Book of Roses

The wonderful techniques I learned from Orly Avineri at ArtFest and my own favorite background and collage work has resulted in my Book of Roses. The pages are of different sizes and cascading with lots of bling and fiber embellishments. It was a undertaking that included liquid inks, black & white & clear gesso, stencils, stamps, acrylics, distress inks, gel and glaze pens, fibers, trim, decorative tape and of course rhinestones. Binding is a 4 hole Japanese with grosgrain ribbon. There are flowers other than roses but they were the main inspiration so they get the accolades. There was some binding angst involved, I now have a Zutter Bind-It-All so future projects with be free of banging the head against the art table. Thanks to Steve at Stampadoodle for ordering in this latest nifty toy for me.

I have been on a bit of a purge fest in the studio, if we ever move it would take me a month to pack the studio so I need to start the paring process. First up, going through all of my books and magazines I have collected for images. How long does it take to go through a cabinet full of National Geographic and cut out only the images you think you will use in the future? It takes a L.O.N.G  time, that's what. Those old encyclopedia's? It was a brutal quick and dirty selection and then into the paper recycling they went.

And too boot I think I have sustained a crafting injury. All of the eyelets in the Book of Roses were put in with the Big Bite punch and setter, its takes some muscle to set the eyelets, so after oh, say a million of them my arm and side muscles were a pretty sore the next day. Gerry was not sympathetic and would not fetch and carry for me, as I sat in my easy chair whining about my serious art injury.

In the garden news portion of this post we are having a freaky spring, too much rain, everything is late, rhodies just NOW blooming, finally could not wait any longer to plant the tomatoes so they are in but with their comfy little water jackets on them. In my world tomato growing is a competitive sport and things must progress ON SCHEDULE, lest I fall behind my rivals (you know who you are!).

ArtFest 2011

ArtFest 2011 was great, loved my classes and soaked in all the exuberant art vibe that comes with this amazing event. Coming back is always kind of let down as you re-enter back into real life, job, laundry and myriad of chores large and small that make up the days, but ArtFest manges to help re-charge the creative batteries no less.

Took Michael deMeng for two classes, "Lonely Hearts" and "Pretty Vial Things". The heart box was just a little wooden box, distressed using Michael;s signature techniques, constructed the heart from Apoxy Clay, first time using that but liked since it air dries. Mine turned out very folk-arty and I love it.

My altered bottle for the next Michael class was a "Shoe Potion" (Jody doing something about shoes....shocking, I know!). More apoxie clay, DAP texture and Barbie doll shoes. The toughest part of this was finding the Barbie shoes, when I was a kid you could buy just the shoes separately, not so much now, had to schlep to 3 different stores in Bellingham, finally found a set of shoes and almost had to throw down in the Barbie Aisle with a 6 year old to get them.

This potion, ingested pre-shopping will guarantee you will find your favorite shoes, on sale and in your size.

The class with with Orly Avineri, "Deck of Roses". Working with a big pieces of watercolor paper she showed us some great techniques with liquid ink, distress ink pads, gesso (black and white) and varnish. These cards still need some pen work but I love them as the photographic images are of my own roses that I slave over every summer.

Here are some pics of Fort Worden, the venue for ArtFest.



Altered Stiletto & Mouse Adventure

New altered Stiletto for the ArtFest gallery, the theme is birds so lots of bright feathers. This shoe was made in memory of my sweet friend Sherri, many of the materials for this shoe were ones that were also used during the last retreat she hosted at her Sparrow's Nest Studio. Body of shoe was covered in altered paper towels and sprinkling of glitter. Heel was painted and then a random application of some Jones Tones foil.

In another shoe related story The Vermin (aka the Cats) have outdone themselves again in the mouse department.

