Windy Tuesday in Alabama

Hopefully the wind is going to blow in some rain that we desperately need. Some more rain is predicted this weekend and even though we'll be on a short vacation weekend, I wouldn't care if it rained the entire time. We need it that badly.

Last evening, I started experimenting with rolling paper beads for the Artist Circle group for the next upcoming workshop. We are supposed to make some fabric and paper beads. So far, I've just done the paper ones and still need to try adding some fibers and glitz to them and also want to try the stamping techniques suggested on both fabric and paper and making some like that. No scans to post yet of that, as mine are still kind of blah!

Today, had to take the doggies to the vet for their annual checkup and shots. Good reports all the way around, except the vet would like to do a teeth cleaning with some extractions on little Angel, as she is getting some loose teeth due to her age and probably her earlier malnutrition. When my dd got her from the animal shelter a few years ago, she was skin and bones, so I figure her health suffers some from those times. We don't know how old she is, but she has lost a couple of teeth so far.

Today's pic is the cover of my new altered book. It is going to be a visualization journal. I'm going to include drawings, photos, or whatever I can think of to represent things that I would like to see happen in my life. From Artella, I think, I've heard of making a poster like this, but wanted to do this in a smaller format. Still working in preparing the pages and since I've chosen such a small book, it's making it harder to find photos from magazines that will work. Not yet went through my folders of previously cut out pics, though. Might have to break down and draw what I want. Most of the items on the cover are representational, though I won't bore you with all that.

Almost through the work weekend

Yeah! One more day to go! Today was not as bad at work as yesterday. Looking forward to next weekend as my dh and I will be leaving on Thursday for a long weekend in Helen, GA. We've not been there before, but I've heard it's pretty and it will be nice to just relax, even if we don't find a lot we want to do. Have a cabin rented that even has wireless internet, so I'll be able to bring my laptop and surf the web, which is more entertaining to me than tv. Hope to do so some journaling and maybe some small pieces of fabric or felt work. I've also started a sketchbook, which has all of one picture drawn in it so far, a dying Southern pine covered in kudzu, drawn from the vantage point of my lounge chair on a camping trip back in the fall. I hoped to be doing better about drawing again, but life kind of got hectic there for a while. Maybe I'll get the nerve to post some scans of drawings later on. We'll see.

Decided to post a jewelry piece I did sometime last year. I get a lot of compliments on it, but so far, it's the only thing like that I've tried. Also, the journal spread I started last night and finished today. Sorry the scan is kind of dark of the pendant and the jump ring got pulled out of the top hole so that the leather cord it hangs from is pulled to the side.

Right now, Max, is wanting to me to take time to play with one of his "moo-moo's" which is what we call all of his toys, as the first one was a cow. I really need to go to bed, too.

No time for art today

Back at work today for the beginning of my 4 day weekend. I work 4 ten hour shifts per week, with my off days varying in a 3 week cycle. Dh wanted to go out to eat with friends once I got home, though I had thought curled up on the couch with a bowl of freshly popped popcorn sounded good. I almost always think that, though, so I have to give in to his extrovert ways sometimes.

I took one of those online tests one time and tested almost 100% introvert. It wasn't surprising really, just that I never analyzed myself in that way before. It explained so much in my life about my feelings about crowds, parties, feeling drained when I had no alone time. My dh loves people and the irony is he is self-employed and I work with people. Go figure!

So none of that was about art and so was nothing in my day. I'll have to go back in my photos from past work to post a pic. This is so far my only piece of fabric art. It was sent out last year in an art quilt swap with a group that is no longer together. The image is my maternal grandmother when she was about 4. Wasn't she so serious and beautiful. I made a felted heart pocket and a miniature book which tucked inside with words written on each pages like family, etc. The wording-The Heart Holds What Is Most Precious. I've not yet gotten a sewing machine so the stitching was all done by hand. I love to embroider, but seem to have a fear of a sewing machine.

Some journal pages

Also, finished a few spreads in my composition journal book. Unfortunately, my scanner bed isn't large enough for the both pages to show completely, but thought you could get the idea better with most of the 2 pages together, than if I scanned them each separately.

The pages related to numbers and size were done upon finding several images of women's bodies missing their heads in my scrap box. These were leftover from when my oldest dd was home from college recovering from anorexia several years ago. She had used the faces evidently in her journal, leaving the bodies behind. So this spread was born, about how we focus on size and numbers and not on the face or the person behind the face.

The others included are just from bits and pieces from the same scrap box and from recent projects. I am trying something that is working better for me, which is to glue my paper pieces to the pages and THEN gesso and paint around them, instead of gessoing the pages first and having to wait on them to dry. This way I can get more done in less time. Obviously, I've not yet journaled on them. I've found it more fun to do spreads and then go back and write on the ones that work with what I want to say or sometimes they inspire the words, as they also came from my subconscious.

Enjoying an off day

I'm off from work today with the downside of that being having to work this weekend. But, got a little art done this morning that I started last night. I'm ignoring some housework to do this knowing that it will still be there waiting on me later on. Also, I will admit, though should be ashamed to do so, that I'm in the process of taking down and putting up my Christmas stuff. In my defense, we were late getting it put up(the week before Christmas) due to my Mother's stroke and then I had gallbladder surgery that week, so I couldn't lift the boxes until last week. I hate this part of the decorating. Love seeing the decorations out, but it's kind of depressing to put them away, not to mention tedious.

Well, on to the art. From the Artist Circle workshop, if we had leftover tags, Cindy's suggestion was to take 3 of them and collage and then attach them to a canvas. Mine ended up being kind of about immigration/family so I glued a map of the world to the canvas and antiqued it with a light antique gold glaze and gesso, before attaching the tags. On the tags, I used some leftover scraps from other projects, vintage stamps or postage stickers, and bits of wood.

Some of my tags from Artist Workshop

Here are a few more scans of some of the tags.

First Post

I want to try blogging and see if it can fit into my life without taking away from the spare time I have for either what I should be doing around the house(yuck!) when not working or art. Since I'm the queen of procrastinators and also an all over the place kind of person, we'll have to see how it goes. I absolutely love reading other blogs, especially the pics that are posted of art. Living in a rural area which has very little to offer in the way of culture, I depend on the internet and my magazine addiction for inspiration. I experimented some with posting at Yahoo 360, but think I'll try blogger to see if I can really get a blog going and keep at it. Today's picture is a tag booklet created doing a workshop from the Artist's Circle yahoo group. I'm not sure how to include names as a link yet, so that will have to come later. For now, this will be a very simple blog. The workshop was to age 12 tags with coffee staining and then use various processes to age and color them, ending with having fun with collage and joining them together. Here is my finished project.