UpsideDownSarah's Blog

Successful Experiment

2007-11-04T05:29:00.000-08:00

On the Acrylic Artists group, a recent exercise involved painting on a nonabsorbent surface. I wanted to do something different from the book exercise. An interesting possibility came to mind. A few weeks ago I was cruising the clearance aisle at Hobby Lobby, and I found synthetic paper (Big Art brand). Basically it's the same thing as Yupo--paper made of plastic. Well, a paperlike substance made of plastic. This seemed perfect for a nonabsorbant surface, and it is designed to paint on. I mixed a little water with some Goldens fluid acrylic paint (cobalt turquoise) and slathered it on. It made little bubbles, which I had only seen before on canvas paper. I liked the translucent quality of the coverage. To add variety to the surface, I scrunched up a cotton pad and made prints here and there all over it. I liked the look. Next, I dribbled drops of Iridescent Stainless Steel and Copper paint on the surface. Then I dipped my palette knife in Coarse Iridescent Gold and ran it over the surface (and through the drips of steel and copper) in different directions. Since the surface was nonabsorbant, it redistributed the paint. Finally I took the cotton pad, smooshed it into the one remaining untouched glob of copper paint, and printed it in various places on the painting. I'm a big fan of abstract, and I love the way this turned out!!!

My take on Zentangles

2007-10-23T18:51:00.000-07:00

When I first heard of Zentangles on the arttechniques email list, I wasn't very interested. After hearing about it for awhile, though, I decided to give it a try.....with a twist. Zentangles are normally done in black ink on white paper. So first I tried it in colored pencil on white paper. It turned out quite well. I liked the visual impact of the rich colors. Next, I decided to try colored pencil on black paper. I was very happy with how it turned out. One reason I like this (beyond the coolness factors of abstract design and fun creative process) is that it is a good way to hone my drawing skills. Since I just started a med that makes my hands stop shaking, I hope I will make major progress in this area over time (both with the Zentangles and with my fantasy drawings.) I also taught some of my sixth graders to make Zentangles, and they too are having fun coming up with their own patterns and variations.

Ugh

2007-10-23T18:46:00.000-07:00

I am slowly making my way through the Acrylic Revolution exercises with the Acrylic Artists class (see previous posts if interested). Today I decided to do the tube painting exercise....which is where you paint directly with the paint tubes. I discovered that I hate this particular method because it gives very little control of the paint. The results were patchy and irregular, which is not always a bad thing, but I found it very irritating. Needless to say I will not likely use this technique again.

Stained Glass Fairy

2007-10-16T19:47:00.000-07:00

I have not really put much of my colored pencil work on my blog, though I have done quite a bit of it lately, so I am going to start today with my newest piece. I had been doing Zentangles (having seen them on ArtTechniques), but had been doing them in colored pencil (they look very interesting on black paper, I'll have to post one of those too). Anyway, when my husband saw them, he suggested I do something that looked like stained glass. I sat down and started sketching, and this is what I came up with. I see that it has a number of design flaws, but I learned a lot from it, and I like it. I'd love to get some constructive feedback.

Having Fun

2007-10-10T18:24:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I went out with my family to Naperville. We went to Borders for awhile. Of course, being an inveterate bargain hunter, I had to check out their clearance. I scored two "carry boxes" (which look like lunch boxes). This was a good development; at a different Borders a few weeks ago, I had picked up one of these (also on clearance) to make into a shrine/box for our elderly dog, Emma. At the time, I only got one; later, I kicked myself because I realized how much fun they would be to alter. So of course I jumped at the chance to get a couple more. On the way out, I was scanning another rack and saw kraft paper (brown) journals also at 50% off. On a whim, I grabbed one to use as a purse journal. I liked the non-whiteness of the paper and the compact size. Then we drove North on 59 and I saw a scrapbook store I had never seen before. Of course I had to go in and look. They had all kinds of awesome stuff, and I raided the clearance section (since the budget, as usual, is not limitless). One thing I paid full price for, though, was a pair of glitter gel pens. I know, so twelve year old of me, but I am a sucker for glitter. Especially in my favorite blue and green. Then we went out to dinner (at Boston Blackie's). I started writing in my new journal and promptly got grease on the cover. This kinda bothered me, but I knew it was opportunity knocking. I figured I'd alter the journal (which I probably would eventually have done anyway), cover up the grease, and call it good. Things have been very busy lately (thus the long time between posts), but I've managed to put in a few minutes here and there on my new journal and had a great time doing it. I think I achieved the casual look I was going for.

What I've Been Up To

2007-09-16T18:26:00.000-07:00

Well, life's been interesting! School is very busy (new schedule, less plan time, extra class). Then early last week I got a new computer and have been very busy learning how to (try to) use Windows Vista. Interesting to say the least. Putting the old files I want onto the new computer is time-consuming, especially the music files. Educational, but a major time drain.

Today I finally got a chance to have a ketchup day....you know, ketchup with the laundry, ketchup with the emails, ketchup with various other tasks I've been ignoring, all the while loading up the computer and learning how to make the peripherals talk to it. Well, today's artistic objective was very simple--Do exercise 2 for the Acrylic Artists class.

I had two techniques to try. One was using cheesecloth with the acrylic paints, and the other was using string. Step one was to choose canvas boards and paint backgrounds. I decided on phthalo green/ultramarine for the cheesecloth background and micaceous iron oxide for the string background. I let them dry for awhile (while running up and down the stairs to do laundry, help with grilling, walk the dogs, rearrange CDs, change CDs on the computer, etc.). I then laid a double layer of cheesecloth diagonally across the green/blue canvas. I tried using a blunt-ended brush to pounce the copper paint onto the cheesecloth stencil-style. The brush bristles were too flexible to do a good job with that. I switched to a damp sponge and liked the results better. It was hard to get the paint even, so I didn't try to at all and went for a variegated look. Then I peeled the cheesecloth off and set it (the cheesecloth) to dry (to be cut up later and used for something else). I set the canvas aside to dry too. Time to switch to the micaceous iron oxide canvas. I had decided to use iridescent pearl and copper on that one (because I thought they would make a really nice contrast with the background). I dug out some cotton string I had saved. Well, actually it was cotton yarn, the kind that is thicker, then thinner, then thicker again. I poured a dollop of copper paint onto my impromptu palette and tried to decide how to get a nice thick coating on the string. I ended up using my fingers, which gave me the bonus of having nice coppery fingers. Then I draped the paint-y yarn on my canvas and pondered what to do next. I felt that I wanted a strong paint impression on the canvas to accentuate the contrast between the background color and the copper, so I took a piece of paper towel and patted the string down. This gave the bonus of printing little string echoes on either side of it because I did not change paper towels between pats. Cool! I did three applications with copper, then switched to new string and did three applications with the pearl. After that I set it to dry (and the strings too, to be used later for something else. I ended up looking at this canvas several times later and thinking I might add something to it, but as usual I didn't want to detract from the paint patterns. I am so happy with this one (even though it did not require any great technical skill); I just like the way it looks.

Then I went back to look at the cheesecloth canvas. After a lot of contemplation, I decided to take another two layers of cheesecloth and glue it onto the canvas on the opposite diagonal from the original one. I used gloss medium to glue it down by pouncing medium onto all the edges (I left the middle loose). The corners stuck off the canvas, which was a look I really liked. It took that a long time to dry because I used a lot of medium, probably too much really.

After some more CD/computer/laundry/dogs/daughter/grill/chocolate/Diet Dr. Pepper, I sat down to do something more. This time I sprayed the cheesecloth with a fairly heavy spritzing of water from a spray bottle (to make the paint run). Then I painted ultramarine blue and copper over it in abstract curves and dots. I let it set a bit, then sprayed it with water again to spread the paint out more. Now it is drying. I don't think I'm done with it really, but I am not sure yet what my next move is.

Battle of the Acrylic Mediums Part 1

2007-09-06T17:53:00.000-07:00

The next three posts are an assignment for the Acrylic Artists class. Sort of. It is my take on the palette knife part of the first assignment. I mixed ten different acrylic mediums with Hansa Yellow Medium paint. The ratio was one palette knife-ful of medium to two drops of Golden Hansa Yellow Medium paint. Each combination was mixed carefully with the palette knife and spread on canvas paper in two swatches: a small thick swatch (about 1/4" or so) and a larger thin swatch.

My first pair was a head-t0-head comparison of something called High Viscosity Acrylic Blended Fibers (by Liquitex, was in clearance at Hobby Lobby) vs. G0lden Fiber Paste. The Liquitex product has a semigloss finish and when dry did not peel cleanly off the canvas paper (although it did peel off the freezer paper). It is quite smooth. The Golden Fiber Paste has more of a handmade paper texture and did peel cleanly off the paper as well as the freezer paper. I have used the Golden Fiber Paste before to make different elements for collage. I much prefer the Golden product.

Another thing I tested in this round was the Golden Crackle Paste. I've used it before and like it. The thick application cracked more and had larger cracks than the thinner application. No surprise there. It makes awesome texture and takes paint very well. It has an absorbent matte surface with a texture kind of like plaster.

Finally, I tested the Gloss Gel Medium (Liquitex). I was surprised to find that I could glop it up pretty well--not as high as the Extra Heavy Gel, but not bad at all. It's very glossy and glassy-looking. Color intensity is greater than the Fiber Paste or crackle Paste and just a bit greater than the High Viscosity Acrylic Blended Fibers by Liquitex.

