Winter's Edge

Day 25 --- Printing cards!

2011-11-26T23:25:00.003-05:00

Experimenting with assorted color combos and a new place for my little press:

Days 18 - 24

2011-11-25T18:02:00.002-05:00

Day 18 = if cooking is art, then cooking this amazing cornbread will have to suffice for Day 18

Day 19 = Does looking at and buying art count? I went to Milwaukee's International Folk Festival and bought a fair trade hat made from alpaca AND an amazing amber necklace.

Day 20 = more top-secret metalwork

Day 21 = I tried to finish a set of stamped spoons for my father, but it was too noisy to finish all in that one night :/

Day 22 = I went to see the Muppets. No art was made.

Day 23 = more cooking as art!!!

Day 24 = sketched some future lino designs

Pumpkin fun!

2011-11-18T21:24:00.002-05:00

Seen on a local walk around the block, these guys made me pause and smile :D

Day 16 & 17 --- metalwork

2011-11-18T10:29:00.002-05:00

Been working away on that metalwork project for Feb. I'm about half done! Yeah! Too bad it's a super-top-secret project because it would be fun to post pictures of it. Ah well. I can leave you with this, though. Here's a preview of what's involved in the super-top-secret-metal-project of mine :)

In February there will be more pictures.

Day 15 --- lino cut!

2011-11-16T11:54:00.000-05:00

Day 14 --- acrylics and some stencils

2011-11-15T06:51:00.001-05:00

This idea is sound, though my execution requires darker paint - or at least paint that is significantly different than the bottom layer. I will try again on this canvas later this week.

Base coat (here I was painting over a previous attempt at something or other):

Apply stencils:

Paint over stencils:

Remove stencils:

Day 13 --- more acrylics

2011-11-14T16:48:00.000-05:00

Attempt at a still life. Meh.

Day 12 --- oil pastels

2011-11-14T09:40:00.001-05:00

.....does installing shelves count as art?

2011-11-12T12:01:00.003-05:00

Probably not... but here's a picture anyway. It only took me some three years to get around to putting these tiny little shelves up in my tiny little 2nd bathroom.

Day 10 --- let's try those pastels

2011-11-11T19:00:00.000-05:00

Day 9 --- instant gratification

2011-11-10T23:34:00.002-05:00

5" x 7"

9" x 9"

Day 8 --- more metalwork

2011-11-10T06:47:00.000-05:00

Last night I worked on metal projects. Filing, sanding, soldering. I realized that I've gotten sloppy and will be remedying that. I also realized that my metal working equipment needs to be consolidated, efficient-ized, and I for sure need a ventilation hood for the soldering station. That stuff is pretty strong when not properly ventilated.

Day 7 --- playing with a laminator

2011-11-08T06:43:00.000-05:00

Tuesday I finally made those plant tags I was talking about to attach to some contested plants in my backyard. These are now attached to the plants in question:

After finishing those I decided to play with some collage and laminate it.... unfortunately, I learned the hard way that two layers of cardboard going through my laminator = pain, sadness, broken things, and much much much pulling to get things unstuck. Here's all that's left:

(Luckily, I had some awesome help to get this unstuck from the machine. I do believe that the machine works again, too.)

Day 6 --- I like dots (and squares and pointalism)

2011-11-07T20:20:00.005-05:00

Here is the painting I started yesterday and finished today:

Amber Waves
8" x 10"

Day 5 --- more painting

2011-11-06T23:01:00.005-05:00

No picture today. This morning I started working on fixing up (yet another) half-finished painting. Still acrylic. I'll be trying out the oils later this week, I think.

Speaking of paint......

2011-11-06T07:26:00.000-05:00

I went to visit a friend yesterday morning and on the way back from brunch, asked to stop at a thrift store..... turns out that they were having a special event where everything was half off, and so we discovered....

I scored big and got these 28 tubes of that oil-hybrid paint (the stuff that you can thin/clean up with plain water, but somehow is still an oil paint) paint for just $12.50!!!! AWESOME.

