Happy Christmas to you and yours.

Fabric

Funky fabric, handmade totes, fabric in mixed media. These are things I am playing with right now. I will be including one sewing project in my book, so I have been practicing and practicing and slowly improving my skills with my sewing machine. I bought some great fabric at this store Reprodepot Fabrics for this purpose. It is a little frustrating that I am not as neat and tidy as sewing dictates. I prefer working in a slightly messy, random way, but I guess I need to be stretched.

One of the contributors to my book, Ellene McClay is an excellent seamstress, her work has inspired me to get on this fabric path and to see the beauty in handmade clothing and things. She has an Etsy store where you can buy her lovely mixed media creations, jewelry and clothing. Check her out!

Susan Tuttle's new book

Susan Tuttle has released her first book Exhibition 36: Mixed-Media Demonstrations + Explorations! I bought a copy as soon as I heard it was out and I am just about to sit down with a nice cup of chili, peas and grated cheese and have a good read....

If you want to win a free copy of her book check out her blog Ilka's Attic.

Congratulations Susan!

Somerset Workshop love

Audrey Hernandez, a contributor to my book, is a fellow Artist On Call for Stampington & Co. I love her vintage, light, feminine style. Well, she has a wonderful set of articles in the current Somerset Workshop about working on wood. I am going to make some stuff on wood this weekend, just for fun, for a relief from working on paper, paper, paper. Audrey has some inspiring tips in this article, so I will be keeping the magazine with me as I work.

I did the same a while back when I was learning how to make shrink plastic buttons. Lisa Guerin laid it out step by step in Somerset Workshop Vol 3 magazine. It is almost like being at a workshop, if you actually read each little step and tip.

Gotta hand it to Stampington & Co. they know what we need.

Technique practice

I took home the little squares I started in Leslie Riley's class at the quilt festival and made this little book. The canvas sticker paper the book is made on, the light molding paste, gesso and paint are by Claudine Hellmuth from her new product line.

Houston Quilt Festival

Overwhelming. That is the best description of the Houston Quilt Festival. There is a whole world of fabric art, I mean 20 isles of fabric, sewing machines, art, embellishments, tools, you name it. There were also classes on mixed media art and quilting and a world class quilt show.

I was so excited to finally meet Jenny Doh! She is an amazing, creative, energetic woman. We chatted about many art related things. I could have stayed there all day. She was one of the hosts of the 'Where Women Create' booth. I bought a signed copy of this new and inspiring magazine.

And to make that experience better I met Sandra Evertson (I own many of Sandra's stamps and book, I have made a bunch of fun things as an AOC with her art stamps!) and Jo Packham the creator of this magazine who wrote the book Where Women Create, that inspired the new Stampington magazine of the same name.

I also met Jill Schwarts of Elements. She is in the Where Women Create book and the magazine. Her art is beautiful. Just check out her site, wow! It was so fun to meet so many folks who get both the art of mixed media and the business of art. Women who are both stylish and artistic, living the artful life.


I took a class with Leslie Riley at the Cloth, Paper, Scissors Make It University. Leslie showed us how to do a range of mixed media techniques on Claudine Hellmuth's new line of adhesive canvas sheets. I did not complete the project, but I brought the pieces home and I am going to make a little book with them, I will post that in a later post.

I sat with some fun ladies, Lorie who was there with a group of 45 quilters all the way from Canada and an lovely English woman living in the States. When we were done I had nowhere to put my art work and the supplies that came free with the class so Lorie graciously gave me her Trader Joe's tote bag!

What I took away from the show was the beauty of this art form. I was most interested in the highly embellished quilts. I appreciate the art of the more traditional quilts, but bits an bods sewed on, layers and layers of 'stuff' is more my taste. I was so inspired I bought a bunch of ribbon and vintage buttons... all of which may turn up in my future work!

And I can't forget to add that my husband came with me! It was nice having him there, he worked on his computer (nice thing about being an at 'work at home' attorney is the mobility). Mark, thanks for being my constant companion, supporter, fan and all around good guy.