Battle of the Acrylic Mediums Part 2

2007-09-06T17:37:00.000-07:00

In this test, I compared four mediums prepared according to the formula in part 1: one palette knife full of medium to two drops of Hansa Yellow paint. The Golden Glass Gel Bead Medium (try saying that five times fast) holds a mark well. It is nice and sparkly. It warps the canvas paper a little bit, but not badly. In prior testing, I found that you can get different effects by painting over dried glass bead medium, mixing paint with medium (as in this test), or putting glass bead medium over dried paint. My favorite effect is the last one mentioned because it's so sparkly. =-)

The matte gel (Liquitex) worked well, too. It's obviously not as thick as the Extra Heavy Gels, but you can goop it on pretty good. Color quality is a bit dull as you would expect with a matte surface.

On this same pageI also tested Extra Heavy Gels (Golden) in both Matte and Gel. Matte can be used to make encaustic-type effects (I learned this in a class I took back in June--see blog from then). The gloss version is very shiny/glossy, as its name suggests. Both Extra Heavies spread on nice and thick; they hold a mark well. I must admit I like the matte better because the gloss is too glassy for my taste. I understand you can mix them for a nice satin look.

Battle of the Acrylic Mediums Part 3

2007-09-06T17:33:00.000-07:00

Finally we come to the modeling pastes. I had played with these before so wasn't surprised by the results, but wanted to include them in my test for completeness' sake. I used the same procedure as before--one palette knife of medium to two drops of Hansa Yellow paint. This time the modeling paste did not crack when it dried, which I thought was interesting. The modeling paste is grainier than the light modeling paste and somehow has more of a "stone" look where the light modeling paste has more of a "plastic" look. Both were stiff enough to hold a good line. The light modeling paste was spread-able in a thinner layer. The light modeling paste was a brighter color with the paint added, but not by much--both were quite true to color. I can foresee using both of them to create texture in my work.

Acrylic Experiments

2007-09-03T14:58:00.000-07:00

Here is the first of three acrylic experiments I did today for the AcrylicArtists class. I tried four different brushes: 12 round, 14 filbert (my fave), 1" wash, and wisp (size 3/4). I used them with light, medium, and heavy pressure, dots, a wavy line, (all with a normal grip) and a straight line painted while holding the end of the brush. I had not used the wisp or the 1" wash before and found them interesting to work with. As I suspected, more pressure does not equal better coverage. These were done on canvas paper with Golden Fluid Acrylics Pyrrole Red.

Acrylic Experiments

2007-09-03T14:54:00.000-07:00

Another acrylic experiment. This was an experiment in painting over two different surfaces. It was from the AcrylicArtists homework. It is straight Ultramarine Blue and two different dilutions with water over two kinds of surfaces: dried Pyrrole Red fluid acrylic, and collaged papers adhered with gloss gel medium. I wasn't particularly surprised by the effects, but it was interesting enough.

Acrylic Experiments

2007-09-03T14:51:00.000-07:00

Here is another acrylic experiment, my last one for the day. The directions called for us to compare fluid acrylics to tube to heavy body. I don't have heavy body, so I compared Golden Fluid to Liquitex Basics Tube. I found them surprisingly similar to use even though the tube kept its form when I squeezed it out. It spread just as easily.

Updates

2007-08-16T12:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been getting a lot of stuff done.....just not much in the way of good photos to prove it. I finished "Day By Day" (my collaboration with my husband) but I am having trouble getting a decent photo because of its large size and the reflectiveness of it (I went perhaps a little heavy on the Stainless Steel paint....looks marvy in person, IMHO, but the camera objects). It is hanging proudly over our stairs. Perhaps I will try some different settings on the camera and see if I can get a decent shot to post.

I have also been doing a lot of testing with the acrylic paints and mediums. None of it is earth-shattering, especially if you are familiar with these products already, but here are some of the things I have learned:

1. Acrylic paint dries REALLY FAST, especially in thin layers, even if you water it down.
2. Adding Acrylic Glazing Liquid (Gloss) gives it a texture roughly like runny snot, but does extend drying time. It also makes brush marks far more evident. However, the results of adding it to fluid acrylics 1:1 vs. doing the same with water are almost indistinguishable except for the brushstrokes. It's just in higher dilutions that the difference becomes really obvious.
3. Playing with Glass Bead Medium is fun. GBM from different manufacturers can be quite different. Putting the GBM over dried paint, vs. mixing it in with wet paint and painting with it, vs. painting over dried GBM, all give different results. Really, I like the Glass Bead Medium over dried paint best because it is the most sparkly (yes, of course I have magpie tendencies, I collected beads for six years).
4. Liquitex Modeling Paste has a matte finish and is opaque. It is easier to paint over with fluid acrylics if you add a little glazing liquid (because it makes the paint more fluid-y). However, glazing liquid painted over modeling paste mixed with paint does nothing--no big surprise there as the glazing liquid is not meant as a top coat or finish. Not even sure why I tried that.
5. Liquitex Modeling Paste, because it is opaque and white, tints your paints. It made my Pyrrole Red into a kind of semi-Pepto-Bismol pink. However, if you paint over it instead of mixing paint with it, of course that defeats the problem.
6. Golden Fluid Acrylics are very, very concentrated.
7. Liquitex Modeling Paste and Liquitex Light Modeling Paste are somewhat different. The light is much less dense, but holds a pattern carved into it as well--however, its lesser density causes the marks to look different. It's hard to describe, but the regular modeling paste looks more like white clay when dry both in color and in the way it holds a mark, while the light modeling paste looks more like white styrofoam. According to the container, you should use the light modeling paste when you are making something for which weight is a consideration.
8. Liquitex Modeling Paste will crack a little while drying if applied to a flexible support (no surprise, it says that right on the label). The light modeling paste did not in my little test. Both are recommended for rigid supports.
9. GAC200 promotes adhesion of acrylic paint on glass and metal. It makes the paint adhere more uniformly. It also makes the paint more resistant to being scratched off. In my experiment, it did not create a situation where you could not scratch the paint off, but it was considerably harder to do with the GAC than without it. In my experiment, the glass was not etched, and the metal was not sanded.
10. Painting with watered-down fluid acrylics is tricky because the drying time is so short. It makes for poor blending under the conditions I used in my experimental painting. I painted the same painting again using Acrylic Glazing Liquid to dilute the paint, and this improved working time (open time) of the paint as well as blendability. I have not tried it with retarder, but I think I will try that soon.
11. Painting with fluid acrylics diluted with water on a surface with a canvas texture (such as acrylic paper) makes bubbles in the paint.
So, sorry for the looooooooooong post with no photos, but I hope this info might be of use to some people. If people are interested, I will continue posting results from my experiments.

Blue Moth Abstract

2007-08-11T12:37:00.000-07:00

This is one of three experiments I did based on a technique from the book Acrylic Revoluation. I am waiting for Belinda's class to start, but I have my materials and I have been reading the book to get familiar with the techniques. Since rice paper/rag paper were not mentioned on our materials list, I think it is safe to assume that we were not going to use this particular technique in the class; but I thought it looked cool, so I decided to try it. I went to Paper Resource in Chicago and got some sheets of white artist paper (not sure if it is rice paper or not) that I thought would work. During my next work session, I made up three canvases--one with the artist paepr, one with aqua tissue paper (very hard to handle when wet) and one with white mulberry paper. The technique calls for one to cut the paper a little larger than the canvas or other substrate, spray the paper with a bit of water, crumple it up tightly into a ball, put a layer of matte medium onto the substrate (I found it needed a pretty substatial layer to stick well), spread out the wet paper and attach evenly to the canvas WITHOUT smoothing out the wrinkles. Then take a piece of dry paper towel and pat the damp paper down onto the substrate to it will adhere well. Let dry for several hours, then paint as desired, with best results from diluted fluid acrylics.

For this particular canvas, I used diluted fluid Golden acrylics (ultramarine blue and phthalo green) to create the background. It made a beautiful feathery texture, and the patterns on the paper show slightly because the pigment accumulated there. I let it dry. Then I decorated it with glass bead medium. I almost left it at that because I loved the background so much (which happens to me a lot). But then I decided to do some decorating. I used blue interference paint to highlight the dried bead medium and the ultramarine paint I put over it in spots. Next, I used Golden Iridescent Pearl paint to highlight parts of the paiting, adding fingerprints in two places. After I let this dry, I looked at it carefully. It needed a focal point. It needed something dimensional. I looked at some hand fused glass pieces I made a few years ago, and one of them jumped up and yelled, "Me! Me! Me!" So I glued it on with E6000.

Considering what a raw beginner I am, I am happy with it. It makes me feel good when I look at it, and I had fun making it. So I guess that makes it a successful piece of art.

Floral Fingerprint

2007-08-11T12:35:00.000-07:00

This was a tiny experiment (4" X 6") in using white mulberry paper with the above mentioned acrylic technique. It was actually the first of the three that I finished. If you could see it in person you would see the way the stainless steel paint and the copper paint pick up all the wrinkles. Fun technique!

Marion's Song

2007-08-11T12:33:00.000-07:00

This painting reminded me of my grandmother with its texture and delicate, fragile shades of color and shimmer. It is made with tissue paper on canvas board (8" X 10"). I kind of felt I should have decorated it more, but it got to a certain point and I just wanted to preserve its gentle beauty.

