Soulful Creating

Creative Every Day - A Quick Painting

2012-01-02T22:34:00.002-07:00

I have thought about joining Creative Every Day for almost two years. It is a challenge set up by Leah Piken Kolidas to encourage others to create. You don't have to create every single day - you do what works for you, so there is no need to spend time whipping yourself if you happen to go a day without sharing some creative aspect of your life.

Leah defines creative in the broadest sense of the word and you can read about the challenge on her Creative Every Day challenge page.

While I was working at the studio today, I decided I wanted to do some painting. I don't often paint on canvas but I took a recycled canvas that happened to have torn pieces of paper collaged onto it. I decided to let it emerge as I painted and this is my result of my efforts. I love the texture and colors of the collaged paper. It was fun to create a piece that I like from a piece that another artist tossed away for reasons of their own.

Exercises like this are a great way for me to get out of my head and just go with it. I have been taking pictures of trees lately on my almost daily walks in the park and I am quite happy with the way this tree turned out. I did the writing with a white gel pen. The photo at the top is more true to the colors but the bottom one is a bit clearer.

Carved Stamps

2012-01-01T01:36:00.000-07:00

I spent a very calm new year's eve working (at an art studio) and carving the first side of my 6 inch by 4 inch piece of soft-cut block that I believe is made by Speedball (no affiliation). This first photo is the full stamp and the second is a closeup that shows you all of my imperfect cuts.

I think that 2012 will be a year that I leave room that allows room for imperfections, since my focus will mostly be experimenting and exploring as I create. As processes emerge from my experiments, I will learn a lot. You can see from the stamp being covered with paint and how the stamp looks on fabric, there could be some improvements if I choose to make an absolutely perfect carved stamp. But I kind of like the less formal addition of personality that the imperfect cuts add to the piece. I also love the idea of 'allowing' the imperfections to be part of the work. Just like imperfections are part of us and part of life.

It was pretty easy not to fret over the lines that are not straight. I learned a bit about which tool might give me the look that I want and which tool scoops the way I need.

One of the best parts of using this soft-cut block is that it is thick enough to cut another design on the flip side.So once finished, I flipped it over and started a new stamp. I like it too.

Flowing lines and bubbles inspired by the Raw Art Journaling technique of Free-Floating Bubbles (p.77). Disclosure, yes, author Quinn McDonald is a good friend of mine and I love this book of hers. The openness of my lines and bubbles design allows for the addition of words after stamping. I will probably use markers or gel pens to add words to the fabric.

~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~

And I can't sign off without wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year! May the year 2012 be one in which you realize your dreams and take some of those risks you have previously been hesitant to take.

R

Promise and Gratitude

2011-09-30T00:38:00.000-07:00

Promise

All that life holds

In the bud of a rose.

Imagine!

Gratitude.

Sometimes I forget to take a few moments to be thankful. Thankful for the beauty that surrounds us. Thankful for the ability I have to know when to jump in and when to step away; this serves me well.

Thankful for my friends and family because they bring joy and a special kind of light to my life.

Thankful that even in the face of uncertainty, it is possible for me to stay out of the panic-zone and remain in the creative zone where thinking happens and possibilities can be explored.

Since being laid off, I am thankful even for that, because it has given me the freedom to think about and choose where I want to spend my time. Freedom to look at making money doing the things that make me happy and make a difference, in some small way, to others. I am grateful to be such a blessed individual.

What are you grateful for? Please leave them in the comments. It is hard to be sad, mad and down when you let yourself consider the things you are thankful for. Try it.

Review of Lyric Kindard's Surface Design Video

2011-08-22T13:34:00.000-07:00

Lyric Kinard's 'Surface Design Sampler Platter'

(this link will take you to the Interweave Store video download page for the video)

If you like to try different techniques for fabric. If you love learning visually. If you love having someone explain things in clear and easy to understand ways. Then you’ll probably like this video. It is available from Interweave both as a download and as a DVD.

When you visit the Interweave page about this video there is a supply list broken down for you into categories. To me, supply lists are intriguing because even though you think you know what the instructor will do with particular items, often there is the surprise of how they have chosen to use those supplies.
The video is divided into four segments and each of those segments was packed with information that was useful to me. Some of the information was a great reminder of things I had seen or heard before and some was totally new.

First Segment – Eraser Stamps. I have thought about making stamps from erasers many times and just haven’t gotten around to it. Lyric’s very clear instructions on how she cuts the stamps and her tips on cutting were great. I love the examples and demonstrations of how she uses the stamps and groups of stamps in creating her artwork.

Second Segment – Screen Printing & Stenciling. This is a great refresher or introduction on using screen printing techniques on fabric. Lyric talks about traditional screen printing and touches on thermofax screens as well. Lyric also covers a variety of stencil materials that you can do yourself with materials you probably already have at home. She also touches briefly on mixing colors in this segment and shares with the viewer the types of paints she uses to add color to her work.

Third Segment – Foiling and Photo Copy Transfers. I love foiling and Lyric covers this well and demos how to use a variety of adhesives, including her favorite for this technique. I found it hard to understand the name of the supplier for her favorite adhesive but you can find it on her website, in the links section, under Surface Design Supplies.

I must go and get some Citra-Solv. I have never used this product but Lyric’s demonstration of a photo copy transfer technique using this made me want to run out to the store and get some. It looks really easy and I can’t wait to try it.

Fourth Segment – Lyric show you have to make a little quilted journal slip cover. Her technique for finishing makes it really easy.

Overall, I thought this was a great video. I learned some techniques I did not know and was re-inspired about techniques I did. Lyric has a voice and way of talking that is easy to listen to and her explanations are uncomplicated. Whether you are a beginner just starting out in your explorations with techniques for surface design or you are experienced and looking for a bit of inspiration, this ‘sampler platter’ can be a great addition to your library.

I would love to hear your comments if you've watched this video or have thought about getting it.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Technique Tuesday - Using a Mask

2011-05-17T19:11:00.007-07:00

I love using masks in my creative work, usualy along with stamps and stencils. My thanks to the very talented artist Dina Wakely, who happens to live here in Arizona. She is a wonderful teacher and also runs a mixed media group that meets once a month at The Creative Quest in Glendale, Az.

I have used a mask on this postcard by cutting shapes out of a clothing catalog. I cut out three shapes of women in different poses, layed them together and used a paintbrush to pull paint around the edges of the shape. That gave me the shape surrounded in purple on this fabric postcard.

I could have painted or stamped on the fabric first, but after painting, I used a marker to put the quote from Maya Angelou in the center. I used a ginko leaf rubber stamp with Lumiere paint and used a piece of punchinella as a stencil to add more color to this postcard. And finally, with a hair comb dipped in paint, I made those red lines that you see.

I keep catalogs and magazines and occasionally while watching television or movies will flip through them to find shapes that interest me. I cut them out and might spend a different session painting them with a coat of gel medium so I can use them more than once. If you coat your pieces with gel medium, do it on a piece of plastic so you will be able to lift the piece when dry and turn it over to paint the other side.

Sometimes I'll remember to save both the actual mask and the stencil that is created when cutting out the shape - like this woman from an old catalog I had lying around.

That little strip of blue that you see on the stencil is painters tape that I used to reinforce the portion where I cut very close to the edge. I wanted to give it some stability.

I glued the mask to a file folder, coated it with gel medium, cut it out, laid it on a piece of plastic, coated the back with gel medium as well. I also coated the stencil on both sides.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I would love to hear about your adventures with this technique.

Surface Design Postcard Swap - Texture Postcards

2011-05-15T14:01:00.000-07:00

I signed up this week to join a swap on the Surface Design Yahoo Group. The theme of this swap is landscape texture postcards so we have to do fabric postcards with texture and depth to them. We only have to make 4 so I think I can get these designed and out in the mail in time for the deadline of June 20th. Some of my postcards will be going to people in Australia. I love how connected the world is today.

Now what should I do for my postcards? What immediately came to mind was to maybe use some of my photos for inspiration.

Maybe one of these that I took from the car on a trip to Sedona last year:

Hmmm. All of these qualify as landscapes. All three have great visual texture with a lot of options for recreating those textures on fabric. None of these are stellar photographs but they do not have to be since I will add and/or subtract things to make the piece work as a postcard.

And who knows, maybe working on these postcards will spark some ideas for a larger quilted landscape.

As always, click on any photo for a larger view and comments are always welcomed.

Cacti In Bloom

2011-05-09T22:12:00.000-07:00

Look at all of the pretty cacti. I know this sounds a little bit funny. It is hard to think of a cactus as something pretty when we all know about those prickly, stick-y, ouch-y, hurt-you-if-you-touch-them spines that many cacti have.

Those spines are part of the reason that cacti survive in dry climates like the desert because the spines help reduce the evaporation or loss of water by the plant. The spines also offer wonderful protection.

Cacti are flowering plants and I never think much about the fact that they bloom. So I was absolutely delighted to see the blooms on a recent visit to the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, AZ.

The slideshow below shows an assortment of cacti and some of their blooms.

'Grapevines' a Cinquain

2011-04-24T10:54:00.000-07:00

Grapevines.

Curly tendrils.

Stems. Leaves. Blooms.

Forming clusters of succulent

Grapes.

In honor of National Poetry month. I came up with this little cinquain after my walk the other day. A cinquain is a 5-line poem and I used the word-structure of 1,2,3,4,1 . I think this would make a fun little quilt, hmmmmm.

Intensity of Life

2011-04-19T00:28:00.000-07:00

Intense.

Requests, information, questions all coming at the speed of light, all day

Life flying along, creating whirlwinds in your head.

Must remember to breathe.

It feels good to breathe.

Choose the end of the day

Because if you don’t it won’t stop

Break up the intensity

Walk. Look at pretty flowers. Feel cooler air.

Listen as the birds talk and laugh with one another.

Snap shots of the poses the roses take, dressed in their radiant costumes.

Enjoyable treats for your senses and your right brain. Ahhhhhh.

Then.

Back to the tugs and pulls of life. And so it goes.

RH 4/18

Inspired Today - Lasagne Style Quilt

2011-04-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

Kay Sorenson is one of the many art quilters on the Quilt Art list who recently shared her need for a ‘mindless’ sewing project that we all sometimes need. The kind where not a lot of thinking is involved, just the joy of sewing that also yeilds a result.

I had never seen this technique before but it looks easy and fun and Kay’s quilt has the most beautiful batik fabrics in glorious colors.

