, ballet slippers, wands, crowns, re-purposed ballerina music box, etc. I'm having a blast! I'll post what I get accomplished. But know this...there's no reason a princess (at any age) should not have at least 1 tu tu in their closet. They are they so simple to make and can be made in any size and color. In case you don't have one I'll post the instructions after I've made Gabi's. Picture this - it's morning and time for you to get out of bed. You know the day doesn't have anything exciting in store and you dread getting up. What if you got up, reached in your closet for a tu tu (smiling already - right?), put it on with a little tank top (colors and patterns don't have to match) fetched your cup of tea or coffee and toast and sat on your front porch to relax and watch the world go by. If you weren't smiling and feeling a lot better by the time you sat down - trust me your neighbors would love you for making their day a little lighter. I'm just sayin...

The pendant I made out of an old fuse box, found miniature ball player and misc stuff was mentioned on Jewelry Making Daily - a sister blog to Craft, Paper, Scissors. It's an interesting post...

http://www.jewelrymakingdaily.com/blogs/daily/archive/2011/12/10/crossover-crafts-mixed-media-jewelry-making-from-cloth-paper-scissors.aspx

Now if I can just stay off Pinterest long enough to get my stuff in gear (and not get side tracked by leather tooling or beaded beads) - I'll make it by Christmas.

Christmas Cards - - WHAT WAS I THINKING?!

2011-12-09T22:17:00.001-05:00

Note to Self on making this year's Christmas Cards: WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU THINKING?!!

My muse really got me good this year. Usually I get the urge to do what my friends do so beautifully - make Christmas cards. I'll make a card or two, they don't look near as impressive as theirs do and I wind up sending my couple of cards to my Mom and Sisters (they love anything I do - that's a benefit of family) and then send the rest store bought cards.

This year I took a flag book class from Karen Hanmer and thought the design, made smaller, would be a unique card. I chose to copy and reduce a vintage print - "Children Singing" by Eugene Iverd for the flags and vintage sheet music - "Good Tidings" by Freda Morrill Abrams for the cover.

Soooo, in for a penny (actually, lot's of pennies) - in for a pound. The card, closed, is 4" x 7". The components are listed after the photos of the cards.

First Batch: The Tree on the front of each card is different.

1. Mat board - red on one side black on the other with a black core was cut to 4"x7" for the covers.

2. The swirl was stamped on at an angle using Grey Memento ink (I wanted to really BLING it up but held myself in check choosing instead to stamp the swirls in a subdued Grey color so it wouldn't fight, visually, with the distressed sheet music and tree). The end of each swirl was highlighted with a silver glitter gel pen.
3. The picture was copied on white card stock and cut into 9 pieces. The edge of each piece was distressed using Distress Inks.

4. A 10 3/4" x 7" piece of Canson black paper was cut and folded lengthwise (each fold is 1/2 the width of the flag) to create an accordion
5. The flags were attached using double sided tape (1/16" separates the flags).
6. The assembled picture and accordion were attached to the covers using double sided tape with the flaps overlapping to the outside of the covers.
7. The front and back covers got lightly sprayed with Glimmer Mist.
8. The copies of sheet music were cut to fit the front at a point and wrap around to the inside. The edges were distressed. The first one I glued down to the front cover using PVA glue. It caused the board to warp and I didn't want to mess with it so I used spray glue on all the other cards. Worked like a charm.
9. Snow flakes were stamped on the black flaps using white Momentum Ink.
10. The Christmas trees were made from scraps of card stock using a Sizzix Die and distressed on all edges of each part of the tree. The smaller parts of the tree were glued down using the 2" Xyron - the large part of the tree was glued using a PVA glue.
11. The inside sentiment was printed using an ink jet printer on card stock, distressed and the edge punched using an EK punch. It was backed by green card stock. All was glued in place using double sided tape.

I don't get paid a penny for saying this but you have to know that being able to cut each component of this card to exact measurements was crucial for this project to be a success. I was able to do that because I used my Genesis Paper Trimmer.
Because the card was not bendable the post office considered it a package and postage was $1.71 each to mail. What a hoot.

I'm done, now I can work on a my 3 year old granddaughter's trunk, filling it with magical princess and ballerina tu tu's, wands and crowns.

Pantry Storage

2011-12-07T18:21:00.000-05:00

When we bought our house 8 years ago the kitchen pantry shelves were sagging in the middle. Always the crafter...we put chair legs in the center to support them until we updated the kitchen and decided if we were going to move the pantry. Well, one year turned into eight and we still have a three legged pantry.

We decided not to open the kitchen to the living room (taking out the pantry) when we renovate the kitchen so I wanted to update the pantry NOW.

We went to a used store fixture place here in Atlanta and bought a slat wall panel, used brackets and used shelving at a total cost of $95. Staggering the shelves across the pantry allows me to adjust the shelves according to the items sitting on them. The inside of the pantry was painted using left over interior house paint, prior to installing the slat wall. I LOVE IT.

When the rest of the kitchen is renovated I'll have more pantry space for food (although we don't need it).

What if?

2011-12-06T08:39:00.001-05:00

11-20-2009 - Laura's 40th BD Cruise - Rainbow seen off balcony

A sign seen yesterday...

What if we woke up today with only the things we thanked God for yesterday?

BE NICE! plus a few more rants...

2011-11-29T18:58:00.001-05:00

BE NICE...

I've done a little impulse shopping around town in the last week and I have to tell ya - folks are PRE-occupied.

I wish folks would (this goes for me too):
- be "in the moment". Be aware of where you are. Be aware, unless you're on uninhabited planet, that everything you do involves at least one other person. BE NICE.
- say thank you even if you don't mean it. It doesn't have to be accompanied by a smile but you'll feel better if it does. BE NICE.
- say "excuse me or pardon me" when you expect someone to move because you're coming thru and you're on a mission. BE NICE.
- watch how you park your car and open your car door. I'd like mine to last the 10 years of warranty it has on it. Dings in my door make me want to give it back. No, I don't think it's inevitable that cars get dings. I think cars get dings because people aren't "in the moment" when they throw their door open to get in or out of their car. BE NICE.
- appreciate that, although the days have been cloudy and mostly gray, we've been given another day. BE NICE.
- don't assume everyone is as blessed as you are. Folks have a unique way of masking unbearable burdens. Even when you don't want to be (like when you see a ding in your car door) BE NICE.

I waited until the serious shoppers had gotten to where they needed to be and then I went shopping. I shopped the art stores, walking up and down every isle. I talked with some interesting people about what we had in our shopping carts, learned some things and shared stories - I had a ball.

Don't the holidays make you feel like cooking? Me too! But I don't want to - so I won't.

Smile for the heck of it - make people wonder what you're up to ;)

PS: I've told my family that if I EVER suggest making my own Christmas cards again to lock me in a closet until January 1st (we'll see how next year goes).

Day 332 of 2011

2011-11-28T09:51:00.001-05:00

Self imposed stress trying to create every idea that comes in my head (visual of this came to me last night as I was taking a shower - more later).

Shout out to self (at 9:30 this morning)...GET OFF YOUR ASS AND ON YOUR FEET!

Stepped away from the computer, washed and dried shaped bottle caps for bracelets sold, got dressed in my 30 year old art shirt, loose knit pants and socks. Didn't put on makeup - which meant I couldn't leave the house on impulse to grab a quick latte, lunch or some other lame excuse to escape (HA!)

Thought: How do creative's (artists, crafters, musicians, etc.) create without an agenda? Whether the agenda is another person's approval, to get published, to teach, to gift, to, to.... I've seen an artist's work and wonder "Ok, now what? - What will you do with it? How can you make things without a purpose?" I ask this a lot and my friends (bless them for their patience) give me their opinion.

I can't believe I'm 59 and still asking the same questions. I can't believe my friends still humor me with their opinions ;)

Shutting down the computer to create - which is really my heart's desire.

Happy 332nd day of 2011.

c2000 - Sharon: 36" tall cat in dress and hat made for a charity auction

Who Packs Your Parachute?

2011-11-23T14:01:00.001-05:00

In 2002 my son, in the Navy at the time, emailed the document below to us. I would forward it on at this time of year to the team I used to supervise (pre-retirement), and to my friends, to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation for them "packing my parachute" - I couldn't have said it any better. I feel that MY LIFE is a team effort. From the bottom of my heart - Thank You for your part in Packing My Parachute.

WHO PACKS YOUR PARACHUTE?

Charles Plumb was a U.S. Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combatmissions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejectedand parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in acommunist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessonslearned from that experience.

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man atanother table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters inVietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!""How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "I packedyour parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said,"I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If yourchute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about thatman. Plumb says, "I kept wonderingwhat he might have looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in theback, and bell-bottom trousers. I wonderhow many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how areyou?' or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot, and he was just asailor." Plumb thought of the manyhours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship,carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding inhis hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know. Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who'spacking your parachute?" Everyonehas someone that provides what he needs to make it through the day. Plumb also points out that he needed manykinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory - heneeded his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute,and his spiritual parachute. He calledon all these supports before reaching safety. Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what isreally important. We may fail to sayhello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful thathas happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for noreason.

As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people whopack your parachute. I am sending you this as my way of thanking you for yourpart in packing my parachute!!! And I hope you will send it on to thosewho have helped pack yours! Sometimes, we wonder why friends keepforwarding jokes to us without writing a word. Maybe this could explain: When you are verybusy, but still want to keep in touch, guess what you do? You forward jokes. And to let you know that you are stillremembered, you are still important, you are still loved, you are still caredfor, guess what you get - a forwarded joke. So next time, if you get a joke, don't think that you've been sent justanother forwarded joke, but that you've been thought of today and your friendon the other end of your computer wanted to send you a smile.

IT'S OFFICIAL (I've seen it with my own eyes)!

2011-11-22T14:55:00.001-05:00

My book is featured on page 57 of the Premier Issue of Cloth Paper Scissors "PAGES" magazine. Woo Hoo!!

The book featured is my SmARTaleck Studio book made from a vinyl store banner. I use it to sketch sculpting ideas and take notes in class. It's a little worse for wear - schlepping it back and forth to class (around water and clay) - but that's what it's for.

If you've come to my blog via my information in the magazine I'd like to expound on the book a little and provide a few more close up pictures.

Size: 11" high x 10" wide x 1" spine
Cover Material: Cut from a 8' x 4' store banner announcing a new line of men's underwear. Fortunate for me the majority of the wording was in caps and contained an "S".
Unique Applications: The front and back flaps (including the snap flap) were folded in and sewn to create a crisp edge . It also helped maintain the placement of the snap and flap. A piece of regular 1/2" wide black elastic was rivited in place to hold the vintage Jim Beam stir stick. "Smartaleck Studio was stamped on a vintage piece of handwriting paper, torn and the edges highlighted with ink. It was covered with a piece of flexible clear plastic (similar to tablecloth plastic) and sewn to the cover.
Binding: 1" x 11" piece of book board (chip board) glued in place in the center of the cover. Signatures were sewn with waxed linen thread thru the book board and the spine at the same time. The red beading is decorative. The round circle is also decorative and was burned in spine using a wood burning tool.
Signatures: 6 signatures of 6 sheets (12 pages) each. Various paper used; vintage home plan drawings cut to size, 12x12 paper folded at 9" - leaving a tab of 3" that other paper could be attached to later, large manilla envelope, drawing paper torn from a tablet and cut to size (9" x 10 1/2").

Woven Star from Vintage Book Pages

2011-11-17T17:39:00.000-05:00

Stars made from pages of books, magazines, cloth, ribbon - just use your imagination for an easy, fun, rewarding, project. Technique for "making stars come out at night" is towards the bottom of this post.

This is the first star I made using 1" x 8" strips cut from an old dictionary.

After that I reduced the length of the strips by 1" each time (stopping at 1" x 4") - discovering that the 1" x 6" size is the one I prefer (when complete, the finished size is 1" smaller than the length of the strips).
This is the last star I made (slightly angled so you see the dimension). I glued 3 sheets of dictionary paper together. When dry, the next day, I cut it in 1/4" strips and used hot glue to assemble, finishing up with a little tinsel glitter (couldn't help it). I prefer the glued paper over the folded method. The strips are crisp, strong and flexible, allowing for a stronger tension on the longer strips that create the space between the two sides. The downside to gluing pages vs folding them is that you have to wait until they're bone dry before cutting and assembling the star - plan ahead.

I discovered...
- the process of making the star is fun - from cutting and folding to glueing (my preference is dbl sided tape or dots of hot glue - white glue takes too long to set).
- when stacked the stars look like a tree (8 1/2" to top of tree). I found green photo corners in my stash and put them on the points of the star giving the tree more of a "tree" look (cut corners from discarded mail envelopes and metal corners (the tree would have to be going to someone special for me to use my metal corner stash) could be used too). Not my favorite but thought I'd share the idea. The topper is a vintage angel ornament.

I had glow sticks on my work table and grabbed them to make the stand. The sticks were glued in a scrap foam core base ( I didn't paint the sticks green or wrap them in green floral tape because I'm not sure if this is the final resting place for this group of "firsts"). The stars were fed onto the sticks thru the corner openings in the centers of the star. Because the sticks are flexible and the paper center weave doesn't align after being joined tension is created and the stars are positionable up and down the sticks.

The Possiblities Are Endless.
1. Use cardstock and cut 1/4" strips vs folding 1" strips down to a 1/4" size. Graphic 45 paper is an all time favorite of mine so I have scraps. This is a star made from my scraps, adding perfect pearls to both sides after it was finished. Love it.

