Emboridery

This week I was sick and needed something to do while sitting and groaning, being totally ignored by my family unless they wanted food.

I decided to embroidery a piece I had been dreaming up and went to work.
Here is a picture of Klimt's Tree of Life.



I drew out my version onto a piece of fabric and got to work in stem stitch (which is not my strong point) and was delighted with the outcome, but of course I had to embellish more.



This was about half way through.  I filled in the green knots a lot more as I felt that it needed to be more lush The concept is spring through winter.  I had just started on Fall here with the red knots.

Now I am done with the leaves and I am working on lettering the seasons around the edge.  I am using chain stitch ( my favorite) to write the words.  When that is done I plan on decorating them with more embroidery; blooms for spring, a sun for summer and so on.  Ambitious aren't I?  Yeah.  I am already thinking about my next project.

What am I going to use this for when I am done?  Well I don't know.  I thought about a pillow, but I really don't want someone sitting on my hard work.  Maybe I will frame it.  I don't know, I will probably give it away. 

On a side note, I went out to make glass beads yesterday.  I bribed Meghan at the beginning of summer.  I told her if she would practice her flute that I would give her bead lessons.  Well, she has practiced (only a few times) so I took her out and let her make some beads.  She did pretty well for her first time, and with practice I think will be great.  This is definitely a parental supervision only activity though and I hate giving up my own time at the torch.  Maybe I can set up my old Hot Head for her to use. It is a beginner torch and will be great for her to learn on, but it is noisy!   I will see how it goes.  I learned my lesson after she was gone though.  I have a habit of getting really close to the torch to see, too close actually.  A piece of hot glass popped off my rod and landed on my lip.  As most everyone would do I used my tongue to push it off; bad idea!  I burned my tongue too.  As any respectful beadmaker would do, I finished the bead before going in the house for ice (it is not a bad burn, just not in a good place). Glad I did finish too because it turned out pretty cool.  Pictures soon.

The summer night is like a perfection of thought. Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955)

Sunday, a summer day. I can hear a lawn mower in the distance. No kids playing yet, but I am sure they will be out later, screeching and calling to each other. The robins have found another home to lay their second brood and sometime tonight the town will shoot of the fireworks that were canceled by rain last night.
I have been busy the last few weeks. I painted Meghan's room while she was away in Florida. She had a great time with friends and came home to an orange room that had been planned for 2 years. I only had a gallon of paint, my mum and dad had bought it when they came to visit in 2007 to thank her for letting them stay in her room. It was only enough for 3 walls so instead of trying to match the color I did one wall in a blue/purple color. It was difficult to move around the room with her furniture in the middle of the room, the mattress and box spring leaning against a wall that I wasn't painting. I managed though and she was surprised when she got home, I think that the Jonas brothers poster was the thing she enjoyed most though. I had put it in a poster frame and it is up on her wall, so she can change the poster when she gets tired of them (hopefully soon). One of the things I am most excited about is taking off her closet door, which gives her a lot more room. Now just to find a beaded curtain to cover up the mess inside. I saw a wonderful glow in the dark one that I want to get.

Unfortunately I have been plagued by back and neck pain for a few weeks now and it is hard for me to do much of anything. Sitting in the computer chair is only comfortable if I lean back, which doesn't help with my typing and sitting in the recliner is OK, except for getting in and out. Turning over in bed is almost impossible and sitting on the hard kitchen chairs is not too comfy either. I have managed to get a few things done, but mostly I have been reading and feeling lazy, not wanting to bend over for anything I don't have to.

I sorted my photos. I know I have more somewhere but the ones I had in plastic containers here in the living room I went through and sorted into categories. I tried to go by the KISS principle (keep it simple stupid) and it seemed to work, just picking a few titles to start, family, friends, places, and of course the three kids. Troy and I had one category together as there are a lot of photos with both of us in. It actually went pretty fast. Then I started sub-categories. Troy's family, Laura's family, Parents etc. I am not done with that part yet, but I am really glad to have the photos in some sort of order, now to find the rest that are hiding in the house in a dark corner somewhere. I think the hardest thing is going to be purging the pictures, letting go of something that I once thought important enough to take a picture of.


