Garden Fairies Everywhere!!

Garden fairies are turning up all over the house, in all sorts of stages of "doneness", or should I say "un-doneness"! I have a deadline of November 13 to get these babies to agallery in Reston, VA for their Christmas sale. They have asked for 30 of them. Friends who have spotted themwant me to have them at the Sales that I will be participating in on December 8th and 9th. Perhaps once I get the first 30 done, I can take a small break to create something else.
I have just discovered that if you click on the pictures you will get a larger image of the photo in a different window, then to get back to the blah, blah, blah of my blog you need only to click on the x in the top right corner! COOL!!!!!

Needless to say there are other things that I am working on. I must have other things going on if I am to successfully avoid the laundry folding and the vacuming and the dusting, right?????

The other day The GRACE Gallery in Reston, VA called. They were here visiting my blog and they were looking at my bird dolls, specifically "Sing Your Own Song". The manager asked if they could have some for the Gallery!! I am so jazzed that they came to me! I did not submit the bird dolls for consideration as they are so "one of a kind" and based on found objects- I was not sure how they would deal with that. But Erica, the gallery gal, wants as many as I can make- I told her between 5-8. So I have these little birdies to whip up as well!!!

My Glorious New Blog Header!!

I opened my e-mail this morning to find a message from my wonderfully creative, talented and generous friend Barb and this Banner was there as an attatchment!! I am so excited!! I have wanted to create a banner for so long and even had the pictures picked out for creating one, but couldn't get myself beyond that point. I am still so tentative with my computer skills, and then the choices one must make........
Barb just went ahead and did it for me!! What a friend!! I am so incredibly lucky to have such caring and sharing friends in my life!! Big hugs to you all!!!

Sing Your Own Song!!

Well, I have decided to be brave enought o make my own bird heads instead of using illustrations from old books! I'm not sure what was holding me back from taking this step. Something about not trusting myself and not being willing to take a chance and not wanting to create something that would not turn out. There are all kinds of traps out there to fall into. Why is trusting oneslf so difficult!! This assemblage is called Sing your Own Song.

This Assemblage is called Listen to Your Heart.

I am on my way to Etsy to post these two assemblages, right now! Wish me luck!

i would also like to ask a favor of one of you, my wonderful Blogging Buddies. Could someone wander by my Etsy site, http://Elizajean.Etsy.com ,and leave me some feedback at the site (if you have someting positive to say, of Course!!) It is NOT necessary to make a purchase in order to leave feedback but I think that it might help me to make a sale if potentail customers see positive feedback!! Thanks a million!!

Cancer Comfort Doll Complete!

I made the fabric for this doll from the scraps generated from making the doll blnks that I sent to my friend Mo. i sprinked all of the scraps, threads and some ric-rac and trims all over an 8x8 square of cotton. I pined a piece of fine white tulle over the whole thing and then stitched all over the top of it all repeatedly. Then I cut out the doll shape turned her inside out and embellished her. Her face is made from plymer clay. The leave vine trim (one of my favorite finds) is silk trim from France. She is backed with a scrap of pink Dupioni silk.



I am going to send her off to Mo, so she can hand them out to women patients at her next Dr.'s visit. i was able to make three more dolls out of the same pice of scraps fabric and they all have different faces. You will see them here soon.

It's Been Too Long!

Yes !! This is water from Rain ! Honest to goodness Rain!!!!! It has been 35 days without measurable rain, which, in our part of the world set a new record!!
We actually got about 5 inche, not enough to releive the drought or to stop the water emergency, but it does relieve the anxiety that it would not rain again!!
Hopefully we will get some more at the end of the week!!!

Finding My Way

For awhile now I have been trying to figure out which path to take with my art work. I have finally convinced myself that my art is not only about making money. Of course, when someone appreciates my work enough to buy it, I am THRILLED, don't get me wrong! But there are many more reasons for me to be pursueing my creativity. My art experience has changed dramaticaly since I have gotten so involved with several amazing on line art groups. I wouldn't trade the friendships that I have made, nor the support that I have recieved from all of my wonderful friends, for anything! The internet has been a wonderful tool for me.

The Internet has also allowed me to keep in touch with my wonderful friends , some of whom have been experiencing major health challenges lately. In my post about my bird assemblages, you were all introduced to my wonderful friend and art sister, Mo. Mo has Breast Cancer and Mo si going to be just fine!!! She has finished up with her chemo, her chem port has been removed and she is now going thru radiation treatments. Mo now has a mission. When she was diagnosed and was looking for info and resources in her area of the country-rural Oklahoma, she found very little. She is now determined to establish a non-profit organization to help women cope with cancer. It will nto matter what kind of cancer, nor will it matter whether they are patients, survivors siblings, daughters or caregivers. This organization will be about women with cancer. Mo wants very much to include art as a major portion of the support offered. the art could take the form of holding Art Journaling classes, Art Therapy, Meditation Classes, or providing art totems for patients to keep to know that they are loved and cared for.

I was writing to Mo the other day about a web site that I found that provides Art Dolls to victims of Domestic Violence. The dalls are called Comfort Dolls, here is the link to that wonderful organization http://www.patwintergatherings.com/Comfort_Doll_Project.html.

When I found this site my thoughts immediately turned to Mo and her plans. My gears started turning and I figured that I could stitch up several blank Pink doll bodies to send off to Mo so she could hav ethe fun of putting something of herself into them. Well I ended up making eight dolls in about 1.5 hours and then I put together a small kit. I added small skeins of various pink yarns (pink- for Breast Cancer) and some polymer clay faces that she can attach if she chooses.

