Celestial Textiles

Cigar Box Cabinets--Done!

2012-01-16T23:33:00.000-05:00

Big sigh--don't you think every weekend should be 3 days? I sure do! Two days for chores and necessaries and one day for glorious crafting and nothing but crafting.

Here's what I got done: 2 cigar box cabinets (OK, I started the first one a couple of weeks ago, but still). And I packed them full of craft supplies instantly. Clearly I need to make more--so I have 2 more planned/in the works.

Thanks to ebay, I bought 2 lots of vintage cigar box labels and used those to decorate the sides of the cabinets (I just thought they looked a little plain). I used Mod Podge (remember decoupaged purses from the 70's??) and, man, that stuff is awesome!

Somehow, I missed out on the whole decoupage craze back then (not sure how, I tried everything else!). I tried both the matte and gloss and definitely liked the gloss the best. It made a nice finish on the surface of the wood I was using and, duh, adhered the labels down and then sealed them beautifully. I just had to be careful for air bubbles forming in the center of the larger ones. But I managed.

The nice thing about the labels is that they are embossed so there's a great textural element too, when you look closely.

I'm also exploring another Mod Podge product: Dimensional Mod Podge. The jury is still out--I'll post when the projects are complete. I have some high hopes. If it works like I hope it does, more fridge magnets and a bunch of new pendents are in my immediate future. Or, shall I say, my etsy store's future. :)

A canine fashion plate

2012-01-09T20:14:00.000-05:00

We've had a little cold snap here in sunny Central Florida so I quick finished up Gidget's little sweater just in time. Isn't it cute? And she really does like to wear it, too.

And I used up several little tag end balls of yarn in my stash, too.

I was also happy to receive word today that one of my pieces that I had entered into a juried show here at UCF was just accepted. Yay!

Still digging them cigar boxes

2012-01-07T21:59:00.000-05:00

Greetings, dear readers--its been a busy week but I did just manage to finish my cigar box cabinet.

Here it is in all of its glory! I spent some fun time on ebay looking for fixtures, knobs, additional decals and edging tape. I also spent the entire week sampling several different finishes on some leftover scrap wood. In multiple permutations with each other. Lots of fun crafting and interesting decisions to make!

When it was all said and done, I decided against any paint, stain, crackle or additional decals. I ended up liking the grain and color of the luan wood that I bought at the Despot so much that I just sanded and finished with gloss Mod Podge.

I was going to sell this baby at my etsy store, but I got very attached to the thing and am already planning what I need to store in it.

Here are a couple detail shots:

The lovely knobs! I would have preferred label pull tabs but they were not to be found in the appropriate size, finish and cost. Whatever--these are pretty damn good.

And here you can see the finish. This wood is extremely absorbent and really needed a sealer. No stain here--that's the natural color of the wood veneer of this stuff. Supposedly the veneer is made out of a "low-grade mahogany". Its grain and color is very compatible with the exposed wood of the cigar boxes, an unexpected plus.

I'm going to let everything dry really well overnight. Tomorrow I'm going to find a good spot in my studio for it and then load it up with crafting supplies!

And after that's done, there's all of these new ones to deal with! :)

Cigar box love

2012-01-04T21:34:00.000-05:00

Hi all, its the new year and I hope all of you entered the auspicious 2012 with a creative focus and a positive outlook. I know I have! I look forward to Jan. 1 each year--I know it sounds corny but I like making resolutions--I think about it all December and always view it as an opportunity for a fresh and exciting new start. This year I resolved to be more consistently creative and organized. This includes keeping my studio neater and actually entering shows (instead of just downloading the entry application and losing it in my kitchen counter maelstrom). AND, I am proud to say that my studio has already had a good deep cleaning and reorganization and I have entered not 1, but 2 shows already. And its only Jan. 4! Wahoo!

I've been chugging away on several projects in the last couple of weeks--so I'll be posting the finished doggie sweater and Blade Garden quilt soon as well as updates on some other quilts and other fun stuff. Its a time of new beginnings, right? So permission was granted to start some new projects--yay!

And I have to confess, I'm in loooove. Big time obsession, even. My new(old) amor is/are cigar boxes: all sizes, in their wooden glory with beautiful embossed decals and edgeing. Glorious deep reds and stamps and Victorian era art work. Swoon.
I've always had an unrequited simmering lust for the things and a couple of websites I stumbled across lately just reignited that fire. And then, the very next day after my web-surfing, I happened to walk past my...wait for it...local cigar shop that just happened to have piles and piles of empty cigar boxes for sale (reasonable, too). They called to me, I tell you. I just HAD to have some. Well, could you ignore such a sign, I ask you? No, neither could I. Here are some (!) of the lovelies I came home with.

So then I got to thinking: "hmmm, boxes are great for storage. and craft rooms and studios always need more storage. and boxes stacked on top of each other are pretty but not really functional--they need to be on their own little shelves. maybe I can build a little shelf unit to size. I think 6 boxes would be a good number. how would I construct it." and on and on in that vein. I love that kind of brainstorming.

Thus it was that I set off to the Depot, for some luan wood and some wood glue and then off to a good friend with a table saw who could cut it to size for me (Many many thanks, Chris!!). Here are the pieces cut for the sides and back of the little cabinet and the small wood pieces that will support the shelves.

Next, its time to carefully glue down the shelf supports. I didn't have any clamps so chip clips and beans and rice serve as weights to hold the supports down until the glue sets up. Don't laugh, it worked! After the glue had set up, I followed up with some little nails (I had some little bitty ones that were just the right size).

My lack of clamps or straps was really an issue when it came time time to assemble the back and sides together. This time, rubber bands came in to play to support the beans and rice. There was a little bit of cursing involved and a couple of tense moments when I wished I had three hands, and there are a few imperfections despite all of my best efforts, BUT, over all it came together nicely.

And here it is all glued and nailed and the boxes inserted--so cool!

My next dilemma: paint? or no? if yes, what color(s)? maybe, maybe a finish--a crackle finish? sanded along the edges?decoupage on sides? of? can I get some cigar box decals? or edging?

Clearly, time to experiment with some scrap pieces!

Well, however that all works itself out, it became clear that some sort of knob or pull needed to be installed on the front of each box to aid in pulling each one out. And they need to be brass and vintage, and match the whole vibe of a cigar box, right?

So for knob/pulls/decals--Look out, Ebay, here I come!

Leaves done, mini collage

2011-12-30T21:59:00.000-05:00

Well, Christmas is over, the cookies have all been baked (and mostly eaten), the cards have been sent and the wrapping paper explosion has been cleaned up.

So now its time to get back to our regularly scheduled works already in progress. And there are a bunch of them! I'll just blog about a couple of them today.

At the top of my "must get done" list is the underwater/mermaid piece. I've been sewing all of those pesky seaweed leaflets down and they are finally done, outlined and the backs trimmed out. Whew!
That actually took quite a while (last week or so) but I haven't posted cuz, honestly, how many pictures of gold leaflets on a royal blue background does a body want to see?

OK, well, here are a couple, anyway. But I'm only including them because I'm done with the little buggers.

First is the whole piece (more or less), laying (as usual) on my bed. Its a long, vertical piece so I think I will have to start taping it to a wall to give a more accurate rendition. This shot probably looks pretty much like the last picture I showed so here's a detail picture.

Hopefully you can see some of the stitching. I'm happy with them and happy to move on to the mermaid and other elements.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to to be more active creatively on several fronts: start more art, finish more art and sell more art. That includes getting organized and entering more shows. I slacked off in 2011 and I feel like I need to get back in the groove. Pulling entries together and getting them submitted is always a chore and inevitably takes 5 times longer than you think it will and this past year I just didn't have the energy. But I feel like I can handle it again so I got an entry submitted (all online) today (deadline is tomorrow). Its a collage based show, so its kinda a new sort of venue for me. I had 3 pieces already completed that I thought were appropriate and I reworked/finished a 4th one yesterday for inclusion.

Check it out! Its a little piece (see the energy drink pop top?) with bright colors and lots of itsy bitsy details.

I sure hope it (and its brethren) get in to the show, but supposedly I won't find out until the end of March or so. Keep you fingers crossed for me!

Christmas Card fail and then subsequent redemption

2011-12-16T17:39:00.000-05:00

Well, it almost never happens, but this year's original Christmas card was a failure. :( I liked the design and the finished card looked pretty darn good but production of 60 cards was just not to be.

See how nice they turned out?

sigh

Unfortunately, all of that lovely fine glitter clogged up the acetate stencil that I had cut and it became a constant battle of cleaning out the stencil every second or third spraying. If I didn't do it that often the glitter started filling in the narrow lines of the letters, dammit. So I did that, starting to grumble. But then when the stencil started to break/tear at some of the narrow places, I saw the handwriting on the wall.

It was just not going to happen. 20 cards? yeah, I would have toughed it out. But 60? no way.
Time to regroup. Remember: "its not a mistake, its a design opportunity". Right? Right!

Ok. Well, I already had a stack of pre-sprayed background cards so it had to involve them. I did not wish to go back to the drawing board and spend an excessive amount of time conceptualizing so I (guiltily) rehashed a designed from a few years ago with a textured paper star. An added plus: I still had some of that textured paper and was happy to use it up.

Here's my nice fat star template--I like him!

And here is my stack of textured stars. You can barely make it out, but they, too, have been sprayed with the gold glitter spray from Lowe's. Holding the spray can at a sharp angle while spraying allowed the glitter to get in the closer crevasses and not in the away crevasses, making for a nice effect. (You'll have to take my word for it; I know it doesn't really show up here).

A sheet of foam that I had saved from some shipment or other gave its life to make some little rectangles.
(extra points for recycling and keeping a piece foam out of the landfill)

And then out comes the glue gun and attaches all of that foam to the stars....

and then the stars to the cards!

And that is it. Whew--I'm done. Crisis averted. Yay!

Time to start addressing those cards now...

Updates...

2011-12-12T21:15:00.000-05:00

Its been a busy weekend and I made a fair amount of progress on several fun projects. So here are some interim updates on three different works I've got going. {Don't ask me why I have so many projects going, sometimes it just happens that way. Just a little crazy sometimes, I guess.} And I'm not even going to mention the 3 different kinds of Christmas cookie dough that I have chilling in the fridge. gack! Never mind--you didn't hear that--

Anyway, On my large underwater piece, I sewed down some bias tape stems for some seaweed as you can see here. I personally love Clover iron on bias tape. Its so nice and curveable. You still have to tack it down, of course, or it will pop off after some handling. The only downside to this wonderful stuff is that its difficult to come by in colors. Usually you only find it in black (folks use it for making "stained glass" quilts). Every once in a blue moon I stumble upon it in other colors and when I do, I snap it up. So I went to my stash and found some mottled light brown tape--perfect. Also a little gold for just a short stretch.

After that was done, I spent some nice, contemplative time laying out the leaflets of the seaweed--quite a few tan ones, some yellow and a few gold ones cut into 6 different sizes. I want it to look like some of them are catching the light underwater and flashing it back at you.

Obviously, I have a lot of leaves to sew down now. I'll be doing some raw edge applique to accomplish that. Since I fused all the leaf fabric to some Pelon Shirtailor interfacing, I will have no trouble doing that with a narrow satin stitch. I got a few of them done over the weekend but by no means all. Its fiddly work and I can only concentrate for so long before I start losing my focus and start getting sloppy.

When that happens, I have found that its just no good trying to "power through" or some such. I'll just make more and more mistakes and get supremely aggravated. Maybe even have to pick out some stitches. Which I hate doing, but I'll force myself if I've made a botch of things. At least in this medium you can do that unlike other media.

So when I exhausted myself on the leaves, I took myself off to the kitchen to design this year's Christmas card. Keeping it simple this year and no textiles, either. Something with some spray paint and an acetate stencil seemed the way to go.

Here's my sketch in the actual card dimensions on the left. I'm seeing lots of glittery gold. I bought some holiday spray glitter at Lowe's last weekend and I'm thinking that it might be just the thing.

And here is the acetate sheet half cut out. I'm not a big fan of working with an Exacto knife, but I worked slow and steady and kept it together and did an ok job of making a nice stiff stencil.

And then, since I've had a several sales from my etsy site recently, I worked on replacing some of the inventory of my biggest seller: business sized envelopes. So relaxing to trace and cut these out and then so fun to fold them and watch them become an envelope. Its a simple thing but I get a big charge out of it for each and every one.

Yay!

When the weekend was over, I felt so accomplished. Even though I didn't get anything technically completed, I still was deeply satisfied.

And its just as much about the process as it is about the product, isn't it??

Doggie sweater

2011-12-03T19:06:00.001-05:00

Well, its finally getting a little cool here in central Florida so us humans are donning our hoodies and maybe even thinking about a sweater (in a month or so, anyway). The corgis have long since laid down their winter fur (you'd think it was the arctic or something) so they're all prepared and then some.

But.

If you're a miniature pinscher and cold weather is a'comin, you are none too happy, seeing as how you have no fur to speak of on your tummy and not much anywhere else.

May I introduce the smallest member of our household? This is Gidget, a rescue doggie (like our other two).

She's my daughter's dog and loves to cuddle and be fussed over and wear clothes (really!). And, of course, she gets cold and is always looking for that really warm spot to curl up in and have a nap. One day, I came home and went upstairs to take her out and she did not greet me at the door when I opened it like she usually does.

I soon saw the reason why--she had found Fiona's sweatshirt on the floor, pawed at it and crawled into it until she was all snuggly and warm. When she tried to get out, she left via the sleeve and this is how I found her. Oh my, I laughed until I cried. She had wormed her way halfway across the room and had only managed to wedge herself in even tighter. Poor thing was mortified so I liberated her right away (after I ran and got my camera).

So even though she has some store bought clothes, I decided a nice custom made knit sweater would be just the ticket for this little girl. That way I could compensate for her exact dimensions and really cover most of those bare parts and use up some of the odds and ends in my stash as well. So I got out my double pointed sock needles and a variety of cotton, silk and linen leftover yard and started knitting away. No pattern--I'm winging it and living dangerously. I suppose I could have searched for a pattern online, but I'm pretty confident I can whip up something appropriate. Here's the early progress: knit in the round from the neck down, some short rows in the chest and then leg holes on some stitch holders.

Here's a close-up of the yarn. I'm knitting with two strands: a beige/white cotton linen yarn (I had 3 balls of that) and something else (one of my many little oddballs that I compulsively save). Knitting with the cotton linen yarn blends all of the oddballs together despite their varying weights and colors/values so I'm pretty pleased so far.

So stay tuned--this will be done soon and I'll post the finished product up close and being modeled as well. :)

Underwater under construction

2011-12-03T18:15:00.001-05:00

Hello all! I'm finally back in the swing of things so I have several things to post about. Yay!

After many moons, I have picked up my under water quilt once again and decided to just get a move on. I had been strop piecing the background with various shades of royal and navy blue, but had gotten bogged down (=bored) with endless blue, blue, blue strips, strips strips. I had made 6 strips and sewed them together but they were not wide enough for the dimensions I envisioned. Bleah!

As I was browsing the internet this one evening last weekend, I came across Sherri Lynn Wood's awesome tutorial on how to sew curved seams and something just clicked! I cut my long 6 strip wide panel in half, sewed it to itself to make a 12 strip wide piece and then cut it up into gentle curves.