Blue Love

2007-08-01T14:46:00.000-07:00

This is basically the other half of the mat board from How Can I Reach (below). I had these chunks of mat board left over from Tiger Tiger, and I wanted to play around with creating backgrounds with acrylic paint. At the Dick Blick Art Expo, I bought two large solid color containers of Golden Fluid Acrylic--I'm too comfortable in front of the fan to look up the names right now but it was something like Primary Cyan (a nice royal blue) and Cyan Turquoise (which is just what it sounds like). I painted one matt board in each color. Then I sponged on Intereference Blue over Primary Cyan and Interference Green over Cyan Turquoise. These made nice backgrounds. On the blue one I decided to use red as a contrast. If you've read my whole blog, you know I used to make a lot of jewelry. I have a lot of stuff left over from that which makes fun accents and focals for collage. The love pendant was from my experiments in writing with wire, and it seemed to fit well with the overall look. The red glass trianglular piece was one of my experiments in glass fusing. I think the composition for this is a little weird, with the love pendant being a floater, but to me it is expressive of the isolation I sometimes feel in the midst of the busy-ness of my daily routine. I'd be happy to have some feedback on this piece, understanding that I am still a relative beginner with mixed media.

Round Dragon

2007-08-01T14:42:00.000-07:00

What an uncreative name, I know. But that is what I went with in the press of time when I was saving it on my hard drive. Tami on MMAN threw out a challenge--make something round incorporating scrap paper. Hm. Well, it didn't end up being exactly round, but I had fun incorporating the charm, fibers, and a bead ring with a sterling silver flower bead on it. As usual, it features my favorite blues and greens. I'm going to have to break out of that mold pretty soon (like I did for Tiger Tiger), but for now I'm happily swimming in a sea of aqua.

Wow!!!

2007-07-31T20:05:00.000-07:00

I had one of the most exciting experiences of my entire life the other day! I was working on setting up a collage. I had painted the background over the last couple days and was digging in my Random Box for things to put on it. My husband came to talk to me about our daughter. He was watching what I was doing. Then he started asking me about the piece. Next thing I knew he was digging through the Random Box with me, suggesting items to add, placing things on the background and designing it right along with me! And his ideas were really exciting. He even suggested a decorative way to hang it and a neat way to add fringes to the bottom! He picked out a bead to go in the center (a paper bead with the words Day By Day on it, so that will be the title). The creative energy we had going was phenomenal!

I feel very blessed to have such a creative and caring man as my husband.

When the collage is finished, I will post it here.

Things I've Learned Today

2007-07-24T18:10:00.001-07:00

1. Grapevine beetles are easy to take care of.
2. A razor will cut fabric very neatly if you are cutting around an object.
3. It is a pain in the butt to glue velvet to the inside of a box, especially if you are trying to fold the edges under at the same time.
4. It is fun to paint with your fingers.
5. Glass bead medium over iridescent medium over fluid acrylics looks cool.
6. Sometimes if you leave the parts of your collage out overnight and then look at them again in the morning, you will be able to figure out how to arrange them properly.
7. The right music sometimes makes a difference in how the art goes.
8. An occasional day by oneself is good for one's mental health.

New Collage--How Can I Reach

2007-07-22T15:31:00.000-07:00

I think things must be improving, because now I am going into my studio, sitting down, and simply making things rather than waiting for a challenge or an assignment. Part of the inspiration for this change in behavior is having new things to play with. I got some Golden fluid acrylics at the Art Expo and want to really test them out and compare them to the other acrylics I have used in the past (FolkArt craft acrylics and Jo Sonja's artist gouache). I am also trying to absorb and interpret what I have been learning from Belinda's Collage Composition course which I am taking. So, on this project I started with an acrylic background and collaged other items onto it. The reason for the unique shape of the support (which is matboard) is that is is a chunk of the board I painted Tiger Tiger on awhile back and ripped off. I do have other matboard, but I wanted to use this up "for practice". I ended up really liking the way it turned out, even though partway through I wasn't very happy with it. The only thing I wish is that there was more contrast between the flower beads and the background. I'm considering going back and painting them to make them pop more. What do you think?

BTW, the title comes from the lyric snippet in the sheet music fragment in the lower center.

Weekly Uniquely

2007-07-22T15:28:00.001-07:00

I did the Mixed Media Art Newbies Weekly Uniquely. This week we were supposed to do a piece of artwork that was small, but not an ATC. It also had to include a word and its definition. I hadn't originally planned on participating, but then I sat down and painted some random backgrounds on cardboard for practice, and one of them begged to be turned into the Weekly Uniquely. The problem is, once I finished this same item asked to be given to my son, who lives away from home and misses the dog in the picture. So I can't post it to the group as a Weekly Uniquely because I don't have it to trade. But I am happy that I did it and that I successfully used the Golden Fiber Medium that I got at the Art Expo. I'd be happy to have your comments on this simple composition.

Here She Is

2007-07-20T07:21:00.000-07:00

I know she's kinda strange-lookin', but here is one of my very favorite drawings done as a laser gel transfer. The edges are kinda abraded because I did this on a cheap piece of cardboard that came with some watercolor postcards instead of doing it on something sturdy. Next time I will do it better. But I am so happy that the image came out nice and clear!

Success!

2007-07-18T16:07:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to figure out gel transfers for the longest time. In retrospect, it wasn't that hard to do....but it was just real complicated to read about: inkjet vs. laser, different mediums to use, different papers to use, how long to let it dry, etc. etc. I felt overwhelmed by all the information, much of it conflicting. But I asked on my email group, NewLifeThruArt@yahoogroups.com, for someone to clarify how to do a transfer with a black and white printout from a laser printer, and Angela kindly explained it. Now I am not one who likes to try new things unless I feel I know what I am doing, but armed with her explanation printed out, I decided to give it a try using a black and white version of an ink and colored pencil drawing of a woman I did years ago. I applied the gel medium, put the printout on the substrate, burnished it, and let it dry for several hours (the hardest part). When I removed the paper afterwards, I felt like cheering as the image was revealed. It came out beautifully! It's drying now, and tomorrow I will take a photo and post it here (although it will have to be in the evening because I'm volunteering for Quest Adventures tomorrow during the day).

I'm sure almost everyone knows how to do this technique, but if someone stumbles upon this entry who needs the details to try it for themselves, all they have to do is drop me an email and I will pass the info on.

Photos of Samples from Acrylic Encaustics Class

2007-07-16T09:20:00.000-07:00

Reflections on Making Paper Beads

2007-07-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

I had read about making paper beads somewhere about 18 months ago and thought it sounded like a cool idea. I used to do lampwork (glass bead making) and gave it up because my hands shake and I got stressed out by working with the torch. I had done lampwork for three years and hoped I would lose my fear of the torch, but I never did--I always felt way too much adrenaline going on while I was working, so it didn't work as a stress-buster, which is what I needed. I thought that making paper beads would be an interesting similar activity and less stressful. I thought it would be fun to be able to pre-pattern the beads with different papers and choose embellishments such as gold or silver thread for them. Then, to be able to use Pearl-Ex or other types of powders for decoration seemed like a fun idea as well.

I bought most of the supplies and set them aside, waiting for inspiration to strike. Well, life got in the way, and I think in the back of my head I was still a little intimidated about working with heat, although let me tell you an embossing tool compared to a torch is like a kitten compared to a tiger! But then I got the new issue of Cloth Paper Scissors and read the paper bead article, and I once again had a desire to give it a try. The completeness of the directions gave me more confidence, too, as I had not been able to find comprehensive directions before. I had never used the heat tool for embossing, you see, so it was a bit of a dilemma.

On Thursday, I sat down with my paper cutter and cut a lot of strips of paper, many different kinds (including watercolor). Most of my strips were one to one and a half inches wide, and about six inches long. Then I sat down in my studio to roll and glue them. That was a challenge because the gel medium I was using kept drying too fast so it was hard to make the end stick. I solved that by adding a little more gel at the end to stick it on. After rolling the base bead, I ripped or cut a shorter, narrower piece of a contrasting paper (or sheet music) to make a center strip. That was easier to do. Finally, after taking a break, I wound silver or gold thread around the center of most of the beads (gluing it down with glue stick).

Then I cleaned off my studio table and set things up for heating and dipping. I took a big roasting pan and lined it with aluminum foil. I dumped a big pile of UTEE in one corner for rolling beads in. I put uncapped containers of different embossing powders in the pan, and dumped a small amount of Pearl-Ex in two different colors in another corner. I got out the embossing pad (which unfortunately was not sticky enough--I ended up returning it to Hobby Lobby later for stickier stuff). Then my daughter and I put masking tape on the ends of the skewers and put some of the beads on them (making sure no wood or tape protruded from the open end). We were ready to begin.

I fired up the heat tool (after attaching the stand so I could put it down if needed), rolled the first bead on the embossing pad, rolled it in the UTEE, and started heating. I was heating just from the center to the outer end, not the whole bead (you do one end at a time). I heated, rolled in UTEE, heated, etc. until the end was well-coated. Then I started rolling or dipping the bead into the powders, heating gently after each time. My daughter helped me by sprinkling stuff on it when I asked her to (because that gives an interesting speckled effect). Each half of a bead took about three to five minutes to do. After doing one end, we kept turning the bead to keep it from dripping; as it cooled, we placed it, skewer still inserted, to rest on the edge of the pan to cool thoroughly. They seemed to need about five minutes to cool. Then we could take them off the skewer, reverse them, and do the other half. In all I think we did twelve beads, though there were more rolled and ready--we got tired after awhile and decided to leave the others for another day.

