Day 126 - 365/2014

Day One Hundred Twenty-Six

Stupid allergies have forced me to stay home today, so many stupid (and painful) symptoms -- much Benadryl (so no driving)...and...lucky me...apparently the vacant lot two doors away from me is being readied for building.  LOTS of tree cutting and wood chipper action...lots of new dust and all kinds of debris on the wind and straight to my house.  It feels like there is a super fine powdery soft sand/dust coating over everything.  Waaaah...poor Took...and kitties who could not/would not eat this morning because of the monstrous wood chipper noise.  It is really weird -- sometimes you can't tell where the sounds are coming from because of the alley-like driveway(s) and fences and hill and stuff.

I really wanted to finish assembling the last thirteen Animal People collages and add phrases to them but I am just not feeling it today and I don't want to force the last of them.  So instead I decided to get busy on the prep work for another of my Art-o-mat series -- Penciled In.  This time I will be collaborating with my friend Terri and since she will be here on Thursday for our Second Thursday group I thought I could get them ready for her so she can take them with her and work on them at her own pace.

I transfer original drawings of characters I have made onto small MDF blocks.  The blocks I use are much smaller than the supply blocks that Artists in Cellophane sells to its artists...my blocks fit inside of AIC's supply boxes.  (The Animal People collages are made on the full size AIC blocks.)

My block is on the left -- AIC's block is on the right.

 I went "shopping" in the basement to find the bin with the last stash of my blocks.  Every time there is a project done at my house that requires MDF I have the person doing the carpentry cut blocks out of the leftover MDF.  I had boxes and boxes of them and now I am down to the last stash of them...but do still I have a nearly full sheet of this thickness of MDF out in the garage.

Anyway...the MDF blocks have a sort of papery top layer and if you sand the edges too much it disturbs the paper and takes out little chunks.  The edges can sometimes almost feel like suede -- it is pretty cool stuff, but can be irritating to prep sometimes...like when you want to paint or somehow colors the edges...more about that in the painting process which will come much later.  So today I grabbed out 100 blocks from my stash and did a quick "sanding" routine on each block.  I laid out a piece of fairly rough sandpaper and made 2 swipes across the edges (long ends and short ends) then a couple swipes across the flat surfaces of the long ends and the short ends...it gets pretty dusty.  It took about an hour to do 100 pieces...not too bad.  

My last bin/stash of already cut up MDF blocks.

Counted out and ready to get started.

The difference between an untouched block and a prepped one.

Sometimes there are still a few papery fibers left after sanding...

...those are easily snipped off with big scissors.

Halfway there!

Whew -- done!

Then I did fifteen more blocks -- ones for Terri to practice on and to give me a few for when I mess up a transfer...which happens fairly often until I get into the rhythm of the process again.

Fifteen more for practice and mess ups.

I am fighting myself tonight to not start transferring the images because my hands are probably more tired than I realize, although they do already feel better than they did earlier.  But if I start the transfers I will want to finish the transfers...and that is why I am not allowing myself to do it tonight.  Period.  

Here are three examples of the collaborators I have worked with so far.

Left:  Took, solo -- Middle:  Took/Juana -- Right:  Took/William

I did the original set (and maybe a second one) on my own.  Then my friend Juana and I collaborated on several, several sets.  Next my friend William and I did a set of I think 50 and he still has maybe another set of 50 to complete.  I am eager to get going with Terri -- I made a few new drawings for this series.  I can't wait to see some of the first guys in our collaboration!  

Here is a link for the Penciled In blog.  Oh...and I also did a DIY set...that included a blank block plus several blank trading cards for whoever purchased them from an Art-o-mat machine to color in themselves and "collaborate" with me.  Here is the link for the gallery for that series -- I haven't heard back from very many people (yet).

Day 31 - 365/2014

Day Thirty-One

I got to spend a good chunk of the day with Andi today -- on her birthday day!  We had a great time, went out to lunch, watched some wacky YouTube videos, laughed, entertained Bootsy, talked...it was great.

This evening I came up with these two early sketches for a young wombat and a young kangaroo for possible inclusion in an upcoming Penciled In edition.

But that's it for tonight...I've got some other stuff to do...and then back to house cleaning...well, at least house tidying.

