Posted June 10, 2013 in art & craft, tutorials

On our last family vacation I brought with me a small art kit; my art journal, a few pencils, a micron pen, a paintbrush, and four delicious Caran D’ache water soluble crayons.  Since we were headed to the seaside, I chose blues and greens for a color palette.   I had an idea of what I wanted to attempt and my overall goal was to create it with my kiddos.

The first thing we did was collect a number of things from outdoors.  We assembled a found-natural-object soup with one very important criteria; each object had to have one flat side or edge, you’ll see why later on…

We then made a watery blue wash by mixing a blue crayon in a small water bottle cap full of water.  I painted this onto my journal page.

Working fast, the kids and I then liberally colored one flat side or edge of each object with a dark chartreuse water soluble crayon.  Each object was placed colored side down in the still-wet wash.

We sprinkled a bit of beach sand on the still wet wash and splattered a bit of darker blue pigment here and there using the toothbrush method.

Now came the hard part; letting it dry…completely!  It took a few hours to dry but was well worth it because when all the objects and sand were removed we were left with this:

What cool looking shapes were left.  I then took it one step further and doodled with a micron pen, recording the activities of our seaside family vacation.

Make sure you carry out this project on top of your closed laptop as I did, for added suspense.

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Posted May 21, 2013 in art & craft

I have a bucket list accomplishment to report.  After two watercolor classes I can now say that I understand the basics properties of watercolor painting.  Mainly, the way it layers or overlaps to make other colors.  I am certainly not fluent in this method of painting but I feel much more comfortable with it.  I’m not such a fish out of water, watercolor that is!  (ha-ha)

Currently I’m working on a couple of decalcomania tentacles.  The following has lots of color pencil added for shading and darkening.  It still plan on darkening the blue background by quite a bit in order to make the tentacle really pop out.

I really like this guy, or gal.  I guess like the comic book illustration look of it.  The drips could be a little less contrived looking.   As in not spaced so evenly apart.   The little white dots are made with an alcohol dropper while the watery pigment is still wet but halfway dry.   Very fun times!

I’ve also been asked to teach a felted soap class at a local adulted ed center.   With a lot of agitation and hot water, these little gems are rather foolproof to make.

Inside are yummy smelling Dr. Bronner’s soaps.

I have an entire day off ahead of me.  The bus picks up the kiddos in about 19 minutes.  I have some ambitious plans involving sewing with my serger, packing for an upcoming seaside vaction, and taking a jog with my doggie.  Ahhhh, life is good!

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Posted May 6, 2013 in art & craft

Well, my decalcomania tree died a slow and painful death.  I went too dark too fast (a common problem in watercolor I am told) and I covered up all that awesome patterning.  However, in learning you must make mistakes and I usually learn a lot from my mistakes.  This was no exception.  I have since tried another tree and something a bit different.  A rather abstract thing that resembles a dinosaur back, a dragon’s tail, or a plant with massive thorns.  Either way, it’s a successful decalcomania.

I like the almost-square format.  Here it is on it’s side, resembling a thorny plant.

I have great things in mind on my art making horizon.  There might be some encaustic ballerinas in my future after being inspired by my 6 year old’s ballet recital- an amazingly darling and mesmerizing event.  So stay tuned…

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Posted April 22, 2013 in art & craft

I’m currently taking a watercolor class with the lovely and talented Linda Murray at Merrymeeting Adult Ed.  I am still such a newbie to watercolor that it intimidates me…a lot.  It seems so foreign to even begin the watercolor process.  To mix up the colors on my pallet and to actually paint with that mixture feels very uncomfortable, to say the least!  But once I begin,  I usually get into the groove and like most art/craft endeavors, it becomes fantastically meditative.

In the decalcomania process, plastic wrap is used to achieve the initial patterning.  My tree below shows some very cool bark-like shapes made by placing plastic wrap on watery pigment and letting it dry completely before removing the plastic.

Geez, it seems almost good enough to be finished but of course I need to “develop” it further.  (I.e. darker darks and more defined bark!)  So I’m working rather loosely from this photo:

I added more blue, more brown, and more dark areas.  I also began a pain staking process of depicting bark.  The bark is in it’s infancy here but soon it will grow…and take over…

So the key, I’m told, is to develop the picture but NOT to cover up all that cool plastic wrap patterning.   I shall try my best…

Here are two other student’s decalcomania pieces in their beginning.  The first is an aloe plant and the second is a mountain and pond landscape.

Tomorrow is an encaustic day where I have a pretty cool idea for some robot heads.  Yes, back to robots for a bit.  I haven’t quite gotten them out of my system yet.

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Posted April 10, 2013 in art & craft

Arts Are Elementary, a non-profit group connecting artists with students in the K through 5 classrooms of Brunswick, Maine, chooses 6 artists to complete a residency each year.  Each artist works with one grade level and completes a project with those students.  The project or process ties into some grade-specific curriculum.  The 10 x 10 annual art sale is the means by which this amazing group funds their work.

