stamp carving

Today, instead of painting with the seniors, I opted to take my rubber erasers and box cutter and made stamps instead. After the self portrait in previous post, I was just not in the mood to paint.

We had a full table of people today and we had to keep shifting to make room for others. It was a big day there because there was a pot luck lunch, honoring the woman who has been serving the food for many years. Everyone wanted to be there.

I didn't go to eat lunch with the others due to my dietary restrictions, so I came home and cooked. But then, I still felt like a little carving. Here are the ones I did today.

I have not snapped off the blades of my knives recently, but they are getting dull. I'd better do that before any more carving.

Cloth Paper Scissors reader challenge

I've never been one to want to enter reader challenges, or enter things for publication, but my friend Roberta got me interested enough to enter one today. First I had to do a self portrait of "little me". Well, actually, I read later it doesn't really have to be me, just something to represent me. Hmmm... and I wasted the better part of two days trying to paint myself. Roberta mentioned this challenge to the Lodi group and a couple of the other gals are submitting what they created.

Te carved stamp was done by converting a photo of myself to a rubber stamp image in Photoshop, then printing it the size of my eraser. Then I penciled over the lines I wanted to leave for the ink and pressed it hard against the rubber eraser. It leaves the image on the eraser. Then I carved everything else away with a box cutter. I should try to use more sophisticated tools to do detail work, but the box cutter fits my hand so well, and it's what I'm used to. Show Boat was on TV and I cut away all the way through it. I don't think I even looked up once, not even to see Howard Keel. LOL Now, that is dedication to art.

Lodi Mixed Media Group and Steampunk altered book

We met at the gallery on Thursday and had a very lively full group of 13 funny, talented, ladies. Between the laughing and talking, time flew by. Our show and tell time was great. Phyllis brought a box with a little story in it that she made for her granddaughter. Francis (the fearless) brought in a painting with a box attached. I did't get pics. The painting shows a couple seated in a booth with mirrors on each side, so there are reflections in both from different angles. Then on one side she had attached a box with two mirrors, one on the back and on inside right side. The left side was open and the front, so we could see the two carved people she put there, replicating the ones in her painting. Awesome, and totally unique. These are just a few of what was shared that day. Patti taught the group to make folded boxes.

I don't do folding things so I took my Steampunk altered book to work in. Little by little is getting filled up. Now it's a long read kind of book, not one you can just flip through quickly. I meant to get away from making such lengthy books, but I keep finding amazing photos to use, so it just keeps going. All science, hardware, etc are in this book. I just found a really good photo of Einstein that will go in soon, and I"m always finding pics of people with goggles, or dogs and cats with goggles. LOL So, in they go too. And if they don't have goggles, I can stamp them on, or glue on something I found in a parking lot or on the street. LOL

The Bird Book

The book that inspired Jackie , and my little bird feet shown previously, is here on my desk now. I wanted to share the title and author's name so you can get it from Amazon or your fav bookstore. The title is "Little Birds" and has 26 handmade projects to sew, stitch, quilt and love. It was compiled by Susanne Woods, and is from Stash, an imprint of C & T publishing.Lafayette, CA. Copyright 2010. Here's a pic of the back cover to whet your appetite to do some of the projects. Patterns are in the back of this slick little paperback. There are two different sets of instructions for the birds feet. We tried both and don't see a lot of difference in the finished feet. But, since there are 21 artists works represented, each one has their own way of doing things. I like to loan out my books, but this one probably won't be leaving my side. When winter comes I will be cosy up here in my nest making little birdie gifts.

Collaboration returned

This is the post card that started so modestly, and has now become a real work of art, thanks to Maria Moesch who returned it to me yesterday. I'm showing both sides.

Bird legs

My dear friend Jackie died a couple weeks ago, and some of us went to help the family haul away the art materials and books she used to love. We sorted and tossed, and donated, and saved favorite things. Among her things was a book on making fabric birds. She had already made one and I loved it and was going to borrow the book to try it myself. Well, I have it now. I think her spirit kicked me in the butt and told me to get busy, because I just had to try to make the bird legs. I had her wire, her pliers, and her book. What was I to do?

I took her things to the studio and made a first little wire bird leg. And then wrapped it in fabric, as shown in the book. Then I did a second smaller one without wrapping it.

Yesterday I went to Modesto to have a play day with friends. And I took what I did, and the wire and pliers and fabric strips. Rosemary is always a good sport about trying anything new, so she had quickly formed a little leg, when Gin and Cat showed up. Much to my surprise Gin wanted to do one also, and it looked like she had been doing them forever. Here's a pic of Jackie's bird, and the legs we (Rosemary and Gin and I) made yesterday. Those are Rosemary's hands making her birdleg. This was fun. I'll post the name of the book later. It's down in the studio and I'm upstairs trying to take care of business. LOL btw it has the cutest owl, and other bird patterns, so I hope to make some this winter.

And now that I know how much fun it is to work with wire, I can see many ways I can use them in book altering. Hmmm.....

Collaborating with Susanne

I'm ready to return this one to Susanne. I'm sure it will be back, but probably not right away. I think they are going on a long cruise soon. I stamped Let's do Lunch on it after I scanned it.