Handmade Stamps

I was looking for a diamond shape background stamp recently and couldn't find anything close to what I wanted. Granted I don't have a lot of rubber stamp stores close to me so this stamp might exist somewhere out there. So I decided to make my own using craft foam cut into diamond shapes, a hard backing sheet and used tacky glue to glue the diamonds to the backing.  It's worked really well and I've used it a few times. 

After having success with the diamond stamp, I made two others.  One is a circle stamp and the other is stars. Again these are meant to be background stamps and therefore look rather rudimentary. Here are the stamps  I designed.

Here are some of the backgrounds I made with the stamps:

 

Work in Beeswax

I've been trying my hand at using beeswax in my collages.  I added color to each by melting crayons on the collage and came up with a very simplified type of encaustic painting.  Ok so real encaustic painters don't use crayons to add color but it's all I had.  I also tried adding color by melting oil pastels, that worked OK but the color was a little too opaque for what I was trying to do.  I find it's not all that hard to mix colors and make a muddy mess but it was fun experimenting.  Here is what I came up with:

I think this copper colored one, named Puzzled, is a bit over worked with too many elements in it.  I should have pared it down a bit.  I had added a lot more of the teal/patina color in wax but I didn't like how it looked so I melted it out. 

 

This next one, Faith, is a little better in it's use of elements but maybe a little dirty looking.  Plus it's missing the flower centers. I'll have to go back to the studio to add them.  

 

Of the two, I like "Faith" better but the quote in Puzzled seems appropriate for the whole experience:

"What has puzzled us before seems less mysterious, and the crooked paths look straighter." - by Jean Paul Richter

All Tangled Up Again

I'm not sure what it is about Zentangles but I love them.  Here is a few that I worked on this past week. I've posted rather small images but they are 5.5" x 8", so they take a while to finish.

The first is my little Zen Monster.
He didn't start out to be a monster
but soon there was a head
and then the fingers and toes appeared.
and what do you know,
little Zen was born.

 

"I saw the angel in the marble and 
                   carved until I set him free."--Michelangelo

 

 

 

With this Zentangle I was determined
to use some new patterns. Now it's not 
made up of entirely new patterns
but just some I'd never used before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one was one I'd been wanting
to do for a while. I love the look of
patterns on hands.
It reminds me of the Illustrated Man.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

This last page was a fast drawing 
so I could test the new Prismacolor
markers I bought on Ebay.  The color is
much better in person. It didn't scan
well and I didn't have time to play with it.
If you are interested in the Ebay seller
I purchased these from just leave me a note. 
It was a very positive experience.

 

Time on CD

My studio has been needing a clock for a while now but instead of buying one, I made one.

Here my first effort, fairly plain because I didn't know what I was doing. I altered a used CD to make the clock face by painting it first with gesso and then with a few colors of paint.  I used rub on numbers for the 4 major time increments and dashes for the others. Then added the clock mechanism which I bought at the craft store for $6.99.  I did beef up the back of the CD with glued on chipboard but it was probably unnecessary.  Next time I would leave it off.

 

"People don't understand the virtue of time, until their clock stops ticking." -

  --  Steve Goodman

I've Had a Strange Week

The week started off OK enough. I don't know if I've ever posted about my day job, but what I do for most of the day is technical support for a quilt software company.  Monday was a very typical work day, busy most of the day with tech support email and phone calls.   But on Tuesday, I had sad phone conversation with a woman. She had been hard to get through to because, even though she has a high speed internet account, she doesn't have email. (Say What??? Yes, it's hard for me to imagine having an internet account but no email. Sorry I digressed)  So we had played phone tag for a few days and when I finally got through to her on Tuesday, I could tell something was wrong.  I asked if everything was OK and she said, in a trembling voice, that her husband had died the night before. Oh my god, what do you say besides I am so sorry?  I asked if she would like me to call her another time (after all it was only quilting software). She said no, that this would help her if only for a few minutes. So that's what we did.  I can't even imagine doing anything but bawling my eyes out if anything ever happened to my guy. She had a lot of strength that woman.  My condolences and a rose for Natalie.