Day 4 --- More doodling in paint

2011-11-05T23:25:00.004-04:00

11.75" x 11.75"

Day 3 --- acrylic doodling

2011-11-04T08:24:00.006-04:00

Started out like this (long forgotten annoying painting in a pile somewhere):

Then between Day 1 and this morning went to this (which I found too busy and still annoying and even a little bit embarrassing to post)

And at lunchtime I brought out a little paint to tone it down:

4" x 6"

Still not my favorite, but I will grudgingly admit some improvement. NON-grudgingly, I will admit to being pretty darn cheery that I got my paints out in the middle of the day for a sanctioned break :)

Day 2 --- copper stuff

2011-11-03T23:10:00.006-04:00

The beginnings of some jewelry....

.....and I think I broke my tool :( stupid cheap-o steel combo tool :[ Turns out that the inner screwy bits weren't strong enough to withstand the torque and I believe a small portion of the inside is stripped on one side. doh.

Hopefully still useable on thinner gauges.... we'll see tomorrow, I guess.

Day 1 --- Latvian Graffiti

2011-11-03T08:40:00.007-04:00

Last night I spent a solid 90 minutes working on a secret metal project (reveal coming in Feb) and then went on to painting just because I enjoy painting. That being said, I think I need to start out with a better idea of what I want to end up with the next time I paint ;) to me, this just looks kinda messy. BUT! it was fun. I intended to wake up early this morning to paint before work, buuuuuut..... multiple snooze happened instead.

Latvian Graffiti
8" x 10"

Art Every Day Month

2011-11-02T20:14:00.002-04:00

Inspired by friends who are participating in NaNoWriMo, I decided to see if anything similar, but more in my own line of hobbies existed.... and it does! Here's someone who's been doing Art Every Day Month for 9 years!

I'm #328.

I've actually been playing around with this idea for most of this year. In January, my mom sent me a link to a blog/person who had decided to make 2011 the year of the ring, and set a goal of making one ring every day for a year as an exercise in creativity. I was intrigued and in many ways wanted to try something like that for myself, but also scared. A whole year of promising to create something every day??!? That sounded CRAZY. Especially since at the time I was traveling more often for work, traveling for fun, and was spending more time than I care to admit working in general (heh - perhaps working a lot to help avoid facing personal life mess, too).

BUT.

In the past six months I've changed a lot of things. Fixed a lot of things. Gotten rid of people who weren't kind to me. Etc. Now, one month I can do. So. Here we go.

October = felt?

2011-10-31T15:00:00.002-04:00

This month I prepared my very first fascinator for use at a fancy tea party:

Turns out that they are really fun to make AND I now see fascinator possibilities everywhere I look! Which means I'll be hosting my own tea party in January or February just to have a reason to create (and wear!) another one (^_^) And since I made too many green felt "flowers", I then experimented with barrette possibilities:

I'm surprised at how much I actually liked how those barrettes turned out!

Starburst (3x3)

2011-09-20T05:20:00.000-04:00

My very favorite piece made during that week of teaching:

Which looks like this when it's held up to the light:

Cement Mushroom

2011-09-18T05:14:00.000-04:00

After all of that stuff got finished in one measely week, I decided it was high time to finish this cement mushroom project and get the darn thing OUT of my kitchen. so yeah. It's done now. I know how to make better ones, too, now. Maybe next summer....

Fused Flower

2011-09-16T06:11:00.001-04:00

Here's what I *wanted* to make more of, but certain other instructors in charge of the kilns wouldn't let me .... blah blah ... incompatible glass ... blah blah blah .... pieces might explode or break off ... blah blah ... you're lucky this one didn't break yet ... blah blah blah ...

:D

Just teasing mom. I know you're right. But I still WANT to make more of these anyway.

