Art Journal Every Day ~ May 23, 2014

i have some art journaling pages today.
and words~! ;-)
during the last few months i have managed to art journal on most days.
i definitely prefer working on the fabric art pages lately.  they take much more time but i'm enjoying the work as well as the finished pages.
 
with this in mind i made the decision to leave the Journal52 "highway" and enjoy my "scenic side road" of fabric art pages instead.   i like being able to take my time and allow the 'work' to progress intuitively and organically as i experiment with ideas and techniques on the fabric pages. this makes them generally too slow to make keeping up with the Journal52 project enjoyable.

 

remember this one 'in progress'?
btw: that's a bit of a tea bag there behind that moon.
many possibilities for sure~!


i continue to surprise myself as i enjoy the art quilting more than i ever thought i would.

traditional bed quilts are wonderful and i still enjoy making them and sleeping under them and even decorating with them but these small art quilt pages have captured my imagination in a whole new and unexpected way.

this fabric page was the result of a Journal52 prompt (found poetry). i extracted words from an old book on how to pay less taxes . . . i enjoyed the finished poem and the irony of it.
i also used this page for experimenting with using cheesecloth as a base for some improvisational weaving. i LOVE the results and am now thinking of creating some soft yet bright curtains for the long side windows by my front door as well as one for the window in the front door itself using this technique. i have another example of this experimentation on one of the postcards in a previous post.

this simple page is a further experiment in weaving. this time using leftover skinny strips of fabrics combined with stitching.
lots of possibilities here as well.

this page is the result of a few very small scraps of my own hand dyed fabrics with an inclusion of a batik that i liked (the spiral printed pieces).
i enjoyed using different weights of thread as well as varying the stitch lengths. i see that quilting can be so much more than just a small running stitch in fine thread . . . not quite embroidery but definitely some complexity to add interest within certain spaces . . .

on this page i have stitched a combination of fabric and paper and will likely do more of that over time. i also used that hand made turtle stamp that i made a while back. it's a fun stamp and i enjoy using it.

 

 



i have enough fabric pages now that i am beginning to  look at ways to combine them and bind them into a book . . . i will have more to show on that stage of my fabric art journal soon.

 

 

i also have this more traditional art journaling page from march (right before i made the decision to leave the Journal52 project). i was feeling overwhelmed by many things when i created it.

funny how our feelings can come out in the creative process. i was really struggling but thankfully there's humor here too.

i reused the front side of a windowed envelope as my 'page' placing the gecko behind the window.

 

i will continue to work with paper, glue and scissors but for the now i'm enjoying the slow (thoughtfully) stitched fabric page.

 

 

 

i hope to join up with Art Journal Every Day today.
  
     


recent gifts include:

• several truly memorable days spent with my gracious daughter in her home
• time at the edge of the pond consulting the goldfish and freshening it up for the summer season (current spring counts: big fish =14/small fish=3/no sign of tiniest ones from the fall . . . yet . . .)
• many blossoms despite some frosts
• the gift of an incomplete needlework/needlepoint project and a lesson on how to complete it

art journal every day ~ friday 10, 2014

on tuesday i was thinking about and tapping into the possibilities of:

not clipping my own wings.

then i began my art journaling . . . 

 

• using a masking off paper for my base (this paper can be found in the hardware store and is called red rosin paper ~ it comes on big rolls and is economical for art journaling purposes)
• a white paper doily that i did some stamping off  (cleaning the stamp) onto
• cheap markers found while cleaning the office
• dyelusions spray ink (purple and white)
• punchinella ribbon as a stencil

wednesday i didn't feel like a had a lot of extra time so opted to simply add some running stitches around the outer part of my paper doily in a cotton mid weight orange thread.

 thursday i created another hand carved stamp. ever since i did my first one (pear) i have been wanting to make more and after reading this post on Julie's blog (Balzer Designs) i became even more inspired/motivated.

in fact, i was so inspired that i made another one.
the umbrella is going to be used within an art journal workshop/challenge that i have joined called Journal52. This is a free year long art journal workshop hosted by Chelle.       
the first week's prompt is "up, up, and away". 
i discovered this wonderful opportunity when recently reading fellow free spirited artist Dawn's post at Girl Unwinding.
maybe you will become inspired by this workshop as well.
 
so the following a.m. i happened to do some reading about aspirations/setting goals and realized that i need to give some thought to having aspirations without attachments. i need to remember that i can have hopes/dreams/aspirations without being so attached to them that i ruin my life trying to attain them.
"it's about the journey", my muses whisper to me again and again.