2. I'm making a star for my relative from the Book of Genesis. If I glue the pages together vs folding I should be able to get readable lines on the strips.
3. My sister and brother-in-law get creative with the letter "Q" at our yearly Christmas Scrabble game. I'm making a star out of the "Q" section of the dictionary, gluing the "Q" scrabble tile to the middle of both sides of the star.

4. A group of these would make a beautiful wreath
5. Cut blank strips and write blessings, or wishes, or dreams on them. Then fold and assemble as usual.
6. Adopted a child? Copy the adoption papers, add some blessings - cut and make a special star with them.
6. Use fabric stiffener on scraps of cloth (baby clothes you know you need to declutter but can't get rid of the memory entirely), cut in 1/4" strips and assemble as usual.
7. Use fabirc stiffener on scraps of ribbon and assemble as usual.
8. Any color of glitter would only enhance the stars. I haven't gone there because I have enough glitter in my stash to shine up my whole neighborhood and once I start - I'm not sure I'd know when to stop.

You get the idea - this can be more than a paper star. It can be a memory.

TECHNIQUE using pages of a book:

Cut 12 strips of 1" wide x 6" long paper (if you're folding).

Fold in 1/2 lengthwise

Fold each side in 1/2 lengthwise towards the middle (the first fold)

Run double sided tape down the middle and press closed creating a 1/4" strip (white glue can be used).

I found the weaving process goes faster if you mark the center of the strips or work on a grid.

Weave two sets of 6 strips as shown and tack with glue (white glue, hot glue or dbl sided tape):
Using only the corner strips - twist the tips as shown below and glue (my preference is a dot of hot glue). You will have four corners and four strips in each set of 6 strips (one set each side of star).
Put each side of the star face to face with the curves toward each other - turn at 45 degrees so they "fit".

Put the long strip of one side thru the point on the oposite side of the star, joining the tip of the strip and the point of the star as shown in the color sections and glue. Don't cut the strip to fit. The added length of the strip is what pushes one side away from the other, creating demension.

Trim the strips at the point so you don't see an overlap.

Make a loop with a paper strip or ribbon and attach to how you want the star to hang.

This is a very quick project to play with - 15 to 20 minutes. Worth the effort I promise.

If you choose to make a star I'd love to see it.

I found this star on http://http//houserevivals.blogspot.com/2010/11/make-woven-star-from-vintage-book-pages.html . Go visit - there are more pictures and two more pattern tutorials (I prefer this one).

Last Year's Ornament

2011-11-15T22:05:00.005-05:00

I've been sooooo busy (Ha). Thought I'd share a past project with you while I get pictures together to post about my work with leather and my jewelry made with repurposed floppy disk parts.

I make my grandchildren a christmas ornament every year. This was last year's ornament for my grandson Martin who LOVES sharks.

Supplies:
Rubber shark (4" long) bought at Michael's
Santa hat taken from another treasure
Miniature lights, bell & fish hook (point filed down) from my "things to go with other things" box

This is cuter than it looks - I promise.

Ideas I haven't Shared Before

2011-10-31T14:42:00.013-04:00

I picked up the Flea Market Style magazine at the hardware store. Holy Cow! There were some really neat ideas in there.

Below are pictures of some of the things I've done with "other" things.
1958 Chevy fender wings ($1 ea at a car swap meet) = coat, bag hanger

Fireplace Mantel ($8 at garage sale) / sanded off some of the white paint = hallway table
Homemade nail boxes = wall art holding old metal printers type

Crystal Chandelier (crystals + brass dividers) = bathroom curtain

Unpainted wood storage box + glass top + 2 vintage glass blocks ($1 ea) + 4 vintage shooter marbles (priceless - from my Aunt Ginger) = end table (top lifts off for storage)

Contractor's wood column salvage + vintage prints = roller paper holder

Porsche 911 car grille = drawer pull

CD wall rack and empty CD cases = rubber stamp storage (each is labeled w/contents & a binder has the stamped image according to category)
Printers box = rubber stamp holder
Vintage Salad Dressing Bottles w/rack = bead & button storage

Bead & Small Things Storage

2011-10-30T21:17:00.000-04:00

Years ago I was lucky and acquired a 10 drawer flat file - 43" deep x 54" wide (actually, by now I have 2-10 drawer & 1-5 drawer flat files). The one below holds beads, jewelry in progress, findings, jewelry for repurposing and flat storage for prints and game boards (bottom two drawers).

This 5 drawer cabinet holds watches and parts, paints, drawing & writing materials and dremel bits...

A home improvement store was relocating. In their moving rubble I found long strips of packing material that, when repurposed, was great for bead storage. I made the bead trays out of recycled foam board to fit the cut packaging - 16x8. It's very convenient for color matching. This is one layer - another, thinner, layer sits on top.

During the holiday season the Dollar Stores have isles of Bath and Body lotions. I find that the plastic holders keeping these items upright on the shelves make great "small things" storage. It isn't unusual for me to straighten up the shelves on the bath and body isle at a local Dollar Store. I rearrange and fill in all the empty slots in the various trays so I could take the left over empty ones that would otherwise be thrown away. This is one of the clear plastic trays (12x13.5) in my watches drawer.

CD cases are great not only for storing rubber stamps but also for holding small, thin, flat items in place...

40 Already?

2011-10-28T15:00:00.000-04:00

My son's 40th Birthday is today, October 29th. Geeze - can he be that old? CAN I be that old?

Yep and yep.

At 40 he's a successful business man, husband and father of three. We're very proud of the man Michael has become.

I made Michael this sculpture to celebrate his 40th year. The shape resembles the body; Mike is comfortable in who he is - yet is aware of the need to grow. He is an outdoors water and earth guy - so the sculpture was painted a mixture of blue and green. Hemp (earth) is intertwined with plumbing copper mesh wire (a working mans tool) to make a braid that sits in the groove around the top of the sculpture. The copper tags signify milestones in his life; Birth - Small Metal Shamrock, 1971 penny, and tag imprinted with his Name; Military - Tag imprinted with "Seal Team 4" and year he entered the Navy; Marriage and Children - Tag imprinted with the year of his marriage and the year each of his children were born; 40th birthday - 2011 penny.

Approximately 7"h x 7"l x 3.5"w - It's amazing how much can be hidden in a small token of a Mother's pride and joy.

Weiner Dog - Metal Letter Stamp Storage

2011-10-24T12:02:00.008-04:00

I'm rearranging work areas in my Studio.I consolidated my metals work to one table, dedicating the other work table to sculpting. Moving things around usually means I come across something I haven't had my hands on in a little while and then I'm off.

Finding and reviewing some of the videos on www.beaducation.com got me pulling out my metal letter stamps and experimenting. Which lead to the following storage idea for my metal stamps...

Over a year ago I bought this wooden Wiener Dog crayon holder at a yard sale for $1.00. I've moved it from pillar to post ever since. It's 23" from nose to tail and 4" high at the head. There are 64 holes - two rows of 32. I have italic stamps in one row and standard in the other. Love this idea. It saves my husband from making me a holder, from me buying a holder made for metal stamps and, most importantly, I smile everytime I see it.

Talented

2011-10-21T18:05:00.000-04:00

My daughter Laura is a very talented artist, writer and singer. None of that is what she does to earn a living - but she can't get away from it.

She painted a picture (11 x 14) to accompany one of her "internalisms" and gave it to her Aunt in Florida. I scanned it before it got away...

The verse written above the flower is:

Sugar Water
I tried to catch a hummingbird once. I could never be sweet enough to hold his attention. Perhaps a flamingo would better appreciate my saltiness.

More of her internalisms can be read at http://www.internalisms.com.

Some of This and Some of That + Wire Storage

2011-10-20T17:56:00.000-04:00

Some of This: (Just an FYI - I rescued you from a rant, this post was a page. I let it marinate and cut it back to the important basics...)

- Searching the internet for a disc cutter I found beaducation.com. Folks, if you have a question about the proper use of a tool - they have the video to answer it, for free. I found Kate's video on torches at their blog blog.beaducation.com particulary helpful. They sell jewelry tools and supplies too.

- BTW a great blog on storage ideas, www.craftystorage.blogspot.com, is posting an idea of mine on October 21st.

- I just found a new magazine, Stitch-Craft-Create, that has cute ideas that can be used with other materials - like the huge box of leather samples I have. Glad I bought the premier issue, not sure it's an every month need.

Some of That:

- I made this storage caddy for my jewelry stringing wire. I cut an 8" length from a 3" cardboard tube, then cut 1/4 of the tube off of the side. Rubber bands around and in between the spools holds them apart. A large hair band goes around the tube length wise to keep them from falling out the ends. The side you can't see has holes drilled in the tube at each spool so I could feed the wire thru. Good idea in theory, but a pain if you're working fast.

100 Bottles of Beer on Wall, 100 Bottles ... you get it

2011-10-17T15:30:00.012-04:00

What a hoot! My friend and I spent more time visiting the WonderRoot Creative Reuse (wrcratl.wordpress.com/about) table than we did any other table at the recent Brookhaven Art Fair (a fabulous fair by the way).

WonderRoot Creative Reuse does many things regarding environmental awareness and arts and crafts in the community but what interested me at the time was that they take new and/or used art supplies and resell them at a huge discount (naturally, they're used ;) I'll be more inclined to let my stuff go if it's going to a place like this.

I started picking out specific beer bottle caps (25 cents a scoop) and gave up and just bought the whole container. Now that I've experimented with them (see bracelet below) I can donate them back for resale. How cool is that?!

Bracelet: 1) Cut ribbed rim from the cap as well as the plastic backing from underneath the caps 2) Trim the cap to a round circle 3) Using a dapper, dome the caps 4) Punch or drill a small hole on each side and dap again 5) Sand the rim of the domed cap and the edges of the newly drilled hole to eliminate sharp edges 6) Wash 7) Assemble caps using pre-purchased rings or wire them to together 7) Put a toggle on last and WA LA, the lightest bracelet you'll ever wear.
The first cap I picked out to use on the bracelet was from Magic Hat beer (due to migraines I seldom drink, I never heard of it before). Inside each cap is a different saying. This one said "always be kind to a creative mind". Destiny - I tell ya. I'm going to dome that one inside out.

Now I get that someone out there is thinking who in the world would wear something like that (I probably would have thought that). But folks - it's really, really, cute.

I'll make a video demonstrating how to make the bracelet if anyone's interested.

Fall is in the air - Atlanta is breathtakingly beautiful.

Vintage Post Card

2011-10-09T10:03:00.006-04:00

Looking for something else I came across a post card I actually bought for more than 50 cents because it was unique.

Living Pictures Series Number 212 / Copyrighted 1912 by J.J. Marks, N.Y.

Almost 100 years old. I hope I look that good when I'm 100.

"My Heart" turned 60 today. I remember meeting him 33 years ago, like it was yesterday... my girlfriend called him over to meet me. Coming towards me was a tall handsome guy wearing a tailored shirt and tailored slacks (the shirt was a brown striped pattern, the slacks were solid dark brown), dark brown hair and beard, with sea blue eyes. I've been blessed. He's still wonderful and still the most handsome man I know.

I haven't been idle... +one

2011-10-07T15:44:00.015-04:00

Sculpting class started the Tuesday after we got back from vacation.

I started a sculpture AND made a vase. Remember the longest yard sale and how we only got to visit a few sales before it rained so hard I was expecting the ARK to float up? Well, the long story is...my friend, knowing I'm a treasure hunter (not the financial rewards kind of treasure) said she'd like a wall pocket if I came across one in a yard sale (wall pockets are usually ceramic, hang on the wall and can hold flowers).

I never see wall pockets at yard sales. The second sale we went to during the shortest, longest yard sale, had a few wall pockets for ONLY $5. I grabbed the Sunflower with a Bird wall pocket and thought - Whoo Hoo for me. When I got home I was real disappointed to notice a chip on the back. I put it with the rest of my "things to go with other things" in the garage.

Back to sculpting - on the first day of class I began a head sculpture. I brought the head home and had it in my hand walking around my garage when it connected to the wall pocket (yes, it "connected"). Wa La! The title of this sculpture is Bird Watcher in Camouflage. The head and birds are sculpted onto the top of the $5 wall pocket. She wears a sculpted cap with sculpted flowers and seeds on it. A disaster response friend sent me some antique barbed wire from Texas that will be shaped into a nest holding three bird eggs to sit on top of her head. After it's fired the cap will get other bits and pieces as well as a leather tie under her chin.
The picture has a piece of plastic between the head and the wall pocket so it won't stick until after it's fired and painted.

ANOTHER COOL THING: A leather saleswoman gave me some leather samples (3" x 3" & 5" x 5") yesterday in exchange for making some "clever" things for her out of some of them. So I'm thinking jewelry. But that's another blog.

Needing to get out in the beautiful Atlanta weather today I went looking for a leather paring knife. Not finding it in the usual places I went to one of my favorite "walking around" stores, Rockler Woodworking. I didn't find the paring knife there either - BUT LOOK WHAT I DID FIND... a Banksia Pod.

Before altering it's approximately 8" long. I'm thinking it looks like a lot of talking mouths. Sculpt a face on the front and have the pod be the voices in our heads from the back? What do you think?

OH MY Goodness - did you know there's a store JUST for SPICES? Next to Rockler in Sandy Springs is a new store called Penzey's Spices. I walked every isle. It is gorgeous! I could just envision me cooking. I'm a mixed media cook. Thankfully - it was just a vision and went away as soon as I left the store, empty handed.

Have a fabulous weekend.