Those got inserted between swatches of some of the same solid fabrics I used in the strips. et Voila! A lovely, shimmery underwater background in the size I wanted. Sherri is hosting a Mod Mood quilt archive for folks that have used her technique and are making a Mod Mood quilt--check it out!

Recycled Art, finished at last

2011-11-05T21:51:00.000-04:00

Sorry for my month-long absence, dear readers. Its been a busy time at work, but today I was finally able to get some work done in my studio. Nothing new, mind you, but I did some good solid work on 3 works in progress. Sewed some more strips onto the 8 Gerbera pieces and made a sleeve and pinned it onto the Blade Garden quilt. And then I decided that I absolutely had to finish the recycled materials piece. Its been sitting around for a month or so, unfinished and crying out for something. Wasn't quite sure what, but something.

So its been sitting around and I have been trying out different doodads and this and that and just haven't been happy with any of it. So I decided that today it was do or die. And after trying out a bunch of different recycled items to keep with the theme (and because you know I save all sorts of interesting stuff, of course) and here is what I came up with. You can see I ended up adding a cool beer bottle cap, two energy drink tabs, a cut-out phrase from an Altoid tin and a couple of fortune cookie fortunes. And, if you check them out in the close-up shot, you can see that they are appropriate for a piece of art.

So here's the final list of all of the recycled materials that I used in this piece. All were found around the house or used my me or my family:
-vinyl from some bedding packaging
-a piece of fabric from a repurposed vintage t-shirt
-a used dryer sheet
-bread twist ties
-beer bottle cap
-energy drink tabs
-phrase cut from an Altoid tin
-fortune cookie fortunes

Yay! I'm so pleased with it. After all of the additional items I tried (and it took me about over an hour messing around with all sorts of bits), I really liked this combination of items for their color, texture and diversity.

Dealing with a large scale print

2011-09-12T21:16:00.000-04:00

So all of you quilters out there know the siren allure of a striking large scale print fabric in the quilt fabric shop and then the inevitable crushing confusion of "now what the hell do I do with this??" when you get home and start to plan/sew. Hah! I have succumbed to this too many times to say. I'm particularly fond of the designs of Jane Sassaman and Kaffe Fasset. Love those large, unusual florals! And the bright vibrant colors! Man, its just addictive. I can't help myself--just gotta have'em.
I have a couple of strategies that seem to work pretty well. What I do is make a large border with it or focus in on the individual motifs and use them in the center of your blocks. I've used both of these strategies in this traditional quilt. A huge Gerbera daisy head is in the center of some of the blocks, just left whole and unpieced. The border is a lovely chard leaf print and is also left whole and unpieced. I call this one Tropical Floral Sunset Major and it currently lives in the somewhere in the Tampa area.

Here's another quilt with large scale prints. One in the center of the round insets in the of the blocks, and a couple more in between the blocks and then another surrounding the blocks. This one is called Solar Mandala and is quite large (like, about 7 feet across or so). In fact, it grew so large that its the only quilt that I've had to send out and have quilted for me. It was just too big to manage for my regular sewing machine (needed a long-arm).

So, currently I'm working on something a trifle smaller and easier to deal with--8 small wall hangings with a large Gerbera daisy in the center of the single blocks. No, not the same Gerbera print as above. But, yes, obviously I love Gerbera daisies. They are so sunlike and happy. The cool (and challenging) thing about this print was that these flowers were on a black background. And you know how I feel about brights and black, right? right? Its AWESOME! What's not to love?? So here it is in all of its glory. Great. Lovely. and...now what the hell do I do with it?

Keeping this one simple and relatively small--I've trimmed out individual daisies and framed them with strips of bright matching or contrasting funky fabrics. Then a frame of black and then strips above and below in a random sequence.

Unfortunately, the colors didn't reproduce well. Sorry! But you can see the progress. I'm chugging away at these. And since I'm just sewing on straight strips on top and below, its pretty easy to sit down and do some pinning or sewing for short quick periods of time. I'll post again when I'm finished with the tops. I'm thinking they will look striking in a groups. And with 8 to choose from, there will be a lot of ways to combine them.

A post-modern composition of household ephemera

2011-09-10T21:01:00.000-04:00

I've been reveling in the whole recycling thing lately, as you may have noticed, what with the opening of my new etsy shop and all. So a couple of weeks ago I thought I'd challenge myself with a project constructed out of completely recycled and rather nontraditional materials.

Here you can see what sparked my interest: some vinyl plastic from a mattress zippered bag, some dryer sheets and....bread twist ties! In all different colors, aren't they beautiful?? No? Well, I think they are interesting to look at and the colors are bright and compelling. Let's just see what I can start with all of this trash, hmm?

First, I cut the vinyl apart, saving the zipper for another project. I was glad to get it--finding really long zippers is really difficult at my local sources.

Then I straightened out the twist ties as much as possible and started laying them out vertically on top of the vinyl and a used dryer sheet, tryingto spread out all of the colors. I really love how these materials play off of each other in texture and origin.

So I just kept on going until I had all of my twist ties laid down and composed. Some vintage sheeting fabric was added as a backing layer for a little more depth.

Very nice! Now I had to fix the twist ties down without losing their spontaneous feel. The sewing machine was definitely out the the question, so I carefully hand sewed the twist ties down using large stitches.

I finished it with some white foam core (which then got smudged, dammit, so I have to get some more). I think this will look really inviting in a shadow box frame.

I think I'll call it: "A post-modern composition of household ephemera."

Oh. That was the title of my post. Well. How about that?

:D

Shameless self-promotion

2011-09-02T10:48:00.000-04:00

Hi all,
Well, the title says it all--sigh. But I figure if you're reading this, you're interested in my doings. Been pretty busy with my day job lately--boring stuff like putting food on the table and endlessly shuttling kids around. I have started on a set of eight simple wall hangings with a botanical theme. I'll take some pictures and post soon, I promise. Seems like I am just able to squeeze in a scant 20 minutes here or 45 minutes there to actually sew a little. Luckily, although there are 8 of them, they are all of a really, (and I mean REALLY) simple format so the sewing is pretty mindless. The biggest part of the project was cutting all the strips. They should be pretty cool, though--similar in format to my Tribal Kat series. Lots of black in these too.

Anyway--news about my art on another front. I was contacted earlier this year by Anne Futterman Collier who was writing a book entitled Using Textile Arts and Handcrafts in Therapy with Women. She wanted to interview me and include a couple of my pieces in her work. She wished to feature 2 of my favorite pieces: Our Lady of Creativity and Nocturnal Sojourn (which you see here above right and to the left). I happily agreed and we corresponded via the magic of email. The book should be out in December and I look forward to getting a copy. If you want one for yourself, click on the link above and pre-order from Amazon. I think it sounds very interesting.

Well, I thought that was the end of it, but no! Last month I was contacted by the publisher and was asked if thye could use one of the images on the cover of their upcoming book catalog. Well! How cool! Below you can see the image they will be using--nice, huh? (black always makes colors pop--I'm just a sucker for black and bright colors). Unfortunately, I made not a dime for either use, but it is good exposure and they do credit me. Maybe it will pay off in the long run somehow or other. I am a big believer in Karma, after all.

More soon!

Energy Drink Jewelry

2011-07-20T21:00:00.000-04:00

So...you know I save all sorts of odds and ends that catch my eye, right? I've posted previously about my quilts that featured (among other things) fortune cookie fortunes, vintage buttons, snaps, hook and eyes, rubber o-rings... well, the list goes on and on (just wait for my bread twist-tie piece!)

Well, I had these energy drink pop tops*--I really love their iconic shape and their cool metallic colors. I wanted to make some jewelry out of them and finally came up with this design employing an aluminum chain and some wire wrapped links and beads.

I got to have a lot of fun picking out the bead combinations that went with each top keeping up the rainbow vibe. An added bonus is the nice little jingly sound this necklace makes at every movement. I think I'll make another one, too!

Clearly this is a recycled craft, so OF COURSE its for sale in my new etsy shop! See Rainbow energy drink pop top necklace for more details!

* and, no, I don't drink them--they are vile and I can't get past the smell of them, thank you. But my sixteen year old son does like them very much and has graciously collected them for me.

The notorious penis cookies

2011-07-17T22:31:00.000-04:00

Well, it was a fun and productive day in the kitchen and so I thought I'd share it with you. Hope you all get as big a kick out of it as me and my daughter did. :)

So the other day my daughter came home from the mall with a penis cookie cutter! (from Spencer's of course) Well! I mean! Sigh. So, ok, I got on board. A perfect opportunity for some mother daughter bonding! So I decided to whip up a batch of my mother's butter cookies. These have been a favorite in our family from way back. Of course, usually I make these as Christmas cookies but, hey, you know, you can roll out any shape, right? Right? And they're still good, no matter what!

My mom got this recipe out of the local newspaper maybe 50 years ago, more or less. They're simple and good and full of butter. Yum!

Mom's Butter Cookies

1 cup room temp butter
1 cup sugar (I usually use 1/2 cup of white and 1/2 cup of brown sugar)
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/14 cups sifted AP flour
extra egg yolk or two for glaze and sprinkles if desired

Cream butter, gradually add sugar. Blend in egg, salt and vanilla extract, beating well. Gradually add in flour, mixing well. If making thumb print cookies, form into small balls and mash down with your thumb on un-greased cookie sheet. If making cookie cutter shapes, refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Take quarter of the dough out at a time (put the rest of the dough back in the fridge while you're working) and roll out to an even thickness 1/4 inch thick or so. You will need a fair amount of flour to keep this buttery dough from sticking. Keeping this dough chilled and well floured is the key to successful rolling out. As you cut out the shapes, place the snippets in a pile and save for the last batch.

Here's our first sheet of penis cookies!

HA ha. We snickered a lot the whole time. Too funny. Now for the decorations. I like to put a glaze on prior to baking for some shininess and to help various sprinkles adhere. Usually I use an egg yolk mixed with a little water or milk. Left as is, it makes a nice yellow color (duh) which is great for Christmas stars. Add a drop or two of food color and you can go red or green or whatever. Fiona wanted some chocolate glaze so I added a teaspoon of cocoa and two of powdered sugar and mixed really well to one of my yolks. Then we got out our collection of sprinkles...

And Fiona went to town with various combinations of all of the above!

After some thoughtful decorating we ended up with this lovely first batch. They are now ready to go into the 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes; there should be light golden brown edges (and bottoms) to the cookies. No brown on the top, please, that makes them a little too crispy.

And here they are out of the oven! Let them cool on the pan for a couple of minutes, then remove them with a spatula and let cool on a rack.

I hope you enjoy this recipe--let me know if you make it! No matter what the shape.

Maps + Butterflies + Envelopes

2011-07-15T20:56:00.000-04:00

I took the day off work today--my day job that is! But I did work all day on finishing up a bunch of crafts, taking pictures of them and uploading them to my new etsy store. So what was I up to to with all of those maps and butterflies???

Vintage map butterfly note cards, of course!

Here's a set of four that I made out of vintage National Geographic maps. They are a larger size and have matching butterflies and envelopes. I also made some of these in a smaller size using white or cream card stock for the cards.

Looking through my stash I saw that I had some lovely translucent vellum envelopes left over from a Christmas card project from years ago so I snagged those for this set. I just love the see-through aspect. So pretty and unexpected.

Of course you remember my business envelopes from a couple of posts ago, too, right? You saw them in their nude, ungummed state.
I have since glued down their sides and. . . wait for it . . . applied a lickable gum adhesive on the flap so you can seal it like a real envelope: Crafter's Companion Envelope Gum 2 Fl Oz CCEG1; 3 Items/Order How cool is that?

I tried it out and licked one closed--yup, it really works!

So obviously I've been busy as a beaver and now I formally invite you to check out my new etsy shop:http://www.etsy.com/people/LizzieLuvs2Recycle Think of it as a digital open house! Here's a smattering of the items I uploaded:

Paper Butterflies

2011-07-14T23:08:00.000-04:00

When last I posted it was all about vintage maps and envelopes. And I have been working furiously to make lots and lots of them in the intervening week. But I was also becoming fascinated with butterflies and their iconic shape. With a little web surfing I realized that a lot of butterfly art is actually kind of crappy--not like a real butterfly at all. Proportion of upper and lower wings and angles are key. Its not so simple to draw a realistic butterfly, it turns out, so I resorted to my trusty Audobon Butterfly field guide, National Audubon Society Pocket Guide to Familiar Butterflies Of North America (National Audubon Society Pocket Guides) and even a real Morpho butterfly I had under glass. (Here's a link if you're interested in getting your own iridescent blue Morpho; the frame will be different from mine, but its the same famous South American beauty: Mounted Blue Morpho Butterfly - Displayed in Framed Acrylic Case 7" x 7" x 2" ) Of course, in order to get both halves of my butterfly templates symmetrical I simply did the fold-in-half trick that we all learned in grade school when it was time to cut out hearts for Valentine's day. :)

Those resources did the trick, and, as you can see, I cut out several pleasing and biologically accurate butterfly shapes (after a couple of false starts). I wanted them oversized compared to real butterflies, but still clearly recognizable and not stylized at all. I wanted to evoke a real butterfly collection, like the one seen here in this nice pic by Mike Beauregard on Wikimedia http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_butterfly_collection.jpg

I think the initial thing you perceive is the variety of all of the different shapes. Then all of the colors. I plan on playing with both of those parameters in my ultimate application.

Soooooo... then came the big question: Now that I got'em, what do I do with these handsome butterfly templates?? Hmmm. Well, I did what I always do when I'm trying to work out a design issue: I stuck them up on a blank wall so I could look at them from across the room and live with them for a few days.

Here they are in a row. Not bad.

And here they are grouped more tightly. I like them both ways, actually. After this picture, I made 3 additional ones and pasted those up so that I had a 3 x 3 square grouping. Very nice.

Well that's all for tonight.

Next post: maps + butterflies + envelopes = ????

Vintage map envelopes

2011-07-07T17:15:00.000-04:00

Its been a busy week and its all about making fun stuff for my new etsy store: LizzieLuvs2Recycle. So here's the latest: envelopes made out of vintage atlas maps. It was a shot in the dark as far as a recycling project and it turned out much better than expected. Fun, easy and I really love the results.

I looked for an envelope template on-line but couldn't find one that I liked (they were all odd sizes for various greeting cards and I wanted a standard business envelope). So after sitting there stumped for a while I did the whole "headslap; duh" thing and grabbed an envelope from my desk, deconstructed it and used it to make a cardboard template. Luckily, I had an old atlas in the car that was crying out to be repurposed and...Voila!

After a crafty evening tracing and cutting out the envelopes, I had this growing stack. It was very satisfying picking the prettiest maps and arranging my template for maximum interest. They already look cool, don't they??

I had this annoying long floppy ruler made out of thin plastic that turned out to be the perfect tool to act as a guide for the folds. Side flaps first...

Then the bottom flap. Looking good!

Then the top. I can't wait to use one myself!

Of course once I started cutting up the atlas, I kinda had to cut the whole thing! So now I have lots of envelopes. I ordered some glue/gum online to gum the sides down and leave a wetable gum on the flap so that it can be sealed. Hopefully it gets here fast--I'm really anxious to finish these babies and get them uploaded for sale!

