Spring-y Art Adventures

The darling chick and pussywillow ATC above arrived from eclecticarchivist on Flickr as part of The Faerie Zine Spring Bunny & Chick ATC swap. Patty not only made the darling ATC, she made the accompany greeting card on which it arrived. That, along with the earlier posted ATC from rachelchristydesigns, were my receipts.

I made The Lettuce Queen ATC pictured above, and also The Cabbage Queen, who is all haughty now because I forgot to photograph here. Supplies for my ATCs were almost entirely from Paula Montgomery of Paula's Kit Club, which I highly recommend. Be sure to read Enzo's report card on her site, and check out the bracelet kit offerings from Kaari Meng of French General.

The crown -shaped paper trinket is just that, a crown- a little cheer-up surprise I received in the mail from the queen herself, Ms. Lisa Kettell. Whether I will wear it remains to be seen, but it's more fun to admire her amazing papercraft skills anyway.

And last but not least the charm bracelet is the product of the Arte du Blythe group on Yahoo! Miss Vicky hosted this swap which had such well-known players as Ms. Lisa as well as Maija Lepore, Angela Hoffman, Sandy Camarda and Kim Tedrow. Another "not sure I will wear it" thingy, but always fun to look at.

A breath of spring arrives!

Just when I thought another snow flurry in Indiana in March would leave me stark raving mad, this lovely little breath of spring arrived in the mail from Rachel for The Faerie Zine Bunny/Spring ATC swap.

Rachel makes the loveliest boxes and sells them in her Etsy store. We are also doing a 1:1 box swap- can't wait! Gotta get my cards and boxes done this weekend and will post pics. My other ATC parner is Patty, Eclecticarchivist.

And I really can't complain. Although it is gloomy today, it was sunny and 60+F degrees yesterday. Just a little tease.

Also another bright spot received are the two blog awards (top right) that I received last night from Lisa Kettell, who is one to always share in her bountiful art tidings.

Check my latest book review

Visit Vintage Indie for my latest Off the Shelf book review. This time it's Lisa Kettell's Altered Art Circus.

Charms, Charm Swaps, Charm Bracelets: All So Charming!

While I was waiting for charms to dry this weekend, I decided to photograph some of my bracelets from past charms swaps. These beauties contain all original artwork from so many special art friends. They're really too bulky and noisy to wear, and I don't want to break or lose any of the charms, but I have worn some of them before, to art events. I wish I had a good way to display them all the time so I could enjoy looking at them.

I also photographed my high school charm bracelet. It's the mostly silver one above, containing Monet charms from the 1970's. The black and white charm bracelet above is one I made for myself in recent years. The turquoise bracelet was made by the talented Altered Kat/Great Musings of ZNE and on Etsy. I have purchased several from her for gifts. And the very full white and clear bracelet is by Miss Vicky, who sells these gorgeous versions in all colors and all themes in her store, The Funny Pharm.

The charm bracelet with antique brass and the silver one with beach-y charms like the pail and sand dollar are bracelets I have made and sold in my Etsy shop, Lilly*s of London*ish. The silver one uses fantastic lampwork beads from Marianna as well as Coach charms from a deconstructed keyring.

Some of the most full bracelets above are made from charms swaps. The very top one represents charms collected at Art & Soul, Hampton 2008 and contains 32 different charms from 32 artists. The bracelet with the soldered 'G' Scrabble tile front and center is from a swap at the ZNE Castle in the Meadow event in Detroit this past summer, and the silver bracelet with the fabric circle charm, soldered Marie Antoinette charm and brass and metal findings charm, among others, is from Art & Soul Portland, October, 2009. At Portland I was lucky enough to swap with members of the exclusive Charmsters group, thanks to my 'in' with art buddy Michelle Geller, who also made several of the charms on this bracelet.

One of the best parts of charm swaps is the presentation of the charms. I have received charms in matchbooks, match boxes, test tubes, mint cans, on Moo cards and in some many creative and elegant presentations it makes it tempting not to take them apart to attach to a bracelet.

So with charms due for the Arte du Blythe charm swap and a charm swap sponsored by Cloth Paper Scissors magazine, as well as wanting to turn in a project for my pitifully-neglected spot on the Hannah Grey Design Team, I banished myself to the basement to see what I could do.

