Putting the inchies together

What started out as a compulsion to make these 1.5 inch squares with metal, has turned into something I like. Nothing is fixed yet, I just have the inchies temporarily glued to card stock so I can transport them. I need to let this simmer awhile so I can think about how to assemble it.

ATC and super inchie swap

The yahoo mixed media art friends group is having a swap of artist trading cards and plus sized inchies. These are mini works that measure 2.5 x 3.5 and 1.5 x 1.5 respectively. They are addictive and fun to do. The maximum number you can submit for each swap is 25 cards in no fewer than five series. I tried several different techniques on each of them. I have some extra ones of just about all the cards. Just leave a comment if you want to trade.

I’m a lot like Billy

Family Circus is usually a bit too sappy for me, but today I had to laugh. My studio is just like Billy's room.

Who says Florida doesn’t have seasons?

After the coldest winter many Floridians can remember, spring has finally arrived. The races are long over, the bikers are gone, the snowbirds have departed, and the spring breakers have returned to campus, leaving the natives here to enjoy the gorgeous weather.

Tom and I went to Winter Park today to visit Leu Gardens, a botanical park between the cities of Orlando and Winter Park. The park was not crowded and was lovely. Tom took his camera, and captured some beautiful shots.

The azaleas were past peak, but the cold weather has prolonged the camellia season. They were beautiful.

In one of the demonstration gardens we both caught a whiff of a delightful fragrance. Having grown up among this scent, I should have recognized it.

A few minutes later, we discovered a citrus grove in bloom. there were grapefruit, oranges, satsumas, tangelos, lemons, limes and varietals I had never heard of. I just couldn’t get enough of the glorious smell.

The woman at the information desk had suggested we visit the orchid tree, a little off the beaten path. It was worth the search.

The visual prize of the day, and Tom’s best photo was of a yellow tulip tree.

After lunch at Too Jays Deli, we headed home. We’ll go back another day.

Pink Martini

This weekend while Tom was out of town, I had the pleasure of visiting Lynn and Randy Evans in Jacksonville. They invited me to attend the Jacksonville Orchestra’s concert featuring Pink Martini. The concert was fabulous, and I did not want it to end. I have listened to their music on CD for several years, but the difference in hearing them in person was astonishing, plus there’s all the onstage action to observe.

Before the concert, Mike and Elizabeth Milton had us over for a cocktail supper where they served pink martinis. Elizabeth had outdone herself with festive food and decorations. It was a great weekend. So here’s a little hand made acknowledgment.

Working Small

In my Yahoo mixed media group we have started another book study, Mixed Media Mania by Debbi Crane and Cheryl Prater. When the group does a book study, we go through the book chapter by chapter and members and try the various techniques and projects. We post our works so we all can get inspiration and make comments. There are also frequent swaps where you send in your version of the project, and receive an equal amount of the same project from other members. The results are always surprising and the swaps cause me to try new techniques.

One of the swaps coming up is 1.5 inch squares. It’s more than just cutting a photo out of a magazine, it’s a mini collage that can have a lot of elements. So here’s my take. I started with junk cardboard, painted it with black gesso and then used iridescent, and interference paints to create backgrounds for my squares. I learned this technique from Chris Cozen and Julie Prichard’s online class, Pretty Papers.

Next I painted metal foil with alcohol inks.

The foil comes in rolls in copper, and brass colored and has a silver back which can also be painted. I always paint both sides so I have a variety of colors.

Next, the foil is tooled using Walnut Hollow’s creative metal tools. I was introduced to these products at the Quilt festival in Chicago last year. Judy Coates Perez was the instructor, and she does beautiful work. Check out her copper book covers.

I purchased a beginner’s kit last year, here are a few of the tools. Walnut hill sells real copper, not the color coated foil like I have.

But back to the 1.5 inch squares. I’m having so much fun creating them. I’ve laid out my finished or nearly finished ones in a grid pattern, and it may become a larger work

I’m going to try to do the 1.5 inch squares in at least 5 techniques that are new to me.

Fiber artist group

I participate in a monthly gathering of fiber artists held at a quilt shop nearby. It’s a diverse group of women who are constantly challenging each other to learn new techniques and hone skills. Last week when we were meeting a belly dancer who makes all her costumes was in the shop purchasing supplies. We asked her to show and tell.

Here she is modeling one of her “skirts”. The skirt has thousands of tiny beads.

Here’s another skirt. this one was crocheted, and again has thousands of beads.

Here’s what she wears with the skirts, a beaded one piece with thong. And you thought quilters were a bunch of stodgy old ladies.

a crafter's obituary

Sometime in the 90's newspapers began seeking new revenue and allowed families to write obituaries and pay for the privilege to do so. Obituaries suddenly became much more interesting. My husband started a collection of the unusual ones. Today he handed me one that read:

"entered a place where glue and glitter have been replaced with true love, joy, and happiness"

It just makes you want to know more about the woman from Roanoke, Virginia who loved her glue and glitter.

