An Abrupt Change in Focus

First, I do have one picture to post from a couple of weeks ago when I was still working on detailed flower drawings -  I do find these very therapeutic.

And just because, here's a pic of my handsome boys being so good and staying on the deck as they were told even though someone was walking by with dogs. 

Now on to my sudden change in focus - I've decided to have a booth at a Holiday vintage antique and art show coming up towards the end of November.  I have plenty of vintage antique goodies and creations, and plenty of art, but not enough Christmas items, so I've pulled out my Christmas stash and have called forth my inner crafter.  In spite of the strangeness of working on Christmas items in September, I've really been having fun.  Below are some of the finished items I've made, I've had multiple projects going on at once, and managed to finish these ones over the weekend.

I used a couple of precious old Christmas candles that I've been hoarding for these two, the round metal rings are from an old flour sifter I took apart.  I did find a tiny little drum last night that I'm going to add to the little soldier (it was a very exciting find!)

This is an old cigar box that I created a little Christmas scene in.  It's hard to see the tiny little reindeer in front in this picture, but it's my favorite part, he's very old.  The entire outside of the box is decorated as well ( I don't think I'll be doing more of these to sell - WAY too labor intensive.)

These little trees are made from a piece of old ceiling tile, cardboard, and various vintage goodies for their base.

This one is my favorite - I know you don't see angel butterflies every day, but that's just what she turned out to be.  Every single part of her is old except for the red glass glitter.  Her head I've had for several years - I planned to print an image and glue onto cardstock for her head, but once I had the idea to use this I couldn't go back.  I have a very old hymn book, and I opened it to see if there was any Christmas music in it and opened it first thing to Hark the Herald Angels Sing, so I pulled that page right out.  ( I should have scanned it first before I cut it into butterfly wings, now that I think about it...)

Mish Mash

I've got such a weird variety of art to catch up on that I struggled to name this post.  But mostly I've got that satiated feeling I get when I have one of those rare weekends when I can spend the whole time on art if I want - such a treat!  Plus my weekend started out yesterday by being woken up to a bagel and a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks by my sweet husband (I'm not normally much of a Starbucks person, I like to go to our local coffee places instead, but when it comes to Pumpkin Spice season at Starbucks, all rules are off!!)

 

This first one is the result of me wanting to start sketching in pen and trying to give up the safety of an eraser.  So I took on drawing this dried Dahlia from a photo, and it ended up being quite an undertaking, but I enjoyed it.  I just sat in front of the TV and kind of zoned out a little while I did it, and I find that I really like that look of delicate really fine lines and detail.

This next one I did for fun, I have a scarf with similar birds on it and they looked like fun to draw.  This is entitled "Cold Shoulder", subtitled "He regretted suggesting that she devote more attention to him and less to her tail".

 

 

The next two are my attempt at getting better at a really loose style of scenic watercolor that I really like, but struggle with.  So hard for me to relax and let go of perfectionism and be loose with the paint. I have a long way to go, assuming I manage to remain patient and keep trying.  Patience isn't one of my strengths!

 

This morning we went to our local monthly Antique Fair, and I found some treasures I thought I'd share - that monkey is just too photogenic to resist! Got some old Shiny Brite ornaments (love the boxes), a great deal on a clock with broken glass (it'll be taken apart, the only way to afford old clocks for parts is if they have broken glass!), and some old lamp parts that Mario will hopefully also take apart and help me make mixed media assemblage magic with!

 

 

And lastly, we went to the Sausalito Art Festival last weekend (this was it's 61st year!).  It's quite an event with artists from all over the country, and it's in a gorgeous setting right on the water, I feel lucky that we're within driving distance of it.  I always find a few new artists who really inspire me.  Below is a pretty shot from it...

 

 

 

 

Re-entry

Week before last I was on vacation (the annual Pismo Beach trip, I won't bore you with pictures that probably look just like they did last year).  So last week was back to work and real life, and I must say re-entry was a little rough.  But this weekend I've spent some therapeutic art time, and it's amazing what getting lost in creating art can do, isn't it?

