Altered Postcards and other cards



cardstock
vintage images
on transparencies
or matte paper
scrap book papers especially K&Company and Tim Holz
printed tissue paper
stamps
StazOn
Jet Black ink
Distress Ink
Color Box pigment ink
Glue
Acrylic matte medium
eyelets
lace
buttons
ribbons
needle and thread

"She looks for wool and flax
And works with her hands in delight."
Proverbs 31:13

A dear friend just gave me this darling spinning wheel. It is 25 inches tall. I am guessing that it is maple. It looks almost operational. But I think it is too small for practical spinning. I have a very practical wheel, a Ashford that I have used for 30 years!

I hope to spin, knit, or weave at least a bit this weekend. It has been cold enough, for once, to wear my hand knitted socks. They are a comfort and help the whole body stay warmer!

So I opened some boxes to feast my eyes on my stash of handspun and commercial yarn and some beautiful hand-dyed wool that I would enjoy spinning on a winter's evening by a crackling fire. I know I don't have time for much of this kind of craft, no sock knitting marathons for me, but an occasional hour spent in something "impractical" can be very resting! I am going to start with a few rounds a day to finish one of these pairs of socks.

"Give ear to my prayer O God...
My heart is in anguish...
Cast your burden upon the LORD, and He will sustain You..." Psalm 55

I feel an over-riding sense of loneliness that I can't explain here, loss, pain, sadness. I find myself going back contenually/daily to The Psalms. When I feel whiny and sad there has usually been some unbalence in my life, sometimes unavoidable, sometimes a genuine reason for sadness. I need to pray and listen first to God. Then check my lists: spiritual, physical, additional.
Here they are again

Spiritual Realities:

Relationship with God based on grace through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross

Daily communion with God through prayer and meditation on Bible

Spiritual food- Bible study, slightly different from the above

Life in a community of other Christians

Physical Realities: (These have impact on mental and spiritual health but may be suspended in times of extreme need: crisis, persecution, war, famine. God’s grace, in these times is sufficient!)

Food (hopefully healthy)

Adequate sleep/rest

Meaningful work

Exercise

I want to add an Additional Reality for some people or maybe for all:

Creativity- I believe that the desire to create is God given and stems from being made in His image. Maybe this fits under the topic of Meaningful Work.

Disclaimer: I would be lying if I implied that I do all the above faithfully every day! But I notice the lack and it affects my attitude and can result in a downward spiral until I change some priorities!

I hate the thought of a whining blog. I do journal like that sometimes and then look back and say, "Oh, it wasn't that bad. See, I was upset over nothing!"

I wrote this several days ago. Is this whining? "In the struggle to make a living as a single mom, and make art on a daily to weekly basis sometimes the house and even the people of my family are slighted! I have been able to just barely justify the time spent on art because I am bringing in some money on ebay, teaching classes, and local sales. But honestly, at times I feel that this lonely existence is easier because of the temporary high that comes with creating! "

And now I have a "new" rabbit trail to follow: Lime and violet sock marathon 2007. Of course I don't really want to marathon knit, my carple tunnels throb at the very thought, but it has been inspiring to see that so many young women are knitting! I am inspired to get out the sock yarn, take a photo or two and set some goals to finish those pairs of socks!

But getting the old house in order first should be reeeally come first. Zachary, my 18 year old son has just moved back in and I am glad he is here. Another reason to work on the house! More people, more stuff!

I just finished these two new ACEO's and one 5 inch square, small art quilt. I have enjoyed the contemplative activity of hand sewing the embellishments on these quilts!

Seeing Red!
vermillian
carmen
crimson
scarlet
ruby
garnet
sunrise
stop
mars
war
anger
passion
love
beauty
valentines

What is on my work table?
Altered garden journal
















Button bracelet /necklace
Tiny quilt squares
Embroidery floss beads, and ribbons
Bali batik fabric
Shells, seed pods, bark, rocks
Yarn
Coffee fabric












Flowers from my dear daughter










The Ever Useful, Better Than google or wicipedia, Random House Dictionary

Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe cookbook to inspire me to cook and eat more healthy this year

This little art quilt book is almost 5 inches square and has 144 individually decorated pages. It was difficult to say "decorated" because when I was in art classes in college in the '70s it was forbiden to decorate anything. Stark, large, abstract, and shocking were de rigueur. That is why I was more at home in weaving and jewelry making though even there I went out of my way to be original and avoided merely functional and tranditional craftsmanship! I am not technically an "outsider" artist but have always felt like an outsider! Even when I hope for exceptance, as an artist I must please myself first.

