My Show and Snowmen

So my show opened and everyone seemed to enjoy it. My pieces are all hanging. The work on the pedestals is the artist I shared the show with. I am going to take better pictures and will post them when I do.

The weather here is simply dreadful and nasty. We got a 1/4 inch of ice last night. had to thaw the satelites with a heat gun. Man I am NOT a winter person.

These are some snowmen I made from Cloth Paper Scissors. I have such fun making them. Just playing ya know? I am so behind in everything. An altered book RR, a personal swap with Val. Housework. you name it I am behind in it.

This is hunting season, so we have had a big hairy guy friend of Jimis staying with us a lot. So I have been doing the cooking and catering to men thing. Not fun.

But I am hoping to get back on track soon.

What is it about this time of year, no matter how often I say it will be stressfree and easy, it never is.

Peace

The Guardian

Awhile ago I posted the beginning of this piece. Then I kind of backburnered him. When I found out about the show I didn't think I would have time to finish, but YAY I did.
This shot shows his feet which I added claws to. They came from my really old cat who sheds them on a regular basis. I don't know why but he does. And being me, I save them His head is made from the Devils Claw my buddy Rose sent me from Arizona. Truly weird stuff. I gave him red garnet eyes.

All told he stands just short of a foot in height. I decorated his base with a bunch of stones I pried from old costume jewelry. I really love the skull bead. The crystals towards his tail are also from Rose. She collected them for me. Rose, you rock!!

Sprinkled around the jewels are micron beads from Fire Mountain. The base is a slab of agate I use for a weight when I'm working. But it seemed like it needed to be used for this. So I'll just have to go outside and find a rock to use for weight instead.

Hope you like him.

Peace

The winner and the Winter Queen

First, the winner of the give-away is Carol from Art-N-Quilt. Congratulations Carol. And thanks to everyone who took part in my very first give-away.
So awhile ago I started the Winter Queen and gave up on her.
I just couldn't figure out how to finish her up. Then my sister Kate suggested the fabric treatment and VOILA she was right.Itis just what I needed.
I pried up part of the fox fur and glued it inplace. Then I just twisted it till it looked right. Then I sewed a few seed beads to hold the twist in place. Then I used a tack on the back to secure it.

All in all I'm pretty happy with her. She will be going into the show.

Peace

Sculpting the wind

I forgot to say about the Dark Angel that she is beaded on both sides and meantto be hung from the ceiling.
So, awhile ago I posted about the wind arund here. It blows all the time seems like. And we live a couple of 15 feet from the edge of a pine forest, so it sounds sometimes like being in a tornado.
So it was bothering me one night and I started thinking of that song 'They Call The Wind Mariah'. And I decided to sculpt the wind.
I LOVE using window screen. You can get some very cool effects from it. So I cut a piece and turned the edges and then just folded it till I was happy. Then I started beading with colors that match the screen and tattered strips of chiffon just for more texture.
Then I made the face from sculpey and beaded around her.

Then I cut another peicec and turned the edges and mounted the piece with 26 g silver wire and Mariah was born.

I am VERY happy with how she turned out.

But man oh man what a lot of work. You could go blind doing that kind of beading.

Peace

Angel Obscura

This is 'Angel Obscura' which is Dark Angel in Spanish so I'm told. I sculpted the wing in flexible modeling paste. Then I painted the whole wing in metallic black and hilighted in metallic purple and blue.

Then I drilled holes for the chain to hang and beaded in 15/0 seed beads from Fire Mountain Gems.

I'm not going to share what I used for the base at this time. Sorry, I usually share everything, but not this time.

This piece is about 2 feet wide and about 1 1/2 feet hi.

Hope you like it.

Peace

Yay I'm back online!!!

Hi everybody! I feel like I've been gone for ages. Our computer died and we had to wait awhile to get it fixed. And living where I do, and not knowing anyone in the area really, I didn't have access to one to use. I did go to the library a couple of times and used theirs, but all I managed to do was ask a friend to let you all know where I was.
I have some big news. I am going to be having a gallery show in Dec. It is my first and I will be showing with another mixed media artist. This is my first show and I am very excited.
So this is one of the peices I made for it. The face is painted and covered with pics of silver screen sirens. The film reels are mounted with liquid nails. The curly stuff is film strips. I call her 'Goddess' Of The Silver Screen. Then I wanted to try my hand at mosiacs for awhile, but couldn't get inspired by anything. Then I was given a broken mirror and thought 'ooh this could be cool'. So I tried to break it, but it is a really old mirror and wouldn't shatter like I wanted. So I got some mirror tiles and had a lot of fun smashing them.
Then I placed them around and glued them in place. Then since I mounted them on canvas I used modeling paste instead of grout. I thought the grout might be too heavy. Then I painted using metallic craft paint. And there you go. It is called 'Reflections'.

