2009 will be a wonderful art year!!

Two emails arrived this last week that made my day! The first was a partial list of the instructors for Art Unraveled 2009. This was such a treat and I have been working on my list of what instructors I would like to take classes from. Of course, there are some that I went to right away, but there were some that I am curious about and might take a leap and stretch my art a little and see where that takes me. The second email I received was that the Cyber Fyber Online ATC Exhibition is online and can be seen at http://cyberfyberonlineatcs.blogspot.com/. Mine is #58. There are some absolutely beautiful ATCs on this site--check them out! Whatever you do in 2009, be sure to make time for some playtime, some art and enjoy life!! Have a safe, healthy, and wonderful 2009!!

Adding Gourds to "Other Good Stuff"!

Well, I jumped into another art form--gourds!! Thru a friend of a friend, my sweet hubby bought my Christmas gift of 97 gourds and a variety of tools! I have a friend that is very involved in this art and has been enticing me with her wonderful projects so I thought I would add that to my list of things to work on for 2009! Well, since I received my gift before Christmas, I went to the December meeting of the Southwest Gourd Association with my friend and jumped right in! There was an ornament or small gourd item exchange as part of the evening, so I found a gourd that would work for what I had in mind and did up "Frosty the Sheriff Snowman". Since I had the paint out, I also did a couple of showmen for friends that I usually do ornaments for. Wow, I already did 3 gourds. Nothing fancy, but they worked out well. And one thing I have learned already is that I will be able to use a variety of my other art supplies on gourds. Frosty's nose is made out of polymer clay! I received a wonderful ornament with Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree on it. That was perfect for me as that has always been one of my favorite Christmas stories!

The Next Step, an Etsy Store!

Well, we did the next step today--we opened a store on Etsy.com. If you have never looked at the items on Etsy, you need to do so! Really fabulous stuff. We browsed around looking at the many items this afternoon. Amazing stuff from amazing artists. I put five necklaces up for sale, so we shall see how it goes. If you have a chance, my stuff is under FlightsofFancyAZ. I need to finish a couple of projects I have started here and put them on as well. With the holidays coming up, now seemed like a good time to try and sell a few things!

Mary is home!

It was so exciting to pick up my doll, Mary, after her adventure. She came back to me with quite a few treasures! Mary collected purses, quilts, a hat box as well as some flowers. The best part of it all was reading the journal that went along with her on her journey. There were wonderful entries from everyone and many included items of their grandmothers. I love the fact that I now have a wonderful doll of my Grandma Mary and along with her is bits and pieces of all of the other artist's grandmothers as well. I had mentioned sewing, gardening, cinnamon buns and even ivory soap. She came back with quilts, flowers, a bar of Ivory Soap covered for a pillow and her hair is done up to look like a cinnamon bun!! Amazing work by all the ladies. All of the dolls had a personality and it was great fun trying to find that "something special" to add to them before sending them off. I made a mini book of all the dolls and the item I worked on for each doll, so I have a record of all the wonderful dolls that visited. I was wondering what Mary would look like since so many of the dolls had a lot of wonderful sparkle on them. I was so thrilled when she came back as she did looking so much like my grandma! I showed my Mom yesterday and she was tickled and said she wished that her mom could see her. She would have loved her! What a wonderful compliment to all the gals that worked on her! Our next adventure is an art quilt after the holidays. I can't wait!

We have a name!

In between all that has been going on, my daughter-in-law, Autumn, and I have been trying to come up with a name to call ourselves if we can get a few items ready to sell. We both have birds as our trademark of sorts. Mine is a bluebird and Autumn's is an owl. She called me the other night with the absolutely perfect name "Flights of Fancy"! Now if we can find some time to play and get a few things together for sale. The holidays are right around the corner!

Books, books and more books....

Well, I think I found out that my second love is making books! I ended up taking several book classes. I took two classes from Jill Berry and this group of books was from her "Five Books in One Day". There was a lot of "wows" in the class as we each would discover how this fold or that crease would work. I need to finish the house book yet, but the others are done. The one that says ART! on the front has a few Moo cards and signatures in it from the class.