Europe - A Long Way to Travel for a "Self Discovery"

2011-09-26T08:13:00.011-04:00

We're back from Germany and Italy and I discovered something I thought I knew about myself but didn't want to admit that what I knew and was hoping to change - was irreversible...

I don't journal. One of my Mother's favorite sayings to us girls (there were 5 of us) was "Buy you books and buy you books - all you do is eat the covers". A lot of her favorite sayings pop up willy nilly.

I'm so busy looking and thinking that I can't make myself sit for any length of time and jot down a full thought. My thoughts are pages long and I don't have the patience to sit through me writing them down. I know, time to reach for the straight jacket (which reminds me I should probably sculpt a self-portrait in a straight jacket made out of ephemera-junk).

This is a picture of my journaling (I'm still searching backs of receipts for more)...

First Impressions:
Germany - (beautiful country - way cool and efficient Train System). When we started traveling in Germany (we traveled by train or on foot (3-5 miles a day) everywhere) I noticed that the Graffiti Artists were awesome and usually confined to the flat concrete walls along the tracks or under bridges (I didn't see much, if any, graffiti in the towns we visited). Visually, not being able to read German, I didn't see anything that looked angry. All the graffiti was complete - usually with a background color and then words, few pictures, painted on top. Their technique and use of color was terrific. On our third day in Germany I had to ask myself if I would think the Graffiti was so beautiful if it lined the Amtrack line around Atlanta. I'm not sure - but it sure was pretty.

Italy - (we traveled mostly by car). They didn't seem to have Graffiti Artists. They had taggers, for most of what I saw and couldn't read, that appeared to be angry. It wasn't pictorial - it was written/scribbled on any flat surface - wall, door, post, etc, in and around the Cities we visited. A shame really, because Italy was beautiful. It was like a beautiful woman in a red dress - you throw a pie in her face and all you see is pie. She's still beautiful and she's still in a red dress - but all you see is pie.

I gained 5 pounds and my husband lost 2. We were like Siamese Twins - we did everything together - it ain't fair.

Ooooo La La - Pink Leather!

2011-09-08T21:08:00.011-04:00

Sorry to disappoint - I'm too boring for pink leather to be associated with anything other than an art item. LOL.

We leave for Germany and Italy tomorrow. I woke up yesterday morning with the idea for my travel journal - the ideas come, when the ideas come.

Cover: Pink Leather - a remnant purchased by the pound (cheap) at Earth Guild in Asheville, NC., cut to fit. The biggest area of the piece of leather was smaller than I needed so I pieced the front pocket sewing it to the largest piece of leather with a unique stitch that uses two needles, creating a square knot as you stitch. The piece of leather of attached to the larger piece to add width and a flap - pieced together with grommets. I'll decide on the closure when I get home. All leather was cut with a deckle edged rotary cutter.

Binding: I started with a map of Atlanta - our starting place tomorrow. The map was folded and glued in 1/4" mountains and valleys. It was the same map I used 9 years ago when my favorite daughter, Laura, was helping me find a house here after being transferred from Tallahassee. It reminded me of her extreme patience with an overly optimistic Mother who just knew the expensive neighborhood she was looking in had to have a house in her price range. Too funny...now.

Pages: I had a few 18 x 24 sheets of white mixed media paper, cut them into 14 - 9 x 8 sheets (I'm taking water soluable crayons with me). Each page was attached to one of the mountain folds. There is a spare mountain fold between each page to attach mementos of the trip.

Cover: The cover is book board covered with a travel related paper, glued to the map binding flap. The front cover slips into the front pocket of the leather.

Get Lost! + Wreath made from Pages of a Book

2011-09-03T18:54:00.012-04:00

Get Lost! I did. Actually I've been lost every spare minute, last night and today, since my friend suggested I log on to Pinterest to look at something (actually I stole some minutes that weren't spare and gave them to the spare pile)...

http://www.pinterest.com

Pinterest is a virtual Pinboard where people collect and post things they like. For example I could like art, mixed media, hummingbirds and all things red. I would create a "board" for each interest and when I found something on a website I liked or took a picture or made something I wanted to share - I would copy and post it to my respective board (including the original link). It would show up on the home page. If anyone looking at the home page that day liked what they saw they could comment and/or post (repin) a copy of my post to their board.

I've come across some amazing art, journals, crafts, design ideas and travel suggestions. If interested you can follow the post to the originator as I did below when I saw a wreath made out of the pages of a book and wanted to see a better picture and hopefully see the instructions (The Idea Room site has some other great ideas I wouldn't have discovered if not for perusing Pinterest). I'm not really a wreath person (outside of a Christmas wreath) but anybody that knows me knows I have an old book or 300 ;) This wreath could be revised by highlighting the paper with red paint and adding ornaments. OR purple paint and Mardi Gras Beads...I'm just sayin.

http://www.theidearoom.net/2010/03/book-wreath.html

There's a lot more to the site than I've mentioned here - go see.

Have fun.
Janet
BTW: The photos I include on my blog are photos I've taken. Use at will.

Boxes of Cards

2011-09-02T10:49:00.023-04:00

Every year around this time, after a visit to Impressive Ideas in Roswell, I come away with grand ideas about making my Christmas cards. Then Christmas comes at the speed of sound and I wind up purchasing boxed cards. Because I can't decide on the design I purchase a box each of two or three different designs - leaving multiples of the same card left over after the holidays.

My "stash" of cards have been on the "fly-be free" pile only to be pulled back in again - I'm visually invested.

At any rate - I HAVE to declutter. As I was putting a stack of multiple cards BACK in the "fly-be free" pile I remembered a card I saw in a book while strolling the isles at Hobby Lobby. The design took multiple copies of the same paper and stacked them using Nestibilities.

Here's my version, using 6 of the same Christmas card - I haven't glued the components together yet but you get the idea. Each of the inner layers were cut, embossed, highlighted with a Copic Marker and have a strip of thick chip board separating them.

Now I can let the other styles of remaining cards "fly-be free". Been there - don't need to go there again.

Ain't life grand?

TGIF

2011-09-02T08:36:00.018-04:00

My computer has been frozen! It's the most valid excuse I have for sitting on my hands ;)

A couple of thoughts to share as I maneuvered my way around life this week.....

Cloth Paper Scissors Artisan 2012: It doesn't matter if you like, dislike or are ambivalent about this magazine and it's online presence. You would be doing your artistic side a huge favor by viewing the photos of art and crafts submitted by Artists for consideration as CPS Artisan 2012. A good many of them are like nothing you've seen in recent magazines. If you lean to one genre out of the five you can choose just that category to view (although there are a daunting 1,812 entries - they're on only 63 pages). The books? Holy Cow!! http://www.clothpaperscissors.com/media/20/default.aspx

Hobby Lobby: Roswell, Georgia. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you - for having wide isles and a clean store. It allows a wanderer like me to take my time browsing, soaking in all the new products to select my one impulse buy (yep, just one this week - I'm retired now) - you're cheap therapy.

Borders Books: Last remaining days... My section of their store (previous post) has dwindled to the point my services as caretaker are no longer needed. However their bargain books were 50% off on Wednesday - 60% today. Eureka! I found a $3.99 bargain book (12" x 10") that had a removable skeleton in it - on sale for $2.00. Thinking how many things I could make out of one body ( a necklace for my Chiropractor for one) - not to mention repurposing the book itself - I bought four of them ;) This is a picture of the book held up to a window so you can see that the center holding the skeleton is see-thru. The pages are heavy book board and the various body parts come apart as you turn the pages. With the body removed and the pages covered the see-thru body window could serve as a memory frame. Way, way, cool.

Ignorance Is Not Bliss: I bought a vintage puzzle of the United States (each piece being a State) for $1 thinking to use it for parts. For lack of another focus I began putting it together yesterday only to realize how ignorant I am of where ALL of the States are located in relation to one another. In my defense - there was a state missing - although a small one. I'm going to continue taking it apart and putting it back together until I can assemble it without hesitation. If you haven't seen the PBS Special "John Adams" you need to rent it. What our founding fathers sacrificed to create this great Country is truly amazing and inspiring.

Lastly - I'm thankful for my family, friends and online community. They're creative and insightful - they keep me from living in a vacuum.

The Longest Yard Sale

2011-08-27T20:00:00.012-04:00

At the beginning of August our vacation started in Savannah, GA. From there we went to Asheville, NC to visit some awesome galleries and art studios and then on to Tennessee where we picked up the yard sale trail.

The first couple of sales we went to were side by side. We didn't find anything. The weather looked like it wasn't going to cooperate so we by passed a couple sales and stopped at what looked like a very interesting mix of items. Within 30 minutes the sky opened up. Holy Cow!!! I haven't been in that much steady rain in long time. Luckily for me Susi, the woman holding the yard sale, was very interesting and forthcoming with information about all kinds of things. She and I struck up a conversation that kept me there for over an hour. She not only had things under tents but she also had many, many, wonderful things in a building (what better way to pass away time in the rain than in a building full of the STUFF). After we left Susie's we passed only blue tarped sales - very sad for the folks that put so much time and effort into preparing for the sale. We were in a remote location so we were thrilled to find a FABULOUS restaurant- Moonlight Bistro in Mentone, Alabama - we had a fried catfish sandwiches. After that there was nothing for us to do but drive on home. I have Susie's address logged in my car's GPS for next year ;)

These are my treasures:
An old wooden drawer with old erector set parts. Love, love the wheels. I insisted Susie NOT clean them up. I spent more than I usually would - $20.
This is an old winder thing. It attaches to a bench and spins the spool. Originally it probably wound wire - $10. I just needed it.

This is a silver plated vase - $2. I plan on making a head and torso to fit the top. The spoon is metal ware 25 cents. Next to that are two fishing lures - $1 ea.

These are sooooo cool. They're antique embroidery stamps. The metal is standing on end on the wood stamp and makes a fine line when stamped.

Way cool old clock that could become a head. The face is bright gold is in perfect condition and could be used elsewhere - $1. Old collander - a hat - $1. Cigarette cards - FREE and two more old fishing lures. EUREKA!

I got three old negatives on glass for $2.50 ea. This is a baby in an elaborate wicker carriage.

This was a cool decanter that I could use the head for something else and a hand made, from a tree, wooden box with drawers - looks like an owl that needs a body. The old scraper, well that's yet to be dertermined

I'm a Mess (I know you're surprised)

2011-08-27T19:46:00.002-04:00

Lesson for Today... PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO ALL SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS AND ADDRESSES.

Cloth Paper Scizzors not only puts out a quality magazine - it has a quality website and associated blogs.

They put a notice in their magazine for their 2012 Artisan Search. Dang if I didn't vasilate between applying and not applying, applying, not applying. They require three submissions for any one category you want to be considered for; Mixed-media Stitch, Art Journaling and Bookmaking, Printmaking and Surface Design, Mixed-media Jewelry, and Collage and Assemblage. If selected your pieces need to be sent to them to be held for one year.

Yikes - one year. I give most of the things I make away. Then, you SHOULD SEE the submissions - a little intimadating http://www.clothpaperscissors.com/media/20/default.aspx

At any rate I haven't been feeling well this past week and didn't get my submission together until this morning and beat feet to get the pictures printed and on to Fed Ex to meet their Monday deadline. The address did not register with me. It was a PO Box and Fed Ex doesn't deliver to PO Boxes. We scrambled to the Post Office but I'm not sure if we made it on time. Lesson learned.

If you're curious, I uploaded my submissions to the Mixed-media Jewelry, Collage and Assemblage and the Journaling and Bookmaking categories under smARTaleck Studios.

Easy Come - Not So Easy Go...

2011-08-16T22:32:00.003-04:00

This is a book I made using Alisa Golden's book as a reference.

Borders has been my Go-To book store. I haven't subscribed to magazines because I like to go to the book store, buy my magazine and browse. They're closing ALL of their stores. It's sad to hear of any business that has to close - but I had a special connection with Borders.

I went there today to walk around (it's meditative for me). As I rounded the corner to the Art/Craft/Sewing/Collectibles section I immediately said to the gentleman standing there "it looks like a bomb hit here". He said "you should have seen it yesterday". Disrespectful of a business and it's employees on their way out - not right. That ranks up there with those folks that read magazaines like they're at home and don't put them back where they got them.

Call me crazy, but I wasn't in a hurry so I took some time to straighten up "My" section of Borders. Granted it won't be there for much longer but it should be presentable so folks like me can find an impulse buy in a hurry (I may go back in the morning to straighten up the photography section ;)

Speaking of impulse buys, while straightening up My area I found books I had never seen before. I found, and bought, a book on making wire bugs, a book on cold connections for metal jewelry and a book on button craft (this book was $1.39 for cripes sake - less than the Sunday paper).

Good News! Cloth Paper Scissors is publishing a special issue on art journaling and bookmaking. This is the announcement on their blog... (BTW: I sent a book to them that may be published in this issue).

Cloth Paper Scissors PAGES, our new special issue on art journaling and bookmaking arrives in stores on November 22nd (Yes, that’s technically winter but who’s counting?) This issue is jam packed with great bookbinding, art journaling, lettering, and inspirational articles that will have you running to your studio to grab your supplies.

Wait til you see what I found at the Nation's longest yard sale.

Red Chair Thoughts

2011-07-23T23:43:00.006-04:00

Finally! I hit my weight loss goal of 40lbs! It took me a year and a half utilizing the Weight Watchers program - but I did it.