I have seen this referred to as ‘Lasagne’ style quilt. Apparently, as you can see in this video

from the Heirloom Creations blog they held a race using a jelly-roll to make a quilt. They provide the instructions on their blog and have photos of some of the quilts made during the 'race'.
FYI – a jelly-roll is a collection of about 40 fabric strips that are pre-cut to 2.5” by 44”. They come in assorted colors. A search of the term jelly roll fabrics will give you a lot to look at.

Here’s a blog post from CakesbyKristin blog about this style of creating a quilt that has great ‘up-close’ photos.

A lot of ideas came to mind while looking at this quilt:

• Baby quilts (you probably would just need to shorten the original strips; you could put cool little motifs in between each strip or group them in colors pink, blues, pastels, brights)

• African fabrics (w/ maybe a unifying little block of color, like red, in between each strip)

• Great quilt for free motion practice because no one would be able to see any of the mistakes made.

• Great for playing with colorways, can’t you just see one in greys and blacks or purples or blues or black & white fabrics or reds, or red & white fabrics . . .

• Great way to create a bunch of quilts to donate – you don’t have to spend a lot of time thinking about color and placement, just enjoy the sewing

• Probably the most time consuming part, aside from cutting your own strips, would be stitching them end to end. I know that I am the type who would not sew them on the diagonal but just straight end-to-end, like I do my binding strips

• Leftover Christmas or other holiday fabrics

• Leftover hand-dyed fabrics, or not leftover

• Shiboried fabrics

• Fabrics you’ve created using various surface design techniques and don’t know what to do with

What comes to mind for you?

Saturday Stitching

2011-03-12T15:52:00.000-07:00

Having some fun with this little fabric postcard. Trying out quilting lines and little circles. I really like the little circles and keep getting better at them as I go. I notice that once I've gone over it with paint, the eye tends to see the whole and not the individually messy lines I made as I did this. Which is great since I wasn't concerned with being perfect, just enjoying the zen of machine stitching and free-motion quilting.

The fabric is handpainted. I taped off sections of it so I could write the words. The word engage is done with a calligraphy marker. The other words were done with a micron fine tip.

I used various colors of rayon thread and then went over the parts left in relief with Shiva paintstiks. The gold is obvious but there is also iridiscent red and iridescent purple. It is hard to know when to quit. I just need to go over the letters with a gel pen I think, to make the other words pop out more. They are sort of lost in everything else.

Stuff like this makes doing loads of laundry and dishes go much faster.

I have four or five of these that I was going to use in a swap and changed my mind. So I did some quilting on another one and think I'll put some beads on this one.

If you have a moment, let me know what you think of these. And click on the photos if you want a closer look.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your Saturday is satisfying.

Feeling Good by Doing Good

2010-12-05T14:51:00.000-07:00

Inspired by this post from Quinn McDonald, I decided to write this brief post today about what we can do in addition to changing our pictures on Facebook. She says better than I could why she isn't changing her photo and what she is doing instead. Yes, the cartoon character thing is fun but my concern, like hers, is what difference does it really make?

I'm challenging myself and my friends to do more than change an avatar on Facebook. I donated some clothes that I am not going to wear. I know from experience that ‘feel good’ feeling multiplies when you give something of yourself, so along with changing your picture you can donate some food, time, supplies, gift cards, socks, toys, etc to a local agency that provides services for children who are victims of abuse and violence.

Here are some local (Greater Phoenix) agencies to add to the list that Quinn posted:
You can check their websites or call any of these places and they will tell you what they need most.
Childhelp (Scottsdale, AZ) - http://www.childhelp.org/pages/about

Eve’s Place (Surprise, AZ) - http://www.safetyatevesplace.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69&Itemid=54

Crisis Response Neetwork (Phoenix, AZ) - http://www.crisisnetwork.org/crisisservices/crisisservices.htm

Reverb10 - Wonder

2010-12-04T11:19:00.012-07:00

#Reverb10 - Using the month of December to blog about the year . . . read about it here. You can join too.

Writing prompt for December 4 – Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year? (Author: Jeffrey Davis)

Wonder. One definition is ‘to think or speculate curiously’. Another is ‘to be filled with admiration, amazement or awe’.
I kept my sense of wonder throughout the year first by taking walks in my favorite park. The is something very wonder-ous about the colors, lines and the shape of a rose, whether it is budding or completing the cycle. I have been amazed many times by the beauty of nature in flowers and in animals such as peacocks.

To me, speculating curiously equals creativity. Though the year of 2010 has been extremely stressful and trying, I maintained my efforts to experience ‘creativity time’ by spending time doing experiments with fabric and beads and paint metals and gel mediums, etc. I have made the time to gather with others who value ‘creative wondering’. I have visited, with friends, and been delighted by the studios of other artists.

I also created the opportunity to be the catalyst or facilitator of wonder for others by teaching a class in mixed media for fabric. There is nothing quite like providing the space and materials that give others the incentive to speculate curiously and experiment with abandon.

Wonder has been alive and well in 2010.

Another Gathering of Creatives

2010-11-17T12:11:00.003-07:00

Mary

I am so fortunate to have a lot of artistic and creative friends. I had a chance to get together with Mary and Sheila last week in Chandler. We decided to get together to catch up on what we're all working and see what creative mischief we could get into. We even worked a little bit on Mary's blog.

Sheila

Me, looking quite happy

Really? Could I look any more content? I'm sure no one else hates 'every' photo that is taken of them but these two - I like. That contentment is probably my number one reason for doing anything creative, it calms my soul.

And it really does not have to be complex or complicated types of creativity. Drawing with a pen or pencil, crayons to paper, needle and beads,
sewing machine - it doesn't matter. The process is what matters.

Ok. Back to the fun.

Here's what we played with, OPALS Embossing powders, which can be purchased at After Midnight Stamps (Am Stamps), come in a variety of colors and are melted in the same type of pot in which you melt Utee. Mary was gracious in letting us play in her supply of Opals and molds. This was easy and fun and gave me some things to add to future mixed media creations.

And the results were fun indeed:

You can visit Mary's blog here and as soon as I remember Sheila's blog I'll update and post it here.

Inspiration for Creativity and a little Gratitude

2010-11-14T13:10:00.003-07:00

Inspiration comes to me in many forms of expression.
(Reminder - clicking on photo gives you a closer look)

I spent a recent Saturday morning fillng my creative reserviors at the Desert Botanical Gardens here in Phoenix with one of my creative accomplices, Quinn McDonald.

What a calm and peaceful way to spend a Saturday. Walking with a friend like two old desert rats with walking sticks taking in the wonderful weather and the increadible desert flora of the garden.

The butterfly exhibit delighted my heart.

Just the relaxing feeling that is present when you step into an enclosed, but open area, full of greenery and color from the flowers and the butterflies themselves. Feeling and watching the butterflies sail quietly passed you as you move along the path, looking up, down and all around to see where they may have landed.

You do your best to capture a pose or two. How do they know to close their wings right at the moment you snap the photo? How do they know that when they hang out on the overhead branch, it provides a perfect shot for you, right up close.

What a treat this was. This could spark a series of butterfly quilts, hmmmm.

Once Quinn and I made sure that no butterflies were trying to escape their lovely habitat by attaching themselves to us as we departed their world, we mosied down the paths and arrived at the patio cafe. The weather was very pleasant and eating lunch outside, under the trees, in the shade was rather heavenly.

Quinn is one of those creative ones that I have that special 'we can talk for hours and never run out of things to say' connections. And I cherish it. The ideas and possibilites seem to flow when we are talking.

And finally the mask exhibit with masks from Gwynn Popovac who creates the most wonderful, intricate and incredible masks in this small show.

Her masks make you want to move in close after you marvel at them from afar.

What can be seen upclose is the amount of fun she has in creating them, as well as the intricate thread work and beadwork she gives each piece. I imagine that these are hours and hours of joyful, in-the-zone creating, as they unfold into intricate beauty.

Overall a most enjoyable and inspiring day.

------ Gratitude--------

I am grateful for beautiful places like this in the desert.
I am grateful for friends like Quinn.
I am grateful for my creative way of looking at the world.

Experimenting w/ Golden Digital Grounds

2010-11-10T23:34:00.001-07:00

Golden Digital Grounds – Experiments

I will confess that I bought a sample pack of Golden’s Digital Grounds http://www.goldenpaints.com/mixmoremedia/digiground.php over a year ago and just never got around to experimenting with them. I bought the sample pack at Arizona Art Supply http://www.arizonaartsupply.com/ which contained 3 bottles of grounds and 2 jars of topcoats.

On a recent Friday night, in an exhausted state of being, I was entertaining myself by watching You Tube videos about printing on uncommon surfaces. Many of the videos I watched that night were by northern Arizona artist Kathyanne White http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oSPP0zUcv0&feature=related , whom I met this year at Art Unraveled. She uses a product called Inkaid http://www.inkaid1.com/ which I have never seen but seems to act like the Digital Grounds products in that it creates a surface on top of a surface so that it will hold the inks of an inket printer. She prints on lacepaper, fabric, etc.

Well, when she got to the part in one of her videos where she prints onto recycled aluminum cans, I was so inspired by then I pulled out my digital grounds and started playing. Here are my results: Clck 'read more' for pics.....

Fabric

full sheet w/ various digital grnds

DG Matte (bottom 1/3)

top 1/3 - no digital grounds

The How

I took an 8.5 by 11” piece of muslin and on the bottom third of it, coated the fabric with Digital Grounds Matte. I also wrote with a sharpie which product I was using. The middle third of the fabric was coated with Digital Grounds Gloss. The upper third was left uncoated.

I printed the peacock image on the top and the middle parts of the fabric and then did an overall print of a photo of rocks I had taken over the entire page. The next morning, I rinsed it to see what would happen. Well, as you can see, the untreated top third did not hold the inket inks (and I did not expect it to). The middle and bottom treated sections held the ink perfectly. So it works. They do what they say they will do. I even kind of like the overprint of the rocks over the peacock.

Foil
Next, I coated a piece of crinkled aluminum foil. This also worked and I can see the need to play around with print settings to get the optimum print. It is kind of hard to tell what the image is but I love this effect on the aluminum. If you click on the photo and look at the close up, you can see where it printed on the hills and the valleys of the crinkled foil, very cool as far as I’m concerned.

Skins

I have wanted to make an acrylic skin ever since I first picked up Chris Cozen’s book ‘Altered Surfaces’. I love that book and refer to it often. Well, I took some Golden Soft Gel Gloss and smoothed it onto a plastic surface with a spatula. Actually I did two strips, then let them dry (sorry, no photo). Once dry, I taped them onto a piece of paper (8.5 x 11) , treated it with the digital grounds, let it dry and then ran it through the printer. Oh JOY! It was the same photo I used for the foil only this time, you can actually tell that it is a photo of a cactus. Well, I can, sorry if it isn't obvious. I was just happy that I was able to get a print.