We did have a few mishaps. The heating element was not well centered in the heating tool and that resulted in some difficulties. I went overboard with the UTEE and got some drips (thus working over the pan was helpful). I touched the hot bead to the edge of a container a couple of times and had to re-melt it and add more UTEE or powder to cover the divot it made. And it was a big mess (which I expected). But overall it was great fun. I will do it again soon. And this time I will make some beads out of BLACK paper! Yeah! That will be gorgeous with gold and silver and sparklies......

Art Expo

2007-07-14T12:56:00.000-07:00

I went to the Dick Blick Art Expo yesterday. It was pretty neat. I took the Acrylic Encaustics class at Belinda's suggestion (thanks!). I am a newbie when it comes to acrylics, so to me the info was mostly new. I got to see and work with a bunch of different mediums.....fiber medium, crackle medium, glass bead medium, extra heavy matte gel (which looks kind of like wax/encaustics when dry and can be scraped into before it sets up for similar types of markings). We did a lot of samples in class. It was a little hectic and disorganized, but basically worth what it cost (especially since they sent us home with sample jars of three mediums and small bottles of four paint colors). I plan to photograph my class samples for those who are curious, so let me know if you are interested in any of those.

After the class, I went to the Golden booth in one of the two exhibit halls. Everything was 40% off, which was very nice. I bought larger jars of four of the mediums, a set of ten colors of liquid acrylics, and larger bottles of my four favorite colors (two of which are interference....sort of like dichroic glass, with which I am and always will be in love).

Overall, despite my unhappy stomach (allergy problems, ugh) it was a very nice day and a good learning experience.

Paper Beads

2007-07-12T20:50:00.001-07:00

Not much time to write tonight--taking a class at the Art Expo tomorrow--but I wanted to quick post the pics I took of the paper beads my daughter and I made tonight. I'll write more about them soon. What fun!

Stop This Crazy Thing!

2007-07-11T06:36:00.000-07:00

No, not really....I'm having a great time. Summer break is really agreeing with me, I am over the worst of my perfectionism (I hope), and I'm creating up a storm. I am on my third series of ATC's (the new ones are on black paper). I am caught up on my Collage Composition homework (whew, that gave me fits, especially the photography......I wanted to throw hubby's camera and my computer out the window!!!) and I have actually finished my Wemic (an imaginary creature I drew for the Fantasy/Sci-fi forum on WetCanvas, where I am a guide). She didn't turn out half-bad, though she has a vacant expression due to her eyes being too big. My daughter has ATC fever too, so we are always running in and out of each other's rooms showing each other stuff. And my Random Box is almost full. What is a Random Box, you ask? Well, to answer that I have to tell you a little story. In a past life, I was a beader/jeweler and made tons of jewelry, much of it with beads. I was forever having leftover beads from projects. What to do with them? Well, I read in a magazine that you should stick them all in a box and call them Bead Soup and use them when you wanted to do a project with random beads. Well, that was just fine by me and I had lots of bead soup. Still do. It's wonderful stuff, very inspiring when you're not exactly sure what to add. Well, when I got into altered art about six or so weeks ago, I instantly began collecting stuff (well, I had already collected a lot of stuff as I am a bit of a pack rat and a magpie and love shiny things). I started sorting it and putting it boxes and drawers. However, as I began doing collages and ATC's, I found that a lot of times I couldn't remember what all I had and would finish something and reaize I had not embellished it as thoroughly as I would have liked because I wasn't inclined to dig through all those boxes and drawers. The solution? The Random Box. I have spent the past week throwing lots of bits and bobs in an old jewelry tray container I have (which is about 18" high by 8" wide by 18" long). Now when I am making something and need to decorate, I just reach in there and grab something randomly. If it doesn't work with what I am making, i put it back and grab something else (usually without looking). Usually by the time I have grabbed 3 or 4 things I have some good stuff to incorporate. You might wonder what all I have put in my Random Box. I have put in: beads, wire, old wire rings (can be smushed or trimmed to make a nifty decoration) ribbon bits, all kinds of paper bits, cut out images, fabric snippets, bottle caps, tags, rosettes, pendants, chain, old single earrings, ticket stubs and other random paper stuff, texture materials such as rug hooking canvas, plastic canvas, old parts from various machines, bits of old craft projects, glass squiggles, marbles, torn-up abstract watercolor paintings (painted to be incorporated into other projects), charms, jump rings, and on and on and on. This really sparks my creativity, but I'm sure it would be a neat freak's worst nightmare. It's funny because the rest of my studio is really quite organized....but this little bit of chaos really makes me happy because you never know what you're gonna get when you reach inside......

2007-07-10T08:22:00.000-07:00

Sigh....Blogger doesn't want to let me put a title on this, but the title would have been "Micro Twickie". I know that's a weird title. A little background: I am working on my first altered book, and I wanted it to be fun and full of good memories. We have a dog whose name is Daphne, but who usually gets called Twickie (don't ask). She is a wonderful dog, sweet and very therapeutic to have around because she is a good listener. Any of you who have had a really good dog know what I am talking about. Anyway, before we brought her home we went to visit her at the home of the people who owned her parents. Side note: she is not a dog from a "real" breeder; her parents were never supposed to breed. So I consider her a rescue, although that is stretching the label a little bit I guess. Anyway, we have pictures of her from when she was very small, so I decided to make a book about when she was really little, hence the title "Micro Twickie". The above pictures are of the cover and the first spread. I know they look a little scrapbooky, but I'm trying to work on that. I would be very interested in other people's observations and suggestions. BTW, the drawings were done by my teenage daughter, Tasja.

New ATC's

2007-07-08T16:24:00.000-07:00

I have had a bit of a revelation. ATC's are fun! I know YOU knew that, but after creating a "monster" with my second one, I wasn't so sure. For me there's nothing like plunging ahead to get over that creative block, so I sat down Friday night with a bunch of blank cardstock ATC's and just started working. I picked two colors of acrylic paint almost at random (some kind of chocolate brown that the label had worn off of and a bright raspberry color) and started slinging paint. Then I started doing different things to different cards--a sticker here, some glass paint (sort of a butterscotch color) there, some gold leaf, and so on. Of course there was some drying time in there too. And I had to go back and glue a second ATC to the back because the cardstock should have been thicker. But still, I got over my fears and had a really good time. My daughter even wanted one of them, and she is notoriously picky about art! (And I think she picked the best of the lot....that's my girl).

Late on the 4th

2007-07-04T20:25:00.000-07:00

I should be in bed, given that I'm not feeling well, but I'm sitting up waiting for my teenage daughter to come back from our local fireworks display. So I thought I would give an update.

The last thing I finished was a fugly (daughter's term) ATC--my second--which I made for the arttechniquesatc list's moon challenge. The theory of how I did it was okay, I think--started with paint swatches on cardboard, ripped the green one into a foliage border shape and cut that and the blue one to ATC size, then applied a "full moon" (my thumbprint in white stamping ink), and added stars and moon edging with iridescent glass paint. But then I decided to use the green stamp pad and my thumb to add visual texture to the foliage with prints. Bad idea. Then things got worse as I decided the scene needed a bird. Well, it was a night scene, and the bird I added (leather cord tied in a knot) looked totally out of context. Then there was this empty space in the middle, so I glued on a Zuni bear bead my daughter found in my bead soup.

Well, the whole thing was really ugly, but I went ahead and posted it anyway (but I'm not going to post it here--I'll spare you). At first I was really annoyed and embarrassed, but then I realized that I had learned some things from the experience--leather cord does not flatten when glued to an ATC if it is in a knot; fast and messy looks, well, fast and messy (usually); and there is an upper limit to the amount of E6000 you want to use with a bead even if you want it to hold good and tight. Plus you have to be very careful picking sky colors. So it wasn't a wasted experience by any means. I also thought about what I learned from Art and Fear--in any artist's work there will be great stuff, good stuff, average stuff, and stinkers (my term, not theirs). And if you do enough work, you will produce stinkers, especially when learning new techniques or flying by the seat of your pants.

So, it's chalk one up to experience and move on to bigger and better things! Like the Micro Twickie book I am working on (my first altered boook), which unlike the fugly card is coming along and looking decent enough considering it's my first (my struggle being to keep it from looking too scrapbooky, which it probably still does). Well, that's a topic for another day.

ATCs for 60 Tech Swap

2007-06-29T16:10:00.000-07:00

Here are the pics of the two versions of the ATCs I made for the 60 card technique swap on the arttechniques yahoogroup. They are made on watercolor paper with watercolor paints and iridescent medium--swap participants will get the technique printed on the back of the card, but I am happy to explain it to anyone else who wants to know.

First ATC

2007-06-29T16:09:00.001-07:00

Here is my first ATC ever, made at Belinda's house with a technique Shari researched. You can read more about it below. I am so happy with how it turned out!

Improving

2007-06-29T16:05:00.000-07:00

After another frustrating round with the camera, I went back to ask Keith for more help, and he showed me another setting that helped a lot. Here is a closeup of my line collage (called Tiger Tiger). I think it looks better in this photo.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..................

