Beneath The Rust in I Wonder Land

I like to live a very upbeat life, but the stress of seeing my sweet mom lost in the memory-robbed darkness of Alzheimer's disease can be overwhelming at times.  Art is my therapy on so many levels, one of which is the fact that my love for creating started at a very young age via my mom.

I remember a wonderful time with my mom.  She had read in one of her magazines (Family Circle? Women's Day? Better Homes and Garden?) about an art project to do with your child that involved melting crayons in a pan on the stovetop...

So, there was a fire...

Anyway, what a fond memory of rushing to the sink with flaming paper and trying to erase all evidence of smoke and ashes (and colorful melted wax everywhere) before my father got home!

Beneath the Rust in I Wonder Land

Isn't oxidation beautiful?  Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, the blues and greens of patina...  I wanted to create a piece that incorporated the colors of age; of rust in all it's beauty.  I also wanted to convey a sense of wonder, by taking a peak through the rusted 'break' in the wall at the mysterious machine beneath.

Stages of the canvas: Texturing, Assembling, Reassembling...

After applying black gesso to my canvas, I began adding texture.  There is a veritable banquet of texture on this piece. (Yes, that's right, I just wrote 'banquet of texture' - remember my art studio doubles as my kitchen.) Along with Prima's Art Basics Modeling Paste, I used about five or six different stencils including TCW's Mini Gears, Penny Black's Oscillations and Tim Holtz's Measured.  I applied Prima's Texture Paste White Crackle to the upper and lower sections of the canvas along with a heavy textured gesso concoction I mixed up to give the effect of corrosion.  I love the look of dry wall tape, so that went down the center of the piece. While this texture overload was drying, I tore some card stock into pieces to make my 'rusted broken barrier'. This also received a heavy application of my homemade textured gesso goop. I decided barbed wire would be a good addition, so a grabbed a coil of craft wire and began snipping and twisting until I fashioned my own version of mini barbed wire. 

And now for MORE fun!  I began building my machine.  There are a few purchased embellishments such as Tim Holtz's Idea-ology Pen Nibs, Kaisercrafts' Metal Padlock, Finnebair's Mini Art Stones, but, for the most part, my machine is made from orphaned parts and pieces.  Look and you'll see latte straws, a parmesan cheese lid, a bread bag clip, clock parts, electrical parts, bicycle chains, vintage lace and tool box treasures. (I was concerned that my usual choice of adhesive was not going to be up for the heavy metal challenge.  I researched and experimented with three different glue products and discovered that Weldbond is amazing.  I mean, this stuff is super strong, yet doesn't have that brain-cell-suffocating fumes of other permanent adhesives.)

Next up: Color!  This is my comfort zone palette and I used a mix of my favorites like Prima's Color Blooms in Cobalt, Tea Stain and Worn Leather; Ranger's Dylusions Black Marble & Melted Chocolate to mute tones in their vibrant Dirty Martini, London Blue, Postbox Red, Fresh Lime and Lemon Zest; Shimmerz Sprays in Tuscan Sun, Don't Be Suede and Don't Rain on my Parade; Tattered Angels Woven Burlap GM and Gold GM; Americana Acrylic Paint in Bittersweet Chocolate; and an ancient bottle of Creamcoat by Delta in Mocha Brown (I couldn't believe this old relic still had plenty of liquid-y life left in it!).

Paint, spray, dab, repeat. Repeat again.  I love, love, love making my own colors by mixing different paints; it is so fun pretending to be a 'Paint Mixologist'.  I created a huge puddle of my rust-mix and then kept adding a touch of this and a touch of that to bring out some subtle tone changes.  'Rusting' the brass padlock, key, chains, Prima's Screw Heads and the barbed wire was the final touch. 

Another memory was brought to the surface when I sat back and looked at the tones.  The shades at the top reminded me of a childhood adventure I was on with my parents in the mountains of Montana.  My dad took us to this rustic, abandoned mining camp/ghost town.  The area was richly colored in a coarse reddish sandstone with strands of green sandstone and shale  by Neihart quartzite, and was one of only three places in the world where it could be found.  The abundant mineral deposits including ore stained the earth and the water an array of colors.

I showed my project to my mom today and told her I've discovered I have a passion for rust.  She smiled and said, 'You've always been my funny girl.'  Love you Mom!

I would like to enter this piece into The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge for September;  Rustic (and Rusted)!

I would also like to enter the Canvas Corp Brands September Challenge.  Their Tattered Angels spray in Woven Burlap and Gold were part of the 'cast of character in this canvas.