What started me off sorting the pictures was a list of things I want to scrap into albums. I found a starter on Plinky. "What values do you want to instill in your kids?". That got me to thinking and then I thought about others that I want to do. I would like to make a green book. Green in my favorite color and it would be easy to pull the things I have that are green together into an album. Also, suggested in an online magazine, Scrapbook & Cards today,I saw an article that suggested using facebook as a journal, expecialy those 25 random fact notes that I have participated in. Another great blog is Creativity Prompt that has lots of ideas for blogging and scrapbooking and jornaling, I don't think I will ever get through them all. There are so many resources on line that it is easy to get distracted from actually doing to just browsing. I really want to set a goal of 'doing' so I can get some real things done.

I will say that contrary to my quote for the title of my post I am not a fan of summer. Hot, sticky and buggy: my least favorite things. Spring and fall are much more my style. The mornings with the frost on the grass. The rustle of leaves sounding like the sea or the seemingly dead trees showing new buds ready to burst with bright green. I do enjoy the longer days and the summer fruits and vegetables though.



So off I go to do. Well maybe after a nap.

Skipping around

As you have noticed by now I have a tendency to skip from one project to the next a lot. Yesterday was sewing day. I got the machine out. I had ironed the fabrics the day before. I started to sew and, again, my concentration went from one thing to another and I didn't get much of anything accomplished. First I made a pin cushion as I have misplaced the ones I have and I needed a place to stick pins. I also made a hammock for the rats. I did make a muslin pattern for a doll torso. I then unpicked it and drafted the pattern on paper. Hopefully this will work for me to make a doll body without too much trouble. I had the idea of making awesome outfits rich in embroidery and rich fabrics. AHHH time! time is my enemy too. Sitting and trying to do one thing is almost impossible for me, I think what I need to do is stay focused and put any ideas that come to me on paper for another day, when the first project is finished. While dinner was cooking I was planning on using those minutes to finish some sewing, but alas, my focus shifted and I actually got my son to help me put the trim back around our sliding door and hang the curtain rod I have bought. I had one of the two panels I had bought and we put that up for now, even though they are ugly. (cheap) I will probably get a king size sheet to put up instead, but it is up and we finally have some privacy from the road behind our house.
I have some more of my art projects to share with you today. Things I have done in the last year or so that I have actually finished.

This is a tote bag I made for an online game I play. We all get a gift ready and then we are given a secret number for our gift. We pick in an order. Number one goes first and picks a number not knowing what the gift is, then number two picks to either steal number ones gift or pick a new number. As the order of picking gets longer, the steals get longer and it is a mess! But it is lots of fun, and I have made lifelong friends playing. Right now I am in my 8th game. It is not really about the gifts but the friends we make along the way. We share hopes and dreams, our days; good and bad and we support each other in ways that only friends can.



These are a couple of ACEO's that I have made. I used watercolor on these two and I am not up to speed on watercolor so an experiment really. I have swapped a few of these and I like to make them because they are quick and I don't feel I have to be perfect with them.

While I was looking for pictures I found this. My Mum and Dad came to see me from England and one day I drove them out to a park near our house. There is a pond when you walk in, before you go deep into the woods and trails and I took this picture for them. I thought it was so good I have it framed too. I think for me, it is more a memory of a moment in time, than the actual composition that I love about it. We had a great day and visit that day. Early spring and the shoots were bright green.

This is a sketch I did recently while I was watching TV.
I was searching on the web for altered art dolls and found some fabulous instructions for making sculpted faces. This is my effort in that area, a mix of all the techniques that I found. Just the head, and the others I made into magnets for the fridge. I love this one and wanted to keep it to myself. It is still sitting around waiting to be made into something, a pin, a magnet or something.