2007-06-29T12:53:00.001-07:00

I am quickly learning to loathe hubby's camera. I spent about an hour yesterday trying to photograph my stuff that I mentioned in yesterday's blog. As you can see, I got one photo of my line collage that didn't totally suck, but every other photo I took did, though I varied the lighting, the flash, the distance, etc. Clearly photography is not one of my artistic strengths. I'm going to give it another try today, possibly with some different settings, and try to post some better photos.

Progress

2007-06-28T16:53:00.000-07:00

I'll have to take some photos and post them later, but I thought it would be good to post an update. I met with my art friends (thanks, Belinda, Harriet, Shari, and Sandy) Tuesday and learned a super-cool new technique involving tissue paper and glue over various collage elements. That was so much fun. I made my first ever ATC's. Belinda asked me to be a swap angel for the 60 ATC technique swap, so I came home and did up a bunch of my watercolor paper with the wet-in-wet/spatter technique I have been working on. Those came out great and now are ready to go out the door. Then of course I had to make up some of that technique in those colors for myself, since I didn't have any. For the swap I did pthalo blue/pthalo green (yum) and cerulean/veridian(double yum), both with iridescent medium. I'll post photos of those later. Not sure what I will use the painted papers for, but I just loved the color combos so much.....well, it's blue and green, what can I say?

The next thing I tackled was the line collage for the Collage Composition class. I knew I wanted to use a spiral line (because I love curved lines, and particularly spirals). So I got out some big matboard and painted a big green spiral. I had printed out some tiger pictures to collage (copyright free of course) and fiddled with the placement a bit, then reached for the Jo Sonja's True Copper paint and the glass bead medium. Let that dry. Didn't like the shape of the matboard, so I tore some pieces off (in true tiger style). Much better. Then I adhered a picture of a tiger's head. I looked at it for a long time, consulted Tasja (my teenage daughter, also an artist), and pondered the placement of some dimensional objects on the board. Finally, I chose three and glued them on. Now it's drying again. Somehow I think it needs something more to unify it, because I have all these strongly colored elements and a lot of fairly defined borders. I need something to cross the borders and unify it. I am thinking about mixing iridescent medium with the copper paint (to tone it down a little) and sponging some on. Not sure. I'm at the stage where I'm afraid to touch it because I think I might wreck it (which is what happens when I really like something). You know, I didn't like it very much until I ripped pieces off the matboard. That helped it so much. Well, after I figure out what to do with it I will take a photo and post it.

Front Cover of Collage Composition Binder

2007-06-25T12:36:00.000-07:00

I decorated the front cover of my collage composition binder today. It turned out better than the back cover. I think the composition is somewhat more balanced. I think it is also less monochromatic than the back, and less chaotic. I would be interested in feedback about the composition because I still have a lot to learn. On another topic (I would start a new paragraph, but Blogger isn't letting me right now), I had the great good fortune to inherit a lot of family treasures, some of which I picked up this last weekend in Michigan. There were a ton of old letters, newspaper clippings, photos, and best of all, old books. The best of that bunch was a set of McGuffey's Readers from the early 1920's. They are in excellent condition. Next week I will pick up more family photos. I am very excited about all the potential these items hold for collage. Edited to add: I have finally figured out how to get rid of the dingy greyness in my photos!

Glass Painting

2007-06-25T12:33:00.000-07:00

I love the effects of light on glass, and I love to enhance those effects with glass paint. I have been working on a jar with glass paint and bead inclusions. It's a little chaotic because I decided to try out all the colors on one jar--not my usual modus operandi, but that's what I did. Here is one view. If anyone wants to see the other sides, I have those photos on my hard drive ready to send or post.

Weekend Trip

2007-06-22T06:58:00.000-07:00

Ah....lucky me, I get the best of both worlds. This weekend we are taking a trip to Michigan, but courtesy of my husband's laptop and the hotel's internet service, I will be able to check in online. However, I'll probably be pretty distracted with family stuff.

The good thing is, I will be doing some creative things other than collage for a couple of days, and therefore when I come back I will hopefully be able to approach my collage comp binder with new eyes and another perspective. Sometimes when a project is going wrong, that is the best thing for me. In the meantime, I am very interested in people's ideas and suggestions. I am seeing more than ever now that I sure do have a lot to learn about composition (and about collage)! I'm glad the learning process is so interesting and so much fun. And it's so nice to have the amazing help and fellowship I have found on the arttechniques and collage composition email lists. The internet sure is a big help.

VBS (Very Big Sigh)

2007-06-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

There is a very fine line (for me anyway) between winging it and "haste makes waste". There is an optimal speed for creating art (for me)--fast enough not to second-guess myself (too much), but slow enough to think things through. Well, tonight I exceeded the speed limit. Hopefully I have not ruined the back of my Collage Compostion binder. Of course you can fix anything with enough gesso, right? ;-)

Everything was going fine until I added the fabric paint--a total impulse on my part that I acted on, and it went horribly wrong. Now it looks way too busy. It looks like it was designed by a ferret on crack cocaine who likes aqua. Well, I'll let it dry and then see what more I can do with it. Any suggestions?

Tag! I'm it....

2007-06-18T04:56:00.000-07:00

Belinda tagged me, so apparently now I have to tell seven facts about myself (having in turn tagged seven other innocent bystanders....

Well, let's see.

1. I love fantasy. Dragons, unicorns, winged lions, all that stuff. I think it's because I find reality too restrictive. I'd rather go where my imagination can take me.

2. My Christian faith is basic to my existance. I live to serve God, because without His loving care I know I would have given up on life long ago. My relationship with God is the best and most rewarding relationship in my life.

3. I have a seventeen-year-old son who has severe bipolar disorder. He is in a residential treatment program. I can't tell you the things I have been through, fighting for Nate's life and for the services he needs. It has very much changed the person I am to go through the hell we have been through together. And after all that, I have now had to learn how to let go of him and let him begin choosing for himself, even though I have strong feelings about what I think is best for him.

4. I have an incredibly wonderful husband. After an abusive and extremely painful first marriage, I met Keith when I was a single mother trying to make it on my own. After God, he is the single best thing that has ever happened to me. I can never find enough words to talk about how much I love this wonderful, deeeply caring, supportive, patient, and spiritually deep man.

5. I like to listen to a strange combination of obscure and not-so-obscure Christian musicians with--get this--Weird Al. Yup, I'm White and Nerdy!

6. I am the Queen of ADHD. I have spent most of my adult life trying to learn to cope with my highly visual-spatial learning style and ADHD. Organization? Huh? I am usually working on at least five art projects at any given time, and that's the way I like it. Multitasking, thy name is Sarah!

7. I LOOOOOOVE! having my own little studio! At the beginning of the year, my husband suggested we clear out our three-season upstairs porch and make it into a studio for me. At first I was a little doubtful, but once we got it organized, I was in heaven! Now my studio is my retreat. Just sitting there makes me feel so good. I wish I had done this years ago!

8. I have a wonderful fifteen-year-old daughter who, while different from me in personality, is similar in terms of artistic talent. We pursue different media and have different styles, but a lot of our preferences are surprisingly similar. She is a lovely young lady, and I am proud of her!

9. Our dogs are more than just pets, they are family members. My first altered book (which I am working on now) is full of puppy pictures of Daphne, our border collie/lab mix.

10. My career (sixth grade reading and science teacher), while stressful and demanding, is very important to me. I feel that it is not just a job, but a ministry, and I try to improve my teaching every year. Sixth graders are awesome people! I really enjoy my colleagues as well.

Well, that's it for me. Hope I struck the right balance between TMI and otherwise. Hopefully my tag-ee's will soon be posting things about themselves as well. D'Oh! I went over seven, didn't I?

Collage Composition Binder

2007-06-17T16:48:00.000-07:00

I recently joined Belinda's new Collage Composition Yahoogroup. I would like to learn more about the fine art of composition, especially since the last art instruction I had was back in middle school (and NO, I won't tell you how long ago that was!) She suggested we get a notebook to put our class printouts and projects in. I had a binder I had been planning on altering, but had gotten disgusted with (because the paint I was using to create a background kept sticking to things...ugh). Well, I probably should have used gesso, but didn't know any better at the time. So I went ahead and gessoed it, and decided to decorate it. I figure that this is like anything else.....the more practice I get, the faster I will learn, so why not practice on this? I decided to start on the back. This is what it looks like so far. Pretty empty still, but at least it's a start.

The Wedding Girls

2007-06-17T16:46:00.000-07:00

Here is the finished version of The Wedding Girls. I have to say, I'm not happy with it, but I'm not sure what else to do with it. The picture is also less than great. I do feel that (with a lot of help from Belinda, Shari and Harriet) I have improved it quite a bit--at least now the faces pop more than they did, and it is more unified--but the funky shape was not a good idea (Belinda, you were right, no surprise there). Well, I'll chalk it up as a good learning experience and move on to bigger and better thangs.

Photography Lesson

2007-06-17T16:42:00.000-07:00

My wonderful husband, Keith, spent some time with me today teaching me how to adjust the settings on the camera I'm using (his). It's quite different from my old Mavica. Today I learned that the way I have been taking my photos (with backlighting from the windows) is resulting in them looking greyed and washed-out. Well, I'm working on an alternative setup that will provide the light I need and still allow me to position the objects conveniently. This is a second photo of Zeal with new camera settings. It's not perfect, but I'm making some progress. As you can see, I have added a matboard backing and hanging loop.