The fronts are so pretty and colorful. I will likely use an address label to give a nice white area in the center.

I can't wait to make some more fun stuff out of maps. I just bought a bunch of old National Geographic maps from eBay for some even bigger maps.

Death by Chocolate

2011-07-07T16:45:00.000-04:00

OK--finally here's the post on those ridiculous chocolate cookies.
***WARNING***
Do not make these cookies unless you're really serious. I mean, really. Don't say I didn't warn you. They are stupidly rich and overwhelmingly chocolate-y. If you are brave enough, here's the recipe. I got this recipe from my wanderings on the internet--it looked Ok so I copied it down. I see from my printout that this recipe is adapted (by whom, I did not record, sorry!) from Brown Eyed Baker (Google her blog--you should find her, I think). She calls them Chocolate Espresso Cookies, but my kids named them Death By Chocolate. I think that name fits much, much better. And, yeah, I've adapted it somewhat too. After all, that's what happens to recipes, isn't it? Sometimes my internet recipes don't work out (the "best muffin recipe ever" I tried recently comes to mind; what a disappointment that was) but this one is a keeper for the permanent file. When cooled, they retain a lovely velvety, yet completely baked center that just melts in your mouth. And then there's all that chocolate accentuated by the espresso.

Death By Chocolate Cookies
yields ca. 3 dozen

16 oz. bittersweet* chocolate, chopped
4 tbsp butter
4 eggs
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar or extract
1/2 cup AP flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp espresso powder
1 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 3 or 4 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler, stirring occasionally, until all chocolate and butter is melted and smooth. Here's my chocolate to start with:

And here's what it looks like when its all melted and lovely. While that's melting, combine the eggs, vanilla and sugar in a large bowl and set aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and espresso powder. Slowly beat the chocolate and butter into the egg mixture until well combined. Gradually beat in the flour mixture until a smooth batter forms. Stir in chocolate chips.

The batter will be pretty runny/goopy. Drop by tablespoons of batter on to the parchment lined cookie sheet. You can see mine there to the left. And, yes, the parchment is necessary. You can get some somewhere in the vicinity of the wax paper and aluminum foil in your local grocery story. At least, that's where my local store keeps it.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until they are firm on the outside. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes then remove to a cooling rack with a spatula. You can eat them warm for the most intense chocolate fix. Or let them cool and mellow if you are more faint of heart. Either way, pour yourself a BIG glass of milk, sit down and take it slow. One cookie to start, maybe a second.

* Both times I made this recipe I did not have the full 16 oz. of bittersweet chocolate. As my google search told me, you can substitute semisweet and unsweetened chocolate. You will lose some depth of chocolate flavor but its doable. Of course, if you substitute to all unsweetened chocolate, your cookies will not be sweet enough so balance some semi sweet in there too. This last time I had 12 oz of bittersweet (you can see the 3 4 oz. bars of Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chocolate) 2 oz of Baker's unsweetened chocolate and 2 oz Baker's semi-sweetened chocolate.

Fourth of July Trivets!

2011-07-03T17:12:00.002-04:00

And I'm still cutting up T-shirts and making stuff. I love it! So much fun. The only not fun part is the amount of time it takes to do the actual cutting. I have to figure out a way around that.

So here are my latest two creations: a pair of red, white and blue trivets for the Fourth of July barbecue. And you can see I'm really ready with my hamburger salt and pepper shakers (a recent ebay purchase--aren't they adorable?)

Aren't they fun? I seem to be getting the hang of making them so that they'll lay flat. At this size, anyway.

Here's a close up of the stitches. I really don't know the name of the stitches since I'm not a big crocheter and have never learned to follow crochet directions. But I'm being neat and consistent so I figure that counts as much here as it does in knitting.

That's all for today. I haven't forgotten about the Death By Chocolate cookies--don't worry! I did just buy all the necessary ingredients and hopefully I'll bake and post about those tomorrow.

Also coming up soon: a knitted T-shirt trivet for those rectangular casserole dishes.

By the way. If you really loooove these trivets, you can buy them! I have opened a new on-line store at etsy for my recycled goods. I figured that they just didn't fit in with my textile art store so it was time. You can see these happy trivets and some of my other recycled crafts at http://www.etsy.com/shop/LizzieLuvs2Recycle?ref=seller_info . Keep checking back as I am adding new items almost daily as I get going!

Project # 2

2011-07-01T16:08:00.001-04:00

Remember how I said that I was working on a couple of fun things at the same time*? Well, here's the second one. A friend of mine is pregnant with her second child and I decided that second babies deserved some nice things too--not just hand-me downs! The mat knitting got me itchy to start another knitting project so here it is. A classical take on the ever popular baby blanket. Isn't it cute?? And you would not believe how soft and cuddly this yarn is--absolutely scrumptious!

Here's a close-up of the stitches. I've used this pattern before for a baby blanket years ago. Its called the feather and fan pattern. And despite what it looks like, it is soooo easy. Only 4, count'em 4, rows in the pattern and only one of those rows is a counted pattern row. Believe me, it doesn't get much easier than that.
Here it is:
cast on a multiple of 18 st.
row 1: (RS) Knit
row 2: Purl
row 3: *(K2tog)3X, (YO, K1)6X, (K2tog)3X*, repeat from *
row 4: Knit

In a fine yarn the pattern looks a lot more lacy and delicate--all of those YO's, don't you know. But I'm knitting this in a bulky weight yarn: Bernat Baby Blanket Yarn as seen here. So I'm using size 8 needles. The combination of those two means that this is knitting up FAST! This stuff is awesome--so soft and it knits up fast (being bulky and all). And its machine washable and dryable; a must with all baby items.

I'm having such fun--I haven't knitted anything in ages and my fingers are thanking me! By the way, I got the pattern for the blanket out of my very favorite knitting pattern source book of all time: A treasury of knitting patterns by Barbara Walker. There are countless knitting pattern books out there (and I have quite a few) but none of them match up to Barbara Walker's books. She actually published 4 treasuries and they are classics. I cannot recommend them highly enough.

* can you tell I've had the week off??

Next up: "Death by chocolate" cookies. Not for the faint of heart--serious chocolate addicts only. :)

Mad about Mats

2011-06-30T15:47:00.001-04:00

So here are a couple of the recycled T-shirt mats I've been working on. I tried knitting a mat and was not happy with the way it turned out. The strips are of varying widths and thicknesses so the different stripes in the knitted mat made for very uneven knitting gauges and an uneven appearance. So I ripped it all out and crocheted these.

Here's the oval one. Shades of pink, coral white and light blue. Its a little flippy around the edges but I think thats just the nature of the beast. Once its done and I give it a good steam press I think it should relax a little. I've got a ways to go on this one. I envision a nice broad one next to my shower stall door. Or, I'll sell it--whatever!

Here's a close-up of my technique. I haven't had much practice with crocheting but I think it looks OK. I like how the ends that I've knotted together poke out here and there.

Here's the little round mat I already finished. The constantly expanding circumference gave me some trouble as I had to continually add stitches so that it would lay more or less flat.

It feels good on the feet. Not soft and plush, mind you. But knobby, bumpy and absorbent. And of course, being T-shirts from another life, eminently washable.

And here's a shout out to my homies who have contributed dead shirts to the cause: Thanks Fiona, Helga and Valerie! Couldn't do it without your generous donations!

Recycle mania

2011-06-29T22:08:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone--I've got two new projects cooking so I need to fill you in! The first is an offshoot of my T-shirt textile postcards. I'll be selling my postcards in a fun shop down in Winter Park soon, so I was gearing up to make enough for the order. The shop is Earth Inspired Living and it is just perfect for my T-shirt postcards. Or my postcards are perfect for the shop. Hopefully they will sell well and I'll get lots of future orders for more cards. I'm pretty excited to enter the world of retail.

Sooooo....I got to looking at all of the leftover T-shirt material after I had cut out the images for the cards and thought: "hmmmmm, hate to throw all of that away". So I cut the remaining shirt material into continuous inch (or so) wide strips and knotted them together as you can see here. Looks suspiciously like a ball of yarn, doesn't it? Did you know that I'm a big knitter from way back? Haven't done any knitting lately--we just don't need wool socks and sweaters here in Florida so its pretty pointless. So I dug out my needles and started playing around. A little experimenting with knitting and crocheting and I hit upon the right procedure and guage. I'm thinking: bathmats, trivits, coasters, small rugs. Should be fun! I'll post more pictures soon, stay tuned!

Quick update

2011-06-13T21:56:00.001-04:00

Just a quickie post to stay in touch and let you all know that while I have been working that pesky day job I have also been trying really hard to keep up with my projects. Here's two solid rows of the stencil repeat. At this point I'm not really sure how many rows I'll end up doing. At least one more, maybe two?? I'm just not sure.

Here's a close-up of the little recycled quilt. Its all pinned now and ready for quilting on the machine. Still trying to decide about the quilting pattern. Organic free form curves doesn't seem to go with the whole feel of this piece. Straight line sewing and contour outlines seem most likely. No rush on this now--I missed the entry deadline for the show I was thinking about. Oh well, that's happened before--its no biggie. I figure I get a different sort of piece in my inventory, one that I wouldn't have ordinarily have tried if hadn't been for the entry requirements.

Well, that's it for tonight. I have some more postcards in the works and you'll be seeing those here really soon too.

Recycled fabric finds a new fate

2011-05-15T21:51:00.000-04:00

So a couple of weeks ago I saw a call to artists listing for a show soliciting fabric pieces employing recycled materials. Well! That's a subject near and dear to my heart. So I gathered some old shirts and bed linen fabrics (and a few accent fabrics to even things out) and started putting them together. As you can see, I have several shard-like pieces assembled here. I plan on integrating some written word as well.

Here I have sewn all of the shards together. I ended up with 5 of the shards with the word boxes rather than the 8 I started with along with some accent triangles.

To liven up the composition I made several horizontal cuts above and below the text boxes.

Here's the final composition all sewn up and ironed down. Quite a bit more dynamic.

And then to further the fractured theme, I added some fusible bias tape in shades of black, purple, red and orange. I always keep some on hand for odds and ends (although it is hard to find in stores in colors besides black). Clover Mini 11-Yard Quick Bias, Black I have used it in straight lines here but it makes lovely curves too. You iron it down and it stays put well enough to be sewn down permanently.

Quilting is next!

More wall patterns

2011-05-08T17:53:00.000-04:00

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there! I got to spend a lot of fun time doing stuff I love today, thanks to my awesome kids. I started out the day working on the wall. Here is where I started this morning.....

And here I am up on that ladder dabbing on my gold paint. And, yup, you guessed it, I'm still in my pajamas. What could be better than crafts in the morning in your pajamas? Nothing! That's what.

And here's how far I got. Just had to get a couple of repeats for the second level--cool, huh?

I also worked on my quilt top for the new small piece. I'll post tomorrow on that one. I think its almost done.

Say good-by to beige and boring!

2011-05-06T20:53:00.000-04:00

My oh my what you can do when you take the day off! I worked straight through the day on a new quilt wall hanging for a particular show involving recycled materials, a subject near and dear to my heart. I'll post on that tomorrow. When I had that pretty much under control (pretty much finished the top), I tackled another project I've been contemplating for a while--a new wall treatment for a big beige wall. Woo-hoo!

Here's the stencil I unearthed that I had used in our previous house. You can see that I used gold last time and I plan on doing so again. I love iridescent gold because it so forgiving. Any variations in amount of paint, heavy or light, blend right in to make a shimmery effect. So you don't have to worry as much about being super neat or consistent. And, of course, I have a lot of gold accent pieces in my living room which play off of the wall and vice versa.

I ordered the stencil from an online source--I'd mention it but, sorry!, I can't remember it, its been so long. But do a google search for all-over stencils like I did. You should come up with plenty of hits like I did. Turns out there's an enormous online stencil community. Who knew??

Here's the first couple of repeats. (well, one and a half, actually.) I have plenty more to go, obviously. But I already love it. I am using a gold Shiva Paintstik Shiva Iridescent Professional Grade Paint Sticks set of 12 for the pigment. Another necessary item is stencil adhesive Sulky Temporary Spray Adhesive 3.6 Ounces KK2000; 2 Items/Order Painter's tape is also a must-have--just the regular blue stuff will do. ScotchBlue Painter's Tape Original Multi-Surface 2090, 1-inch x 60-yard, 4-Roll
I'll keep posting so you can see my progress. Its hard work and my arm and hands get tired from the dabbing so it will be a slow and steady kind of project.

Planning for Humpty

2011-05-01T21:20:00.000-04:00

So I'm finally mapping out my Humpty Dumpty piece that I originally conceptualized way back in 2009. And, yes, I frequently do take that long to mull over a particular piece. Sometimes it just takes that long to come together. And I've learned that there's no sense in trying to rush the process. Best to work on other things until the larger piece coalesces.

Anyway, I always start out with a little thumbnail sketch or two to kind of work the major layout issues out. That, along with any notes and ideas I wish to record gets entered into my sketchbook. But once I'm past that stage and its time to actually get a full scale mock up complete with templates etc., its all about tracing paper. I absolutely could not survive without gobs of the stuff. Top Flight Tracing Paper Tablet, Transparent, Erasable Surface, White, 9 x 12 Inches, 40 Sheets (65301) I get everything traced out, cut it apart and then tape it down and shift and tweak until the composition is perfect. Tracing paper is very easy to draw on and erases well without falling apart. I have several pads in various dimensions and a big roll of it too. Love. the. stuff.

Here you can just make out Humpty on his wall. Woods beyond the wall, and a garden on this side of the wall as well as a path looping out from the wrought iron gate next to Humpty. A big blue sky above and lots of puffy clouds completes the piece. The image dimension will be about 20 X 36". At least thats the plan right now. Always room for alterations if something doesn't look quite right. Collages are forgiving that way. :)

Here's Humpty's body. I drew out the egg separately and then traced each limb on a separate piece of tracing paper until they were all just right and then I had fun attaching his limbs appropriately. I wanted him to look rotund (of course) and very precariously wobbly. This is that sick moment that he knows he's going to fall but hasn't quite yet but knows its inevitable.

I wasn't sure about facial expressions so I tried a couple of different ones out, also on a separate piece of tracing paper. Here's shocked and disbelieving. His mouth is just kind of hanging open.

And here's horror/fear. Mouth is in full scream mode.

I may have to sketch out a couple more. I'm still not quite sure which one I like the best. Right now I'm leaning a little towards the first one (above).

I dunno. Have to sleep on it. I could also do the old mirror trick: when you're having trouble with a composition, look at it in a mirror; flaws and issues just jump out at you (and are thus fixable). I can't wait to get this all pinned down and start choosing fabrics. That's one of my favorite parts!

Here are a couple of commercial links as usual. Tracing paper, of course and my all-time favorite version of Mother Goose. The illustrations are charming and intricate--beautiful (something I always look for in a children's book that I am likely to read out of repeatedly).

Odds and ends in red red red

2011-04-25T22:04:00.000-04:00

Not too much creating going on in the last week but here's a sweet picture of my beautiful daughter wearing her felt flower that I made a couple of weeks ago and posted about.

She wore it in to school and even wore it to her volleyball game that evening.