I'm more aware of some odd things... my watch, once snug on my wrist, hangs down 1/2" away from the wrist. Last week I noticed the feeling of the seatbelt in my car against my collar bone. I can feel my butt bone on a wooden chair. I feel light and breezy when I walk. When I clasp my hands together - there's room between my fingers. I'm looking forward to the day when my current weight is normal - not the result of an event.

Losing weight has been a focus of mine for 18 months. I had my weight loss planned out to the week. I was going to reach goal the first week in January 2011. However, since last September I lost my job of 25 years, my Mother of 59 years, my Aunt of 50 years and I had Melanoma removed from my arm.

My "Aha" moment ... what I eat is one of the only things I have complete control over.

Whether or not I lost the weight - it would still be 18 months later. I'm glad I made it a priority NOW. I'm glad I'll be going into my 60's (mid-life for me) without the extra baggage and health risks.

I'm blessed and thankful for my family, friends and a progam that always supported me.

Once In A Lifetime Opportunity

2011-07-22T08:25:00.014-04:00

About four years ago I agreed to be mobilized from Atlanta to the Gulf of Mississippi to support a disaster housing project related to the Katrina Disaster that devastated the Coast. I had never been to Mississippi before. Katrina was still a vivid memory when I arrived and it's Citizens were reeling from loss of life, jobs, homes and possessions. Over the three years I worked on the project I watched as people began to deal with their losses. I learned more about the people of Mississippi at garage sales and flea markets than I could have at a town meeting. People were open and sharing about their experiences - reliving the disaster and relating to the articles that they were, at that moment, ready to let go of and move on. I loved, and miss, the people on the Gulf Coast.

Setting up a project office in a town short on roof space and developing a project from the ground up was a tremendous challenge. I created this memory box as a parting gift for the dedicated project manager who left the project a year and a half after getting it up and operating (her picture is in the upper left hand corner).

Supplies: 16" square Memory Box purchased from Michaels (sanded) /hinged on the side, closes with magnets. Photo "firsts", paper, glue, found and flea market items.

The 1/2" scale guy in a bathing suit in front of the oyster shell in the corner cracks me up!

At the bottom of the box is a slat of siding. Underneath that hangs a vintage, metal, Kodak canister. Glued on top of the canister lid is a picture of Hurricane Katrina with 1/8" people twirling around. The lid comes off and inside are various project photos.

Backing Up to Regroup

2011-07-20T19:09:00.008-04:00

My wonderful husband has been very patient while I've immersed myself in metal. I've put my self-imposed Metal Medley (from Bonnie's Best Art Tools) challenge aside for a little bit.
I needed to make time to help him plan our trip in September to Germany and Italy.

OK - Did That.

NOW - on to making a travel journal utilizing a reversible (brown/black) leather purse that belonged to my grandmother. I'm going to cut out the center and sides and arrange it (this is going to take some serious "car" time) so I can insert and remove travel journals as well as create a place to store a couple of colored pencils and an eraser.

I'll keep you posted.

PS: Some of my inspirations come to me while I'm in the car - hence "Car" time. I don't listen to the radio because the ideas don't come if they have to be heard over noise. That's all I'm gonna say about that - just thought I'd share ;)

C&W Design and Technical Challenges

2011-07-19T21:00:00.001-04:00

You can see why I posted these design and technical notes separate from the finished project.

Design: I knew I wanted to put legs on the ATC can - that's it - I wasn't sure where I was going from there.
Design thoughts: The legs had to have flat feet. Then tall legs or short legs? From there it was a crap shoot (so to speak). Sometime during the design process - putting things on and taking them off, the purpose (or story) of the ATC tin came to mind and it developed from there.

Technical: The whole assemblage started with the legs, developing as it progressed. I had to keep in mind the process of attachments. Meaning, if I attached the legs to the can as soon as I had finished drawing on them - would they be in the way of any other design elements I decided to attach?

NOTES:
- Flax Seeds are beautiful shades of brown. I didn't realize how pretty they were until I found them in the grocery store while looking for ginger. Now I have a bag of seeds I need to find a project for.
- A Needle Tool is an indispensable tool in mixed media.
- For A Good Time play with Copic Markers in their air sprayer. Side Note: Impressive Ideas in Roswell, GA has the best price on Copic Markers.
- Old sticks of Hot Glue found at garage sales are not worth the money - even free. The strings will drive you to drink.
- Peat Moss is messy but a good cover. The dirt is useful too.
- Don't neglect the inside of the ATC Tin. Use a metal file to remove any metal burs created by cutting or drilling into the tin. Cover the screws on the inside top and bottom of the tin with thin card board covered with paper. Use a piece of grey or silver duct tape to cover the ends of the wire holding the hands in place (too bulky to cover with card board).

- Patience is required if you're going to use resin. If your project is on a fast track - choose another option.
- Mixed Media - know when to stop. This is a hard one for me.

On the mark, get set, go!
Legs (I started from the bottom up): ** I had two pair to choose from (dolls I bought at a thrift store for $2). I was going with the tall ones at first and with a whole different look - but decided on the short tubby ones because they had more of a whimsical look to them and better toes. They also had a substantial flange on the top that could be used to attach them to the can.
** I wanted to Zentangle roots on the legs but discovered the black fine line Copic, Prismacolor and even fine Sharpie markers bled a little on the plastic. I probably could have avoided this had I sprayed a fixative on the vinyl rubber legs first. However, the color Copic Markers worked like a charm. So I drew my design on with a pencil and filled in with the markers. Using the Copic Sprayer, the toes were decorated and the excessively bright flesh color was toned down by spraying on Copic Markers in greens and browns. What a hoot - here's where I needed to practice restraint!
** The legs were filled with old lead fishing sinkers. The weights allow for the tin to remain standing with the lid open.
** After the slot in the tin was cut out and the tin was decorated with paint and tree bark the legs were attached by making holes in the bottom of the can and inserting screws from the inside of the can into the flange of the legs.
** It took some time to decide how to position the legs...side by side, straight forward - or angled with an attitude. I chose attitude.

ATC Tin:** Hmmmm - I thought about attaching paper, paper with words, verses, poems, etc. - but that's not me.
** I remembered that I had a gallon sized bag of tree bark (no thicker than 2-3 sheets of paper) in my stash. Someone at a yard sale noticed I was interested in it and gave it to me, fairly certain no one else would be interested ;) Although the tree bark was pliable enough to be put on in one piece I decided it was more visually appealing to be glued on in pieces. It was glued on using Ultimate Glue, sprayed with Copic Markers to enhance the depth and a fixative to set the colors.
** The verse was handwritten on paper, cut to size, sprayed with Copic Markers and held in place with double sided tape.
** The slot in the back was cut using a dremel - but I think a very sharp exacto knife (and extreme care) would also work. After tree bark was put on the tin the opening was covered using a metal frame.
** Most of the Peat Moss was glued using a glue gun.

Hands:** Again I had two pair to choose from. The tubby hands were too comical. The thinner, longer, hands had more delicate fingers but the arms were too long so I cut them down.
** I wanted the arms to look like they were part of the tree/tin so the tops of the arms were cut away leaving the hands intact.
** How to attach them to the tin so they wouldn't come loose was the challenge. As I cut the arm down I left enough on each side to fold over, attached with eyelets, creating a back. Both arms were also attached with long eyelets. Note: I get my long eyelets from Bonnie's Best Art Tools - they're metal, not aluminum and never split.
** The hands were sprayed as the legs were. Two holes were made in the body and the hands were attached using 16 gauge wire. Writing on top of wet sprayed Copic Markers with Copic Markers gives a unique look. The color moves out to the sides - fun.
** Twigs were cut to fit inside the arms. Peat Moss and associated dirt were used to cover exposed areas.
** The bird sits in a seed pod I found on vacation a gazillion years ago.
Head:

* The circle around the face is a, vintage projector lens ring (without a lens). It was broken off and, due to age, was a little fragile. A notch was made in the back to assist in attaching it to the bottom of the tea strainer.
** I made several impressions of a face stamp (sorry no name on the stamp) on a piece of plain white paper then copied it on beige card stock, reducing the size.
** The images were colored using colored pencils - I used the best one for the head. NOTE: I realized after the Ice Resin was poured that the colors should have been more vivid to show thru the resin.
** The face was sandwiched between two pieces of clear packing tape to prevent the ICE Resin from soaking into the paper and then inserted in the back of the frame. ICE Resin was poured over the face.
** This is the first time I've used ICE Resin. I chose ICE Resin because I thought it would "dome" giving the face some dimension - it didn't - but maybe I needed to add a second pouring after the first had dried. As I used it, I'm not sure it's really any different from Easy Cast. Easy Cast you can get just about anywhere, using coupons. I found ICE Resin by chance at Hobby Lobby for $11.99 for a 30ml dispenser. But then I haven't used resin enough to be an experienced judge.
** I accidentally touched the face before it had set up - therefore Peat Moss and Flax Seeds were used to enhance her face ;)
** After attaching the Tea Strainer to the head a circle of Tree Bark was cut to cover the card board and a vintage flower spray was glued on around the neck.
TEA STRAINER:
CAP with holes:** A nest was made of 12g wire and attached to the head with 24g wire.
** 30g wire was used to thread in and out of the holes, adding glass seed beads and glass leaf shaped beads as I went along.
** The sides were notched to fit over the rim of the head frame. Two square bolts were glued on top of the frame, just inside the cap, with E6000 glue to give the cap a better foundation when glued.

Bottom of Strainer: ** A hole was drilled (although a punch could be used) in the top of the ATC Tin and the top of the bottom of the tea strainer.
** A bolt was inserted from the inside of the ATC lid up thru the top of the Tea Strainer and held in place with a nut.
** The notched frame was put against the bolt, on top of the nut and another nut added on top of the frame - then glued with E6000 glue.
** Flax seeds were glued one by one around the bottom of the strainer using Ultimate Glue.

All body parts, with the exception of the head and hat - were sprayed with a fixative.

Pack Up Your Cares and Woes...

2011-07-18T14:30:00.008-04:00

Metal Medley Challenge #5

Cares and Woes (C&W for short) is 12" tall and is for the person who jots things down on scraps of paper. For those of us that don't journal this is a place to drop notes, thoughts and concerns. There's a slot in the back of the body for the scraps of paper. The lid hinges open so the scraps can be retrieved and the cares and woes set free.

Medley Supplies: ATC Tin, Metal Frame, Eyelets
Supplies from my Stash: Doll parts/Hands and Flat Feet, Vintage Projector Lens Holder (no lens), Tea Strainer, Tree Bark, Peat Moss, Flax Seeds, Twigs, Seed Pod, Beads, 30g and 18g Wire, Birds, Vintage Flowers, Ice Resin, Copic Markers, Rubber Stamp,Colored Pencils, Lead Sinkers, Nuts and Bolts, Tool - lots of tools.

Verse: Change your thoughts and you change the world.

The top of her arms were cut away. Twigs and moss were put in place to give the appearance that her arms were a part of her body/tree.

Often, when I see someones work I wonder how they got "that stuck to that"?

There were some design and technical challenges with C&W that I'll cover in the next post. I took some pictures of the process and what parts looked like before they were covered up. Of course if you have any questions shoot me an email.

We Interupt This Broadcast...

2011-07-16T09:30:00.000-04:00

Metal Medley challenge #5 has created a firestorm of possibilities - I thought I had the basics pulled from my stash . . .

- but me, myself and/or I had ideas floating to surface as we woke up this morning.

We're thinking of adding green beads, ice resin, tree bark, copic markers - aw geeze! this is going to take a day or two - pardon me while I get my straight jacket ready ;)

I know what you're thinking, been there, seen that. Come back you may be surprised (I'm sure we will).

Happy Saturday!!

While I'm on a "Roll" - Pun Intended

2011-07-14T23:15:00.002-04:00

I recently started using the Scor-Tape. I like it a lot. What I don't like is that I have to have two hands free to use it (just a reason to build something).

Desire: Design a box that would hold all of the various size rolls of Scor Tape I use that would let them roll freely and be cut at the box.
Solutions:
a. Use the plastic foil tape holder used by stained glass makers. I have one and the tape rolls out of the holder every time you pull it (granted it's an older holder).
b. Use a 5" round can, cut a slit in the side for the tape to roll out. The sharpness of the cut in the tin would cut the tape - but then the tape would have a tendency to slide back in the can. Plus I'd want it to stand up on the table and I'd have to put feet on it so it wouldn't roll (and I didn't have one in my stash).
c. Use a 5" sq box in the same manner as the can. Build an interior structure that would allow the rolls to roll separately and freely - attach a used tin foil cutter to the outside to tear the tape. I had a box but didn't feel like messing with it. Item "d" gave me the opportunity to cut FOAM CORE.

I CHOSE d: Repurpose a clear acrylic utensil holder (I already had one in my stash). Empty a round Vigro bread crumb box that's the same dimension as the interior of the tape rolls, cut it down to the width of one of the sections in the holder. Cut foam core for the sides for the bread crumb box to sit on and holds the tapes above the bottom of the holder. Cut foam core sections so the various sizes remain apart. Attach a used tin foil cutter to the front.

This is a picture of the cutter just placed on the holder to see if it would work. I discovered that the tape would tear easier if the rolls were rolling accross the cutter coming up from the bottom vs rolling out from the top down accross the cutter. The cutter has since been cut to size and attached to the holder.

The other sections of the holder will house my two larger rolls of paper hinge tape that come with their own boxes and cutters.

Metal Medley #4

2011-07-14T23:00:00.000-04:00

I knew right away what I was going to use the title plates for. Many years ago I made a foam core cabinet for melmine dessert trays I found at a garage sale (when I was young - they used these trays in our cafeteria - so I know they're vintage). I glued wooden beads to the front of the trays, glued a bead in the hole for decoration and used the trays to hold miscellaneous doo dads.