Here is a link to my accomplice Quinn McDonald's blog with her post on our experiments together. We were having toner issues but I love the effect on the foil.

More experiments to come.

Let me know what you think and if you have done any experiments with Digital Grounds.

In the Company of Creatives

2010-10-30T09:32:00.000-07:00

Do you ever gather with your accomplices in art and healing. You know, the ones where you just get together to try experiments or just do show and tell or someone shares a technique that everyone tries. These kinds of gatherings make my soul say 'ahhhhhhhhhh', because I feel very much 'at home' in such a nurturing environment. It wouldn't even matter if we threw everything away at the end, well ok, maybe it would matter, but the most important part to me is the gathering, the sharing, the joy and delight that we express in our own ways as we listen, share and explore. There is such an exquisite sweetness to that process.

What is sad is that I often tell myself that I do not have time to participate in such things. And sometimes I am truly torn as to whether I should go to a meeting or gathering or not because of time, my lack of energy, a lack of funds . . . But every time I go, and I belong to several groups, I am always, without fail, left with inspiration, energy and excitement. It really does make my soul sing to be in the company of others who 'ooooohhhhh' and 'aaaahhhhhhhh' over seemingly ordinary things.

If you don't have such a group to go to, make one. Start one and let it evolve, like a piece of art. You only need one other person to start. Just start getting together, sharing and talking and let the flow of interests and knowledge lead you on your explorations. Others will be invited and the group will grow.

I am a firm believer that art heals. I know this to be true. And I know that it doesn't need to be a formalized, orchestrated 'healing process'. The healing begins, whether people are aware of it or not, from the moment people start to arrive and find themselves greeted by others who are like them. I find that what helps me most in a creative group is the give and take of positive and powerful energy that is exchanged when people share and answer questions and demonstrate and laugh and just enjoy the process.

Imagine having a holiday gathering that is a group of women who gather to do maybe collage to use for cards. Or small art postcards that can be sent to loved ones or strangers. Maybe painting fabric or paper for giftwrap. Making easy pamphlet journals for gifts. Everyone brings some supplies and everyone has fun creating something. There are so many possibilities. Create with other creatives!

And please let me know what you think about this topic in the comments. Or let me know what types of groups you enjoy nurturing your soul with. Thanks!

A Giveaway! by Artful Soul Designs

2010-10-16T16:21:00.003-07:00

Our creative team is having a giveaway!
From today thru 6 p.m. Friday, October 22nd.

Who We Are:

We are a newly formed collective team of artists called Artful Soul Designs. There are currently 6 of us Brian Harrison, Julia Hagens, Geri Gettings, Gayla Doucet and Maura Mall and moi. We create with fabric, metal, beads, wire, fused glass, gemstones, gourds, etc.

Why we're doing it:
We decided to do a giveaway to help promote our Holiday Gift Show happening Sunday, October 24th at the BRIO Fine Arts Center in Scottsdale, Az. 85260

View Larger Map

Here’s what we’re giving away: (click on photos for larger views)

Created by Maura Mall:

Pink Jasper and Sterling Silver stretch bracelet made by Maura Mall

Created by Brian Harrison of BHarrisonArts:

Lava and Black Labradorite Wrist Mala and Prayer Beads by Brian Harrison

Created by Julia of JulzImageSolutions:

Tack-fused glass pin, wire-wrapped, on

etched brass. Turquoise blue, yellow & purple.

3" high and 2" wide by Julia Hagens

Created by Gaya Doucet:

Gayla hand-dyes scarves and these
are just examples of her work. The
winner will receive a scarf.

Created by Rosaland Hannibal:

Notepad holder: painted and stamped fabric.

Inside view of different one, but you get the idea.
Has a pocket, pen holder, pad holder. Just
under 9" tall.

Here’s how you can play to win: each action gets your name in the hat. The more actions you do, the more times your name goes in the hat.

Leave a comment on this post or on Brian’s blog post about this giveaway and tell us which prize you want and why.
Tweet about this giveaway using the hashtag #artfulsd then comment so we don’t miss your tweets.
Share our event on facebook
become a fan of our Artful Soul Designs facebook page
Bonus – post about it on your blog and get 2 entries.
Once we figure out the winners –we’ll contact you for your mailing info. If you are local, in the Phoenix area, and are a winner, there will be a bonus gift if you pick up your prize in person.

Desert Botanical Gardens

2010-10-13T11:54:00.000-07:00

Chihuly Glass - beautiful!

Brian & the big cactus. It is
an impressive cactus.

My OM (one moment) this week I made myself. I saw an opportunity to visit the Desert Botanical Gardens here in Phoenix for free today. I just happened to see their facebook post saying admission was free today from 1-8. They have what I'm thinking is a very cool butterfly exhibit. So after work, I called my friend Brian of BHarrison Arts and he and I went together.

Joshua Tree

Gorgeous night. The monarch butterfly

exhibit was already closed. Oh well that
just means I have to go back. We were
only there for about an hour but it was the most peaceful hour I have had in ages.

Outside, listening to crickets and not much else, wonderful weather and fascinating plants. I'm glad I went at night this first time because now I can't wait to see what it is like during the day. It is amazing the number of different cacti that are here. So much texture. It was very good for my soul and a great way to end a stressful workday.

It's the shadows that
intrigued me here.

More wonderful glass.

Love this glass!

OM was started by Linda Demers over at alamodestuffblog . You can link up and share about your 'one moment' each week when you just stop to 'take notice'. This is my first OM post in a while.

Sedona Studio Tours (part 2)

2010-10-07T22:17:00.001-07:00

The Sedona adventure continues. First with a few more scenic views

Our next stop on the tour was my favorite - the home studio of Margaret Anderson, a fiber artist who does hand painted, quilted wallhangings. Her use of color and technique were exquisite and very inspiring. We asked her if she’d like to come down to a Mavericks meeting and talk to the group or do a class. Oh my gosh, I love Margaret's work! I was completely inspired! See

Margaret Anderson

Yours truly with Margaret

And finally, we found our way to the studio of Nancy Robb Dunst who creates mixed fiber and installation art. Her installations are very clever and intriguing and make you think. It was pretty cool to drive up to her place and see this painted outhouse, ummm that's port-a-potty for you younger folks, in her front yard.

Inside the outhouse.

Nancy Robb Dunst

Sheila, Myra, Nancy

Mary, Myra, Sheila

Mary, me, Sheila

We enjoyed all of our visits with the artists and their gracious way of sharing themselves and their art with us. Such a fun time!

Studio Tours + Creative Companions = Inspiration & Fun! (part 1)

2010-10-04T22:45:00.000-07:00

What a great combination for a Saturday. Taking a trip to the red rocks of Sedona with three friends to enjoy the beauty of the area, the studio tours and each others company. Seriously good.

Mary Poindexter & Dee Durkee

Our first stop was at the home studio of Dee Durkee who creates fiber art vessels, wall-art, jewelry and journals. Three of our group knew Dee so we were looking forward to seeing her place and her work.

Sheila in Dee's studio

Our next stop was the Studio of Shirley Eichten Albrecht and her husband. Shirley creates beautiful, colorful reed, raku and gourd baskets. I loved her studio because it was so bright and they were very welcoming. Sorry, no photos of this stop.

Third on our list was the studio of a weaver named Pamela Gunning. Pamela weaves scarves, and shawls. I was fascinated by her equipment.

Then of course we had a make a lunch stop and the Wildflower Bread Company turned out to be a wonderful choice. And after lunch we couldn’t help but do a little shopping in the shops in the same location. And I loved this piece of artwork in the courtyard. Pretty Pony. At the time I did not think to get the name of the artist.

This is the end of part one.I will have the second part posted by Thursday with lots more photos.

Can you tell we had a great time?!!

As always, I appreciate you taking the time to visit. Feel free to leave comments.

Mixed Media Success

2010-09-26T22:25:00.000-07:00

Painted Paper Towel

I love teaching and had a blast facilitating learning for the students in my technique class on Saturday! We were exploring Mixed Media Techniques for Fabric and we had a blast. I had four and a half students. I say half because one student had to leave early.

I have taken and taught classes where the students are required to keep to essentially the same pace in order to complete a specific product by the end. This was not that kind of class. My interest was in sharing techniques that the students could explore and make their own so they could use them in their own work. I believe we accomplished just that.

We were able to explore several techniques and it was really fun to observe each of them taking those techniques in their own personal direction. Same materials + varying thoughts and approaches = very interesting and inspiring results. See for yourself.

Painted Paper Towel

Painted Paper Bag

I planted seeds and let them go. And go they did.

Pumice Gel on Fabric

Pumice Gel & Glass Bead Gel on Paper - the photo
does not do it justice. Glass Bead Gel is gorgeous
as it catches the light.

Clear Tar Gel, Lumiere, inks on fabric

On this fabric, Molding Paste,
Pumice Gel, Clear Tar Gel,
Metal sheet stamped & colored
with alcohol inks

The most fascinating, frightening, and fun part of this as the teacher was pushing aside the desire to move people along and allowing them the time to explore and discover.

Metals, Mica, Candy Wrappers created by Joan

Metal sheet, paper, mica piece,
mica washers, created by Quinn

Read about Quinn's class experience on her blog post of 9-26-10.

Painted Misty Fuse, metal pieces,
feathers, leaf on fabric

Painted Misty Fuse, feathers gold leaf,
on paper

There were many more samples they created for themselves and a binder to hold everything in for future inspiration. I cannot wait to do this again.

Work in Progress (WIP) Wednesday

2010-09-07T22:34:00.000-07:00

Progress. Is sometimes slow. But steady.

That’s what living is, yes? My life is a work in progress. And I usually have works in progress, usually more than one. Here are a few shots of the WIP from two weeks ago. I have actually had some time and felt good enough to do some stitching on this yellow piece. I like to experiment so you’ll see more of this. It will not remain yellow.

The plan is to paint after quilting. I layered two layers of cotton batting with the inted of getting more visible/obvious texture. I think that is working. I basically made up the design - I find that I like making it up as I go - no rules, just right. Hah!

I have only tried this once before, right after I got a copy of The Painted Quilt by Linda and Laura Kemshall. Great book!

