Stamp and Deliver

So I've got some more projects from Craft Camp to show off. I took Mucho Gusto Grande taught by Traci Bunkers. For you fiber people out there besides just making cool journals, books, rubberstamps and etc she also spins and dyes yarn. It's sure is pur-ty. Anyway, back to class. This was the only class I ever took with my sister and we had a good time. We weren't too obnoxious and giggly even though my sister was a bit tipsy after the Manager's Reception a.k.a. Happy Hour. Here's a do not try this at home message for you kiddies out there --rum and linoleum cutters are not a wise move. No siblings were injured during the course of class but since both of us are extremenly squeemish at the sight of blood, we got lucky. So here are the stamps I made and the last one is the one I made for my mom for mother's day. Yes, it's Sisyphus pushing a boulder up the hill. She's always wanted a stamp with him on it and even though I find it depressing who am I to deny her? The stamps are a little rough around the edges, literally, but it's a fun quick project that I don't suck at.

Butterfly Wings and Angels, NOT

I am back from Art & Soul a.k.a. Craft Camp and I have my first project to share. My first class was Beeswax ATC taught by Barbara McGuire. Essentially it was creating Artist Trading cards and then covering them with wax. For those who don't know what an ATC is, an atc is a small work of art most often paper but sometimes fabric or another medium. The rules of ATCs are this, they must be 2 1/2" by 3 1/2 inches and you can't sell them only exchanged. For more info on what an ATC is check out the FAQ on the ATC board on craftster.

Anyway I have never made any ATC's before and to be honest I never really thought they were my thing. But being the smartass that I am I took the some of the often used elements of ATCs and put my own spin on it.

Crazed Knitting Girl

So my folks picked up this poster for a french yarn company at a recent auction. And instantly I had an connection with her. She has brown frizzy hair, chubby cheeks, speaks french, is knitting and is just a wee bit possessed. And I know under that cute dress and she has short stubby legs. Stick a giant bow on my head and we could be twins!

Forgive the not so great picture, I was eager to make her into an avatar (yeah, I'm a geek) and since my mom had not gotten around to taking her picture for their site yet and my dad went out and snagged the photo the auction place used. Trust me Mom's photo would have been much better!

Since I don't have my french-english dictionary handy I am currently using the internet to figure out exactly what it says. (My huge dictionary is at home, the remnants of being a french major). Oddly enough what I thought was a poster for a brand of wool seems to be for scottish(as in the nationality) wool. Maybe that is the name of the wool. The phrase on the diagonal means "non-shrinking wool", so I guess it's superwash? Then along the bottom it says "Ask for our wool in fine stores".

My parents had bought the poster to sell but my mom has offered to give her to me (I do have a birthday coming up...) but I am not sure if I would want to see her crazed eyes staring at me every day. I have to think about it.

Washday

Now for something completely different....

I am posting things all out of the order in which I took the classes but that's because it all depends on what I have photos of. Some things require me getting to a scanner and I just haven't managed to do that yet.

Compared to the piece I posted a few days ago this one is on the other end of the spectrum. This is from my class "Washday" with Pamela Huntington. First of all Pam is just wonderful as an instructor, she really wants everyone to enjoy themselves, learn something and most of all have fun. I have to say she was generous both of material things (an amazing amount of supplies) and of spirit. She was the perfect person to have my last class with.

The class was a bit more on the craftier rather than arty side so I was more at home. We painted the frames, cut out and put together paper dolls and then collaged the background, mine pretty simply but I really wanted three dresses on my clothesline. I wasn't sure about the baby but everyone in class loved him so he stayed. Thanks Dad for letting me raid your ephemera! The dresses are all hand sewn and embellished by me and then the ones on the clothesline we dipped in wax. It's hard to see in photos but they are all stiff and gives them a really neat look. And I got to use my Liquid Nails again! Woo-hoo! Michael de Meng would be so proud! Had to make sure that fence wasn't going anywhere. Oh, check out the little goose peeking out of the fence - I love him!

Again, I really like her but she's not so weird.

She's weird and I like her. That's it.

This is the way I described my finished piece at the group discussion and share at end of Michael de Meng's "Soda Pop Icon" workshop.