Here are my most recent tiny art quilts. They are 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches, ACEO sized! They will be on ebay. I enjoyed the hand-work.

Who loves his garden still

his Eden keeps.
Perennial pleasures plants,
and wholesome harvest reaps.

Amos Bronson Alcott

Don't you start thinking about gardens about this time of year? I use to read seed cataloges like novels, carrying them around for weeks! I'm working on an altered garden journal which I will show pages of.

I am also thinking of quilts. Several UFOs (unfinished objects) are calling me. They are mostly small art quilts that I need to bind and put the hanging sleeve on. And I have a wildflower applique quilt that I want to hand quilt.

When I was young the process was paramont. But at this stage in my life completion is more important (than it was). When my children
were small it was the process: thoughtfully choosing the next two tiny triangles to match and carefully handstitch together. The goal was to finish an eight inch square made of 32 light and dark triangles of graded shades of a variety of prints, then do the next, while watching play or bath time. The last thing I was thinking of was making a queen sized quilt! (I did make one but only because my grandmother came and helped me quilt the last 10 inches all around.) For the past 4 years I have explored free-motion quilting and embroidery with my sewing machine, raw edge applique, and dying and painting on fabric.

I keep going back to a blog I found last week (thanks Annie). The blog is Juju Loves Polka Dots and features the musings, inspirations, and art of Juju Vail. I love her small watercolor paintings! She reviews and recomends several quilt books and talks about what she enjoys about hand sewing. The links on her website are varied and intresting.


I have been looking at a stack of fabric and the colors of these spools of cotton string. When I saw this book cover my ideas sort of jelled! This is just the beginning, no stitching yet. Will it be a small quilt or a quilted purse? I haven't decided yet.

About that depression-era/poverty-mindset/ collector/ hate-to-part-with-anything-I-might-need syndrome, yesterday evening I listed (on Ebay) some Church Nursery Posters that my grandmother rescued from the dumpster at her church: I came by my condition naturally, I inherited it! Actually my grandmother recently had a long running garage/estate sale . She had lived on the farm in the same house for almost 70 years! She sold quilting fabric by the pound in grocery bags. Of course, she still had a stash to move because at 90 she still is quilting!

Do you have the post holiday blues? The house is cluttered, I need to do art, but there are too many conflicting projects, tasks, piles of junk to sort, etc. I've got a bad case of adult onset ADD! Its hard to concentrate and focus.

I can't seem to "get" a new technique I am working on. At the moment I’m too easily discourage by initial failure. I am trying to use Translucent Liquid Sculpy to make photo transfers but here on my 4th or 5th try - no good!

Is it usually this time of year that I get the urge to simplify? Should I buy another book or storage gadget? I didn't overspend on Christmas gifts except maybe on candy for stockings. But I do have that overwhelmed feeling.

I admit that I have some kind of depression-era/poverty-mindset/ collector/ hate-to-part-with-anything-I-might-need syndrome! So is it a lack of faith that makes me hold on to things I'm not using? Is it planning ahead/stewardship?

The mixed media art may bury me alive! Variety of fabric, yarn, buttons, beads, paper, pencils, paint, dyes, glues, leather, lots of tools, stamps, paper ephemera... I am not naturally organized and have a bad memory. If I put something up I may not be able to find it! Wouldn't it be simpler to just draw and paint? But the drawing and painting feeds the other media and vice versa.

And books and musical instruments!

I even have trouble parting with old clothes. I made some beautiful journals out of old blue jeans! I need to have a garage sale but that takes time and planning!

