The Making of A Lacy Sunflower Garden While Playing Hooky

Yesterday I had a slow day at work so got to go home for several hours for some playtime! For me playing with my sewing machine, paints, fabric, junk and paper all made for a great time.

Here is the first layer of a collage with things like a tea bag (can anyone tell me what aufgussbeutel means and what language is it?)...a lace doily, an empty sewing machine needle case, crinkly papers, candy wrappers (my latest favorite embellishment), lace, painted paper and fabrics and snaps on cotton strips!

After all of these are sewn down using invisible thread I begin painting with acrylic paint and a sponge brush. After a lot of the painting was done (I thought) I added Mod Podge to seal and shine it up a bit.

Here it is mostly dry, with more paint added...

and marking pen too...

And here is the finished piece!

Playing hooky from work can be lots of fun!

I am actually grateful for an occasional short day!

;-))

A Girlfriends' Sketchbook Page for Cathie (Cleveland Girlie)

Cathie asked that we pick a quote and create our page for her book based on that quote. I chose an Native American Indian quote by Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior and orator:

" What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."

The buffalo in the center photo is on fabric and I took this photo last summer.

I used lots of highly textural brick a brac to make my collage. I in fact made it like I made the collagraph of the other day from Suki's instruction.

This piece has more snaps on cotton, strips of elastic, a zipper part, lace, candy wrapper, frayed edged cotton selvage and a charm with a buffalo on it that I got from my uncles house this past weekend.

I sewed all the pieces down and then I painted it with acrylic paints using a sponge brush.

I added Modge Podge to finish and seal it. The words are hand written on fabric.

2" of the left side of this page will be in the books binding.

The What is Life? words are inside the open zipper!I used one of my collagraph prints for the back of the page

and I sewed it to the front page to make it thicker.

And pasted the quote printed on the back.

Do click the photos to see enlarged details.

This was so much fun to make that I have gone on to make two more

collages on larger paper today while I am home playing hooky from work.

(I only had four clients to see today, one in the morning and three later this afternoon.)

Lynn having fun!

Art Quilt: Beads & Collagraph Plate

Bottom half heavily embroidered and free motion sewn; click to see close up details on cut up collagraph plate pieces, and hand made beads.When I found this bag of snaps on strips of cotton I had no idea where they would wind up,

but they were perfect for my collagraph plate for making holes/circles...the lace and velcro add even more texture to this piece.

Back side of snaps, heavily painted candy wrapper, and crinkled papers delight me on
this part...

The hand made beads shine too with their shiny papers and gold wire.

And finally the whole quilted wall hanging!

Where would you hang it?

The culmination of my weekend play with art techniques comes in the format of this colorful richly textured art quilt.

Yesterday I reported the fun I had making hand made paper and wire beads; and playing in paint and textiles and outside the box embellishments to make a collagraph plate.

Well here is the result of taking those practices and cutting, sewing, painting, embroidering and pulling them all together into this ART QUILT!

I wouldn't be at all surprised if it makes it into my ETSY store very soon.

Creative Weekend Equals = Inspired Art Making

I had four long days off from work over the New Years Holiday and I think I put them to pretty good use. I can't exactly remember what I made when, but I can tell you that I started by making some paper beads. And thanks to Suki, as I think I first saw these on her blog a year or so ago! Mine are cut out long triangles from a quilting calendar (2006) I got at a yard sale for 25 cents. Then I wrapped the rolled papers using jewelry wire I bought new while we were in Fort Bragg a week ago. I had already made a bunch of little quilted rectangles of fabric and paper. I hand sewed the beads to the small quiltlets.

DH said they look like mazzuzahs.

Then being in the Suki mode of art making I got inspired by her latest blog post

where she explained how to make collagraphs here.
And set about making some myself on Sunday morning.

I gathered many bits of fabric, paper, Velcro, lace, felt, candy wrappers,

zipper, snaps, etc. and sewed them down onto a piece of paper card stock.

Suki glued hers. Sewing worked well for me especially for what mine wound up to be, but

I am getting ahead of my story.



This is my "plate"...which I soaked with acrylic paints over and over again...

Striving for texture and design...

making these collagraphs

(or messes, depending on how you look at them)

LOL

some actually had some interesting shapes

and textures

and designs

But on a whole I thought I was a bit of a failure my first time out

making collagraphs.

(Something, by the way, I had never ever heard of before seeing them

on Suki's blog.)

I wound up cutting some up for ATCs...

and tomorrow I will show you how I put the two art exercises

together to make a whole!

Stay tuned!

Remembering ... Mimi

Remembering...Mimi

Can't stop thinking about memory

Memories

Where they are stored and for how long?

When do they start to slip away?

When they start to slip away.

Watching my aunt not know what day it is

Or care who is the president of these United States

Seeing her life becoming void of what needs to be done

Sitting and wondering out loud why her husband looks old?

His kind and gentle look back at her

so full of love and knowing

The she he married and loved these many, many years,

is not the she who sits before him any longer

Body wasting away

mind half gone

memory a thing of the past never to return again

What must that be like for him, for her?

He who understands his losses

The pain in that, the acceptance of what he cannot change

She, oblivious now, not even getting agitated

except while trying to drape

a pair of "someone else's pants size sixteen not mine too big"

over a hanger and their slick

fabric refusing to lie balanced

without help

so she can hang them up again

something she can

do!