Art Lottery

Just for fun I participated in an Art Lottery Post card Swap on the Fiber Art Traders Yahoo Group.
The instructions I received were:

Set A: Start with a base fabric that has shapes on it (some easily recognizable shape like hearts, bells, hands, stars, etc), Add a skinny line, Add a fat line, Piece something, Add curvy lines

Set B: Piece your base fabric, Applique something on, Do a fancy embroidery stitch, Add a sketch, Add a fat line

Set C: Gather or corrugate your base fabric, Pleat or origami fold something, Add an ethnic element, Add a different type of fabric/paper, Add single thread stitching

Here are the bases:

And works in progress:

And finished!

ASPIRATIONS

Here's my "inspiration"card for this week. Not sure how to apply it. I'm pretty content with my life. And maybe at my age I'm realistic about becoming something or someone else. I've grow accustomed to ME.

But I can aspire to:

Be more patient,

Be a better Artist,

Become more healthy,

And just BE - and take life one step at a time!

Nurturing - -

This is my creativity inspiration for the week. But the real nurturing must be done by phone. My daughter, Deb, and her wonderful life partner, Matt, went home to find burst pipes and a flooded house.

I wish I could be there to help and comfort. But from this distance all I can do is wring my hands & repeat "POOR DEB. POOR MATT". See her blog - link at the right to see more.

On a happier note - she and Matt had just been visiting here to celebrate my husband, Jack's, 80th birthday. They prepared a wonderful dinner. Lasagna, meatballs, peppers & sausages. YUMMY. And the topper - angel food cake and vanilla ice cream drizzled with DARK CHOCOLATE BALSAMIC VINEGAR. Delicious.

DO IT WRONG!

That's my New Year's Resolution. It's one I won't break!

Actually - looking for a theme / mantra / inspiration for the year, I came across a card deck called "52 Ways to Nurture Your Creativity". That would work! I'll select one each week and see where it leads. Here's the first one.
This will be easy - I ALWAYS do things "wrong" or at least not exactly correct. Hmmm - maybe a freeform crochet scrumble, a freeform beaded bracelet - or I'll look from something new to to wrong!

Winter in Florida!

Affected by the winter weather - which is lasting way too long for me - I've been playing with some crochet. These curly sarves were fun!

Here they are laying flat.

And every morning I see the dew on all the flowers & plants. Beautiful!

A Florida Christmas

Here are just a few images of my backyard in December. The cotton plant that furnishes nesting materials and food for the birds;

The perpetually blooming bouganvilla;

And some tomatoes - since ripened & will be enjoyed for lunch.

even though it was colder than I like (some days the high was in the mid sixties & nights in the forties) No snow & it only lasts a couple of days at a time.

Where ever your, and whatever the weather - HAPPY NEW YEAR!

OOPS - missing photo

Here's the Instant Art Quilt picture missing from the last post. I highly recommend the on-line class by Ellen Lindner - see link at the right.

Fabric Play

At last - finished and hung! This is an "Instant Art Quilt" started last spring. It is from a class by Ellen Lindner. Great fun to do.

And, inspired by Deb's banners - I made a Christmas "JOY" Banner.

What fun to have such a creative daughter! Here are the banners Deb made for me:

I don't believe it!

Yes - I glued beads, something I said I'd NEVER do! But I am prone to break all the rules, even my own. This first one has pearls and plastics, buttons, beads and a buckle.

Here's one that I used fused glass pieces and painted the grout silver.

And finally - the really ugly one. Pottery dish pieces made the grouting really difficult!

Birds and other critters.

I found this "slowpoke" exploring the materials on my worktable on the back porch.

This is one of my favorite regular visitors. This little froggie and friends are frequent visitors to our front porch.

and here is my "Bird- Day" party. Fun, Funky folk art birds. They are made from recycled wool clothing. Each one carries a message such as "happy Bird day", "for my tweetie", "congratulations love birds"

Beware of Thrift Store Pants!

OK - so I bought this really cool pair of pants at Goodwill. Linen/cotton blend - lots of pockets. As I was getting ready for an Art Show yesterday, I found out why they were so cheap. The elastic was sprung! Every time I put something in my pocket they slipped a bit further down. But they were perfect in every other way, cool, comfy, lots of pockets and matched a nice oversize T-shirt I wanted to wear. So with a dozen safety pins to the rescue, off I went to sell some wares.

Then it rained! Wet fabric is much heavier than dry. Fortunately I managed to get things packed and loaded up before they fell off.

Since I still really like the pants, I guess I'll replace the elastic, install a drawstring & get me pair of suspenders before I wear them again.

BEADING AGAIN

A beading group at our rock & gem club gets together once a week. As a result i'm totally hooked on beads - again! Above are some examples. Freeform remains my favorite technique, but I do occasionally follow a pattern.

mess-oupage

I decided to decoupage an old metal office cabinet. There's certainly emough random papers in my"art room" to do it! Here is the work in progress.

And here is my workspace - the floor.I learned the following:

Tear up your papers first - gluey fingers & torn paper are a real mess.

Fingers make a better brayer than the real thing.

Use good quailty paper napkins - the cheap ones roll into little balls & stick to everything except where you put them.

It takes two-and-a-half times the papers that you estimate.

It's good messy fun! My kind of art. Messy and random.

Recycling

Here's a couple of little clutches I made using old cassette tapes and a skein of yarn each. Each one has a vintage button for the closure.

The idea came from My Recycled Bags, check it out.

An honor

Ellen Lindner, Adventure Quilter, has included my nature quilt in her gallery. I made it in a class she taught our Weaver's Guild. She is a great teacher and offers on-line classes. I still need to finish the other two projects from on-line classes!

Check out the gallery here.

Art Bundle Part 3

I moved it to a potted plant in the front yard last month. Today I opened it - not too much change. There was a funny little bug living there. I evicted him. So, I don't think I'll try this bundle again, maybe a different one later.

Supplies as Art

Today, when I went outside to clean up from my mornings painting project, it struck me that the supplies were an art piece themselves! The group included a T-shirt paint rag, a palm frond, stamp I had made and of course paint and brush.

And here's a piece of fabric I rust dyed. Turned out better than my previous effort.

Art Bundle - Part 2

I opened the art bundle today - - see post of May 14.

There's not t lot of change. Some rust and the flower blossoms had withered. And a tiny spider rode in on it.

I re-wrapped it (minus the spider) and placed it in another location for another month, we'll see what happens.

A perfect Monday

and it's not over yet.

Beach and Breakfast - at Grills at the port - great food and view:

She'll be back . . .

. . . I know - because she left her shoes

Deb has flown back home to Texas. What a perfect Mother's day week. we laughed, created, ate & drank wine. We dyed wool and stamped paint on fabrics. We shopped thrift stores and made 50 cent skirts. We walked on the beach.

Almost complete kitchen

It's done! Except for the floor. I LOVE it - it's brighter and has more room.

Weathered art bundle

Inspired by Deb and this site: http://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/2009/05/disco-big-reveal.html

I have made a random object bundle of "stuff" to weather in my yard for a month.

First the bundle open, And then, hanging on the fence.

It contains a rock, two shells, a sample of countertop, some basket reed and fibers, a couple of oleander blossoms, rusty nails and a piece of driftwood. It is wrapped in a paint rag and enclosed in a plastic mesh bag. I'll open it next month & see what time and the weather has done.