It's been my intention for awhile to get more "stuff" out of my way on the paper table (where the "love of my craft life" lives - my Genesis paper trimmer). So I designed this cabinet and made it out of repurposed, laminated, black foam core. I worked for an engineering firm and frequently rescued presentations from being discarded - a design of the Florida Turnpike is on the underside pieces of this cabinet. Black laminated foam core is my favorite to work with. It's more dense, cuts easier and sharper.

The new cabinet is 30" wide x 7" high x 5 1/2" deep. It holds the dessert trays, thin plastic trays I place small items on when I'm working on a project and paper trays I made out of 8"x6" thin chip board - covered with decorative paper and assembled with eyelets.
Supples from Medley: Name plates and eyelets
Supplies from my stash: Foam core, chip board, decorative paper.

Foam Core design note: I use a Rabbet Cutter on the ends that need to be glued together for corners. It provides a great neat, sharp, join forming perfect 90 degree corners.

Something Old - Something New

2011-07-13T23:00:00.002-04:00

While I'm working on Metal Medley challenge item #4 I thought I'd share a pin I made and the story behind it (sorry - but everything I do has a story).

My Dad was 17 when he enlisted in the Navy (he lied about his age). During WWII he was in the gun turret on board an escort ship when it was hit. He was wounded, patched up and went back for duty. This second ship was hit and again he was wounded - but this time he was in and out of hospitals for a year trying to get a crushed ankle mended.

I remember the day my sister Jean and I were in his basement hobby room in Florida (he used to facet stones and make jewelry before his hands began to shake). He opened the bottom drawer of his table and took out two military boxes - each containing a Purple Heart pin. He said to me "here take these and do something with them - they're not doing any good sitting in the bottom of my drawer". His attitude was one of the pins not being important. I later found out that he had had them gold plated. Hmmmmm - did I mention my Dad is a fraud ;) I had never seen a Purple Heart up close and was honored that he gave them to me.

I used to wear business suits and my focus at that time was beading and making jewelry. I disassembled the Purple Heart and sewed it to the foundation. Unobtrusive embellishments were glued on and beading was added (approx size 2" top to tip of heart x 2 1/4" wide). The Purple Heart can be extracted from the foundation and reassembled to it's original state without any damage or change (it sits, not glued, in the wire/chain cradle).

The reactions at that time to my wearing this pin were interesting. From "it's wonderful - I've never seen a Purple Heart up close" to "how do you feel wearing a Purple Heart you didn't earn". Honestly, I was proud to wear my Father's pin - it gave me an opportunity to talk about it and tell folks his experiences during the War. I wouldn't wear it now - there are a lot more current day examples of the wounded with Purple Hearts that I think this Country is well aware of what a Purple Heart looks like and what it represents. This pin is going in my Dad's memory box along side a picture of him in his Cracker Jacks (I wore them when I was in the Navy too).

Calendar

2011-07-12T23:30:00.000-04:00

Even though I don't write down appointments or many other dates that I need to remember - I love calendars. There are so many design opportunities with calendars.

Soooo - Surprise! Item #2 of my self imposed Medley challenge was a 7 1/2" x 5" calendar.

My thought was that with the stand being able to fold flat - it would fit in a small manila envelope and could be sent as a Christmas Card.

Jan through Jun flipped around to show Jul through Dec.

Supplies from the Medley: Six round paper clips, 4 metal corners, a large hinge and 4 eyelets.

Supplies from my Stash: 2 sheets of 12 x 12 thin ply chip board, 3 sheets of Graphic 45 paper for the calendar pages, 6 sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 plain white card stock for the calendar months; 3 sheets black card stock, double sided tape, distress inks and a black Copic marker.

Items of interest:
Stand: Each side of the stand is two pieces of chip board cut at the same time and glued together. I inserted the hinge between the two pieces, subsequently gluing it in place in at the same time. After I glued the paper on the front and back fo the stand I set eyelets in the hinge for stability. Yes, this was overkill - but I got it in my mind that hiding the hinges would help the stand fold flat and I couldn't let it go until I'd done it. I later muted the colors of the paper on the stand with distress inks and spraying Copic marker E34.

Calendar Months: There are 3 two-sided sheets of Graphic 45 paper cut to size for the months. When Jun is done - you flip the stack around and Jul begins. The months were created in excel (every other day was lightly highlighted) and printed on white card stock. They were backed with black card stock before adhering to the background paper. Every other month shows the back of the Graphic 45 paper - so pictures were cut out of the scraps and glued on for accents.

Monthly Tabs: Any number of items could have been used to designate the months - but I wanted to see what I could use from the Metal Medley so I used the round paper clips. Two pieces of scrap paper, glued only at the very top, were inserted in the paper clip, glued in place and cut around the clip. Strips of blank paper, distressed on the edges, were stamped with the months and glued across the paper circles, under the clips. Because the paper circle inserts were only glued at the very top the bottom could be slipped over the background card - leaving a small area available to be glued to front and back of the calendar page, keeping the tab in place.

That's it. That's all the fun I had.

Faux Wire Wrapped Necklace

2011-07-11T23:00:00.002-04:00

OK - I'm posting finished item #3 in front of finished item #2 of the Metal Medley challenge (in case you missed the previous blog - it's my own challenge)this is easier to photograph. I'll post #2 tomorrow.

Supplies from the Medley: 4 diamond shaped and 4 triangle shaped paper clips, 3 picture hangers, 7 eyelets and 1 square brass frame.

Supplies from my stash: Black elastic

There you have it. I bent the ends of the clips to make loops - fastened eyelets to the centers of the triangle clips and wa la!

It's super light, sturdy and looks great on. I was pleasantly surprised.

I had to stop myself from hanging bead(s) from the eyelet in the center of the square brass frame. The possible variations of this are endless.

Off With Their Heads!

2011-07-10T21:24:00.000-04:00

I got a Metal Medley kit that Bonnie's Best Tools had just posted on their web site
http://bonniesbest.com/mostly_metal.htm as a challenge to myself to use all the metal pieces. I separated all the pieces into a tray I had handy (the ATC tin and box of small bits aren't shown here). Many of my Mother's sayings come to mind but suffice it to say - I think I may of bitten off more than I feel like chewing at one time ;)

The first things that caught my eye as I spread the pieces out were the metal frames and heart shaped clips. So that's what I started with...

1st completed: Queen of Hearts - Off With Their Heads! A pin.

Supplies from kit: 3 heart shaped clips, brushed metal frame, 1 eyelet, 2 heart brads.
Supplies from my stash: Yelling Lady Stamp from Las Vegas Stamps, 3 springs from broken pens, watch face, rhinestones, vintage rose plastic beads, jump rings, Graphic 45 Hallowe'en in Wonderland paper, colored pencils, metal doo dad for crown, E6000 glue and a pin.

This piece started from the bottom up. I think it would be more effective without the skirt (which dangles from the neck). But once I got towards the end there was no turning back.

I won 4 LARK BOOKS !!

2011-07-10T11:00:00.000-04:00

I like to stay on top of what Lark Crafts is doing. Their website, in addition to their books, has a lot of useful information and fabulous projects. Their 500 and Master Series books are simply incredible.

Visiting their site a few weeks ago I came across their offer to win their new "FOCUS" book series. All I had to do was post a comment on one of a list of blogs and they would pick a winner at random from all those that posted. I posted a comment on a blog I thought was outstanding. It's something I would have done anyway.

I have never won anything in my life (aside from the time when I was a kid and I submitted Loretta's name in a department store drawing and she won a turkey). Within a few days of posting I got an email from Nicole McConville, Senior Editor, notifying me that I won the set of four FOCUS Series books. Saying I was excited doesn't cover it.

The books came last week. Book 1: FOCUS Love, Book 2: FOCUS: Passages, Book 3: FOCUS: Found Faces (my favorite), and Book 4: FOCUS: Letters (Nicole also included the inspiring book "Craft Hope").

I'm not a book reviewer. But I have to give it a shot - these books are beautiful, high quality publications. They're books you'll keep coming back to and seeing something new every time. I'm pretty good about seeing something in objects others don't see. But I was totally surprised and delighted at what others had captured. These books are a fasinating look into our world and inspiring to artists.

On to the "Bonus"...Having crafted all of my life I've sort of "been there - done that". However, this book had me pulling out stash I haven't been through in a while - what a delight. There are over 30 projects in this book using a variety of beginner to intermediate craft techniques. The premise is giving back -whether it's in your neighborhood, community or across the world. This was indeed icing on a huge FREE cake.

THANK YOU NICOLE AND LARK BOOKS!

Storage - Love, love, storage.

2011-07-09T21:29:00.012-04:00

I've been stuck lately - hence the delay in posting.

Hoping straightening up my studio would get me creating again I began by making a storage unit for my variety of miscellaneous pens that weren't organized.

My current pencil/pen storage units sit out on my work table and are made of three cut up heavy card board tubes (I used a dremel saw to cut them). The tubes were left over from a large roll of copy paper generally used to copy house/engineering plans.
I built these in sections so they would interlock and I could take out one section at a time when I just wanted pencils or copic markers or my black line pens. You get the idea.

Well...I didn't have a cardboard tube left to cut up and I remember having a talk with me, myself and I pointing out the obvious - that I had enough "stuff" and needed to think outside of the box to come up with something I could use on-hand materials for.

So, having been sufficiently scolded, I cut up three 12x12 chipboard inserts in 4" strips (the chipboard came with scrapbook paper), folded the strips into 2" interlocking squares, attached a bottom and covered with Graphic 45 Cirque paper. You'll notice the unit is made so it can be interlocked with others.

I was surprised at how much it held.

This was the "after" party.

Mother was a Hoot!

2011-05-17T12:31:00.002-04:00

It's way past Mother's Day but this was scheduled and in the que Google held on to it.

I hesitated to share this but figured what the heck - any artistic endeavors I share with you came to me through her.

This was the first Mother's Day in 59 years I haven't been able to be with, or in touch with my Mom.

Mother came to live with Chick and I two and a half years before she passed away in December. Within the first week we had her in Chattanooga at a car show...

About a year ago I drove my Mom to Florida to visit with my Aunt Ginger for a few days. While she was there she had my sister cut her hair, spike it and send me this picture via email with the subject "miss you already". She had a great sense of humor.

That's it - I've found that I write my blog content in my head (there's a lot to share) and then my brain considers it "done" and it doesn't make it to Posting.

I'm working on it.

Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall

2011-05-12T16:47:00.003-04:00

This is the last scheduled post Google held on to. I'll get to current stuff next.

Man - I really did a good job on Humpty. He got a collar, legs, boots and hands. I knew I should have taken a picture before I left the clay studio last week.

This Tuesday Humpty got out of control within the first few minutes of class and broke his legs, feet, shirt collar and one hand (the hand & arm that didn't break will hold flowers picked from the brick wall). I took them off and will fire him naked. It's a good opportunity to go in another direction and attach something mixed media for legs (although I loved his shoes).

So Humpty went on the firing shelf and I made a TEA POT (6" h x 9" long)!

The foam is to support the spout and handle until the clay hardens and they're not in danger of sagging.

I'll post when they're finished (if you're still with me). It may take a little while since clay class doesn't resume until September.

New Tool - Compressor and Copic Markers - YA HOO!!

2011-05-11T08:50:00.011-04:00

Sorry for the delay in posting - my birthday week turned into three weeks (my husband refuses to extend it another month) and I got lost.

More about my new mini compressor mentioned in my previous post... first, this can be an expense you may not want to add to your tool box but I used a coupon at Dick Blicks and it wound up costing the same as a new pair of pants and knit top on sale - or a new pair of shoes. So you know where my priorities are - I bought the compressor.

My friend Jenny at Impressive Ideas has demonstrated Copic Markers using a compressor. I'm not a big marker person (although I have 20+ Copics and the Copic Spray system) but the compressor intrigued me. Sooo, when my clay pieces were fired and I wanted a certain painted look I thought if I had a compressor I could spray paint them (It was just a matter of time before I found a way to justify a compressor).

Dick Blick's 100th Anniversary just so happened to coincide with my birthday week. I took the whole day to play and spent 3 hours there watching various demonstrations - mostly Beau Raymond (teaches at Roswell Art Center) sculpting a clay head in the likeness of the store manager and Jeff Tyler (teaches at Hobby Lobby) air brushing. Both are awesome artists I would take a class from. That's when I bought my compressor.

During my birthday week I played collage with a friend and we made this Folder Journal using the Jan/Feb Cloth Paper Scizzors article as a guide. It was interesting. Aside from sewing the folder itself - I glued my pieces down - my friend sewed hers down (like the article suggests). They both came out great. After I got mine home it looked a little flat. I took my compressor and Copic Markers and highlighted around the vintage pieces with E34. It really made the items pop. I'm not finished with the folder and may not finish it. The play day with my friend was most important. It was a bonus to discover the techique of using the compressor and E34 to highlight the collaged emphemera.

Batman IV Audition

2011-04-28T21:10:00.011-04:00

I had a vision and instead of coming to my senses - I ran with it. A clay bird I made needed a Batman Cape. From here it goes a little sideways...

I got a new Toy - I mean tool - a mini compressor. First I played with Copic markers and painted the bird a soft blue. OMG! This was so cool! Next, using a picture of George Cluney in his batman suit, I used Super Sculpy III in black to sculpt a Batman cape on the bisque bird. The clay removed the Copic marker - not a big deal. Legs/feet were made with wire. The feet were covered in the black Sculpy and the legs with paper clay. The sculpy clay was baked on the bird and wire feet for 15 minutes at 275 degrees.