Day 24 - 365/2014

Day Twenty-Four

Today I put magnets on the backs of the my collection of "Penciled In" -- a series I have done for Art-o-mat.  I did the first two editions on my own but I am not very skilled at choosing and applying colors...I have trouble with shading, highlighting, etc.  For the rest of the editions I have had collaborators...Juana Moore, and William Hessian.  In addition, my friend Annabella did one really cool giraffe.  Terri is considering working on the next edition with me, but that is still in the works. 

Anyway...here are the photos from earlier today.

Back at it...affixing magnets to AOM artwork.

Several editions of "Penciled In"...the first ones were from 2008.

Top row:  Took / Middle row:  Juana Moore / Bottom row:  William Hessian (left) and Annabella (right).

 

The newest section of what is turning into a collaborative wall.

It amazes me how different my basic drawings can look depending on who is coloring them.

Eventually I would like to get another decorative powdered metal magnet board, but for now I am happy with this solution.

Tonight I have been occupied with reworking an old collaborative collage that I was never really happy with.  I just couldn't make my part of it work.  I like the dog guy, though and I am sanding the plaque down as close to the wood as I can.  I worked on it with the electric sander tonight but I really can't get any closer to the image with it...I have already had one small accident but I think it is salvageable.

How the piece is looking after the electric sander (and the minor mishap).

I finally came up with another image I think works much better than the collage images I used the first time around.

But this is as far as I have gotten...I think I am done for tonight. 

2012/365 - Day 242

a jam-packed FULL day of art and art stuff with plenty of pics

Wow.  What a day!

First it was a mobile version of Wednesday Morning at Joan's over at Leann's house. 

Leann on her porch, welcoming me in.

Leann was working on the finishing touches on a really really neat art quilt for the Above and Below show that opens in September.  More about that show when it opens.

I was looking around at all of the wonderful things that you can see from Leann's incredibly fabulous big table at the edge of her kitchen and my eyes stopped at her shrine to George Harrison.

detail

Yep -- my task for the morning was to wrap the Penciled In artpacks in cellophane and pack the box for shipping.

Joan arrived!

As I was wrapping the boxes I realized I had forgotten to write a note for Carol (at AIC) and I also forgot the sheets of placards for the series so I had to stop back at my house...oh well.  

Leann working on another part of her naked mole rat quilt.

Leann was also very keen on sharing the totally marvelous completed prayer flag.  The muslin squares were made by some of the people in the ATC group and they are all just amazing.  Leann put her flag together with ribbons in between the muslin squares.  It really is just amazingly wonderful.

Joan's project for today was some knitting.  This is part two of a two-part long vest (I can't remember what it is called) and she started it eight years ago.  It is very very long and the gauge of the needles/stitches is small and the whole thing looks really great.  It will be really pretty cool when she completes it.

Leann finishing up the back of her quilt -- the hanging part.

Ta- daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!  They are all wrapped and marked and I chose the pieces I am ordering for my machines.

And see...I had the labels and everything...too bad I needed to stop at home for the inserts.

Back at my house to finish packing up the artpacks and this photo op happened.

Awwww...my sleepy boys.

My sleepy boys with the sticky outy legs.  I love it when they reach their arms out like that.  They look so comfortable.

Okay...at this point I am starting to run into a time crunch because I need to go to the post office before getting to the Art House.

This is when Bootsy decides he needs to "help" and give me a few pointers.

See?  I made it to the post office -- and NO lines!!!

One of my jobs today was to put address labels and postage stamps on the new postcards for the upcoming exhibition at the Art House.

I will talk about the show itself as it gets closer, but it is a super super mosaic tile show -- a benefit auction for Doctors Without Borders.

Done!

Another exciting upcoming show at the Art House is a call for art for the holiday season...the fliers arrived today.

More about that tomorrow!

And as if all of that wasn't enough...I went along with Leann and Joan to the meeting of the fiber group Running With Scissors!

 O.M.G.  What a bunch of talented, creative women!  And what a night to just happen to attend!

The show-and-tell items were incredible.  A few of the art quilts were going into the Above and Below show.  I am going to go to that opening with Leann and I will take lots and lots of photos.  But all I can say for now is "WOW!"

Deb Kolar made this fabulous appliqued felted pieces quilt.  I probably have the description wrong, but I don't know what else to call it.

