Happy Holidays and a Bit of Bah Humbug!

This is a fabric card I made for a Christmas Card Swap in one of the Yahoo Groups I belong to. The recipient featured it on the Group home page.

It is old upholstry fabric, ribbon, custom dyed felt and the bells are on a canvas transfer with some minibells attached as an adornment.

I've waited for my swap card to come, but I've come to the conclusion that the person who drew my name didn't bother to send one. This is not the first time this has happened with this group, so I probably won't be joining any more trades there. First time, shame on me, second time shame on you! If I went for a third time, then I'd consider myself a fool!

Dada Doings

While Goodwill shopping, I saw a few wine bottle openers in a basket of cutlery and noticed they looked like figures with outstretched arms, so I thought I could make some Dadas with them. Here a two of them, not quite finished, but you get the idea. The one above has a brass butterfly attached as wings. The base is a strange wood and tin thing--I cut it in two and used the second piece as the base for the second dada. Everytime I'm out at Goodwill, I look for similar openers. They come in various shapes and sizes, and seem to be made for dada making!

I really got into making Dadas after reading the book by Opie and Linda O'Brien, "Who's Your Dada: Redefining the Doll through Mixed Media". These bottle opener dadas were so much fun to make that I decided to take a weeklong workshop next year in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Empty Eyes Assemblage

Moving History

Moving History Journal--Cover Page. I like manipulating photos in PS Elements, so I used an altered personal photo here.

The lettering was done with oil based paint markers. Love them. Fairly Expensive, but that's the only downside I've found so far.

The background is done with Loew-Cornell chalk pastels. These are soft pastels suitable for students. I found the 48 color package at Goodwill on half-price day and got them for a dollar. They had never been used. It was my first experience with chalk pastels, so I had to do some research on how to use them. They are a breeze to lay down and blend, but the pages need a fixative to keep the chalk from smearing and transferring all over everything.

That day I also picked up a brand new set of Louvre oil pastels for a dollar. They too were unused. These are also student grade, mid-price oil pastels. Then, I found a tin box of Prismacolor colored pencils, just slightly used, for another dollar. I think an art student must have given up before even starting and gave the stash away. Anyway, this gives me the opportunity to try out some new mediums without the normal supply cost.

This page is done with acrylic craft paint over a gesso base. I found an old work note I had written 21 years ago, so I used it on the page. The note was full of past participles, so I just used that as the page highlight.

More acrylic over gesso. The figure is something I used as a mask on another page. This was the back side, which had paint smears on it. I liked the the way it looked so I used it here. The darker outline figure to the right is bleed-through from the following page. This accident was what started the idea for this page.

I'm really enjoying visual journaling because I need to break down my need for perfection. The idea of visual journaling is to not seek perfection but to be as messy and free and unartistic as you like. There really are no rules, just do what you want to do to express an emotion or idea. It's very cathartic.

Charming Obsession

Because of my seeming allergy to any type of jewelry, I haven't been interested in learning much about jewelry making techniques. But, when a Yahoo group I belong to proposed a charm collaborative, I signed up, thinking it might be fun. I tried out several ideas I had, but quickly discarded them as not feasible to make in the time I had. Finally, I settled on what I was going to do, and started on the project. It's a very simple idea, but kinda cute. I'll show the finished project after the trade.

Since I had to wait 36 hours for the resin application used in the project to completely cure, I started making charms with found objects I had in a junk box. Once I started, I couldn't stop until I had about 18 charms! I put them in little bags and will use them in future exchanges if possible.

So far, this is the only Halloween item I've done to date. The "fashion plate" in the ATC is from a 1957 catalog. She's carrying a tiny pumpkin charm as a purse.

My Newest Journal--Just in case...

On a recent trip I found this beautiful journal in an art store in Lafayette, Colorado, and just couldn't resist it. It is made of recycled leather, bound with waxed linen, and the pages are Arches Text paper. Journals are an obsession with me--I have no fewer than 56 of them that I've picked up here and there over the years. Unfortunately, my journals are blank, or nearly so. It seems my obsession has more to do with collecting the journals--not using them. The cost of this journal inspired me to learn to bind my own, so I'm going to take a class in October to learn how to do it, using the Long Stitch and Coptic binding methods.

I have kept journals sporadically over the years. In the last few years, I've been trying my hand at art/visual journaling, which I find appealing right now as it's so hard (and painful) for me to hand-write for any length of time because of my arthritic thumb joints. Art journaling doesn't take neatness or legibility. My urge to write and journal has been satisfied the last few years with blog entries on this blog and my garden blog. Typing doesn't bother me at all.

There is a journaling software I've looked into called 'Life Journal', but to date I haven't purchased it. Doing so would mean committing to a process that I may or may not use regularly--sort of like all my journals and huge collection of art and craft supplies just sitting there waiting, just in case...