The "I Dream in French" charms are made by stamping on rolled-out paper clay with a rubber stamp from Hannah Grey and a basic ink pad (Staz-On does not work for this project). I cut the charms out with canape cutters and poked a hole with a wood stick. The charms dry light and hard within about 24 hours. I sprayed some with a clear finishing coat and some, I sprayed the backs with silver or gold spray paint and edged them with a silver or gold leaf pen. I added a French brass charm also from Hannay Grey and jump rings and tied them to watercolor paper artist trading cards. The cards are stamped in French script with a large stamp from Stampin' Up; the stickers are from Paula's Kit Club as well as the ribbon.

The "little girl" and "eyeball" charms are a completely different project, obviously. There are eight members of my Arte du Blythe group making and swapping charms, for a bracelet hosted and finished by Miss Vicky. Some of the charms are just outstanding. Check out my Blythe blog for a sneak peek.

Postess with the Mostess. Squee!

Everything thing about this post makes me squeal with delight. In fact, I have been on cloud nine for the last 12 hours, barely stopping to sleep. I AM the postess with the mostess, simply because I feel like the luckiest blogger in the world, well, the www world anyway.

Yesterday I happened upon Altered Art Circus by Lisa Kettell at Barnes and Noble (Quarry Books, 2009, ISBN-13:978-1-59253-487-6; or on Amazon). I say 'happened' because I wasn't expecting to find it on the shelf yet. The publication date has been February 2009 for about the last year and a half, or ever since the author, Lisa Kettell of The Faerie Zine, invited me to submit a piece of art for the book's gallery.

At the time I started making this 3D sculpture representative of Marie Antoinette, my intent was to make Lisa a gift for all her work in our art group. I don't think I even knew then the book had a circus theme, or certainly I would have drawn on my great love for circus art! Nevertheless, I made the 18" 'Marie' in one day, and sent her east to live with Lisa. I never really believed the piece would make it into the book- either because of some mail disaster only I would experience or because it was edited out for being "no good." Every artist has those thoughts, especially one who has never been published in a real book until now. A 'real' magazine, yes. 'Real' books published via Blurb or Lulu, yes. But a real publishing house with a real editor (who didn't cut out my picture)? C'est Magnifique!

Here's a couple more links to my other Marie figures here and here. I have one still for sale on etsy, and I sent the rest off last summer in hopes of finding their way into Stampington's new Marie Antoinette magazine.

But as for being in Lisa's book, I am over the moon! And I share the Gallery with so many wonderful art friends like Bella and Wanda and Ann-Denise. And I share my page with the inimitable DeBriNa Pratt of Spark*Your*Imagination. Thank you again Lisa!

Another great art friend who roams these same circles is Viv Neroni of New York. Out of the blue (and I say that because I haven't been reading everyone's blogs as faithfully as I should) Viv sent me the most darling pin-keep (above), which I won in a contest on her blog. Viv and I swapped goodies once before. She makes the most darling tiny felted bears and paper clay figures and posts the most delicious photos on her blog. Viv is also Violet's 'new mom.' Violet is of the Blythe persuasion, and I only now realized 'V' is the perfect letter. No wonder Viv kept Violet's name after 'adopting' her.

The 'beady' looking photo (top) is a work-in-progress. It's starting with stringing assorted tiny seed beads from a bead soup by Beverly Gilbert of Gilbert Designs in Washington. I met Beverly at Art & Soul, Portland, in October and made two pendants in her class. It is tiny work that requires reading glasses and a task light. See that sliver of a curved beading needle? It's a wonder I can string anything. This strand so far is sort of a freeform Peyote stitch, which I am glad to have finally learned. It really is easy.

I'm planning to use the strand when fully-formed to encase either a 'jingle' shell as shown above or a piece of beach glass or some other shell and a tiny starfish, and that will form a pendant just like the amber one I made at A&S. But, shhhh! Don't tell. It's going to be a gift for someone special who favors shells.

2008: All Bound Up Neatly

One of my favorite things to do at the end of the year -so I'm a little behind- is to bind all the fat book pages I've collected during the previous year, like the one-page-per-month, all-original-art 4" x 4" page swap from one of my art groups, Chubbyville; extra pages from Art & Soul, ZNE, Itty Bitty Book Club and other swaps, gifts and the like. It's fun to bind the year together from start to finish. I started with The Year of the Rat January page by Lois Paolo from Chubbyville and decided to use clear acrylic covers -okay, took the easy way out. Still I've got a beautiful book of all original art from my art friends for 2008.

