7/19

New book. I have lot's of my art supplies packed up and at the door, ready to shlep back and forth to my Tuesday night class....so I am making other things, like this. The cover is a bit much. I think I like it that way... snakeskin and flowers, ribbon and a splash of pink.
Inside cover is a deep reddish pink with watermarks... matches the flowers perfectly...
At first I thought I'd have a closed spine, but in the end chose this open stitch....

Inside there are pages and pages of 80 lb. drawing paper that will stand up nicely to pencil or paint....

I went to knitting today and heard a funny story about a women who couldn't find her cell phone and whose toilet was also plugged up....

yes, I gather it is getting to be a common problem... so word to wise, don't take your cell in there... not in your hand, not in you pocket...

getting messy in the kitchen

bet you thought I was going to do a cooking blog... but no... the paint and paper crept into the kitchen today. the kitchen counter more specifically. I prefer to work standing up, feel like I can see and move better, and this counter is the only place I have to do this. Thank heaven all my paints now fit on this rolling cart (foreground) so what went out was put back just as quickly.
I painted paper... mostly pages from the New Times, but a couple of pages from an old Wall Street Journal and a cool art and culture of Japan magazine I have. I started with a creamy white mixed with gloss medium to begin to take the sharp edges off the design below, yet let some things come through.
After the first layer dried, I began mixing paint and matte medium and put on the second layer, playing with texture... putting in lines
taking some of them away... then letting the paper dry again...
last I went into the paper with a third color, using, in this case, an old credit card to scrape most of the lighter paint off bringing the texture out...
I have 13 pages total, ranging from blue to purple, to red, orange, yellow and green as I did not rinse my paintbrush or pan and just moved around the color wheel... the colors that went on top were often complementary and and scraped on so much of what was under came through...

I will use these painted papers in collage, they will be torn, cut and re-used in my art journal and paintings...

This was a fun and freeing exercise. I've wanted to use paint paper before but always put it off thinking I did not have all the stuff I needed to really do it right. But really what is RIGHT? Now that I realize I can paint on anything nothing is safe...

and this is my new tip... for years I have saved cereal boxes - it is the elementary art teacher in me - but lately I have realized the bags that hold the cereal are this tough plastic stuff. When I finish a box of cereal, I save the box(okay it is a problem) and now I also save the bag by cutting the top and bottom off each end and splitting it. I then have a water proof, washable sheet that next to nothing sticks to. It is perfect for under my projects and I have even used it to make collaged paper, because the paper, if thick enough, will peel right off...

June 20

I learned a new stamping method... making my own stamp pad with cut felt and acrylic paint... then played with what would make a line.... a piece of cardboard, an old credit card, bits of Popsicle stick...
but after the lines it needed more texture, so first I wrote about what I was doing all over the bottom in pencil.... and then cut up a page of an old book and put some in the trees and some going horizontally along the bottom. It is not done, but as yet it has not told me what else it wants to say.
Then I tackled the book cover... just the front so far... with this self-portrait (they are ALL self-portraits aren't they?) which does not look at all like me. But it is a bit how I feel right now... a little fragile... and my eyes are not seeing the world correctly, I don't think...
I keep adding color and playing at the hair... yellowish gray hair is the dickens to get right.
but here, this one is getter... finally have gotten some nice green-purple tones in and the hair color almost spot-on. Should it say something... does it need a word or words. I don't know.
And then this project from last week. Yes a mailbox. By golly I will paint anything... and this one was so dreary I could no longer bear it...
so hauled out all the left over paint I've been storing in the closet and gave it a bit of a facelift.
Sunflowers are cheery... though mine look more like large daisies ...
I had thought originally that I would paint a blue background and make the numbers black... but I quite liked it with the brown, plus the sun was burning holes into my no-sunscreen toes and making the paint dry just about the same time it hit the mailbox...

So there you go... I am keeping occupied... and I have not taken any pictures of the community garden which is coming along nicely. I have completed my raised bed and no-dig garden area and can relax until it is time to plant which will not be until cooler weather makes it's way back into the valley...

Oh! and my class at PVCC is a definite go... there is still time to register if you know anyone who is interested. Tah da, Tah da Tah da!

June 14

I completed the mosaic house number plaques yesterday... feeling done with the glass, glue, grout routine and thinking about books and painting... above is Judy's, below is mine...I ran out of square pieces of glass and used the scrap that was in the boxes or glass... I don't know which I like better.

Now that these are done I can turn my attention to the two other things I have planned for this week... getting my garden completely ready for fall planting and painting K's mail box while she is out of town.

Here are a couple shots of the boys... two of them anyway...
making birthday cards for their mom... and doing some creative writing.... inside
outside....
and P's underwater scene... he must of been thinking about going to the beach...
and here is how we keep our cool in AZ... water + dry air mean rapid evaporation which results in a quick cooling... too bad it is short lived.
the best part of this one is he had some trouble getting out of the bucket.... : )

arts n' crafts

Last Friday the boys were over and I pulled out paints,brushes, pens, oil pastels, stamps and stencils and all the ideas I'd gotten from the Jane LaFazio workshop I had taken in Costa Mesa a few weeks before. While P. above did his own thing (he's five... notice he has written - I gave him the letters - 'two monsters' but from right to left) W and I played at experimenting with color texture and media.

After we practiced doing everything, W. (7)decided to start another picture... one with trees and stamped leaves... he had seen a drawing in my book from the JL workshop and wondered how I did it... so we found a picture of a motorcycle, put tissue paper over it, drew around the image and then glued it onto his picture... he was leery of the process at first but once he saw the line drawing in his landscape he was excited about coloring it in.
here's a close-up...
and this is my little painted page... as the boys painted and drew, so did I... I couldn't believe it when we had spent over two hours drawing, painting, experimenting. I think it was all the selection of media that kept their interest up.
and then there are these little mosaic's ... the one above done for second daughter. Her house number... once I started I decided to do one
for me.... and then because I'd promised to a house number above the garage door I had painted I am doing a bigger one for
Judy.