Finally, to celebrate being back among the artful, I am doing my first give-away. This is a really fun 2009 calendar. I will pick a name from the first 20 people who leave comments here. I hope you win it, it is a pretty calendar.

Thanks to my friends who E'd asking if I was ok. I am sorry I couldn't respond. But I was very touched that you missed me.

Peace

Finished Whimsy

I am very happy with the result of my attempt at whimsy. This is the first time I have ever put my handwriting on anything artistic. It is such an untidy scrawl that I never thought it would work, but it ain't half bad!

So, this is an 8x10 canvas. First I put a light coat of modeling paste down. After that dried the first color went on. Sfter that dried I put on the second color. But I didn't cover it completely. And around the edges of some of the open spaces I dabbed with a paper towel just cuz. I put the blue on sort of thick and while it was still wet I wrote in it with the big end of a flat toothpick.
Here's what I wrote:
what would you be if you could dream a new life
would you fly across the clouds or glide to the bottom of the ocean
would you dance across the stage of life taking bows and giving encores
would you sing in a voice so pure it would make people cry
or would you just be


Then I wanted some big stamp effect, but I don't have any big stamps. So I cut one out of a piece of that foamy stuff you use for kids crafts. That's what the diamond shapes are.

Then I found a bird image and cut into it so it would look like the bird had dressed up in peacock feathers. Then I found the metal thingie in my stash and there ya go!

Oh and I painted some little wooden pieces black and glued them up top.

This piece is titled' Dream' and after I live with it for awhile it will probably go into my Etsy shop.

Peace

A Dragon In The Making

I am really excited about this. It is going to be a Dragon sculpture. You are looking at the tail and the head. I am stringing small bones on copper wire. They are very small, about 1/4 inch or so. The biggest cgallenge is getting them glued together without any glue showing. So this is the tail and next I will be working on the back, ribs and legs. I even got some cat claws to use as talons! Did you know when cats get REALLY old they shed their claws? I didn't, but they do.
This is going to be the head. It is a piece of Devils Claw from my friend Rose in AZ. I gave it a shot of white spray paint and am going to add a little off-white so it matches the bones better.
This is a collage/mixed media piece I have just started. I have never used my writing in a piece before because I write like a grade school kid. But I figured I would give it a shot on this piece and it's not too bad.
I wanted to stamp big shapes, but I don't have any big stamps so I made my own with that foamie stuff you use to make stuff for kids.
So that's what I've been up to.

Peace

OMG I left out a step!!

Sorry everybody! I forgot to say that I sanded the wood filler after it dried and before I painted it!
Peace

Sunken Tin Tutorial

First I want to thank all of you who posted such kind words while I was in my funk. I'm better now. I think it was a combo of isolation, flooding work, and being cut off from Hobby Lobby and a good grocery store because of the water. Hopefully they will open the road again one of these days.

So anyway, here is how I did the piece retitled 'She Waits'.
I took an Altoid tin apart. Then I traced around the bottom of the tin on the front of the canvas. Then I cut into it in an X shape, making sure not to go all the way to the edges. I wanted to have a snug fit.
Then I put the tin in from the front. I masking taped it in front to hold it in place. Then I folded the pieces from the X over the tin and glued them in place. I glopped Wood Filler around the tin and pushed it around till I got close to these shapes. Then using clay tools I scraped off the excess and refined the shapes. Sinci I don't have any big stamps, I drew in the filler after it had dried a little, maybe 5 mins., using a toothpick.

I cut a piece of paper and glued it into the tin. Then I found an image I liked and a flower, and took the middle out of the flower. I glued a watch face to the flower and glued it into the tin. Then I gel mediumed the image so it looks like she is holding the flower.
Oh, before I filled the tin I painted the background. Then I thought it needed something, so I got out my Rub n Buff and applied it to the swirls. I used copper. I love this stuff. A little goes a loooong way and you can buff it to a shine.

Then I painted some lace trim black and glued it in place and glued on the letters. I may knock down the background color a bit, but other than that I think it's done.
Oh, I did put some filler on the inside edges of the tin too.

