The Last Beautiful Dress at the Castle in the Meadow ZNE Midwest Gathering

Neither wind nor rain nor tornadoes, power outages, 100% humidity, bad hair days, lack of A/C, a tyrannical tour guide, or even lack of food and water will apparently keep an artist wannabe from his or her pursuit. Such were the conditions at the ZNE http://www.zneart.com/ Castle in the Meadow event Sunday, June 8 at Meadow Brook hall on the campus of Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.


None of the conditions were the fault of ZNE Queen Chel http://www.chelise.typepad.com/, who hosted the event while on a cross-country family reunion from her usual Pleasanton, CA. In fact, we were all so happily crafting (and having wine and hors d'ouevres) in the rock-solid, 80,000 square-foot mansion that we did not know what was brewing outside.


After a tour of the 28-bedroom former home of Mathilda Dodge Wilson, heir to the Dodge auto fortune, and a reception, we set about making our miniature castle vignettes with the wonderful supplies provided by sponsoring vendors, such as Shabby Cottage Studios http://www.shabbycottagestudio.com/, for which I am on the design team.


However, when it came time to leave (after five hours of crafting without air conditioning in a somewhat dank basement ballroom), we were sent back to the basement by police order due to a tornado touchdown in Oakland County.


It wasn't quite as bad as being sent to the Bastille, but with a four-plus-hour drive looming, no substantial meal (and the wine long-gone), we were getting rather antsy. When the all clear was finally given, it took us nearly an hour and a half to go about 10 miles due to downed limbs and power outages affecting stoplights. It seems Michigan drivers, with their unusual round-abouts and left-on-red-rules still have not mastered four-way stop etiquette. As well, there was not a bottle of water or fast food (or even gasoline) to be had for miles and miles due to the power being out. I never thought I'd view Indiana as civilization, but it was sure good to get home-16 hours after I left that morning.


My castle, "La Derniere Belle Robe" (The Last Beautiful Dress) is in the top two photos. The inside of the diorama has a 3-D castle scene, with birds in the sky on a sheet music background. The wire dress form by Stampington I spray painted gold and added some verdigris embossing powder. The form also includes some glass-beaded flowers, a ribbon sash and a fabric swatch pinned on. All of this is, of course, hard to see in the picture.


My project also includes vintage ribbon, millinery leaves and flowers, crepe paper, German scrap and German glass glitter as well as a metal fleur de lis. Without being too morbid, I felt the headless dress form represented the fashionable reign of Marie Antoinette, tragically cut short. The modern dotty ribbon represents the juxtaposition of her fashion trendiness at the time.


This is followed by my travel partner's castle in the third picture. Angela of Gemini Angel Art http://geminiangelsart.blogspot.com/ is a swell Blythe friend, fellow artist and excellent travel companion and navigator. In the next photo, Bernice Wagnitz (L) and Cathy Minerva of ZNE Artists and Poets show off Bernice's Castle. And another sweet unidentified ZNE creator shares her castle in the bottom picture.


All in all, storms notwithstanding, we were queens for a day- or perhaps simply court royalty of Queen Chel. Thanks for a great event!

What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

Here are some pics of pages from myself and other artists and of the collating process of the fat books I volunteered to bind and distribute for two groups: ZNE Artists and Poets http://www.znepoetry.com/ and Arte Du Blythe http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Arte_du_Blythe/.

I talked about the Blythe book here http://bly-me.blogspot.com/2008/05/blythe-and-animals-for-cause.html. It is progressing nicely. After all of the pages have arrived, the books will be wire bound and within, a full set of pages between handmade covers returned to each participant. So, that's 392 pages to collate plus covers! The final books also include embellishments, beads, yarn, fibers etc for the spine, pages and covers, so it has been quite a project for everyone- not to mention everyone who wished to participate created 28 or more original pages. That was a daunting task in itself. But as you will soon see when the finished book is shown in a future post, it will have been well worth it.

Why is it called a 'fat book'? The books are a chunky four inches by four inches square and each page is very textural. Embellishments to the edges may dangle off, raise up, etc., making the book a three-dimensional piece of amazement.

Even more exciting is the fact that one book will be auctioned off to benefit A Place to Bark http://aplacetobark.blogspot.com/, a no-kill animal rescue facility in Tennessee run by the very capable Bernie Berlin, herself a published artist.
I will be taking a class from Bernie in August in California at http://www.znecon.com/ and plan to ask Bernie to sign the book for the lucky auction winner. Watch for more info right here about that auction.

The ZNE Artists and Poets book is a collection of self-portraits from nine artists, plus handmade covers of Mulberry paper by Laurie Blau-Marshall, Washington, of Living Out Loud http://loudlife-laurieblaumarshall.blogspot.com/; Cathy Minerva of Georgia and also embellishments by Stacey Merrill and Jodi Barone of Vines, http://www.wildvines.blogspot.com/, the group moderator. Allison Berringer of http://musingsofnosilla.blogspot.com/ and Hope/Harvestorm also created group logos or blog buttons that are featured in the book.

So, as you can see, it was truly a collaborative effort. That explains why I was glad to spend tonight in my kitchen with 535 four inch squares spread all over everywhere during the collating process! I'll probably be seeing them in my sleep.

And now a word from my other blogs...

Just in case you never tire of reading my ramblings, I thought I'd offer a concise list of my latest postings, since it has been a busy little weekend at the keyboard. I've posted another Blythe-it-Yourself (BIY) tutorial on the ZNE Dollz blog at http://www.znedolls.com/ and I also referenced the reason behind that project on my own doll blog at http://bly-me.blogspot.com/. I also wrote a profile of ZNE member and doll artist David H. Everett, which will be up tomorrow night, May 28, on ZNE Dollz. Check out his work; there will be lots of pictures.

Next, over at ZNE Artists and Poets, where we are just about done with our self-portrait hand-made books, I added the latest collaborative poetry effort at http://www.znepoetry.com/. It needs some artwork yet, but that will be coming. Scroll on down for some other wonderful art and collaborative poetry efforts from our members. I nepostically (is that a word? uh oh, spellcheck says no) added a photo of my late mother from the 1940s for one of our mothers' day posts.

Finally, I am back in the swing of the "Off the Shelf" reviews for http://www.vintageindie.com/, having just reviewed three Mexican hacienda style design books. Not sure when the review will be posted, but if you click on "Off the Shelf" in the listing of topics on the left, it will take you to an organized list of all my reviews.

Lastly, but not viewable anywhere (yet), I wrote three pieces dealing with Marie Antoinette this weekend for a MA collaborative some of us from The Faerie Zine http://faerieenchantment.blogspot.com/are preparing and hope to self-publish in soft cover. Watch for details here. Besides artwork that we all have contributed, I wrote an historical piece as well as review of the Sofia Coppola movie and a mini-Marie costume tutorial.

Good thing I type fast and love it. Otherwise, I would have had no weekend left for all the other things, both art and family, that I did. Hope you had a fulfilling long weekend, too.