Digging Deep at AU

Another class I took this year at Art Unraveled was Judy Wise' "A Handmade Life" journaling class. We prepared pages, painted, collaged and wrote. The purpose was to learn how to go deeper into finding your unique artistic voice and subject matter through visual journaling. I've taken several classes in art journaling, and have always found it challenging. At first, it seemed that all the sloppy painting, simple subject matter and visual elements were things one would do in grade school, and that journal writing was somehow more mature. Actually, you can uncover a lot of deeply hidden feelings through visual journaling, even more than with writing, at times.

Since I like to manipulate photos with photo editing software, I like to use them a lot in my journaling. The above is an example of visual journaling using an old manipulated photo.





I also took a couple of intuitive painting classes this year. They were quite similar; both were intuitive and experimental. One class used watercolor and the other, fluid acrylics. No drawing or painting ability was needed, which was good for me as I am not that kind of artist. The purpose of the Spontaneous Haiku Painting class was to find images in the blotches, dribblings, and spatterings of watered down fluid acrylics. Then, we had to put words to the visual vignette using haiku form. Once we had six to eight of these paintings, we mounted them on mat board pages and made them into a fabric-bound booklet of personal visual haiku. It was a stretch for me to find various forms among the blotches as I'm such a realist. Some people seemed to be able to immediately see many little animals, people and other things while I sat there and pondered. It reminded me of looking a clouds as a kid and seeing all the ever changing scenes, but apparently I've lost that spontaneous ability.

All in all, it was another great year at Art Unraveled, and, "God willing and the creek don't rise", I'll be there again next year to learn new and different art forms.

What A Relief AU 2009

deMeng reviewing the class' artwork at day's end.

I spent the day at the 2009 Art Unraveled annual art retreat today, taking a class with the renowned Michael deMeng. The class, "What a Relief", taught the participants how to make two dimensional portraits to give the illusion that they are reaching out into the "real world". I've taken classes with him before and he is an excellent instructor. He is patient, humorous, and so helpful. He gives wonderful feedback, and has something constructive and supportive to say about each participant's artwork. He does something that no other instructor I've run into does; he reviews each participant's artwork with the whole class at the end of the session. This provides everyone the opportunity to see all the artwork en masse, and learn from his review. There are always lots of "oohs" and "aahs" as he holds up and discusses each piece.


Each time I participate in art classes or collaborative trades, I do the same thing. Get really excited at the prospect of learning something new or contributing to a collaborative effort. As the time for the activity draws near, I start wondering why I ever signed up, Why did I do this--I have no ideas, I'm going to be the only one who does not have wonderful pieces, I won't finish, everyone will wonder why I would possibly think I pass off anything as art, and on and on. Once I'm finally involved, I focus in on the task at hand and get it done. Then the doubt sets in again. Is it going to be good enough? What if it looks horrible and I'm humiliated, etc. And when it's all over, I am really glad I took the class or participated in a trade, and find out I did just fine all around. I wonder if anyone else goes through this angst!

"Building the Old West"

I've had this frame for about 28 years. (What was I thinking!) We were to bring a couple of gaudy old Gothic frames, and this seemed appropriate. The class goal was to produce pieces that were dimensional and then use paint and different sculpting materials to build up and mount various three dimensional items. Since this frame was ornate to begin with, I left it fairly plain without sculpting material, and did very little painting to the wood, as it was nicely colored to begin with. These are a couple of Old West fellows, proud of their expertise. One is a Trail Blazer, the other, a Rifle Expert.

"True Love Never Dies"

It seems I always revert to Halloween or Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) themes when it's up to me. This is a simple piece that shows a widow and her long dead husband, who still remembers their younger days and longs for her to join him. He is holding an old photo of the pair on their wedding day many, many years ago.

I have three more classes over this week and next--watercolor projects--which is brand new to me, and art journaling. I'm already obsessing over whether I made the right decision to try watercolors for the first time!

Ada S Poors Property

Years ago while on a historic district home tour, I saw what appeared to be the inside cover of a book hanging alone on the wall of a small bedroom. A childish pencil drawing of a dog was scrawled on it, and the rough edges of one side hinted that it had been torn from the binding. The pencil drawing was crude, obviously the work of a child. Scribbling on books seems to be something all children do. I was taken with the concept of using a simple thing like a marked up book cover as artwork, and loved the way it perfectly complemented the simple Shaker style furnishings of the bedroom. From that point, every time I went thrift shop shopping, I looked for old books that had been defaced in some way, so that I could make a similar wall hanging.

One day I found a cover with the inscription, "Ada's S Poors Property" written in it. I put an adhesive hanger on the back and then added this small art quilt that I had made months before. The subject seemed to fit Ada's declaration perfectly!

All Hallow's Eve Just Around The Corner

I love doing Halloween themed stuff, especially Paper Bag Books. I don't make paper bag albums, just little books filled with ephemera, tags, dangles and bangles, anything that looks appropriate. They serve no purpose, but I love going through them occasionally.

So far, I've done three books and participated in several Halloween Chunky Book and ATC trades. I've acquired some heavy 6" X 6" paper bags, so as soon as I get my office organized and all my supplies sorted, I'll start on some more (and larger) books.