You can see my 2007 book here and here and all the pictures of my fat book pages to date in my Flickr set here. It sure seems like the 12 months between these two books went awfully fast. I have some incredible, one-of-a-kind books that I never tire of looking through, with themes like Halloween, Marie Antoinette, pink, Blythe, Birds, Dolls, prom dresses and more.

On The Road Again...

Check out my review of vintage hot spots in Portland, OR on Vintage Indie here. Can you believe I left this pink beauty behind? It really was pink. Cinderella pink. Candy pink. Buy-me-and-stare-at-me-pink. It was definitely not peach, as this photo suggests.

Thanks to Kim for the Eye-Opener. Let's Support Each Other in Art and Life

I received this lovely award from single mom, artist and photographer Kimberly Miller. It said "for the coolest blog ever." It wasn't just modesty that made me crop off that part; it was the fact that it's just plain true there are way cooler blogs, and Kim's is one of those. So, I am honored to receive the award from her and to be in the company she listed for her other fave blogs. She had some of mine, too, like Kari Ramstrom's Artsymama.

But what really struck me about Kim's blog were her brutally honest words. I've visited before, but I'm not sure I've ever taken enough time to really read in depth. She touches on a lot of artists' worries, like making a living. She talks about raising her son alone. She talks about finding a decent job to match her skills in this economy. She includes her poetry. And her photographs are outstanding. Check out her self-published book on Blurb. She also has gorgeous calendars on Red Bubble.

Her comment to me was invaluable because it sent me to her blog once again, where I was reminded we artists need to support each other as do we moms, and maybe most importantly, as should we all as human beings. So. Go read her blog. Look at the pictures. Feel the pain and worry in her poems. And buy a book or calendar. Or two. It could be you next time. Or me.

Happy New Year! Welcome 2009

This video of cute animals and sleepy babies should spread some cheer for the new year. You just can't help smiling.

Crochet gave me the bird

Browsing the magazine stand and then thumbing through the latest issue of Crochet Today, I caught a glimpse of this darling bluebird and knew I had to make it. It was described as "easy" and I suppose it would be...for someone who crochets regularly. I used to be one of those people. You know, unable to put down the work at night, keeping a project in the car for traffic jams, hoarding yarn like it would feed me in a famine.

But it has been months since I crocheted anything more than a dolly hat, so making this little five-inch, single crochet birdie took a lot longer than I expected. Of course, I was trying to watch Mamma Mia for the fourth time. But, you'd think after that many viewings I could at least follow some simple stitch counts and still sing along to "Super Trooper." Not so. But I finished the movie. And then the birdie. I love his little wings. But then I added the bow, so not sure if 'he' is a she. Either way, I think it's cute.

Happy Holidays!

So Excited! You'd Think I Just Got Published

These two amazing books are by and belong to two fellow artists and people I can truly call friends. I am so excited for them! Each is very different - the book and the person- and I feel privileged to say my art is in each book. The thrill of publication belongs solely to the artists, Jane Powell and Lisa Kettell. But, I'm so thrilled for them, you'd think they were my books.

Altered Art Circus is now available here on Amazon. You won't be disappointed. And I can say that even though my copy is not in my hands yet, for I have some of Lisa's original work as well as works by some of the other contributing artists.

Artist and Silver Bella founder Teresa McFayden reviewed the book here. Although I didn't get a mention there, I am just so happy with her review of Lisa's book. The circus animals by Lisa that Teresa shows on her blog are great, and interestingly enough, Martha Stewart just featured a similar project here by Katie Steuernagle, Matsutake on Etsy. And talk about full circle, Lisa was in the audience, third row, for the Martha taping that day!

The hand-made, 75-pp book above is equally impressive. Owner Jane Powell of Random Arts in Saluda, one of my favorite places, decided to host a collaborative journal project and even sent out some supplies to willing participants to get the ideas flowing. When the unique pages started flowing in from around the country and beyond, Jane knew she had something special.

So special is this book that Jane "donated" it for a fund-raising auction for the Saluda Senior Center and then Jane bought it back in a bidding war for $500.00! How great is that? You can see my "Sorry, Time's Up" page peeking out of the photo above and my finished project here. I hope I can get to Saluda again soon to see the entire book. Here's her story about it.