Hello Readers!
I have a few things to show you all today. Can't say I've been overly productive in the five days since I was here last, but I do have a few things ready.
Shock of shocks! There's a Fish Picture in this batch! Fish Pictures usually take months to complete! This one took only a few weeks from the time I dragged out the canvas to this point where it is completed. I've hung it in my cutting room for the time being but I'm wanting to send it to one of the shops next time they need more inventory from me.
The fishes kinda disappeared into the background, but I like it! Today I will start another one this size. It's only 12 inches square. A nice manageable size compared to the larger ones I've always done in the past.
The canvas was originally a saying of some sort...I forget what it said....it had a butterfly and flowers on it. It also has a music box in it. I probably should have checked the position of the hanger before I added the lower shelf of rocks cause I put those rocks on the wrong edge of the canvas! It's upside down. So I will have to move the hanger to the right spot before I can sell it.
I painted over the original screen printed, mass produced picture with black acrylic. Then it was drizzled with gold acrylic fluid paint. Then it sat for a few weeks and nothing more happened with it. I got up at 3 a.m. a few mornings ago with that fish picture in my head and got busy with it. It was finished by noon that day.
I've used puff paint, glitter paint, ribbons, fibers, yarn, silk fabric, styrofoam rocks, pompoms, buckyball units, eyelash yarn, stringed fake pearls and probably other things I'm forgetting at the moment.
The fishes are left-overs from FP7. Drawn on paper, painted with fingernail polish and cut out. I still have fishes left-over from FP6 and FP5. I have amassed a few left-overs from previous fish pictures so these newer ones won't take weeks to complete.
My muse is still contemplating the turkey painting that I need to do for Evelyn. I don't know why my muse is so unsettled about it. I just can't seem to wrap my brain around the fact it needs to get done if no other reason than to appease Evelyn. Perhaps this week it will come into fruition.
Weaving has been on the muse's radar.
If I had saved the tutorial to My Favorites, I'd share it with you all but for some reason it is nowhere to be found! These little fishes are easy to make! Well, easy, once you figure out the weaving! I made mine out of two different varieties of paper, cut into 1/2 inch strips. These are painted with varnishes and/or glitter paint. They weren't very sturdy so I added some 'paint' to stiffen them up. They are a work in progress at the moment. Still need to slap some googly eyes on and put a magnet on the backsides.
Ma went out yard saling with Aunt Sherry on Friday and brought me a bunch of junk she says is art fodder. OK, I can't argue with her....it IS art fodder. I don't think that I needed 3 very large boxes of art fodder though. But as Ma would say, did say, "What does NEED have to do with anything?"
Then on Saturday I went with her to Phillipsburg and Logan. In Pburg we hit every garage sale we passed and I brought home some more art fodder! (Along with some other stuff I just couldn't leave there!) I got a walnut rocking chair for the front porch for nothing. Ma paid the $2 the guy wanted for it. It's not in the greatest of shape but it's sturdy and I did need a new chair for the front porch.
I made one little basket out of a tiny fraction of the elastic Ma brought to me on Friday. She found a whole box of long lengths of different colors and widths of elastic. All of it on spools. Most of them are 1/2 inch or so, but this white stuff is 1 inch and there was a giant spool of the stuff! I'll be making a few more baskets out of this stuff. This one is 6 inches square by 5 inches tall. I had to sew it together to make it stay together but I like the little ties on each square around the basket. I think the next one will be sewn with embroidery thread in different colors instead of just white crochet cotton. Though I do like the all white basket. Even though this basket is made from elastic, it isn't very stretchy as the elastic is old and the rubber is shot! It is a sturdy little basket!
I've just been invaded a by a cat. Miss Lola has decided she needs to know what all the racket is about! As I'm hitting the keys on the keyboard, typing this, she is sitting on a tiny spot on my desk trying to get my attention. She wants some lovin's. I'm kinda busy at the moment, cat!
I still have tons of elastic to make into whatever. I'm going to give crocheting it a try. Not sure if that will work with the skinnier elastic or not. It's not quite so bad off as the white stuff I used to make the basket above. I've never tried to crochet elastic. Might not even work. The only way to know though, is to give it a shot!
Weaving will be on the agenda! I also got a big box of fabric scraps that I have already cut into strips in anticipation of weaving some mats. Some will be little for mug rugs and some will be larger for hot pot mats. And if I can figure out how they made those bags from the fabric strips, I'll make a few of those as well.
I finished the magazine paper rod basket. This one had been sitting on the work table in the deskroom for at least two weeks, just waiting for a 15 minute session of weaving it all together. It's about 6 inches tall, base is about 3 inches across. Would make a great pencil cup for a desk.
I said I was going to be done with making paper bowls once this one was done.
But I think I was mistaken on that account. This one is about 8 inches across the rim and about 6 inches deep. I used my large orange ceramic mixing bowl for a mold. It is chiefly tissue paper. It does have one layer of newsprint and one layer of white register tape paper in there as well though you can't see them. The stripes inside the bowl are shredded money. There's a layer of shredded money on the outside of the bowl as well but I covered it up with tissue paper and it pretty much disappeared under the tissue paper and the layer of green glass paint I put on the outside of the bowl.
I say I think I was mistaken about being down with bowls because of the acquisition of a box of antique sheet music I got for $2 at a yard sale. We shall see what becomes of some of that sheet music in the coming weeks.
Old paper works much better for paper bowls than new paper does. The old paper soaks up the water/glue mixture better than new paper.
I also got a box of old 8mm films. I did a search yesterday to see what could be made from them and came up empty handed more or less. I have about 2 dozen reels of this stuff. Plus a few reels of 16mm film. The only things I found made from film was some earrings and a bow to use to decorate a gift package. The earrings were a tad weird! The bow could be done! I probably will make a few of those and see how they sell in the shops. All of these films are high school football games from the 1970s.
I have plenty of it to play around with and try to figure something out!
One of my best buys of the day was a handful of zig markers for a quarter! There were some other brands of markers in that bunch as well. Every single one of them with the exception of the silver paint pen, works wonderfully! I needed some new colors of grays and browns and now I have some! Will need to clean off my desk if I'm going to play with the markers though. Can't even see the marker box for all the crap laying on top of it at the moment!
I have another basket in the works. A coiled basket using some white macrame cord and pink elastic. It reminds me of hard christmas candy at the moment. I'll probably finish it sometime today and start on something else.
I almost forgot to tell you all about the short trip to Logan. There was a craft fair going on over there on Saturday. We by passed the craft fair-we were both pretty worn out by then! We went to the Dane Hansen Museum to see the paper art exhibit. Allen and Patty Eckman cast paper sculptures. Go check out the link! Pictures just don't do this artwork justice! It was gorgeous! I'm a color kinda girl when it comes to artwork. More of mine has color than not. These stark white paper sculptures though, they don't need color. I'm glad Ma decided to drag my hide there!
I would have liked to have gone around the courtyard of the museum and seen those 50 some vendors that had set up on the grass, but the old body was already in complaint mode and I was more than ready to call it a day! Riding in the vehicle is hard on my old body and then climbing in and out of it for all those sales we hit.... yeah, I was bushed!
I'm still recuperating from the exertions of Saturday! The old body goes into rebel mode when I push it too much! And that damn fibro kicked my butt all week. I should be back to 'normal' by tomorrow! I have got to go to the grocery store sometime today so will have to get dressed to do that! I was in my pj's all day yesterday.
I am just rambling now so I will let you get on with your day!
Thanks for stopping by!
Remember......
Be good to one another!
It matters!
831
No comments:
Post a Comment