Winter Park Art Festival

Florida has some wonderful art shows in the spring, The Winter Park Festival is one of the best. Each year over 1600 artists compete for 250 juried entries. It is celebrating its 51st year this year. Tom and I went today, and it did not disappoint. I did not take any pictures since most of the artists do not want you taking photos of their works, but I have put in links to the websites of some of the ones I liked. If you click on the link above, it will take you to the festival site, and you can click on artists gallery and you can see a representational piece of each artist's work.

A trip to the Festival is not complete without a walk through of Timothy’s Gallery (where I have found some exceptional jewelry over the years) and lunch at Bosporus , a Turkish restaurant on Park Avenue. The nine appetizer tray Tom and I shared was delicious.

here are some of the highlights of the festival

Matthew Cornell His ocean paintings are absolutely spectacular. He always sells out on the first day, and his paintings are pricey. We’re talking a 5” piece in the hundreds. The large ocean water one was in the neighborhood of 10K.

Adam Spector Tom and I bought a couple of his pieces. It was the first time I had seen him at the show.

William Kidd These were wildly fantastic ceramics, very sensual.

Clare Malloy One of these days I’m going to have to take home one of her landscapes. She gets in the show every year.

John Costin Before the show opened he sent me a postcard of his most recent hand colored etching, Pensive Great Blue. Today we saw it at the show. It was spectacular, but almost 48” tall with a very large price tag.

Amy Flynn Tom didn’t care for her found object robots, but I found them delightful to look at. She gets her finds at the Raleigh Flea Market held each weekend at the fairgrounds. I’ll have to make a field trip next time I visit Laurel.

Anthony Pack If you can stand another found object assemblage, his work was fun to look at too.

Emerson Matabele This New Orleans photographer had some of the most engaging photographs of the show. If you click on his website, be sure to click on the tabs at the top of the page called light, wisdom and discovery.

John Petrey This sculpture is very appealing. If you visit the website, be sure to click on the dress series for images. It is fascinating to see his work and know that it is just made of sticks, or asphalt shingles, or cards.

And if you have hung in there this long, I’ll reward you with a photo, and you’ll see that everything at the festival is not “high art”. Here’s Tom with two of my favorites

Air ball

I’ve been doing an online journal prompt each day from this site. Today’s prompt was “the one that got away”. I’ve had basketball on the brain lately, and after the Kentucky Wildcats poor showing against Alabama in the SEC tournament, I was hopeful that today’s game would not be the one that got away.

‘Cats were great today. Go Big Blue!

Photo Finish

This has been a year to finish projects. I’ve had the photo transfer on canvas on my design wall since last summer’s art camp. It was a practice piece, but I liked it. On Thursday I found a strip pieced orphan block made long ago with hand painted fabrics. I paired this combo with a batik I found in my stash. It’s quilted and bound, but not finished.

I pulled out my beads and buttons and added some pizzazz to this quilt. I think I’m finished, but I’ll need to look at it for a few days. I took this photo in morning light on the porch so it’s truer in color to the original.

Headboard Rescue

I’ve been taking an online class from Julie Prichard and Chris Cozen entitled Color Beyond the Basics. It’s a class all about acrylic paint, it’s properties and the ways you can manipulate it. My artistic painting skills need development, but today I tackled a project that has been annoying me.

The paint on our metal headboard had worn off in spots, and needed to be touched up. But it was a mix of many colors of paint applied in layers. Before I took the class the job of repainting it was too intimidating. In the class I learned enough to identify the colors in the headboard and today I repainted.

Here's the before picture

And the after one. The curled piece shows the original finish. I only painted the horizontal and vertical parts.

The Marquis of Carrabus

Today’s prompt in my journal exercise was collage. I borrowed from Claudine Hellmuth’s blog and made a collage of the beloved pet of my childhood, Markie. His real name was the Marquis of Carrabus. He’s been gone for over 40 years now, but seeing his sweet face still brings back wonderful memories. The dress and hat is something he might have worn since he would allow my sister and me to dress him up in doll clothes, although I’m pretty sure he would not have gone for black boots.

Goodbye studio, Hello guest room

It doesn’t happen very often, but about twice a year, I break down my studio to make room for guests. It gives me a chance to clean everything and get rid of things that no longer interest me.

House party this weekend! Three other couples are joining us for Food, fun, and art. We’ll mingle with the thousands of bikers who are in the area for Bike Week, we’ll go to a fabulous show of Florida art at the Museum of Arts and Sciences, have a cornhole tournament on the porch, eat well, and generally enjoy each other’s company.

And look who flew in one day last week. I hope He/she hangs around for the weekend.

It’s Bike Week in Daytona

And the locals are loving it.

Finished bedroom

This project began with a vision in the summer of 2003. Laurel had just moved to Chapel Hill, and I stopped in at a fabric store and purchased yardage to make a king sized quilt. I had no idea what design I would use, I just knew I wanted it in shades of blue/green. Over the years I collected fabrics and skills, and began the process of making the quilt about a year and a half ago. After the top was pieced, I cut stencils for the gingko leaves, painted them with Shiva paint sticks. I used a very similar technique to this video.