I am going to make several dolls from start to finish , to send to her. I will ask her to hand them out to other women patients when she goes for her radiation treatments, whenever she feels that she is ready.

There are so many ways that we can show others that they are loved and cared for and I now know that some portion of my art work will be used to comfort others who need hugs! Doesn't everyone need a hug now and then!?!?



As soon as Mo gets her Non-Profit up and running , you will find links to it right here. You can also bet that you will be hearing more about it all from me!

Have you had your yearly check up and mammogram yet???????

Each of these blank dolls is about 5 inches tall and I know that Mo will have a blast embellishing the heck out them, using beads and baubles of all sorts! You should see her art stash- I haven't even seen it all!!!

This is the card that I made to explain all of my plottings to Mo. She loves birds as much, if not more than I do. I am so excited about this card as i have been so scared of doodling till just recently. I guess that i have looked on doodling as a "waste of Time". Couldn't be further from the truth!! Why is it that as we age we tighten up so??? Playing is essential for everyone- even things that don't work out for some reason or another, serve a very valuable purpose. So I decided to jump off the "doodling cliff " and came up with this card! I used some of my collaged and paint scraped papers and cut out a bird doodle. I used oil pastels to add some details and slapped the whole thing down on a piece of cardstock. So simple but so VERY difficult!!!

Ms Fushcia Rose

Meet Ms. Fushcia Rose. She was born on Monday, October 9. She was created in honor of all Breast Cancer Survivors and patients everywhere and she is part of a Think Pink Art Challenge She will be given to a Survivor or patient by the end of this month!

Her body is made from a piece of fabric that I painted ages ago. It is many colors but has a good deal of dark fushcia on it. I wanted her to be pink but all different shades of pink!! She turned out to be quite colorful and joyful, I think !!

Her face is made of polymer clay and her hair is from a Coopworth fleece that I purchased at a Fiber Festival. It came in the most amazing colors- more about this later!

The little joyful heart is made of pink felt and beaded. The streamers emerging from the heart end with the sentiments of Laughter, Dreams, Believe and Love. Her limbs are a bit spider like but at least she knows how to sit!!!

In this picture you can see the hand painted fabric used for her body. The stamp that I embossed on her back says, "Find the seed at the bootom of your heart and bring forth a flower." i think that i will be making several more dolls similar to Ms. Fushcia but no one will be exactly the same!

I hope that Ms Fushcia will bring joy and hope to one of my sisters, wherever she may be. Breast cancer will touch all women's lives in some way at some time. Get your mammograms, do self tests and share your hearts and you art with those who need our help!

Thanks!!

Fabric Paper

Fabric paper is created using paper that is sealed or glued to muslin fabric. This collaging to fabric gives the paper wonderful strength and allows you to do so much with the endproduct. You can sew with it and make all sorts of things with it as if it were just fabric. It is very messy and tons of fun!!! The artist Beryl Taylor has made this technique very popular and she highlights it's many uses in her book and in her many articles in the magazine Cloth, Paper ,Scissors.

This piece was made by collaging torn bits of an old White pages phone book directly to the muslin. Then I paint scraped and overstamped with Staz-On ink once the paint was dry.

For this piece I stamped directly on the muslin using text stamps, a bee stamp and some chinese writing stamps. Then I collaged painted paper towel over the stamped images. Not much of the stamping shows thru- this technique will need a bit more work as I want to see evidence of stamping but not clear images .

THese next two pieces are simply painted paper twoels collaged to muslin. I love the colors with small areas of metallics. Not sure what these will become but you will see them in the near future!

Playing with Color!

We are having an extremely dry Fall here in VA. Our second round of water restrictions goes into effect this Monday, that means no more outside watering.It has also been very hot- we are all ready for some real Fall weather!

That said , the weather has been perfect for some fabric dyeing and sun prints. One must take advantage of weather conditions since we really never know when things will change!

These two pieces were done using a vintage linen napkin. I used ferns, Creeping Jenny and grasses to mask the dyed fabric. These pieces will be used in upcoming Journal Quilt projects for my Surface Design Group.

These pieces were done using regular muslin. The lacey effect is from a paper doiley and the flower prints are from Zinnia blossoms.

With the last bits of dye left in the pots, i dyed some laces and rims that I will use in various projects. I love having bits and pieces of dyed lace on hand as I never know when I will need it!

Most of these bits were purchased as odd pieces at antique stores and flea markets.

I finished off another Round Robin project today. I have been fretting about this piece for a long time. This Round Robin really sucked the artist right out of me- so many dropped out and several books were lost- it was very disheartening and very depressing. The gal whose book I was working in was very willing to wait for me to get motivated and to find my RR Muse again, so that was cool. I finally got inspired.

The book is large and has heavy black pages. the black pages were a bit dawnting. First I collaged some text pages and airline baggage tags on parts of each page. Then I did some paint scraping. this is what things looked like at that point.

So far , so good. At this point i decided that I was ready for some stretching- it was the perfect situation. If I really screwed up, I could just rip out the pages as there were many pages and I was the last artist to work in this book. I decided to play with some gesso with the thought that I would stamp over the gessoed parts. I did add the gesso but then I picked up a Sharpie Marker and didn't look back. Up till now I have felt so unsure about doing this sort of thing, but now the gate has been opened and the perverbial horse has left the barn!!!! I had so much fun with this piece and it is sooo different from things that I have produced before.

I will be doing many more projects like this one! I just hope that the gal who owns this book will like it as much!!!!