Mixed-media meditation

I think the latest girl for my class is surely the most in-depth mixed media piece I have ever done. I lost track of the numbers of layers involved with her and I used just about everything you could imagine. Stamps, collage, modeling compound, gold leaf, glass beads, glitter, mica powders, rhinestones, stencils, colored pencils, acrylics, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things. Once I got the initial layers down it turned into a theraputic project. I cant really describe it, but I had some music on and allowed myself to get lost in the process and not overthink anything. I just kept pulling out new things, adding them in and repeating. No worries over misplacement or misuse of material. I think it was a very freeing experience for me. Hopefully I will remember some of that freeness the next time I sit down to do art. I really need to be better about controlling my worries about it being perfect. Really nothing in life is perfect and by striving and failing I allow myself to become stagnant and afraid to make any move.

Here's to getting past our various fears, warranted or not, and finding enjoyment in trying new things.

Have a wonderful week.

Sister Art Doll

I made this doll way back when Stampington & Co. first put out the challenge for "sister art." I decided to made a wonderful sister doll and I wanted her to open up so she could store all the secrets that sisters develope over their lifetimes. I started with a plain old wooden box from the craft store. I painted it a very messy blue/purple smear that appealled to me. I then went about collecting quotes on sisterhood from around the web. I formed legs and arms from polymer clay and used store bought molds to form her hands and feet. I shot wire through all her appendages so that she is loose and moveable. I painted the polymer segments and cut up quotes and glued them all over. Her torso, which includes boobs I sculpted out of a gluey paper mess, highlights the quote:

She is your mirror.

She is your mirror,

shining back at you with a world of possibilities.

She is your witness,

who sees you at your worst and best,

and loves you anyway.

She is your partner in crime,

your midnight companion,

someone who knows when you are smiling,

even in the dark.

She is your teacher,

your defense attorney,

your personal press agent,

even your shrink.

Some days,

she's the reason you wish you were an only child.

~Barbara Alpert

She opens up to show a mirror, words that brought my sister to minds, a paper heart that is multi-layered-just as my sisters heart, a locking drawer-because even sisters need to have some privacy, bottles holding precious shared memories and secrets.

Her head is made from a Mrs. Buttersworth syrup bottle. She had to be sacrificed and now I'm still using syrup stored in a tupperware. Her brain has the deepest sister secrets all balled up together with enough glue involved that those secrets will never escape.

She is embellished with many more quotes and topped off with some raffia type curls. I opted to not submit this for the magazine I originally crafted it for. Instead, I gave this to my sis for her birthday yesterday. I think she really likes it.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you're doing well.

Halloween Extravaganza

I'm joining in the fun with Vanessa and the festive Halloween Extravaganza. After all, Halloween is one of my mostest favoritest days of the year. Who could resist a day where you can dress up however you wish, visit with neighbors and receive yummy goodies?

The wise old fortune teller warns me. According to her open minds are dangerous-your brains could fall out!

She's full of other advise as well, but I think you can believe that she doesn't know quite as much as she thinks she does. I guess that's what happens when you are stuck in a crystal ball.

Actually, the type of halloween I simply adore is filled with fantasy and dress up and letting those childhood dreams of fairy tales and magical kingdoms come to life. In honor of this, I have followed the lead of Tina Wright and her magical fairies she shared in Somerset Studion Gallery-Summer 2008. I loved her creations and the fact that she made them out of a wine glass really intrigued me. As soon as I saw them I wanted to make one of my own.

I used some fun photos of my 3 neices and went to work. Of course I had to add wings and glitter and fluffy furs. Crystals and crowns and fairy wands too. I stuck with themes of believing in yourself, play, and dreams because I hope that all 3 of these beautiful girls allows herself to do what she wants in life. And I think these 3 factors-if sufficiently explored-allow someone to truly know oneself and leads one to know what they will be happy doing in life.

The beautiful fairy wearing the black skirt has been expressing her creative self in amazing ways lately. She made this art all by herself. I love the way she's naturally employing mixed-media techniques of layering and using multiple materials. I visited her yesterday and loved that she wrote out the words, cut them off and then glued them on instead of just writing them where they ended. The cat cutout has been embellished with flower shaped crystals too. I thought this was pretty impressive for a kindergartener to accomplish all on her own.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a fantastic upcoming halloween

The Return of my Muse...

August has been a whirlwind already! I just dont know what goodness to share first. After focusing primarily on the harp music, my muse wanted to play with mixed media again and she truly outdid herself. Earlier this year Kara at Mother Henna organized a personal healing and inspiration card deck. She did a marvelous job of coordinating between all the artists and we were rewarded with a gorgeous deck of cards. I've been wanting an appropriate place to keep my treasured deck, but just didn't know what I really wanted. My polymer clay was calling me so I went there to start. I love playing with UTEE overtop of my clay to give nice depth to pieces. I began to wonder if I could recreate one of my cards in clay. I started by sculpting out some fish in a pearly orange mix. I added some scales and fin detail then brushed over a layer of a yellow pearlx to make the little guys shimmer. OK, I decided that these were useable. Now I had to make a pond for the little swimmers. My first try, I painted a pond right on the box lid, surrounded it with clay rocks and filled with UTEE. When I baked this one, the UTEE bubbled up really bad. I ended up scraping it all out and redoing. I still had alot of bubbles, but it was ok. Unfortunately the rocks weren't creating a seal and the UTEE was leaking out of the pond and I couldn't achieve the depth I was looking for. It still turned out cute, and you can see the first one in finished form atop the purple box.