Which led to this, I was playing around trying to make an art doll, and I came up with this shape and put a face on her. Then I went to town decorating her with embroidery and beads. I want to change the shape of the dolls and that is what led me to making a pattern for a torso yesterday.
So there you have it, a peek at what I have been doing and hopefully where I am heading. Things pile up and sometimes I look back and get a better idea.
Today I have an appointment and I will take my moleskine to doodle in while I am waiting. Maybe I will get the plans down for some more projects or even to finish some that I already have.
If only I could concentrate on just one thing, I might get a lot accomplished.

Time to talk about Poetry

Hello. I missed posting yesterday. There wasn't much to talk about and my Daughter and I went to get our ears pierced. She is 11 and got them done for the first time. I was impressed. I thought she would chicken out at the last minute. She picked a beautiful pair of light green studs and I must say they sparkle in her ears. I was 11 when I got mine done the first time too. Memories of my mum taking me to the jewelry store to get it done, taking out the studs when we got home and putting sleepers in so I could sleep easier. I, on the other hand, got my 8th piercing. I had 3 pairs in my ears, and one in my nose. I got one in my upper left ear. (after encouragement by DD). I just have a tiny stud, I didn't want anything big and flashy until it heals.
Today I thought I would share some of my poetry. It is kind of funny but I like to rhyme words. It is almost as much fun for me as crossword puzzles, and it keeps my mind off other things. Some of my poems are silly and some are deep and dark. My thought is that my art and my poetry will meet and combine into works in and of themselves.
Here is one I wrote this summer. We can start on one of the darker ones, as I always like to leave on a light note.

out of the woods

I sit and look out from the Woods
I want to leave but I am afraid
There are dark places here
Unknown hollows and beasts I do know
I could get lost and not return
Becoming another; not at all myself
Each step makes my legs heavy
It is hard not to look back
To dwell on things long past
As I inch closer to the edge
I am blinded by the hot light
Shedding layers I have clung to
I step back frustrated with myself
It is not the same, a shadow of what was
Leaving only one choice, forward
To the unkown of continued hope and fear
What was still consumes me
A door I cannot close tight
Where am I going to end up
In the light or back at the beginning
Starting again, looking out from the dark.

This is called Rain

Dripping, Splashing, Running.
The rain falls out of the sky.
Darkening, Soaking, Relieving.
The Earth that has grown dry.

Waving, Blowing, Moving.
The trees and plants around.
Watering, Bolstering, Moistening.
The growth beneath the ground.

Renewing, Charming, Helping.
The earth continue to grow.
Relaxing, Charming, Hoping
The world; deep green aglow.

And this last one is one I wrote while working second shift for DD. We only got to see each other for 1/2 hour each morning before she left for school, and on weekends if I wasn't working overtime. I would doodle little sketches or write notes.
Mrs. Brown

Mrs. Brown had a cow.
She also had an onion.
When she went to see the sow
She was pained by a bunion.
Now Betty Brown was smart,
She knew the perfect cure.
She asked the cow to do her part,
and rode her without a sore.
Mrs.Brown was pleased as punch,
Not half as much as sow Molly
She gave the onion to the cow for lunch
and Clara cow said "By Golly!"

Well there you have it. Just silly things can really make a difference in your day. Out of the woods is something that I never realized that I was feeling until I wrote it. The Cow still makes me laugh, and I have actually another two about Mrs Brown that I can share later.

Change of Plan

I was going to post the instructions for the eraser stamps. Life got in the way. My 16 year old son, Brandon called to ask me to bring a text book that he had forgotten this morning. I don't know what it is with my kids but they are so unorganized. I only take them their stuff half the time as I feel that they should learn to get it together. The other half I take pity on them and give in. Today was one of those days.
So today I will share some pictures of another of my passions. You already have seen the bead in my header, the toadstool. It is made from glass and I made it. I have a torch that gets very, very hot and I melt rods of glass in various colors to make beads (I am trying to break into marbles but so far they are not very round, which kind of defeats the purpose). I wrap the beads around a mandrel, a metal rod dipped in a release agent so the glass doesn't stick to the rod. Then they go into a kiln to be annealed. This makes the glass stronger as heating it disturbs the molecules. It is so much fun and I have a wonderful studio, a garden shed that has been finished with sheet rock and has a heater, air conditioner and exhaust fan. My private get away.
My torch uses oxygen and Propane, I use a tank of gas like the one on a grill and two former medical concentrators hooked up in tandem for the oxygen.
Well enough of that, here are some pictures.