We were sitting watching TV on Sunday and I had not seen the cats in the living room for a bit which usually means they are up to something so I went to find them. They were in the bedroom staring very intently into my closet at my shoes. The back door had been open and they had that "we have something cornered" look in their eyes. After shooing them out of the bedroom against bitter protest and shutting the door I looked around in the closet really good and could not see anything..... and then noticed that one of my brand new 3 inch heels had suddenly grown a long skinny tail. There was a BIG fat mouse tucked into the shoe, the shoe is a peep toe so his little face was peaking out the toe and his tail was hanging over the heel. I picked up the shoe VERY carefully because I did not want him to bolt and then be wandering the house for eternity.  Managed to get mouse, shoe and myself out to the back yard and let him go. I am sure he was pretty traumatized, what with being trapped in that leather prison with two cats breathing down his neck. We think Apollo caught him, and so I guess we have to stop calling Apollo "The Big Marshmallow" and start calling him the "Mighty Hunter".




ArtFest Projects

ArtFest was awesome, as usual. House 15 at Fort Worden was a happening place, what with all the incredible art we made during our classes, all the junk food and wine we consumed and some laughing-til-we-cried moments. My Day One class (Cave of Pages)  was with Michael De Meng, an assemblage artist, known for his slightly dark themes. I knew this was going to be a stretch for me, but in a good way. We took cigar boxes and using Michael's custom paint schemes created layeres of foamcore, thick paper and whatever odds and ends caught our fancy. The texture on the layers was made using specialty papers and Dap Kwik Seal Tub and Tile Adhesive, which dries quickly and can be painted.

The final layer was a filmy piece of fabric I had left over from Halloween, giving my vintage nude lady some modicum of modesty. The black half circles inside are old typwriter daisy wheels cut in half. I coated the sides with the Dap and using very thin washes of color was able to get this cool marbled effect.

Fantastic class and now I totally have an art crush on Michael De Meng.

Day Three was with Jill Berry (Three Letter Words), a very talented lettering artist. Using 3 small canvases painted with black gesso we traced some roman capital letters and then painted around the letter, using dry brush techniques and adding images by painting negative spaces. My word was "Sun", I have not finished it yet,  but am showing all three for continuity.

We painted the edges of the canvas too.

Day three was with Bee Shay, more of a technique class than a project class so I will post photos when I get an actual finished piece done.

So, another successful ArtFest, I shopped, I ruined my fancy french manicure with paint, I ate way too much candy, and was completely exhausted by the time I got home. Managed to pick up a nasty bug somewhere and have spent the past two weeks fighting sinusitis and bronchitis, but am out of the woods now and not hacking up a lung every 5 minutes.

Altered Shoes

Off to ArtFest first thing Wednesday morning. Completely changed my mind as to what I wanted to put into the gallery, I originally was going to do some encaustic pieces but when I tried to decide which way to go the encaustic muse decided to take a three martini lunch and not come back to the studio so I went with really makes me the most happy and that is.....SHOES....of course!

For me the shoes come the easiest, there is some planning involved, I usually I have a basic idea in my head but they really just flow out of me once I get started on them. First up is "Cinderella's Party Shoe", once the glass slipper was off and tucked away in the castle vault this is my interpretation of what she would wear to a fancy ball.

The shoe was covered in specialty paper, the inside is simply green tissue paper glued down with white glue, buttons, rhinstones, fancy trim, ribbon and some pieces of an old rhinestone necklace I had laying around finished it off. The heel is glass pieces colored with Pinata ink and some jewelry findings all glued together with E6000 (a super strong multi purpose glue for non-porous objects).

Since the theme for ArtFest is Once Upon A Time I thought if I had Cinderella then I better have something on the other end of the spectrum, so this next one is my shout out to all the "evil" ladies in fairy tales, although I am sure they were very misunderstood and just needed a group hug. Struggled with a name for it and have tentatively settled on "Wicked".

The shoe was covered in some black netted fabric and adorned with chunky glitter, fancy black and silver trim, the heel was the most challenging part, I glued on pieces of that glass you use for mosaics.  The decoration on the top is just two 5/8 washers with some microbeads glued into the center.

I think I am almost ready to go, there is a large pile of art stuff on the studio table to be crammed into my rolling craft carrier, lists laying everywhere, and cats are starting to freak out because they know Mommy is going somewhere and of course the best way to help her is to plant their furry butts in the middle of the open suitcase.

