Marie Antoinelephant

I'd like to introduce you to... Marie Antoinelephant! A very elegant regal Pachyderm who lived in the 1700's. She coined the term "Let them eat Peanuts!" Below, you can see she is ready for the grand Masquerade ball. 

She enjoys a bit of tea and crumpets in the afternoons with her lady friends. 

Although quite a beauty, she still has her insecurities and will be frequently overheard asking her ladies in waiting "Does this dress make my butt look big?"

Of course her Ladies-in-waiting assure her, no matter which direction she faces, she is beautiful!

I'm sorry that I can't take credit for this beautiful piece of artwork. It was made by my mini-me, Celia. My very special 10 year old partner-in-art. She got a paper mache elephant from the craft store and dug into my bin of Marie Antoinette "stuff" and created this piece of art. It's going to be represented by a New York Gallery and priced at $13,000. Haha. Not.


Celia says: 
:-)

Cuff Love

This is the first cuff I ever made and I think I'm in love. Talk about a quick and easy project... and beautiful too! (I love instant gratification projects!) My base fabric was a strip of canvas and I just started layering laces and cheesecloth and more laces and ribbons and finally sewed on a row of buttons. It has a button and loop closure but I may change that because it's hard to put on by myself. Here's some more views:

Then I thought... hmm. What if I used some brighter fabric and some metal embellishments and made a funkier mixed media cuff? 

I sewed some black netting over some metal washers on some painted fabric squares. Then sewed those squares to some hand dyed fabric which was sewed to my canvas strip base.

To add some more metal goodness, I sneaked some metal Heishi Beads from my inventory at Artistcellar and hand sewed those on between the squares. To close the cuff, I added two metal snaps. 

I really like the way it turned out. So I made another one. They are like potato chips... can't have/make just one! This time I took step by step pictures. My focal point was a beautiful fabric ribbon flower my friend Sox sent me.

First, like with the rest, I started out with a plain canvas strip that I ripped to size. 

Next, I got out my Brocade Stencil and some Adirondack Color Wash Spray.

Gave it a good spritz with the Color Wash spray in Denim. Oh yeah, I'm real precise here. I just layed the stencil on top, just like you see in the picture. 

Next I auditioned some laces. I found some that was just the right width and transparent enough to let the painted base show through. 

And sewed it on top of the canvas base with a regular straight stitch on the sewing machine. 

Next I wanted a narrower ribbon to run up the center. I wanted it to stand out so I went with this heavier, opaque trim and stitched it up the center. 

Before adding the delicate flower, I needed to figure out a way to close it. I went with two white metal snaps, so easy to put on the ends. 

Last, I hand sewed the ribbon flower to the center of the cuff. Viola! A beautiful, delicate Flower Cuff! 

What do you think? You want to make one now don't you? I'm warning you... they're addicting. But if you do try it, send me a link in the comments section cause I wanna see too!

You are my Sunshine...

I thought this was appropriate... today was the first day in... a week? that the sun actually shone all day long. No afternoon thunderstorms or clouding up at 10:00 a.m. I'll bet it made for some nice Memorial Day Picnics... and sunburns! The high today was 91 degrees F. 


This journal page was made with only Copic Markers. The most recent issue of Cloth Paper Scissors had a few articles in it that inspired me. One article was on making the doodle type lettering and the other article was on using Copic Markers. Those suckers are expen$ive but I managed to complete a few 3-way colorways (thanks for HobbyLobby coupons) to help with the depth of shading. For example, you start with a light purple, add a medium purple as shading, then use the darkest purple to shade further. All those numbers on the caps? It's all secret code for the color families. Who knew?


Have a productive week everyone!

Words Matter: My First Published Artwork!

I knew it was coming but it wasn't completely REAL until I got my copy of the magazine in the mail. My artwork, something I painted with my own hands, in print!

The funny thing is, I didn't submit the artwork, the art director of the magazine found it on my blog and asked if she can use it. The magazine is the May/June issue of Horizons Magazine, published by Presbyterian Women. It accompanies an article called "Words Matter"- about how the words we choose (or don't say) shape our reality and how we experience the world and ourselves. I am very honored to have my artwork accompany this article, as many of you might know, words are very important to me. Almost every piece of artwork I make has a word or words on it that help express the feeling I want to convey. Or maybe just a word that is important to me and no one else. 


I want to thank Tam over at Willowing.ning. It was in her free online class "Art, Heart, and Healing" where I made this journal page. Not only did she teach me how to make a stylized portrait with water soluble crayons and paint, and create some awesome backgrounds (can you say brayer?) but she made me think about how, with inner strength, we can move past those words that have hurt us in the past and heal. Here is a closeup of just the journal page: 

You know what I love? The idea of women telling stories of how words from the past have affected who they are today. Maybe I'll write a book about it someday.  I'll put it on my to-do list.


Happy Hump-day! Have a great rest of the week!

Springspiration is in the Air

Ha! I just made that word up. Springspiration. The feeling you have when flowers suddenly burst from the trees, and the brown lawns suddenly turn chemical green. Those darn weeds start growing like... well, weeds. The birds are back, gathering nesting material and twitterpating in the trees. Growth, Birth, Renewal, Revival, Energy...

The top picture is an "Inspiration Card" I made for Val in a group we belong to. The picture below is a journal page I made for the Roses on my Table Journaling group. The prompt was something like "splatters and drips".  I had so much making these. I dripped some acrylic ink on the page and took a straw and blew the ink around. A few came up looking like roots and I thought "Hmm. I wonder if I can make trees?" So about 274 practice sheets and a few hyperventilation episodes later I figured out how to make a tree. On my final pieces, I took Tim Holtz Distress Stains, put a few drips on my craft sheet, dipped a wet paintbrush into it and washed the page with the ink. To get the darker colors, I used it straight from the dauber top. (I love this stuff!) Then I started blowing the ink around. (I used acrylic ink that came in a little bottle with a dropper) The good thing is, you never know what you're going to get. The bad thing is, you never know what you're going to get. Serendipity at it's finest. Enjoy!

(Hmm. I just noticed I have two male Cardinals in my trees. I guess they are having a singing duel, best one wins the girl!)

Collage Graduation

Hehe. I couldn't resist. Probably because every time I see the word "Collage" I think of those 4 years at Arizona State University...

Laura Lein Svencner

Anyway... A few weeks ago I went to a demonstration put on by Laura Lein-Svencner, the cofounder of the Midwest Collage Society.  I've seen her before at Art fairs and love both her drawings and her abstract collage work.  Laura teaches a method of collage where polymer medium coated papers are ripped, composed and fused together with heat. (I believe Jonathon Talbot "invented" this method of collage.) The demo was awesome. She took us through the entire process, from showing us different ways to alter paper to make it our own, coating the papers, assembling the ripped pieces of paper into a pleasing composition, fusing with a tacking iron, finishing, and viola! She is holding the finished product, above. 


Of course I had to try it... so I spent a few days gathering and altering various papers. I finally found a use for all those citra-solved National Geographic Magazine pages. I went for the abstract landscape look. I made two collages, both are on the new Strathmore precut 8x10 watercolor sheets. The actual collage is approximately 4" x 6".  Here's the one I call "Tidepool"

And this one is called "Sunrise" 

I really liked making these, they were really fun to do once all the papers were prepared.  And since I have LOTS of papers ready to go, I am definitely going to make more. The scans don't do them justice. The colors are so vibrant, a little charcoal shading adds depth, the layers add great texture. What do you think? Do I get my Collage Graduate Degree?

When Beauty and Sadness Collide...

I don't think words are really necessary...