Fused glass (3x3)

2011-09-14T06:05:00.003-04:00

Every so often when we were firing the kilns for fused glass we'd have a little space on a shelf that could still fit another piece in. And since it's a shame to not use every spot you have when you're firing, I'd get the occasional chance to create a little something-or-other to fit in those spaces. Some of these are experimenting with some technique that my mother wanted to show people and we were making sure it worked before telling them to try it :) like using a candle to bend stringers for those crooked mouths.

Pattern Experiments (3x3)

2011-09-12T06:04:00.000-04:00

4"x4" mosaiced tile

Blue Flower (3x3)

2011-09-10T06:03:00.000-04:00

4"x4" mosaiced tile

Blue-Red Explodey Flower (3x3)

2011-09-08T06:02:00.000-04:00

4"x4" mosaiced tile

Mosaic Owl (3x3)

2011-09-06T06:01:00.000-04:00

4"x4" mosaiced tile

Almost an auseklis (3x3)

2011-09-04T16:59:00.000-04:00

4"x4" mosaiced tile

A Brown Explodey Flower (3x3)

2011-09-02T16:37:00.004-04:00

Hmmmm....... It's been a while - eh?

I spent a week in Michigan teaching glass stuff this summer. That was fun. Inbetween questions, instead of staring at the backs of people's heads or something, I decided to keep my hands busy. Also, I needed some glued glass to demonstrate "how to grout" without demo-ing on someone else's work. The next few posts are of the little things I finished while teaching.

4"x4" mosaiced tile

I'm not sure, yet, whether to turn these in to coasters or decorative wall hangings.

Sketching in lino, Part I

2011-07-16T15:57:00.003-04:00

A couple of art nights ago I let myself just "sketch" in lino.... apparently I had bugs on the mind since both prints turned out to feature bugs. Here's the smaller of the two:

I can't figure out a consistent way to cut nice-looking circles in lino. I think I want to make friends with a dermatologist so I can appropriate one (or more) of those sharp little tools that punch out perfect circles from skin that's going to be biopsied. I bet those would work on lino.

My kitchen was busy last weekend...

2011-07-14T06:25:00.001-04:00

This is what just over 4 hours of canning will yield in my house:

(14 pints of canned peaches plus a medium batch of peach jam [8 jars], a medium batch of cherry-rhubarb [8 jars], and a small batch of peach-cherry [5 jars].)

And then you get even better/faster at it :) I've since also canned 5 pints of elderflower cordial (yay urban foraging!), but that stuff isn't very photogenic.

Repurposing glass for garden art

2011-07-13T08:22:00.000-04:00

Later this week these dishes will be in my garden as large(ish) garden flowers:

Very much a borrowed idea, but it was too neat not to try out on my own. The plan is to use epoxy and then use my oven to anneal/strengthen the bond. I have another box of glass still in my car from last weekend's flea market trip waiting to be made in to some more once I find some inexpensive and interesting colorful second hand glass dishes.

Stained glass progress

2011-07-12T23:03:00.003-04:00

The other day I realized that in August I'll be helping to teach a stained glass/fused glass class and yet I haven't actually finished any stained glass in.....well, years. So. Back to this project started in 2008....

Over the course of about 5 hours (across two days) I finished grinding, washing, and copper foiling it to get it to fit in the frame (with a few design mods due to carelessness and limited glass to make up for mistakes. ooops.):

I've since also finished 80% of the soldering, too, but have yet to take a picture of that. I'm still working out how I want to finish the outer edge and what patina to use on the solder. This is intended for my bathroom window, but I don't think I want to permanently install it. So..... lead came? Or a wooden frame? I'm not sure yet.

Copper disk earrings

2011-07-04T06:49:00.001-04:00

I finally started using this etched piece of copper that I made in a class some 8 or 9 years ago. Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the metal sheet before beginning to cut it up. Sigh.

First, a pair of earrings:

Sushi plate experiment

2011-07-03T10:46:00.003-04:00

Last week I visited my parents. You never know what kinds of adventures you might encounter while over there. This time, my mother turns to me and says, "I want you to make a sushi plate."