Finally, I am asking my readers to send out a prayer for my very dear friend, Sherri, who was going to ArtFest but ended up having to have quadruple bypass surgery yesterday, which went well thank goodness, but she has a lot of recovery time ahead of her.

Back from ArtFest

Another great year at ArtFest! I returned Sunday afternoon totally exhausted but with my creative battery re-charged. Every single class was fantastic and there are so many great techniques to add to my art tool box. Thursday was Judy Wise, we created a layered collage piece, scumbled paint (yes, that is actually a word!) onto that and than applied wax medium over top to soften the piece. Here is my first attempt, being the shoe addict that I am this was a fun theme for me.

This next one was inspired by my annual trip to the renaissance faire, the dragon is from a Dover book of clip art.

Saturday was Karen Michel's class, we worked with wood blocks, creating mini-collages and attaching them to a larger wood piece. The whole piece was given a patina with a wash of India Ink and then embellished with tiny nails, carpet tacks and white pen. Very fun, now I will be off to the hardware store to track down more supplies!

Trading was a blast the first night this year, I opted for the blitz method and went to almost every table in the dining hall and asked to trade. I was out of trades within the first hour and considering I went with almost 80 shrink plastic pieces to trade that was pretty amazing! Here is just a sample of the multitude of fantastic trades I received this year.


A big shout out to my House 15 girls, the best Art Posse I could ever have. Can't wait to see you next year!

My (art) bags are packed and I'm ready to go!

I leave for ArtFest first thing in the morning and have managed to successfully cram all my supplies into two medium sized bags, whew! I am still packing all of the rest of the stuff I need and doing all those things that must be done when you leave your husband alone for a few days. Had to make a unexpected trip to the vet, studio cat #1, Dana, needed her "treatment", in other words she needed her glands expressed, yuck! It it a routine thing with her, I find that if I sugar coat it by telling her she is going for the "treatment" instead of what it really is she doesn't get the crazy eyes and hide in some dark depth of the house when I come to scoop her up and put her in the kitty carrier. Hopefully there are no more unplanned events today. We catch the ferry tomorrow and will spend the morning in Port Townsend visiting all our favorite shops before heading up to Fort Worden (yes...where they filmed Officer and a Gentleman). I am lucky enough to be sharing one of the officer's houses with the most amazing group of women, it has been a year since most of us have seen each other so we can't wait for our reunion. I think one of my favorite parts of ArtFest is sitting around the big dining room table in our house, drinking wine, sharing our art and laughing so hard we almost wet our pants. The classes I am taking are awesome, "Wax the Casbah" with Judy Wise, "Junk Mail Artist Book" with Carla Sonheim and "Wood Collage Vignettes" with Karen Michel, they are all wonderful artists. I did manage to finish a piece for the gallery, and in only two days! The truncated time frame was actually good for me as it did not allow time to over think the project and micro-manage every step, which I have a HUGE problem with. Sometimes its better to just start throwing things together without getting to far inside my head. It may not be my most sophisticated work but I am pleased with the outcome and think it is kind of fun. The theme this year was sea creatures, this piece is very 3-D, it reminded me of those old plays where they had a ocean scene and would have the wave props stacked one behind the other and shift them back and forth to look like the waves were moving.

I will post when I return from ArtFest with all my fantastic projects and rejuvenated from being with my Art Posse.

Spring is around the corner!

Welcome to my blog! As I type, studio cat #2, Apollo, is perched on my printer gazing longingly into the back yard. The bulbs are up and a few perennial's have braved our cold western Washington spring to poke their heads up. Hopefully I can now start planting a few things, starting with the peas, they are pretty tough and should be OK. ArtFest starts on Wednesday, hooray! The excitement is at a fever pitch on the Yahoo group. My art supplies has been organized and re-organized several times now. Husband seems to think I will need a tractor trailer to haul them but I have managed to corral them into a managable pile. All my trades are done and I am going to try and be ambitous and make something to display in the gallery. Trades this are shrink plastic charms, here are a few of them:

They were great fun to make, the clear shrink plastic gives a beautiful translucence, which you can't really see here, but when held up to the light they look like sea glass. I now have lots of ideas for future projects, maybe some articulated dolls or miniature books with plastic covers?