After baking, the body was painted with acrylic paint and all pieces were sprayed with a matte fixative. I highlighted the body and legs with distress inks and glued the legs to the body. The bird was sprayed one last time with a matte sealer.

He is 5" from beak to tail and 4" tall and makes me smile everytime I see him.

Find The Key, Win My Heart - Finished!

2011-04-23T08:39:00.017-04:00

My sculpture "Find the The Key, Win My Heart" is finished! I apologize for the pictures - but you get the gist.

It hangs on the wall: 13" tall / white earthenware clay / underglazed / bees wax on face and hands / Minwax over hat, shirt & shoes / vintage metal key hole / paper clay heart / key

I've read articles from artists who feel the interpretation for the meaning of their art should be left up to the viewer. It's not me. It's not that the viewer shouldn't interpret my art work for themselves - finding their own meaning. My art usually isn't random - it comes from a specific emotion.

I began this piece to learn how to make a full bodied person. As it progressed I was looking for a feeling, a statement - I didn't have it in me to just make a body. I opened my "Old Junk Treasure" drawer and came across a metal key hole (the muse). That led me to think I could use a red enameled heart that my sister had on a pin as it's heart. Thus began the meaning of this piece, what I feel makes a person -their heart - and my emotions kicked in.

Here is a person who isn't throwing their heart to every passer by but is saying "I'm here, I'm worthy, if you're truly interested, pick up the key". I think that's what we all want, even as children - to be wanted, to be included, to be loved, to be relevant.

In short, this piece is saying "Pick Me".

Germany Trip - Good reason as any to make a book.

2011-04-21T17:09:00.012-04:00

Time has passed by so quickly in the last few weeks and I don't have much to show for it other than the three days (three FULL days) it took to clean my half of the garage.

Just cleaning the garage (only my half) and taking care of some of the last of Mother's things (she would have been 83 this Sunday the 24th) has freed up some mental space I didn't realize was stuck. Today I took her wheel chair to her Dr's to give away where he sees a need and gave him her unused medicine to dispose of properly. Then I took her many pairs of glasses to a place that will distribute them to charities for reuse. WHEW!

ONward and UPward - We're making plans to go to Stuttgart, Germany! Why Stuttgart? That's where the Porsche factory is. My husband has been in love with Porsche's since he was a kid. He's got a vintage 1972 Targa taken apart in the garage. Aside from me - it's his only hobby. He turns 60 this year - three months later is our 30th anniversary - three months after that I turn 60. I've never been out of the country so we're celebrating these milestones with a trip to the Porsche factory - ya hoo! Not sure where we'll go after that - maybe on to Italy. Any ideas?

Last week I found some mould-made 100g stone grey colored 19 x 25 paper at Dick Blicks. It appealed to me because it was inexpensive and it wasn't stark white or vanilla (actually, I heard it say "buy me"). Now I have a reason for buying it - I can make a journal to take with me on our trip. I'm undecided about a cover. I think it should be flexible and since I want to take colored pencils and a glue stick with me I may want to incorporate pockets. Not sure yet whether they'll be fabric sewn in with the signatures or part of the cover. I'll keep you posted with photos.

Happy Birthday Mom,
#3 of 5

Simple Saturday

2011-04-20T13:36:00.010-04:00

I have to share - Saturday was serendipitous.

Our daughter Laura visited Saturday - my art room gives her hives but it's usually the first place I take her to show her what I'm working on (then we quickly leave ;). I uncovered the clay sculpted head "Heart Strings" (first picture on the left) to show her that I changed him up to "Hot Head" (I added a gas cap I found at a car swap meet that read "Do Not Open Hot" to the middle of his forehead). His head looked great - I was refining the eyes before dropping him off to be fired.

I covered Hot Head back up and we were walking away when we heard "Tha - Thump". He had rolled off the table onto the carpeted floor.

When we turned him over and saw his face - we cracked up...

His little foray into the wild side gave him some character and me an opportunity to use a vintage cast iron Hot Point timer I re-found while cleaning out the garage.

Oh Happy Day!! Hot head is done and on the shelf to be fired.

PS: What you can't see in this picture is that his head is hollowed out in the back so I can add some collage elements.

PSS: Humpty Dumpty got dressed this week and will get arms and legs next week. Just to be fashionable attired when he falls ;(

Tacketing Stationer's Bindings

2011-04-06T18:15:00.020-04:00

This past weekend I attended a bookmaking workshop.

I'm always looking for a new book/box-making class in Atlanta - they're not plentiful. So when the Guild of Bookworkers SE Chapter offered a workshop by Chela Metzger on Tacketing I responded immediately reserving my spot - then I asked - what's tacketing? I found a few references on tacketing on google that, to tell you the truth, still left me a little confused.

However, you get the benefit of my googling today. This is an explanation of Chela's workshop presented at Syracuse University... This course was inspired by the varied and beautiful lacing and tacketing found on account-books, or stationery bindings in medieval and early modern Europe. These blank books were created to hold records of businesses and organizations, and have a different set of aesthetic and structural practices than the bindings found on regular scholarly and religious books. Lacing on these books is somewhat like appliqué or lacing on western gear and can be as complex as the Islamic inspired mudejar star patterns found on stationery books in Spain, or the simpler lines and X patterns found all over Europe.

Tacketing is a sort of “staple”, usually of twisted parchment, which holds the pages to the cover, or holds the cover together, and tackets can also take many forms. Participants had an opportunity to make their own parchment tackets, practice lacing and tacketing techniques off the book, practice making loops and buttons off the book, and then create at least one traditional stationery binding, combining techniques as desired. Prior experience hand sewing books is useful, but not required. ( Follow this link to Chela's attachments - they're amazing) http://library.syr.edu/about/departments/preservation/activities/series/Metzger.php

Back to this workshop - it was absolutely fabulous. Chela is a great teacher - knowledgable not only about the techniques of tacketing and bookmaking but also about the history. I still can't get over how giving and flexible she was. You'll see in the pictures below that we varied the cover a little (maybe not strickly historical) but the inside block and tacketing with strips of vellum are authentic.

Starting out with 6 signatures prepared for us before hand - we designed our covers, then punched and sewed the signatures to thin leather straps. The next step was making the real vellum covers by folding the vellum and lacing on leather strips. The last step was "tacketing" the signatures to the cover.

The highlight of this workshop for me was working with materials and techniques I've never used before that can be used with other media. For example: the wet strips of vellum that harden like rawhide...I can't wait to use that on something else. PS: Don't burn real vellum - it smells and hardens like a rock.

Here are a few students books.

Fairy Magic

2011-04-06T18:00:00.006-04:00

OK - At a yard sale last year I found some old metal fuse boxes (1 1/2" x 1 1/2") with clear plastic covers that slid out to access the small fuses. I also found a tiny person with a ball in her raised hands - in pretty bad shape. The definition for "fairy" was cut out of a dictionary and glued to the back of the inside of the box. The fairie's ball was replaced with a flower and she was given wings (after all what's a fairy without wings?). Holes were drilled in the sides of the metal box and wire inserted to hold the cord necklace. Holes were drilled in the bottom of the box so leaves and flowers could be added to dangle. The back was sanded and stamped. One thing got glued to another and this pendant was born.

Red Chair Thoughts - along for the ride

2011-03-30T09:36:00.020-04:00

I found some rather large vintage cardboard pieces children would play with, each made to look like a brick wall. When something unusual comes my way I find myself thinking of different ways to utilize it(other than what it was intended for). Sometimes, as in this case, I acted on my thoughts before I went on to something else. I started a Humpty Dumpty sculpture yesterday, to sit on the wall, working on it until late last night.

Usually, when I come out of my art stupor (regardless of the medium) I ask myself - now what? (I talk to myself a lot). Why did I just spend a day on this project? Where is it going, where is it taking me, can I change up my process even more, will I remain with this effort until it's finished?

In my stupor of who, what and where usually comes a serendipitous occasion.

Today I chose to follow a link to Lisa Kokin's web site http://lisakokin.com/- posted on the Book_Arts RSS feed. I got an Ah Ha!! - actually is was an OMG!

If anything I do elicits in someone else, the same feeling I got when I looked at Lisa's work - even once - all my questions will be answered.

Janet
PS: If you go to Lisa's website know that each area's content is driven by the buttons to the left. As you chose a button and the object appears, the button goes from faded to clear. Really, really, cool work and web site.

Baby Book for Gabi

2011-03-27T17:28:00.035-04:00

This is my granddaughter, Gabi, on Halloween last year - getting ready to jump to her Daddy. She is this happy ALL the time.

I made a baby book to chronicle her growth ( 8 1/2" x 12").

I've made other baby books for friends using book board to make the covers but I was able to find a raw book board binder on clearance. I stripped the metal rings from the inside and finished as I did the other baby books.(see bottom of post).

The outside and inside were covered using 12 x 12 decorative paper and embellished with pearls, silk flowers, a dimensional butterfly, crystal lacquer, distressed inks and H2O paints. The inside sheets are stepped to provide a 1/2" space to put the age (all done in excel and printed on a printer) and two hole punched so additional pictures can be added behind the designated growth pictures.

All spare parts were used to decorate the inside of the book and the tab of each page; stickers, dimensional stickers, stamps, ink (each page was distressed), decorative paper, earring, etc.

This is one of my favorite baby books I made for a friend who was expecting a granddaughter. I embellished the cover a lot with H20 paints, a silk flower, buttons and cardboard flowers.

I'll open a flikr or picassa account and post the others.

Simple Saturday

2011-03-26T20:03:00.015-04:00

I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see. ~John Burroughs

These are pictures I took last year from the Gulfport, MS coast:

Encaustic Play Day

2011-03-25T21:19:00.011-04:00

I've owned Ranger's Melting Pot and a block of Beeswax for over a year - I opened both packages for the first time today. Although I had the tools I didn't have something specific to apply it to. It was because I want to try to use encaustic on a piece of bisque clay (see Key to My Heart) that I took out my supplies to see how it handled. At this level of encaustic, using only beeswax, I'm sorry I waited so long. What a blast!

I played most of today at Bonnie's Art Tools. My biggest discovery is that, like most art, a little pre-planning is helpful to get a good balance of texture, color and content (unless you're Bonnie who can do it on the fly).

Supplies: 8 x 8 pre-stretched canvas, beeswax, brush, small iron, Ranger's Melting Pot and ephemera....

This is my art work (I need to pre-plan)... the flower is stamped on the inside of a used mailing envelope.

This is Bonnie's - who I've discovered is a natural at collage....

It doesn't look like we were at the same table does it?

Bonnie has her Butane Micro Torch on sale for 1/2 off so I got mine and I'm going to fire it up tomorrow and see what happens when I apply it to my piece of art above. Who doesn't love a new tool?

Good Idea Gone Bad

2011-03-24T15:29:00.009-04:00

Have you ever had a fabulous idea that, in the end, turned out to be above your capabilities. This was one for me. It's been about 8 years since I pulled this together and have since learned when to cry "uncle";)

Inspiration: Computer hard drive destined for the garbage. Ohhhhh what fabulous, colorful, circuit boards it contained! AND I had just discovered heart shaped mold/plaster kits for making impressions of children's hands.

Somehow (it's a thin, thin, thread with me) - the mother board from the gutted hard drive turned out to be the backdrop for a water fountain (yep-complete with water).

My daughter Laura is an artist too. She agreed (can't remember how we got here) to put cotton in her nose and breathe thru a straw for two minutes while her face was partially submersed in molding material. Gotta love this girl! This is a scanned page from my scrapbook - before I owned a digital camera.

After the mold was made I created a plaster face cast, cut out the eyes, inserted a plastic tube in the mouth, painted it with black waterproof paint and adhered it to the mother board of the hard drive. It was glued to a rectangle vessel that would hold the water while it circulated thru the tubing and out of the mouth. Scary - huh.

Treasures - I must have been a Pirate in a Previous Life

2011-03-20T11:25:00.018-04:00

An enabler friend of mine let me know about an artist that was moving to Pittsburgh and having a yard sale. It was a sunny, glorious day - look at the treasures I found... (I've included the prices I paid because I like to see what others paid for their treasures and I've included my thoughts for the future of the treasure because that's what I've been told others want to see)

Cast iron ice cream cup mold (15" w x 7" h) - $8. The owner had obtained this from a closed ice cream cone factory in SE Atlanta. Possibilities are endless with this thing. Paper, paper clay, ceramic clay, etc. can be used to mold ice cream cones. They can be used as hats, a pin cushion, a doll body, parts for collage - geeze I'm getting tired thinking of this..... Old clock cabinet with clock face (25" h x 15" w) - $6. You don't have to go far to find something awesome for this. The door on the front of the box hinges open and doesn't have glass. Title: "He who steals time" Picture this - the clock face (which is already loose) lays catty wompass in the box towards the front and a face (clay or paper collage) shows in the recesses of the box surround by old newspaper clippings. Hands/claws are just visible coming out and around the outside of the door.
1940's scrapbook of form letters and author's critique (15" h x 11" w)- $6. I would love to know what the purpose of this album was. I want to grow as a book artist and add content to my books. This would be a good jumping off point for a fictional story.Metal cow muzzle (6 1/2" h x 6" w) - $1. I know you're thinking "how is the world did I get this so darn cheap?" I saw a bonnet. That's it, a bonnet. The bonnet could contain a head and/or ephemera that symbolizes childhood.Cast Iron Lamp piece (12" h x 11" d) - $1. I know, I know - what a steal! It's photographed upside down, as I would use it. I saw the bowl as a hat. The metal arm could come from the wall but I thought the back of the head would mount on the wall and the metal arm would hang in front of the face, or body, and contain misc treasures/pictures hanging out in front of the face as memories or dreams or, or, or
Old Lamp Shade - $3. This is beautiful. The doll is in perfect condition but hanging on by a clothespin - the fabric is now a soft, worn lavender. Aside from taking the half doll off and using her elsewhere and stripping the frame and using it to hang things on or sit birds on - I'm not sure where I'm going with this.Pure Joy Flour Sack (17" h x 10" w) - $2. Funny, this was the only thing I thought was overpriced. But I was having a ball at this yard sale, happy as a clam - all I could think of was that I needed that flour sack to make a book cover for a book for me to enter in my daily blessings (which are many).Misc iron treasures - $5. What can I tell ya. If I could weld (no I'm not going there) I could make a fence 20 ft long with all my rusty metal treasures. Doesn't this sugar cane cutter look like a parrot's beak?Misc other treasures - $5. Bag of corn husks, rasp, bird mold, etc.. Aside from the rasp that I'll use with my ceramic clay, everything else will be put in my "Things to go with other things" box.