OK (^_^) of course! Here are the results. One worked, one did not.

Bails

2011-06-26T06:08:00.001-04:00

Last week I practiced both basic soldering and mass production:

My mom asked for some bails for her glass work projects. The first 15 were kind of tough and rather annoying, but the next 20+ were easy peasy.

Sock monsters

2011-06-25T06:00:00.001-04:00

I found an amusing book and decided to make sock monsters an activity for an art night. Here are the ones I made:

now what do I do with them?
I don't even really like stuffed animals...
Hmmmmmmm.

The Inspector

2011-06-24T07:18:00.000-04:00

This is what I see every time I get in to my car and it makes me smile! I've had my car for just over 2 years and it's never had a name, but suddenly I'm inclined to call it "The Inspector".....

Ghetto buffing station

2011-06-23T08:56:00.002-04:00

I found a small grinder for $2 at a garage sale last year that I just couldn't pass up. Earlier this spring, I got the parts to make my grinder in to a buffer for jewelry and now I am using it wherever I find room. Hence "the ghetto buffer". Usually I'm on this chair in my kitchen. It doesn't work so well, though, since it bounces around and I end up using one hand to hold the machine in place while the other hand is holding and buffing the jewelry.

That's not so safe. So. Today I will be mounting this .... somewhere sturdy. And possibly making a backsplash type shield to stop the flying bits from escaping all over the room.

Blue Comet Pendant

2011-06-15T06:29:00.001-04:00

Here's another new pendant finished during last weekend's efforts:

I'm definitely excited to take more of my doodles from work notebooks and turn them in to something I can hold in my hand. (or rather, wear as jewelry!)

Small Green Pendant

2011-06-13T06:13:00.000-04:00

I finally sat down to play with metal and fire this weekend and here's what came out!

Very plain. Very simple. But still pretty. AND confidence boosting. I finished it in far less time than I'd expected AND now i have several more studio-type things set up and ready to use! (most notably: my buffer is up and running!)

Rhubarb mimosas

2011-06-12T21:30:00.003-04:00

Pretty drinks this morning at brunch (before the sparkling part was added):

I made rhubarb syrup earlier this month and this was its first public debut. It turns out I like it better with a lemon-lime soda than with champagne, but there is still much room for more experimentation!

Iridescent glass plate

2011-06-09T06:32:00.002-04:00

My mother's nifty glasswork (I love iridescent stuff):

New lino project!

2011-06-08T13:33:00.003-04:00

I have been experimenting with printing on different surfaces. At the moment, the favorite result is the one where I print on book paper and turn it in to a card:

I am hoping to get some old Latvian books to use for this in the future, since I think printing these on Latvian text (instead of English) would just be much neater - eh?

Strawberry Lemon Cake

2011-06-04T07:37:00.001-04:00

Last weekend it was a dear friend's brithday. We planned a semi-surprise party and I was in charge of CAKE! Here's what I made. A lemony strawberry cake. This involved making cake, lemon curd and lemon mousse. YUM!

Asparagus hunting!

2011-06-03T07:29:00.002-04:00

I've gone asparagus hunting a couple times now this year. I've only found a few stalks, but it's really nice to spend time walking with a purpose outside. Here's the most interesting asparagus that I've come across. I wonder what made it grow this way?

Broken glass.....

2011-04-26T06:18:00.000-04:00

A week or two ago Steve & I tried to free a pane of glass from a wooden frame.... and ended up vacuuming my yard instead :)

Nifty - eh?

Pussy Willow

2011-04-25T06:14:00.002-04:00

Last year I received some pussy willows in a vase as a gift. Since one stalk grew roots, I planted it..... all year it had very few leaves (max 10, I think) and just generally looked like a very sad plant. But this year it has 4 buds!