And, of course, the fabulous challenge MMW#19: Assemblage/Altered Art over at Mixed Media World!

Write here...

Bee is For Box

Recently I was browsing the aisles at a local discount store looking for treasures. I happened upon a small box in a color I can only euphemistically call Pepto Bismol Pink.  A phrase on the top of it said 'Beautiful'.  No wonder this unwanted orphan was on the death row of aisles, The Clearance Aisle, aka the 75-90% Off Aisle.  For $1.39, I decided to take it home.

Now what? 

It sat there. Staring at me. 'I'm already beautiful. See, it says so," it taunted.

So I painted it green.  

Yikes, that didn't help matters.   I planned on using this little box as storage for words/sentiments I had in my stash, and I needed some inspiration. 

Design Teams to the rescue! I decided to search some blogs for inspiration and two of those caught my eye. Anything But Cute's current challenge was 'Birds and the Bees' and Simon Says Stamp had a wonderful Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge going on. The Tic-Tac-Toe was such a clever idea, I knew I wanted to play along, and I thought 'Bees' would be a fun theme.

For the Simon Says Stamp Challenge, I chose the top row: Sequins, Gold, Stamp

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I covered the green I had carelessly applied to the box with white gesso and Prima's Modeling paste through an old stencil I had on hand.  Prima's Art Alchemy Steampunk Copper and DecoArt's Champagne Gold came next as a base layer followed by Lindy's Bayou Boogie Gold and Clam Bake Beige sprays. 

While my base was drying, I made my bees out of Polymer clay; baked them, painted them and glued them to wing nuts for wings.  I'm a bit afraid of bees (read, terrified), so making them 'winged nuts' was a psychological bandaid to my illogical (or so I'm told) fear. I also made flowers from scrapbook paper, foil and netting using Tim Holtz 'Tattered Florals' die and a Sizzix Big Kick machine.    I painted the paper and foil flower layers with the same paints and sprays used on the box plus Lindy's Burnt Umber; smaller florals and greenery were created by painting blooms from my stash.

Since this project will be a storage box for words and sentiments, I decided to make my bees 'spelling bees' by stamping and embossing letters on the box.  I used the Stampabilities Typewriter Background Stamp, Ranger's Clear Distress Ink and gold ZING! embossing powder. Continuing in the 'spelling' theme, some of the flowers have a petal layer cut from text.

I adhered the components, including a honeycomb I cut out of cardstock and painted with Prima's Art Alchemy Steampunk Copper. The wood frame is painted with DecoArt's Champagne Gold.  Gold sequins (honey drops) are scattered here and there on the arrangement.  

And one last thing: A honey pot!

Products used:

Prima: White Gesso, Modeling Paste, Art Alchemy Steampunk Copper acrylic paint; DecoArt: Champagne Gold acrylic paint; Lindy's Stamp Gang: Bayou Boogie Gold Starburst spray, Clam Bake Beige Starburst spray, Burnt Umber Moon Shadow Mist; Ranger: Clear Distress Embossing Ink, Perfect Pearls Perfect Gold, Glossy Accents; Tim Holtz: Idea-ology Tiny Vials, Tattered Florals Die, Diamond Plate and Riveted Metal embossing folders

I also used a Sizzix machine, Fimo polymer clay, ZING! embossing powder, Stampablities Typewriter Background Stamp, stencil, DCWV paper, netting, gold sequins, aluminum foil and wing nuts.  

Imagine the Inky Depths

“In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.”

— Kahlil Gibran

I've never been to the ocean, isn't that sad?  I've flown over the Gulf of Mexico, but that doesn't count.  Someday I will see the ocean and all is beautiful vastness, but for now, I can only imagine.

Oh my, I had a lot of messy fun making this one.  I dragged out all my old polymer clay from when I made clay beads.  That stuff is incredible, all the clay was still useable!  I made shells, an old bottle, sea grass, a sand dollar, and other underwater lifeforms. Then, the mermaid.  I thought I wouldn't be able to sculpt her, but thanks to an online tutorial by the talented Gabrielle Pollacco, I was able to create my sea princess.

A couple of side notes here, I sent the bottom (no pun intended) left photo to my daughter with the text 'your old barbie found work as a hand model.  I've censored her bottom for privacy reasons.'  She texted back, "You think you're funny, don't you?'  Gee, why can't she just say, you are so funny, Mom!'  Whatever... The last picture was from a garage raid - Gutter Guard - I thought it would make a good fisherman's net.  Ssshhh - secrets now - Mr. Me will never miss it. Oh, and in keeping with my kitchen table art studio, you will see in the upper left photo some tools of my trade: a well loved cookie sheet, parchment paper and a garlic press.