My second attempt, I made the blue water out of clay also, made sure I had a good seal around the rock bottoms, and tried again. Success!! Much better level of depth on the orange box topper. I continued to play with the purple box. I used a mixture of 4 or 5 paints to do a mottled background. I made large polymer clay rocks, drilled holes in the bottom corners of the box, and added the rocks for legs.

I added swirls of glue and coated them in 2 colors of glitter. I glued down a braid of fibers to add more texture. On the end of the fibers I tied 2 polymer clay hearts. Finally I added metal word tags such as dream, inspire, hope. Some of the metal tags have a glass bauble glued over them to make them pop.
The orange box was made using many of the same techniques. I used various stamps to add a discreet pattern that adds interest and depth. I sculpted a large goldfish to dangle off the fiber braid end. I added a star crystal to dangle from the middle of the braid, and a small swarovski crystal to brighten up the other end. I used letter stamps to add words as well as metal tag words.





Oops, I almost forgot about the inside. I used sticky backed felt, cut it to size and lined the bottom and sides of both the lid and the base to give a cozy finished look to the project.




So, what do you think? I had so much fun making these because I got to play with paint, clay, stamps and fibers all at once!




Lets see, I have adventures at the fair and an overnight camping trip pictures (I went dragonfly hunting with my camera) to share but I think that will wait until my next post. It seems amazing that its August 6th already. I want the remainder of summer to crawl by because it has been beautifully relaxing and rejuvenating. I do hope all of you are experiencing the same.

Good news

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. We had beautiful weather and time to enjoy ourselves so I'm feeling refreshed.

Todays art is a mixed media piece I did for my neice. She has just gotten her own room and its all princessy. I drew the head and torso, painted it in and cut it out. Then drew some legs and did the same. I used acrylics to paint her name and the background colors. I glued scalloped pages from an old book to the top and bottom of the canvas, glued down the 2 parts to my "doll" and then used some lace I found laying around to make a precious ballerina type skirt. I'll wait and give this to her on her birthday in a few weeks.

The frog was discovered on my walk at the state park on Saturday. I love frogs, on our way home I stopped and got 6 fish and 10 tadpoles for our garden pond. I cant wait to have frogs in my backyard.

I had my dr. appt. for the most recent test results and it was all good news. My hormones are out of whack and my periods have stopped, but they're not off in the way to indicate an early menopause. Because of the history of the mini stroke, and a blood clotting factor I have, they cant give me hormones to restart anything. The gynecologist diagnosed me with PCOS after doing a vaginal ultrasound, but she wanted me to go back to the neurologist because there was a small cyst in my pituitary found after my mini stroke. They wanted to make sure it hasnt grown, or producing something to effect the hormone levels. Anyways, my MRI showed that the cyst is not in the pituitary like they said last year, its in the pineal gland, it hasnt grown and it is not producing anything. So, good news all around. I think that leaves it as just a case of PCOS, and right now I'm not suffering any of the common things that happen with that. I'll just need to keep getting ultrasounds every 6 months if my periods dont return. Fertility problems aren't an issue as Craig and I had decided long ago to not have children, so that takes away a big concern of those with PCOS. Thanks so much for the good thoughts and concern you all voiced, it made waiting for results easier.

OK, I've been tagged by Alberta, so here are the rules:

1. Each player answers questions about themselves.

2. At the end of the post, tag 5 people by posting their names.

3.Go to their site/blog and leave a comment telling them they've been tagged. Invite them to your site/blog so they can read the tagged post.

4. Let the person who tagged you know when you've completed your tagged post.

I have to answer these 6 questions:

1. What were you doing 10 years ago? Lets see, I started my piano studio out of the house in January. Back then I gave lessons year round, so I think I had about 12-15 students at this time. I was also enjoying our second spring in our house and was planting roses. An entire garden of English roses.

2. What are 5 things on your To Do list? Return my office to normal from the piano move (right now everything is moved so it can get out), clean the bathroom, finish painting the bathroom door, clean the inside of my kitchen cupboards, weed the garden.

3. What are 5 snacks you really enjoy (in no particular order)? Ice cream, dark chocolate, bananas and peanut butter, string cheese, raspberries.

4. Name some places where you've lived. OK, this is sad, I've never left Michigan. I have lived in Petersburg, Ida and LaSalle which are all within 15 miles of each other, and I lived in Marquette while in college (a 500 mile move, but still in the same state!)

5. Name some bad habits you have. Taking on more than is comfortable, saying no and not feeling guilty, inflexability, obsessive/compulsive to a degree.

6. Name some jobs you've had. piano teacher, Beaded Jewelry Designer and Instructor, organist, music director, bookkeeper, customer service, waitress,

Now, here's who I'm going to tag: No one in particular. If you're feeling inclined to answer them, please do.

I hope all of you are having a wonderful day. Hugs to you.