Rolled banana cake

2011-04-24T07:13:00.001-04:00

I recently discovered that making rolled cakes is not nearly as difficult as it looks:

Dinner Rolls

2011-04-23T08:12:00.000-04:00

I finally succeeded in making moist & fluffy dinner rolls!

Late March printing in my kitchen

2011-04-22T18:08:00.002-04:00

Poppies

2011-03-20T20:15:00.000-04:00

The beginnings of a Test Run Quilt

2011-03-19T07:45:00.002-04:00

I want to make a king size quilt for myself and I want to make it in the "watercolor" style.... so since I generally don't sew much (despite two of my last posts this week being fabric-related) and I certainly don't consider myself "a quilter", I figured I should buy just a small amount of fabric to test my ideas/theories in a more "safe" way than immediately committing to the BIG project..... so here is the beginning of my new lap blanket.

Starting with this sorted fabric:

Here's what I ended up with after a day of sewing and ironing (and a rather sore/stiff neck):

I think that this proof of concept came out pretty well! Good stuff that came out of this baby quilt business:

I did notice that I was missing a couple of shades here & there, so I could go buy a few more pieces of fabric for the "real" quilt

I found out that I'm not the world's most consistent seamstress and will have to pay more attention to sewing straight lines consistently straight

I realized that buying the diagonally biased square interfacing is harder to correct (if you sew crooked :) so I'm going to do the "real" quilt "on the square"

Next steps = figure out what to use as a border & actually quilt this little lap blanket together.

A funky map

2011-03-18T20:13:00.000-04:00

More potholders!

2011-03-17T19:43:00.001-04:00

I made more pot holders for some other friends in February :D

Two cranes

2011-03-16T20:11:00.002-04:00

(hee hee, made ya look! Yes, I know that there are more than two cranes on this lightswitch ... but I bet you counted them before I admitted that - eh? :)

some January gifts

2011-03-15T19:41:00.000-04:00

I made some pot holders for some folks in January:

Yellow city scene

2011-03-14T20:05:00.001-04:00

I've been having some trouble with the epoxy messing with the clarity of my pictures..... this used to be a city scape..... now it just looks like a yellow light switch:

Rag rug - complete!

2011-03-13T19:27:00.003-04:00

it's been a while since I posted anything here.... let's see if I can get this blog rolling again.... this will *also* require getting *ME* rolling again in the "actually makes/finishes art stuff" category.....

remember this post?

That was the half-finished rag rug.... which is now finished and living in my bathroom!

New toy!!@!

2011-01-02T16:03:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas to meeeeee....

(This is going to take some practice and some getting used to ----- my first 10 attempted prints were......inconsistent, to say the least......)

Warm Windows --- 68% complete!

2010-12-31T08:19:00.002-05:00

Another "not art, but definitely a project!" post:

These warm windows have been a long time coming....... and are not actually finished. Window on the left is held up by velcro and has no mechanism for being raised yet. I ran out of plastic rings but couldn't wait to see what both of them looked like when they were up! Window on the right is more done (and can be raised) but I was too tentative in some of my sewing because I didn't think about the mechanics & need to go back to sew the rings such that the thread holds ALL layers of the cloth together... My bedroom is sooooo dark at night now. It's nice!

New coat hangers!

2010-12-30T20:15:00.002-05:00

Not art, but definitely a project:

I'm so happy to have these on my door!

(Potential problem though = I'm not sure how much weight they can hold before ripping out of the, presumably hollow-core, door)

New sidelight!

2010-11-13T21:54:00.001-05:00

I got tired of the old, malfuncitoning, (semi)motion-sensing light at my side door, so a little more than a week ago I replaced it with a NEW light! It's so bright! And doesn't look at all like I thought it would on my house, but that's oK, I like it anyway. Thirty bucks well spent!

OLD light vs. NEW light

Birdbath

2010-11-12T21:43:00.000-05:00

A cement mushroom in progress...

2010-11-11T21:45:00.000-05:00

Played with cement just a little bit before it got cold outside.... and now I have a 70% finished mushroom hanging out in my kitchen....