While I didn't create any major art this week, I did help Fiona with a big school book project today. She has to give a powerpoint presentation, wear a costume, provide a snack, handouts and a quiz based on her book. So I helped with the costume of course. After a little embellishing of a spare white T-shirt and some scrounging in my closet we came up with a pretty decent assembly of clothes. Here's my sewing contribution--you get one guess as to the name of her book. :)

I stabilized the rose print cotton fabric with Shir-Tailor fusible interfacing Pellon Shir-Tailor Fusible Interfacing- 20 Inch W x 25yds, cut out the A and then stitched it down using a decorative diamond stitch. On the inside of the shirt I placed some Tearaway embroidery stabilizer Regular Tearaway 8x8 200 Precut Sheets for Embroidery Machines. That way the cotton fabric doesn't shift or fray and the stretchy T-shirt knit doesn't give and stretch too much while I'm sewing. For a quickie project--turned out pretty good!

Universe Box

2011-04-13T09:01:00.000-04:00

Did I tell you I love felt? Well, I do. So here's some more felt fun (although it may not look it at first glance.) A while back I made this cute little fabric (and felt!) covered box. I stiffened it with a wonderful product called Timtex Timtex Interfacing Craft Pack. Its a very stiff synthetic interfacing that can still be sewn and ironed. Think of it as a sewable cardboard, if you will. I keep it on hand for any quilting projects that need a stiffer batting (points that stand out etc.)

I made this box with a removable lid and sewed a celestial fabric cover for it. I wanted a little surprise on the inside so I lined it with bright yellow felt (ah...there's the felt connection!). I call it my "Universe Box".

When all of the parts were assembled, I blanket stitched it all together with a gold lurex thread. There are metallic gold highlights in the fabric so I thought that tied it all together.

On a related note, I went to my local book store yesterday and guess what cried out to me from the shelf? You guessed it-- a felt project book. Ooooo, I'm so excited to try out one of the projects. Its called Big Little Felt Universe: Sew It, Stuff It, Squeeze It, Fun! by Jeanette Lim. Just check out the apple on the cover! So cool. Can't wait to try something out! This lady is a true felt artist--check out her etsy shop that features her incredible creations (and patterns) at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/umecrafts.

I'm only sorry I have to go to work today. :(

Et voila!!--Ikea pillow done!

2011-04-11T23:08:00.001-04:00

Whew! Still playing catch-up with my pix. I finished my pillow about a month ago so....here's that pesky Ikea pillow all finished at last! And what have I learned? Cylinders are a bitch. My advice? Think twice before you start one--way more complicated than it looks.
That said, I am happy with it and glad I made the cover but its pretty unlikely that I'll make another one to match my other sheets.

Feltastic

2011-04-10T19:52:00.001-04:00

I think felt is a drastically underused textile--I've used it in the past and really enjoyed its qualities. A couple of days ago I came across a great project on another blog: not martha http://www.notmartha.org/. OMG! A beautiful felt flower pin--right up my alley. I'm not going to post a tutorial since Megan already did an excellent job of that; do be sure to visit her blog and check it out. Here are the lovely results...

I made two of these pretty felt flower pins so far and have another under construction. Each petal is made individually and is sewn down to a felt covered base of cardboard.

I think they look a little sun-like, don't you?

Fiona, my daughter, came home from a party and fell in love with the red one so I gave it to her. She plans on wearing it to school tomorrow.

Now I'm thinking about how to make other flowers besides dahlias. Or maybe some embellishment. Or different sizes? With a leaf or two? Hmmmmm--the possibilities are endless!

Christmas cards leftovers

2011-04-08T22:44:00.000-04:00

I was scanning the archives today and realized that I never posted the 2010 Christmas cards. Shame on me! So without any further ado, here they are. 2010's cards featured some filamentous yarn and some heavy textured paper from a gift bag. I started with a large hole punch....

Isn't it great? I'm pretty good at cutting things out but there's no way I can cut a perfect, smooth circle. This punch (from Michaels, or see the one here: Uchida LV-SJCP40 Clever Lever Super Jumbo Craft Punch, 2-Inch Circle) takes care of that issue in a snap,

A gift bag was sacrificed to yield these beautiful circles in a red metallic paper with an alligator texture finish. Very eye-catching!

Here's my tree branch made out of that filamentous yarn (a swipe of glue stick Avery Glue Stic, 0.26 oz, Pack of 6, (98095) holds it down) and the ornament I punched out. I've adhered my ornament with a raised adhesive stickers.

And I couldn't forget the little thingamabob on top of every ornament! So I covered a sticky dot with aluminum foil, shaped it a bit and then stuck it into place.

Not bad! I really like the dimensional aspect of the ornament and the yarn. Silver ink was drawn in to indicate the ornament's hook. And then they were all signed at the bottom as usual.

Unfortunately I ran out of the green yarn so a few cards went out with iridescent white branches. (uh, snowy, right??!)

Then that ran out too and some post-modern versions went out with purple branches and gold ornaments (kind of an LSU theme). So much for Christmas 2010! Wonder what the 2011 cards will be? hmmm

Thanksgiving (cupcake) leftovers!

2011-03-29T22:34:00.001-04:00

Sorting through my pictures today (while watching Cupcake Wars on tv; love that show) and came across this gem that I had meant to post last Thanksgiving. This lovely cupcake (!) was made for my son Ed by his girlfriend, Mariah. Isn't it incredible? And edible! And delicious! Or at least, so said Ed. I only got to photo-document it. Ah well, I appreciate the feast for the eyes that it continues to be.

Wall treatments

2011-03-29T10:12:00.001-04:00

Hi all,

I know, I know--its been a loooong time. My apologies. That's what happens when you get divorced and start working full-time! Gack! But here's a new post dealing with wall treatments.

Like many folks, I have painted walls and even dabbled a bit in some so-called "faux" finishes. It can be lots of fun. Be not afraid! Get a good reference book--I particularly liked Sunset's guide Decorative Paint & Faux Finishes--read up and go to it! Don't be afraid to try new techniques. And don't be afraid to paint right over them if they don't work. (For that reason, I stay away from textured treatments; much harder to cover up a mistake.)

Here's my first wall treatment. We painted our living room a deep gold color and had a lot of gold accents in the room. So I though a metallic gold would be appropriate on the walls too. The crown molding got painted with a flat yellow latex and then was streaked with a metallic gold paint and a simple stencil was applied as a border directly underneath all around the room. I thought it turned out handsomely.

Here is the wall at a higher magnification. I loved the look of the gold stencil paint so much that I did an all over gold stencil in the dining room next door. You can just make it out through the doorway. It took me quite a while to go around and do the whole room but it was worth it (and covered up the flaws in the drywall, to boot.)

In this dining room wall, I did a fairly complex faux finish and then completed the look with star stencils. I started with a layer of orange paint (pumpkin orange!) and then mixed a deep red paint half and half with some glaze. I then dry-brushed the thin red paint over the orange. It took three layers to get the effect I wanted. Then I applied hundreds of star stencils in gold, dense at the top and falling down and thinning out at the bottom.

For all of the stenciling I used Delta Stencil creme oil paint Delta Stencil Magic Paint Creme Folk Colors Traditional--it was very easy to work with and gave great results. Love, love, love, the metallic gold especially.

Gyotaku T-shirts

2010-09-19T22:27:00.001-04:00

I was cleaning out and poking around in my studio yesterday and came across this project: some Gyotaku t-shirts I did with Fiona's kindergarten class a few years ago. Gyotaku is a Japanese technique for making prints or rubbings from fish. Its a traditional craft and very beautiful. Usually its done by inking a fish or sea creature and then pressing or rubbing paper on top.

I adapted this method for the kindergartners as a class project. They needed shirts depicting red fish since they were doing a production of Swimmy. Swimmy (Knopf Children's Paperbacks) I started by experimenting a little and ended up using acrylic paint brushed onto a fish and then rubbing a shirt on top of the fish.

Turned out very well! This is a trial run shirt, The shirt the kids did had just a single fish. Aren't the details of the fish great? Using acrylic paint was perfect. Easy to work with and clean up. After the print was completely dried on the shirt (24 hours), I heat set it with a dry iron. After that, the shirt was safe to wash in cold water with no running or fading.

I may have to do this again soon--it was a lot of fun!

Progress

2010-08-25T21:05:00.002-04:00

Back in the studio this weekend and got all of the quilting done! Yay!

Have to bury all of those loose ends--a tedious job. But it has to be done.

I finally got to the print stripes. I chose a light rose pink thread for the quilting.

I almost forgot that I needed 2 circles for the end pieces of that cylinder. Here's the "quilt sandwich". No fancy stripes here, just the floral print.

And here they are all quilted. Pretty simple, really.

I decided that the striped piece was just a little blah--it was missing something. The stripes weren't cohesive. So I added some decorative stitching on the boundary of each one of the stripes. A featherstitch in yellow for each one. I like it now!

And then, since I was still going for that homey, cottage look, I decided to wash the two pieces before assembling them. The cotton in the top, batting and backing all shrink up just a little, leaving a puckered, wrinkled effect. Not what I go for in my artquilts but perfect for a pillow cover. So this has been washed.

Maybe you can see the puckers a little better here.

Next step: assembly!

More stripes

2010-08-03T21:25:00.000-04:00

I did manage to steal a little bit of time today and managed to get a few more stripes quilted. I'm more than half way done now.

I'm including this close-up shot so that you can see the stitching details. I did use the red thread for the pink stripe to give it a more salmony color feeling overall. I think that worked, don't you? Notice the green thread that I used on the light and dark green stripes? That's the same thread on both. Interesting how the background affects the perception of the color, isn't it?

Well, that's all for today. Hopefully, I'll be done soon and can begin the pillow cover construction, Stay tuned!

A little bit of quilting

2010-08-02T22:32:00.001-04:00

Still soooo busy with my day job, but I did get a little bit of quilting done. What's the bottom line here? Always, always always start quilting in the center and work your way outwards. Accordingly, I began in the center of a yellow strip and quilted up and then down to the outside edges. The same for the next yellow stripe. I admit I cheated on the thin green stripe as it was already pretty tacked down. So now I just need an hour or two finish up the job. Soon, I hope!

Ikea pillow progress..

2010-07-25T20:42:00.006-04:00

Not too much happened today with the cover, but I did get my quilt sandwich laid out and pinned. Above you can see my sandwich: pieced top, batting and backing. I laid it all out on my bed, my largest work space currently.

I hold the sandwich together with quilter's safety pins. As you can see, they have a bend in them to facilitate getting the pin in and holding all of those layers together.Quilt Safety Pin-Nickel Sz3

And here is the whole thing all pinned. Pin placement is about every 6 to 8 inches all around.

Placement is a little irregular, but this will do. All ready to quilt now. Needle is changed out on my machine, feed dogs are lowered, and its threaded with yellow embroidery thread. Now I just need a little time!

The cylindrical Ikea pillow

2010-07-24T21:41:00.018-04:00

After many moons, I've stepped into my studio again to get a little home decorating sewing done. A couple of weeks ago I made a voyage to our local Ikea (looove that place: http://www.ikea.com/) and picked up several small odds and ends including a cool cylindrical pillow or bolster. A great shape and, of course being Ikea, a great price. Unfortunately, there was only one pillow case available for it which had drawstring treatments on the ends and was plain white.

Yuck to both! I knew I could do better. First I sewed an inner liner that would permanently cover the foam. It was good practice in dealing with the difficult ends. Circles stretch when you sew them so I ended up fusing some interfacing (Pellon Shir-Tailor, my absolute favorite; its easy to work with and adds just the right amount of stabilization without excess goop that accumulates on your needle) to stabilize each circle so that I could sew it to the central tube. Worked like a charm and you can see what I ended up with above.

Days were spent going through all of my fabrics. I wanted to coordinate with my new duvet cover and shams from Pottery Barn (http://www.potterybarn.com/products/laine-organic-duvet-cover-sham/?pkey=cpatterned-duvet-covers-shams) and was having a tough time choosing a single fabric from my stash. Finally I realized I had to piece something together to get the colors and effects I wanted. Here are the fabrics I came up with; each one has a story behind it.

Measurements: the pillow is 31" around. I'll add an inch on both sides and shoot for 33".

And 31.25" wide. I'll add some extra dimension there too.

Before any cutting or even sewing, the first step is always ironing. Like my Tante Elfriede, the seamstress, says: "Gut gebügelt ist halb genäht" which translates as "well ironed is half sewn" or, more loosely: "The iron is the best tailor". Well, she's soooo right.

Next, time to cut some strips. No blocks for this pillow, I decided simple strips would yield a pleasing striped effect.

And here they all are.

A pleasant afternoon was spent sewing the strips together and when they were all attached, I laid the top out on the pillow to get an idea of the final cover.

Hmmm. Not too bad! The pink is a little bright--it should really be a little more in the salmon range. I'll tone that down by using a red thread when I quilt the pink strips. All of the other color strips will be quilted with matching colors. Enough for today! Tomorrow: quilting the top.

Apple Tart

2010-05-05T16:27:00.008-04:00

Hello all! don't think I haven't been thinking about posting just because I've been swept up in a bezillion responsibilities. No art updates but I think you might like this example of kitchen creativity. This is my own recipe for an awesome almond-apple tart using the olive oil dough recipe from "Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day" by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois--one of my favorite cookbooks: Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.
First a couple of pictures:

And here is the finished tart! Delicious!

Apple Almond Tart
By Elizabeth Harris

2 eggs, one separated
1 grapefruit sized portion of olive oil yeast dough
4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
4 tbsp flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tube almond paste (7 oz.)
1 8 oz pkg sliced or slivered almonds
decorative sugar (demarra or other large grained sugar)
1/8 tsp salt
PAM

Remove dough from tub and let rise for 30-40 minutes. Spray cookie sheet with PAM and dust with flour. Pat and push out dough to cover the whole sheet. Be patient, this takes a while. Be gentle so you don't tear holes in the dough as it relaxes and stretches. Peel, core and slice apples. Add lemon juice, 2 tbsp flour, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg to apples and stir until well coated. In a food processor combine cut up almond paste, whole egg and egg white, 2 tbsp flour, and salt. Process until well blended. Spread almond paste mixture on dough leaving an inch margin all around. Sprinkle a layer of almonds onto the paste only. Arrange apple slices in four rows on top of the paste and almonds also leaving the margin bare. Pull up the dough all around the edges over the apples. Add a little water to the remaining egg yolk and paint the surface of the dough margin. Sprinkle with more almonds and finish with decorative sugar--especially on the exposed dough. Bake at 450 degrees F for 25-35 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven, let cool on rack. Use a spatula to remove from pan--dough will have adhered somewhat despite the PAM.

News and updates

2010-03-02T10:22:00.007-05:00

Hi all! Sorry for the long desert of no posts--working 3 jobs have a tendency to suck up all available time and energy! But things are under control now so I thought I'd give a quick update on my art related activities.

My recent one woman show, Disparate Threads, was AWESOME! Thanks to the Women's Research Center here at UCF! We had a lovely opening with many attendees. More folks dropped in during the 6 weeks the show was up as well. Lots of sales too--always a cause for celebration. It was so great to see many of my works up at the same time in a well-lit space appropriate for viewing. Thanks, Leslie and Fran for making it such a great experience! http://womens.research.ucf.edu/ Next up at Center is a talented sculptor and water colorist: Linda Brant. http://www.lbrant.net/home Can't wait to see her exhibit.