This one was an evening class with Jacqueline Sullivan, "Stenciled, Textured Journal". I love the look of this book. It looks like you just dug it up somewhere. Very old world feeling! I was a great class to learn about different mediums and paints as well as another stitched binding.

This one was probably one of my most challenging classes and I really love the way the book came out. This was "Little Carved Beaded Journal" taught by Doris Arndt. We did everything from painting the pages to carving the front and back covers with an x-acto knife and I am not very good with those, but by the end of the day, I think I could say I am getting a lot better! The binding is really something and I didn't get it finished in class, but with a tip from Marcy (thanks Marcy!) I was able to finish it up at home! I really love the way this book came out. The purple book was one
I did in Kelly Kilmer's class, "A Few of My Favorite Things". This one came out totally different form the others and was a lot of fun. We also did a few challenges in class on how to better do a page to train the eye to go towards your focus point. I want to do more in this book and probably will add to the cover some. It will probably be a book "in progress" for quite a while as I learn new techniques for my pages!

My last class of the week was with Tracie Lyn and Marylin Huskamp for their "Miscellany of Vintage Fabric Journal". It was the perfect class to finish with. This pair have a wonderful, easy going class and it is like you have known them forever! The book is an accordion book and there is fabric everywhere in it. I did it in the purple and green to match my studio and left some of the pages without fabric so that I can sketch and make notes in it. All in all I did eleven books during Art Unraveled and each and everyone is different. I had to go out and buy a basket to put them in so I can put them on display in my studio. Thanks to all the wonderful teachers and for Linda and Chuck putting the week on. This was my second year and I had a wonderful time!!

I can knit, well sort of......

I had left Friday evening open so when Lisa Pavelka mentioned she had openings in her class for "Knitted Wire Bracelet" and after she explained that we would not be using knitting needles, etc., I signed up and I am so glad that I did! As promised, no knitting needles, and with Lisa's help as well as Haley's, I came home with this absolutely gorgeous bracelet! The photo doesn't show it very well, but it is made up of 100 purple and clear crystal beads in a wire mesh. It really sparkles in the light! And it was all done in an evening class!

Polymer Clay at Art Unraveled

One of my favorite items to play with is polymer clay. I took classes from Lisa Pavelka and from Barbara McGuire again this year. The photo on the left is the necklace that I did in Barbara McGuire's class "Thoughtful Words Necklace". This is one I didn't finish in class and had to string at home, but I think it came out wonderful. The other class of hers that I took was "Colliding Color Beads". It took me over an hour to get the hang of it, but once that first one comes out, it is cool and addictive! This is my batch of beads from that class. The other polymer clay class was "Copper, Crystal and Clay, Oh My" with Lisa Pavelka. Her classes are always so much fun and we learn so
much! This year's class was no exception! We did a cane that within a very short time could be so many designs. I can't wait to find a little time to do more! This is the necklace I did in that class.

Art Unraveled

Wow, it has been a while since I posted! A lot of life stuff has happened since then, but I did go to Art Unraveled in Phoenix and took 11 classes and shopped on Saturday! What a great time and I learned so much! My first class was will Josie Cirincione. Her class was "Etched Copper Journal". I took it basically because I have liver of sulfur and didn't know what to do with it!! Well, I ended up using it in Jill Berry's "Copper Piano Hinge Book". The photo on the left is the "Etched Copper Journal" and the one on the right is the "Copper Piano Hinge Book". Both classes were excellent!

Birthday gift bracelents

Well, I tried my hand at more doing my own design instead of following directions for these bracelets. Nothing fancy, but like the way they turned out! My sister gave me a couple of strands of the small green beads and wanted me to make a bracelet for a friend of hers for a birthday gift. It went and bought some larger beads to match and spent a couple of evenings putting these together. The three strand was a little tricky. I couldn't seem to get them to lay straight or come out the same length, but after a couple of runs, that is the one hubby liked best. Well, on to the next project. I don't have a doll right now, mailed both of them off, but do have an ATC swap to finish up and mail off.