I am also very inspired by Lynda Monk and the work she shares on her blog Purple Missus! Just scroll down through her older posts and enjoy. Her work is intriguing and inspiring to me. I don’t know what color I’m going to paint it yet, but I trust that it will come to me. So, I am on another quilting adventure – doing things I’ve never done before to see what happens.

Other work in progress is me. Ha. This is never ending right. I am always grateful to wake up every morning. The last six weeks or so have been very stressful physically. My diabetes numbers started to get way out of control, we’re talking upwards of 350.

This was triggered by the need to stop one diabetes med that was causing me to gain weight. Found a new endocrinologist who gave me a different med, which unfortunately just didn’t lower the blood sugar numbers like they needed to be. So, we switched to insulin. What an adventure that has been. It has taken weeks to get even close to the right dosage. It is starting to work and we still have a ways to go. But I do feel much better.

I have actually never had really high numbers until this year, especially numbers in the 370-420 range. It is a very scary and frustrating thing and it zaps energy and makes it very hard to focus. I’ll keep you posted. I’ve also been making myself attempt drawing a lot more so here is a sketch of my testing supplies. They're a little light but you get the idea. Next time I'll sketch on new paper, not recycled paper.

Work in Progress (WIP) Wednesday

2010-08-25T23:57:00.000-07:00

So I have 20 minutes before Thursday is over. No problem. I have the beginnings of two WIPs this week. First up is a piece of scrap fabric that I layered with two layers of batting to increase the texture. All of those rectangles you can see will be filled with quilting or other items/techniques. I am making it up as I go along. One thing I am sure of is that it will be painted once I'm finished with the quilting lines. This work was inspired by 'The Painted Quilt - Paint and Print Techniques for Color on Quilts' by Linda & Laura Kemshall.

I think the shadows give you a good sense of what it looks like so far.

Second Up are some photos of items I am collecting to use on a quilt, or a series of quilts, about type 2 diabetes. After 12 years of managing this disease, I find myself struggling with numbers out of control. I decided that since these are symptoms I have not experience before and they are having such a hugh and mostly negative impact on every single area of my life, I am going to use this series to work thru and express some of those emotions, challenges and frustrations that other people with the disease could also relate to.

My nightime, long acting insulin pen.

The doc and I monitor the blood sugar results 8 times a day and then decide what dose to raise it to since we have yet to reach the right level of blood sugar numbers.

Of course these pens are easy, easy, easy to use and the needles are fine and go in with no pain at all.

So the 'Diabetes' quilt that I create with these are other accessories and important parts of diabetes management should be quite interesting. We shall see.

What are you working on?

Finally, the Metals part of the Mixed Media on Fabric

2010-08-17T22:35:00.002-07:00

Geez, life does have a way of getting away from me. I had the most fun with these. Who says you have to stick with the 'usual stuff'. I say think outside of the box, or boxes and just go for it. I make jewelry too so I thought it would be fun to add jewelry findings along with other metals. Remember you can click on any of the photos for a larger/closer view. And I'll warn you now, this is a rather long post, but with lots of pics. Have fun and I appreciate any comments.

Jewelry Mesh, Copper Jump Rings, Embossing Metal

I like this wire-lace stuff. You can find it in some bead stores. It comes in various colors and is actually a tube of woven fine wire so you can pull it into different shapes. And as you can see, you can stitch thru this on the machine as well.

I was feeling very adventurous and decided to see if I could zig-zag stitch these copper jump rings onto my little quiltlet. I used whatever thread was in my machine so you could actually see it. But you could make it blend more with different thread choices.

Embossing Metal that I stitched to my quilt sample. It was so easy.

This sample has wood paper (see closeup below), metal sheets that have been cut and stamped and attached in various ways to this little quilt sample, and some chain.

And finally, the last group is jewelry findings.

This little collection of jewelry findings, chain and metal shapes are meant to inspire. Any one of these things could be added to a quilt to enhance the design of the piece. Closeups below.

Click on photo for cloer look.

Whew, hopefully you made it all the way through. I would love to hear what you think so drop a comment if you have a moment. Thanks!

More Mixed Media on Fabric - Papers

2010-07-30T16:13:00.001-07:00

Here's another group of my mixed media examples. The focus here is obviously papers. Papers are easy to attach to fabric/quilts and the attachment can be done many ways. The most logical choice for me, and what I always try is stitching it down - either by hand or machine.

This first example is a recycled brown paper bag, a Dairy Queen bag to be specific. I save all of my brown or white paper bags from purchases, cut them open, iron them and keep them clipped together. Sometimes, really I should say often, I paint them first. The brown bag below was painted with Lumieres (my 'go to' paints) and then foiled. I hadn't tried foiling yet and I like the look.

click for closer view

This example is a much smaller version of something I saw on the blog of Sue Bleiweiss on July 15, 2010. I love the work she does and have been following her blog for a long time. When I saw her example and the gorgeous one on her website, I was working on my little 7"x7"examples for the presentation and thought it was the perfect thing to try out and remind me to send the group to Sue's blog for more inspiration. I believe I used Misty Fuse to attach the bag to the fabric before stitching. But usually I will use medium to lightweight fusible interfacing to iron to the back of my painted paper bags to give them some stabiity before I stitch into them. Works for me every time.

This is papers attached with gel medium and then stitched. There's always more than one way.

closeup

I learned about Misty Fuse from one of Sue's classes I think. At least 2 years ago. For this sample I used tea bags that I had my boss save for me; rose petals from the bridal section at either JoAnn's or Michael's and candy foils that I had someone save for me from Dove chocolates. I love using Misty Fuse. In case you didn't know, Misty Fuse has a facebook page and they do giveaways on there from time to time.

And of course Tyvek, you know, the stuff they make postal envelopes from. So along with saving tyvek envelopes you get in the mail, which I know you can buy from Joggles, have fun at their site, they have a lot of cool stuff and a lot of great classes.This tyvek I painted and ironed between two pieces of parchment.

Next installment - metals.

Mixed Media for Fiber Arts: Experiments & Examples (part 1)

2010-07-22T22:16:00.003-07:00

Everything interests me! I am a creative. I make quilts. I make beaded jewelry. I make wire-wrapped pendants jewelry with metals. Over the last couple of years I have had an increasing desire to combine these mediums on/with fabric. These ideas have been fueled by my membership in the Mavericks, a contemporary art quilt chapter of the Arizona Quilters Guild. This creative group of men and women love to create with fibers and fabric and think outside the box on a regular basis.

I did a presentation to the group about my experiments with combining different media with quilting. Below are some shots of my examples using various papers, Golden Gel Mediums, and metals. For this post, I will focus on Gel Mediums. These experiments were all done using Golden Gel Mediums because that's what I happen to have. My guess is that other brands are equally good, so experiment away. Oh, and, have fun!

Vintage Glitter Glass glued w/
gel medium to fabric

Extra Coarse Pumice Gel - applied

thru a stencil.

Extra Coarse Pumice Gel

colored w/ Lumiere

Extra Coarse Pumice Gel 'plain'

Closeup - Tar Gel over
magazine cutouts

Clear Tar Gel sample.

Glass Bead Gel 'plain'.

Glass Bead Gel - colored with Lumiere

Papers collaged with Soft Gel
Gloss Medium - closeup

Soft Gel Gloss Medium -
collaged papers

Next Mixed Media post - Paper - recycled, commercial, from around the house.

Molding Paste - colored & plain

Thanks for visiting! Feel free to share your questions, comments, reactions . . .

If you want to link to a blog post or website to share work you've done with gel mediums, especially on fabric, use the Mr. Linky widget below (I'm just trying this out for the first time so if it doesn't work, let me know in the comments) Thanks!!!!

Creative Living: CoOp Review - Bountiful Baskets

2010-07-03T09:35:00.003-07:00

Happy Independence Weekend everyone! This is a 'happy customer' review.

Links appear at the bottom & click on any picture for a closer view.

Part of nurturing my soul includes giving it the kind of fuel that keeps it running better. I am on a mission to eat more fruits and veggies. So when I heard about the fruit & veggie coop Bountiful Baskets, I had to try it out. This all volunteer effort apparently takes place in about seven U.S. states.

Tuesday (6/29) I selected my preferred location based on their list, which also included pick-up times. I looked at their offerings for the week, the regular $15 basket plus extra choices of blueberries, cookies, breads, etc. I then paid my $15, for the 50% fruit and 50% veggie collection. And I also paid $20 for 12 pints of blueberries (I love blueberries!) I also had a choice of an organic basket instead of the regular for an additional $10. Since I didn't know quite what to expect, I went for the $15 this first time.

So,
selections made, site/location chosen, paid them and got my receipt. They only take debit or credit and you can't pay at the pick-up site, only pick up. There's a strict pick-up-time window, and they only hold your stuff for about 20 minutes, so you have to rise and arrive on time on that Saturday morning. I loved that they sent me a reminder email on Friday evening, very smart.

So I arrived at 7:20 am this morning, and considering the temps are supposed to be about 114 again today, it was quite pleasant. Talked to people in line while I waited. I brought my receipt but they also had my name on a list which they checked off. All the baskets were laid out and ready. After being officially checked off I went to a volunteer who was raising their hand. They even helped me carry my three boxes to the car. Wanna see what I got? Check it out.

Here's my total haul:

Blueberries - I will be freezing most of these. 12 1-pint containers.

Veggies - Celery, Broccoli, Lettuce, Corn, Tomatoes and Brussels Sprouts. I've never eaten a brussel sprout in my life so I'll be looking up recipes to try them out. I may have to gift these, we'll see.

Fruit - Granny Smith Apples, Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Nectarines, Bananas, and a small pineapple. Did you know you can slice and freeze bananas? Great for smoothies.

So, for my local friends and family who were curious - I will do it again. I'm sure it is slightly different each time. The people I was in line with said last week they had peaches, oh yum. Well worth the $15 and the getting up early on a Saturday morning. And it is kind of like Christmas cuz you don't know exactly what you're going to get.

Great experience from the ease of payment, the reminder email on Friday, the very well organized and helpful volunteers and of course, my haul of fruts and veggies.

Links for this post: just click on the words

Bountiful Baskets website

Article about Bountiful Baskets in Arizona Paper

Magnificent!

2010-05-20T18:14:00.005-07:00

My best 'One Moment' this week. 'OM' is the 'one moment' weekly meetup coordinated by http://www.alamodestuffblog.com/ . When you get to the bottom of this post, click on the OM icon and go check it, you can join us too! The purpose is to share what makes you pause, smile, slow down . . .