Chain

Susan Tuttle offered a list of random words on her blog with the direction to make a poem. She learned this idea from Misty Mawn while taking one of her workshops. I love a challenge. This poem is my response to the words.

I am proud to include Misty as another contributor to my book. I have long admired her art work, her commitment to her children and artistic vision, I am so delighted to have had the chance to interview her and glean precious bits of knowledge from Misty, and from the other women I have and am yet to reveal.

Art Journaling

Over the passed year Shannon Mucha and I have been collaborating on a handmade journal. She would create a page then put it in a leather folder and give it to me at church, without discussing it I would take it home and create a page in response. It was a beautiful, unspoken conversation. Visual. Poetic.

The pages of the book have been loosely housed in the folder, going back and forth between us, but this week we finally bound the book. It is a year of reflections on our motherhood - the ups and downs, the beauty, the weight, the loveliness.

Shannon, a free lance graphic designer, photographer, mixed media artist and all around artsy girl is another one of the contributors to my North Light book.

My first digital collage

I am so inspired by Susan Tuttle's digital work (just see her blog banner!!). This week I was fortunate enough to see some samples of her work (images that will appear in my book) and while my piece looks nothing like Susan's I wanted to have a go at least merging two photos together.

I have finished the first draft of the book and am working on the projects and pulling in work from my contributors. I am pleased with the progress and mostly how much art work I am doing. When I have a deadline I am most productive. This book writing venture is really suiting me!


Some housekeeping notes:

I will be adding to the list of the artists who will be featured in my book in a side bar. There is no particular order that I will unveil them, so to speak, just my whim. So stay tuned!

For ease sake, I have turned the comments back on. I felt a little bad that folks would have to take extra steps to email me a comment. I appreciate everyone who has taken the time to seek me out via email, and I welcome you back here to say hello.

Workshop

I was pretty excited to receive this magazine, not only cause lots of my work was published but I was on the cover! Yeah! My first time!

This is a wonderful publication if you want to see how artists like Audrey Hernendez, Tena Sprenger, Jill Maria Shulse, Linda Trenholm and Marsha Williams and myself, put art pieces together step by step. I learned tons myself from the other artists, there seems to be an endless number of techniques to use in mixed media art. I have my pet techniques, but every now and then I find a new idea that I try and love and then integrate it into my own work.

The altered photo techniques I outline in one of my workshops in Somerset Workshop I learned from Karen Michel. The other is my own variation. I hope that you get a copy of this magazine and try your hand at some of the techniques.

Refueled

I was born in London, England, raised in Dublin, Ireland. When I was 23 I left for America. I have lived in Texas for 12 years. I remember the thoughts I had about Texas before I lived here, they all had something to do with cowboy hats and rich oil men who live on ranches and get shot. No art, no culture, no hope.

Some clichés have truth, but some are experience’s by pass.

Check out Urban Prairie Refueled for a look at the arty soul of Texas. Be sure to down load Chris Brown's EZINE.

My table is clean

I just finished up my biggest Artist On Call order for the summer publication of Inspirations. I mailed off a box with more than 3o pieces, all labeled and bubble wrapped. Phew! It was a lot of work, but I loved doing every single piece. The challenge of being given stamps or products that I would not have chosen myself and finding a way to create something, magazine worthy, is simply wonderful.

I am excited to see what the other AOC's do with the same tools and to see what Stampington choose to publish of mine. Even though I have been published a bunch in various Stampington magazines I still get nervous when sending something off. I worry will they like it, is it up to par, am I cutting any edges or merely repeating what I have done before. Either way, this is what I am working on and these images are a little sneak peak!

In case you wonder, all the stamps you see here are Stampington & Co. stamps:
Wrought Scroll
Ledger Flourish
Elegant Butterfly
Blooming Contessa
Polka Dot Heart
bird from Clearly Impressed 'Bird Sanctuary'
butterfly from Clearly Impressed 'Rock and Roll'
poppy pods from Clearly Impressed 'Fresh Flower Elements'
script from Collage Cube

altered pegs

Seen also in Somerset Life, Spring 08