My hub cap art is under way--but slowly. I'm still gathering supplies and I'm hoping that once I get all of the junk, er, junque together, I will be able to whip the piece out. Meanwhile, check out LandfillArt's website which is now live: http://www.landfillart.org/Do take the time to browse the gallery of the works that have already been completed and submitted.

This past Saturday I attended the organizational meeting for a local group that will be called FOFA: Focus on Fiber Art. It was organized by Hye Shin, a fiber artist working with paper and weaving and found objects http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/h/hyeshin/We hope to get a viable fiber arts group going here in the Orlando area for mutual support, learning and exhibition. It was a good meeting and I look forward to the next one. Hye's pieces were very impressive--I have been thinking/cogitating about them and how well they struck me since Saturday. Some of the work she brought reminded me of my nude piece "Soft Curves" (which I have posted above). I think I may have to revisit and explore that idiom some. I really like the transparent aspect of most of the fabric--very ethereal. I think I can repeat the images but in a looser, less formal way. Hye was using a lot of gauze and very open woven linen. I liked that look a lot.
Hmmmmmm.

And last but not least I must announce that I'm almost finished with a piece called "Sowing the Blade Garden". This is another of my "Inner Landscape" or dream based series and is rather stark. I've shown images of it in progress a while back. I'm in the final quilting and finishing stages now. I'll post it when I'm done.

I'm planning some major updates to my Etsy site some time in the near future (I hope). Revamping the site, changing wording, descriptions and adding a bunch of items for sale. Several days' worth of work for sure. Of course, that is assuming that I can wrestle my laptop away from my 15 year old son.

Stay tuned!

Landfill Art!

2010-02-03T22:31:00.002-05:00

I've been invited to contribute a piece to the international Landfillart project. A great concept: take stuff from the landfill and create unique art out of it! This is so up my alley! "Landfillart is an international effort encompassing one-thousand-forty-one (1,041) artists to claim a piece of rusted metal garbage and create fine art."
More specifically, everyone gets a hub cap to create with. After accepting the challenge, mine came in the mail last week. I have a few ideas but nothing too concrete yet. I'll post a link to their website next time around (it seems to be down for now) and also some pix of my hubcap and some design possibilities/trials.

Central Florida Future - Biology professor opens art quilt gallery

2010-01-16T15:31:00.001-05:00

And they (finally) posted a few pictures of my opening reception. Thanks, Central Florida Future!

Central Florida Future - Biology professor opens art quilt gallery

And the reviews, er, review is in!

2010-01-15T13:56:00.002-05:00

Thanks to all who attended the opening reception of my show at the the UCF Women's research center. http://womens.research.ucf.edu/Events/2010/harris_elizabeth.html It was mahvelous, simply mahvelous, dahling! The wonderful folks at the center did a lovely job of stocking goodies and wine and lots of folks stopped by. Thanks Leslie and Fran! The show will be up until Feb. 15 and available for viewing M-F, 9-4. So if you didn't make it, there's still time. The UCF student newspaper sent a reporter and photographer to cover the show and the review appears here:

http://www.centralfloridafuture.com/biology-professor-opens-art-quilt-gallery-1.2135873

Unfortunately, as of this writing, no pictures appear in the story. Maybe that will change.

I was thrilled that I had several sales at the opening and another was called in to me just today. Awesome! Thanks to all of you who purchased some of my pieces. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed creating them!

January show

2010-01-04T10:56:00.002-05:00

I had mentioned this a few posts ago and promised to post more details when I had them. Well, here they are: my one woman show entitled "Disparate Threads" will be having an opening reception on January 13 from 3-6. I'm so excited! Its been a very long time since I've been the only one in a show and this will be the first time that will solely feature my textile pieces. Woo-hoo! The pieces I will be displaying demonstrate a wide thematic range. Included are botanical, celestial, solar, abstract, and allegorical quilts. Hence the name of the show.

For all of you folks in the Orlando area, I cordially invite you to attend. The reception will be held in Suite 360 of the Research Pavilion Building at 12424 Research Parkway in Orlando (just south of the UCF campus and east off of Alafaya Drive). Please see the details at the link: http://womens.research.ucf.edu/Events/2010/harris_elizabeth.html

Hope to see you there!

This year's holiday card OR a tale of two adhesives

2009-12-23T21:48:00.016-05:00

What with one thing and another, this year's holiday card didn't happen until just last week. Like last year, its a multi media collage but this year not quite so abstract. A simplified Christmas tree is the subject I chose--its so iconic I can minimize the details a lot while still depicting something recognizable. As with all collages, using the appropriate adhesive is the key. I did have some glue stick issues that necessitated a quick run to the craft store, but luckily they had what I needed. Damn that "repositionable" glue stick--don't ever buy that crap! "Repositionable" actually means that its not very sticky. Whats the point of that??? (don't buy that purple stuff either. its supposed to dry clear, but doesn't always). My hands down favorite is Scotch brand craft stick in the 1.41 oz. size. Its the best for general crafting and is perfect for dealing with fabrics. When in doubt, get the big size--the small, chapstick size tubes last for about, oh lets see now, 10 minutes of crafting. Uh-huh, very helpful. NOT.

Anyway, here's Step 1: A little time carefully measuring and cutting trapezoids and triangles and --voila! My simple, yet elegant tree. I chose three fabrics that all had some metallic gold accents. Because Christmas is all about glittery, shiny stuff, isn't it? Glue stick on the fabric did the trick here.

Step 2: More glittery stuff. A couple of swooshes of Angelina fibers add some textural and detail interest. A swipe of glue stick on the tree laid a snail trail for the angelina fibers to stick to.

Step 3: One stylized ornament made out of a coil of colored wire completes the design. I sign in pencil and I'm done. Woo-hoo! Glue stick doesn't work for wire at all so I switched to a more goopy adhesive: Uhu glue.Search Amazon.com for uhu glue Search Amazon.com for uhu glue This glue does not soak into the fabric and disappear like water-based Elmer's and is, well, nice and goopy. Thus, the pea-sized blob of Uhu sits on top of the fabric and then encompasses the wire coil and bonds the two together as it dries.

I ended up making 80 cards. I have about half of them written and sent out and (sigh) a bunch more to go. But they're HOLIDAY cards, and the holidays last until January 6; the Feast of Three Kings (Epiphany), right???

Well, that's my story, anyway, and I'm sticking (ahem) to it.

Cuban Black Bean Salad

2009-12-07T08:17:00.006-05:00

For those of you that are overdosing on sweets right about now (between my 2 sweet treat posts and the general excesses of the season), here's a goodie that I created from scratch. Normally I don't much care for cold bean salads but this one is an exception. This salad is bright and colorful, healthy and a great dish to take along to a potluck or serve at a summer barbecue. With no mayo or egg based ingredients, there are no safety concerns if it sits out a while at that picnic either. Best if made a day ahead of time so that the spices can marinate and the flavors blossom. This recipe is vegan friendly.

Cuban Black Bean Salad

4 15.25 oz. cans unseasoned black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can sweet corn, rinsed and drained
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1/2-1 purple onion diced
5-10 green onions chopped
1 c. chopped cilantro
1/3 c. veg. oil
1/2 c. red wine vinegar
1/4 c. lime juice
1 tbsp. cumin powder
1 tbsp. turmeric powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper

Rinse and drain canned items and place in large bowl. Dice all fresh ingredients to about the same size and add to corn and beans. Add liquids and spices. Adjust spices to taste. Stir well--doesn't it look pretty?? Chill before serving. Refrigerate overnight for best flavor profile.

Another sweet treat

2009-12-06T09:41:00.003-05:00

Here's a recipe I turn to time and again. It never fails and pretty much does whip up in 5 minutes. You can add nuts if you like or leave them out. Delicious either way.

5 minute brownies

3/4 c. cocoa
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/3 c. unsifted flour
2/3 c. veg. oil, split
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. boiling water
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups sugar
1-1 1/2 c. chopped nuts--I prefer pecans for their sweetness

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 13 x 9 pan or 2 8 x 8 pans. Dust pan (s) with cocoa powder (rather than flour).

Mix cocoa and baking soda in bowl. Blend in 1/3 c. of the oil and hot water and stir until thickened (its magic!). Stir in sugar, eggs, and remaining oil and mix until smooth. Add flour, vanilla and salt. Mix until smooth. Add nuts. Pour batter into pan (s).

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove and let cool before cutting.

And yet another Christmas card...

2009-12-06T09:17:00.007-05:00

Here's yet another one of my cards from the archives.

This card also features spray paint (love that stuff). I used a circular stencil for the ornament and made sure to apply the spray paint unevenly to give the illusion of roundness. The ornament's hanger and the greeting was picked out in silver ink.

I added some glittery star decorations on the surface of the ornament (I own some just like this, go figure). Guess what I used for the stars?

Believe it or not, silver glitter nail polish did the trick nicely. I use it frequently for small accents on projects like this. Not regular nail polish--it has be to the stuff with visible glitter flakes suspended in a clear polish matrix. It comes in all colors these days but I just used the silver stuff here.

Scone pix!

2009-12-05T11:24:00.010-05:00

After writing out the recipe in my previous post, I just had to have some,so I whipped up a quick batch. They mix up quickly and bake in a flash. Here they are along with some tips.

Here's my pastry cutter. I think it came from my local grocery store. There are several different designs of these things--make sure you have a good sturdy one.

I've cut the stick of butter into slices and added it to my mixed dry ingredients here.

I've put my pastry cutter/blender to use and am done with the integration of the butter. Remember, don't go for small even bits--larger uneven chunks yield melt in your mouth scones!

The white chocolate...

coursely chopped.

Wet and dry ingredients have come together and everything has been lightly mixed. Overmixing kills the texture so only mix until all the dry ingredients are barely moistened.

The batter has been spooned into my handy-dandy scone pan. Its pretty lump bumpy sticky stuff.

The final sprinkle of demerrara sugar has been added. it will contribute to a crisp upper surface.

I love using large crystal sugar as a baked topping. It sparkles so nicely.

Fifteen minutes later... here they are! Wish I could share with all of you!

White chocolate & macadamia nut scones

2009-12-05T09:53:00.008-05:00

Trying to catch up on my posts and I've promised to post this recipe for a while. The basic scone recipe came with a scone pan that I ordered from the King Arthur's Flour baking catalog http://www.kingarthurflour.com. If you haven't checked them out, you should! They have the highest quality baking supplies, including many hard to find items. Anyway, I've played around with the recipe for a year now and here's what I've come up with. I think its pretty perfect--I won't be messing with this one any more!

2 3/4 (12.5 oz) A.P. flour
1/3 c. regular white sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. fresh baking powder
1/2 c. (1 stick) cold, sweet butter
3/4-1 c. chopped macadamia nuts (or other nuts or dried fruit)
4 oz. bar Ghirardelli white chocolate, coursely chopped
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 c. milk, buttermilk or 1/2 & 1/2
1/2-3/4 c. demerrara or other large grained sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 425F. Grease the scone pan or a cookie sheet. In large bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients except the large grained sugar. Cut in the cold butter with a pastry blender or 2 knives until barely crumbly. The crumbles should be about the size of peas and should NOT be uniform. Overworking the dough is more of a sin than underworking it! And nuts/fruit and chocolate and mix briefly. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, milk and vanilla. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix just until evenly moistened. Scoop batter into scone pan or onto cookie sheet. Sprinkle liberally with the demerrara sugar (I go for solid sugar coverage which looks like a lot but when the scones rise during baking the sugar is spread out). Bake for 15 minutes or until scones are golden. Remove and let cool 5 minutes before removing from the pan. Be sure to enjoy while they're still warm and the chocolate is still melty!

Christmas cards cont.

2009-12-04T22:38:00.010-05:00

More christmas cards...

Each one of these cards is a unique original mixed media collage featuring fabric, Angelina fibers (you know I love that stuff) and more, permanently mounted on heavy white card stock. This series is a limited edition and so they are all signed and numbered in pencil by the artist (me!). The card is 5" x 7" and, of course, comes with a matching white envelope. There is no interior text; I end up writing something different in each card when I send it.

Up close you can see the different components. I think the shiny cellophane tape helps to hold it all down (I did have adhesion issues with this one) and helps to make the image sparkly and shiny. Perfect for a christmas image.

A nostalgic Christmas tree graces this 5" x 7" card rendered in molded heavy paper. Heavy white card stock is the base that supports the Christmas tree rectangle. The tree rectangle is made by pressing wet pulp paper into a springerle mold. The rectangle was carefully dried and then spray painted gold at a sharp angle to accentuate the three dimensional aspects. When that was dry, the rectangle was mounted on some thin foam on the actual card. This allows the rectangle to float above the surface of the card and cast a slight shadow.

You can really see the floating aspect from this angle. Cool, huh?

Tomorrow: more cards and a few recipes, too. Stay tuned for 5 minute brownies, white chocolate/macadamia nut scones and black bean salad.

Christmas cards of yore

2009-12-03T22:35:00.009-05:00

Every year at about this time I create my annual Christmas cards. They have to be different each year is about the only rule that I have. And, since I make 100 or so, they have to be easy to make. Or at least, not ridiculously tedious~~of course I say that so glibly here, but I'm often kicking myself by about the 50th card when I'm committed and there's no turning back...

Anyway, here are some of my cards from years gone by that I didn't end up sending. I will be offering these for sale on my etsy site in the next day or two.

This little beauty has a textured paper star adhered to a royal blue card stock card. Gold spray paint applied at a sharp angle highlights one side of the ridges of the star. The blue card was artfully spattered with gold paint as well.

Vellum envelopes allow the star to shimmer through. I think a pen with gold ink would be best for addressing these, don't you?

One year, I just took a photo of one of my quilts, "Mixtec Sun" and printed it on heavy card stock on a matching gold background. Simple but effective. And maybe even a little pagan.

This card represented my experimentation with stamping. I used a commercial stamp with a tranquil winter scene and stamped it in a subtle sepia tone to match the cream card stock. Then I added the text, stamping each letter individually. Next, I hand colored the scene with various shades of colored pencils, keeping the palette subtle and low-key.

To finish this card, I applied a few dots of fine stamping glitter of a clear iridescent shade to mimic a light snow fall. Hard to photograph, but trust me, its there.

I'll post some more cards in the coming days. Still to come: fabric collages, home-made paper accents, more spray paint, even some nail polish.

Thanksgiving creations

2009-12-02T21:37:00.014-05:00

I hope everyone out there had a great Thanksgiving like we did!

Here's what started off our series of Thanksgiving creations--a lovely turkey with herbed butter under the skin. Oh man--it smelled heavenly!

And here is the pristine table and the eager eaters. Fiona chose the table linens and set the table.

Of course, for every yin there is a yang, for every black there is a white, for every exquisite Thanksgiving dinner there is the mess created in the kitchen. And so here is ours. sigh. I love how Frodo managed to get into the picture on the right with his nonchalant, hopeful look. Roasting anything drives both dogs crazy. Not to worry, they had Thanksgiving kibble with turkey pan juices (defatted, of course).