On one of the last few cool (you know, around 89 degrees) early evenings in the Valley of the Sun, I went to the park the other day right after work to keep myself from taking a nap. Of course, I knew the exercise would make me feel better too. Well, my reward on this day was a peacock, actually two, that spread their feathers.

I was in the section of the park with two rows of grapevines, taking pictures of how the grapes were progressing. I spotted one gorgeous male that had his wings spread and his back to me. He would not turn around. Ok. I've never seen the back spread of a peacock. Remember, you can click on any of the photos for a larger view.

Then a little bit later, another magnificent creature, spread his feathers for me. I did figure out that it is mating season right now and this is part of the ritual - males strutting their stuff to attract the females.

Well, I think I stood their happily snapping picture for at least 15 minutes, maybe more. I was standing about three feet from him.

I am, after all, quite easily delighted, especially by the color and beauty of nature. And he stood there, turning one way and then another, showing off.

So rather than focusing on my own exhaustion and how soon I could escape into sleep, I enjoyed the moments of cool air, knowing we are about to hit the triple digit temperatures for the next five or so months. I enjoyed the breeze, the overcast sky, the progress of grapes growing on the vines and the beauty of these magnificent birds.

So soon my walks will be early morning only, when the temps are in the low 100s. And the rest of my spare time will be spent creating with fabric and beads and other things. I think my creative slump is over.

The End

OM (One Moment)

2010-04-23T13:04:00.007-07:00

Thanks to A La Mode Stuff 's challenge to notice those 'moments' and fully appreciate life, I am paying more attention. Here are some photos from two different opportunities to notice the small and beautiful things . . . taken at my favorite park in Glendale, AZ

They have the most wonderul rose bushes at Sahuaro Ranch Park and I couldn't resist taking photos during my walk on Sunday

And yesterday, late afternoon with the wind blowing and rain clouds in the sky I went for a walk to clear the work day out of my head. These grapevines caught my attention and
I love the closeup of the 'future grapes'

then I heard this guy moving around under the grapevines and couldn't resist his or her beauty So thankful for this series of OMs (One Moment)this week. Thanks again to A La Mode Stuff for arranging this OM meetup. We all need to remember to take 'one moment' to stop and appreciate something.

A Breath of Inspiration

2010-02-22T00:15:00.001-07:00

Today I had a chance to step away from the pressures of my currently stressful life and breathe some creative air. A few hours with some creative friends . . . ahhhh. We played with fabric paint and fabric crayons and both rubber stamps and deeply carved wood stamps that Julia and Brian picked up at the Tucson bead show.

Such an enjoyable time. I've come to realize that the more stressed I am, the more I need to do things like this. It quiets my soul. Thanks to Julia, Brian, Gerri and Gayla!

Creativity - Related Points of View

2010-01-31T23:10:00.003-07:00

I love thinking about, talking about and trying on various perspectives that I run across regarding creativity. I believe we are all creative and since I tend to cruise the blogs of creatively expressive people, I see a lot of creative things to think about.

One definition of creativity I ran across recently here : “Creativity is simply looking at something that has always been there and seeing something that has never been seen before”.

I like this and it makes sense to me. Probably makes sense to my friends who consistently declare that they are ‘not’ creative. I believe we need and use our creativity in so many ways to get through life, that some of us are simply blind to it.

One thing that has me currently immersed in the creativity conversation is participating in an online discussion group focused on reading Julia Cameron’s “Walking in This World”. The book is geared towards artists but can easily be applied to any life. The group is being led by my friend Quinn McDonald and you can read about this group on her website. I am enjoying the experience of having this conversation with other creatives.

The peacock photos were taken at Sahuaro Ranch Park in Glendale, AZ on one of my weekly walks as suggested in Julia Cameron’s book. I find their colors very inspiring. (click photos for a larger view)

Here are some interesting and provocative posts related to creativity that you might enjoy, discovered during my blog cruising:

Busy-ness & Creativity: Productive Flourishing blog, someone I follow on Twitter

Mildly Creative Blog post on starting/finishing I follow Ken on Twitter and love the insightfulness of his blog. And his sketches encourage me to do more of that myself.

Creative Every Day blog There is no specific post I want you to see here, I just love this blog and love that she encourages people to think of the many ways they are creative every day. I have decided it is smarter for me to sign up for these challenges in April, after my final grad class is complete. Until then, I will simply visit and enjoy and think about what I would do with the themes she posts.

Creativity & Chaos & Creative Business/busy-ness Rebecca Prien's blog

Mildly Creative – “My Inner Delete Button – 7 Things I’m Trashing from my Life” We all need to delete things from our lives from time to time.

Creativity and Anger – A QuinnCreative blog post from 1/26/10 You can also follow Quinn on Twitter.

Keep living creatively and remember that I welcome your comments.

Rosaland

(Links throughout the post are in bold lettering)

Shibori Surprises

2009-11-11T00:02:00.000-07:00

Shibori - comes from the Japanese word Shiboru, meaning to squeeze or wring out (as in gathering and binding). This is a centuries old set of methods for resist-dyeing fabric, and sometimes paper. I believe this is where we got tie-dyeing from.

Four of us gathered on a Sunday afternoon in September to try out some Shibori techniques on silk and cotton fabrics. Oh my goodness - it was so much fun. One of our group members, Brian, is quite knowledgeable about Shibori methods and we had a great time trying out some of the various techniques like folding and binding and pole wrapping following his expert guidance.

Marbles, Silk Habotai, Dupioni Silk and Chiffon (Click on any photo for a bigger view)

The surprise of this technique is the most fun part for me. Those of you who create, especially if you dye fabric, know that there are no gaurantees that you'll get what you're expecting. For me it's easier to simply be delighted with what appears. Hence, Shibori surprises.

Creating resist patterns in the fabric is the point of Shibori. The patterns made with rocks were done by tying them into the fabric. The little white dots in the purple closeup were resists marks made with wax.

Arashi Shibori - we wrapped some of our silk pieces around pvc pipes of different sizes and then tied them with twine. The little bundle of fabric in front of the two poles is a scarf, folded, banded & dyed.

This is chiffon.

This purple scarf is a silk rayon scarf that I bought from Dharma.I could not have been happier with this piece.

Remember that folded up little bundle -

Here are some of the other pieces we did that day using clamps, wax, etc.

These blue pieces are actually a poly-cotton blend and had already been dyed blue. The dyes we were using do not adhere to polyester fibers which is why they are so soft.

That's it folks, at least for now. Thanks as always for stopping by and feel free to leave any comments, I love them. It feels good to be blogging again. I'm sorry I was away for so long.

Saturday Sharing #2 - Prose Poems

2009-08-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

Share: To give or receive part of something. Participate: To join with others in some thought, feeling or action.

Below are more of my thoughts and feelings about life, as it flows. There are so many questions and explorations we can explore while we're here in this life. Feel free to share some of your own in the comments or a link to your own blog. Sometimes I pick a subject or theme but often, the subject chooses me. Even if you've never written poems, letting the words out can help to release what's inside, so it does not consume you. It is all part of the flow. Enjoy.

Choice

The darkness of fear or the light of faith?
The darkness of judgment or the light of compassion?
The darkness of anger or the light of forgiveness?
The darkness of sorrow, or the light of happiness?
The darkness of selfishness, or the light of sharing?
The darkness of self-righteousness, or the light of understanding?
The darkness of sadness, or the light of joy?
The darkness of hatred or the light of love?
The darkness of war, or the light of peace?

Darkness or Light, your choice?

R
-------

Stand for your own heart.
Say what you need to say,
Using love as your guide.
Do the things that move you,
Things that move you forward and
Things that expand your heart
And your vision of the world.
Exercise your right to choose what works for you.
Give what you are moved to give and
Receive with openness
So others can give what they are moved to give.

-------

Are You?

Are you open or closed?
Are you right or are you open to discovery?
Are you busy or are you aware?
Are you domineering or can you listen?
Are you 'strong' or can you accept assistance?
Are you the 'jury' or can you see beyond your own thoughts?

Are you so fearful that you only give hurt?
Are you so ashamed that all you can offer is blame?
Are you so 'alone' that you cannot see those in your life who befriend you?
Are you so 'unlovable' that you won't allow love to penetrate your defenses?
Are you so afraid of pain that pain is all you experience?

Are you willing to be responsible for choosing who you are in your life?

R.

Sparks of Creativity - Giveaways & Tutorials

2009-08-27T07:00:00.004-07:00

Surfing the net is fun, and for me, inspiring. Here are some of the things that I came across this week that are worth sharing. All of these are fabric related giveaways and tutorials. Enjoy!

Give Aways:

FaveCrafts Blog – giving away a copy of Rebekah Meier’s book ‘Fabric Art Collage’. Details here http://www.favecraftsblog.com/book-review-and-giveaway-fabric-art-collage/ (deadline 9/8/09)

Janet McCaffrey at Primrose Design – is giving away stamped-for-embroidery quilt blocks of storybook cats http://primrosedesign.blogspot.com/2009/08/giveaway.html (deadline to leave a comment – evening of Thursday, 8/27/09)

C&T Publishing - is giving away 6 Prize Packs - Simplicity rulers http://www.ctpubblog.com/2009/08/25/simplicity-studio-giveaway/ (deadline 9 am PST, 8/31/09)

Kona Bay Fabrics - Free Quilt Patterns here http://konabay.com/quilting-fabric/category/Free_Patterns_to_Download.html

Tutorials:

String Quilt Block Tutorial (paper pieced) by Ashley at http://www.filminthefridge.com/2009/04/27/a-string-quilt-block-tutorial-paper-pieced-method/comment-page-2/#comment-9354

I just thought this was too cute – especially for those of you who ‘walk the dog’ – a ‘pet pouch’ how-to by Amy at http://theb-line.blogspot.com/2009/06/lets-make-pet-pouches.html

Beth Ferrier – Sweet Pea Leaves appliqué tutorial - http://applewd.com/blog/?p=178

C&T Publishing - Tips & Technique tutorials here http://www.ctpub.com/client/client_pages/tips.cfm

Work in Progress Wednesday

2009-08-26T16:00:00.004-07:00

I finally got around to taking picture of some of the things that I am working on. My goal is to do this once a week, but ummm, I am not making any promises. My weeks are sometimes fulllllllll, but I try to do some creative thing every day.

First, my painted canvas and hearts. This is just the beginning for this piece. The fabric hearts you see underneath are to be embellished with stitching and beads, then attached to the canvas. The goal is to add some words/phrases about love, some more shapes, etc. Now that I've shared it, maybe I'll get to work on those hearts. I think they will help determine what goes on next and where.

