tree trio

I made these for the March swap. I may keep them for myself, though.

What I Did With My Weekend

The laudry's undone, the kitchen is a train wreck, and we won't even get into the state of the living room carpet . . . but I did make some art.

Hey, a gal has to have her priorities in order.



These are for a March challenge swap. The hostess sends out a pack of goodies to however many players signed up for the challenge, the players make between 3 and 9 ATC's and return them for swappage. Each ATC has to have at least one piece from the challenge pack on it, so it's kind of like my "Clear Yer Desk" personal challenge, where I can ONLY use stuff that's out and in my way to make art.

Now if only I could set something like that up to help with the housework . . .

Spike

Artist Trading Pins--For ArtTechniques Swap

I finished these pins last weekend for an ATP swap on another Yahoo group.

I had more fun making them than I thought I would--I usually am not happy with my attempts at jewelry. I am often reminded of the macaroni and poster paint efforts of earlier years, and the awful sinking feeling when encountering these "treasures" as a teen.

Except, of course, the sinking feeling sets in as soon as I step back from the work. But again, I'm pretty happy with these, and may actually go forth and make another one to keep.

Because I'm greedy that way.

Spike

I've finally Dyed

Yes, it's true. I finally dyed. I have every fabric dye known to man but have never opened them until last night. I hope my hands recover their natural color before the quilt show. Here are the results. I used five kinds of dye to see what I liked best and frankly, I love them all! Dylon Permanent Fabric Dye was the cheapest and easiest to find (JoAnne's) and held up next to the big names like Procion (the serious dye). The most muted was Dy-Na-Flow. I really enjoyed the Setacolor because it was fun to paint with. Finally, I also have something called "Sara's Bloom" which is a smaller version of the above. They all came out beautifully and I'm hooked!

it's good to be home

While I am all for pushing myself in terms of techniques and subject matter, sometimes it feels good to return to the old standbies. They deserve love for being so faithful, after all.

In a mad sprint to wind up a swap that I never should have joined (ten cards! what was I thinking?), I settled down with Plants and drew some, well, plants. This time without hearts. Next time? Who knows?

For The Birds

I was feeling stuck today. I couldn't quite figure out what to make. It is Saturday, and I get to be in the studio ALL BY MYSELF! No small children, no husbands, nobody but me and my schtuff. My time was limited, and my stomach was churning because I couldn't figure out what to do. My studio is in the back of a gallery, and Debbie, who was working today, came back to tell me that someone had come in specifically to buy one of my little birds. She had bought one last week, and was back for another. Debbie brought her back to my space an introduced us. She was very quiet and very sweet. She saw some abstract collage pieces on my wall that I had moved out of the main gallery recently. She looked and looked, and chose one to buy, then she left my studio, and grabbed a bird on the way out. So, I sold two pieces today.
I got unstuck. I made a new bird to replace the one that flew away today. Since he is still wet, I will show you the Love Bird pair that I have listed on ebay right now.

Gel markers

Okay, I know this isn't new to most of you but it is to me! I got a book out of the library about Altered Imagery and I thought I'd try a few things out of it. Of course this wasn't in it but the author was talking about gel markers so I had to run right out and buy some (of course!). The gel markers do really cool things to magazine images and photographs - like the colorize effect in Photoshop. Do regular markers do this too? What's the difference between gel markers and regular markers? I made this one to swap (it's my daughter with a king salmon) but I might just keep it for a while ...

Artist Trading Dolls

I am involved in a new Yahoo group for trading paper dolls - but not the kind with the separate clothes. The first template offered by the group owners was 8 1/2" tall - too big for me - I'd have no where to store a bunch of dolls that size. So I suggested one that could be tucked up into the size of a standard ATC. It was okayed and I was asked to make a sample. This is what I came up with. All the pieces fold behind the main card and will fit (with a bit of persuasion) into the standard plastic sleeve. I think it's pretty good for a first try.