Kumihimo bead necklace

This weekend, at bead group, my friend Robin showed me how to do kumihimo braiding. It is easy and quick! On Tuesday, I had to stop by the bead store and buy some beads to do a full necklace!!!! I started it last night and finished it this afternoon. THANK YOU ROBIN!

Journal cover

I am taking another class from Tam. This one is working on Art Journals. It is a perfect time as I have really made a commitment to working in a sketchbook/journal regularly this year. So far, I have kept up with it and really happy with them. Tam is an amazing teacher and extremely giving in the amount of information that she shares. The other students are also great! If you would like to look at the site, here is the address: http://willowing.ning.com/group/awesomeartjournal This is the cover to my journal that I just started. It has embossed metal and a "self-portrait".

embossed metal pendants

These are some embossed pieces that I made. Now the challenge is finding ways to use them. I went to my favorite store on Friday, Rubber Stamp Fantasy, and talked to the owners, Deb and Gary about what I wanted and they suggested a resin enamel that works at 250 degrees. I used Ranger's frames and glass on the back and then used the enamel on the front. I really liked how they turned out. I did cloisenne for years and love the look but hate the time and money they it takes. This was so much easier and cheaper!

The "A" is for my big sis, Adrianne!!!

Metal Embossing Class

My metal embossing class began this week. This is my first piece. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be! I was working on getting a more finished result than the ones that I have done to this point. I am taking the class from Darlene www.articulations.blogspot.com. So far I have been very impressed with the level of instruction. The first video was almost an hour!

Sewing on Metal

Needless to say, I wanted to start stitching through the metal and including them on fiber. I didn't really put a lot of thought into the "design". These were just some of the scraps that hadn't really worked out and I started stitching them down on timtex which was covered with kunin felt and a painted dryer sheet. I did break a needle in the process, but it was alot of fun, except that the sun was shining in the window behind the sewing machine and was BLINDING against the metal. Honestly, I blame the glare on the needle breaking.

One more embossed piece

I did one more. This one is basically just a doodle on metal. I did add a embossed stencil butterfly and then some alcohol ink

Metal Embossing

Here is a dragonfly that I did last night. I actually had plans on taking step by step pictures and directions, but my camara was out of juice! Sorry, maybe next time. I think that this is going to be used as the cover for one of my art journals.

I was up until almost midnight watching the too cool videos from Ten Second Studios http://www.tensecondsstudio.com/ and having a great time. This morning as I was reading one of my yahoo art groups, one of the women mentioned she is going to teach an online class on metal embossing! Talk about coincidents! http://artticulation.blogspot. com/

I haven't taken the class yet, so really can't tell if it will be wonderful or not, but the her work is amazing.

Journal page with metal pieces

This is a page from my journal. I am still playing with the thin metal. These were cut with a large Fiskar paper punch. I then embossed by hand and painted them with adirondack alcohol ink and sharpie markers and alcohol in a mist bottle. I found that the smaller paper punch was not strong enough to cut the metal, or at least on my ONE try, it didn't.

Acrylic Painting, second stage

In an earlier post, I showed the background of this painting. I am finally moving forward with it. It took some time to work out a focal image. I am going to try and create a lot of small detail to make a paisley image.

AIDS Quilt

The fiber art group that I belong to is working on an AIDS quilt. We broke up into smaller groups (mine is 3 artists) to work on our individual person's panel, which is 3 feet by 6 feet. My friends Ginny Greaves http://www.virginiagreaves.com/blog/ and Hellenne Vermillion http://www.vermillionart.blogspot.com/ are working on this one for Ray Sharkey. He was an actor.

Another Doodle

Here is another fun doodle from my journal. The background was made with Glimmer Mist. When I really don't have any idea what I want to work on, or am trying to avoid a project, I will start doodling.

Metal and alcohol inks

I started playing with thin metals, sharpies, and alcohol inks. I had fun one afternoon at Rubber Stamp Fantasy. The owner, Debbie, showed me some cool tricks with embossed metal. Here are a few small pieces that I made. I am not sure what I will do with them. At the moment, I will probably just punch holes and put them in my journal. I have been spending most of my time working in my journal.

Here are a few more pages from my journal. This was another play day at the Rubber Stamp Fantasy. This stamp store is one of my favorite places. I can find tons of fun ways to use their stuff on fabric. These were tags I made using Vivid and adirondack inks and bleach. I was able to get some really cool effects. I have been doing more pages in my journal with bleach. It is a wonderful technique.

Bead Embroidery

I took three days of classes with Sheri Serafini this week. This is the bracelet that I am making. I still need to but it on the brass bracelet form, but I like to take a picture of them flat. Sheri is a wonderful bead artist. I also made a collar which isn't completed yet. I will post it when I get the chance.

Embellisher pattern

On this piece I was playing with pattern and recreating a pattern from another source. It was one of the exercises that I did with Jean Littlejohn. Now I have to go back into it and add handwork.

Handmade Stamps at Play

I am taking on online class from Traci Batista on monotypes. I had such a great time in Tam's class that I couldn't resist taking another and Traci is such a great artist! These are just two of the two dozen stamps that I have made so far this WEEK! I really like the idea of border patterns and of course, adding negative space to the pattern!!! I can't wait to really start using these in a painting.

Handmade Stamps

Here is another set of stamps, both the positive and negative! I like both.

handmade stamps

These are some of the stamps I created from on online class with Traci Batista. This is just one set.

Needlelace sampler

While visiting Molly, I worked on hand embroidery. It is an area where I could really use some help and Molly is an expert! I decided to work on Needlelace which I think is one of the greatest textures in fibers. This is one of the samples that I made. It also fits into the latest Stitch Explorer challenge. Instead of using the traditional stitches to create the stitch I used needlelace to work the negative areas.

Paper Casting with Molly

I spent the weekend up in North Carolina with my friend, Molly, who is an incredible fiber artist. We spent the weekend working on "artistic goals" and critiquing work. We also played with more paper casting. I did it a few weeks ago, but working alone I really didn't take it that far. Molly had great ideas to take it in new directions. We also have "challenged" each other come up with great ways to use it to stitch somehow.

World of Whimsey and the Yudu

Here is another picture. I do think that it is a little better than the first. I still want to work on bringing more of myself to this class and do think that it will come out slowly. Part of it is just getting the habit of drawing more and I am drawing daily again. I also have begun playing with my Yudu screenprinter! I used the pencil drawing of this picture to burn the screen. What fun! I did make a lot of mistakes, but it ended up working out fine. It really is a super easy system.

World of Whimsey Class

I am taking the best online class. It is from Tamara at World of Whimsey. I have taken many online classes but this is definitely the best. Quite often, I think that I am just buying a very expensive book with an email address to the author. This class is so much more. You get hours of video as well as a forum and 24/7 chat with other students.

This is my first try at lesson three - shading. Not that it is all that great, but it was a lot of fun. I definitely don't want to make "big eyed girls" that are so prevalent right now. This class I think will end up being so much more. It is about acceptance of yourself as an artist and dealing with our fears. Hopefully, I will get back into figure drawing in a more expressive manner and have a lot of fun in the process. She is doing an online art journal class in May or June. I can't wait.