Happy New Year

Here's hoping everyone has a happy, healthy, prosperous, and artful 2010!
If my Muse continues to visit me in the new year, I will have a lot to share here on my little part of the net.
I am really thankful for all the online classes that are being offered by some really awesome teachers.  I love the online format over the 6-8 hour format of a class at a retreat, because it gives the student more access to the teacher and allows the teacher a chance to share more of their knowledge.  I also love the fact that you can take the class at your own speed, and sometimes even download the videos to be able to revert back to them from time to time.  Don't know about you, but often I feel rushed in a classroom setting and never do my best work.  I also often forget some of the instructions given, which makes it hard to recreate the art at a later time.

Speaking of creating, I used the instructions from my friend Serena Barton in the Dec issue of Cloth Paper Scissors to make this Wabi Sabi piece.  Great fun.

Pan Pastels Arrive

My Christmas gift card purchase form Dick Blick arrived today.  I did a little testing with them to see what they're like.  I would compare them to the creaminess of applying make-up, and very easy to apply.  I purchased additional applicators and glad I did.  The pastels are very pigment intense and only a little is needed.  Since I tend to be a bit heavy handed, I sort of ruined my first applicator..8-)  Lesson learned.  Can't wait to try them on all of my art.

New Journal Cover

I am taking an on-line class from Mary Ann Moss (Remains of the Day).  I used one of my favorite color combinations, red,black, and white fabric scraps to construct the cover.   I used novelty quilting fabric for the inside of the cover.  Now that the cover is done, later today or tomorrow, I will work on the pages for the journal.  The cover was great fun to make.

New Drawing

Decided to spend Christmas Eve relaxing with artwork.  All chores are done.   One of my early holiday gifts was a gift certificate to Dick Blick.  I have been thinking about pan pastels, since I saw Teesha Moore use them, so today I ordered them.  I plan to use them on a lot of the drawings I have done and are laying around waiting for color. Perhaps I'll use them on this...

Finished work from Misty's class

I spent the last month taking an online class from Misty Mawn.  Loved learning how to make better backgrounds, and then incorporating other images and faces into the mix.  If you didn't get a chance to take the class and she offers it again,  jump at the chance if you love to paint.  Here are two of the things I did, one is an exercise in collage and the other is painting.  Great fun!

Now I m gearing up for a class with DJ Pettit, and another class with Misty in January.  No winter blah's  this year!

Snow for the holidays!

Less than a week before Christmas, and wow do we have snow!  As is always the case here in DC, everything comes to a halt when it snows; but this time I think it's warranted.  The forecast says up to 2 feet are possible.   Most of my holiday shopping is done, so I think I am going to sit back with a cup of hot chocolate and just enjoy it!

Happy Holidays!

Finally getting around to decorating the house.  Still have a LOT of gifts to make and finish up, but decided to take a break and liven up the house a bit.  I noticed that each year I want to decorate less and less, because I HATE putting all the decorations away.  Plus time is passing so fast that it seems as soon as I put everything up, it's time to take it out again.  They say that's a sign of getting older...time passing at warp speed.

Along with getting my holiday chores done, I still have homework to do from a online class I am taking with Misty Mawn.  Very cool class.  She is planning to offer another one next month, so I need to get cracking to finish up my paintings before the next session starts.  I am also psyched about a photoshop class starting next month with DJ Pettit.  It will be so cool to learn how to enhance my photos.

I may not get a chance to post again before the holidays, so Happy Holidays everyone!

Journaling

Teesha Moore has a wonderful journaling tutorial on her blog site.  I am not really into journaling, have tried to start a journal many times and lost interest.  Teesha's tutorial is very inspiring.  I haven't gotten very far in the process, but I have enjoyed what I have done so far.  I still have a lot of collaging and pen work to do, but  check it out her blog if you get a chance.   Here's what I have done so far...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We have so much to be thankful for. I am particularly thankful for family and friends. I am also thankful for art and those who share their wonderful talents so that we all can enhance our artful journey. Blessings to all.

Woo Hoo!! Published again!

I received my complimentary copy of Sew Somerset today, with on of my portrait art quilts in the gallery. Makes me want to get back to work quilting...sort of...

Still sewing...

Still sewing, making great crafts, that may end up as holiday gifts, on my Etsy shop, or as a gift to myself...

I am also still working on making backgrounds. Here are a few of the ones I have done so far..

Backgrounds

Decided to take a break from sewing today to make a few backgrounds. Here is one of them. Fun times.

Finally back to work

It's been a while since I have done any work in the sewing part of my studio. I have spent most of the summer making dolls or taking classes, then once the iMac arrived, I have been playing and learning about my wonderful new toy. I was told about a site that offer great tutorials on how to thrive in the Mac environment. The site is wonderful and offers tutorials on all sorts of programs for computers, but i digress...