This is of the fabric hearts close up (click on photos for larger view). They are from pieces of my hand-dyed fabrics, fused to Fast2Fuse (a stiff fusible), which I love.

Second is my little piece with waves. The base is a scrap piece of purple fabric that I scrunched up, ironed down the scrunchies, then rolled on a brayer full of lumiere. Let it dry, ironed it, scrunched it up, ironed the creases in, rolled another color of paint. My intention right now is to add some stitching, beads, wire spirals . . . The waves are fabric backed with a fusible.

One thing about sharing these two is I got a few more ideas while looking at these photos, so maybe next week I'll have progress to show/share. Thanks for stopping by and if you get an idea from them or for them, please share. Until tomorrow. . .

Saturday Sharing - Prose Poems - Creative Expressions

2009-08-21T17:26:00.007-07:00

I'm calling them prose poems because I don't know what else to call them. I express myself in many creative ways and one of them is writing - not 'start to finish' stories but 'glimpses' and 'views' or 'perspectives' if you will. I don't so much write them as allow them to flow out from me. Usually they are triggered by some issue or event that evokes some strong or maybe even subtle but persistent feeling. I like them and usually don't share them, but that changes with this post. I have plenty and will share some each Saturday in no particular order and with no particular theme. I hope they speak to you in some way.

Today there are 3:

The Abyss

You have stolen my heart!
I feel myself teetering on the edge of love -
That joyous and frightening abyss.

My internal struggle is fast and furious,
But love never loses.

I was not afraid before I met you,
But now, as I consider
Relinquishing that last illusion of control,
I am consumed by fear and giddy amazement.
That someone might actually care for me
The way that I care for them.

I know that my heart will survive
The rapid change in beats
As I ponder, gleefully and with complete terror,
What the abyss may reveal.

But, there is no excitement, risk or gain
If I hold myself back.
So, over the edge . . . I fly!

R, 7/07

Hell

Ever been to hell?
No, not the one they preach about.
I'm talking about that personal, private hell
We have all taken ourselves to.

The one where we are worthless.
Where we can do nothing right.
Where we are never good enough.
Where we never live up to expectations.

The personal, private hell
Where we endure continuous berating.
Where we hear and believe
That no one will ever love us,
That no one can.
And if they say they do, they are lying.

That personal hell inside our heads,
Where the amusement park is anything but amusing.
Where there are hellish rides,
The rides we give our sanity to experience,
Over and over and over again, endlessly.
At least, endless until we've had enough.
Until we find a way, or simply choose
To leap to freedom.
Grateful to return to the real world.
Always aware
That we can return at any time to the
Un-amusing, self-absorbed, hellish park
Where we thoughtlessly torture ourselves.
Until next time . . .

R 6/09

What . . . if

What if you wait until tomorrow,
and tomorrow is too late?
What if you hold back your love,
and tomorrow they move on?
What if you fail to nurture your soul,
and you become angry and resentful?
What if you won't forgive becuse 'they' were wrong,
and tomorrow you need them?
What if you wait years to say 'I love you',
and tomorrow they are gone?
What if you gave up worrying,
and lived each day like it was the only one?

R 1/06

That's it for today. Thank you for spending some time with me here. Have a wonderful weekend and please, leave comments, especially if any move something in you or remind you of something or . . .

Show & Tell

2009-08-21T00:00:00.005-07:00

Show and tell was one of my favorite times in elementary school and it is still one of my favorite things to do when I get together with my friends and family. So, I'm starting a Friday Show and Tell on the blog to share some of my work, past and present.
(click on photo to see larger view)
It is hard to tell from the large shot but this is a full size quilt with 56 photos in the design. I designed this for my boss's daughter for Christmas. The photos are some of her favorites, which I scanned and resized to fit into the piece. Blue is her favorite color. These closeups give you a little better idea of how the quilt looks up close.

The photos are printed onto cotton fabric and are colorfast. The rest of the quilt is cotton, including the batting. The backing fabric has pictures of dogs, she loves animals. I really enjoy custom work because it is creative with a purpose, an audience. And people are usually so delighted with these photo quilts. You can visit my website to see some options for custom quilts for yourself or a loved one.

Wire Wrapped Pendants - my second show & tell

I love wire wrapping and taught the class at A2Z Beads on 43rd Ave & Thunderbird for about 3 years until school got the best of my time. But I still create pendants for gifts and for sale. Some of these are not great shots but will give you an idea of what I like to do.

These are all cabochons, L to R Jasper, labrodorite, rhyiolite, malachite. And my favorite, a purple agate slice. All are wrapped in 22 guage sterline silver square wire and some as you can see have beads added for 'flavor'. I have a pile of them ready to be wrapped and am going to dive into it this weekend. I think I'm finally going to open an Etsy shop.

Today's last show & tell is different. I love to help others with fundraisers and such and when I was invited to paint a bowling pin for a bowling event that raises money to benefit childcare age children here in Arizona, it was an easy yes. Hmmmm. a bowling pin, I finally settled on a sunset and cactus and here are some shots of the full, all around the bowling pin.

I have never painted a bowling pin in my life but it actually looks kinda cool and it was for a good cause.

I think this will be a regular Friday thing. If you have requests of types of things you'd like to see on the blog, please let me know. Comments always welcome and appreciated.

Saturdays might become 'Sharing my writing' Day. The could be called poems or passages and are about life things, some light, some not. Saturday's will be about Hell. So please check back and see what you think. Enjoy your Friday, and your weekend.

Later,

Theme Thursday - Creativity

2009-07-29T22:45:00.002-07:00

I have to thank my friend Quinn McDonald, Creativity Coach and more, for the idea of Theme Thursday she started at the Creativity Incubator to which I belong (see the link to it on Quinn's blog in the sidebar).

Creativity has been on my mind a lot this year, what it is, how it works, what it does for us, etc. So today I'm sharing links with you to some blog posts and websites I've discovered either thru Twitter or from blogs and references as I have found time to travel around the internet.

I'm going to reference Quinn's blog once again to show you another example of my creativity. I created a stole for her to wear when she does weddings - see some wedding pics here. Quinn is in the sunglasses and the stole is that long blue fabric with the colorful waves on it. It is all hand-dyed rayon and I had a blast creating this for her. Ok, enough about me and on to more stuff about creativity.

1. I found Ken on Twitter where he is known as @mildlycreative and I love visiting his blog, Mildly Creative, because he talks about some aspect of creativity on a regular basis. This link will take you to his post of July 28th titled 'Develop a Should-Free Lifestyle'. If you allow yourself to be creative, and especially if you don't, this is a highly recommended read. I think many of us get caught up in 'how art should be', how we 'should' do it, how it 'should' look. But I find that my most creative and free moments are when I let go of those 'shoulds' and simply do something, without worrying about how it 'should look', just letting it emerge. So in whatever way you choose to express your creativity, and acknowledge it, this post is worth your time.

2. I am one who 'knows' (this is that intuitive knowing) that the things I create, whether it is the poems I write, the quilts I create, or the jewelry I make, that those ideas come thru me in the still moments. This blog post on 'The Top Ten Reasons to Start Meditating Today' that I came across today as I was looking for more information on creativity, talks about the benefits of meditation - for our bodies, minds and creative selves (see #6 on the list). I know some people think it is some type of odd practice or have negative images about it, and that's too bad. I meditate sporadically and every time, I wonder, 'why don't I do this every day?'. It helps me sleep when I do it at night, I think because it quiets my mind, which seems to run constantly. So check this article out, and if so moved, find out some more about the many different ways there are to meditate. I think of creativity as a kind of 'moving meditation', much like my Tai Chi instructor describes that practice as a 'moving meditation' as you are focusing your energy and quieting your mind. Enjoy.

3. I've known for a while that creativity has healthy benefits, so when I stumbled upon this article by Kay Porterfield on 'How Creativity Heals' I thought it would be perfect to share with you.

4. Rick is another person I discovered on Twitter, he is known as @rickdibiasio and I now visit his blog, The Affluent Artist, regularly. I find his posts inspiring because they are very 'real life'. His post of July 29th titled 'True to Your Core Values' made me realize that I don't need to apologize to myself for having a 'day job'. Truly, I work for art supplies and classes I'm that enhance my skills and my technique base. His posts are encouraging, practical and invite you to examine the way that you think. Have fun there.

My belief: creativity is not something you 'get', it is something you become aware that you have and allow more of as you go thru your life. You can learn and practice many techniques that help you express it, but it is there, in you. Creativity is present every time you solve a problem, creativity is present in the the work you do, the way you choose your clothes. Creativity is present in many areas in your life and your expression of it does not have to 'measure up', the benefits are in the process.

Creative expression is helping manage the stress of a full time job, attending graduate school for a masters degree through Capella University (2 more classes to go after this quarter), as well as managing diabetes and the stress of it. Once I started grad school, I quickly discovered that I could choose to be the stressed out student who has no fun and higher blood pressure, or the smarter student who nurtures her soul through hands-on creative adventures. Even if I only spend 15 minutes on something, my soul is taken care of during that 15 minutes and my to-do lists are easier to get through on a daily basis.

That's it folks. Comments are welcome and appreciated. I would love to hear your thoughts on any of this. Thanks so much for visiting.

Artist Open House, July 19, 2009

2009-07-24T15:08:00.009-07:00

Sunday afternoon, 113 degrees outside. The sign on the door says, Please Come In. As you step into the house and feel the cool air, you notice the tables draped in black cloth are arranged with pieces that delight the eyes. You are greeted by two or three ladies who invite you to make yourself at home, take advantage of the refreshments and snacks in the kitchen and feel free to ask any of them questions as you take in the variety of handmade items that are being presented by the six artists you will meet as you admire their wares.
(The Creative Six - L to R - Julia, Dawne, Cindy, Roz, Rendy & Debi)

Creatively hand painted silk scarves, handmade journals with unique fabric covers and beautifully wire-wrapped gemstone pendants are to your right, all created by Rosaland Hannibal.

The left side of the living room has a table of cleverly created mixed-media artwork on canvas and wood by Debi Siegert, http://www.mysweetart.com/.

Next to Debi you see the creative variety of jewelry using seed beads, gemstones and more by Rendy Garello, http://www.justforfuncustomjewelry.com/.

Completing the grouping in the living room are fascinating and beautiful pieces of dichroic pendants, earrings, and wine stoppers created by Cindy of DragonFly Arts.

