I'm Baa aaack

At long last I have returned. So much was going on in the last 8 months that I just didn't keep up. Slowly I'll start to add some of my latest projects plus try to stay up-to-date.

My latest find is MOO cards. I just HAVE to share the info about these little gems. They are 1/2 the size of a business card (lengthwise).

You get to pick the pictures that appear on one side and write 6 lines of text on the other side. Well, what you actually get is a strip either vertical or horizontal out of your picture. The text is the same on all 100 cards. The cards themselves are incredibly high quality - feel like plastic impregnated cardstock. cost = 19.95 + shipping for 100. They are located in the UK so delivery to the US takes about 16 days. I love my MOOs. I used 37 different pictures of art projects. I got 3 of most of the pics and 2 of some others.
Go check out:
http://www.moo.com/

I am getting ready for the Fiber Artists of San Antonio Annual Show. I have 3 pieces for the show. I'll post pictures after they are juried on Dec.4.

Entre Acte - Star Book - March 30

Several months ago, a guild member offered free magazines - I took them all and have been enjoying them VERY much. One project just captivated me...A Star Book. It was featured in Expression magazine in March 2002.
The instructions for cutting and assembling the signatures were very clear. I used sea and sand colors in mine, as well as seaside vacation themes in the pages.

Most of the stamping was done with "Versamark" ink. It is clear and leaves an image several shades darker than whatever background it is applied to. The title is printed on a transparency, run through a Xyron machine, applied gold leaf flakes to the sticky side and then applied it to the cover which is a hand made marbled paper.

Its hard to see the backgrounds in the photos, cause they are subtle. The tags use stamps of quotes, masked and then background stamped.

On page 3 I made a shaker with a map of a coastline and a mix of green and blue mini beads and a few blue star sequins.

Since the backs of the outer layer are not visible, I was able to use brads and eyelets freely.

The crab is mounted on a spiral so it bounces around when the book is open.



The fishes page is my favorite...I don't know why, it just really appeals to me.

The last page feature a "slide" of two women from ...I'd guess the 40's. It reminded me of me and my sister and the trip we are taking together. I like the word "souvenir"...to come again.

Between Journals - The Mermaids - March 23

At our March Fiber Arts meeting several people were wearing these art doll pins that they had made at the Federation Conference. Oooo, I wanted one. I needed polymer-clay faces. So, I signed up for a class at Stamp Antonio and bought a push mold for the faces.

In the class, we made a box. Mine melted in the oven cause it was too hot, but - it looked really neat, like lava or some burnt artifact. But, most important to me, I was able to make a slew of little faces without having to purchase a toaster oven and a pasta machine. So - back to the dolls.

I tried to make a pattern and cut it out of felt - but it didn't work so well. Back to the store, this time for a "Shapelets" art doll template, which I changed just a bit by making a fish tail. While looking on the web, I figured out that I should make the tail straight with some wire in it and curve it later.

At the guild meeting, one of the members was giving away sequins and a whole jar of them were shades of green! I also dropped in on the local "Antiques Mall" and found a little box of pierced shells (among $25 worth of other chatchkies) I used some loom-waste silk threads for the hair.

So far...$4 worth of felt...$12.75 for push mold...$3.00 for pin backs...$25 for the class... $25 worth of "antique" crap = $69.75 for doll #1.

But I also wanted a pin for my sister Connie so we could match on vacation, and I knew I could improve. Mermaid #2 got BOOBIES. I needle-felted a great rack onto her and what a difference! I also held the curve of the tail with a sewn dart. I didn't buy any more stuff - so the dolls are now costing about $35 each in materials.

They were surprisingly quick to make up. The longest time was spent sewing on sequins and beads to the tail. Each doll took me a full day.

But we are gonna be zoomin around the boardwalk with our mermaid pins!