5 bags

I have made it through almost every recycled sweater I have on hand... the only one left is a white cable... beautiful and soft... think it might like being something other than a bag. Some of these bags were beginning to go south and I just let go a little more and did some experimenting and brought them back....
I wore this sweater for years and finally decided it was too short-too tight and so I sacrificed it to the hot water and the heavy duty load and it has been re-born as this nifty maroon felted wool bag. 15 inches wide and 9 deep, this bag has all the room it needs to stash all your things.... and a front pocket, too. (My dad, and honestly, who made him an authority on woman's bags, says all purses should have pockets) So here is a pocket for my dad. Oh, and the "flower" safety pinned on so it can be moved or removed for laundering.

This one was a Goodwill find... an XXL men's size... and it shrunk to this beautiful dense fabric that will stands up to anything you'd want to toss into it. The flower with the asymmetric button center softens the sporty stripes. It measures 15 deep and 10 wide. No pocket, sorry dad.

oh, here is a close up of one of my flowers.... the flowers change everything.

and here is the whole bag... another stripe. I was worried this one would not work as a bag, but I wore it out the other day and had positive comments and the girl at the hardware store told me I ought to sell them.... 10 deep, 13 wide. The stripes are navy, yellow and creamy white

and this one, another Goodwill, half price sale find. The color has some definite cranberry tones but there is a tiny bit of bright orange in the heathered yarn. this one felted quite densely.... something I really like in a bag. The pocket has been machine stitched and then had sewn onto the bag body. The flower is a combo of left over sweater scraps, felted wool, some orange dyed chiffon and a novelty button. Measurements: 9 high, 12 wide.

and I know you have already seen this one, but I couldn't help but include it again.... 10 high, 13 wide.

I have put the sewing machine away, saved every minuscule bit of scrap(a problem, I know), and cleaned off my dining room table and kitchen bar... Shortly the paper will be hauled out, the board and the glue, the waxed linen and it will be bookmaking time. I'll show you those in a couple of days.

Oh, and it is 85 here. Really a bit too warm, but must admit I am loving it.

Movement

Several years ago, on a different blog, I wrote that there had been "no movement to speak of" in me. While I didn't feel stuck, I felt still... and probably a bit uncertain.

I was digging in a bin a few weeks ago and found a collage I'd done probably two years ago... that says, Patience grows thin, jump whispers the voice.... and in another spot, "the other side of stillness is joy".

Anyway, I finally did jump and since that moment the movement in my life has been gaining momentum, finding clear direction... and in the past month I feel it has gone from a nice sedate 30 MPH to probably 5 miles above the legal limit.... I have a class coming up, a workshop scheduled, a teaching gig in the future, an arts fair to prepare for, an adult class I'm leading at church, a community garden I have been gently pulling for beginning to take form.... honestly, I'm having some trouble getting my foot firmly planted on the ground!
Liz got me this subscription as a Christmas gift... it fills my head with ideas big and small, it has sent me on searches looking for books recommended, media not yet experienced... it is developing my vocabulary. It feeds my creative energy and makes me become impatient to get to work.My kitchen counter/dining room table are covered with scissors and scrap, ribbon and pens, needles and pins.... since last week I have been in bag making mode. Snipping, stitching, ripping out, felting a bit more, stitch, play..... pushing enough aside to have a square of counter to eat on... joy.

Using this old reliable sewing machine... my grandmother's. She made the most beautiful curtains on this machine and I have all the pleat attachments she used. I have been thinking about a new machine.... one that zig-zags, one that might embroider... one with a tension that is not fussy (like my unused newer machine that is too frustrating to use)... but I love the look and feel of this beauty... I love the smell when the motor is working.... I love that I can sit down, thread it and it works every single time, whether I am sewing through leather or sheer fabrics without changing a needle or adjusting the tension.

Here are the two re-purposed sweaters into bags I've been making. They are nearing completion and I've told myself they will be done by end of day Wednesday... the rest of the week pulls me somewhere else.....

I finished Hannah Coulter Sunday night. I did not want it to be done, it has been my still space for the last week. It is part of a series by Wendell Berry on the residents of Port William (Kentucky?). A beautiful, spiritual account of a woman's life, the community that surrounded and nurtured her, and the land that sustained them all. Makes me long for all we have lost and determined to reinvent here in this sprawling city.

shades of green

I have a salad garden... peppery mustard greens, collards and beet greens.... not only is this a delicious salad, but the colors are beautiful.....
Just like the beautiful green of this re-purposed sweater... once lovingly hand knit into a cozy cardigan, it felted down to the perfect bag weight.

Once done, I took it straight outside to get a true-green picture.... look what happened to the color when I hung it from my turquoise blue storage room door... washed all the green right out, but really enhanced the red-orange of the flower....

This is the bag again, hanging from my office door... the color is much greener, but still not as green as the first photo, taken on my stove top under fluorescent light....

Here is a close up of the flower.... I was ready last night to toss all these green left-overs, but when I gathered them into my hand I realized I had something and this morning I dug around and found some nice felted bits to add to them. The flower is pinned on, so it can be removed if I need to launder the bag.

The bag measures 13wide, 8 high with about a 24" double handle. I saved the cardigan front and think it gives it a nice look with the vintage buttons.

The back is plain. The handles have a running machine stitch... five or six actually... to help stabilize it and prevent too much stretching...

oh... and the real color... closer to the first picture under the artificial light.

I have a couple other sweaters in my stash that would work for purses.... I'll let you know how they turn out.