After dinner we played games including one of our perennial favorites, Jenga. We didn't set any height records worth mentioning but then Fiona created this amazing construction (no glue, tape or photoshopping, I promise!)

As good as (or maybe even better!) are the TURKEY SANDWICHES the next day. Here's the one I created to Ed's specifications. So far: turkey, cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes...

next: wild rice and cooked red cabbage (a german and austrian holiday side dish.)

et..Voila! Thanksgiving in a sandwich!

The moist layers enabled the sandwich to hold together really well. It was inhaled in short order and declared a success!

New show!

2009-11-22T22:17:00.004-05:00

This past week I was asked to mount a one-woman show at the Women's Research Center here at the University of Central Florida. http://womens.research.ucf.edu/index.html The Center occupies an interconnected suite with lots of wall space in the lobby area which they keep filled with art. I was thrilled to be asked and can't wait! The show will open in early January and will be up for about 6 weeks. I will be showing examples from all my different themes so the title "Disparate Threads" presented itself as the best description. I'll post more details soon! Stay tuned...

Time for some "grandma" quilts

2009-11-22T21:34:00.006-05:00

I find beauty in traditional quilting patterns, too. I particularly like the log cabin pattern for blocks and triangles absolutely rule. I usually resort to paper piecing to get those precise points. Of course, when I explore the traditional techniques I have to use some outrageous colors to really wow the viewer. See for yourself!

Wonder of wonders, this is actually a functional piece! Its a lap blanket and a play on the colorway you often see in vintage amish quilts: all solid fabrics with lots of black combined with jewel and even pastel colors. This quilt is called "A hare off amish" which is a play on the composition of the black fabric which was a vintage print that had gray bunnies with yellow or blue capes on the black background.

Can you see the bunnies here? Its kind of cute and yet somehow ominous-- all that black, and why are those rabbits wearing capes, anyway? Another wonder--this quilt is hand quilted, something I don't really do anymore. The size is exactly the that of a plane lap blanket ('cause thats what the batting is!).

This quilt features some of the fabulous fabric designed by Kaffe Fasset. He does big bold and colorful prints that really resonate with me. Because of their large scale they are often difficult to incorporate. Using them as a border is a good strategy.

Another one of my favorite fabric designers is Jane Sassaman. Combining brights with black and white is a favorite technique of mine. I think this quilt looks a little like one of the old timey test patterns. The points of the quilt are reinforced with TimTex so they do actually maintain their stiffness even when hung on the wall.

Bright colors, paper pieced blocks combined with black and white stripes--all my favorite tricks!

Creativity from the west coast

2009-11-06T07:55:00.006-05:00

Yesterday saw the completion of a trade of items with my new friend from the west coast. Donna, from Giggly Girl Designs on Etsy (that awesome site for creatives of all sorts from all over the world) emailed me a while back asking if we could trade. She liked my stuff and it turned out that I liked her stuff and the rest is history! I sent her 2 prints of my pieces and in exchange she custom designed and made a BEAUTIFUL bag for me. I'm addicted to bags and purses (just ask my family!!) and so it was a trade made in heaven.
Well! My bag arrived yesterday and it is AWESOME! Featured is one of my favorite artists: Frida Kahlo... and it has pockets galore! And the colors are perfect and the size is perfect and, and and--I love it!
Check out Donna's cool shop on Etsy at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/gigglygirldesigns and see if you like one of her other models! I can certainly attest to the good workmanship and she is very open to suggestions/requests.

Meanwhile, check it out:

Can you tell how much I love it by how tightly I'm clutching it?? BTW--I'm standing in front of one of my larger, abstract pieces called "Midwest Roadmap".

From the front--the smallest pocket houses my cell phone.

From the back--yet another pocket! And more pockets inside!

Great big thanks and hugs to you, Donna! I now have a lovely new bag, custom made just for me (makes me feel special!) and, even better, I have a lovely new creative friend in California. Talk about a win-win situation!

BTW, I do have a link on the right over there somewhere, but don't forget my own etsy site at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/celestialtextiles

Embellishments: oddities

2009-11-06T07:45:00.005-05:00

Sometimes I like to add odd bits to my pieces. Buttons are certainly on my list, but so are hooks and eye closures, rubber gaskets and even chinese fortune cookie fortunes. I have a little stash going of stuff that I think is cool or pretty or striking and when its right, I add it. One of my goals is to go further and more extreme with the embellishments so I'm keeping my mind and eyes open to future embellishing opportunities!

Since a cookie fortune is a rather ephemeral item, I mounted it underneath a sheet of polyvinyl and then did some quilting around it to anchor it into place.

Here are buttons, hooks and eyes and rubber o-rings all in black or red to go with the color theme of this quilt.

Embellishment: beads!

2009-10-27T10:06:00.012-04:00

Sometimes a piece just doesn't look finished when I'm done sewing--it cries out for something more. Angelina fiber, beads, buttons, found objects, chinese fortune cookie fortunes--you name it! Here are some of the shiny, glittery pieces that really wanted some sparkly seed beads.

This is one of a 3 piece set titled: "Studies in Orange and Blue". Lots of shiny stuff here. I used seed beads to highlight a curve here and there.

Here's a detail at a higher magnification.

This piece is a long horizontal panel that depicts the different stages of the sun throughout its daily life. I called it "Celestial Vedas." Each sun and its rays are all accented with matching seed beads. Man--this one took me FOREVER to bead and finish but it was worth it.

A detail from one of the last panels.

Another close-up shot.

Collages and textile art

2009-10-26T17:03:00.004-04:00

When people ask me what kind of artist I am I usually answer "textile artist". While its true that my pieces can be technically be defined as quilts I have come to find that labeling them as quilts and me as a quilter is limiting and somewhat misleading. People always think blankets when you say "quilt" and then to : "my grandma makes quilts...". Then I have to explain that my pieces are not functional--they are meant to hang on the wall...yadda, yadda, yadda. So its really much simpler to say textile artist and be done with it. Sometimes I elaborate and say that I make fabric collages. Collage pretty much describes most of what I do these days (but I do slip in some traditional quilt making assembly techniques when appropriate.)

Whenever I trim a top or nearly finished piece and the trimmings feature pretty fabrics and embroidery I keep the bits and later use them as the raw materials for an abstract collage. When I do this, I love to let the batting and raw edges show--its kind of a quilt deconstruction and reconstruction to more of a fine arts format.

Here's one of my favorite little abstract collages.

This guy is only about 5"x 6". I love the bright colors and loose placement of the strips. It feels very spontaneous and alive! I took this picture right after I completed it--now I actually have it framed in a shadow box format with a lime green brushed aluminum frame.

Here's a close up so you can see the stitches and batting and all the cool stuff. I love small works--how they draw you in and encourage you to peer closely at their details. I have this one mounted in my home at my eye level in a hallway that I pass through multiple times a day.

Unusual materials

2009-10-16T21:16:00.005-04:00

Most often I use commercially produced cotton fabric for my pieces. I generally do not wash the material first. I like the sizing in the fabric--it produces a crisp finish when ironed (although it does build up on my iron which is annoying.) Sometimes, though, I use other fabrics for different effects. Here is one of my favorite excursions from the cotton fold:

Here is an entirely non-cotton piece. The black background is a heavy black linen--quite substantial. All of the colored fabric is felt. Some of it is wool felt which I happened to run into at JoAnn's one day. The rest is polyacrylic. So much fun to work with!

In this close-up you can see that I embroidered the felt prior to sewing it down. I wanted a real indigenous look to the piece so I used various embroidery stitches for the applique. I also used some off-white felt cut with pinking shears as a border around some of the pieces.
That's all for today. Hopefully I'll have something new to post about soon--

I've been through the desert...

2009-09-25T16:15:00.009-04:00

Hello all. Its been a dry, gritty desert for my creativity since the beginning of August. As some of you may know, my marriage of 20 years has unravelled and dissolved. My husband (ex any day now) has moved out to another state while I remain here in Florida with my three kids. I am endeavoring to sell our too big house and obtain additional employment. Unfortunately, I have been unable to manage to get into my studio and create--no time or no serenity or both. It makes me sad because when I do sell this house I will lose my lovely, lovely studio. But I just am not in a place to create or even putter away on some of my works in progress. I just feel like I must get some of these major issues at least partially settled before my mind can rest.

But there is still some creativity going on in the kitchen so I'll post a couple of my recent favorites. I guess I can only think about nourishing myself and my kids right now during this scary time. I hope that changes for me soon.

Here is a rendition of one of our house favorites: salmon salad. Whenever we have broiled salmon leftovers, I make some salad with a small pasta like this couscous (I've used orzo and wild rice together too--yummy!) Chop some fresh herbs, purple onion, maybe some tomato or cucumber and add oil and vinegar or commercial vinaigrette type dressing (I usually use Paul Newman's sun dried tomato vinaigrette.) Serve with lettuce, tomato and avocado. Low in calories and omega-3's too!

This is one of my brilliant sandwiches. In another life somewhere, I own a gourmet sandwich shop. Here's one that is divine after being heated and pressed in the panini press. Start with some whole grain bread--I've used sunflower bread here. Add a smear of spread--creole mustard is a good one. A slice of prosciutto and a slice of mesquite smoked turkey come next.

Cut up some avocado--this gets really yummy when heated. Spice things up a bit with a sprinkle of Tony's cajun seasoning on the avocado and then top with purple onion slices. A slice of reduced fat lacy swiss cheese is last. This will melt and hold all of the other ingredients together after a couple of minutes in the panini press. I initially bought this cheese because it was lower in fat but I found that has additional advantages: no messy runny oil running out after it melts. Heaven!

That's the food that feeds my soul--I hope you like it too. Let me know if anyone needs more detailed recipes. Maybe next post I'll show the white chocolate and nut scones that I've been perfecting....

Arizona writ large

2009-07-30T20:57:00.007-04:00

Its still all about Arizona for me so here are the pictures of the larger Arizona morning piece that I'm working on.

I'm using all of the same fabrics as in the postcard. Here's the start of my sky (remember: that orange-purple at the top is actually not so dark.)

A few more layers are laid out and the upper ones are sewn down. I did have some rough sketches for the composition which I followed only loosely.

This light blue is my lowest and brightest level of the sky. Its a pretty good early dawn color, I think.

Time for the horizon to make an appearance. A few mountains in the distance to give the essence of the skyline as seen from Tucson.

The precise number, size, shape and placement of the saguaros is a lot more important so I have sketched them out here on some tracing paper. I could absolutely not get by in my studio without tracing paper--I use it for just about every collage piece. I then cut the shapes out and used the tracing paper saguaros as tracing templates.

And here are the fabric saguaros in the same positions. When placement is critical, I adhere the new shapes with a craft glue stick as well as pins. I am then assured that there will be no slippage as I sew them down or manipulate the entire piece.

Of course, I had to listen to some cowboy music while I was working! My choice: "A Great Big Western Howdy!" by the Riders in the Sky. Between their music and what I was creating and seeing in my mind's eye, I was completely transported for an hour or two to, well, Arizona.

Wish you were here (in Arizona, that is)

2009-07-28T21:25:00.004-04:00

Today I completed the Arizona postcard and sent it off on its merry way to Tohono Chul Park. Good luck, little postcard! Sissy, I hope you like it!

Arizona as an inspiration

2009-07-26T21:33:00.011-04:00

In case you haven't noticed, postcards are really speaking to me these days. So, no big surprise, I came across a fiber postcard exhibit and I just had to enter. For this exhibit at the Tohuno Chul Park in Arizona, artists were asked to design a fiber postcard that represents some aspect of, well, Arizona. See the details in their call to artists here: http://www.tohonochulpark.org/PDF/Exhibits/Entry%20form--Wish%20You%20Were%20Here--PDF.pdf

The interesting twist: we are to mail our postcards directly there! Then they display all of the cards that they receive. The entry fee and SASE for the postcard's return are sent separately. So all of that was intriguing and I was considering it. But then I looked closer at the entry form and saw that the park is located in Tucson where my sister lives. So then I HAD to enter so that she could go and and see my card in person. Sissy--this card is for you!

A little googling on the internet yielded some beautiful saguaro images. I was particularly struck with sunset and sunrise pictures. I decided to make two pieces: a postcard to enter the exhibit and a larger pieces (mmm-maybe placemat size) with more detail. I'll post the progress I made today on the postcard and save the larger piece for a later post. Here's the progress I made today. One of the fabrics that I chose to use is a lovely batik in orange to purple that just does not photograph well. Its not really as dark as it looks. I'll try to shoot some more pictures tomorrow under different lighting conditions.

I decided on a scene of two or three saguaros at sunrise. The intense colors of the sky contrast with the saguaros and the earth which are both still black. Here are my first few layers of sky streaked with colored clouds.

These are all of my sky layers. I'll have more on the larger piece but this is enough for a 4 x 6 postcard.

And now I've added the fundament. Looks pretty simple so far. Hopefully it will all come together.

I've trimmed the top to size and added two saguaros. I really like it!

Here's a close-up of the saguaro. As usual, I have added all my fabrics with "raw edge applique". I used a courser fabric for the saguaros and some of the thread edges have poked out beyond the satin stitch line I used to anchor them down with. Usually, I try to avoid that at all costs but in this application, I love it--it really calls to mind the halo of spines that a saguaro sports. Gotta love serendipity.

I got a a bit of a start on the quilting. There are lots of loose threads that I have to thread to the back. That will be my job this evening. That has to be my least favorite job, but is necessary for a quality job.

The Baldwin Park Art Stroll

2009-07-10T10:32:00.009-04:00

Last night I participated in the Baldwin Park Art Stroll despite the ominous weather. There were storms all around us and lots of thunder and at 5:00 pm it looked pretty iffy. But my assigned location was under a generous building overhang so I decided it was worth the risk. My artist friend Cheryl Jones Evans also attended and was gracious in sharing her display panels. We mixed our pieces all together on them and I brought along a table to display my note cards and christmas cards. And, of course, my famous postcard rack!! Here are some pix:

My table and card set-up. That's Cheryl in the black blouse. I couldn't have just that ugly table bare to the world so I covered it with my "Midwest Roadmap" piece. Bright! Those are my smaller pieces and name sign on the panels on the right. I sold the black one on the lower left at the very end of the night when we were packing up.

Here is the front or street side of our "H" panel configuration. We thought one of my brightest bigger pieces would be a good eye-catcher.

My table from the front and there's my awesome postcard rack on the left. It sure caught a lot of people's attention. I ended up selling three postcards.

The back side of our "H" had 2 of my pieces. A lot of folks stopped and read my litany of annoyances that I had written all over the "What really bugs me" quilt.

On the other side of the "H", Cheryl displayed some of her hand crafted journals. She sold 3 of these.

So, all in all, I think the show was a success. Cheryl and I both had some sales and we had a good time gabbing with each other and with friends and family that came by to support us. Thanks Leslee and Julie for coming out! And thanks to the folks who purchased some of our art! Double thanks to friends who came by AND purchased art! In this economy, discretionary spending has dropped off the map, so every sale is a precious commodity indeed. Thanks also to the organizers of this event! Brad Biggs--you did a great job. Hope I can participate again!