Back of Journal

2007-06-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

This is the back of the journal mentioned in my last blog entry. The rose is made of 14K gold filled wire (I guess I'm glad now I spent all that time making jewelry!)

Altered Journal

2007-06-14T10:24:00.000-07:00

I actually finished this one a couple of days ago, but didn't get around to posting it until now. It's an altered journal (if there is such a thing)--blank inside, decorated outside. It was originally a journal from Borders that I clipped the elastic off of and so on. (Got it for 75% off--perfect for experimenting on). If anyone is interested, I will be happy to explain what I did to it (not that it was rocket science or anything).

Getting to Know You Collage

2007-06-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

Belinda gave us a challenge to create a collage with one word that summarized us best. It took me a while to figure out my word. After that I sat down and started slinging paint and picking stuff out to put on it. Unlike Wedding Girls, "Zeal" came together perfectly. I see one compositional error I made (or at least I think it is one), but I'm not sure how to correct it and not sure I want to. Overall, I'm happy with this and feel it represents me to a T.

The parts of the collage have a special story. The background colors are phthalo blue and phthalo green--my favorite watercolor colors. I also have included iridescent medium, which I am in love with. The randomness of the pattern is expressive of my visual-spatial learning style--creative and somewhat random by nature. The medallion was a gift from my son and is an Irish cross (I am more Irish than anything else) It represents both my family relationships and my relationship with God. The wire rose expresses another dichotomy of my nature--the feminine part vs. the tough, resilient part I have been forced to develop because of life circumstances. The mokume' gane circlet in the upper left represents the wholeness I have found in my life as well as the moon, with its cycles of change, representative of the changes that take place as I move from the "mom" stage outwards towards the post-parenting part of my life. The shampoo glass bead in the mid-upper right (which is the element I feel I didn't place so well) doesn't have a particular meaning except that it is something I made myself in the flame, and perhaps it represents the way we are refined through the fires of the trials in our lives to take a different shape, as the glass rod did in becoming this bead. Or what the heck, maybe it all just looks pretty together! =-)

Struggling

2007-06-13T08:55:00.000-07:00

I have come to realize that I am really struggling with this first collage (tentatively titled Wedding Girls). I realize now that the photo is too dark for the background, and the colors of the photo don't tie in well with the background. I mean, it doesn't look really bad, but the photo sort of looks vaguely like it's in a cave. I'm going to go ahead and finish it though for whatever I can learn from it. The picture above is the latest update.

Yeah, Another One

2007-06-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

In my last post I said "photo_s_", implying more than one, and indeed I do have another one. It is of my handpainted collage paper mentioned yesterday. I am disappointed that the photo doesn't really show the colors the way they are--they are brighter IRL, but here it is anyway.

Finally Got Photos

2007-06-12T08:42:00.000-07:00

Well, here's my work in progress photo for my first ever collage. It is based on a photo of my daughter, mother, and two grandmothers at my wedding. I have made some errors on it (such as putting matte medium on the surface of the photo), but this is all one big experiment anyway and I haven't screwed it up badly enough to quit. The heart is a handmade polymer clay mokume gane pendant I created years ago when I was doing polymer clay. I realize the photo is none to clear....and kinda dark, too. Must get technically inclined hubby to give me pointers on brightening/sharpening it up. But it gives you some idea of what I'm doing right now.

Excited by the Possibilities

2007-06-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

I found out today that I am going to be inheriting a lot of ooooold photos and family memoribilia from my mother's parents. What timing! I can't wait to see all that wonderful old stuff and start planning on how to incorporate color reproductions into my artwork. There is some colorful history in that part of the family--a well-known hatmaker and some other artistic types. Apparently my grandmother saved just about everything.

On another note, I had a great time hand-painting some paper for collage today. I have been doing a lot of that, but this was with the new Arches rough watercolor paper I got for a steal on clearance. My watercolor swatchbook pinpointed a mix of phthalo blue and quinadorcine rose as a great combo to make a vivid purple, so I did some wet-in-wet work, did some splattering, added iridescent medium, and some embossing powder. Yum! When it dried, I thought it looked too monochrome, so I sprayed it with water and splashed on various combos of the two base colors. Then I put on some more iridescent medium combined with the colors. Then I sprayed it some more. Success! I will take a photo and post it tomorrow.

Long Time No See

2007-06-11T10:20:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a year since I posted here, but now I'm back. In that time, my art has undergone a radical transformation. In the past, I made jewelry almost exclusively. Much of it was made with wire, as one can see from looking at my old posts. Shortly after my last post was made, I put my jewelry aside for the most part to work on my health. By that time I had been making jewelry for over six years in various ways. In the fall, I started picking up drawing again, mostly pen and ink. I found that unsatisfying because I wanted to be able to create subtle gradations between and among colors, which is very difficult to do with pen unless you use pointilism. As the Queen of ADHD, I wasn't about to spend weeks on a single piece! Then my daughter sat me down and made me try her watercolor paints, and it was instant love.

I had known about WetCanvas for some time, and had started hanging out there in the Pen and Ink forum, so I just trotted on over to Watercolors and began to research to know the materials I would need. I sold a lot of my precious metal wire back to a manufacturer to give me seed money to start out with the best of materials for my watercolors, which I did, choosing M. Graham paints and Arches paper, along with a variety of different brushes. I played mostly happily with watercolors for several months. The only problem was that I found the slow, deliberate approach that works best with representational watercolors (at least during the learning curve) was very frustrating for me. Since I was viewing my art largely as therapy/stress relief, that didn't work very well. Therefore, I started doing more abstract work. Somewhere in this process I got the idea that I wanted to do collage. I could picture combining watercolor stuff with some of the lovely beads and other materials I had hoarded duirng my jewelry-making days. Sparkle AND subtle gradations of color! Yeah!

So, after awhile, I decided I also wanted to take my watercolors and apply them to household objects. The world of decoupage beckoned, and I started working on that. I wanted my work to be much more dimensional than classic decoupage, which is generally very flat and looks "painted-on". My decoupage books made reference to altered art and collage, so it was only natural that I began to investigate those options as well.

So here I am. It's the beginning of summer break, prime art-making time. I just bought over a hundred dollars' worth of beautiful papers and other materials for collage. I have located all of my cabochons, which just beg to be included. I have been painting abstract watercolors expressly for use in collage. I have found some beautiful duplicate photos and have drawn some interesting things (and gotten my daughter to do the same). Now I am ready to begin. In fact, I have started.....I took a photo of my daughter, mother, and both grandmothers, taken at my wedding, and have started working with it. I will post a photo when it is done. And so I say to myself, Bon Voyage! May it be an artful, color-ful, texture-ful, joy-ful summer of fascinating exploration of the possibilities of mixed media.

Not My Day

2006-05-08T18:54:00.000-07:00

I'm having one of those days. It's as if my creative self is suffering from allergies just like my physical self. I don't know what I want to do, and when I try something, it doesn't look like I thought it would. And yet I don't feel like giving it up and doing something else. Stubbornly, I press on. For example, I went ahead and added two faceted amethyst beads to the big pear wrap (where the gap in the weaving was). I'm not totally happy with the way the beads are lying; the rondelle is lying at an awkward angle, and you can see the bare wire between the two amethyst beads. I tried adding a series of 3 mm amethyst beads at the bottom left part of the wrap, but they wouldn't lie the way I wanted them to, and the wire pulled too much on the wire that was holding the amethyst bead (I wrapped the 24 gauge wire around the wire below the amethyst bead). So I cut the turquoise beads off. I left the amethyst on for now. I'm beginning to think I'm nearly done with this, which is a surprise to me. I want to decorate it more, but there's something in my artistic self that doesn't want me to clutter up the lines of the 16 gauge wire. I'm really frustrated. Every time I get to a certain point with one of these wraps, I get afraid to take it too far because I don't want it to be too cluttered. I guess I'm afraid I won't be able to add things in a way that enhances the design; plus I think I have a preference for simple, clean lines over complex compositions. Trying to fight my muse is a pain in the butt! Any thoughts on how to proceed? I'd be interested to know what you think.

2006-05-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

Today I spent most of the day doing my first show of the year. It was a decent enough show; I made about triple my booth fee, not too bad at all, though at times rather slow. It did give me time to work on my wrap. I added a piece of 18 gauge wire winding from the bottom towards the top and intersecting the armature wires. I made it curved to reflect the shapes inside the piece. After attaching it at the top and bottom, I decided to use the newly created space for weaving. I started at the bottom and wove upwards to where the first crescent-shaped space ended; then I wove upwards into the second, larger crescent-shaped space until I ran out of wire. Attaching a new wire, I wove this time from the top of the space downwards. I chose to do this because I have found that it is very difficult to decrease neatly when weaving but very easy tin increase neatly, so I wanted to work from the narrow to the wide. You will notice there is a gap left over on the right. I had planned to add a new amethyst piece to the area where the weaving sections met, so I left a space there. This new amethyst will visually balance the two on the left side of the piece. I'm so happy with how this is shaping up!