A friend asked me to sell a few items at her churches bizarre this weekend, and of course I panicked. I spent my summer learning and not really making art. Luckily I have a few things that I can take with me, but i thought I should spend some time making a few things as well. Here are three of the little bags/purses I made in the last day or so. I love the zippers.

Fall in Maryland.

Although the fall of the year can be dreary, I love the colors. Great color pallet for my next art adventure.

Two new dolls

In my last post I mentioned that I haven't done much art lately, but while I was going crazy with clay, I made several dolls. Here are two of them.

Wow, It's been a while

It's been a couple of months since I checked this blog...bad, bad, girl. I spent a lot of time this summer working on art dolls and small angels that I planned to sell during the holidays. But somewhere in there I burned myself out with making dolls. So as I usually do when I get burned out, I cleaned the studio and did a little reorganization in hopes of inspiration. So far, no luck.

I am taking a couple of online painting classes (haven't started on those either). May have something to do with the fact that I purchased an MAC and have been spending a lot of time learning to use this new fun computer. I haven't transferred any of my photos yet. Took a workshop at the local Apple store a few days ago, which were fruitful in allowing me to meet two really nice women who turned me on to a couple of sites for great information and tutorials. I could do a commercial for Apple, because the mac is so much easier and trouble free compared to the pc. I still have my pc laptop and will still use it, but given a choice, it will be the imac.

Hopefully the muse will return soon and I will get back to creating.

Recent work

As I mentioned in previous posts, I have fallen in love with doll making with polymer clay. I find molding the soft clays (super sculpy and sculpy white) quite soothing and a stress reliever. I am working on an old world Santa (taking a class) and hope to share it in a month or so. I enjoy the sculpting but not so much making the costume.

Decided to take a short break from doll making and get back to painting. I made the first set of four paintings using a faux encauatic method. The second set of two are strictly mixed media paintings. I have started making art pieces to display in my home as opposed to shopping for prints. I tend to me a bit hard on myself and my art, and often think pieces are not good enough to display outside the studio, so I am giving the two larger pieces a run outside the studio walls.

New Doll

Took a short doll class and learned how to make a doll bust. It only took an afternoon to make. I have been experimenting with different types of clay recently, while learning to make armatures. I think I am parchal to Super Sculpy for sculpting because it is so soft, but bakes really hard. More to show soon.

Prom Queen

My most recent doll...she was really fun to make. I enjoy making the doll body, but dressing her is the most fun. Gives me a chance to use some of the MANY scrap pieces of fabric and embellishments gathered over the years.

New doll

This cute little doll is dressed up for an evening on the town. I am really enjoying this. If I can get a little better at this, I may place some of these in my etsy shop for sale.

My little angel doll

Don't know if I enjoy making the doll or dressing her more..lol

My first little clay doll

I just completed another online class. In this class we were taught to make an all clay Freida doll. It was such fun. I am already starting on another doll....very addictive!

Cloth and Clay art doll

I joined an online class a few weeks ago and learned to make a cloth doll with paper clay overlay on face on body. I had a bit of trouble with stuffing the doll and she popped her seams a few times. 8-) Instead of making new extremities, I continued on with the legs, that had popped their seams thinking that it would all work out in the end. I was able to complete the doll, but she has some real issues with her legs, hope she will forgive me. lol Really fun class. Inspired me to try another class making dolls using Sculpy clay. I haven't gotten very far with this one yet, but it should be fun as well. This is the cloth and clay doll with her odd legs....aside from her legs, she turned out okay for a first attempt. Hopefully her sister will have better legs.

Re-working the studio

I haven't done much art recently, because my Muse has gone on vacation. lol So whenever I have issues with art, I reorganize my studio, hoping to get inspiration. I took pictures today, and it is not made perfect for the photo. Oddly enough I got inspired to get to work....tomorrow. Here's the mess...

New Work and Great News!!

I've been painting on wood substrates since I returned from Art and Soul. I knew I loved this surface prior to taking classes using it, but after learning new techniques, I am sure this will be my surface of choice in the future. Here are two pieces I have painted on the wood substrate.

Now on to the great news... my work has been published!! I am over the moon. I received a free copy of Sew Somerset today and one of my small art quilts is featured in the gallery section of the magazine! This is my first time being featured in a magazine, and gives me courage to work harder and send in more artwork.

Photos from Art and Soul

As promised here are pictures of three of the classes I took. When I complete the two book I will post photos of them. I took this class from Lisa Kaus.

I took this class from Serena Barton. These were done from collaging magazine pages. The first one was made from small pieces of pictures of flowers, and the other was made from a piece of yellow cake with whipped cream frosting.

I took this class from Katie Kendrick. I know it doesn't look like my ususal paintings, the concept was to draw pictures with your non-dominant hand...

More later.