The dollar stores are good for loads of Halloween themed paper supplies and emphemera, so when they stock up, so do I.




Last fall, I held a class on paper bag book making, and the participants all made their own Halloween themed books, as well as an ATC to use as an embellishment. The results were great, and I wish now I would have taken some photos of everyone's art.

This year I'm also going to do a fabric Halloween book as a change of pace, as well as a 'Zine-type book. I've made one Halloween themed Zine so far.

The Story of Garnet

Last year I started a Halloween-themed fabric art book about a girl named Garnet. I've done a few pages, and plan to finish up before Halloween this year. Here is a preview of the fabric book. The narrative is contained on tags included on each page.


Garnet was a normal girl until one scary night when she witnessed strange and wondrous things. After that night, she felt a calling to sorcery and all things spooky. She sometimes went into the woods and practiced spell casting.

The house on the corner was haunted. Everyone knew that. Garnet lived in this house with her three aunts, Bertha, Brunhilde, and Gertrude, said to be witches by the townspeople. Strange shadows played at the windows, and the house had an eerie glow about it.

When Garnet was 15, she began her witch training in earnest. Learning to use a flying broom was Garnet's most difficult task. She was not a natural, and she suffered crash after crash.

Bertha -- Spell Caster, Brunhilde--Coven Leader, Gertrude--Hedge witch.

What Witches Do

The witches don their pointed hats,

The witches croak and croon,

The witches ride their broomsticks

Away beyond the moon.

The witches don their flowing cloaks,

The witches stir their brew,

The witches chant their magic spell,

All the dark night through.

The witches stroke their big black cats,

They comb their locks of gray,

Yet when the first, faint daylight comes,

The witches hide away.

~ Unknown

Best Trade Yet

Finally, after several weeks, I found my ID and Password information for this blog. I thought I would never post on it again, but after trying about 50 different combinations of email addresses and passwords, I got it!

I received my cards from my latest Chunky Book trade, and I have to say, this is the best trade yet. I thought ALL the cards were creative and well done, and I'm glad to have another Chunky Book to add to my growing collection. My card is the pink one with the saying, "Sewing Mends The Soul", and the very top card with the Flamingo is the one my daughter-in-law submitted.

Hat Couture

I've only worn a hat one time in my life, a half hat and veil, to a cousin's 1961 wedding. That style looked good with my 'French twist and curls' hair style. During those days, one was not considered properly dressed for an evening wedding without a hat. Hats quickly went out of fashion over those next few years, and by the mid-sixties, they were seldom seen except on much older women, usually in church. It's just as well they went out of style as I never looked good in hats, but I've always been interested in their history.

About 26 years ago I picked up a few custom made vintage hats at an antique store, hoping to use them in some way as decorative accessories in my home. The hats are from the 1930s and 1940s. Some are flamboyant, and some just plain bizarre. The hat above is one of the more interesting ones. It's similar to the one worn this past November by Aretha Franklin at the Inauguration. I like my hat better.

This satin and velvet hat reminds me of a Canalifera seashell. I wonder if that's what the designer intended. My decorating ideas never came to fruition, and the hats have been stored under wraps all this time and forgotten. When I found them again, I realized I'll never use them as I originally intended, so I decided to at least photograph and photo edit them, hoping that would spark some creative ideas. Nothing yet on how to use the hats, but the photos will soon become part of a collage!

The Golden Thread

What happened to Suzanne? Did she pass on with no loved ones left, or enter a nursing home? Were her belongings sold at an estate sale? I never met her, but I know she carefully saved the mementos of her high school years and of her engagement and marriage, each birthday, holiday and wedding anniversary cards for fifteen years of marriage. She was born in 1920 in Illinois, and graduated from high school in 1938. From her photos, she was quite plain, and wore thick glasses. She was engaged to John at 19, and married at 21. Her wedding was large, attended by 175 friends and relatives. She received numerous wedding and shower gifts, all meticulously recorded on sheets of onion paper. That year, 1941, her new husband went off to war. She never had children.

This I know from going through the two scrapbooks full of cards, photos and mementos that I bought at an antique store, with the idea of using the ephemera contained in them in art projects. As I deconstructed the scrapbooks, I couldn't help but wonder and reflect on her life. The destruction of her carefully glued and arranged mementos caused a twinge, as if I were violating her privacy in some way. But, I reasoned, her life was probably over, and at least I would be bringing bits and pieces of her past back to life.

The greeting cards document the styles, social mores and designs of the late 1920s through the early 1950s. They are lovely, and vaguely familiar. I was a young girl in the 1950s, and I can recall the fonts, colors and themes of those days. There are also telegrams, bridge score sheets, paper school memorabilia and dance cards and calling cards featuring themes of the day.

I purchased the scrapbooks in 2005, and I have yet to make use of the cards. I have to get past my wondering what happened to this stranger. When I bought those books and learned a bit about her existence, it was as if a golden thread attached my life to hers.