Branding

2009-07-08T21:26:00.004-04:00

I was in the final preparation phase today for the Art Stroll tomorrow. I talked to my friend, Cheryl Jones Evans http://www.cherylevans.net/and we seemed to be all set with my table, her display boards etc. etc. As I was chatting with her, it dawned on me that I needed a sign for my display with my name! Duh. Of course, the sign would have to be a quilted hanging--what else. So here is what I put together.

Here's the whole thing. I used several colors of permanent markers to write out the "Celestial Textiles" and the "Elizabeth-Harris.com". I was shooting for several things: #1. my name (!)-- I wanted that to be seen and recognized first and foremost. #2. The fact that my name is actually spelled out as a URL lets people know they can go to there and see more of my works. #3. The title "Celestial Textiles", if googled, will lead to my 2 celestial textiles sites: this blog and my etsy store. So the sign is a sign for the show, some branding of celestial textiles, and references to my websites all in one!

A detail shows the quilting, drawing and gold bias strip for trimming.

And yet another blue strip...

2009-07-05T18:41:00.004-04:00

Today I completed another blue strip. That makes 6 down and 4 to go. I really can't wait to sew all of these strips together and make that damn background already. Cut out some more of the seaweed leaflets also. But I am still in a quandary about what animal form to include with the seaweed in my underwater scene. Realistic fish (or other sea life) is not grabbing me as a concept and mermaids are too cutsey-poo. Some other fantastical undersea creature?? I will have to quickly cogitate upon this and come up with a plan.

I also did some work on The Blade Garden. I need to finish that off as I am considering submitting that in some sort of venue.

Its all about plants

2009-06-30T22:14:00.004-04:00

I don't have any new work to post today but I thought I'd collect all of my botanical themed pieces and present them here. My alter ego is a botanist and I actually had a double major as an undergraduate in art and biology. I went on to pursue botany for a higher degree but, of course, the art came along for the ride.

This still life features a bunch of realistic flowers, fruits and veggies. I just love the tulips--they got me started on this piece. i thought they looked like the very traditional old fashioned dutch varieties that caused so much avarice and turmoil.

Here is an entirely fanciful flower--straight from a dream image that I had one night. I had a smirk on my face the whole time I was putting this one together. Very satisfying. This piece is from my "Inner Landscape" series which are all metaphorical. A unifying theme is the black frame.

This is my very first flower piece. Its roughly based on a very botanical scheme of a generic flower that clearly demonstrates all of the parts. I draw this sort of diagram for my students all the time. Fittingly, it hangs in my office in the Biology Department at UCF. Its official name is "Wallflower renaissance" but I think of it as my inside-out flower. As in: live your life from the inside out rather than the outside in.

This passionflower is not totally anatomically correct but I felt moved to add in some extra parts for aesthetic balance. I'm guessing that if you're not a botanist, you likely can't tell what is incorrect. I love the appearance and symbolism of passionflowers--I've used them as design elements in another piece too.

These beauties are pretty correct and are based on some night blooming Brugmansias, or Angel's Trumpets, blooming in my yard here in Florida. I posted about them before but in the interest of thoroughness, I've got them up here again.

Postcard strike

2009-06-23T23:06:00.003-04:00

Just couldn't face more frickin' postcards today. So I made another blue strip. Tedious but it has to be done. That makes 5 strips down and 5 to go. sigh.

Upcycled T-shirts

2009-06-22T22:15:00.008-04:00

Been pretty busy with my day job so I haven't had time to get in the studio as much as I'd like to. But I am trying to get ready for a little sidewalk Art Stroll next week in Baldwin Park. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=99819432058&ref=ts So I'm bustling away making postcards to fill up my cool new postcard rack (I showed it here a few posts back) which I will be using in the show. But, DAMN, that rack holds a lot of cards. I have been making cards like there's no tomorrow and its still not full. Close, though. Today I completed sixteen T-shirt post cards. Since I'm a pack-rat from way back, I naturally saved some of my kids' cutest t-shirts from when they were just little guys. Couldn't bear to toss them or pass them on to good-will. Thought I might someday make a quilt out of them but that idea has since palled. Hmmm, but post cards! Now there's an idea! I did have to iron on some stabilizing interfacing to the back of the t-shirts and then I just trimmed out the images and did some simple contour quilting around them. A matching or contrasting color for the blanket-stitch that goes around the edge completed these fast and easy postcards. Check them out!

Here's the whole batch all piled up. Can you tell we have 2 boys and a girl who all like critters of all sorts, especially bugs? They still do, too even though they're not so little any more.

My favorite is this froggy one. I love the whimsical aspect of the drawings. I got 2 cards out of this particular shirt.

There are also a lot of realistic image shirts in my stash, including these spiders. I sure hope someone else like spiders as much as we do and buys one or more of these!

It occurred to me that I've never shown the back of one of my post cards. As you can see, I use some vintage style letter stamps to write "POST CARD" and delimit the address side from the message side. The plain white fabric takes writing from a sharpie or other permanent pen no problem.

Oh, the horror

2009-06-15T15:47:00.006-04:00

Its been rough going for me lately so I'm seeking a creative outlet to help me process it all. I'm currently brainstorming on a piece that centers around Humpty Dumpty and what REALLY happened to him. It looks like the finished piece will actually consist of 3 separate components, one that has a poem on it (there's my written word I mentioned in the last post!). The 2 image components will depict Humpty far away and very close up. For it to be effective, I decided I needed a really strong expression of horror on Humpty's face. So I did a little googling to come up with something that hits home for me. It was actually not too easy to come up with these; there are a lot of unsavory horror movie images (yuck) out there if you search on "horror", "look of horror" and the like. But these images fit the bill so I will continue sketching out layout and templates with them in front of me.

Of course, Edvard Munch's "The Scream" is the grandaddy of all looks of horror. Must consider this one. Of course, a lot of the feelings of horror and despair derive from the painting style and background. But, of course, its still successful and a source to keep in mind.

This is an interesting one. The mouth really fascinated me. The eyes and forehead seem a little "fakey" to me but overall, pretty intense. I can hear a high-pitched shriek when I look at this woman, can't you?

This one is my favorite. This is Peter Stackpole's photo of TV actress Nancy Berg taken in 1953. You don't even see her whole face but what evocative eyes! Notice that they are wide open and how the eyebrows and forehead wrinkle contribute to the total feel of this image. Wow. very psychicly powerful. I hope I can capture this!

The written word and textile art

2009-06-10T21:17:00.005-04:00

Its been an ongoing theme for me lately to use words in my textile art in some way. I am intrigued by the juxtaposition of a visual image and an associated or contrasting written word(s). Here are some of my works that have included writing in some way. Obviously I am still exploring the possibilities.

Here is my first written word quilt--9 blocks (one shown), each with its own fortune cookie fortune. I sealed in the fortune with a layer of vinyl that I then quilted right down onto the plain white block.

Here's my latest effort. I used a Sharpie pen to write in the white space around each bug. I wrote in a spiral so that really added to the design element.

Here I added some text to each of the 16 blocks of this quilt. I did this by first adhering the white fabric to freezer paper by ironing and then inserting it into a typewriter and typing on it.

Frida Kahlo often included some text in her paintings. Here is one where she painted a little fluttering penant at the bottom. I've been inspired by that and done this a couple of times in fabric form by writing on some lightweight fabric and then cutting it into a strip and tacking it down.

I'm considering some new allegorical pieces--about 4 of them, I think. They are very much in the embryonic phase right now so I won't mention any of the subject matter just yet. But I am planning on pairing them with an associated poem/prose. I know I want to try something different. Not sure how I want to do this--any ideas anyone?

Chop, chop

2009-06-09T15:14:00.004-04:00

Sometimes an idea just doesn't come together. Not a problem if I'm still in the planning stage but it seems pretty daunting if I've already done a bunch of sewing and assembled my top. Maybe I've even gotten to the embellishment sewing or (gasp!) quilting stage. Now what? Here's what I do and it usually works for me: I chop it up and resew it! Often in some sort of "crazy quilt" configuration or just however it seems to fit. I open myself up to the design possibilities and listen to the piece. Then I embellish, quilt or add elements. Some of my favorite pieces have undergone this process. Here are a few:

Only the floral centers of the blocks are crazy quilted here. The technique adds lots of textural interest. Then I just added strips and borders in matching or contrasting fabrics.

Ohh, I labored over this one. It started out as an exercise in working with a monochromatic color scheme. It was ok, but not great. Then I chopped it, sewed all the resulting pieces together and added the sun. Perfect!

This little beauty resulted from a leftover paper foundation pieced strip that just didn't work on the original piece. So that strip was removed and reassembled into what you see here. Its a jewel of a piece with glittery accents in seed beads, lurex embroidery thread and a bit of Angelina Fibers.
Love serendipity!

More goofy ad copy

2009-06-03T21:46:00.007-04:00

A little work on my postcards today but nothing much new to show. Recently, however, I have heard and recorded some new senseless ad copy. Do they never, ever proof these slogans? That is, run them by someone with half a brain?? Evidently not. Here they are.

The first was for one of those diet food plans where you purchase all of your food from the company and heat it and eat it. Describing the meals as: "Each one better than the next!" oops. Really? Hmmm, this doesn't bode well for the long haul, eh? Must be pretty horrible after a few days, I think.

The second one ran on my local radio station and was advertising one of those cheap hair cutting places and compared it to pricier salons. This one also has some issues for the long haul. "Get a great haircut for half the price of a great haircut." Ummm, does that mean that eventually it will cost 1 cent? Or maybe they will even owe you?

sigh

Postcards, postcards, as far as the eye can see...

2009-06-01T20:56:00.006-04:00

Things have been hectic and crazy around my house (husband out of town, husband back in town, husband breaks ankle, husband taken to emergency room, husband incapacitated for 2 weeks, daily summer teaching begins) and so there has been absolutely no large chunks of time for me to escape to my studio. :( But that doesn't mean I haven't been in there as much as I can. Since I only have small units of time, I've only been working on small projects. I decided I need to have a good stock of postcards for my Etsy online store www.celestialtextiles.etsy.com and in person if I'm ever able to participate in a sidewalk show. So here are a few of the goodies I've completed.

I love this one! I had some leftover trimmed ocean blue pieces that were enough for a 4 x 6 card so I slapped a fish on it.

Here's the last little piece of my Tribal Kats series. I have since unearthed some more cat fabric so you'll see those eventually, too.

I just made the one of these checkerboard fish cards. Its reminiscent of the fish quilt I sent to the Fish Follies show in 2006 titled "Fishy Frolic". You can see that one on my main art website at: http://www.elizabeth-harris.com/Pages/G_Non-Series.html scroll down about half way.

I had a bunch of these strips left over from the Fishy Frolic quilt so I made several striped versions with a different kind of fish on each one. Fishy-tastic!

Fabric Collage

2009-05-24T10:02:00.001-04:00

When people ask me what kind of artist I am, I usually answer "textile artist" rather than "quilter". Its what I put on my business cards, too. The term "quilting" just conjures up too many images of grandma's log cabin bed quilt and thats just not my main focus these days. And when I do make something in a more traditional theme, I still try to shake it up in some way with radical colors, additional techniques or materials. Textile artist covers it much better since most of what I do can more accurately be described as a fabric collage. I just don't use glue to adhere my separate pieces (well, actually, I do sometimes use a gluestick for temporary positioning), I use thread to sew down the pieces. The thread also becomes part of the design, so that's an added bonus. Here are some examples of my fabric collages.

A pretty simple design relying on the punch of bright colors on a black background (I do that a lot). All of the rays were adhered with iron-on adhesive and then the edges were stitched down (raw edge applique.)

Here's my textile stab at the trompe-l'oeil style of painting popular in the late 1800's. This "fool-the-eye" style was often used in a still life composition that included dead game piled up along with the more traditional fruit and flowers of a still life. I call this piece "21st Century American Still Life". American because of the turkey--can't get more American than that. After I finished the "painting" part, I decided it really needed a frame too. I like how it turned out--rather unexpected. I'm waiting for the right venue to exhibit this one.

And here's what makes it 21st century. Hah!

Here's a large passionflower I began in a workshop I took a couple of years ago from the outstanding quilt artist and fabric designer, Jane Sassaman http://www.janesassaman.com/homepage.html. She's all about large scale florals both in her quilts and fabrics so I was definitely spinning off of her energy when I designed this one.

Art/Design Contests piss me off...

2009-05-22T21:37:00.000-04:00

A rant for all of you today and no pretty pictures--sorry! A while back I saw a posting on the message board of the Artists Registry (http://www.artistsregistry.com/) website from a disgruntled artist. Unfortunately, it has since been archived or taken down. But it has percolated with me since then and I just kept getting madder and madder about the issue. So here I am distilling and adding to that message (with apologies for not crediting the original source--I did try to find you!)

As an artist employing a non-traditional medium, I am always on the lookout for new places to show. As I troll the 'net I come across many "calls to artists" in the form of art or design contests. Sounds like a great idea for all concerned--create a poster for the next sidewalk art festival, get publicity and perhaps a monetary prize. What could be better for both parties? The festival organizers and the lucky artist? Upon deeper reflection, its not such a great idea at all, in fact, its a pretty bad idea on several fronts.

For the festival organizers (or whomever), they have no (or very little) control or input into the design as it is developed. They are completely at the mercy of the entirely coincidental population of artists who have seen the call and decided to enter. They have to pick the best or most appropriate of whatever entries there are. Could be pretty cheesy. Might be OK. Seldom is great. I have a question for those art festival organizers in particular (and you know who you are): if you are so "pro" art why are you not paying a fair price to an artist to design your poster/T-shirt/logo/whatever? Face it, you know you're trying to get something on the cheap. A professional design created with your input is sure to elevate the tone of your festival and all the publicity that you use that design for. And then there's the added bonus that you won't be big fat hypocrites shouting: "Come out and support the arts and buy something!" when you don't do the same.

For the artists who enter, its really not such a great proposition either. Most of the artists won't win and thus will receive absolutely no real compensation for their time and creativity. Zero. Zip. Nada. Too bad, so sad--you didn't win--try again next year. For the winner, of course, its a better deal. There is that award money and the notoriety. Lets look closer: usually the monetary reward is a bit on the light side, if you ask me. The honor of winning is supposed to make up for that. Does it really? I've seldom thought so.

If you look at the bigger picture, art/design contests demean and devalue the role and careers of struggling professional artists and designers everywhere. What if every art/design job was put out to a contest? Few, if any designers could make a living, thats what. Ten spec jobs for one measly payoff. Artists are already starving, thank you very much. Sadly, there are websites that now promote this very concept. This completely undermines the respect that these creatives should be getting for their work. You want a poster for your festival? A new logo? A cool T-shirt? Review portfolios, find an artist and then hire them, work with them and get the perfect design for your project.

Done.

Respect the art.

See more on this subject at: http://www.no-spec.com/articles/design-contests/ and http://www.thelogofactory.com/knowledge-base/contests.html as well as a related blog entry by Cheryl Jones Evans, a super artist (see her website at: http://www.cherylevans.net/). See Cheryl's blog entry at: http://artistswayworkshop.blogspot.com/2009/05/and-todays-ramblingcompetition-and.html

Altering fabric

2009-05-21T21:21:00.000-04:00

When the fabric I want to use is not quite what I want, but is close, I alter it. There are a lot of ways to do this. The methods I commonly use are commercial spray paint, fabric paint, Shiva paintstiks, acrylic paints, various bleaching or discharging agents (I love the Tide bleach pen) and markers. I have tried fabric makers but far prefer Sharpie markers. I stock up at Staples with the extra fine tip variety and the wider tips as well. All colors of the rainbow, of course! Truth be told, I have quite the weakness for new Sharpie markers...