But your journey through this creative and cool oasis in the desert is not quite finished. As you move away from Cindy’s table and enter the dining room area, your eyes are treated to more beautiful glass creations. Dawne Hennessey has arranged a wonderful assortment of fused, slumped and kiln-worked glass bowls, free standing sculptures and other items. Her work can be viewed at http://www.blingandthingsbydawne.com/ .
And of course your eyes are also treated by the cleverly arranged and presented work of our incredible hostess, Julia. You notice that Julia’s jewelry incorporates dichroic glass, etched metal and wire in very creative ways. Her card tells you that more of her work can be found at http://www.julzbydesign.com/ .

Wow, time for a glass of ice cold tea or maybe a glass of wine as you chat with the artists and other guests and try to decide which items will go home with you . . .

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This was such a fun, relaxed and comfortable event for the six of us and, it seems, our guests. It is always exciting when people find just the thing(s) they want and/or need for themselves or as a gift. There is nothing like knowing your artwork, in whatever form, is in the hands of those who appreciate and cherish it. What a blast!

As always, comments are welcomed and very much appreciated.

Fabric Painting & Dyeing

2009-07-11T22:56:00.001-07:00

Painting on fabric is an adventure that requires a bit of courage, a willingness to risk making a mess of the thing. A willingness to keep going until you really know you are finished. I started painting on fabric about a year, or so, ago. And I still have to let go of, or better yet, push aside the ‘but, what if I mess it up’ thoughts that are always at the ready.

A few weeks ago I took a class on ‘baggie dyeing’. No, not dyeing the baggies but using them to hold the fabric dyes and pieces of fabric. I promise I’ll get back to the painting in a moment. I already know how to dye fabric but this instructor, Adrienne Buffington has been dyeing fabric for years and I have her book, ‘Hand-Dyed Fabric Made Easy’, published in 1996 by That Patchwork Place. I believe it is out of print but may be available again soon. The class interested me because Adrienne is fun to be around and because I was interested in the stuff that never makes it into the books, the stuff she has discovered from her experiments and mistakes (yes, everyone makes them, that is where the learning is) that good instructors are always willing share with their students. The class was fun and I learned a lot.

Thankfully, I have developed the ability to separate the ‘shoulds’ that show up in my head (these are sometimes known as expectations) from the results of the dyeing (and other pieces of art). I forgot to mention that this type of dyeing also requires patience, or at least the ability to distract yourself with other things while you wait anywhere from 2 to 24 hours, or longer, before you take your fabric from the baggies, rinse it, wash it and see how it turned out. Please believe me when I say, you really don’t know the result until you’ve run it through a couple of cycles in the washer. My fabrics turned out wonderfully. Mind you they were not necessarily the colors I was expecting them to be and they had excellent texture – see photos below of a sampling.

I said all of that about dyeing fabrics to get to the fact that I decided to use some of my pieces for painting. When I hesitated about using this piece of fabric, I had to remind myself that I can always make more. And since hand-dyes come out differently each time, each piece is always a surprise, like a Christmas gift; you get what you get and can choose to be thankful and happy with what you get, or not. Need I say that choosing thankful and happy makes life much easier? However, it is easy to forget this option.

I tend to make up what I paint as I go, in terms of what colors to use, in which order and with which ‘texture’ tools – I’ve gotten really good at just going with the feeling and letting it flow (also a much easier life choice at times). So I took the piece I preferred the least, and started painting. Here is the result:

See, it was worth the risk, I didn't mess it up at all. I will admit to wandering around my apartment looking at various household items and stuff in my stash of tools to see what might ‘work’ for a particular project. I made good use of a stencil, a hair pick, a mask (which is a sticky version of a stencil), and sequin waste. I try to keep these ‘tools’ in their own clear plastic container labeled ‘tools’ and most times I am successful in keeping them there.

The paints were a happy surprise as I decided I would finally open the jars of Stewart Gill Paints that I bought last year at Art Unraveled. I also used some Lumiere paints. The Stewart Gill paints are marvelous and they have the added advantage of being rather transparent (the Alchemy line) so that whatever you paint over still shows thru – helps create a nice ‘layered’ effect, in my opinion. Their Alchemy line of paints are also ‘interference’ colors so you get a different look depending on your angle of view. I love them and now will save up to get some more. They are expensive but very much worth it. They worked beautifully on this piece of fabric.

I’m actually quite happy with this piece and part of it is now on the cover of a composition journal that I am donating to Art For the Homeless, which is an organization dedicated to raising awareness about the homeless in America. I discovered this group on Twitter.

Here is another composition journal I am also donating. This one is covered in a piece of commercial batik fabric with paper & wire embellishments.

Links in order of mention in this post:
Stewart Gill Paints – read about them here http://www.stewartgill.com/sg-paints-14-c.asp
Note: A Google search will bring up some vendors that sell these in the U.S.

Art Unraveled – a yearly ‘creative’ conference/gathering held yearly here in Arizona http://www.artunraveled.com/

Lumiere Paints – a line of Jacquard paints - http://www.jacquardproducts.com/products/paints/lumiere/

Art4TheHomeless – http://art4thehomeless.ning.com/

As always, thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment if you have time or are so inclined. I never worried about leaving comments until I started this blog, now I realize it is part of the connection that people who blog seek with the world. So I thank you in advance :-).

Theme Thursday - Mindfulness

2009-06-04T13:23:00.000-07:00

This Thursday my theme is Mindfulness.

I started the year with a focus word rather than a new year’s resolution and this year’s word is ‘mindfulness’. Paying attention is what mindfulness has come to mean to me. Paying attention to what I need and want, paying attention to what I am doing, right now. The easiest way for me to practice mindfulness is creating something. Whether I’m painting a piece of fabric, working with beads, stitching something on the sewing machine – in those moments – I am only present to what I am doing right then, and it is the most relaxing way to be. One structured way that I practice mindfulness is meditation, simple, easy and also relaxing. Reading is another way. And being who I am I have been reading a lot about mindfulness and looking at the different ways people approach this subject.

Below are some links to three different articles about mindfulness and what it is:

Article on mindfulness by CNN http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/01/mindfulness.training.stress/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular
Regarding reducing stress, slowing down.

http://www.dailyvanguard.com/mindfulness-in-the-classroom-1.1744374 how a professor teaches his students about mindfulness.

http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/mindandbody/a/harvardmind.htm some straightforward tips on practicing mindfulness for yourself every day.

One thing that has become very apparent to me this year is how much mindfulness is set aside when I am very stressed, which is really the time that I need to practice mindfulness most. It is very interesting to me how easy it is to set aside the things that are good for you or make you feel good, when you get stressed; as if the only thing you can focus on is how bad it is and you can’t wait until it is over so you can have time to do some fun and relaxing things again. Wouldn’t it make more sense to make sure to meditate, even for three minutes a day, or spend 10 minutes painting something, or creating something or drawing, or whatever it is you do? Why is that so challenging in the face of stress?

Comments welcome.

Theme Thursday - Marbeling with Shaving Foam

2009-05-27T22:28:00.009-07:00

Thanks to Quinn McDonald http://quinncreative.com/ for suggesting members of her creative incubater http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QuinnCreative_Rawart/join share some interest in the form of Theme Thursdays.

Fun, easy, messy and colorful - right up my alley. Maybe yours too. I first tried this technique about a year ago with a group of crafty friends who love to experiment like I do. We used everything from acrylic paint to watercolor inks and tried them on various types of paper & fabric.

I have collected some links (see below) that give similar directions for this technique, see below. I used some styrofom trays to hold my shaving foam but you could just put plastic down on a flat surface as your shaving foam will sit wherever you place it. You could also use an inexpensive flat foil pan or the bottom of a tin like cookies come in, just think slighty outside the box. I spread my shaving foam with a hard plastic spatula that I bought at the dollar store. An old credit card or one of those that sometimes arrive in your junk mail.

The other handy item I used was a wide-tooth comb. Once I placed my paints or inks on the shaving foam, I ran the teeth of the comb thru it, in wavy or straight lines or whatever. I also used a wooden skewer to make more swirls in the colors after the first print. I am usually able to get 3 or 4 prints off of one set of colors. The prints tend to get lighter as you continue to lift off prints.

The hard plastic straight edge is essential because you need to scrape foam off of your paper or fabric after you have lifted it from the shaving foam. If you click on any of the photos throughout this post, it should bring up a closer, clearer image.

The images just below are all done on silk from Dharma (see link above). The fun thing about the silk is that the moment it hits the color on the foam, you can see the design on the back of the silk.

Enjoy experimenting and please let me know how it goes if you try it. You can email me your photos and I can post them here or I will link to your blog when you post photos.

My sample photos: done w/ lumiere, Adirondack Color Wash and acrylic paints, but MX dyes and other things will work too. Try it, you might like it.

Here are the links:

http://fabricdyeing101.blogspot.com/2006/10/14-other-techniques-sky-painting.html - demo using dyes and incorporating shaving foam into/onto the piece

http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/marbling.htm - marbeling with shaving cream (onto paper) same can be done using fabric and acrylic or fabric paints (on top of shaving cream layer)

http://www.wikihow.com/Paint-Marbled-Paper-Using-Shaving-Cream - another using shaving cream & food coloring (on top of shaving cream)

http://my-croft.blogspot.com/2008/10/play-time-marbling.html - more step-by-step directions (tsukineko inks). Sample pics at end of this post.

http://www.bladerubberstamps.co.uk/site/how_to_foam.php - same technique using inks/paints with some suggestions for ways to use the finished products.

Also some pics http://www.bladerubberstamps.co.uk/site/shaving_foam_card_gallery.php - samples of cards using the shaving foam marbeling technique.

Last but not least, http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/1498922-AA.shtml?lnav=gifts.html Dharma trading has many how-tos on their website and this one for shaving foam is done using Fiber Reactive dyes.

That's it for this Thursday. All of the paper ones pictured above were done as samples for a demo tonight at Quinn's Raw-Art-Journaling group in Glendale, AZ at http://www.thecreativequest.com/ . If you're local, we meet the last Thursday of the month from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Please leave a comment and let me know if you visit any of the links or try out the technique, or if you have questions I will try to answer them.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Hold On? or Let Go?

2009-05-27T00:01:00.007-07:00

What you hold onto – holds you, and drives your actions. That old hurt from childhood, or from last week. That person you tolerate, who slighted you or hurt your feelings or embarrassed you. The person you thought would love you and protect you, but did not. Those people we choose not to forgive because we think they do not deserve to be forgiven.