Another Step

2006-05-05T17:13:00.000-07:00

Tonight I finished wiring the beads to the armature (in the midst of getting ready for the year's first show). I added another large turquoise chunk from my stash since it was just the right size and shape. I added some faceted amethyst in a couple other places. Additionally, I placed some smaller, intensely hued turquoise beads in the top part of the armature. I feel that I have achieved a nice balance of positive and negative space, for where I am at in the proceedings. This pendant does not have the obvious places for weaving that some of my other ones have had. I am going to have to proceed carefully to preserve and enhance the balance that I feel exists in the piece.

Next Step

2006-05-04T19:58:00.000-07:00

I don't know why, but the intermediate step I tried to publish last night doesn't seem to have "taken". So you will have to bear with me a bit. As you see, I have taken the armature and added a large turquoise nugget (from a long-ago purchase of one magnificent strand at Ayla's in Evanston, IL, of which I am hoarding the last few beads). I added that tonight. Last night I did the weaving you see on the "leaf" of the pendant, which is done in 26 gauge sterling I had socked away in my wire drawer. It is capped off by two 4 mm Erinite crystals (Swarovski). I'm feeling so good about how this is coming along. I'm working on it slowly and listening to the right side of my brain, which will speak if I listen long enough and tell me how to add the next part correctly. (I know that might sound crazy, but it's really working for me). I have pulled out some gorgeous deep purple faceted amethyst, which I am thinking would be an unusual combination with turquoise but would bring drama to the well known combination of turquoise and silver. Let me know what you think about that combination, would you? I console myself by saying, if I don't like it, I can always go snip! snip!

Big Silver....Pear?

2006-05-02T18:05:00.000-07:00

While I have been playing with prong setting faceted gems, I also have been contemplating my next rainbow wrap. In fact, I started one a few days ago (I believe it was Saturday). But my attention was not really on it, and I wasn't really focused on the weaving part the way I needed to be. I wasn't happy with the armature, and the bail didn't come out right. So I scrapped it. Easy enough to do with copper. I was going to take some time off of the rainbow wraps, but then yesterday I got a sudden impulse to do one in.....silver! Pretty counterintuitive, really--botch up one in copper, pull out the silver!? But I went with it, and after praying that I wouldn't mess up the beautiful sixteen gauge sterling wire, I made an armature. As usual, it had a new configuration. I didn't have enough wire for both sides of the bail, though. Since I had more of one end left than the other, and the bottom part looked somewhat like a pear, I went with the pear theme and made a leaf and a stem. There is a loop in the stem to run a chain through. No woven bail for me this time; and this time I am going to work with 26 gauge lashing wires rather than 24. Maybe the weaving will go more smoothly with a smaller gauge of wire. Stay tuned, and I'll update this blog regularly with progress photos.

More Playing A "Round"

2006-04-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

My goal for today was to learn how to wrap a 6 mm CZ neatly and quickly, and to find new ways to arrange the bail wires. Overall, I am pleased with my progress. As you can see, I wrapped 3 CZ's today, and this time the backs look as neat as the fronts. Each one has a different arrangement of bail wires (though the same arrangement of basket wires, because the gems are all the same size and shape). It only took me about 35 minutes to wrap the last one, and considering that I got interrupted several times, that wasn't too bad. I have my first show of the spring/summer season next weekend, and I would like to have a bunch of these ready to go (though I will not have chains for them, unfortunately). Tomorrow I think I would like to try wrapping a marquis or a trilion shape. I owe a trillion to the kind lady who gave me the gemstone collection. Fortunately Robbie's book covers both those shapes as well, which is important because the number of wraps between each set of prongs determines the possible shapes you can make with the wrap. I may have to do some guessing because many of these stones are odd sizes. It'll be a good challenge.

I Got A "Round" To It

2006-04-29T20:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I realized I had a large number of 6 mm CZ's and synthetic gemstones from when I was making things with snap sets. This was wonderful because I had been hesitant to practice too much with the real gemstones--those will be expensive to replace if gratifying to wrap. Today I wanted to teach myself how to wrap a round stone. I found a design for a 6 mm round in Robbie's book and photocopied it to stick in my jewelry bag. When I sat down to work with it, I was pleased at how simple the wrap was--two wraps, a prong on each side, two wraps on each side of that, two more prongs, and one wrap on each side of the final prongs. I was also happy with how easy it was to shape the basket--all I had to do was mold it around my round-nosed pliers, and wa-la! Perfect shape. Unfortunately, one of my final wraps didn't hold and the last prong deformed, so the whole thing ended up being out of whack (though you can't tell that from the front, only from the back). I'm still not sure what I should have done differently. I probably should have left the final wrap wire longer, though I'm not sure how to do that without making the neck side of the wrap too long. Sigh. And for once I didn't know what to do with the decorating wires that are left after making the bail, so I just twisted them, cut them short, and curled them up (that was Plan B). I'm quite dissatisfied with this one. I decided to give it to my daughter and let her wear-test it. She's hard on jewelry, and if it is tough enough to survive her rough treatment, it is tough enough, period. Since all the cosmetic errors are on the back, she is happy to wear it. I can see I will have to buy fine chains in bulk to keep my customers/gift recipients happy. Not a cheap endeavor even at wholesale prices, with silver at the price it is now. But this is the kind of thing that screams for a fine chain, not a ribbon or leather cord. Any favorite sources for 16" and 18" fine chains in sterling? Nothing at all bulky, of course, something delicate to complement the wrap and faceted stone. I am going to try this same wrap again tomorrow. I am going to make the prongs a little shorter and the wraps a little tighter, and I will leave the end wrap a bit longer so it will grip the wire bundle better (I hope). And I will find something less lame to do with the decorating wires. I still have three simulated sapphires left, plus about thirty or forty other "stones" in this size and shape! Viva la practice!

Try, Try Again.....

2006-04-28T18:12:00.000-07:00

I am not a patient person, as I may have mentioned. In fact, I am obsessed, and if something about my obsession requires me to wait, it is very trying for me (maybe it's the ADHD). So today, when I finally received a large shipment of wire, part of which was the new wire I needed to do faceted stone setting, I felt a great sense of relief. I got my wire in time to play with it much of the weekend. After doing the usual housekeeping tasks of making sure everything was correctly labeled and taking some wire off the spools to add to my jewelry work bag (I take my wire on the road a lot), I had to pick a stone to wrap. As I may have mentioned, I lucked into a nice collection of faceted stones that a friend of mine collected and decided she didn't need. I chose a dark blue spinel oval, about 8X9 mm or so (rather an odd shape, between round and oval). I should have started with something simpler, but I never do. When I first started with lampworking, sans lessons, but with a book, I decided to make my first bead with dichro and a fancy shape. Sigh. Trying to learn to run before you can walk is not wise, but for some reason I always do it. To make a looooooooooooong story short, I messed up the first wrap because I hurried it too much and didn't curve the shoulders (near the bail) right. The proportions of the wrap may also not have been right--I think Robbie told me that the basket is not supposed to show on the front of the stone, so the basket may still be too big (as it was on the big aquamarine I wrapped for my first faceted stone wrap). I hated to see it go in the scrap pile, but it's not entirely surprising given that it is probably the smallest thing I've ever wrapped. The second time, I took a deep breath and wrapped more slowly and more neatly. I was MUCH more careful to do the shoulders neatly, and I did the steps in a slightly different order that made more sense to me. The tail wires were a problem because I cut the first one too short, so I had to modify the design in the book. Therefore it doesn't hang perfectly straight. I now understand why that design is laid out like it is--to balance the weight of the wire--so although this was not a perfect wrap, it was a good learning experience. I feel that the wrap is quite wearable despite its imperfections. I was going to do another wrap tonight, too, but I have decided to 'let it sit' for now and reflect on the process and results to glean any other insights that might help me do better next time.

Imagine My Surprise

2006-04-23T19:04:00.000-07:00

I have been sitting here stewing, wanting to start playing with faceted stones and wire a la Obsessions in Wire, which I recently bought. Unfortunately, I don't have 21 ga half round wire, 22 ga square wire, or 24 ga square wire, and I'm waiting on payment from someone who is buying my torch and glass stuff in order to buy the wire I need to do these designs. Waiting sucks. But today I realized that one of the faceted stones I have is so big, I might be able to use 21 gauge square wire and 18 gauge half round on it. The left side of my brain said, 'No friggin' way!" but the right side said, "What have you got to lose?" Well, I tried it even though I didn't fully understand the directions. Imagine my surprise when I was able to complete the wrap! It's not the neatest or most elegant, but it does hold the stone securely, and I will be proud to wear it. The best part is, now I understand how this style of wrap goes together, and I'll be able to do a much neater job next time. I think I also understand it well enough now to adjust the wrap to different sizes and shapes of stones. Or at least I'm on the way to understanding it like that. It was quite scary to try this for the first time, especially since I didn't feel I understood the directions very well--but it worked. SO my word to you is, take on that project and let your muse try to keep up with you!

My Third Rainbow Wrap

2006-04-22T17:21:00.000-07:00

I've come to the conclusion that my version of the rainbow wrap will continue to be simpler than the original Natty style. In fact, they don't resemble each other all that much. That's fine by me though--the idea, of course, is to have one's own spin on any particular design. Frankly, I don't have the attention span for a Natty-style wrap, much less the technical skill to do it at this point. What I'm hoping is that as I continue to do these wraps, I will improve my skills and develop my own style to a greater degree. I'm finding I like to add curves and swirls to the wrap, many of them consisting of bare 16 gauge wire. That's the big improvement I see on this piece compared to my first. I also like the mixed gemstones (though in reality the red one is "cherry quartz" (aka fancy glass) and the brown one is "goldstone" (aka glass with copper crystal inclusions). The ocean jasper, though, is real. I would be very interested in people's perspectives on my progress in this style, so feel free to leave a comment if you will.