First, create a plain (if lop-sided) mushroom from a lightweight cement recipe that you just happen to have the ingredients lying around:

Begin attaching "reject" glass pieces around the edge with mortar:

Fill in the rest with pieces of broken and leftover kitchen tiles (these were really fun to smash in to smaller pieces with a hammer ---- though next time I think I need to break them in to even smaller pieces):

NEXT UP: grout the cracks & seal the mushroom...... someday when I get tired of having a half-finished mushroom in the corner of my kitchen :)

A trail, a giraffe, a mottled bumblebee and a bluegreen abstract

2010-11-10T21:40:00.001-05:00

A dim water lily, bikers you almost can't see, and a nifty owl

2010-11-09T21:36:00.000-05:00

Two double lightswitches

2010-11-08T21:36:00.000-05:00

Latvian Bazaar in Newtown Square PA

2010-11-07T21:25:00.002-05:00

My dad and I went on a road trip to Pennsylvania this weekend. Here's a picture of what our booth at the Latvian bazaar in Newtown Square looked like:

Green swirl

2010-10-11T22:25:00.003-04:00

Some time ago Steve gave me a set of three tiny little canvases. I painted two right away. Liked one ok, didn't like the second one. This is the second one after another (thick!) coat of paint. I like it much better now!

Now to figure out how to frame/hang it somewhere. AND to find the first one --- where did it go? NO idea. But I'll find it eventually as I put my upstairs studio in order.

Little blue flowers!

2010-10-09T20:58:00.000-04:00

Monarch butterfly with a contemporary border

2010-10-07T20:57:00.001-04:00

Little chickadee!

2010-10-05T20:57:00.000-04:00

I got new knobs!!!

2010-10-04T21:27:00.004-04:00

New cabinet knobs!

My mother is trying out something new and I'm the tester. Glass photo transfer in Latvian designs. Sweet!

Mooing cow!

2010-10-03T05:56:00.000-04:00

Dove!

2010-10-01T05:55:00.001-04:00

Hummingbird!

2010-09-29T05:53:00.002-04:00

Poppies!

2010-09-27T05:52:00.001-04:00

Owl in purple!

2010-09-25T06:11:00.002-04:00

Two horses & a yellow rose

2010-09-23T06:10:00.003-04:00

Goldfinch!

2010-09-21T05:52:00.001-04:00

Bluebird light switch

2010-09-19T19:51:00.003-04:00

Framing happy thoughts

2010-08-20T18:13:00.003-04:00

I finally finally finally framed the two sheets of good wishes that people had written for two of my friends upon their wedding ---- originally the stick figures were supposed to be replaced with actual pictures of the bride & groom, but we decided that the stick figures were kind of cute. So we left those in and put the actual pictures all around the edges.

Another Monarch Butterfly

2010-08-20T06:11:00.001-04:00

Monarch Butterfly

2010-08-19T18:10:00.001-04:00

Let's take a walk

2010-08-19T06:09:00.001-04:00

Cathedral

2010-08-18T18:08:00.001-04:00

Firefly girl

2010-08-18T06:07:00.001-04:00

Crane lightswitch

2010-08-17T18:05:00.002-04:00

Red bird lightswitch

2010-08-16T18:02:00.003-04:00

Red Blooming Cactus

2010-08-16T06:00:00.000-04:00

Orange Flowers at the Gate

2010-08-15T18:33:00.000-04:00

Looking Out The Airport Window

2010-08-15T06:28:00.001-04:00

playing with food....

2010-08-14T14:20:00.000-04:00

Here's a nifty boiled egg from one of the last times I boiled eggs:

Grapes in Bed - Lightswitch cover

2010-06-21T20:37:00.002-04:00

Red Poison Frog Lightswitch

2010-06-20T08:35:00.003-04:00

Floating market lightswitch

2010-06-19T20:31:00.002-04:00