Sunday

A Gem

 The Internet never ceases to amaze me when it comes to art and the amazing things you "bump" into.  The world wide web is such a perfect nomenclature for this.  I recently stumbled upon a most amazing blog, "Tumble Fish Studio".  Marsha Jorgensen is a wonderful artist that just makes me SMILE.  I find her work refreshing and a little bit of this and a little bit of that and she makes it her own.  Her blog is so refreshing and I got so excited about it that I'm blogging about it to spread the word.  Check it out, I bet it will bring a smile to your face!

Mixed Media Medieval Manuscript Workshop

Last Sunday I had the good fortune to attend Lynne Perrella's Mixed Media Medieval Manuscript Workshop in NYC through "The Ink Pad". It was held at The Westbeth Community Center on the lower East side. The Community Center had wonderful accommodations to spread out and there was an interesting and diverse group of artists in attendance. I enjoyed meeting Lynne who is a lovely woman who loves to share her techniques and amazing artistic talent and a born teacher! I have long been intrigued by medieval life so this workshop sparked my imagination and to top it off, Lynne Perrella was leading the way!

The assignment for this workshop was to come prepared with black and white and some color prints of the medieval period including castles, turrets, ancient calligraphy, illumination, architecture, gothic windows & doors, medieval gardens....you get it.  We also brought our favorite acrylic paint, gesso and a variety of brushes as well as any favorite things we would want to incorporate into this project.  With these, we created a collage that we then turned into a medieval manuscript book.  This is the mostly finished collage, since taking these pictures I did more work on it to embed the pictures into the background better and add glimmer mist and gold highlights:


Lynne encouraged us to add lots of texture using corrugated cardboard, cheese cloth, crumpled tissue paper, stenciling, etc. to create a background.  From there, we slit and folded our collage to create a book.  Here it is closed:



Below is a couple of views of the interior pages:



 
 It was a truly inspiring day and I encourage all who have an opportunity to take a workshop with Lynne to not pass up the opportunity, you will not be disappointed!  This workshop was filled with so many amazing and talented women.  I was so intent on working on my project that I missed the opportunity to take pictures of the workshop itself.   Susan Sager Brown has a wonderful blog entry about Lynne's workshop and I encourage you to visit her blog to read further about it.  I have linked her blog entry - just click on her name!  Susan has pictures of the work she did on her amazing piece and while you are there, check out her artwork!



Monday

Fun Sunday!

Yesterday I went to Celebrate West Hartford and had the pleasure of meeting Terrie Lightfoot, owner of Lost Art Creations. Terrie was a vendor at this event. Terrie is such a lovely person and her art is magnificent - it was such a treat to see her work close up and be able to touch and marvel at her artistic talent and we quickly started chatting all things mixed media. She makes one of a kind books, collage, beading and fabric art to name just a few things using a mix of techniques and the elements she incorporates into her designs (and sells on her Etsy shop) make them unique and beautiful! I couldn't resist purchasing one of her journals - it was calling me! After meeting and chatting with Terrie - I made off to find some chow and decided to stand on line for some delicious Pad Thai and grilled chicken - it was absolutely delicious and worth the stand in line! I finished my stay there with a Whole Foods Strawberry Shortcake!


Tuesday

Lea for Taking Flight


As I continue my way through Kelly Rae Robert's workbook, "Taking Flight", I had fun using a childhood picture of my daughter for this painting. The background is a collage of personal note memerobelia and brayered with a wash of paint. The heart is made from paper clay that is covered with lace and painted. I got a bit too happy with the glitter - if anyone knows how to remove glitter from gel medium, I'd love to know - and remove some from the face area!! I was hoping I could flick it off but gel is great for gluing things down!!!

Sunday

ATC quickie!


I had picked up this fun atc kit from Donna Downey - it consisted of white canvas, bits of ribbon, text, die cut journal cards, rivets and bits of material. What attracted me to this kit was colors and materials that were out of my normal realm, things I would not normally "go" for when creating, so I thought what the heck......let's see what transpires! I also liked her message of "campaign for creativity". After painting the canvas, it was fun to assemble each ATC picking out text from book pages and printing out some thumbnail family photos and taking it to the sewing machine. There is another piece of canvas on the back with some batting in the middle. I did feel like I was cheating being it's a kit, but had fun none the less!

Taking Flight - Polymer clay dress form project


This is the latest project I have completed from Kelly Rae Robert's "Taking Flight" book. In this chapter, the contributing artist, Laurie Mika does amazing things with polymer clay. It was fun playing with clay and I know I'll play more with it. I also experimented with painted textures and stamping with a plastic cap - they look like bubbles to me! The vintage photo is of my great Aunt Mae who, back in the 1920's was in Broadway plays. I think it was risque to show your knees back then, so she was quite the flirt!!!

Saturday

LAC Charm Swap

Bird's Nest Charm

It seems I can't get enough of charms lately especially making bird nests - such a spring thing to do as I see more and more song birds making it back to where I live! These charms are for Terrie's LAC Yahoo group. There are 8 of us in this swap using at least two of Terrie's wonderful bronzed brass jewelry findings for each charm. I used the bronze melon spacers for the 3 eggs and a bronze jumpring. On the single charm I used a beautiful filigree bead cap - I'm in love with these caps - they are so elegant! These are available through her Etsy store. The single charm is a gift for someone!!

Sunday

12 x 12 Fabric Techniques Quilt


When Lenna announced her 12 x 12 fabric techniques swap, I couldn't resist!! There are 40 participants in this swap where we create one 12 x 12 mini quilt using various techniques. My quilt has at least 11 techniques, from fabric paper to using paintsticks on fabric using a stamp rubbing plate as well as ink jet transfers to silk and printing on transparencies and distressing the edges of the transparency by burning it with a candle. The fabric paper I made while visiting my dear friend Patti in NH - and I've saved this fabric paper to use in special projects.

Saturday

Elaina



I am working through Kelly Rae Robert's book "Taking Flight". In Chapter 1 you make a journal out of old book covers by collaging, painting & stamping the book covers. This is the front and back covers, I also did two book "pages" that I bound into this book. My dh has named her "Elaina" - I was thrilled to experience that while I painted her, she took on a life of her own and by the end, I let her go to be who she wanted to be!

Friday

Charm swap






























Oh my, I knew I needed to update my blog, I hadn't remembered how LONG it has been since I've posted. I have a few projects that I should have posted, primative pumpkins and christmas ornaments, but at this point.....I won't go there! I'm participating in Belinda's Charms 2009 swap - it is a 5 for 5 swap and I've made charms in two categories - the beading category and the wire category. The bird's nest charms are inspired by Deryn Mentock's work and I wanted to do some bird's nests with the anticipation of spring! I enjoy working with wire and this swap got me going again!
Here they are all packaged and ready to be mailed off to Belinda!