First off Michael de Meng is totally the rock star of the mixed media, found art world or it least that's how it seems to me. He has groupies, is totally captivating, looks good in a pair of jeans and is pretty easy on the eyes.

Thanks to some generous people from an earlier workshop I had soda cans for this class. Most folks know I never drink soda and I was ready to make Marsy chug a few cans but there were none to be found in the hotel vending machines, bottles only! This was the only large class I took and clearly some people were taking several classes with him so I walked in a bit intimidated by that alone.

He spoke for a few minutes during which time I realized that he was a total rock star and then it was like ready, set, create! I crushed my Diet Mountain Dew can (Ew!) and then sat and stared at it trying to figure out what the hell to do next. Clearly a lot of people had prepared for this far better than I had and had tons of doo-dads and such to work with. (These were also the people who pounced onto the stuff he brought as well, not making a lot of room for those of with less - bad sharers!)

Not until I found the doll head and arms amongst my stuff did I get a clue of what I was going to do. Clearly it is in my DNA. Quick tangent here, totally appropriate since I am speaking of my Mom, Queen o' Tangents. But I think this one makes sense. When I was younger it was not unusual for someone to come over to my house and find a bowls of fake fruit with a pair of doll's arms sticking out of it or legs or in one case a really large head. Mom got past her body part and faux food stage although they still have a mannequin in the living room and fake deli sausages hanging from the kitchen ceiling so maybe not.

Okay back to Virginia....so my bizarre, slightly obscene soda can icon was born. She's got a totally different vibe than his work (check it out, it is really great - even if some people think it's too "muddy") and everyone else's in class. But Michael was awesome and totally supportive and has introduced me to Liquid Nails (how did I live without this?). He taught an amazing amount on color theory that I will surely use. And at the end of class we put all the pieces on the table where he asked everyone to say a quick thing on their piece and then he told us what he liked and worked well on each one of them. Even mine! Apparently my painting technique was quite impressive. Must be because I had no clue what I was doing! But I now know how to make things look rusty and patina'ed (is that a word?) with paint.

So all I had to say was she's weird and I like her. Sounds a lot like me.

Funny post script: I'm holding her in the elevator back at the hotel and someone else from Art & Soul is there and looks at it and says "That's cool - it looks like you." (Huh?!?) My reply "My boobs aren't that big."

Art & Soul - Part I

I am back from Art & Soul and it was great! I am sure that this is the first of several posts about it since I still have to take photos and/or scans of my masterpieces.

Things were a little wonky in the beginning as our luggage enjoyed a longer stay at the Philadelphia airport than we did. We flew out of Logan down to Philly okay, a few minutes late but with enough time to catch our 1:20 connection to Newport News which was unfortunately in a terminal at the other end of the airport. We go and check the departure time as we get off our flight and it says "Delayed". We take a shuttle to the other terminal and we spy the Chick-fil-A in the food court area, we figure we can grab a bite for lunch no problem.

As we get to the other terminal, I check the departures again and this time it says that our flight that our 1:20 flight is now leaving at 1:05. Yes, early. Since when do flights leave early? I actually ask some strange man if I am reading things correctly and apparently I was. They start boarding just a few minutes after we get there and we can see them loading the luggage on the small prop plane. Marsy then says "I don't see my red suitcase". Which was true since both of our suitcases were most probably making their way from Terminal B to F but when they got to F, whoops!, out plane was gone. Early!!

Since we checked into the hotel in late afternoon there were little choices on where to eat and the stress of all of our missing supplies (and underwear). I will spare everyone the details of our descent into mopiness and the crankiness of some people when they don't get anything to eat for lunch. Our luggage was due to come in on the next flight, get to Virginia around 4:30 and make it to us in time for our evening class. Yeah, not so much. The next flight was delayed and we had to make head off to class sans supplies. Luckily I in my class the instructor had most of the supplies we needed and the people in my class were generous, very sympathetic to my situation and were good sharers. Marsy was not so lucky and really could have used her own tools and had bad sharers. People who say they are going to share but then don't.

Our luggage finally arrived about 15 minutes before the class ended. And I found myself finally exhaling the breath I had apparently been holding in all afternoon. Did I mention we hate US Airways? And Philadelphia?

Stay tuned for more arty goodness and culinary adventures....