My random art

Yesterday I talked about my art. Well I scanned some images today of my sketches. I have been trolling web sites all week looking at moleskine art, something I didn't even know existed until until I stumbled upon it looking for altered art. I knew that people did sketches and notes in them, I wasn't aware that it is a whole movement sort of thing. Anyway I had my moleskine and decided that I should work on it more.
I have found websites that helped me improve this art form. I am sorry that I didn't keep track of them. I will in the future to share with you.


So this is a page I did while waiting in the doctors office. Enjoy Life. It was fun, but hard for me to be random. I like things uniform and balanced. The Life page turned out so much better than the Enjoy page. It is a learning process.
The skull page was so much fun for me. I want to create art that is bold and dramatic. I have trouble with things that aren't cutesy. I haven't finished it, I will go back later.
The leaf page, is a stamp I cut from a Pentel Hi-polymer eraser. I cut 3 that night and they are so much fun. I bought 2 more packs of three yesterday to make some more.


This is a page from an old journal, Around June 22th 2007. So journal art is not new to me, I just had no idea I was doing it. The sketches, doodles whatever you want to call them, were done at work. I was always scribbling something at work. Not a good thing really.

From my first real altered book. I say real, because I had made another before this, but it was made with lack of skill and I still don't know what I am going to do with it. Anyway, this is the last page in this book and it is about my Dear Nanny Thersa (Mum's Mum). She was such a wonderful person. I made the picture by inkjet transfer and colored it with chalks. My Mum had given me some pictures when she was here last (has it really been 2 years already).



And one of the other pages, this book is mostly about me and my thoughts. This page was done around the beginning of last year. There is some found poetry on the flame side.

Sleeping late
waiting
no sign of breakfast
stayed alone
slowly
waiting
the storm.

I have lots more art mediums to share. Oh gosh lots. I just have to dig them out and take pictures.

Newness

Well, this is rather like a new notebook. The whole thing is blank and you don't want to ruin the first page. I am a bit particular about it. I want to start at the beginning and work to the end, but I have been thinking lately it might be better to start in the middle.
Starting in the middle would be much easier. You could already see the direction you are heading for and divert any mistakes. Much of life is like this, but mostly I am that way with my art. I have thousands of dollars of art equipment and supplies, and I often leave them unused rather than ruin them. Sometimes it could be a few dollars worth of paper, ribbon or fabric. Lately I have been moving out of my comfort zone and just using what I have. I don't have to show anyone if I don't want to, but it is doing no good to let it sit around and dry out, collect dust or (as my things are apt to do ) get lost. I would never start a book in the middle!
So here I am, starting this continuous stream of consciousness. Thinking that some may read my random thoughts and feelings. Now there is a scary thought! I guess I should start with things about me, not too much, just enough to start.
I am married with three children. I will reference the family here. They are part of me, I cannot ignore that fact. I have 2 dogs, 2 rats and a turtle. They will also be mentioned from time to time.
As I stated earlier I am an artist. I am uncomfortable with the label, but it is what I do, what I am, I could stop creating as easily as I stop breathing. The only problem is I tend to jump from medium to medium often and quickly. I will talk a lot about that here.
I am passionate about things I believe in. I love to have fun. My internal dialogue is complex. My skin is dry. (see I told you..random). I cherish my alone time. I dislike intolerance, but feel that makes me intolerant. I worry too much. I would like to think that some how, some way I am making a difference to someone, somewhere.