                                    

On Wednesday morning my guy left to Las Vegas, NV for a business convention and I thought , here is my chance to go out to my studio and work on the ATC card swaps I signed up for this week.  I signed up to create: 1>Cards made with beeswax, and 2> Altered magazine faces.  So what happens? The weather decided not to let me play. It was one hundred and frackin' two degrees outside and not much less in my studio. I have a fan in there but all it was doing was circulating hot air.  Frack!!! So instead of bringing all my stuff inside the house where it is cooler, I went shopping? Hey, what else is a girl to do?  :) 

So that brings me to my bad marker shopping experience.  I go to Home Depot and find some Bic markers in a set of very yummy colors.  So back home I go, happy as a clam, because they were fairly inexpensive for the set of 36 colors.  I sit down on the couch, moleskin in hand, to play with my beautiful new markers and two of the lovelies were bone dry and a few others were on their way to marker heaven.  The ones that worked were lovely but I had paid for 36 and I thought I should get 36 working markers.  Aren't they pretty though? 

                                                   

 

So back to Home Depot I go and not taking the chance that another set will be dry, I return them instead of exchange.  I decide to go to Michael's, the craft store, as if you didn't know what Michael's is.  The closest Michael's is 20+ miles away.  At Michael's I find what are named Art Markers for Professionals (OK not the real name which I have now forgotten).  I'm certainly no professional but it sounds good, doesn't it? Yes, I thought so too. They had 18 lovely colors and were more expensive than the Bic so I thought surely they would be a good choice.  I also bought a few Prismacolor markers in skin tones because there were no skin tones in the other package. I brought them home, once again I have my moleskin in hand, and.... they smeared/bled from one color to the next.  Not even the cheap Bic's did that.  OK I thought maybe they need to dry first.  Nope they smeared, black into the yellow making a muddy mess. Yet the Prismacolor markers did not, they were beautiful....sniff, sniff...I can't afford the Prismacolor markers. Or could I?

                                                   

Of course I took the AM4P back and resigned myself to buying the Prismacolor markers a few at a time, and at $4 a pop it would take a while to be able to get a whole set.... or so I thought.  I rarely check Ebay but this time I thought what could it hurt? I found a set of 48 markers for $40.00 plus shipping.  WOW, that's 1/4 of the MSRP and 1/2 the Dick Blick price.  So I checked out the seller's reputation and hoped I wouldn't go too wrong with a person who has 1900+ positive reviews but we'll see. If it turns out well, I'll name the seller.  

To top off my week, I went for my regular Sunday morning walk.... don't want to over do it after all. :) All is well, I'm taking pictures and enjoying the sunshine until about half way through the walk. All of a sudden a guy jumps out of his car, and runs inside the house that is across the street from where I am.  I hear him yelling "Call 911, call 911".  What's going on? Well, there is a guy laying on the ground in front of the house and I hear someone say, heart attack.  My heart sank. But by now, their neighbor is running toward their house and I knew that they had things under control so I didn't go near. I would have been in the way at this point. Minutes later, I hear the sirens of both the fire department and the EMS. My mind jumped right back to the beginning of the week and the woman who'd lost her husband. I wonder how she is doing?

                                                     

Soul Journaling Day 18

OK I'm behind again.  Still only on Day 18:

Here is the prompt from Sarah's page:

Mix up this list!

-Write the Alphabet quick and Angry (use a permanent ink pen)
-Cut out a silhouette of a person’s face, ink or paint over (magazine stencil technique)
-Add a wash of paint in a new color
-Use something unusual as a stamp (like a piece of corrugated cardboard or a sliced green pepper)
-List everything you did today so far. (Include little things like: brushed my teeth and let the dog out)
-Gesso out a section of your work, don’t think about it…just do it. Add something new over it.
-Add something metal
-Add a drybrush of paint in a new color

 

Here is what I came up with:

Soul Journals

Not long ago I was blog surfing and found this great blog written by Sarah Whitmire called Caspiana. Sarah started a art journal project last month called "Soul Journaling." When I read her words, "I want these books to be a mess of words, color, collage, etc. I want you to be able to be totally free with these and use them to express anything you wish," I decided to follow along. I started late and so I've been busy catching up. Lucky for me Sarah took a short vacation so I could catch up.  That's what I have been up to recently....catching up.

The good thing about starting late is that I could sneak a peek at the pages to come while working on the previous pages. It really helped me to continue with the project. In other words I liked what I saw.  The bad part is that I haven't posted my images on Sarah's blog so I haven't been a part of her community. As soon as I finish this entry I will. Hopefully I won't be too late to join in.  So here goes

Now I didn't take photographs of the whole process but just of the finished pages.  The instructions for the pages were written over several days so what you are seeing here is just the end product but I will list the Journal "Days" from her blog. 