After waiting for gesso and modeling paste to dry, I was ready for my background color. I wanted a mix of sand and sun at the top so I sprayed on Shimmerz Tuscan Sun, Color Bloom Tea Stain and Lindy's Clam Bake Beige. For the inky blue at the bottom of the ocean, I used Ranger's Dylusions London Blue,  Marble Black and After Midnight.  The mid-water is Prima's Color Bloom Glistening Waves and Cobalt Blue.

Embellish and glue followed by embellish and glue followed by color and highlight.  Note to self: glue some on before background color!  Okay, so that took forever!

I had set aside my sweet, little sand dollar which I glued to my altered thrift-store paint brush.  My glue gun came out of hiding to make the messy brush drips.  I wanted the brush and drips to indicate a 'being of the universe' washing her brush in the ocean depths.  I tinted the drips and highlighted the items in the ocean  with Finnabair's ArtAlchemy Rich Turquoise by Prima.

The upper half of the canvas includes found objects as I had run out out of the clay embellishments I had sculpted.  I didn't want the fisherman's net to include any 'secrets' of the sea, but I did give him a pearl for his trouble.

Since messy is my specialty and I give my imagination full rein, I would love to play along in the June challenge, Imagine & Get Messy. It was fun imagining the treasures and secrets in the ocean and dripping paint and ink on (and off) my canvas, Imagine The Inky Depths.

I would like to enter my Imagine The Inky Depths mixed media canvas to the Mixed Media Place May Challenge-Be a Light Moodboard.

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Sidenote:  While I was sculpting the mermaid, I had a flash from "The Way Back Machine" and remembered my daughter's 4th Birthday Party.  Disney's Little Mermaid was very popular at the time so we had an '"Under the Sea" Party.  I 'tried' my hand at cake decorating and fashioned a mermaid cake.  My daughter's birthday is in the month of August and the temperature was, of course, at it's hottest.  The frosting was melting as fast as I could apply it.  But, my reason for this old memory is this:  I had taken (temporarily) the legs off the barbie doll I was using as my mermaid model so I could just insert her upper torso into the cake...

The gasps of little girls were heard for blocks as I, bad mom, removed legless Barbie from the cake before serving.  Hope those little party-goers have recovered from that traumatic sight!

Good times, good times :)

A Birthday and A Wedding - A Story of Two Bards

Birthday Bard

No, that's not a typo.  A 'bard' is what I call a canvas board/greeting card. 

Yes, as a student of Shakespeare in college, I do know the true definition of bard  (a poet or storyteller).  But what can I say, I make up random words and/or definitions.  Take my word for it, or ... don't ;)

This is my third attempt at mixed media, and I was anxious to take a crack at crackle paste. My base of the 'bard' is crackle paste and modeling paste through a brick stencil.  Next up:  a glue frenzy with flowers and beads, lace and various other findings followed by acrylic paint and ink.  I distress-inked and embossed a line of musical notes off-canvas and added that next.  Highlighting was done with metallic pigments and sparkle spray. 

Threads in the Magic Garden

I would like to share a creation I made for my friend Leesa.   Leesa excels at random acts of kindness and I wanted to thank her for a special gift she made for me.  Since she also is a beautiful quilter, I decide to do a mixed media piece that had a quilting/sewing theme.  This is the result: Threads in the Magic Garden.

After my black gesso background had dried, I used stencils and modeling paste for texture. I just had to rip a side off of a piece of cardboard (which I had stitched around with yarn) and add it to the canvas along with a zipper, 'recycling' the inspiration from my first mixed media piece A R T.  I should add a side note about the zippers I've been using.  They were orange.  I mean really orange from a really, really orange down, puffy vest.  Yikes!  I wore that many years ago.  Why? I cant answer that and prefer not to dwell on it!  

Next, I began adhering my embellishments: paper flowers that I had cut out of cardstock , thread, beads, gears, a bobbin, snaps, tiny scissors, etc.  I embossed the butterflies and the word Magic and set those aside.

Acrylic paint and ink was applied next in garden greens and shades of blue and purple.  I rubbed a tarnished gold pigment on the metal embellishments and the center of the flowers. Any guesses on what I made the flower centers from?  Heads of Q-Tips!

The spool of thread, the embossed butterflies and the word Magic were added next.  And my final touch was running string around the gears and through the sewing needle.  One butterfly is 'sewing' and the other, snipping the threads.  See?  It's magic!