I listed some more magazines and supplies in my Etsy store. One set of mags is Arts and Activities. It used to be put out by the Expressions folk. A great mag for working artistically with kids.

Peace

This and That

I got the nicest surprise in the mail from my friend Pat. She is Artrix in my links, check out her amazing work. This is a grungeboard piece and I just love it! It is a pin, but I think it needs to be incorporated into an art piece. Hmm.. This is a little collage I did for my friend Cathie from Magickal Glassworks in my links.
The little girl is her baby Willow. She got her self dressed up and this is the adorable result. The hat and boots really make the outfit!
This is an experiment using wood filler for texture on the background. I didn't have any suitable stamps to stamp it so I just swirled with a toothpick. Then after it dried I started sanding.
I sunk an Altoid tin into the canvas. I have an image and some stuff to fill the tin and the background will be painted and whatevered. The basic idea of the piece is 'Alone". I am going to be using some words from songs like 'One For My Baby' and 'In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning'. It will be kind of a dark piece because I have been feeling sort of dark and lonely lately.
Peace

Working the Flood

I haven't been very creative lately. Time has been spent working the flood around here. First there were sandbags to be done, and let me tell you, sandbagging is a young persons thing. I have never worked so hard and been so sore and tired in my life.
Now I have been going into the next town over to help feed people who need it.
The town is Keithsburg and they have suffered greatly from this. A tiny place, full of nice people, many older, they really need help.
I have been working with the pastor of their church, and if anyone would like to help here is what you can do...
There are many many months of clean-up ahead of them. Many families lost everything inside their homes. The clean-up after a flood is really nasty. To see everything piled at the curb breaks your heart.
So if anyone is interested, they could use gift cards from Wal-Mart, Lowes and Menards. That way they can get lumber,drywall,bleach,rubber gloves and all the other things they will need to come back from this devistation.
Cards can be sent to:
Pastor Chuck Reynolds
Keithsburg Christian Church
2005 Main St.
Keithsburg, Il
61442
He will see that they are used correctly.
Thank you
Peace

An Inka original and a Skull

My friend Inka and I did a one on one swap and this beauty is what she sent me. I love it and am thrilled to have an Inka original. I am hanging it in my bedroom.
This is the skull I got from my friend Rose. I started doing the regular dot painting that I have done before and ended up painting it out twice! The base color makes it almost look like suede. But I couldn't decide what the design needed to be.
So after looking at it for days, it turned into this Tribal Skull.
Kind of simple and primitive feeling.
Peace

Another Vintage Sewing Shrine

I think this one is kind of fun. Very different from my other shrines. The figurine is big enough that I didn't think it would look right in a 'house'. So I got a wooden base from Hobby Lobby and stained it. the I mounted the wooden finials. They are from old flag poles from the town I used to live in. They were giving the poles away so I took them because, well, just because. The biggest one is the perfect seat height for the figure.
The buttons are vintage from my stash. So is the tape measure.
The thread spools are a hoot. They have the price stamped on them. 15 and 25 cents! That shows you how old they are!
I'm pleased with this, I think it is retro funky fun.
I will be putting it in my Etsy store.
Peace

I Got Tagged

I got tagged by my buddy Christie @ http://serenitynow.blogspot.com/
So the way this works is I post 6 things about me that people don't know. Then I tag 6 people and they post and so on and so on. Also I let them know they have been tagged by E-mail.
So, let's see, I did this once before so it's a little harder to come up with something interesting or weird.
1- Clowns weird me out! I don't think they're funny, I think they're scary. I won't even do an ATC exchange that is clowns!
2-I am painfully shy. I am uncomfortable meeting new people. And I would rather be in the background then ever have attention on me.
3-The only sporting event I will willingly watch from beginning to end is Heavyweight Boxing.Of course it was different when Michael Jordan played for the Bulls and when Ditka coached the Bears.
4-I cannot stand to have anyone use my pillow. Doesn't matter who it is, don't touch my pillow.
5-I get really freaked out by the wind in the pines. I am always afraid a tree will blow over onto the house.
6-I'm a good shot.

Whew, that was hard.
So now I am tagging:
Inka from http://inkaland.blogspot.com/
Linda from http://jewelsoftheeast.blogspot.com/
Kim from http://threadtales.blogspot.com/
Kim from http://vintagesprings.blogspot.com/
Dawn from http://goldbettyboop.blogspot.com/
Val from http://valsalteredheartjourney.blogspot.com/

Peace

Suggested by Val

My inspirational buddy Val-Vals Altered Heart Journey in my links-suggested that I tell about how I did the last textured piece I posted. So here goes...

