Needle felting update

My friend Ruth is working on a needle felted piece with  a cluster of grapes as the subject. She has worked on it for months as she is taking a more painterly approach as it progresses.  I purchased this wonderful variegated purple wool roving on ebay so she has more color variations.  And I want to do some purple florals.   Isn't it luscious?

Here and there

This is a reminder that for some time I could not use this blog, so posted to my other blog.  At one time I thought separating art and home blogs would not comingle... but I was wrong.   So for more art related posts, please go to
 http://janenesartsngardens.blogspot.com/

This image is from graphicsfairy website.

Mixed media. February.

Year of the pig?  Lets do a pig theme.

 I asked everyone to bring a pig or a piece of pig art to inspire us.  I painted this pig and used some of the oversprayed deli wrap scraps as background.

  At the last minute I thought it would be smart to prepare a project in case no one was feeling inspired.   So I drew a large outline of a pig much like an old breadboard we had for many years.  Then cut it into large pieces, one for each of us to work on. Each piece was carefully numbered  with

arrows to show which end goes up.  I should have photographed the numbered side.  Duh.

Because one member took two pieces and sprayed the wrong side.... I should have known that would happen... it got a little confusing when it was time to assemble it.    But we did.  Its now glued to a sheet of deli wrap.

Two members brought pig inspirations. Marilyn brought her mother's vintage ceramic pig, ca. 1930s.  Then she painted a quick study of it in watercolor.   Really nice.  I didnt take a picture, but hope she will add it to her blog so we can link to it.

Jean is a fabulous well honored and respected water colorist.  She has taught serious traditional watercolor classes in community centers , privately, and for the university.  She is new to mixed media, but threw herself into it by creating a pig out of a large foam egg, recycled silk flowers from an old lei, and corks for legs.    Really cute and colorful.   No picture . Sorry.

As always it was a fun time together.  Elizabeth had time to spray some hearts as she had missed that meeting, and while work table was still set up ... good time to do it.

Show and tell was so interesting this week.   Elizabeth had used boiled avacado pits to make a natural dye for paper and fabrics and laces.   The dye is a beautiful soft rose pink.  Her favorite was the vintage music sheets dyed pink.    Now I want to do this too. 

Marilyn has been taking one of the Jeanne Oliver courses on Art as Allegory.  I dont recall the teachers name.   Anyway, Marilyn created a set of cards and a bix to hold the.  Similar to something she saw on Seth Aptors website.  It is totally awesome.  Each card is layered in gesso, paints, collaged images and words telling her own story of life changes as we age.     Its my favorite thing she has done.     We could all relate to this piece.

Jean and I had visited the Delicato art show in Manteca the sunday before, so we reported on that.

 Pam is soon starting her first real watercolor class at Delta College senior program. So she has a really hefty supply list.  We gave her lots of feedback on this.    And I hope she takes us up on borrowing a lot of the things listed until she finds out if she really needs them in her tool box.

Valentines.

I used felt in the valentines I gave to some friends this year.  I also used those black scratched hearts for  others.

The felted heart shown next is from my friend Ruth.  She is one of my needle felting students.  I love that she made this to surprise me.  

Mixed media February

Continuing our heart theme,  we used spray dyes with stencils on rice paper hearts Amazon.  My mixed media group enjoys spraying in my studio.  Its set up with supplies at hand, aprons, gloves and loads of deli wrap to spread hearts and stencils out to dry.  And to use behind the hearts as we

Spritz them.  That way interesting oversprays can be kept for future collages. By the way the London Times deli wrap is another awesome Amazon purchase.

Mixed media january more hearts

Another project was met with greater enthusiasm.  I purchased black scratcher hearts on amazon.  We scratched the black  waxy coating away to reveal the colors printed on layer below to create our own designs.  We each made one for a member who had an injury that will keep her away for awhile.  Several people were interested enough to order more to do more at home.

I shared some at senior art one day and all artists seem to enjoy doing them.  Then shared more with grown grandkids.  Everyone loves doing these.

Here

are two samples I did.

Mixed media January

I am trying to catch up with myself.  In January we started to prepare for Valentines Day by using heart themes in several ways.    First we were to bring 4 inch by 4 inch  pieces with hearts on them.    Not everyone was really thrilled with this,  so I jumped ahead and did enough to mount on a large piece of watercolor paper.   I incorporated the four done by other members. 

Needle Felted Works. Book

I finished the next book and placed order yesterday.    Here are a few of the photos I selected.

Book report

Three books have come in now, created on Shutterfly app.   I'm very happy with printing, binding, service, and colors.  Less happy with the text I added.

It looked larger on screen, but in book, it's mostly too small.  There were a lot of options for fonts and sizes, but the spaces allowed on the pages were not adequate to add blocks of text in good easy to read sizes. 

Book #2 the gift for my son had practically no text.  Its fabulous. We spent at least an hour admiring it together while he explained the shots I had selected.  Where they were, what happened along the way.  What angle it was taken from.  With the help of Google maps on my tablet, he showed me exactly where some shots were taken, so I had the fun of seeing what was at the end of the roads...   Matt's wife was out of town and he had some rare time to kill... I'm glad he killed it with me.

Book #3. On abstracts is really nice.  I had figured out better layouts and edited down the number of photos to use.  I'm very happy with it, except for text size.  I really thought I had figured it out but I was wrong.

Book #4  is a remake of the abstract book. I was notified today that it was shipped, so before long it will here, this time with 40 pages. Some pages only have text.  I hope this works.  I'm still in a learning curve.  And I'm stubborn.  I dont like to pick up the phone and talk it out with their techies. I want to figure it out myself. 

Book #5. Was to be a remake of one of my altered books.   I ended up not happy with it, so deleted it.  Same with book #6. Another altered book.   Will delay further work on these.  Maybe later....

Book #7.  Oh boy.  My needle felted works.   Hopefully. I have yet to photograph them.   I think the colors and textures will show well.    I'm just finishing one, then will turn to photographing half a dozen to see how they look on screen. 

That's it for now.  I recommend putting some of your favorite art pieces in book form.   I'm collecting emails of friends who will get a free book offer from Shutterfly.  It's like giving them a present...or a new addiction.