i feel that this subject has some relevance to the up, up, and away prompt and my first mental image was a floating balloon and then an open umbrella . . .  i went with the umbrella.
i imagine i chose it because an umbrella is used when one needs protection from the elements . . .
maybe i lack faith as i float "up, up, and away" . . .

i guess brainstorming isn't about logic.

i stamped the umbrella image onto some unbleached muslin. 

friday i snipped out the negative spaces within the stamped umbrella (on fabric) and then laid it onto a yellow subtly printed fabric and embroidered it.

i'm not sure where i'm going with it from here . . .




i know that i've "jumped tracks" with my art journaling this week. first working on my " . . . not clipping my own wings" page and then leaping into the Journal52 workshop/challenge.
perhaps i'll come back around to the first piece as i work through the year . . .
art journaling is like that. it's exploration and creativity . . . not necessarily working continuously on any one piece of art. it turns out that it too is all about the journey, not the destination.

today i am linking up with both the Art Journal Every Day forum at Balzer Designs and the Journal52 workshop.

recent gifts include:

• a sweetly quiet holiday spent with my wonderful husband and daughter
• time to think about what is important to me in my life
• whispering muses

# 102 . . .

at pintangle week 21 is all about the butterfly chain stitch. this was another new stitch for me. it's worked in two rounds. the first consisting of straight stitches. i made a group of three (varying lengths) using three strands of floss. each strand was a different color. the second round is a sort of chain stitch that loops around each of the groups of straight stitches. i chose a single strand of a variegated cotton thread for that round.   i didn't find an area on any of the stockings that i wanted to work this stitch into so i practiced with it on a fabric postcard instead.

there is always some creative eye candy within the comments on TAST posts and this week is no exception.

Christine, Claudia  and Miriam have all gone whimsical with kites.  i LOVE this example of the stitch serving a purpose within clothing in a decorative way.
it turns out that one does not have to use three straight stitches for the first run of stitches as shown in Lins Arty Blobs. very cool~!!~


i have wanted to create my own carved stamps for a very long time. i've researched and read and daydreamed and i even bought all of the supplies i'd need over a year ago and yet i still hadn't actually done it.
what was my problem~!?
i was concerned about it being difficult and time consuming and yes, that i'd make some mess of a stamp that i could only use by hiding it cleverly in the farthest back part of some background work.

last week i finally did it and none of those things happened. it was extremely easy and the cutting of it didn't hurt my hands at all (i have puny hand strength). it took me about an hour and that was from my first "gee, maybe i could just unpackage the tools and read over things" thought to actually having used my very first homemade stamp.
AND it turned out absolutely fabulously~!!~

the first thing that has to be done (after the unpackaging thing) is a decision must be made in regards to what the stamp is going to be . . .
i had sketched a pear (this months challenge with The Sketchbook Challenge is fruits and vegetables).
i decided to give it a go using my small (app. 2" tall x 1" wide) pear sketch.
and then i transferred the sketch onto the pink carving material and got to work carving it.
as you can see i enjoyed stamping it out on various papers. see the image in the middle of my process collage? i turned it into this:

feel free to click on the images if you want to see them better.

i hope to be making another fruit stamp this weekend as well as all sorts of stamps eventually.

if you have been thinking about making your own stamps my advice is: jump in and TRY IT~!

i'm looking forward to my artwork being that much more original because i no longer have to rely on pre-made stamps. there are lots of beautiful ones to choose from but there is nothing like having a certain 'vision' for a project and being able to make that happen independently of what may or may not be available for purchase. 
i also really like the rough look of the hand carved stamps as opposed to manufactured ones.

now all of that having been said i'll show some of the tags that i've recently made, all of which used at least one purchased stamp.

as you can see, they can be really pretty and even very versatile. i loved the way the butterfly looked after having colored it in using my prisma colored pencils. 

leaf stamps are favorites of mine and i have several but i'm still looking forward to making a few of my own.
now i can pick up any attractive leaf that i find, carry it home, sketch it out and voila; i'll not only have another stamp to use but i'll also have the memory of all that went into it. being a creative person means that those are good memories for me~!


it may be a while before i carve anything as detailed as the butterfly or as cute as this little mouse stamp but i'm going to have  fun practicing.

i'm sure there will still be stamps that i decide to purchase. there are some awesome choices  designed by talented artists but i know that i'm going to enjoy making my own. i love that my artwork will be much more about my own personal visions.

-  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -

the 15 minute challenge this week included time spent on the the hexie quilt top and the TAST project (postcard) as well as the surprise applique project.

-  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  - 

recent gifts include:

• rain
• the sunshine afterwords
• a tasty (homemade) pad thai
• a hot cup of ginger tea with honey