Fun stuff!

These are some of the projects I've been working on this week. Quiltingarts.com is featuring a charm swap this month, based on an article by Elin Waterston. So I got out some of my fun craft supplies and got started!

Above are some of the charms I came up with that I may swap. Materials I used are buttons (I particularly like the button fruit on top), glass beads, copper wire, Sculpey clay, stamps, pearl ex powder, shrink film and fabric. I found those dragonfly wing beads at a local craft store and made several of those dragonflies. It's kind of addicting!

I then decided take it one step further and actually make the bracelet, so I pulled out some jute cording and brushed up on my macrame skills (below). I made the pink and yellow one first, as a sample for a program I may teach at the library this summer. I happened to have a scrap of that pink fleece with the hearts already embroidered on, so I put two together and stuffed it. I also used colorful wooden beads from a set belonging to my daughter, and seashells. All of the charms were simply tied onto the macrame bracelet. The final bracelet is a birthday gift for someone...I also stamped and stitched, and used birch bark as well as wooden shapes from the dollar store that were drilled, painted, stamped and/or decoupaged with fabric. Maybe I've had enough fun with charms for a while...I should probably get these in the mail and get back to work on something for my portfolio!

Daisy the Gypsy Cat

Here is my latest "gypsy cat." I call her Daisy. She is a gift to cheer up the sick child of a friend. I like her body shape much better than the original one I made, and stitched it closed about 1 1/2 inches from the bottom, which makes it look like she's wearing a skirt. I also filled her arms, legs, and part of her body with beans which makes her flexible and floppy at the same time. I included some of the lavender I harvested last August, so she even has a soothing smell. I'll probably get her in the mail this week.

The Library Show

Here are some photos of the show at the Mahopac Library. It was Jane Davila's idea to mount each piece on an 18" square canvas.

That's what really makes the artwork stand out from the wall, and what most people are commenting on when they see the show. The other comment we are hearing a lot is how each piece is so unique and different from the others, but what a nice presentation they make all together. The reception on Sunday was very well attended and I had fun talking to some of the other artists about their pieces. One integrated a dyed paper towel into her piece (but you'd never know until she told you!

Here are some of my other favorite pieces:

The Autumn Birches is by Carolyn Cooney.

She used wool roving and cheesecloth

in this piece.

The one beneath it is by Natalya Aikens. She uses lots of sheer fabrics like organza and also likes to repurpose things like dryer sheets and uses both machine and hand sttitching. It produces a very dreamy effect, don't

you think?

The victorian house is by Carolyn Spiegel. I just love the colors and details. The little doorknobs, windows, railings, and shrubbery just add so much. I also love the smoky effect of the tulle!

It's a lovely show and if you are in the Mahopac area, you should stop by to see it before April 3!

The stitched version AND the Mahopac show

I finally stitched this one down. If you compare it to the earlier version, you can see the stitching on the tree trunks and rays of sun. I also added some green wool roving behind the light green lace leaves to give it more depth. Makes a pretty picture, no? Still no story or poem to go with her...maybe when spring really comes.

This week our SAQA group show opened at the Mahopac Library. Everything looks great and we are already getting some very positive comments in our guest book. The opening reception is Sunday afternoon. Food will be served so come on down!

Last day of the month...

Where has February gone? I haven't posted in a couple of weeks and here are some of the things that have been keeping me busy: I started this latest seahorse piece a few weeks ago. I am still finalizing my fabric choices and contemplating my method for adhering everything. In my seahorse story, the scene with the dolphin is supposed to be largely in oranges, but I just love this coral/salmon color, especially next to the turquoise.

I also saw these two cute projects in Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine. The pincushions, made from a circle of fabric called a yo-yo, were in the first special Studios issue of CPS (article by Michele Muska). I did the center one and my two youngest daughters did the other two. Now I have easy access to all my pins and needles! The cute kitty idea was in the March/April issue of CPS, an article by Deb Taylor on what she calls "gypsy cats." I made the cat's body more shaped than she does, but I think I may try another one with the same fabrics and change the shape to a triangle. I want to keep it simple but still change it up a bit.

The major reason I haven't been as creatively productive in the last few weeks is because I started a major spring cleaning, organizing, and overhaul of pretty much the entire house. It involves mostly the family room/play room/studio area on the lower level of our house right now, but will spread upstairs in a few weeks when we receive the doors we ordered for our new kitchen pantry (I've been using our sizeable bathroom closet for extra food storage!). In the last few weeks I've been going through boxes of dolls and toy animals (I gave away a trunkful through freecycle.org), weeding through paperwork, moving shelves and tables, and trying to condense and organize all of my fabric, ribbon, and thread. I still have a table full of things I don't quite know what to do with, but I am getting better at chucking things. I hope the new setup will help me be more productive and efficient and I hope all the hours I've invested in organizing now will save me many more hours in the future.

And finally, last week we took the girls to one of my favorite places, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY. We had a great day and saw a huge amount of the museum. It was great spending the day among such masterpieces. We only took photos in the Egyptian Art section (my older daughter just finished a Social Studies unit on Ancient Egypt). Here are some of the photos she took:

Spring in my thoughts, anyway...

The colors outside are so dreary and temperatures have been in the single digits here in the morning. The lake behind our house is still frozen solid, (although a little bumpy for skating as we discovered yesterday). Time for a little breath of spring air and sunshine, so I put this together the other night. Nothing is stitched down yet (as you can see from the lint and stray threads here and there), but I just liked the way the fabric colors and textures worked, and the whimsical feel of this combination, so I thought I 'd post it anyway! Maybe I should work on a poem or story to go with it (who is this girl in pink, picking daisies? Where did she come from and where is she going? What will happen next? Will she meet a wolf, or make a friend? Stay tuned...)

I finished it!

I finished the piece for our SAQA group show at the Mahopac Library in March. I am calling it "Serenity by the Garden Wall." Over the weekend I had to deal with one last detail: the central lower copper leaf is slightly folded over in this photo. I ended up taking it off and creating a new one out of a thicker copper sheeting. I had to do the distressing all over again, but I think it is now finished and I finally found an acrylic spray that protects the patina without changing it too much.

I was off from work Friday and my husband was gone with the kids most of the day Saturday, but somehow I still don't seem to get nearly as much done as I plan. So my word for the year will have to be balance. Creating art is one facet of my life, but there are many others, and I have come to expect that I am often scurrying from one to the other, trying to keep all the plates spinning in the air. So my life keeps spilling over into my blog and my art because it's all connected, it's all part of the art of my life. I need to keep the goal of balance in mind, day by day, even minute by minute, to meet the needs of all the different parts that make up my life.

As for specific goals for 2009 (only one month late!), I will try to sketch more and play more (both with my family and with art materials). I will try to blog more consistently and to put comments on other artists' blogs, to begin building an art network for myself. And I'll continue to create and submit and be open to any possibilities...