I submitted a proposal which was accepted for the 2013/2014 school year.  I will be making “Make-Believe Collage Maps” with the second graders of Brunswick.  Here are three kid-made prototypes of this project:

The collage is made on a plywood board.  The river is painted and the rest is paper with a few ink stampings and a bit of glitter.   I’m so very excited!!!  I love working with kids and second grade is such a darling age.  They are usually so eager to make art.  There will be some challenging prep work involved but I do love a challenge, especially for arts’ sake!

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Posted April 2, 2013 in art & craft, coherent ramblings

This is a conglomeration post of my last couple of weeks.  I recently turned 35.  Here is a pencil case that I whipped up to celebrate this “achievement”:

Is age really just a number?  I’ve realized that if I’m lucky my life is half over.  Sure, I could live longer (or shorter!) but for sake of argument, lets just say 70 is my magic number.  I’m a bit…hmmm…well, sad isn’t the word…but I guess I feel somewhat cheated to put a term limit on my art and craft making!  Sounds ridiculous that this is the first thing that comes to my mind, instead of lamenting the finite time I have to spend with my dear family, but there’s just SOOOO much that I want to do and try and master in the way of art (and craft) making.  And sooo little time.  My days and many nights are filled with life; work, kids, chores, dog, cat, house, garden (holy cow it’s SPRING!),  and so much more that it seems that the art takes a back seat much of the time.  By the time all is quiet in the house I’m EXHAUSTED.  Such is life with young kinds I suppose.

What’s in the “35″ pencil case you wonder?  Not just any old collection of pencils but a bunch of vintage (and new) awesome pencils- both colored and graphite.  My step-mother, for lack of a better term, hands me fun collections every once in a while.  For instance, she recently gave me about 50 mini perfume bottles (emptied and washed) in all different shapes.  Just the other day she handed me a bunch of pencils.  An artist died (his art-making term limit was reached) and she acquired some of his things.  Here are some of his pencils-turned-my-pencils:

Very awesome indeed!!!  Thank you, Mary (the step-mom), and Mr. Theberge (the artist)!

I’ve been into painterly approaches lately.  I want to learn about painting- watercolor, acrylic, oil, wax- I’m very excited to polish some fine art skills.  I’m thrilled to soon continue with another watercolor class- it starts this Friday.  It’s called “Decalcomania” and is taught by the very talented watercolorist, Linda Murray at Merrymeeting Adult Ed.  I was told that I needed to bring to class a photo of a tree with gnarly roots for that was what I would depict in my painting.  I searched high and low for the perfect tree but was having difficulty finding “the one.”  I mentioned this to my kids and they both immediately chimed in and told me that the perfect tree with gnarly roots grew on their playground!

And boy they were right!  I love this tree!  It is perfect and oh so meaningful.  I will post about my progress in attempting to paint it.

In my life I think I have been to three cat shows.  This is an event where people bring in their cats to compete- much like a dog show- for ribbons and such.  It’s really a beauty contest for cats.  I’m compelled about once every ten years to visit one.  I love animals and cats are no different.  And where else can you go (besides the animal shelter) and get a massive dose of cats?  A couple of weeks ago I took my family to a TICA cat show.  Not only was it hilarious, but also adorable, and part of the proceeds went to helping homeless kitties.  I spotted this car magnet which spoke volumes:

Just profound!  Well, there’s my conglomeration post, I hope you enjoyed it!!  And thanks for visiting!

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Posted March 21, 2013 in art & craft

I enjoy participating in artsy craftsy contests.  I like challenges, with rules to them.  When Joann announced it’s “Create with 8” team member contest my gears immediately started turning…  The two $250 gift card prizes certainly helped those gears move!  The goal was to choose eight items from a list of twenty and make something.  I had a polymer clay robot in mind and the rest sort of just unfolded…step by step…Here is my girl robot who is happily picking spring flowers.  However, in Maine it is still pretty chilly in early spring so she’s wearing a crocheted  hat and scarf!

If you like her, please vote for her at  https://www.facebook.com/JoAnn/app_364041783617057  The person who get the most votes wins one of those gift cards!

On a completely different note, today I played with encaustic painting.  I took an Encaustic Painting 101 class a while back and soon after bought all of the stuff with which to do it.  The stuff sat for a year or so, brewing on the back burner of the metaphorical art stove.  Well, today a new art minded friend came over and we painted the day away.  I painted a robot of all things.  I’ve got robots on the brain!  I really LOVED the process.  There will be more robots.  What a great day today was.