"Claiming your Journal" and "How to protect your creative soul": Days 2-5

 

 

Inchie Art: Day 5-6 and Day 9

 

I Forgot to Tell You: Day 7 - 8, there will be more to come on this page

 

  Recreate our home: Day 10 - 15

Close ups

  About this page, I feel the need to explain that the house on the left is my home and the one on the right is my daughters home, which is 1100 miles away. The song lyric says how much I miss her.

Now I have to admit that I jumped from creating the house to the next assignment and skipped right over the "paper dolls"  I still want to do this but I also wanted to catch up.

Magazine Stencil technique: Day 15 & 16

The stencils were supposed to be people but this doggie said 'use me'. See the doggie looking up at the woman and she is finger crunching?  I think it's because I've been yearning to get a doggie for a pet. Still trying to convince myself it's not a good idea because we don't have much of a back yard. Plus I'm afraid he'll fall in the pool and drown. That would kill me.  I (we) still miss our Charlie, RIP. Charlie was the cutest red/black haired Pomeranian and had the best disposition. sniff, sniff...

I Can Count on Us: Day 17

Not the real name of the project but what my page said it should be called.

That's where I am so far.

Thanks for looking, come back soon for the next installment. Enjoy your life and your art.

Ever Feel Powerless?

As I was creating this journal page I realized the reason these images called to me was because they spoke to the feeling of powerlessness I get on occasion.  It's a feeling you get when you wish you could change something in your life but there is nothing you can do. 

One example:  My baby girl, who is no longer a baby, got married last year and moved to NM.  I miss her more every day but there isn't anything I can say to make her want to move back to California. She has a wonderful husband, a great job and she just bought a new home.  I understand why she moved there and yet I hate that she is so far away. It doesn't help that the cost to fly to NM is skyrocketing. My plan to fly there every few months to see her is not looking all that feasible anymore.  I'm very thankful that we are closer than ever before and that I have the opportunity to speak to her by phone at least 4 times a week.

 

It's official

It's official.  I sold my first piece of art. When I received the email asking if the piece was for sale my mouth dropped open. I never expected to sell one of my pieces. I wasn't making them to sell and therefore it wasn't even listed as being for sale. But the buyer said she was interested and wanted to know how much I wanted for it. 

Of great, I never even considered that I'd sell my work but now I had to come up with a price?  How do I do that? It's not like you can charge by the hour, and who kept count any way?  Somehow I came up with a price and she still said yes. 

Wow, I sold my first piece.  Picture me jumping up and down at being validated as an artist. Here's the piece:

Fly little birdie, to your new home, fly. And thanks Haley!

I've been busy

So you want to know what I've been up to? Silly question because if you're reading this blog it's to know what I've been working on recently. First up:  Not long ago I joined an Altered Switch Plate Swap at http://www.atcsforall.com/ and made these for the swap:

What do you think?  I like all of them but the flowers are my favorite.  I'm curious to see what I get back in return.

My Guy and I also decided to throw a dinner party for 8 of our closest friends and that happened last night.  The party, wine and food were a great success. How could it not be, they are all wonderful people.  Oh and I want to thank Linda and Mike for bringing us 6 bottles of their home made wine.  We've yet to taste it because we had so many other bottles already open. But I can't wait to try it.

So you are wondering how does this party relate to my art? Well, for about a year now I have been planning to create a mosaic table using a very complex design (for a mosaic newbie, that is) and I'd been procrastinating because, as usual, I was unsure of my abilities to handle the design. However, wanting it to be finished by party time necessitated that I simplify the design greatly to something that I could finish by Friday evening. It wasn't the design that I originally worked on, but both My guy and I love it.

My Guy thinks I work great under pressure; I guess I do.  He didn't think I get it done on time considering when I actually started cutting the tiles (with a ring saw).  But finish I did.. mostly... it was finished enough to serve dinner on. I'll tell you, I felt a sense of accomplishment.  Here is a picture of it:

What else have I been up to? This isn't art related but it is fun to eat the results. Yes, I've been tending my vegetable garden.  Green peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, and lemons. (Nothing on the lime tree yet.) Anybody have a to-die-for eggplant recipe?  if so, please, please post it in the comments section.

OK the last picture isn't from the vegetable garden but I'm proud of it just the same. They are my unripe lemons from a lemon tree I've had for several years.  Why am I proud? I've finally remembered to water it on a regular enough basis that it is actually growing lemons this year. :)

Thanks for reading. What has your week been like?