Mini Art Journaling Kit

I just finished putting together my Mini Art Journaling Kit, ala Nancy Brill. Everything fits in the pencil box except the actual journal, which I intend to band to it. I have water colors, pencil, water brush, stapler, mini gel pens in neon colors, my favorite Uniball Vision Elite in all colors, two black Sharpies, two black Pitt pens, three different alphabet clear stamps, a mini stamp pad Brilliance, in black, Africa themed colored Color Box Cat's Eyes pads, Scissors, Eraser, decorative papers, glue stick. I think that is all. I also got a Polaroid Zink portable printer that prints 2"x3" borderless prints in one minute by simply plugging your camera into it. The prints are sticky backed already. It is about the size of a passport and about 3/4" thick or so. That isn't in kit either. I still have some room in my kit, believe it or not. Hopefully I will produce something with it!!!!!!!!!!

Etching metal

I took a workshop in April with Stephanie Lee at Carol Park's studio in Los Angeles. What a fun instructor and lots to learn. Here is my beginning of trying the metal etching at home. The pieces aren't finished yet, but they are so pretty already, wanted to share. A friend came over to put some of her metal pieces in the etching bath so we wouldn't be too wasteful. Just as we got settled down on patio with metal in bath, wind, hail, rain! When the tornado sirens went off, we had sense enough to go in the house and check for weather warnings. A tornado touched down about 3 miles away, as the crow flies. However, neither wind, hail, rain or tornados have kept us from our art. We finished up our etching and then the sun came out!!!!! The joys of living in Colorado. If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes!

Nina Bagley Class at Asilomar

We started our three day journey with making a necklace to set the theme of our copper covered book. My theme was gratitude (although I didn't learn immediately not to stamp your letters twice, so it is really grattitude!)

There is a postcard from my grandmother and great aunt written in 1916 to their parents in Colorado while they were visiting relatives in New York. It is so dear to me. The ballerina is my lovely daughter Hillary at about age 7 or 8!

The young girl in white is my great aunt. Most of the hand written titles on the pages under the mica are photocopies taken from the family bible.

The photo in the locket is my mother. On the other side is a photo of my daughter with the word Tomorrow. I learned so much from Nina, not only lots of techniques on working with wire and metal and fabric, but also in the emotional experience of creating art with things that are precious to you, how to put personal meaning into your pieces.

Of course, Asilomar was such a beautiful setting and I had the pleasure of having my daughter and 4 year old granddaughter join me. What more could you ask for? Well, better food, for sure, but then Pacific Grove, Cannery Row and downtown Monterey are about 5 minutes away, so that worked out great, too!

PREVIEW OF UPCOMING TRIP TO TANZANIA

I will be leaving for Tanzania in a few days. I thought I would post a preview of my trip from old photos I have taken there in previous trips. Unfortunately, most of them are not on my computer, back then I preferred to use SLR instead of digital. It is a magical place. It is the birthplace of mankind, in my head, the Rift valley. The Serengeti is also so spectacular, especially hearing the lions grunt around the campfire at Undutu, a place where Ernest Hemingway used to hunt. I wonder if they are talking to his ghost?

Beautiful Masai women and children taken in a boma with no running water, no electricity, about a 2 1/2 hour drive from any sort of civilization.

Circumcision boys. Masai version of bar mitzvah. At about 13, they are circumcised and then they wear all black and paint their faces with the white designs and are supposed to kill a lion to prove their manhood.

There were five Cheetah's walking across the road, as casual as you please, stopping traffic.

ART JOURNAL WORK

I participate in an art journal RR with Calendargirlz! My personal art journal is "too" personal for posting, but I am really starting to appreciate the value of the art journal experience. To me, it allows me to accomplish so much more than simply writing. The multifaceted approach seems to be a more full and satisfying experience. These are some recent examples.

KNITTED THROW

This is a closeup of the knitted throw I am working on with Collinette yarns. They are so yummy!!!!!

SEWING MACHINE COLLAGE

I have been inspired by a number of artists who are combing fabric and paper in their collage work plus combining machine stitching to add additional texture to the collage. The artists are too numerous to list them all. In this one I used Lisa Englebrecht's ink wash on fabric for the background. I then used different fabrics and papers and included an image from Paper Whimsey. I rarely use images from "strangers", usually thinking my family is so beautiful, why would I use a stranger. But this girl spoke to me, so here she is! I added some buttons to the final piece. I intended to add embroidery, but by the time I had all the layers on the canvas background, I would have had to use a hammer to get a needle through it to add embroidery. I will have to think ahead more if I am going to add embroidery to these pieces. The hanger is a piece of brass wire with brass links soldered to it and stitched to the canvas. I got this idea from DJ Pettitt.

NEST CHARMS

I am quite taken by anything related to the fowls of this world! After learning many soldering techniques from Stephanie Lee while taking her "Junk Drawer Jewelry" workshop at the studio of Carol Parks in LA, I made these charms for a local charm swap.

What are blogs for?

I am a poor blogger. The purpose of a blog is to update whomever on CURRENT things. I am always months behind, never up to date. Now who would ever want to follow a blog where there is never any new news? So, I am going to try to be more current and quite "arting around" with it.