Charmed, I'm sure!

I am involved in several hand made charm swaps with several of my art groups. For my on-line group we have 26 participants. That means that I will make 26 charms , send them off to our Charming hostess and she will send me back 26 charms made by the other 25 artists in the group. I will then create a necklace or bracelet from the charms. We are all having wonderful fun with this swap. The following picture is of the charms that I have created for the Art Techniques swap. i made the large bead from fabric that I painted and stamped and then cut and rolled. the beads are attatched to a 3-way brass fishing swivel. (I just love buying jewelry findings in the fishing/outdoors department!)

The next set of charms I created for a swap with my local art group, Angela's Altered Artists, which is located in Reston at a Rubber Stamp store, hence the name of the group. These charms were made with scrabble tiles that I surrounded with a peyote stitched beaded bezzel. I backed each charm with paper that was sealed with a thick coat of laquer for durability.

There are 18 artists participating in this swap so I will recieve 17 different charms! This group became so excited about this swap that some of us decided to make two charms. So we each made a different smaller set of charms for those who wanted to make two. We just can't have too many charms! For this smaller set I took plastic disks 9intended for zipper pulls and collage some handmade paper covered by an image that was stamped on a transparency and added the word "Friends". For the other side I used half of a pansey sticker and alcohol inks to decorate the disk and added the words "Linked by Art". Both sides were then coated with a heavy coat of diamond glaze for durability.

As soon as I recieve the charms from these swaps I will post pictures!! i can't wait to see what everyone creates! this is too much fun! STAY TUNED!!!

Becca Mouse, Fourth Grader!

As some of you know , I have two wonderful kids. Matthew age14 and Becca age 9. They are amazing ,creative, smart, and tenderhearted young people. I am a very lucky Mom.!
Recently Becca had an assignment to give a book report in class. One of the options was to dress up as a character and give the summary in character. Obviously this was the chosen option. She became Poppy the Mouse, complete with single purple earring. She was a huge hit in class. The kid loves the stage- she didn't get that trait from me!!

Brand new Dolls

These glamour girls were just completed this morning! I popped them in a box with their two sisters (see previous post) and took them off to visit my new friends Vickie and Jan . These two sisters have just opened a wonderful Bead store right around the corner from my home. The store's name is The Whistle Stop Bead Shop. They are just getting started but classes are up and running and they would like me to teach for them. (So very exciting!) The gals were very taken with the dolls and Jan bought one outright( at a price that I never thought possible but that she insisted on paying!!) They want me to come up with an Art Doll Class for January and they want sample dolls to display. They also want to purchase some of my handpainted fabric beads to sell in their shop!!
TAFN, I have to go put together more Dolls heads!!!

Dolls and Other recent art

Here are some projects that I have been working on lately.

"We're Wired" art Dolls

When We were last visiting my mother-in-law , I asked if I could get into my father-in-law's workshop and clean out his "electrical bits" area. Since he passed away 5 years ago, my Mother-in-law has been trying to reduce and clean out clutter and I asked her not to discard anything"interesting" till she ran it by me! Lucky Me!!! She had come across boxes full of transistors and capacitors and other "whatnot" that no one had a use for. Well, y'all know that I wanted it! These girls are the result of a little bit of playing around. Their "hair" is made from the "electrical bit and pieces" as is the head behind the stamped image. I am planning on making quite a few more!! My 14 yr old son, Matthew, says that they look like the 'Borg' from the Star Trek TV series. He just shakes his head and tolerates my art.

Autumn Spirit Doll

Alias- Barbara Bush!!

This is the first art doll that I have ever madefor a swap. The deal was that I was sent the face(unpainted- and therefore, no color "clues") and I had to create a doll and return it to the face creator. Well, I panicked and almost gave up. But then I remembered taht the idea was not to create something that others would create , but something that I would create. I want to create dolls from found objects, not the usual muslin and stuffing etc. On my art space shelves I found a lonely vintage salt shaker that mad the perfect body. After creating a neck from polymer clay and arms from wire coated with polymer clay and painting the face (that took 3 trys), my Autumn Spirit was taking shape! I created her dress from a scrap of fabric and her clock is covered with silk leaves and beads. I am really pleased with her . I am considering submitting her for publication to Art Doll Quarterly. Hopefully there will be more to her story!!
Vintage Christmas Cards

These are some Christams cards taht I created for an on-line Vintage Christmas Card Swap. I made some Christmas themed painted paper towel fusion paper and then added velvet holly leaves and vintage red button "berries". i lke these so much that I think I am going to make some for our family christmas card for this year. So be watching your mail!!

Paper Fusion Decorated Mirror

This mirror began life on a shelf at IKEA, the AWESOME swedish homegoods store that is now only a meer 10 miles away! It cost $1.99- got to love that price!! I used my fusion paper technique with painted paper towels and decorative napkins (the roses) to complete the project. One of these mirrors was donnatedto a silent auction at my daughter, Becca's school and it brought in $28.00- not bad!

Hand made Charms

Several months ago, I discovered a wonderful Altered Arts group in Reston, VA. (approx. 1hr drive North). We meet once a month and we have our own Yahoo group. i have made some wonderful friends and I am really beginning to feel that I can find some friends and Like minded art folks here in VA. I wasn't sure there for awhile! I always forget about how long it takes to settle in and adjust and find any sort of comfort zone once you move.

Anyway, in our group we are having an Altered Charm swap. Everyone who participates has to make a charm for everyone else and then we will trade them in December. There are 18 artists participating so we each make 18 charms. All of the charms have to be made by hand and not be bigger than 1-1.5 inches. They must also be sturdy as we each plan to make a bracelet or a necklace with them. I mad these charms using a flat white disk (clearance table at a scrapbook store). I glued on some of my painted paper towel and a piece of a transparency that had been stamped with women's faces and then put on the word friends. The other side was colored with alcohol inks and a apnsey sticker and the works "linked by art" were added. Both sides were coated with a protective layer of crystal laquer.

These charms are for the same group swap . THis time I used old scrabble tiles and did peyote stitch beadwork around each one. On the back , I covered the felt and stitching with decorative paper and sealed the paper with crystal laquer. I have one for each person's first name and I can't wait to share these with everyone.

Here I go into Cyberspace

I am lauching myself into cyberspace to share my art with you. I am not the most computer literate person on the block but I am going forward anyway. Please bear with me as I begin this adventure. I know that I will make mistakes but I will also learn and I will always remind myself that "There are No Mistakes in ART!!

I am extremely lucky to have a very supportive family who values me, my art and my happiness. We have found a wonderful new home here in Virginia after a very difficult transition and move from Oklahoma. We are thrilled to be back on the East coast of the US and so much closer to family and dear friends. I left behind a wonderful group of friends in Oklahoma who m I miss everyday. But hopefully this blog will help us to stay in touch!

This is a picture of my wonderful Art Space. This space includes workspaces for the whole family as we work on exploring our creativity and nourishing our spirits.