Then I began the process of quilting a king size quilt on my home machine. I auditioned a lot of threads, but eventually chose a fluorescent lime green. Sounds weird, but it turned out beautifully.

I finished the quilt several months ago, but still needed to make the bed skirt and pillows to complete the ensemble.

It’s done!

Good Words

Playing in my studio is great fun, but every now and then it’s nice to hear a good word. The wall quilt Hope of Spring was purchased on the Haiti by Hand website. I recently mailed it to the winning bidder and here’s what she said.

I am the winner of the beautiful art quilt, "Hope of Spring" that you so generously donated to Haiti By Hand. I received the quilt in the mail yesterday afternoon. The quilt is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I am proud to be the winner and have your piece displayed in my home. It will be going on a wall in my bedroom. Thank you so much!

Whoooo hooooo! It made my day!

My sister's jewelry

I just dropped in at the Haiti by Hand shop and noticed some familiar jewelry. Further checking confirmed that my sister, Jennifer, has donated three neclaces to help the women artists of Haiti. The necklaces are gorgeous! Get there quickly, they won't last long.

New Lipstick

Every now and then I need to try a new lipstick. Having read somewhere online that Revlon drugstore lipstick was every bit as good as department store brands, I cruised the cosmetic aisle at Target. Suddenly I was back in Woolworth’s on Beach Street. The names of the colors evoked memories of Junior High and giggling with my girlfriends. Here are the names I remember: Love that Red, , Rum Raisin, Soft Silver Beige, Paint the Town Pink , Fire and Ice, and my all time favorite color name, Cherries in the Snow. I think one of my dear friend’s mother wore that shade. I chose Kiss Me Coral.

When I got home and opened the tube, I was again whisked back in time. It looked just like Tangee , ORANGE! Tangee was the miracle lipstick which went on clear, then was supposed to gradually change into your perfect skin tone complement. It was inexpensive, and everyone had it. It never turned beautiful for me. it changed to a hideous shade of pink and smelled funny. Kiss Me Coral didn’t change color, I just had to tone down it’s retro orange. So much for memory lane.

If you want more info about Tangee, including a video and customer comments, check out the Vermont Country Store.

Valentines for my family

For at least 20 years, my husband, daughters and I have exchanged home made valentines. They are all far more clever with words than I am, so I have to compensate with art or sewing skills. For this year’s valentines I bought three decks of cards, pulled out the hearts and jokers and began embellishing. I had made a big piece of stitch paper which I cut and glued to chipboard, and that became the front and back covers. I then put stickers with sentiments on the hearts and bound them all together with a ring.

Since Tom makes my lunch most days after playing tennis…

He is an enabler of my art addiction…

Signature page

Back cover

I didn’t get photos of the ones for my daughters before I sent them out, but they were the same style with different sentiments.

Over the years we have had some great valentines, it is an event we all look forward to.

This fantastic idea came from Heather at Dollar Store Crafts

All about Valentines

I made some valentines for volunteers in our Christian Education program at church. I painted a big sheet of paper with a variety of reds and pinks, then put on bits of turquoise, white, and gold. I stamped some swirls and cut out the hearts. Loving the stitched line like I do, I sewed them to card stock which I had dry brushed with iridescent red paint and wrote on them with a poster paint pen. They are in the mail.

Home Dec

It has rained all day today, and I have been busy sewing. I’m working to finish the pillows for our bed. I decided to do three standard pillows and two 24” squares. Here’s where I am so far.

first 24” square

second 24” square

standard sham. I’m still thinking about whether to add contrasting cording to this. I’m not the best at cording installation, but after three pillows I should get better.

close up of quilting on sham. I just love to do swirls

Happy Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day greetings from the New York Public Library Digital collection.

A valentine for the artist

A floral valentine

and my personal favorite, an Art Deco valentine

Endeavor Launch

We got up and 3AM and drove about an hour to Haulover Canal which is as close as you can get to the launch pad. It is about 10 miles from the launch site. Even at that distance you could see the launch pad. The moon was a golden sliver in the scattered clouds. It went off without delay and was spectacular. It lit up the whole sky, and we could see it for a long time. Just as I heard a woman next to me say, “I thought it would make more noise”, we were hit with a roar that made it feel like the ground was shaking. It was all over so fast, and we headed home and slept for a few hours. Well worth the trip.

Right after lift off

You can see the shuttle just in front of the ball of fire at the top of the photo.

Separation of the booster rockets

Bummer

Last night we went to Buzz and Candy’s home in Edgewater and spent some of the night. We woke up at three and Buzz guided us through the canals and the crab traps to the intercoastal waterway to anchor for the shuttle launch. At T minus 2 minutes, I got word on my phone that the launch was cancelled. We came back to Edgewater, had a nice breakfast, drove home and went to bed for a few hours. Buzz has to work tomorrow, so we won’t be going back on the boat, but he encouraged us to drive to Haulover Canal, just north of the space center and watch the launch from there. Check back and see if we made it. Here’s a link for the countdown