No my husband wasn't with me (he was in Seattle) and yes, I took everything out of hiding to show him and he still loves me ;)

Fisherman - what do you think?

2011-03-20T10:17:00.008-04:00

Chinese Proverb: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime"

Remember him... (napkin ring, blush brush and poly clay head) - he's painted and assembled now. The inspiration for this piece was the oil lamp I found at a garage sale for $1.00.

Coat - when viewing the fisherman I wanted to "see" the fish in his belly. I felt belly was "the heart" of the fisherman - his contribution so to speak. So, when I made his coat I lined it in white linen that was larger than the coat and, with a little help from some polyfil, would lay close to his belly when his coat was on.
Top stitching served two purposes - one was to keep the coat and lining tight at the edges and the second was to create a channel to put a wire frame in. Now I can style the coat where I want it because the wire goes completely around the bottom, up the sides and around the collar.

Hands - holes were put in the wrists. The hands and cuffs were sewn to the selvage at the wrist before the coat and lining were sewn closed.

Hat - the color of the brissels on the blush brush were too natural and brought attention there first. So I darkened them with an ink pad. I didn't make ears on the fisherman. At the time, artistically, it didn't matter. However, as I assembled him - it did matter. So I made him hat extenders with a tie.

Fishing pole - the fishing pole is a vintage wood crochet hook. If I decide to keep the coat it will get string and the same fish the fisherman has in his belly.

My current delimma is - does the coat detract from the message? I'm thinking (it takes me a little time) of getting rid of the coat, collaging light weight/water-colored paper on his the back of his belly and the proverb across his chest (diagonal above the water line).

I'll let you know...

Copic Wallet

2011-03-15T16:59:00.017-04:00

I love tools. A lot of what I've made is because I wanted to try a new tool.

I created this Copic wallet (before Copic Markers came out with theirs) because 1) I just bought a Martha Stewart scoring board and was scoring everything at 1/8" I could get my hands on 2) I wanted to buy a couple of Copic Markers when I was at Impressive Ideas and couldn't remember what I had 3) I had just learned that everybody and their Mother was doodling (professionals call it Zentangle).

Supplies: 3 sheets - 8 1/2" x 11" white card stock (1 for cover, 1 for blank color legend, 1 for blank list), glue tape, glue stick, copic markers, metal tab closure.

Closed, the Copic Wallet measures 7 1/2" x 3 3/4".
The first inside sheet folds out and is used to color in what copic markers you own.
The second inside sheet folds out and is blank and scored every 1/4" so you have lines, but no lines, to write lists or notes, etc.
I doodled the front and the flap and colored it in with Copic Markers.

Photography

2011-03-14T17:14:00.011-04:00

I remember getting my first 35mm camera (way before digital). I've had a knack for getting good, not stellar, but good pictures. I want to share a few. Learning Photoshop is on my "bucket list" - until then what you see here is how it was shot.

The peaceful loving nature of cemetaries draw me in. The stone testiment to someone having lived their first life on this planet and their second in the hereafter appeals to me.

I snapped this picture on a visit to the Biloxi, MS cemetary. When I got out of the van to take a picture of this weathered Cherub set to oversee a loved one I saw a bird flying around. I propped my arm up on the hood of the van and waited (not long). The bird graciously landed on the Cherub so I could take their picture together.

These pictures were taken in the same cemetary.

These two pictures were taken in a New Orleans Cemetary

The age on this concrete is fantastic.

New Mixed Media Bookmaking & Art Journaling Magazine

2011-03-14T09:44:00.003-04:00

Just an FYI - Cloth Paper Scizzors is publishing a new magazine called Mixed Media Bookmaking and Art Journaling - coming this fall.

Monthly book making eye candy AND inspiration - Ya Hoo!

The Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine (pg 62) is calling for submissions.

There are a lot of successful book making groups out there. I'm hoping that CPS takes a page or two and highlights what these groups/clubs do to be successful.

Happy everything,
Janet

I Got My Money's Worth

2011-03-13T12:08:00.005-04:00

Since I'm a member of the American Craft Council I got into the ACC show Friday and Saturday for free - so I really got my money's worth ($25 membership comes free ACC show passes and the bi-monthly subscription to American Craft Magazine).

On Friday while attending a demonstration by Amy Gresens (she has a show next week at the High) on piercing and epoxy casting resin as it relates to jewelry - I met a two ladies that told me about a couple of fiber venues I'd never heard of.

So, in case you're not aware of them I thought I'd pass the info along.

Stitches South held at Cobb Galleria Apr 2011: http://www.knittinguniverse.com/stitches/south
This is more about the processes of knitting, etc. than the supplies - that would interest me more.

SAFF in Asheville Oct 2011: http://www.saffsite.org
This is the best event website I have ever seen. At a glance you know when, where and the cost. It makes perusing the rest of the site a joy.
Look at the venue maps - holy cow - they're going to have a lot of vendors. I want to learn how to felt - I have all the supplies, including roving (I know - you're surprised). It appears easy and I could go to youtube to learn - but this looks like more fun.

One of the ladies I spoke to was from here and also told me about The Engineer Guy. A way, way, cool place in town to get modeling supplies -http://www.theengineerguy.com I'm going to visit next week.

I found that a lot of the newer vendors were eager to discuss their processes - whether or not you were buying their art. I have a piece of bisque ("here's my heart") that's crying out for some encaustic AND/OR some fabric strips dipped in resin. Fun, fun.

I Made a Stamped Card - Yeah Me!

2011-03-12T13:23:00.022-05:00

I'm not a card maker or stamper. That being said - once in a long while inspiration will grab me by the hair and I buy one of the newest, artiest stamps.

My friends Jenny (http://www.onekraftykat.blogspot.com/) and Miriam's(http://www.miriamsdelirium.blogspot.com/) cards are inspirational - but sometimes it still doesn't help. I have to admit - I don't make many cards and the cards I do make usually don't make it in the mail. You may understand my dilemma when you see my card.

My sister has lost 25 pounds - all on her own. This card is for her.

I was visiting with Jenny at Impressive Ideas and saw the beautiful new stamps from LaBlanche. I chose the Marigold (3 3/4" x 5 1/2") because it reminded me of a ballerina tutu (are you starting to see my problem?).

A ballerina card wouldn't be appropriate in this situation. It was a celebration for cripes sake - a shout it from the roof top kinda celebration. So I took out my favorite - make me smile every time stamp - from viva las vegastamps and combined the two.

Her hair (Marigold) is colored using gamsol, Prismacolor Pencils and Copic markers, cut out and turned upside down. Her head was highlighted with pastels, cut out and inserted in a slit in the flower. I added black ribbon and pearls and shaded the card with my new favorite ranger distress ink, Wild Honey.

LOL - It's funnier in person.

This is what my table looked when it was all said and done....

I'm going back to sculpting.

American Craft Council Show

2011-03-10T23:18:00.003-05:00

I made a last minute decision, spent a little extra money and went to the premier of the ACC show tonight.

OMG! It was awesome. I was able to spend some time, since it wasn't crowded, with artists I admire. If you get the chance to go look up Nancy Kubale booth 513, Christine Kosiba booth 1108 (both sculptors) and bead artist Kathy King booth 304 (she developed an incredible new bead pattern - I bought her book).

If you want to get a close up look at encaustic (sp?) art there's a really good encaustic artist at the show - Marge Luttrell booth 415. She's teaching a class at Arrowmont in August.

I was surprised. There were no book artists.

Hope you get to go. Enjoy.
Janet

Good Mews

2011-03-09T19:24:00.005-05:00

I made another pendant using copper sheet cut to 1 1/2" x 1", a carved bone cat head, book pages, a watch part and a rhinestone. It's something I'm familiar with and can pretty much guarantee instant gratification. A sense of producing something.

Monday, I bought something at a thrift store (a thrift store that had 1/2 price day for cripes sake) - it had cardboard bricks in it - the kind kids play with. This morning I woke up thinking about Humpty Dumpty, in clay, with a crack in his head (actually he's all head or all body) sewn together with red yarn and him holding a big needle, sitting on the brick.

I'm procrastinating. I really want to get my hands into clay ("Heart Strings" and birds are already in the works). But this takes putting all my other things aside and immersing myself in clay. Chances are whatever I work on won't be done by the end of the day, or the next day. Sooooo, I choose one of my other ideas, one that can get done, NOW.

Believe me. I consider myself blessed to have these issues.

Yeah Me

2011-03-09T17:03:00.003-05:00

As of this morning I have lost 35 pounds (thanks to Weight Watchers) - Yeah Me!

E6000 Glue Tube

2011-03-08T14:40:00.005-05:00

Regardless how careful I was in screwing the lid back on my tube of E6000 glue - it would dry out. So I tried something different.

I left the lid on the tube and put a hole in the side of tube towards the top.

After getting the glue that I need I put a piece of duct tape over the hole. When I need the glue days/weeks later I just peel back the tape. Any hardened glue comes away with the tape and fresh glue is immediately available. The same piece of tape can be replaced back over the hole or you can use a fresh piece. Either way it's a lot less hassle than trying to get the glue out of the intended nozzle.

Wedding Center Piece

2011-03-07T19:57:00.006-05:00

June weddings are being planned and I wanted to share a table center piece (14" overall height) I made many many years ago for my daughter's wedding reception (I can't remember how many we made - but it seemed like Edna (myBFF) and I made a gazillion flowers). The hem of Laura's wedding gown was trimmed in grey silk. These center pieces coupled with ferns and other typical reception frippery looked great. I made silver wire and glass beaded cake decorations and others silk flowers - if I can find the pictures in the next couple of days I'll share them too.

Supplies: 12" Glass lantern, lace trim, monofiliment, pearls, Silk ribbon, styrofoam ring, grey silk, tulle, candle, clear glass dessert plates and small terra cotta saucers.

12" Glass Lantern: About 4" from the top and 4" from the bottom of the lantern, lace trim was taped on using red line tape. Pearls were strung on the monofiliment and woven in a criss-cross pattern between the lace trim - giving the illusion of the pearls floating.

Ring: A styrofoam ring was covered in batting. The batting was covered with grey silk fabric and gathered as it was glued. Grey tulle covered the grey silk. Our hand made ribbon flowers were glued to the tulle. A white card board circle, 2" smaller than the ring was glued to the bottom of the ring.
Candle and support: A glass dessert plate was placed in the center of the covered ring. Four glass flat baubles were spaced evenly and glued along the rim of the glass plate so the glass lantern wouldn't move when it was set in place. In the middle of the glass plate was a silver painted terra cotta plant saucer turned upside down. A large candle, secured with wax, was centered on the silver saucer.

Little bit of Repurposing - No Glue - No Sewing

2011-03-03T10:00:00.004-05:00

The internet...one thing led to another and I came across a cute idea for repurposing 8 1/2 x 11 paper. It's great when you don't want to carry a full pad of paper with you. For example - you're going to a book, bead and/or rubber stamp show and you want to make notes that aren't necessary to keep forever. This is perfect.

Finished Size: 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"

I changed the cover so there are pockets for tickets, receipts, etc.

The example uses the cover of a new car brochure cut to 8 1/2" x 11" plus 3 sheets of 8 1/2"x11" preprinted (scrap) copy paper, a rubber band and four staples.

Fold all sheets in half - lenth wise - to 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" (writing on the inside) - then again width wise. Stack them together with the fold at the top. Notch the top and bottom at the middle crease.

Turn the cover over and bring the bottom left and right corners to the middle crease - this creates your pockets.
Staple the cover at the bottom outer edges to complete the pockets.

Put a rubber band around the middle at the notches and you're done. You'll be surprised at how secure this is.

I think kids would have fun with this. They can create mini books of their vacation using stamps, paint, pictures, etc...

2 Books using a Repurposed Vinyl Banner

2011-02-28T08:34:00.023-05:00

A menswear store that had just closed had tossed out a 4'x8' white vinyl banner with red letters announcing the arrival of a new line of mens underwear (what can be new about mens underwear?). At any rate - I rescued the banner. It appears to be reinforced with threads and is very pliable. I sewed the covers on a sewing machine(piece of cake), glued it and used snaps and rivets.
1st Book: 11"x10"x1"wide: This is the book I take to clay class and insert ideas and instructions. I used all sorts of miscellaneous papers for the signatures. The snaps are strong #20 Tandy snaps.

