Artwords - Grunge

This is my submission for this week's Artwords theme "Grunge". I think it would have been better with a bit more variety colour-wise but I enjoyed doing the grungy bits with Peeled Paint & Soot Distress Ink Pads (using the edge of an old credit card as well as "direct to paper") plus an Autumn Leaves Flourish stamp. The rest of the stamps are all from the Time to Stamp "Photo Booth" plate (a very versatile plate of small photo images and a few quotes).

I've been working on finishing my beeswax ATCs and a few other bits and pieces but I'll post those tomorrow - I'm bushed and looking forward to an early night so that I can make the most of the weekend!

A new day...

This morning's dawn - a reminder for me to see each new day as something to be lived abundantly! I woke up feeling out of sorts and headachy - wanting to stay home and to do some creating rather than going to work and struggling with my new role. I really like change (although not when it has no purpose or reason!) but I have problems letting myself grow and learn without wanting it all to happen very quickly so that I can feel confident and in control. Anyway I am of course off to work shortly but thought I would read a few blogs and entertain myself for a while first.

In terms of creative stuff this week - on Tuesday night I made good progress with my beeswax Roma ATCs and last night at Annie's I actually managed to make something! It is a piece for this week's Artwords theme of "Grunge" but it needs "something" so I won't be sharing it until tonight when I work out what that something is.

Last week Lynne L in Perth emailed me to let me know about a new online ATC Weekly Stamping Challenge and I meant to make something for it last week but forgot, so tonight I am planning on making an ATC on this week's theme of "faces". Should be easy as I have tons of face stamp images. I haven't been making many ATCs lately although last year it was a major passion. The photos today (sorry about the lousy crooked scans) are of a few of my favourites. Now I had better get moving and get to work.

The Monday that was...

Problem: Yesterday morning I decided that I hadn't got around to a whole pile of things (including several "life" type things as opposed to "creative" type things) on the weekend that really needed doing. Solution: Create a list. Downside: I can now clearly see how little I got done from the list in the last 24 hours! Upside: I feel more organised about what is not getting done.

So, while I should have been making travel bookings for my August trip to Perth, organising and filing paperwork, doing some of the gargantuan ironing pile etc etc, I had fun making some Adirondack Color Wash backgrounds for a beeswax ATC exchange that I need to get mailed in about a week. I love the way you can blend these colours! The theme is "Roma" so I have stamped one of my favourite Lazar Studiowerx collage stamps (Roman) on lemon tissue paper and I think the background will show through the tissue paper nicely once it has been adhered with the beeswax. I plan to do some more on these tonight.

I started this post this morning before rushing off to work and now it is lunch time. It is a very cold grey winter's day here so I have come home to check the mail and to make a nicely decadent toasted cheese and ham sandwich. I've got the heater on and a nice cup of tea as well so it is going to take a lot of will power to go back to work in a little while!

But the best part of coming home was that Lynda's stunning textural fabric postcard was sitting in the letterbox waiting for me - it is just beautiful and it is the first "naked" fabric postcard I have received. And it has travelled half way round the world and arrived in pristine condition! I add too many lumpy beads and things to risk it I think but it is much more postcardy this way!! Thanks so much Lynda - it will be on my inspiration wall tonight - I love it!

Fragments - some fabric postcards

I made the most of a relaxing day and had another go at my fabric postcards for the "Fragments" theme. I started them last night and if I hadn't been so tired I might have thought it through a bit more but I decided to stick with them today and to see how they turned out.

I have improvised along the way as there were a few challenges but I am happy with the end result. They are made up of torn "fragments" of scrapbook papers laid on felt with a layer of pale organza randomly stitched on top to hold the pieces together. Floral/text images torn from napkins (decorator serviettes) have been glued on top with diluted PVA. When they were dry I used a wood burning tool to melt back some of the organza and to bond the edges a bit. The whole postcard was then lightly coated with more diluted PVA. When they were dry I stamped some swirls in sepia ink and added a strip of lace before doing the backing and edges.

I've also continued with my tissue paper collages but I am not sure that I am terribly enamoured of how they are going. They might be another project that gets put aside and replaced with a fresh start!


I am getting pretty excited about my holidays in August - I am taking some recreation leave so that I can go to Perth to do three workshops with Beryl Taylor. They should be terrific - I am doing one on embellishments and a couple on fabric paper. I don't know if anyone I know is going to these but I would imagine they will be very popular so if you are going let me know! I am planning on staying in Perth for the best part of a week to catch up with family as well and to attend a couple of days of the WA Craft, Quilt & Stitch Fair at the Claremont Showgrounds.

P.S. I wish tomorrow was a Public Holiday - I would love another day of creative fun!

A week in review...

So far this week I have not finished anything but a good book! (Anita Shreve's Body Surfing). I have worked on prepping chipboard with gesso (for a special project for my sister Marrijane), making fabric postcards and ATCs (all unfinished) and experimenting with tissue paper collages (also unfinished), so the photos today are all of works in progress, except for the piece above which is now on display (Just joking!! Read the last bit of this post for explanation!).