PAINT: shape, color, texture
preserve a moment,
evoke an emotion,
communicate a sense of time,
celebrate,
wonder,
beauty

WORDS: alphabet, ascenders and descenders, slant, spacing, font, ink, graphite, calligraphy voiced, fricatives, alliterated, rhymed
meaning, content, communicate, reason, persuade, emotion, thought

What is this need to communicate, to have communion, to find a community. It is more than a desire for an audience. It involves a desire for feed-back.

When I journal in a book I occasionally think in terms of putting it down so I can get it out of my system - the vent! But more often it is the list or the dream. Writing down the goal or defining and refining the dream. Almost daily, I journal as I read the Bible to remember and connect the ideas and concepts, to "note well" and to pray!

I have been creating one or more very small art quilts per week.
Intensive creating seems to feed itself! I read a story of a college ceramics teacher giving his students the option of being graded for quantity or quality. If the student chose quantity they were to turn in as many items as they could make during the semester. If the student chose quality they were to turn in one perfect, very best piece. The students who went for quality spent a lot of time planning and eventually started, started over, spent some more time planning... The other students just jumped in and got busy. The students who produced the most art made great strides in skill and personal style. I want to be that kind of artist!

This is one of the little leather journals I have made recently.

My cluttered, creative life seems out of hand at the moment! Ideas for projects are flying. I finished a fun book with lots of pockets, tags, and a festive pink quilted cover. I've made some simple and beautiful leather bound journals that just about sell themselves! And a jeans journal that I want to keep for myself but will probably sell or give away after I make another one. I have recovered an old Bible for a friend. It was not OLD old just the cover had come apart and now the usefulness, and beauty of this Bible has been restored! I used grey suede leather.

I don't know how other creative people work but I work in spirals! I start several projects, leave them sitting out as I mull over the next step, working on other projects until the solution "comes to me." When I was younger this resulted in lots of unfinished projects because I had to put things up till another time and later wanted to do something else. Too much time elapsed between creative sessions to maintain momentum on any but a few. I did finish some art projects but had to learn to bite off smaller bites: knit socks instead of sweaters, post card sized watercolor paintings, tiny dolls ...
I usually do some large paintings in the summer when I am sure to be able to finish. But usually now I find that small projects are my favorites! I want to do art EVERYDAY! And I do!

Who is this woman?

I think I know but I could not find a picture on the internet or in my encyclopedia.

Who does the picture envoke in your imagination?

I would love to hear from you!

This is the front and spine of a small journal I just finished. I began the process by painting acid free text weight paper using various techniques mostly done wet on wet: spraying, sponging, and brushing watercolor and acrylic paint, stamping with commercial stamps but mostly with my own hand cut stamps. Some pages feature mulberry paper collage for texture, gesso, subtle sparkle from Lumiere, Golden Interference, and other metallic and sparkly pigments.

These decorated pages are the first folio (first and last page) of each signature, the colored paper seen on the spine. The blank pages are ivory 24lb. watermarked, 25% cotton, fine granite paper. There are over 150 pages counting front and back.

The endpapers were hand painted using oil pastels and acrylics, and sealed with Golden Matte Medium. The book board is covered with my hand dyed cotton. The book is bound with linen thread using the one needle Coptic stitch. This type stitch is wonderful because it will lie flat on a table, like a spiral notebook but is much more aesthetically pleasing!

A small art quilt was sewn to the cover. Free-motion quilting, silk ribbon embroidery, beading, beautiful yarns and ribbons, a scrap of vintage tatting, and three vintage buttons embellish the quilt.

A braided and beaded cord is attached to the back cover through an eyelet. This cord wraps around the vintage shank button on the front for closure.

I know a hill where the wild grass blows,
And the wind makes waves of the pink primrose;
The valley below is bright with gaillardia,
Indian paintbrush, and prairie verbenia.


In the large golden blossoms of prickly pear cactus
The velvety bees their concertos practice.
The smell of the sun on the green and gold pasture
Is mixed with the heady ambrosia of larkspur.


My memories are pungent with the scent of wild mustard
And sweet with heliotrope, echinacea and aster.
The bitter and spicy are mixed in my mind
And quite overgrown with wild trumpet vine.