Hey, it's that time again, and I am so excited to say it is now March, or will be in a few hours!! That sounds a lot better than saying it's January, right?! I'm still trying to keep up with Miss Kate over at The Kathryn Wheel, who has set a wonderful example of how to keep up an art calender. My apologies for the lousy photos, it's the best I could get. Now I just hope that I can incorporate some pictures in here of plant buds and blossoms sometime soon... Let's keep our fingers crossed!!
Julie, of PRAIRIE THISTLE, is offering this beautiful Madonna and Child reliquary as a giveaway to celebrate her 400th post! It is a gorgeous piece, made with such care and meaning.....go HERE to read her post and beautiful philosophy and inspiration. You will surely leave there inspired and touched. Thank you Julie.
I am really enjoying this fabric art/collage thingie, and have already started on another. Here, I dyed some cheesecloth with a paint mixture I made...I just love that texture. I layered that over a piece of coffee stained muslin that I stamped with one of my script stamps. I stamped the "heart's desire" on muslin and sewed that to the heart I cut out of muslin. I sewed the heart onto a beautiful piece of rose colored fabric with a great dot pattern on it, that I received in my winning package from Lorraine Stobie from the OWOH giveaway. If your looking for great fabric swatches, this lady makes the most beautiful ones...WOW . Added some lace that I coffee stained also to the bottom, and some vintage buttons from my stash....all sewn on a piece of natural batting. The bow thing at the bottom was kind of an accident. I had torn some strips of the muslin to adjust the size earlier, and they were laying on the table. It was just a moment of looking at them , picked them up and tied a knot, then I distressed that with some rose distress ink, and stamped some text on there also. I think that is it, although I know it didn't go in that order!
I haven't forgotten about jewelry! This is a mixed metal bracelet, sterling and copper, handmade jump rings again. I have to thank sweet girlfriend Esther for the wonderful French coin, and my dear friend LeAnn, for these wonderful blue and brown beads. LeAnn's beads are pure magic. I, and many others have always talked about the fact of how we love to just roll LeAnn's beads in our hands, we love the soothing way they feel. For me, the magic goes way beyond that, and they speak to me. These photos are what they said.
Here is some new mail art I created, for a swap of course. After ATC's this is my next favorite...mail art. It's so much fun , and it's great when you receive them too. As you can see, I like to let me imagination run wild here. For this one I used some vintage text, collage pieces of birds and fish, and markers, and paint. The focal image of the two girls is from a new stamp from Artistic Outpost" called "Birds of a Feather." You can check out all their stamps at this link, http://www.artisticoutpost.com/. Their stamps are unusual and really great!
My good friend Lenna Andrews hosted an ATC swap called "Love Gone Wild" recently, and I have to say it was absolutely terrific! These are photos of the the 4 ATC's I received in return, they are just incredible! I have seen pictures of the others on Lenna's Creative Swaps blog, and the quality of the artwork is top notch! If you've wanted to try a swap, this is the place. Lenna supplies such thorough instructions, tips, advice, and great friendship!! Here is a photo of the ATC I made......it was really a lot of fun. Out of all the art and mixed media forms, ATC's are still my favorite. I can't wait to see what Lenna has planned for the next swap!
I want to say thank you to Lenna for hosting and all her hard work, and to Casie Metcalf, owner of Vintage Image Madness, who sponsored prizes and image sheets for everyone! Also a big thanks to all the participants who I was lucky enough to receive their ATC's and to get to see great new artists on Lenna's blog!
Helga, at MyARTisitic Life, has posed a challenge this week of making a twinchie, a 2x2 work of art, or using one you have, and doing something with it. This is my "first" twinchie ever....and I made mine into a magnet. Now it goes on my fridge, and I think I will make some of these throughout the year as small gifts to tuck in with larger ones I give. I like it!
Look at these luscious enamel beads, made by the one and only Barbara Lewis of Jewelry of Distinction, and Painting with Fire! Barbara is celebrating her new blog design by having a giveaway of these babies...woooeeeee!! Click on the picture to take you there!!
I am always working on something, and this one I just got started . It is a book of tags, of course it would have to have a theme, and this one is birds, with pointy hats and words! It is for a swap, we create the little folded book out of a double sided scrapbook paper, and then create 8 tags to fit in. For the swap we keep our own book, but the tags get swapped out. So far I only have three done, but I have a few more tricks up my sleeve! The size of the book and tags is approx. 3"x4". Besides this I have about 8 different other projects going. Sometimes I think I am crazy, but I seem to NEED the next thing in line so my brain keeps going. Feeding off of work and chaos sometimes is exhilarating, but sometimes it's a crash and burn scenario too! Does anyone else have that problem? The subconcious fear that slacking will lead to failure somehow? Please share!!
I have been working behind the scenes for a while now on a few personal projects of mine. If all works out well, I will share them in the future, but that is where the bulk of my energy seems to go lately. I always have to make something in between though for more of an instant gratification ....thus more earrings! The first pair , with the most gorgeous lime chalcedony briolettes, are on of my favorite combinations of blue/green, and the tinge of rust and aged cream. The second pair was born in my mind after I saw the beautiful lotus stamp on Fundamentals website, simple and pure...one of my favorite designs.
I made a trip to the flea market recently, and found a few little goodies. Nothing jewelry related, but collage and mixed media pieces, and my little hands are scheming as to what the best thing to do here is! The cabinet cards I think will go in a fabric piece somehow, and the ruler and Kodak exposure guide a collage must! That nifty book at the bottom is so filled with odd little images, I have to look at that for a while. I will be going back because I know their is more where this cam from!
Here is my 2nd piece of fabric art, and I can't decide what to do with it. I may keep it, or list it on etsy...what to do??? I started with a coffee stained piece of muslin, and then layered a vintage turquoise quilt piece, a vintage lace trim cut off a very old dress I bought years ago, but the dress had a hole in it. I had this dress for at least 20 years, and it was from the 30's, so I finally recycled it! I cut the top heart out of natural fiber . I used my stash of sari silk for the loop and to hang a vintage key from my stash. The buttons , the bone flower, and the beads, all vintage again. I glued the buttons on because they all still had the original thread in them, and I love the character of that. The crystal quartz briolette is new ! My mind is swirling with ideas...this one came together so fast...I hope I keep up! Thanks for visiting...I always appreciate your input.
So I broke down , caved in and drug out the sewing machine, and succumbed to another addictive art form. AND LOVED IT! I didn't buy anything new either, except some good thread, which is way pricier than the last time I bought it years ago . This was made for a swap, a theme of trees and bookmarks, and I just dove right in. Didn't really know what I was doing, but it felt good not to have lines to go by, and intuition works wonders sometimes....errrr,..... most of the time, I think.
It really has been one of the rougher weeks I've experienced in quite a while. Health and family issues have been getting in my creative way. This was just done quickly for a swap, a theme of butterflies, that was it. This literally flew out of my head, and then I recognized myself!
Again with the earrings, I know, BUT, every day is a good earring day for me! I have to say that there is nothing quite like the pleasure I get out of working with metal. It is hard to desribe, but I think some of it comes from the physical process of working with it, pounding, and manipulating. There is something about it being raw, pure, unaltered, and I can alter it. I really enjoy making my own jump rings as I have here, I almost feel guilty when on occassion I don't. These are now listed in my etsy shop.....here.