Okay, so I like to have a challenge. That is why I join swaps and round robins. You never know what you can do until you try, right? Well, the first doll in the round robin is off to her new destination and I have a second doll I am working on. In between that and "life happenings" I saw this great bracelet designed by Pam Nichols in the April 2008 Bead & Button magazine. Well, I had to buy a few beads, but thought I would try and use most of what I had here at home and I finally finished it! Doesn't look exactly like the photos, but I am thrilled with it! I have also been working on getting the rest of my studio organized and workable. It is coming along. Found a very comfy chair this weekend at a garage sale, so I might work in there for a bit this afternoon.

Okay, I am starting another adventure! I just finished wrapping and boxing my doll "Mary" so that I can mail her off tomorrow as part of a Doll RR I joined. The doll is mailed along with a journal to keep a record of what is done with her and a wonderful old cigar box I found to put it all in. We work on the dolls, do a 2 page spread on what we did to the doll and why and if there is a box, we can add to that as well. I was trying to figure out what kind of doll to make when I saw a Martha Stewart show featuring Laura Normandin making soft dolls out of linen. I went to the website, downloaded the pattern, then made it smaller to fit in the box she would be traveling in and finally found a little time to sew "Mary". This is her "before" photo and after she come home after visiting 8 wonderful artists, I will post her "after" photo. The other photo is her box and journal. That is my Grandma, Mary, in the collage. After thinking about it, I consider her my "muse"! I can not wait to see what she becomes as well as getting to work on the other dolls that will be coming my way.

Okay, now that I did one fiber ATC, I did my next trade that was to be about birds, in fiber! It is "The Bluebird of Happiness"! I cut out all of my blue jean material to size and used a little Fray Check around all of the edges, bird forms, too, and then stamped a few flowers and then I started stitching it all together with the embroidery floss while I watched TV at night with my hubby. Even took them along to a car show in Yuma 2 weeks ago. Well, they are all done and now off to the Post Office to mail them out to Sedona to be swapped for others in the group. I forgot how much I enjoy the hand stitching thing! Now on to starting my doll for the Doll RR I joined. I got the journal done, but still need her box and the doll herself!

I received Susan's ATC!

I picked up Susan Lenz's ATC at the post office yesterday. It is wonderful to be able to hold it in person and feel all the texture. I love all of the different stitches she used on it. This was a great event to be involved with. I have learned a lot doing it, not just using cloth to create an ATC. If you get a chance to "stretch" in your art, get out of your comfort zone, go for it!

My Cyber Fyber ATC is in the mail!

I received a positive response so my ATC is in the mail and on it's way! I added a couple of things to the snake that hubby suggested. I added three beads to the tail for a rattle and a couple of french knot eyes so he looks a little better and you maybe can tell what he was supposed to be. Hope it is okay for the project! And, I have learned how to add photos now, so am learning something new every day!

Well, I guess I am going to try blogging!

Well, I wanted to be involved in the Cyber Fyber Exhibition http://cyberfyberexhibition.blogspot.com/ and wanted to trade for one of Susan's ATCs and I needed to sign up and one thing lead to another and here I am....doing my first blog! It is so weird as I was just having a discussion not too long ago about I didn't think I would ever really do that! Well, I asked to trade for #58. It is purple, my favorite color and the color of my studio and well, I was born in 1958! I thought it was sort of a sign! I hope she likes what I am offering. I have thought about doing something like this for a long time. Using different shades of blue jeans put together to look like mountains. I, of course, thought of doing it on a larger scale, maybe a pillow, but I took the idea, made it a little smaller and did an ATC--my first fabric ATC. All hand stitched in layers, add a couple of cacti and a sun and it was done! Now I shall wait for her answer.