Swaps bring out the best in friends and art

Random swaps sometimes bring the nicest surprises. Recently I was assigned to swap a spring artist trading card (ATC) with Rachel Christy in our Flickr group that I help moderate, The Faerie Zine. I was not familiar with Rachel or her work or our other partner for that matter, Patty Porter.

When I checked out Rachel's work on her Etsy site, I noticed she embellishes trinket boxes. Like me, she covers them with paper, tissue, glitter, baubles and other goodies. So we agreed to swap a paper box as well. Ironically, our box swap resulted in nearly similar boxes. I sent the pink box above shown with the Cabbage Queen ATC I made for her; she sent turquoise, and we both used a face image from Sandra Evertson.

But lucky me! Rachel was generous enough to send not one but two! boxes. Today was a great sunny day in the Midwest to photograph these. In the heart-shaped, mermaid-embellished box she tucked a bunch of ephemera/art supplies to keep me creating. Visit her Etsy shop for more goodies like these.

'Sweet Marie' Itty Bitty Book Project is an Altered Art Confection

I wanted to show as many pages as possible from the Itty Bitty Book Club 'Sweet Marie' altered page swap/fat book on Flickr, hosted by fellow Marie admirers Jo Moran and her sis Mary Ann McKeating.

Every single page is luscious. I already told the group I think this is the nicest fat book of any size that I have ever received. This one is tiny though- pages are the size of baseball cards. Artists do a page front and back and then duplicate enough pages for every member in the swap and hand embellish each page. Sometimes people make every page by hand without duplication. I used two images from Sandra Evertson for Stampington and then colored them with gel pens, edged them in gold leaf marker and added poufy white hair on one side and a feather for her hat on the other.

Besides Jo and Mary Ann and myself, participating artists included Beth Fedorko, Terrie Ruiz, Nancy Reeb, Mahala Elliot, Jane Gherardi, Laverne Johnson, Wanda Eash, Kathy McElroy, Amberwaves, Rhonda Thomas, Suzy Spence, Lia Kent, Anastasia Christou, Annabel Orchard, Kellie Reynolds, Kathy Jacobson, Michelle Davis, Lisa Kettell, Linda Smith, Valarie Whicker, Bridget Schneider, Priscilla Jackson and Sherry Williams.

Give Me More Marie! I'm on French Overload.

I just finished the biography of Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser, wife of Harold Pinter. Fraser is well-known for her amazingly in-depth research, and the book did not disappoint. If only there could have been more to the story! But with a life cut short at 37 by the French Revolution, the biography could only go on for so long. Nonetheless, I was inspired to create another 'Marie' figure based on the incredible couture from the period.

As Queen of France, Marie was a patron of all of the arts, including music, ballet, theatre and of course, fashion. She was not as interested in the great painters, but instead constructed a little theatre, the Petit Trianon, where she put on plays with family and friends. Often her own dress or hair were theatres themselves, with elaborate scenes constructed within.

My glass-bottom 'bird cage' skirt features a scene with vintage millinery and jewelry bits. The skirt hoop and train are constructed from the wire form from an old hat as well as brocade, tulle and velvet leaves and ribbon. This 'bird cage couture,' as coined by the lovely and talented Sandra Evertson http://sandraevertson.blogspot.com/ was made even more perfect for me by the markings on the jar I found just today in an antiques shop.

The bodice or corset is a 7" wire mesh corset form from Stampington and Co. http://www.stampington.com/. I cut the bottom off and used it to form the wire skirt on another Marie I made here http://bly-me.blogspot.com/2008/05/art-and-blythe-come-together.html. It is shown in the middle pictures above also. For the glass-bottom Marie, I placed a vintage doily in the corset top and trimmed the edges with sequins.

After I realized I could get two, two, two Maries in one, I decided to get even more thrifty and used the Stampington two-piece small mannequin with hoop form http://www.stampington.com/html/wire_forms.html for four different projects: 1) the Last Beautiful Dress Castle in the Meadow project I blogged about below here http://lillysoflondonish.blogspot.com/2008/06/last-beautiful-dress-at-castle-in.html, using the top of the dress form, 2) a yet-to-be-done-hopefully-tomorrow papier mache bust into which I stuck the feet from the Stampington form, and 3) two Marie 8 x 8 book pages for The Faerie Zine, http://faerieenchantment.blogspot.com/, which I made by cutting the skirt piece in half at the sides. Those pages are here http://lillysoflondonish.blogspot.com/2008/04/queen-has-spoken-and-she-said-tres-bien.html and here http://lillysoflondonish.blogspot.com/2008/04/if-idle-hands-are-bad-im-looking-good.html.

Oh, and just in case you think I might be sick of all things Marie, I also made the 18" figure shown at the very top as a gift. It is a papier mache form covered with French text, handmade papers, feathers, beads and many vintage trims. I think I might have been good at passenmenterie, the French art of adornment, such as with tassels, brocade trims and such that we might think of as upholstery trims. C'est la vie.

Want to See Where I Live?

So, you DO want to see where I live, huh? Well, you'll just have to buy the book! Okay, so perhaps I am getting ahead of things here; let me explain. The Seven Shabby Sisters (plus or minus one) of the Shabby Cottage Studio Design Team http://www.shabbycottagestudio.com/store/WsAncillary.asp?ID=7 have combined to create our own little shabby abode to submit for possible publication in a compilation of group art efforts by L.K. Ludwig http://gryphonsfeather.typepad.com/gryphons_feather_studio/call-for-art.html.

The rooms were randomly assigned and are about four inches by four inches. No square footage here! You just try decorating a room on that scale and no budget to boot! Anyway, here is my room. Stay tuned to Shabby Cottage Studio http://www.shabbycottagestudio.com for the unveiling of the entire house. And cross your fingers for us that we get it published. I can't wait to see the whole thing either, and thanks to SCS owner and house manager Gail Schmidt http://shabbycottagestudio.blogspot.com/, formerly of Indiana, too!

By the way, my room is the nursery with the Three Little Kittens and their mittens on the line, better to see in person. The people are actually from a vintage family photograph, although I have never known what relatives they are. Background paper from SCS, German scrap kitties from Blythe-lover Moline on etsy http://www.moline.etsy.com/ and blocks image from http://sandraevertson.blogspot.com/ Sandra Evertson's Instant Memories Babies, which allows free non-commercial use without permission.