The colors are eye-popping.  The work is incredible.  I really love it!

detail

another detail

Deb also did the demo for the meeting.  Again, not being a fiber artist or sewing person I don't have the right words...but it had to do with jute cording and wrapping the cording with thin strips of scrap fabrics and sewing them on the sewing machine with a #3 zig zag stitch (tearing up here over the mathy elements) and you can make a bowl or coaster or all manner of wonderful things.  

Demos like this make me think sometimes that I would like to get a sewing machine and try these great projects...but that is truly better left to people who have much, much more experience and who have outrageous senses of color and the ability to mix fabrics and textures.  I can do plenty of other things...but not this.  Wow.

And I got to visit with Lynn and I talked to Kate about the possibility of her doing an Art-o-mat series and maybe making something for the Paint Creek Art Center's Holly Dolly silent auction.  And Kat was there, and Patrice...and several of the members took fliers for the Art House's upcoming call for art.

Towards the end of the meeting Jan Waller showed up with a whole bin FULL of her exquisite felted artwork...including her piece that will be in Art Prize in Grand Rapids.  Oh. My. God.  That will be a whole blog entry on its own.  Plus, Jan will be picking up her first-place piece from the Thoughts With Thread show that just closed and then joining Ruth and me tomorrow to go to an opening, so it will all roll together in one blog post.

Wow.  What a day!

2012/365 - Day 241

finishing up...what the heck is taking so long?

I had planned on finishing the packaging of the Penciled In artpacks this afternoon and getting the box packed and ready to ship today.  Ha.

The cats needed to go to the vet this morning.  Then my sister and I went to Sam's Club.  I was nearly asleep when Sue and I were leaving Sam's...I don't know what the problem was...massive attack of allergens?  I could have laid down next to my car in the parking lot and gone to sleep right there.  I got my stuff and myself home, put it away, sat in my chair with Bootsy and (apparently) I fell asleep.  For a long time.  A l-o-n-g time.  Like all afternoon long time.  Geez.

When I woke up it was starting to get a little dark out...time to feed the cats.  Then I sat and finished up what I had planned on doing.  Now the boxes are ready for cellophane but man -- I am sleepy all over again.  This will actually be the perfect project for tomorrow's Wednesday Morning at Joan's -- wherever we end up.  I can wrap the boxes in cellophane, take a pre-printed address label and seal up the box.  On my way to the Art House (day 3 of subbing for Carla) I can go to the post office...the post office is right at the beginning of the block.

2012/365 - Day 240

Art-o-mat production mode -- Penciled In version

I'm on auto-pilot at this point.
  

I have a real rhythm going of grabbing a box, writing what the basic character is (was) on the edge of the box, applying the labels, folding the info insert, wrapping it together with the block in tissue paper, tearing off a small piece of tape and taping the tissue paper shut...then putting it in the box and closing it and stacking it. 

All there is left to do tomorrow is wrap each boxes tightly with cellophane (acetate), securing it with heavy duty packaging tape, and packing up the box for shipping.  Then taking the box to the post office.  YAY!

2012/365 - Day 239

finishing up (day one)

Today I am finishing up the prep for packaging Penciled In for Art-o-mat.

I gathered up the completed blocks from downstairs.  That is where I painted the edges and sprayed the protective/sealer coats.

It is sort of hard to tell, but the edges are painted with Lumiere metallic acrylic paint and are a little bit sparkly...not overblown and glittery...just a little sparkly.

Then it was printing out the information inserts and cutting them to size.

Then printing out the labels and the end labels for the boxes, running them through the Xyron machine to turn them into stickers (because I really hate gluing the labels...I am too messy with the glue stick), then cutting the edges off...but not cutting them out totally because the paper is slippery and I can't seem to get it straight and close on the paper cutter.

Now tonight I will cut the labels closely while watching television and sitting with my kittehs.

I will probably also do the folding of info inserts.  

Shoot...I just remembered I need to print some contents labels...so whoever ends up pulling them at Artists in Cellophane can see what's inside, and maybe not wind up sending all rabbits to one machine host.  Glad I remembered that...although I suppose I could hand-print what's inside.  I will decide later...I'm not crazy about my handwriting.