The first is of the collection of tissue papers that I used to make the 6 inch square collage background in the photo below. I added liberal sprays of Wild Plum Adirondack Color Wash and now have to decide on the specifics of the next layers of paint and stamped images, given that for this exchange the tissue paper is the focus. Once I am happy with my result I'll make the other five along the same lines.

The next photo is of another sandwich of felt, organza, ribbon and mesh snippets under a layer of organza which has then been free motion stitched. I haven't decided whether to burn holes in this one or just use it as it is for a fabric postcard background. These are so much fun to do, I can see I could get quite addicted to layering fabrics!

The next photo is of the fabric postcards that I started this week - the theme is "fragments". I dyed the fabric (first with coffee, then with rust and then with walnut ink and Color Washes), stamped it with text, stitched organza to very old book pages, cut them up and then stitched them to the fabric/felt sandwich. They didn't look interesting enough so I tried stamping on one (don't like that either so that one will be cut down to ATC size) and I also tried spraying them with Moon Shadow Mist and more Color Washes. Quite like the darker colour but I have decided to just leave these ones for the time being and to try something else in a completely different colourway! That is what I am going to do when I finish this post (I've spent the day so far doing the house cleaning and making the most of the beautiful winter sunshine by hanging out seven loads of washing so far.)

I also just came across this site that helps you turn your own pictures into interesting things - so here is the fabric postcard from my last post gone circular and at the top of this post, a fabric postcard now on display as large format art! If you haven't tried it you should - it's good fun.

Stuff!

First off I am sharing a photo of a beautiful scarf my friend Adam G in Melbourne knitted for me. Not only is it the most beautiful shade of green (a favourite colour of mine!), it is lovely and long and very warm. It also has a lovely long fringe which I think makes a scarf feel really decadent and luxurious. The scarf arrived in the mail last week and today I wore it to work - it passed all scarf tests - it was warm but not itchy (I am allergic to lots of fibres including most wool and a lot of synthetics), it looked great with my black clothes (what I mostly wear) and to top it all off, the lower portion survived - unharmed - the drive to work hanging out of the bottom of the car door (lucky I am only a very short distance from work and I didn't drive through any puddles!).

Note to myself for future reference - check whereabouts of all extraneous extremities before closing the car door. P.S. If you write scarf more than three times in quick succession it looks really really weird by the third one!

And now to a creation of my own - while I grew up in a household (or was it just the era???) where we made clothes and learnt to sew, I am very new to fabric surface embellishment of the experimental type. It has become a real addiction in recent months and I am gradually trying new things and adding to my repertoire. The scan above is of a fabric postcard that I made on the weekend for an exchange with Purple Missus - it is a sandwich of blue felt, random scrap threads and snippets of organza with a layer of blue organza stitched randomly over the top. On the lower half I have then added a pink organza triangle again randomly stitched. I have used a wood burning tool to burn holes in the pink layer and then added sequins and seed beads to embellish it. I have backed it with painted heavy weight lutrador. I love the resulting colours and although I was planning to try a lot more techniques I decided this was enough on this one - plus I didn't want to wreck it by that "one last thing"!

I received the latest Somerset Studio magazine today and found my two tags in the Expressions section - they are coated in beeswax, another addictive technique - I love the smell - maybe because my name (Deborah) is Hebrew for "bee"???? I really love the way they (SS) photograph artwork! On a good news note, I also got a couple of emails late last week to let me know that I have a couple of items in "Sew Somerset", a new biannual publication which comes out in October, so that is a real thrill. Mind you, I got very excited a couple of years back when I was told that a piece I had made using a transfer of a photo of my maternal grandparents was going to be in Somerset Wedding but I don't think it actually got in there as I never heard anymore (and I certainly didn't get a complimentary copy).

So now I am off to attend to domestic stuff (food primarily) and then I am going to "progress" a set of six fabric postcards that I thought were due at the end of July. It turns out I lost a month somewhere along the way. Thankfully I am not alone...

Fabric Inchies

Here are my finished blue inchies, all mounted (temporarily!) on black cardstock, ready for their travels. Unfortunately I have managed to get a lot of glare and reflection in my photo - so many shiny things on these inchies - angelina fibres, beads, sequins, metallic threads! The picture below is a scan and while the colours are a bit darker than in real life at least the glare is reduced! Can't wait for the next round...

I also had a lot of fun experimenting yesterday with backgrounds for fabric postcards and ATCs. Nothing is finished yet but I'll upload some photos when they are.

I went to the local monthly Trash N' Treasure this morning but the cool grey weather meant there weren't too many sellers. I picked up a great pair of elaborate earrings that will be useful once dis-assembled and also a packet of colourful herbal tea for some paper dye experiments I have planned (well now I do!).

Zach's soccer has been cancelled (the pitch was under water yesterday and couldn't be marked - a very unusual situation here where our annual rainfall is so pitiful it hardly counts!!) and Joseph is heading off into the desert for the week for work purposes so I have a very self-indulgent creative day planned!!