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Posted March 13, 2013 in my studio

I have transformed a glorious storage space into a quaint little studio space.  I am loving it.  The space heater makes it more than warm enough.  I have done more than typical housecleaning in this space, I have done some emotional and maybe even spiritual housecleaning as well.  I have a new space all my own and it’s overflowing with positive energy.  After these pics I will get straight to the tutorial:

A wall of art

Some Birds on Buntings

A few Dream Boxes

Close Up of Dream Boxes

A corner of Art

The Space

A Positive Corkboard

Corkboard Up Close

Now, for my brief tutorial.  My space was missing something…I wanted to celebrate it’s grand opening with something fun, colorful and handmade…  When cleaning and sorting through stash, I came across some 6 fabric swatches that were mailed to me about a year ago during the Cloth Paper Scissors Fabric Swatch Exchange.  People from all over the country and beyond used fabric inks/dyes/paints and more to create their own fabric.  I knew right away that the ideal project for these swatches was a flag banner, or bunting.  I love depicting these in my artwork so why not have one skirting across my ceiling in my new studio?  In my mind the bunting would embody the creative spirits of the women who made the swatches.  Off I went to make the finishing touch for my room.  First I cut many isosceles triangles; about 4 inches wide at the top and 4 1/2 inches long.  I used a rotary cutter, mat, and acrylic ruler which made the work easy. ( I had to supplement fabric from my stash as I didn’t have enough in the swatches).  I doubled up each triangle, in other words, each triangle is composed of two layers of fabric.  This adds stability.

These triangles pictured already have sewn edges

Then, each double thick triangle needs a straight stitch around the outer edge, about 1/8 or 1/4 inch from the raw edge.

Keeping the edge raw is cute!

Then after sewing up quite a few triangles, I began to sew them into 1/4 inch double fold bias tape using a wide zig-zag stitch.  I tucked the top of the triangle into the tape and fed it under the foot of my machine.  I continued sewing on the tape after the triangle had passed, adding another one after about a 1 inch space.

Easy Peasy!

I made three of these and tied them to the existing vintage light fixture and then to some hooks I screwed into the window frames.  Voila, my spaced is finished!

This is what I see looking up from where I sit

From the left: the first, third, fourth, and fifth come from the swatches.

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Posted March 9, 2013 in art & craft

So…I was about the place my Computer Grafix transparency photocopy of hardware cloth over my cross section…But I pondered how to affix it?  Glue wasn’t the answer, it would show through…So I got out the hammer, some nails, tacks and I bought a package of Tim Holtz vintage-looking pins.   I also nailed down my shrink plastic gears.  I thought it needed a few metal gears so I bought a package in the scrapbooking aisle.  (Again Tim Holtz):

Like a lot of my art, this piece began embodying emotions that I was working through at the time of its’ creation.  Sounds weird, but I was feeling particularly sad during this period about how quickly my children were growing up.  Like how much less they needed me (don’t get me wrong- I know this is a good thing).  Or how my son is already 9 years old- half way to leaving for college!  WHAT?!  So I figured I would embrace these feelings and celebrate them further by making this piece about the idea that once I had children, my heart was no longer my own- my babies owned it.   They caged me, in a way.  So the title became “Caged” and here it is:

I had a lot of fun with this challenge.  I worked with materials that I would not normally choose and found fun ways to use them.  Making this was also like a bit of needed therapy for me- art does heal, I’m convinced!  Anyway, I do hope you’ll check the Great Grafix Challenge out in the May/June issue of Cloth Paper Scissors as there are 9 other talented artists participating, who have all used these products in very unique ways.

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Posted March 5, 2013 in art & craft

Let’s see…I last left off where I had used the Rub-Onz to add fire hydrant parts and child written words to my steampunk heart diagram.  Here’s an close up of that work:

Next, I adhered the whole thing to a primed 10 x 10 birch plywood board.  I used a generous amount of gel medium slapped onto the board and a brayer to really push the thick watercolor paper into the gel.  After it dried I added the diagramming.  I stuck some cut dictionary definitions down and I used a white Souffle pen by Sukura to draw lines from the words to their corresponding sections of the heart.  I also greened up the background with a colored pencil.

I decided that the cross sectioned surface of the heart, where the steampunkery would reside, needed a layer of Computer Grafix with some neat, repeating, sort-of  industrial design on it.  So, I photocopied some hardware cloth onto one of the transparency sheets and traced the shape of the cross section.  (I had made a template prior to doing this.)

I also used my handy dandy griddle to make some Shrink Plastic gears.  I’ve done this in the past and it works quite well.  Just pre-heat to 300, use parchment paper to sandwich the plastic, and lay a thin piece of wood on top of the sandwich.  After 4 or 5 minutes of cooking, voila- shrunk plastic!  I then coated these gears in a metallic pigment ink:

So, my gears were really turning (pun intended) and my heart was evolving into this interesting statement about children, and feelings, and maybe the quick passage of time…Stay tuned for more to come!!!

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