Crystal Crossing

2006-04-20T17:45:00.000-07:00

I enjoy Hill Tribe Silver, so I collect pieces as I am able. Recently I broke into my stash with the idea of designing something a little different. I had two stamped beads with crossed holes. A design leapt into my mind's eye based on, of all things, my watchband, which features Swarovski crystals worked on Softflex in a right angle weave technique. The crossed holes in the beads seemed like the perfect focal point for a pattern like that, and in my collection I found some sterling cornerless cubes that I felt went nicely with them. Here is the design I came up with, worked with peridot crystals and then with Montana blue. Guess which one I'm keeping?

Thanks for the help!

2006-04-17T16:48:00.000-07:00

Well, with the two responses I got here plus the ones on the WWJ list and on CWJ forum, I think I got some great comments. It helps so much to be part of a community where people help each other out. I think what I will do is keep the piece for awhile and look at it again after I have gained more skills as Remy suggested. That decision "feels right" to me. Some pointed out that it is a bit unbalanced and that the wire on the left looks bare. I agree. But I like designs that leave you feeling a little uneasy and that make you wonder. I like diagonal lines, which is what this piece makes when it hangs on a chain. Maybe I'll feel different about it later. This is one of many lovely things about wire, and jewelry making in general--there's no pressure to finish something NOW. One of my challenges as an artist who was always taught to think with the left side of her brain is to shut the left brain voice up and learn to receive what the creative right side is telling me. The right brain does not do things on a timetable. The right brain does not answer a question when it is asked, a lot of times. Instead, the answer comes in a dream or simply when I look at a piece and KNOW what needs to be done. I don't know yet what needs to be done with this piece, if anything--but there is nothing to be lost by setting it aside and looking at it again later. Although I'd be lying if I didn't admit that part of me wants to "finish the job" because that's what I've always been trained to do--"finish what you start", "don't take out stuff to start something new until you finish what you are working on", and all that. That's definitely a left-brained way of thinking. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's not the right mentality for me to use in my artistic pursuits. The left-brain thing works really well in my job and in a lot of other areas, but for this I need to listen to my artistic soul.

To Decorate? Or Not?

2006-04-16T19:37:00.000-07:00

I'd like some opinions here. I am working on my second rainbow wrap, or at least that is what it started out as. I liked the armature a lot, though, so I started doing some lashing on it among the ocean jasper beads I was adding. I am now at the point with it where I can either start adding heavy gauge wire and doing more lashing around the beads, or not. Part of me thinks I should go ahead and decorate it, but part of me likes this just as it is and wants to leave it. Does it look finished? Incomplete? Bare? Balanced? Or what? What do you think? To decorate, or not?

Too Pooped to Party

2006-04-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

Wow, I'm tired. Today was zooey at school (I'm a sixth grade teacher). The students have tomorrow off, and it was warm and sunny here today, one of the first days like that. I felt like rolling out the duct tape. My students are pretty well trained, but even the best-behaved are subject to spring fever. Then I went to help my husband who was coordinating the Seder meal at our church (the passover meal). That was quite an undertaking. To make a long story short, it's 9:38 my time and I haven't done more than string a few beads today. I'm trying to decide if I'm awake enough to start my third wire crochet necklace (which will be in shades of green glass on copper). I've already got about half the beads strung for that.

Success at Last!

2006-04-12T19:25:00.000-07:00

Tonight I finally finished my first Rainbow Wrap. I'm not totally satisfied, but I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Normally I don't name my pieces, but I have named this one Ocean's Heart because it has Ocean Jasper in it and because it is roughly heart shaped (like a human heart, not like a valentine). It is made on a 16 gauge copper armature and wrapped with 24 gauge wire. I finished it in Bible study and the people there really liked it. I feel like a kid who just got what they wanted for Christmas. Oh, I know the wrapping is sloppy and I've covered too much of the stones, but now I'm beginning to feel like I can really do this and maybe someday after practicing a lot get good at it.

2006-04-12T15:16:00.000-07:00

Here is the original pearl necklace I made with my wire crochet design. It's a bit primative in several respects. For one thing, there's a lot of it. I'm guessing that, uncoiled, it is 20 or 25 feet long. Not that that's a bad thing, of course. I also refined the design in the second iteration by folding the original strand in half, then in half again. In this first one, I simply made loops in various lengths, all big enough to go over my head, then tied together in the back (and at the ends) with a loop of copper wire. This is all right as long as you don't want to make a necklace that is smaller (not big enough to go over your head). This one also looks substantially sloppier because the strands are all different lengths. Since I'm a big fan of the organic look, that doesn't present a problem for me.

Tonight I think I'll work on my rainbow wrap. It's taking forever to get that beast done, mainly because I'm making it up as I go along. I love freeform work, but this is taxing because it's totally unfamiliar and I'm not really sure what I'm doing (although parts of it look quite nice). I'm pretty sure I'll cut it up for the beads in the end, but who knows, maybe it will end up being wearable. It's fairly large, too, which I'm beginning to think may have been a mistake. It's copper with ocean jasper beads, some of which are quite sizeable. When I take photos of that, I'll try to use better lighting.

More Converts!

2006-04-11T19:46:00.000-07:00

I have been attending the scrapbooking group at my church, which sounds like a perfectly normal thing to do, except that I'm not a scrapbooker. I just like to sit and talk while making jewelry, so I joined the group for good conversation more than anything. After a few months of this, a couple of the other women in the group got curious about my jewelry and asked me to bring some things for them to see. Each of them picked one bracelet to learn the technique. Lynn wanted to learn to make a memory wire bracelet/necklace set, and Emmy Lou wanted to learn how to make bead and wire dangles on a chain for a bracelet. I just got back from a very enjoyable two hours of teaching these two ladies. It was so fun to see their progress. Lynn finished her bracelet (complete with dangles on the end loops) and Emmy Lou got about five or six dangles on her bracelet (and bought wire to finish up with). This whole experience really reinforced my love of teaching jewelry making techniques. These ladies were much, much easier to work with than the sixth graders I often teach (I run my school's Jewelry Club). What fun!

Wishing I was a better photographer

2006-04-11T16:08:00.000-07:00

I sent photos of some original projects to Denise Peck at Step by Step Wire Jewelry. I borrowed my husband's new camera. Shoulda stuck with my old Mavica, I guess--she said they were too blurry and asked me to rephotograph and resubmit. Sigh. I guess I'll have to give it another shot, but it'll be Friday by the time I have the time to really do a proper job of it. When I do figure it out, I'll post some photos here. One project I want to post here is a very simple kind of multistrand necklace I designed on Sunday. I won't claim it's never been done before, but I've never seen one, so to me at least it is new. All you have to do is get a spool of 28 gauge copper wire, string about two to three feet's worth of beads on it, and chain stitch (crochet) the wire, adding a bead about every fourth or fifth stitch. The resulting chain will be perhaps fourteen to sixteen feet long, depending on how tight your stitches are and how big your beads are. Then take the finished chain and fold it in half, then in half again. This should be a wearable necklace length, hopefully at least. Now all you have to do is add a clasp to the loops on each end, and perhaps twist it a bit to get the strands to meld together somwhat. OF course you can leave it loose as well. This is a sloppy-looking, casual necklace, and I can tell you so far that it works very well with mixed pearls and with baroque small turquoise pieces (the only materials I have tried it with so far). It's not a design for the anal-retentive as the strands take on a mind of their own to some extent. I like freeform, organic-looking things, so this design makes me quite happy. It is also very cheap and fast to make. The wire set me back $1.87 at Hobby Lobby. I don't know how much the pearls were (they were in my random pearl bag and were leftovers from a bunch of projects). The turquoise was not marked (I don't keep careful track of what things cost, bad me) but I seem to remember getting them in a swap. Yeah, that's right, I got them in a swap, so I traded something for them, but I don't remember what. I guess I'm one of those creative disorganized people. Anyway, I'm going to try this in some other materials. I have some 28 gauge artistic wire in 'gold' and electric blue. I think they will look good with various glass beads I have. I have had fairly good luck with my Mavica this evening, so here is a photo of the design (I'll have to name it something, I can't just keep calling it 'the designs' as if it is the only one!) I have other photos, but this blog program doesn't want to load them right now. I'll add more later.

Welcome to my blog

2006-04-10T19:14:00.000-07:00

I'm just getting started with blogging, and I hope to share not only pictures and notes about my jewelry, but about the other things I enjoy, such as my family, my church, my job, and my pets. Right now I'm trying to get a feel for how this works, though, and to upload some pictures so that there's something for you to look at besides all this verbiage! For example, on the right you see a somewhat fuzzy photo of a recent project. The technique is a simple bead and wire link design with a clasp very similar to the Strongest Hook and Eye Clasp in the Universe from All Wired Up by Mark Lareau. The unique thing about this is that I made it with 20 gauge niobium wire (not craft wire!). It was harder to work, and I had to kinda manhandle the pliers a bit to get it to do what it was supposed to, but I like the final result.