How to Explain Zettiology. Don't.

I am so tempted to let these pictures speak for themselves, and for the most part, I will. Suffice to say these are one-of-a-kind (OOAK), handmade pages for a skinny book (that needs explaining, too) in the Flickr group Zettiology, hosted by Jade Adams. Seventeen artists will submit 17 pages, and Ms. Jade will bind them into OOAK books for everyone.

Zetti style is probably best explained, if not defined, by looking at the work of Teesha Moore. Even her rubber stamp line is called Zettiology. I've blogged about Teesha and her work several times. This piece of art by moi earned me a comment from Ms. Moore. Check out her entire site and blog; her husband and daughters create amazing art as well.

The one-eyed, girly, swirly heads I used on some of my pages are from a collage sheet by Traci Bautista, which I bought from her in-person at Art and Soul in 2008. I've saved it all this time for something special. The strange and colorful heads are just perfect for my interpretation of Alice in Zetti-land.

More Alice-themed art ensues. I hope to post soon a couple of mixed media pieces I made this weekend with doll heads for Somerset Studios' fall art call regarding Alice in Wonderland. So far, I can tell you I employed a door knob, a jello mold, bird cage, watch face, resin, and I tore apart a $5 IKEA clock for additional inspiration and supplies.

Mail Bonanza: Faerie Zine Fat Books are Back!

It wasn't just on the same day, but in the same envelope even, that three gorgeous, stuffed-with-original-art fat books arrived last week from Lisa Kettell and The Faerie Zine. Since some of these page swaps had been due back in July, I had kind of forgotten not only that they were coming but what I had submitted. So it is always fun to get back the finished product, or products in this case.

There were three books: Halloween Opera, Birds of a Feather and The Doll House Chronicles. You can see two of the covers above as well as two of my pages. The 'birdy' page is just one of my faves from one of the many other artists around the country and world who participated. For each of the three books I made by hand 25 or more all-original 5" x 5" pages, front and back. No small amount of work that!

Hostess with the mostess Lisa had the big job of receiving, sorting and collating the pages and binding the books, always a time-consuming job. She bound the bird and doll books accordian-style with hand-attached, fabric hinges and she used hand-pleating to bind the Halloween book. Just an amazing amount of work! And these were but three of the many fat books she's hosted this year, others being Alice in Wonderland, Wizard of Oz and more. Then, she was not only a participant in these also, meaning she made pages too, but she was also in many other books in the Itty Bitty Book Club, including the Sweet Marie book below, Vintage Prom dresses, and more. No wonder Lisa says she's swearing off fat books for awhile.

Imagine and Believe, 4 x 4 Friday

I created this 4-inch by 4-inch book page, front and back for the weekly challenge at http://4x4friday.wordpress.com/. The challenge was to create a 4 x 4 piece of art using blue and silver. Being active also in The Artists of Chubbyville on Yahoo!- a fat book group, I always like to make my 4 x 4's into double-sided pages so I can swap or bind them later.

Like blue and silver, I like the contrast of "Imagine" and "Believe," and I certainly think you can do both. As well, this is no commercial for anything. I say: Believe Whatever Works for You. But, the little turquoise cross charm came in a swap from Dale http://dalemclain.blogspot.com/, so it seemed perfect for this once I had drawn the earth.

Peace on Earth to everyone.

Blythe Obsession Comes in Handy

The 4 x 4 Friday challenge this week was "lace," so I thought why not incorporate my newest obsession of Blythe dolls since they are so sweet. The pictures are from a paper fan sent from Tokyo with my first Blythe, Lilly, aka Star Dancer. The fan was distributed by a Japanese hair coloring company (for real peeps, not dolls), but they used Blythe images on all of the packaging. Think Clairol Nice 'N Easy boxes with Blythe heads instead. Anyway, to make a long story short, here is my page, and now I've got to hop on over to Wordpress to link it. 4 x 4 Friday gets participants from all over the world, which is cool. Blythes are much more well known in Japan and the rest of Asia.