Well, when you choose to hold on to anger and resentment, it festers like a sore and grows bigger and more powerful. That anger and resentment begins to take you over. That anger and resentment forms a blockade around your heart and soul. What does the blockade keep out? It keeps out the blessings spirit is trying to deliver to you through others.

How often do you consciously or unconsciously turn away something positive? Do you even notice that you are doing so? How often do you question why others are so much more fortunate than you? Consider that they do not have walls of anger and resentment turning away most of the good things that are coming to them.

Consider that they accept compliments for what they are – acts of kindness, small, intangible gifts, that many people give freely. Consider that the fortunate ones simply say thank you and do not argue or deflect the kindness, they accept the gift without protest. Maybe the fortunate ones are the ones who accept kindness even from those who have hurt them previously. It is possible for gifts to come to us in many forms. They may come in the form of favors, gestures, a connection we needed but did not expect, a chance meeting with just the person who can help you forward something you are committed to. How many of those gifts do you turn away, not realizing that you are blocking a blessing, a gift?

Consider that you do not have to carry around bags of anger and resentment labeled with the names of people who have hurt you or wronged you. Consider that your energy is better spent if you set those bags down and focus your energy on where you are headed. Imagine how relieved your soul would be if it no longer had to be concerned with the weight of all those bags of unforgiven hurts and the energy it takes to drag them around.

Forgiveness is not for the people who hurt you – it is for you. Forgiveness is one of the ways to lighten the load with which you have burdened your soul and your entire being.

You have the power of choice to lighten that load at anytime.

When will you lighten your load? When will you free your soul?

Will you hold on or will you let go?

Written by Rosaland Hannibal ©

A note about copyright: Thank you for respecting my work and not copying this to another blog or other form of print without my permission. You may link back here to the blog or request to use this piece in some of your work by simply contacting me.

Journal prompt – this subject could be used as a journal prompt and if anyone is so inspired, I would love to see what you create. And please feel free to leave comments about this post. I am quite curious as to what it says to people, how it is received or perceived.

Thanks for visiting & have a wonderful day in your world!

Nature's Give & Take

2009-05-13T16:15:00.003-07:00

They say inspiration is everywhere and I believe it is true.

I saw this when I arrived at work this morning and I just had to break out the camera. It is such a great example of the ‘give & take’ of nature. And I love the way the photos came out. I will do something creative with this . . . at some point in time.

This bee is coming in for a landing!

These are actually two different flowers and the bees are loving them!

Baby Quilt & a Birthday

2009-05-11T14:29:00.007-07:00

First - Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!

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Now on to the Baby Quilt

Have you ever bought the fabrics for a quilt and then weren’t sure if you did the right thing? Weren’t sure if it would turn out ok or not? That seldom happens to me but it did with this one. This is another quilt for a customer and she and I spent a long time trying to find a combination of pink and green that she liked. Turns out, they worked perfectly together and made a very soft-looking and adorable quilt. She was so happy with it that she gave me a tip. First time that’s ever happened. And the person she gave it to was thrilled with it as well.
Here it is:

A Journal & A Magnolia

2009-04-23T15:00:00.001-07:00

A Journal

I made this journal in a hurry last night because I forgot I needed one for my class tonight with Quinn McDonald called 'Raw Art Journaling', see her blog about it here http://raw-art-journals.com/Journaling.html . So in my very tired state, after my homework was finished, I created this cased-in book.

The rule is still true, ‘if you’re in a hurry, do something else’. So, I need to make some adjustments to this journal before I’ll be happy with it. But, I love the colors and the textures. At least I had some text blocks on hand. I’m thinking embellishments with Shiva Paintsticks and/or Portfolio oil crayons, we’ll see. The solid fabric is a purple African fabric tone-on-tone and the right side is handpainted paper that was given to me last year by my friend Fish as a birthday gift. I love the color & texture of this paper. I like to use stiff interfacing, like Fast2Fuse for the inside instead of the traditional boards. More possibilities that way and a softer feel.

A Magnolia

At work we have a marvelous magnolia tree that blooms briefly once a year and the first one appeared yesterday.

Here it is as I saw it yesterday morning:

and here it was this morning open and beautiful:

and I am very happy with this closeup photo:

That saying, 'the more you do something, the better you get', seems to be true with my photography.

Creativity, Genius, and the Right Side of the Brain

2009-04-20T12:59:00.010-07:00

I saw this video on Digital Gran's site http://www.digitalgran.blogspot.com/ and loved what Jill Bolte Taylor had to say about the right side of the brain, describing her stroke and its effects on her body and the differences between both sides of our brains. Takes about 20 minutes and is well worth the time.

I also ran across this video, thanks to Claire Perkins http://www.deepwaterleafsociety.blogspot.com/ about creativity by Elizabeth Gilbert - discussing her thoughts on fear, success and genius-this is great and also worth listening to. It is also just short of 20 minutes.

Embossed Glass Class

2009-04-19T06:00:00.001-07:00

About a month ago I took a wonderful class from Char Sanchez called Embossed Glass at a place in central Phoenix called Cooking With Glass, see http://www.cookingwithglass.net/. Char is an incredible teacher with a great teaching style and lots of knowledge to share.

My friend Julia, see her work here http://www.julzbydesign.com/ , and I took this class together and as the only two students, we had a blast! You’ll see from Julia’s site that she is great at the fused glass thing and she has been teaching me all about how it works. She also taught me how to do etched metal, but that is for another post.

Here are some photos from our class that day.

Char & Julia Julia's Piece in the Kiln

First we layered our glass using pieces of dichroic glass, this stuff is so cool. Then we fired up the kilns.

My Piece in the Kiln

Once they were hot, hot, hot, we put the gloves on and stamped into the extremely hot glass. This makes it sound very quick, but there is a lot of thought and caution (always respect your tools) that goes into this process.

Julia Embossing Me Embossing.

Of course, I forgot to take a photo of our big square pieces after they were finished, but, here are my pieces after Julia's wonderful husband cut my square in half and then cut each triangle into 5 pieces. Then Julia refired them to smooth out the edges.
Can you see the swirl embossed into the center glass piece? How cool is that?

Not sure if you can see the dragonfly I stamped into this one.

I am going to make necklaces out of the 3 center pieces of each triangle (see below). Will post later when I work out what I like.

ATCs (Revised Post)

2009-04-18T08:35:00.014-07:00

I just had to revise this because the photos of the ATCs did not show up in detail once you click on the photo, and I want you to see the closeup. Now you can. Blogger is pretty user-friendly but you have to be a little adventurous to figure some stuff out.

The Yahoo Surface Design Group recently did a technique swap of ATCs. One of the things I love about the internet is that you can interact with people all over the world. We were to select a technique to work up our ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) and then send them out along with instructions on how to do the technique. This is a very talented and adventurous group and I am excited to be able to share and learn within this group. Here are the ATCs I received:

This one is by Jan Z. in Minnesota.

by Marga K. http://margascrafts.blogspot.com/ in Florida.

by Britta A. http://www.stoffart.blogspot.com/ in Germany.

Michele G. textiletraveler.blogspot.com in Texas.

by Judy A. in Georgia.

Aynsley M. in Ohio.

Debbi B. in Australia.

Elizabeth W. in Virgiinia.

Margaret R. digitalgran.blogspot.com in the United Kingdom.

Now I have a bunch of new techniques to try. And, here is my ATC, done using painted black Misty Fuse, gold leaf, mica flakes and a little soy silk fiber.

I will post some of the steps for this ATC in a few days.

Baby Quilts

2009-04-17T13:34:00.009-07:00

Thank heaven it's Friday! Maybe I can squeeze in a little art and quilting time this weekend. Not that I don't squeeze it in whenever I get the chance.

Yesterday I finished a second baby quilt for a client, in pinks and purples. As much as I love the freedom in creating art quilts, I also love the quest for precision in tradition style piecing and quilting. For me, it is all about the process. The client and I shopped together for the fabrics for this quilt and the first one in pinks and browns. I think because I love the process and challenge of creating something I am satisfied with, I do not have a problem when I have a client that prefers different color/fabric choices than I do. For me, it is like stepping into their shoes, appreciating their point of view for their preferences, and then creating/execute a product that I am pleased to put my name on, whether I prefer the colors or not. Makes it interesting and challenges me to expand my view of the world.

Here's the pink and brown one. She liked this design which is why we used it for both. In fact, the third one will also be this same design. Always amazing how a change of fabrics and colors gives it a different look.

Fabric Portrait Finished!

2009-04-15T17:00:00.002-07:00

In the midst of the rest of life, I was able to get this completed for Carla’s birthday this past Monday. She loved it and I am so delighted that I learned this technique.

Working on this quilt for his mother made me realize how much I miss him, how much we all miss him. When he was killed it was such a blow to our family. But love never dies. See his memorial site here http://rory-adams.memory-of.com/About.aspx

I love this piece! Not bad at all for a first time try. I already have several ideas for more. Here is a full shot of the finished one, the original photo and a few close-up shots.

I think it helped using universal size 8 needles (which my mature eyes needed help to thread). I think it also helped to use my walking foot, which I use for piecing as well as non-free motion sewing.

I had to borrow it so I could share it at show & tell tonight at the Mavericks meeting.

Fabric Portraits Class!

2009-04-06T19:03:00.012-07:00

Oh soooo much fun! Took a class on Saturday with Ruth Green, a wonderful instructor. Ruth & I, along with most of the students in the class, are members of an art quilt group called the Mavericks (http://www.mavericksart.com/). If you're local, meaning Phoenix & surrounding areas, you should check us out. It is the most inspiring group of women, and men, I have ever been around. Mavericks is part of the Arizona Quilters Guild (http://azquiltersguild.org/).

Anyway, here's (above) what I finished before leaving class . I never been so delighted. It was so much fun. Now I just have to add the stitching and work on a painted fabric background.

Look for updates later as I bought the threads I need yesterday.

This was based on a photo of my nephew who was killed 3 years ago in April, on his mother's birthday. This is a gift for her. I just hope it turns out.

Here are some photos of us working in class. Ruth Green is an awesome instructor.

This is her with a class sample. Thanks so much Ruth!

This is my 'creativity partner' Mary the dollmaker.
More students working away, or should I say 'playing away'.

My newest friend Gwen who is probably going to join Mavericks and maybe even join Mary & I on our sporadic 'play & create dates'.

Finally, it's me. I will keep you posted on how this turns out.

Joining the world of bloggers!

2009-04-06T18:46:00.001-07:00

April 9, 2009

I’ve finally done it! I decided that if I didn’t just jump in & get it started, I never would. I will continue to fill in information as I go. Consider this blog a ‘work in progress’.