Where is the rain?

I've been eyeing rain boots for some time. I walk to work and am generally trudging around the city more often than most.. and it's rainy here. Or at least it was... until I splurged on my super fancy Hunter Wellies. I love a classic green rain boot. Polka dots and plaid is fine mind you, but not for me. Not really. The classic wellie may now be high fashion due to Kate Moss Glastonbury Music Festival circa 2006, but I can't bring myself to wear rain boots in dry weather. That's ridiculous. Like the Queen, I will await a proper wet and blustery day to sport my wellies. Let's just hope it's soon.
The cold spell has also been poor company for encaustic painting. I can only have one heating element on in the shed at one time before blowing the breaker. I can either keep myself warm, or the wax, not both. I did manage to finish two small pieces and nearly finish a larger one before my toes froze.
It has been good knitting weather however...I'm on my third scarf and hope to break into hats or gasp sweaters next.

Candy Rings

6 x 6" oil on birch panel

I've always said that plastic is my favorite gemstone.
These small paintings were done last week. I'd been thinking of painting my plastic ring collection for some time. I didn't realize it would be so much fun. They remind me of little pieces of candy.
Note to self- always do at least 2 paintings of an idea.

Mail Art

My friend Leslie is an avid Mail Artist (that with a capital 'A' Leslie in case you're reading), and recently organized an exhibit of mail art at Central Library. I wasn't familiar with mail art or ATCs at all until I met Leslie, but had fun making the two collages above to send in for the library exhibit. There is indeed something wonderful about art sent via the postal system. I used to write long letters to friends with comic strips and elaborate gift packages. Now it seems I can't even type out an email. Apparently email is outdated now anyhow, and while texting is growing on me slightly, it's no match for snail mail. If it's not too late for resolutions, I think I ought to send more mail in 2008. I'd also like to receive more mail, other than the credit card offer, free tanning session variety...
Portland's DIY alert blogs about the library's mail art show here, and you can view the entire show online here.

2008

Here are some tamales to keep you satiated while I get back into painting mode. We made them for a Christmas Eve party using a recipe from my favorite Mexican cookbook.. I've always wanted to make tamales. It was time consuming, but with good friends and old school rap music to dance along to, it was a blast and they turned out delicious!
Now that the New Year is here it's time to get back to art. I've been busy knitting, sewing and baking the past months. Crumy weather seems to bring out the domestic in me and makes getting out into the art studio/shed more difficult. The weather is still crumy granted, but the wax and paint are finally calling me so stay tuned...

Fairy Nice to Meet You

Number one on my niece's wish list to Santa this year, was a 'squishable' fairy doll that she could sleep with. Let me just say that as a child that would tear out brand name toy ads from the Sears catalogue to adhere to my own wish list (I couldn't risk any confusion..), I was impressed with her lack of materialism.

My sister couldn't find a soft fairy doll anywhere and efforts to turn up a plain rag doll to turn into a fairy were also futile. That's when I said 'geez, I could make a fairy doll.' How hard can it be? I made a rag doll with my Grandma Lilly once...

Three days later and much cursing.. (I think in hindsight I merely watched Grandma Lilly make the doll)...this is the result. I'm quite pleased with it. Ok there were some unforseen details. The cute round face I carefully embroidered underwent some cosmetic changed when the head was sewn together. The cute pouty lips ended up on her throat, and the little chin I embroidered became a necklace. The hands are a tad club-like, and as my sister noted, she has some slight edema in her left foot. For a first effort fairy doll however, I'm damn proud.

My sister designed the lovely dress. I helped by sewing closed the arm holes, which were later torn out. We also learned that while sewing elastic you have to pull the elastic taut if you want it to maintain elasticity after you attach the skirt. I think I heard Grandma Lilly laugh at us and shake her head upon this discovery.

The wings are on order from Ebay and then she will be complete. If my niece does not worship this doll and sleep with it everynight, my sister has promised to box it up and pull it out at her 30th birthday to make her feel appropriately guilty.

P.S. The cookies are done the cookies are DONE! phew....

Early Bird Craftacular!

The cats got me up at 5 this morning. I couldn't go back to sleep. Usually when this happens I read, but I just finished my book so instead I made stockings! I lost track of my childhood stocking, and the felt one I made for Shawn is falling apart. I planned to buy some fabric this afternoon to make stockings, but decided this morning to forge ahead with what I had on hand. I'm glad I did. The brown is much more folksy than red and green. I lined it with some fun print fabric I bought years ago... probably with the intention of turning it into a skirt.. It's a bit lumpy in the photo, but has since been ironed smooth. I did the design by first tracing our silhouettes onto thin tracing paper. I pinned the paper down to the fabric and walked my sewing machine foot over the design. Once I'd sewn over the image, I tore away the paper to leave just the stitches. Tedious but faster than hand embroidery. The antlers are cut from some circular patches I got at SCRAP years ago. We don't have a fireplace. I hung them by the gas heater. I don't suppose Santa will shimmy down a gas heater, but like a fireplace, it is a heat sorce, so it just made good sense.

The Christmas Card You Won't Be Receiving

I've been thinking about silhouettes lately. It started at work. I was asked to gather books for a grade school teacher who was teaching a unit on the American Colonies. I gathered some history books, as well as books with titles like 'The Blacksmith'. I also found some books with crafts from the colonial period. There was a page on the lost art of silhouette making. I recalled the familiar grade school project of outlining your face on black construction paper and gluing it down on a white background. It was so satisfying and fun to see how recognizable shapes are, even without all the details. I also really admire the work of Kara Walker, and love what she does with silhouettes. Anyhow all of this was on my mind when the topic of Christmas cards came up. We agreed we should make our own this year rather than buy them. I have a Gocco printer and all we really needed was a simple design to get started.
The photo shows what I came up with today.

I thought it showed a lot of potential. This is just the initial drawing mind you. It was to be printed in color with perhaps a wreath surrounding the deer. A little bit art nouveau, a little bit silly, but you know simple, obviously personal and kind of fun... I was ready to go. That was when my design got vetoed. Something about no way in hell my better half was going to let me send cards with his profile on a prancing deer to relatives and friends. Whatever. I still think I'm going to embroider the design on a pillow, or even make stuffed Christmas ornaments with the same motif. If you receive a store bought card from us this year, it's not because I didn't try.