Slug

I've been a complete slug. Not feeling particularly creative lately, busy with a million other things, but most lately, planning a solo trip to Ontario. Cameras in tow, I will have another place to take a million photos of... Toronto, Niagara Falls, dozens of vineyards, Lake Ontario.... It's gonna be great!

Hallowe'en Necklace-to-Be

A few years ago, my mom, a friend of ours, and I went to the Bead & Button show up in Milwaukee. As we wandered, I picked up some gorgeous raku ceramics, some dyed mother of pearl, and some Hallowe'en-themed lampwork. On the ride back home, I started describing an idea I had for a mixed media necklace for Hallowe'en. Wool beads, wooden beads, felt, fabric, Shrinky Dink, paper, polymer clay... I sketched quickly (and crudely - I'm useless with drawing) and Mom and Melinda added their 2¢ as well. 

I have made a few pieces from that original idea (the mini needle-felted sculptures, an experiment with mokume gane, and some of my first felted beads), and Melinda had made some lampwork ghosts for me, plus the little ceramic hat-wearing ghostie from her as well. Most of this, like the idea that spawned it, moulders in a box, waiting for me to finish it. I want to work on it, I can't wait to see my creation completed, but... like many of my projects, it has stalled. Too many ideas! I stare at them when my eyes close and it's so overwhelming!

Maybe if I leave The Box out where I have to look at it all the time, perhaps then I will complete my masterpiece and have something to show off this Hallowe'en.

The Creative Process

Got to working on my altered book, and needed space to spread out the materials. I pulled out the card table and gathered some of my stuff... 

It didn't start out quite this disorderly, honestly. All I can say is, the creative process isn't neat. :D What's a little alarming is that this isn't everything -- I have more stuff in a box by my desk.

Great Possibilities, Templates

Mirkwood Designs has a number of really wonderful templates that she offers for free. The designer recommends tracing the templates onto cardstock, but I thought I'd try something a little different. I printed the template on regular  paper (20#), scuffed the glossy surface of a chipboard box I pulled out of recycling, and glued the template to that. Then I cut out the template, which gives me something much sturdier than cardstock, and includes the instructions and copyright information on the template.

I was trying to find some good templates for envelopes of various kinds, things that I could use with the papers I bought, intending to use in my altered book. However, the colors for that are much more muted than the colors I have been using... now I need to decide if I'm screwed with the colors my hands chose, or if I can Go With It, and just not continue with the really bright colors for the entire book. 

If an altered book journal is a stream of consciousness sort of work, then I can't believe I screwed up. Color is immensely important to me, and the only colors that really don't resonate for me are pastels and navy blue. (Navy actually makes me feel kinda off. Seriously.) So even though I have a pile of paper in the mustard, olive and paprika sort of spectrum, maybe I can still make those work with the pages I have. That's what I wanted the envelopes for, especially since many of the papers are double-sided; fold open a "petal card" and reveal a whole new color inside, and enough space for a little journaling. Plus, that may work to calm down the brightness of the pages. Or maybe it will look completely weird. I think the only way I'll be able to tell is to actually cut one out, and try it.

Stalled... Again

So I got the new pages for the altered book ready for adding embellishment, notes, tags, whatever. Now I am staring at those same pages and wondering "what next?" When faced with so many possibilities, I find I am paralyzed with indecision. I will consider my options while I work on chores today: laundry, grocery shopping, dishes... maybe all that busywork will allow me to plug away on the issue with the book in the background.

I figure the project will be done some time around my 50th birthday, at the rate I'm going. (11 years off, if you're curious.)

Altered Book, Continued

I had a flash of inspiration and have been working on my altered book again, after having set it aside for months. Frankly, it's about all I have the energy for at the moment, with a nasty cold that is keeping me from sleeping well, or breathing.

The new pages will highlight the computer journal entries I made when I started taking my belly dance classes, o' so many years ago. I prepped the pages with gesso, cut the pages so they're notched for each week of the 8-week session. Some weeks have more than one entry, so some pages have more than one page notched for that week. I then painted each week its own color, added the printed journal entries, set eyelets into the notches and added fibers and a tag to each.

It looks good so far, but the pages are pretty bare, so my next thing will be to figure out how to decorate the pages.

Valentines (really long post)

This year was the 20th anniversary of my 1st date with my husband. He's really difficult to buy for, and nothing really jumped out and shouted This is it! This is perfect for Valentine's Day! But then I got the utterly mad idea to make him 20 valentines. Why mad? Because I got the idea late Friday morning, February 6th. That left me with only part of Friday and Monday to work on them, because he'd be home on the weekend, and I wanted to mail them to his office as a surprise.

I called Mom in a bit of a panic, and asked if I couldn't get enough done on Friday, could I buzz down there for the weekend. Which is what I ended up doing. Turns out that when our daughter was getting off the bus at a quarter to 3, his truck was behind the bus! Meanwhile, I am wildly pitching random art supplies in a large box, flipping it closed when he walked in the door, then resuming when he vanished into his office. I told him that I was going to help Mom with some bookkeeping, as she'd gotten behind (that was true, she was behind), if that was OK. Predictably, he said that was no problem, making the lie even more uncomfortable.

A 2-hour drive, and many errands later (Mom doesn't like to have to run into town after dark by herself), I was unloading all my crap on the dining room table, my art studio for the next 36 hours (or so). Dad was Not Amused when he saw it all (and it wasn't even all out of the box!). but he didn't grumble too much, and I did clear everything away when we ate, of course. I was up until 11pm that night, up at 6ish, back at it by 8 and working until 1am Sunday, stopping only to eat. I finished up after 4 hours of sleep later Sunday morning. (Took me a week to recover from my sleep deprivation and stress to get them done.)

ANYWAY, here's the 21 valentines (the pack of cards had an extra, so I used it to symbolize the Valentine's Day yet to come).

aluminum AZ Ice Tea can

Shrinky Dink, colored pencil

paper lace, clear red plastic sheet

suncatcher paint on plastic

woven cardstock, foil paper

plastic mosaic cabochons, foil paper 

toothpicks colorwashed with diluted acrylic paint, cardstock

pastel chalk

watercolor

origami

rubber stamped cardstock, colored pencil, glitter

acrylic paint, heavy gel medium, glitter

wire, cardstock, satin ribbon

feathers, metallic cardstock

polymer clay, resin face

duct tape, Dymo label

glossy cardstock, wallpaper sample, clear mosaic tiles, glitter

mulberry paper

stuffed fabric, lace

cast paper pulp, eyelet, pastel chalk

needle felting