I used Artist board for the base again. I really like it when I am going to be adding a lot of stuff. No worries about buckling or warping. And it isn't too expensive. I get mine from Dick Blick.
Instead of tissue paper, this time I gooped on gesso and layed cheese cloth on. Then I added more gesso, just glopped it on and threw in some modeling paste just 'cause.

I put the branch on first. Glued it in place and after it dried, I added the nest and other stuff.

The nest was a many step process. First I gel-mediumed it. Then after that dried I gessoed it. Then after that dried I cut it in half. I glued it in place with E6000, the same glue I used for the branch and window and bricks and bark.

Then I used gel-medium to attach the leaves.

After that all dried, I used modeling paste to build up around the bricks and window and branch and nest etc. I just use my fingers to put it on. Easier to smooth that way.

Then I put modeling paste on top of all the leaves. I let them set for a few minutes and took a toothpick and drew in the veins.

After that all dried I gessoed everything. After that dried I looked around at different angles and added more modeling paste where I needed to.


From there it is just painting. I do the whole thing in one color. Then I use a shade lighter for accent. Then I use metallic craft paints for hi-lights. This was a tough one to paint. Lots of nooks and crannies. I even had to use a toothpick to get into the nest spaces.

Oh I almost forgot, I mounted the eye in paper clay. And the arm coming out of the nest is from a doll I took apart. It is holding a little egg.

So that's how it's done. Very time consuming with all the dry time. But fun I think.

Peace

What I've been doing and what I'm gonna do

Boy, it's been a long time since I posted. I've been creating some, and trying to get some order in my studio. It may just be a losing battle. This is a shrine in the making. It has been developing in my head since I got the vintaged sewing figurines. They come from my buddy Rose in AZ. We met online and have been E'ing everyday since. We send goodie boxes back and forth and these figurines were in my last box. They are too cute so of course they have to be 'shrined'. But since they are so dimensional, I am doing a standing shrine instead of a house type. The vintage spools of thread came from Rose too.I am very excited about these. They are just too cute! Thanks again Rose!! www.myspace.com-roachez36 Check out her work, she is amazing!
She also has a website in my links-Altered Rose.

I have been doing another textured piece too. It may be finished, I'm not sure.
I really like the way the nest turned out. But man what a pain making sure all the little spaces are painted!
I completed Dawns little thingie, but I can't show it to you 'cause it is in the mail on it's way to her and she should see it first. Dawn is another amazing artist-Gold Betty Boop- in my links.

I'm really very lucky to have met so many artists online.

Peace

Mary

The Jawbone Of A ???

Boy it seems like forever since I posted here. We finally got some good sunny days and I've been working outside. With all the rain we've had the weeds are crazy. I have quite the crop of Dandelions this year.

The poor farmers around here still have water laying in their fields. I'll bet they are checking the want ads for summer work, 'cause it doesn't look good for planting.

But I have been working in my studio too. I have a couple of pieces in the works, and I finished this. I don't know what kind of jaw this is for sure. I think it's a Deer. I'm almost positive it is.

Anyway, I drilled a hole(very carefully) in it for the hangar. And then just started painting.



I gave it a light base and used the metallic craft paints again. They seem to work best on skulls and bones.
I did the black parts because the bone was so rough it wouldn't take dot painting.

I gave it a sinew hanger and a turquoisebead, shell slice and Duck feather embellishment.
I'm liking the black parts and may have to play around with them some more.

I am working on another heavily backgrounded piece like 'Life Outside The Window'. And another shrine.

Oh and I am doing a little surprise for my online buddy Dawn (Gold Betty Boop). I saw an image that made me think of her and I had to do something with it.

Peace

Ahead Of The Game

When I found this doll I almost didn't take her. She was so odd looking that I wasn't sure I would ever use her. But Then common sense prevailed and I brought her home. Never pass up supplies.

So when I took her apart, I kept her head on my worktable. That sounds sort of odd doesn't it? But the longer I looked at her, the more she reminded me of those lovely seniors who travel to Bingo games and play the Slots etc.
And so 'Ahead Of The Game' was born. I wanted to use all kinds of game pieces, but they are harder to get than you would think. Unless of course you buy new games. But I had some Bingo things and some dice and dominoes and cards and a Monopoly piece. So I think it gets the point across.

I gave her a lace collar because it seemed to fit her hairstyle and demeanor.

I'm going to put her in Etsy.
Peace