Jenny Doh Fundraiser

Jenny Doh, the lovely creator of Crescendoh.com, has created a fundraiser for a wonderful cause, Water.org. A donation of $25 gets a family safe water for life - the details are here.  She has also invited everyone who donates to send her a handmade accessory, with which she'll pose in the dress she has committed to wear for an entire year for this cause.  I don't normally make art to wear, and I didn't think she'd want to hang a canvas around her neck, so I figured I'd dig through my mixed media stash to see what I could come up with. This is the result...

It started out as a pin, but I was afraid it would be too heavy, so I made it a necklace. I used an old game chip as the base, a rusty metal piece not sure what it is exactly, an old knob, a piece from the inside of an old pocket watch and beads. The piece from inside the watch amazes me - it's carved with a beautiful ornate pattern and it was from INSIDE the watch. They sure don't make things like they used to.  Anyway, it's kinda funky, but I had a lot of fun making it, and hopefully Jenny will like it.

Mt. Shasta

I've been jealously enjoying gorgeous pictures of English countryside and cathedrals on some favorite new blogs, and thought I'd represent this side of the pond with some pictures of our trip to Mount Shasta last weekend. My parents gave us a night at a wonderful cabin on Siskiyou Lake there for Christmas, and we wanted to go while there was still snow on the ground.  It was a beautiful clear weekend and the mountain was stunning, as you can see. We went to Castle Lake, which was frozen over (I've never seen a lake frozen over before - and there was no way I was getting out on it!).

In the parking area there was a group of about six pre 1967 VW buses - fabulous!  A big group of them caravan around the country every year, breaking down frequently from what they said. The goal is to spend the least amount of money aquiring one as you can, and then somehow get it running and keep it running on these treks. They looked like a bunch of hippies having a great time!

This is a view from the the deck of our cabin, and we took a ridiculous number of pictures of these birds - I wanted a good enough one that I could draw it later. I proudly showed the pictures to my Dad, who loves birds, and he immediately deflated me by telling me they're mean and he's seen them snatch baby birds out of nests and kill them. Oh well, they're undeniably pretty...

GPP Street Team - What I love

This month's crusade on Michelle Ward's Green Pepper Press Street team is to do a journal page about what we love.  I've been wanting to participate in this fun monthly crusade for a while, as I love Michelle Ward and this seems like a really great group who do great work - the website is here. I've finally gotten my act together this month enough to do it!  Here is the challenge:

I decided to make a page (in my new journal I just made, my first attempt at making one) with things I love to make art with. It was a lot of fun digging through my stash to find things that could go on a page, and of course I love it, because it's made of all things I love!

Back to Basics

Between work and my online Misty Mawn class I was taking, I haven't been up for air in a while.  I haven't really made any "finished" pieces, mostly just working on going back to the basics and learning things in a different way, as I've been entirely self-taught. It's been wonderful just to get to watch her work so much... Getting out of my comfort zone and trying new things, or trying things differently is very good for me. I still have much work to do in the class, although it's technically over.  She's leaving the site up for a year, which I'll need if I want to actually accomplish all the homework assignments. I'll post a couple of pictures of sketches I did for the class, just to prove I haven't been a total sloth!

FYI, I ran out of room for the skeleton's feet, and when I came home from work the next day my significant other had taped brightly colored clown shoes to the bottom. He was quite amused with himself...

This is from a picture of me holding my nephew - there's something a little off with my nose...

I can't believe I haven't posted yet this month. I started an online class with Misty Mawn that's been absorbing my time, although I haven't done anything yet that's post-worthy.  Learning from her is really a wonderful experience on many levels, for anyone who has thought about taking a class from her. I think everyone in the class would agree that as we're learning new art skills and techniques, we're also learning things about ourselves.  Online classes can also be such a supportive environment, as the other students really help and encourage each other.

The class started with portraits, with an assignment being a number of self-portraits. It made me think of this piece I made a while back, which had a lot of meaning for me. It's hard to see from the picture, but there is a soldered birdcage in front of her face with an old key hanging from it.

Magic

I recently spent a little time in the magical town of Port Costa, CA, and I wanted to share.  The wonderful artist Wendy Addison has an open house at her studio there a few weekends during the holidays, and this is the only time it's possible to buy from her directly. You wind around the top of a mountain overlooking the water, thinking this can't possibly be where I'm supposed to be going.  Then amazingly you see the street you're looking for, drive along it a bit, and suddenly the street ends at the water and you're in a ghost town.  Old abandoned looking hotels, post office, etc, under huge trees. There's an old courtyard with a wonderful old sign over it, and a crumbling fountain inside.  This is where Wendy's studio is, and it's absolutely magical.  The tiny area at the front of her studio is absolutely stuffed with magical beautiful things - she calls it her Theatre of Dreams, and it really is. It seems to put a spell over me, and suddenly price is no object until I'm back in the car thinking "I spent HOW much?"  But I've never regretted a purchase, and friends who have gotten something of hers as a gift from me are always wowed...

And this year, for the first time, the abandoned hotel across the street was partially opened as a coffee shop, only open on weekends. I don't think I've ever been in a more charming, magical little cafe.  It's partly the setting in the charming old hotel, where they bake their 2 kinds of cakes they make in a wonderful antique oven, and it was enhanced by it being Christmas time and decorated so lovely.  I had the most amazing sweet cornbread/cake with cranberries that I can't even describe, and the best hot chocolate I've ever had. I didn't want to leave....

Christmas Craft Fun

I had some fun over the weekend making this for a friend of mine for Christmas. The box is a cigar box without the lid, and I had picked up the old snowman ornament and tree recently, and suddenly last week I just saw them all put together. I covered the sides and top of the box with old yellowed ledger paper, and the inside I covered with pages from an old hymnal, and the inside back is a picture I loved that I'd saved of a snowy scene with Victorian ice skaters.  The stamps I used are all from a set of very vintage looking Christmas ones from Tim Holtz. I embossed the ornament stamps on the sides, and collaged the 2 little Christmas scenes. I added the beads and some glitz and the feet, and it was done!  You know when you start a project not particularly confident of how it's going to turn out, and then as you go along you start really liking it and by the end you love it?  I LOVE when that happens, as it did with this project. Now I want to make more of them so I'll be on the lookout for more vintage little Christmas things to put inside them.