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.