Brigitte's Journal - Paris. March 21, 2006

Brigette's journal arrived on March 11. Her theme is Paris, which holds special memories for me since I spent my early childhood there. It took ALOT of pondering and trial runs to get to what I wanted to say about Paris.

I chose the tomb of Abelard and Heloise-the famous lovers. I've always wanted to be in Paris as an adult and in love - but I've lost that chance and Abelard and Heloise also embody for me that loss. I printed a postcard of the tomb on water-color paper. Then I actually watercolored over the printing - that worked really well! I noticed that once again I used a difuse blue-sky background. Guess its not out of my system yet.

Kim's Journal

Kim's journal arrived on the 9th of February. Her theme is the Elements..Air, Earth, Fire and Water as they relate to your zodiac sign. As an Aquarius, I'm an Air sign. Boy, air is a tough topic.

I've been working with the Neo-paque water soluble crayons and they seemed just the thing for creating a light and airy background. Instead of water, I used diluted gesso to blend the colors. I loved the result! I found a picture of an old-time hot air balloon and printed it faded out on a piece of tissue paper.

I wanted someting to represent wind and decided to use a spiral pop-up. I printed a circle-cropped design on a transparancy; well about 6 different ones. It was hard to get the color and the size just right. Then....(drumroll please)....I ruined the whole bleepin' thing by glazing over it with a pearlessence blue glaze. Instead of being light and airy, it looks like some 3rd-grader's rendition of the sky! But there's no going back when its a traveling journal so I forged ahead and put in the poem 'High Flight', which I really love.

I'm disappointed in the result and Kim, I'm sorry!

Between My Journal and the next

As I was organizing my supply cabinet, I ame across some little boxes; several papier mache and one of wood. I decided to collage some of these. The wood box was a challenge because it had a domed lid of raised planks, sort of like a pirate chest. I found a picture to fit it and glued and cut along each plank so that the picture was in strips.



The paper box is a hexagon. I used a clip-art page from a Somerset Studio magazine and little bits - buttons, a rusty tin heart, a "love" postage stamp, a piece of tulle. I glazed it with pink pearlessence powder mixed into a gloss medium. On both boxes I used beads as feet.

The holidays came and went and I had itchy fingers! The next journal installment wouldn't be here until after Feb 6. I took a retreat/workshop on Artist's Journals during January that was a very enlightening and oddly spiritual experience. There were 5 other women besides myself. They were all so accomplished and intellectual that I ended the first day feeling very insignificant. One of them talked about owning the name "artist" which made me feel like a fraud. But I learned that part of being an artist is believing that you ARE one. After lunch the next day I was talking to one woman that I really admired and mentioned how intimidated I was feeling - and she said that I intimidated HER. In a strange way, that made me feel good about myself.

We did several memorable exercises. In one, we divided a circle into six pie wedges, labeling each wedge as a componant of a balanced life...physical, spiritual, work, play, friends & family, and romance & adventure. We put a dot in each to signify our satisfaction with that aspect of our lives...the closer to the outer edge, the more satisfaction. We did this on very big paper and wrote and illustrated each wedge. It is a great way to snapshot how you feel about your life and if you do it , say, once a year - its a good barometer.

In another exercise we drew a map of our artistic life - where it came from, where it is now, and where you want it to go. Mine became a tree with branches instead of a map - but it works the same way. It gave me insight into my growth in the arts and helped convince me that I AM an artist and have been for a very long time.

The final exercise of the weekend was to build a container that represents your artist self and record the process in our journals. I created a silk bag that spilled out ribbons with adjectives on them of qualities that I wanted in my life...creative, sensitive, insightful, genuine, vocal, thoughtful, brave, forward, empathetic.
I have a habit of journaling plans for projects and never following through on actually accomplishing them. It was very exciting to plan a project and have it come out just the way I envisioned it. I've used this method to plan journal pages and it is great to have a record of how the finished page came about. The bag is mounted on an armature and sits on the top of my loom to remind me every day of all that I can be.