 

This was done in my fabric journal, on a page covered in plaster, which is why you see some cracks, or what appear to be crazy wrinkles.  I got kinda crazy on this one, and had to make myself stop as I was reaching that point of diminishing returns where I was just making things worse.

 

 

 

 

This one below was a canvas board that I had previously done a collage on. I gesso'd over it and painted a couple layers of Aborbent Ground, a Golden product that I felt the need to buy at some point, and had never used. I just wanted to experiment with watercolors on it and see what it did. Definitely not the same as watercolor paper, but I think different effect than it would have been without it.

 

 

 

 

 

An Experiment and a Surprise

So, first the experiment.  I bought a roll of translucent film that has a sticky side and a side with some texture on it, it's a Tim Holtz product (even after swearing off of any new products, I'm so weak).  So I created a quick sketch with oil pastels, too quick apparently because her eyes are way off.  The first picture below has the film attached to a page in my fabric journal that's covered in plaster and painted with flowers and text.  And on the one below it it's just attached to the plain linen page next to it.

 

I definitely prefer the top one - the flowers underneath distract from the fact that I completely messed up the bottom 3rd.  I put some of the backing paper underneath it so I wouldn't get the red pastel all over the linen, and apparently I put the wrong side down because it completely stuck to it, and after much scraping I finally resorted to finger nail polish remover and by that time it was completely messed up, you can see the line where I had it folded back.  Lesson definitely learned!

 

 

Now, for my surprise. I got my first ever piece of mail art last week.  The talented, and hilarious, Chris of parabolic muse is kicking butt in the Index Card a Day challenge that many people are participating in right now.  I gushed over one of hers in particular, and lo and behold it arrived in my mailbox - so exciting!

 

 

I just love anything with a checked pattern, and combined with the trees and that red sun against the green, I just love it.

She Had Travel On Her Mind - SOC Final Week

Our last week of Summer of Color - I can't believe how quickly it went by, and I'll definitely miss it.  Thank you Kristin for being such a fabulous hostess as always!    This week's colors were Sepia and Sage - two colors I love.

 

The page looks all wonky and not square because this journal has just become impossible to photograph.  Never again am I buying a journal that won't stay open, much less lie flat! The temptress of a store Anthropologie got me with the fabulous cover and inside pages that are all handmade looking and different from each other, but even as I was buying it a little voice in my head was warning me that I'd regret it.  Unfortunately I often ignore that voice!

 

And as much as I do love these colors I did feel the need to add some contrasting pops of color.

 

 

 

Also I found this today when I was downloading pictures from my camera.  We took my parents to Lake Tahoe a few weeks ago now that we've discovered a favorite spot, and my husband took some pictures of the squirrels that run around there. I just love this shot...

 

 

 

 

Summer of Color - Week 5

This week's colors are candy apple red and yellow.  I wasn't feeling inspired, but that had more to do with my week than the colors. I almost didn't participate, but I decided I just couldn't let myself do that, so I forced myself to sit down last night with no idea what I wanted to do.

 

 

 

 

 For some reason I got the urge to paint this drawing I had previously done based on an actual doll that I'd seen a picture of.  I decided to do it in watercolor, even though it's not on watercolor paper as soon became abundantly clear, so there are some issues with the paper in spots where I was trying to do multiple wet layers  - that's what I get for not planning ahead.

 

The mystery substance around her neck is supposed to be some kind of filmy tulle that the doll had as a collar - not quite sure I achieved that look!

Flying Bravely into the Unknown - SOC week 4

In spite of my previously confessed short attention span, I felt compelled to finish my little winged girl unintentional series I started.  I loved this week's chosen colors for this - charcoal grey and pink - the grey worked out really well to represent the "unknown". 

 

 

 

 

She doesn't have shoes this week, because as everyone knows one of the advantages of flying is that you don't have to wear shoes - but she got some pretty old lace at the bottom of her dress instead.