Here I've used a khaki green sharpie to add some veins down the centers of the leaf portions.

I've used several colors of the ultra fine tip size to render all of the features of the face and the hair. I was rather proud of how the face turned out.

This one is much more simple. See the border fabric on the left? A simple black and white print. After I had it all together, I wished that there was just a little pink in the print to pick up that shade in some of the other fabrics. And so... I picked up my pink Sharpie and had some coloring fun.

After I had completed these beetle blocks, I felt that there was too much stark white for my design. So I filled it in with words. I had a brainstorm and spent a therapeutic hour jotting down all of the things that bug me and then transcribed them in a spiral around the beetles. This, then, inspired the name of this quilt: "What really bugs me".

Here is another face rendered in several colors of yellow and light brown.

All of these pieces are wall hangings but I've also used Sharpie markers on T-shirts that are washed along with all of the other laundry. They are truly permanent. When using Sharpies, care must be used with the color. The color on the cap is not always what the actual mark will look like--use a scrap piece of the fabric you are using to try it out and adjust your marker choice accordingly.

Culinary Creativity!

2009-05-17T21:10:00.000-04:00

This week my big sis, Helga, visited us from Arizona and we all had a grand time with each other. One of my favorite childhood memories is one of her making apple strudel from scratch so I asked her to teach me and Fiona how to make this incredible pastry. You see the word "strudel" used all over the place and it never, never is actually real, authentic Viennese appel strudel. Forget that "toaster strudel" crap! Here is the real deal. A simple, elegant pastry that takes a good three hours in preparation and another hour in baking. But, oh so worth it!

First, I prepared the table for later by taping down a linen tablecloth. The tablecloth will prevent the polish from the wood table from getting into the dough and will also help us in the final crucial assembly.

Here is lovely Helga kneading the small portion of dough. Doesn't seem like a lot, does it? A little of this goes a long way!

The dough is resting now under a warmed ceramic bowl. Fiona got to try her hand at the kneading too.

While the dough was relaxing, Helga and I peeled and sliced apples, Granny Smiths, of course. Here is my bowl of apples. Fiona is addicted to eating the peels so we both had to work to make nice, long ones for her.

Helga cored and sliced the apples into sections while I sliced them thin on my mandoline. And, yes, if you look closely, you can see I did not use the finger guard--dangerous! But the apple pieces were just too small for the guard and I promise I was very careful. I only ended up nicking one fingernail and no slashed fingertips or knuckles. Whew--it made me nervous nonetheless because that thing is sharp.

And we needed some chopped nuts--we decided on pecans (um, it was what I had in the pantry.)

Here's the whole bowl of filling with apples, raisins, sugar and cinnamon and pecans. Simple ingredients, huh?

Now for the nerve-wracking part--the rolling of the dough. The dough came out of its seclusion a little sticky (uh-oh!) but beautifully elastic (yes!). So with a little flour on the tablecloth and on top of the dough, Helga begins to carefully roll it out working from the center to the edges.

Its getting bigger! This dough is delicate and will bake up that way too. Tears or holes can be patched but the patches will show so its best to go slowly in these rolling stages.

Wow, we're there! Look how large Helga managed to roll that dough! And nary a blemish in it either. Beautiful.

You can see that the dough is rolled so thin that its actually translucent. See Helga's fingers? Its an egg dough (no yeast) and so has a lovely silken texture.

Now to paint the dough with some melted butter. (you knew that butter had to come in somewhere, right?)

A thin layer of bread crumbs come next.

Now the apple mixture!

OK--its all on the dough now.

Quickly, I remove all the tape holding down the tablecloth and Helga slowly lifts the leading edge and causes the dough to roll itself loosely up. No hands touch the dough at this point at all.

About halfway rolled up--cool, huh?

All done! Now to slide this strudel onto the cookie sheet. Four hands make it work without tearing.

Thar she blows! (I think it looks strangely organic; almost alive. No doubt I've watched too many midnight creature features)

Before baking, a bit more butter is called for...

And here is the finished strudel. A lovely golden brown with a thin delicate dough on the outside (crispy) and the inside (melt in your mouth.) Not like the interior layers of phyllo dough in baklava that are always leathery and tough (you know they are.)

Naturally we had to try it--you can see the lovely loose layers inside.

Here's the piece of strudel I enjoyed after dinner. Heaven! Well, to be truthful, it the first of two that I consumed, ahem. Finishing options were powdered sugar to prettify it a little, or, if you are truly Viennese, a dollop of "Schlag" (whipped cream). It was so good, though that we all enjoyed it au natural.

Thanks, Helga, for sharing your knowledge, expertise and (without a doubt) love!

Feline fun

2009-05-10T19:56:00.000-04:00

Not to worry followers--I've been busy with a bunch of simple little pieces for a one night show for a gallery in Columbus, Ohio called Zen Cat Gallery: http://www.zencatgallery.com/. The gallery is dedicated to cats and I was asked to submit some Zen or cat inspired pieces. Well, I did have a little bit of cat fabric that I thought I could use--kind of funky and tribal with a black background. Not really Zen, but definitely cats. So I decided to make 6 small hangings that could be grouped together or separately using the same large palette of fabrics.

I've pieced the tops and am free form quilting in appropriate colored thread.

The quilting is done and I decided to apply a real binding of fabric.

Here are four of the six I completed.

A close-up of one of them--bright and fun. I think they'd look nice arranged vertically or horizontally or?

I hope they are well received! I think I'll send five of these on to the Zen Cat Gallery and post one for sale on my online shop at Etsy: www.celestialtextiles.etsy.com. I made several textile postcards with the leftover scraps and pieces of the tribal cats (and some other scraps as well). You'll see some of those on my Etsy site, too. Check it out!

Life imitates Art, or maybe Art imitates Art

2009-05-03T19:28:00.000-04:00

Whenever we have a yellow individual that comes through the sponge rotation in our kitchen, this is what happens to it. Funny, but this never happens with the pink or blue ones!
:-)

In the zone

2009-04-29T20:29:00.000-04:00

Ooh, what a productive day I had! I sewed another blue strip (remember those?), making a total of 4. Only 5 more to go! Whew. Its tedious but if I get one done first thing, then I reward myself with working on something fun. Today's fun was threefold: working on the final stages of a quilt long in the making and starting a fun quick new project. Pictured here is a new piece of my "Inner Landscape" series titled "Sowing the Blade Garden." I have it laid out here with batting and backing. Actual quilting is next and since its a relatively small piece, that should be done soon. I think I'll be doing a lot of contour quilting on this one. Its a rather stark composition, I'll admit but that's the way it had to be. I had it lurking in the back of my studio for over a year but it just didn't want any further embellishments. I'm a firm believer in listening to the piece and letting it tell me what it needs. Yeah, I know I'm personifying here just a bit, but that's the way I frame it to myself when I'm creatively stuck and am trying to solve some sort of problem with a piece in progress.

I also continued brainstorming on my large, upcoming celestial quilt. Made a lot of notes about the different techniques I want to use and how to use them best. Then in the afternoon I started working on my new project for a show coming up in Ohio. I'll post more about those 6 small pieces tomorrow. Just one hint, though. Think: tribal cats. Intrigued?

GSA T shirts

2009-04-28T15:44:00.001-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I went in to my son's high school to help out with a T-shirt creation activity. Ed, my oldest (in the top photo), is a member of the GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) and the kids wanted to make t-shirts to wear at the (then) upcoming Day of Silence (which was April 17) . Mr. Friend, Ed's English teacher and the faculty advisor for the club, passed on the word that he needed some assistance. Being a crafty person, and a proud mom, I was happy to volunteer to bring in some of my supplies and get the activity going. We used Shiva Paintstiks and Sharpie markers and everyone brainstormed and came up with their own idea. If you haven't used Shiva Paintstiks before, they are pretty cool. They are oil based "crayons" that can be applied directly to many different surfaces, including fabrics, for either a thick effect or brushed on for a feathery or lighter effect. After drying and heat setting, the pigment is permanent and can go through the laundry. So many possibilities! See a super tutorial at Rebecca Reasons Edwards' awesome blog (gee, I wish I had written that!) http://mybrainonquilts.blogspot.com/2008/01/shiva-paintstik-tutorial.html All of the students really got into the activity and produced unique and awesome shirts which were proudly worn on the Day of Silence. Way to go Oviedo GSA!!

For more info about the national Day of Silence which is organized by students in support of students, see their website at http://www.dayofsilence.org/index.cfm

Another paper foundation quilt

2009-04-25T09:21:00.000-04:00

I forgot to add one of my favorite quilts yesterday when I posted about paper foundation piecing. All of the (stylized) mountains were done on a paper foundation. Its a little hard to tell here with this small pic but there are no truly straight lines in this quilt-I sewed down all of those triangular mountains in gentle curves, ironed them flat, then sewed new seams to take up the wrinkles that I had produced.

See the story behind this quilt (and why I have a Baba Yaga link in my favorite links box) at my art website: http://www.elizabeth-harris.com/Pages/G_Landscape.html

BTW--don't forget, you can click on any image that I have posted and a larger version will pop up allowing you to see more details. Naturally, these photos are copyrighted by me--please don't download them or use them online without my permission.

I love paper (foundation) piecing

2009-04-24T18:47:00.000-04:00

After sending in two, count'em TWO, entries to shows this week, I was able to spend all day in my studio today. I feel so accomplished! I was putting some time in on 2 works in progress. Both have been in the works for quite some time--I am too coy to say how long, exactly. The first is a watery background that I am paper piecing in long strips. That means I am actually sewing down fabric (strips in this case) to the back of tracing paper that I have marked with a pattern. It sounds like a silly thing to do but its the easy and foolproof way to get perfect points, especially for triangles. Its a technique that can be very finicky and precise as can be seen in here in my "Stars (too many triangles)"

Whew! When you are done sewing all of the fabric bits and attaching the blocks to each other, you then get to pick out the paper. Usually, that takes an hour or so, but in this quilt, it took me a week. I decided to try to count the number of triangles after I was done and gave up after my calculations exceeded a thousand. Gack! Too many!

Of course, paper piecing doesn't have to be ridiculously tedious and tight and controlled. You can also play around with paper piecing and play it loose. Here is a quilt I made a while back that only has tightly controlled squares, the strips inside the squares are willy-nilly. The paper foundation keeps the squares uniform. Without that backing, the fabric strips would stretch every which way (many are on a bias) and it would be a nightmare to try and hitch them up.

Today, I worked on a blue strip for another underwater piece. It will be a rather long vertical format to really suggest the deepest depths of the ocean. I want the background to have subtle sparkle of the deep blue fabrics I love. Here's my first strip hanging on the door of one of my storage cabinets. Next to the finished strip are the remaining foundations I need to sew! Whew! I've got a ways to go!

I've started on my strip here. Several pieces of fabric have been sewn down and ironed flat. It looks pretty random at this level but when all of the strip (8 or 9 total) are attached it should look pretty cool.

Here I am actually sewing down a piece of fabric onto the previous fabric all attached to the paper foundation.

This is what it looks like from the paper side. The seam line perforates the tracing paper so that it is relatively easy to just zip it off when you are done.

Now, I'm trimming the strips down to 1/4 inch of my marked lines. Later, when I attach the strips to each other I will use those pencil lines as a seam guide and just sew right down them (after aligning the edges).
A neat technique, yes?

Little Red Writing Hood

2009-04-21T20:24:00.000-04:00

On Thursday, April 2nd, I posted about my daughter's lovely bear puppet. Well, last Friday I was able to go to Fiona's school and enjoy the actual play that featured Henry Bear. And a fine piece of performance art it was! Mrs. Zakrzewski and her 4th grade class had created an awesome puppet theater in the front of their classroom complete with a castle background. The play was a fractured fairy tale with characters from Goldilocks and the 3 bears, Little Miss Muffet, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Little Bo Peep and some extras all combined in a glorious mish-mash. The following are a few of my best pictures. I hope you enjoy them!

Here is Little Miss Muffet (Melissa) complaining to Red Riding Hood (Elsa) about that dang spider.

Later, Goldilocks turns into a bear herself while the 3 bears (recognize Henry, the father Bear on the far left??) look on. From left to right: Father Bear (Fiona), Mother Bear (Zariah), Baby Bear (Marlee), Goldilocks (Julia), Red Riding Hood (Elsa).

After a lot of radical revisionary action, things really fall apart so the FBI (Fairytale Believers Incorporated) on the left step in to fix things. At this point I was wondering why the Blues Brothers were showing up in a fairy tale. Luckily it was all explained to me later. From left to right: FBI #1 (Stephen), FBI #2 (J.J.), LRR Hood (Elsa), Father Bear (Fiona), Mother Bear (Zariah), Little Bo Peep (Emma), Little Miss Muffet (Melissa).

See? Don't they look like the Blues Brothers? From left to right: FBI #1 (Stephen), FBI #3 (Zac), LRR Hood (Elsa), and slightly cut off, the wolf (Eddie).

And the show is over and the brilliant performers reveal themselves, are introduced and take some well-deserved bows. From left to right: Elsa, Zariah, Fiona, Jaimie standing up and Melissa kneeling below.

From left to right: Elsa Julia, Fiona, Emma, Eddie, Melissa.

From left to right: Heriberto and Zac, Elsa, Fiona above and Julia below, Emma, Melissa, Johnny.

It was a great performance! From left to right: Elsa, Fiona, Julia, Emma, Marlee. Thanks Mrs. Zakrzewski and class!! clap, clap, clap, clap! And a special thanks to Fiona for helping me with names, characters and plot details.

Textile Postcards

2009-04-20T19:15:00.000-04:00

So, I mentioned postcards a post ago and promised to show some. I always keep some scrap fabric on the side when I'm creating so that I can quickly try out a decorative stitch or thread color or quilting pattern. These scraps often turn out looking pretty cool so I have started turning them into 4" x 6" fabric postcards. I use a stiff batting called TimTex and add a white backing. And, yes, they do go through the mail. The postal workers squint and frown a little when presented with a textile postcard (its quite amusing, actually). Then they measure it to be sure its the right size. You do have to use some extra postage compared to a normal postcard and they do have to be hand-stamped. But then, off they go! What a cool surprise to send someone!

BTW, the fanciful sea cucumber (well, my my idea of such) in the next to last position will be entered in the Cordova, AK Fish Follies show. Check out their past shows at: http://www.cordovamuseum.org/

Urban photographs with a nod to Jenny Holzer and her Truisms

2009-04-17T17:52:00.000-04:00

This stop sign is in the parking lot next to our local Border's. I guess the Oviedo literati had an existential crisis as they were leaving.

I happened to notice this graffiti (stealth?) spray-painted on one of the concrete islands at a gas station I frequent. Of the 4 islands, mine was the only one graced with a statement (I felt so lucky). In case you have trouble making it out, it says: "Strangle art in its infancy and society will be a better place." !!
I especially like the random blobs of gum.

Remember, I did not create either of these--I just came across them and documented them as is.