A WIP

Work in Progress is the name of the game today. Yesterday I was innocently reading my new Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine and fell upon an article by Patricia Gaignat. In the article called "lotsa fruit" she took an image of a pear and turned it to black and white, colored it and made a variety of the blocks using the same images and then turned it into a cute little wall hanging.

So how my mind works is that I though it would be a good idea but to use my daughters pictures and then their children. I did the daughters yesterday. These are in no way done, I am still digesting the plans but wanted to share what I have so far.

My sister commented to me on the phone last night "what no art this week?" and yes I have done alot of it but mostly meaningless little tasks like making paper beads and stringing a few new necklaces for my mom. Yesterday I decided to paint and this is the result.

This being my oldest daughter. Now I must say she really looks nothing like this in real life, so this is a slightly cartoonish looking likeness. Here is the picture I started out with. I printed it after maniuliping it in PS on canvas, then painted it using assorted paints and chalks. I seldom stick to one kind.
as you can see quite different.














The next is my youngest daughter, for which I am way off! LOL she asked me who it was. and then replied that I made them too pretty. This is the picture of her that I started with.
I disagree, naturally I believe that both my daughters are beautiful in looks and spirit, even with the "Kelley forehead" an inside joke going on here about looking like Grandpa with his big ole bald head. Then my youngest said "oh don't show it to Ama, you made me prettier!" Another never ending thing that goes on no matter how many year pass. Some day they will get over themselves and decide they are both beautiful in my eyes, no one more so than the other.

I do have a question for you artist out there. What is the dang color that you use when making teeth? I never did a picture with a full mouthful of teeth, and struggled with the color used to distinguish individual teeth. So what the heck color do you use?

After sandwiching them with felt under each layer, I blanket stitched all the way around them. I stitched first with my hand stitcher to make the holes, for ease of blanket stitching because that tends to tear the canvas when using a hand needle.

Next up is to put them on a black velvet background and embellish the heck out of them. Then I will decide if I want to continue with the babies pictures or not. Really Patricia Gaignat's Pears are truly beautiful if you like pears. I don't have fruit pictures in my house anywhere, not even on a pot holder. Don't know why, I guess I am just not a fruity person!

This is my latest painting/collage. She doesn't have a name yet but some say she looks like a Maxine. I kinda thought she looked like a Peg... well anyway I painted the background and pasted papers all over the place, then I dry brushed it a little bit. Painted the lady, added her hat using some of the faux sea glass paper I made and then proceeded to add the lace, buttons and nylon tulle for a veil. The lace was dyed with ink, I dry bushed it a little more, embossed some swirlies here and there. It has lots of layers. Not sure you can tell with my pics, I am surely no photographer.

Here is a close up of the face. You probably can't tell but I added a little crystal diamond glaze to her eyeballs and lips. To do the face I just painted it with acrylic flesh, and used some of my pastels to soften and shade then I added the features and using watercolor pencils and a bit of acrylic paint did the detail. I did the face alot like the way I do the doll faces when I make a doll. Hope you enjoy it.

By the Light....Light....Light....Light...Light of the Silvery Moon

Wow another post in the same day! This is another small 5 x 5 canvas painting/ collage that I completed last night. TV in the summer really sucks so this is what I do, unless I am on the puter or talking on the phone, depending on how I feel and what time it is. Not sure what to do with all these little paintings but I am thinking of putting them on Etsy.

Here is a closer look at the actual Moon. This painting was inspired from a beautiful sun catcher my daughter sent me when she was shopping at Cape May. Of course the sun catcher is much more beautiful but I like how this turned out too. Again my photography is not that great but you get the idea.

I have alot of project going, and I should be working on my workshop projects, but I am more or less letting my muse take control and this is what happens. I blame all my terrific fellow artist, they put out some gorgeous stuff that just continues to inspire my muse.

Live Wire!

I tried my hand at wire wrapped, jewel encrusted jewelry and here is the first one. All are free form, and none had a plan. This teardrop is gold with gold wrap and contains some crystals and glass beads. I wouldn't know and Austrian crystal from a Checz crystal to save my behind but I like glittery things!

These earrings were next. They are made of copper and sparklies. I really like how they turned out but they were very hard for me to make. Well actually all of it was but I think for the first try they came out decent. They remind me of my "hippie" days! LOL now I am dated, hey did you happen to catch Cindy Lauper on GMA yesterday? OMG we are heading to Senior Citizenship fast! It seemed funny to see her rockin out on stage looking like an office manager. I think she needed these earrings!

Next up is the spiral pendant. Made of copper and gold wire and of course more sparklies! Another favorite of mine of course because of the spirals. I have this thing about spirals they are continuous and never ending, much like how I prefer to think of life. Squares have corners, you hit the wall and boom nowhere to go but back, so it is spirals for me! Circles qualify too.