I couldn't resist including a red vintage Jim Beam stir stick. It's held in by a piece of elastic riveted to the back cover - Fun.

2nd Book: 10"x6 1/2"x1" wide: In addition to using part of the banner, I repurposed a spiral bound paper sample book.

I took out all of my clay sculpting and polymer doll sculpting books, tagged the pages referencing body proportions that I felt would come in hand as a quick reference while at sculpting class, copied and inserted them in this book

This is an unaltered, out of date, paper sample book:

Book closed: In order to get the most out of the banner I cut where I had left off from the previous book. I'll paint or draw something fun later to go with the letter "F".

Inside of front cover - you can see where I slipped the spiral bound book in the front and back covers.

The sample book already had tabs - I wrote the parts of the body on sticker labels and put them over the existing tabs for quick reference.

First page in the section of body proportions. The diagrams were backed by black cardstock then glued in the book.

First Page in section of Head proportions:
The possbilities for this banner are endless!

Serendipitous Occurance

2011-02-27T09:30:00.006-05:00

Short for - how lucky can I get?

I've been agonizing over making books with no content. I follow a few book maker's websites with envy - not only are their covers a work of art, so is the content.

Yesterday, thru blog-world, I met Annie Bodelier from the Netherlands http://anniebodelier.blogspot.com/. I'm a visual person and while I don't understand the language, I certainly understand her work. She has a flair for content (if you have a couple of minutes go to Annie's flikr site - you'll be glad you did) and has motivated me to give it a try.

We both follow Alisa Golden's blog http://makinghandmadebooks.blogspot.com. Alisa's books "Making Handmade Books" and "Painted Paper" are incredible. They're the kind of books you'll turn to over and over again and discover something new and inspiring. I highly recommend them.

I repurposed a vinyl clothing store banner and a spiral paper sample book into a clay reference book - I'll post pictures tomorrow.

All the best,
Janet

Oil Lamp, Napkin Ring and a Blush Brush

2011-02-21T16:35:00.020-05:00

My daughter Laura says I have artists ADD. It got the best of me this last week.

I've had this project on my work table for over a year. I assembled and/or sculpted all the parts but didn't move forward because the "belly" required being filled with sand and fish and poured with clear resin. I've never poured resin before and didn't want to ruin the muse - so there it sat (every now and then I'd pick up the box of resin, look at the lamp and put it back down again) - until Thursday.

The muse: a 4" round glass oil lamp bought at a garage sale for $1.00

The title of the piece: Teach a Man to Fish - From the Chinese Proverb "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime".

I've been frozen from going forward on any project this last week...too many ideas (clay piece, handmade books, Jewelry, class outline for books and pendant, etc, etc) - I couldn't decide which one to proceed on - so I read a book (4 books actually). Thursday I had had enough reading and before thinking about it too much I took out the casting resin and filled the belly with sand and tumbled stones, positioned the fish where I wanted them (not where they ended up), mixed the casting resin and poured it. I won't hesitate using casting resin again.

This is a peek of the fisherman in process... I'm almost finished with sewing his coat that will get embellishments. His face will get painted (he may get hair, not sure yet). He'll have hands and a fishing rod and will be standing in grass or rocks (not sure yet on this either). He stands approx 7" from his glass feet to the top of his napkin ring hat.

If you've gotten this far - thank you for being interested and staying with this long post. The finished project is in sight - I'll take better pictures and post more this week.

All the best,

Janet

What a difference a Clayday makes...

2011-02-17T08:23:00.024-05:00

I'm still taking classes from Red Weldon-Sandlin at Abernathy Arts Center, Sandy Springs and Herm is on the shelf ready to be fired (see previous post). My next clay project involves a guitar string tuning thing and maybe other guitar parts (not sure yet if I want to part out my little red guitar).

This is Tuesday afternoon:

This is Wednesday before I shut out the lights (face is 4 1/2" high):

This is Thursday at lights out:

I have a long way to go (he needs ears if he's going to listen to music) and it may not look like this when I'm finished. As work progresses the composition will change and sometimes, the title. It's not unusual for the title to come first and the composition second. Yes, I occasionally work in a straight jacket - LOL.

Crown Binding with Atlanta Book Arts Club

2011-02-14T08:30:00.034-05:00

I had a blast!! Sunday the group met at my house to make the crown binding (guided by Alisa Golden's book "Making Handmade Books") and paint the inside pages (guided by Alisha Golden's book "Painted Paper") This is my crown binding book in progress - 4 1/4" x 4":

I have to admit I got caught up in the day, having friends over and playing with paper and paint - I forgot to take photos of everyone's FABULOUS book. Hopefully, they'll bring their books next month. I'll take a picture and post it when I do.

This has inspired me to make a book with content (AHHH!) using some of the painting techniques we played with and, with permission from my daughter Laura, using a few of her "internalism" verses - http://www.internalisms.com - for content. Laura's intention is to create a painting for each verse - so far she's created a painting for "Sugar Water" in the "In Limbo" section. Here are examples of her internalisms (one from each category)...

In Reflection:
Humanity - Sometimes I forget to write; be it emotional or instructional. Sometimes I forget to cry; on the outside and the inside. But I never forget to feel whether I want to or not.

In Limbo:
Wednesday - Most times my voice is encompassed in the fear of saying too much, too little or too wrong. Just right is as common as receiving flowers for hump day.

In Love:
Fine Tune - When I envision you... you are the perfect sound accompanied by the most awesome light. To draw you would require a tuning fork and an exploding star. Since I have neither, I will have to settle for pictures of you that pale in comparison.

Laura's art emcompasses a variety of media. Painting, drawing, pointillism, web development(she created my www.janethickey.com website) as well as singing (currently singing locally with the band Evered). She's immensely talented.

On your mark...get ready....

2011-02-11T21:30:00.011-05:00

OK - so I'm hosting the Book Arts Club this Sunday at my house.

At this very moment this is what the left, and cleanest, side of my art room looks like (the metal arts work tables). I have a dilemma - clean the house, clean the art room, clean the house, clean the art room.....just kidding there's never a dilemma - cleaning the art room is much more fun.

I found an interesting book for us to make that would include painting paper. I'm real excited about this. The group is diverse in experience - they're thinkers and inventive - it's going to be a blast. As I was pulling out material to make sample books I'd come across a previous project that just needed one more technique before I'd consider it a go forward or go forward to the trash. I'd play with a project and then go back to the book - play with a project - go back to the book. I couldn't put anything away in case I needed it. Life is tough I tell ya - LOL!

I'll post what we come up with on Sunday. Gotta go clean...

Herm - Claymation

2011-02-10T14:07:00.006-05:00

This is the second installment of the clay figure I'm making in class. Since it's gender is not definate - it's name is Herm (about 12"-15" tall and will hang on the wall).

I decided to go with nondescript features since it's only an 8 week class and features could take me a lot longer. I need to put a head in a vintage gumball machine - so I'll concentrate on heads during the next class series.

Too much fun!!!

Polymer Clay Play Date

2011-02-09T12:53:00.045-05:00

Talk about happenstance!

8 3/4" tall x 4" wide

Click for a larger view

I've been struggling to make a polymer clay book cover. Last Saturday, as luck would have it, I got an email from the polymer clay artist and author, Barbara McGuire. She, Patricia Dibona and Jan Stephens were having an open house at their new Studio/Gallery called "Woman Creative" in Buford, GA. After the open house Barbara and Patricia kept their studios open for 3 hours so, if we wanted, we could stay and play. Needing some polymer clay instruction, I stayed to play.
www.barbaramcguire.com/2wcindex.html

First - the studio is awesome. I am so looking forward to going back for classes.
Second - Barbara and Patricia are giving artists. They share everything, holding nothing back.

I started at Barbara's table and never made it to Patricia's (but I need some guidance in collage and will be looking for her upcoming classes).

Barbara set out tubs of emphemera (old music sheets, previously made polymer canes and faces, papers, etc) and let us use anything we wanted in our artwork. We all started out with an unfinished wood plaque.

Supplies I used:
Unfinished wood back, wall paper, previously baked black & white Asian face and bee transfer, previously baked ploymer in green tones - torn in half, mica, old music sheets and liquid polymer clay.

Thank You - Military Hero Pendant

2011-02-05T16:32:00.030-05:00

Thank you to the men and women of our armed forces and the men and women trying to keep the peace and keep us safe here at home

Salute: My father was in the Navy, awarded two purple hearts in WWII, My Step Father retired Navy, my husband retired Navy Seabee reserve (29 yrs), my son served 10 years as a Navy Seal, my brother was wounded in Vietnam, I served 6 years in the Navy.

Finished size: From top of helmet to bottom of paper 1 3/4" x 1 1/16".

Supplies: Copper sheet, toy Soldier, 30 g wire, paper, color pencils, metal alphabet punches, iron metalic surface liquid, old book pages.

Process: I stamped "hero" on the copper sheet after cutting and before bending it. Liver of sulpher was used to highlight the word. Random holes were drilled in the top of the metal to thread the very thin wire in and around for the soldier to sit behind. The upper torso of a toy soldier was cut off and painted with Iron Metalic Surface solution - he's adhered to the metal by E6000 glue and a pin coming from underneath and thru the top metal and into the torso. The soldier was a little wider than the depth of the pendant so a heating tool was used to conform the back of the soldier to the pendant. I tore the definition of a hero from an old dictionary. Lightly colored red and white stripes and a blue square on it with color pencil before combining it with other torn pages and burning the edges.

Katrina

2011-01-29T18:19:00.029-05:00

The firm I worked for deployed me to the Mississippi Gulf Coast a year after Hurricane Katrina struck. I worked there for three years - coming home permanently to Atlanta one year ago this February. I thought I understood the devastation until I got there. The media didn't begin to portray the courage, hopefulness and kindness of the Gulf Coast residents. I'm richer for having worked there.

Below are 7 mixed media collages I made while on deployment. All contain pictures I took (with the exception of the eye of the storm) printed in sepia or black and white, and treasures I found on walks. The frames are 8 x 8 wood - purchased unfinished. They were painted a coffee brown and black and highlighted with color by wrapping a roller with string, rolling it in turquoise paint and then rolling it over the brown/black paint.

No 1: The eye of the storm. Treasure - tile from a destroyed bank.

No 2: Tub. This tub was all that was left standing on a slab that a house once stood on. Treasures: old screen door hinge and blue glass drop.

No 3: Sailboat and Mermaid. The picture shows a sailboat in Waveland sunk and laying on its side - two years after the storm. Treasure: metal mermaid with attached pearl chain.

No 4: Crab. I found the body of a crab and barnacles on one of the first walks I took on Gulfport's coast. I drew the legs and copied them over lace.

No 5: Carpet. This was so strange to see - I'll never forget this. The only things left of a house in Bay St. Louis were the concrete pilings and the carpet hanging down that used to be attached to the floor above. Treasures - bits of found tiles & glass.

No 6: What was old is new again. A picture on the opening day of the new Bay St. Louis Bridge between Waveland and Bay St. Louis. Treasures - oyster shells.

No 7: Church. Perseverance and determination - gotta love the human race. The front and middle of the church are GONE. In it's place is a large hand painted sign directing everyone to walk next door. Treasure: door hinge.

Butterfly Pin & Metal Corners

2011-01-29T17:41:00.017-05:00

Two Dilemmas...

1. I didn't push the development of this butterfly I posted a couple of days ago and it was bugging me ...
2. The curved, simple, metal corners are a favorite of mine. My friend mentioned the other day she didn't like them very much and gave me hers. I got to thinking that there must be another use for them besides being attached to paper. There is! They make awesome dangles, scales, etc.

I couldn't get the rivet out of the butterfly without a lot of work so I improvised. To bend the heart for more depth - I used two dowels; one on top in the middle and two underneath down both sides and pushed. I aged the wings by brushing on liver of sulfur. Rhinestones replaced the pearls. Body "tags" were made by cutting the metal corners in half, flattening one end and making holes using an awl at the narrow end and a hole punch at the large end. The "tags" were secured first by 30 gauge metal wire and again when the size 14 iridescent seed beads were added and strung in and around the tags. Now it's officially a pin.

Book Sewing Frame - (Not your ordinary)

2011-01-28T22:48:00.016-05:00

Well folks - I spent the better part of today visiting with the boys. Michael, Dick and HL (Michaels Art/ Craft Store, Dick Blick Arts and Hobby Lobby). It's been awhile since I've walked every isle to see what's new and what could be used for something other than it's original intention. It was a good day.

I want to share with you what I made last year. The SE Guild of Bookworkers had a spot at last year's Decatur Book Fair - Ann Frellsen demonstrated sewing book signatures using a sewing frame. Well, I knew if I was going to start making books, I needed one. Hers was hand made, prompting me to investigate via the internet on how to make a sewing frame.

My sewing frame: My intention was to use materials I had on hand. I already had the box that had been purchased at a flea market. It's hinged, hand made to hold chess pieces (I made a pendant out of the queen but that's another blog). The wood pieces were from a child's building set I purchased at a garage sale. The stip of wood glued to the underside, front, was an oak threshold remnant put in place prior to cutting the slot. The inside is collaged with a 1918 newspaper I found at a yard sale. The wood slats, also from my stash of "things to go with other things" were inserted to compartmentalize the inside so the pieces don't fall out of the slot when the box is closed. The snap on the outside of the box is from a cigar box. The best part - the "book club participants" - were part of my stash and is a delight every time I open the box.

It's compact, sturdy and works like a charm.