Last is the "free form" I call it that because I bent the wire wrong and didn't want to waste it. Again copper and gold wire and sparklies. Actually it looks ok to me and although similar to a spiral it looks like it took some wrong turns here and there much like life happens.

Well there you have it. I did make some other earrings but somehow I managed to mess them up, so once I fix them I will post the pics. They are not anything like this stuff. I could use some work on my photography too but hey gimme a little break!

Introducing the Queen of the Night

This is the Night blooming Cereus and her buds. Tiny little tufts of fluff on a spindly and woody looking cactus. Nothing spectacular at this point other than the wonder and amazement of nature at work. This plant has been in my tree for longer than I have lived in this house which is 24 years. Normally it goes quite unnoticed, has been called ugly, and people ask why do you have it?


Here is a closer view of the bud on the cactus that hangs in the tree. I would guess the tree to be at least 30ft tall and the cactus climbs up and wraps around and hangs down, attaching itself like a parasite to branches, mingling with the moss that grows on air. It quite resembles snakes hanging from the tree like that.


As it reaches its birth, the pods become up to about 8 to 12 inches long. When the time is ripe, so is the bloom and it begins to open. This has also been called a Deer Horn Cactus. Do you see the red pods? They bloomed last night. I have been watching this cactus for 3 weeks, trying to capture the blooms.



It has a trumpet shaped flower with and the cactus itself has a turnip like root. The roots use to be a food source for the Native American that once inhabited this land. The flower itself has medicinal properties, somewhat like digitalis. It is also a hallucinogenic and I hope that the neighborhood kids never find this out.



The flowers will open for one night only, until the first rays of the morning sun hit it when it will forever close.


Behold the Queen of the Night!
Isn't she spectacular? Truly a gift from Mother Nature that is meant to be shared and absorbed by the souls who witness the magic!

New Baby Digital Collage

Lilia Rose Franklin

Well many of you know I am a newbie to digital anything but I tried it again, this time it looks more like scrapbooking! Uggghhh! But the subject is my new Grand Moonbabie who arrived yesterday via C-Section. What a relief! I was so very worried for my daughter and her child because she had a condition that caused me worry! Anyway all is well. She weighs in at 7 lbs. 6 ozs. and was 20-1/4 inches long. I know the first measurments were alot different, chalk it up to an overly excited moment between Daddy and G'ma, not sure which of us said or heard wrong. LOL and will ya just look at that mug? she is smiling already!

It is killing me that I don't get to see her until August, that when they are comming down to visit. I can't go, still in treatment so it will be something like October before I demand a break before rads, which I will be doing! I can't wait to get my paws on her and just love her to pieces. Her big sister is comming at the end of this month though so I get to spoil that one for a little while.....before her Mama catches us. Maile her sissy loves to do artwork, she is making plans.

New Components and Lost and Found

Today I worked on making fabric paper. Remember the fabric paper I made in January? This is more subdued and low key. It is for a workshop over at The Artist Circle Yahoo Group. We are working out of Beryl Taylor's book Mixed Media Explorations. You embed tissue, papers of all kinds, elements ect. with PVA - well I used watered down Mod Podge. Paint it and let it dry. We will be doing more with it as we go on with this month.



This is another one done the same way but this time I took a piece of lavender tulle and laid it on top, smushed it down and let it dry. All the other steps were done first just as in the first picture.

Tomorrow - time permitting I will do the tyvek paper. Not sure I will have time.

Today I also made some felt beads, well 3 to be exact. I think if I really wanted the felt beads I would rather buy them. I had some wool from my doll making stash, and pulled a bit of it until it was all messed up looking and dunked it into warm water that I added a drop of dish detergent. Pulled it out and started rolling it between my hands, much like you would do to a piece of clay. Kept going until almost all the water was out and it formed a ball that stuck together. Let them dry and now they are nice little beads that can be decorated or used as is in something.

I am working on a big project too. Remember the Alphabet Swap from last December? Well I decided to do something with them. I have 26 letters from 26 different artist, so I hope it turns out the way I see it in my head! Won't they be surprised? Stay tuned!

Now the Lost and Found! Two years ago, I belonged to a group called Post Crossings. Nice group where you send and receive postcards all over the world. Well they have a forum and I got involved in a few exchanges. One was a book a diary actually where the book was sent out, and for 3 days the players would record their daily happenings, drawing, painting, postcards, pictures, what not. There was one book that was not returned to me, no one owned up to having it. Well, I am happy to say it came home to me yesterday! It had been held up in the Netherlands for 2 years. The person who had it, had some problems in her personal life and I suspect she just "gave up" fell into depression and let it go. I will not say who it was, she deserves that much privacy and I truly hope her life has improved. (Hugs) I only wish she would of told me, because too many times this has happened not only to me, but to many. I can only speak for myself here, and I would have understood. So thank you my young friend in the Netherlands for returning my book.