Mark your Place

 Chris of Parabolic Muse recently set up a bookmark swap.  Send in two and get two back. Sounded fun so I signed up.

Here's the two I made and sent off.  Lots of texture and acrylics on gessoed red rosin paper with fun yarn trim.

Here's the two I received in the mail.  Lovely hand woven (with impressionistic back) on the left by Pam Harris and a swirl of beads, ribbons and poetry from Rita Bellanca.

And these two beauties from the ringleader herself Chris - 

one for me and one for Margot!

Life on the Coast

My daughter Bronwyn shot this video on her recent visit. One of the otters put on quite a show for her!

From the Book Shelf

This is a lovely book I discovered several years ago.  The author has traveled the world filling his sketchbooks with wonderful remembrances of the countries he's lived in and visited.  Gentle instruction leads the reader from how to gather supplies through lessons in perspective, value, and other basics.  Pencil, pen and ink, watercolour - it's all here, with dozens of beautiful examples of his art.  I have used many of his tips in my own travel journals.  Get a copy - I'm sure you'll enjoy it immensely.

'50's Toybox

'50's Toybox   13x17

 Talk about a gentler, simpler time - my favourite toys of childhood didn't take batteries, or include computer chips.  And most of them cost under a dollar or two.

That's the flavour I wanted to capture with this assemblage.  I found the ultra cool old box at our local swap meet a few years ago - I knew that someday it would be absolutely perfect for something, and this was the piece!

The box was painted in faded forest green when I found it.  I sanded some of the edges to show wear and then splattered to my heart's content in primary colours of craft acrylic. 

The toys came from flea markets, antique shows, thrift stores, eBay, and some long ago Christmas stockings.
I affixed them with E-6000 and let dry overnight.

This piece will be available at our Art Girlz in Autumn three woman show on Sunday September 23 10-5. Destiny Carter and Debra Jurey will join me here at the Altered by the Sea Studio in Morro Bay for a day of art, fun and, hopefully, lots of sales!

Pin Me!

 

I've been wanting to Pinterest but when I found out that you had to have a facebook or twitter account to join in, I stalled.  I think I'm fairly techno for a 60+ but neither of those is something I want to get involved in.  Enter 20+ something friend Destiny who said "Oh, well just have you sign up for Twitter for about 2 minutes while you create a Pinterest account and then we can deactivate the Twitter account."  And it worked like a charm.

Now I have this wonderful on-line inspiration board where I can "pin" pictures of everything - art (mine and others), cool ideas for home decorating, places I've been (or would like to go to), books - the list is endless - and soon, so will be the pictures I've posted.  Just click on the Pinterest widget in the right hand sidebar and see what I've done so far.  It's such fun to have a place to collect all these great pictures and ideas that I come across on the web.

Suitcase Saturday

 Found this 1940's beauty at the local swap meet.

This one is a repository for precious family memorabilia: my mom's Shirley Temple doll from the '30's, my dad's old fishing hat, pictures of my grandparents - as children and middle-aged.

Pix of my parents when they first met, a small pink toothpick holder that belonged to my great grandmother, a ceramic skunk that always sat on the window sill of my Aunt Harriet's bathroom, a chicken that graced my grandmother's kitchen shelves, the furnace key from my childhood home, a metal donkey from Italy that my dad sent home to my mom during the war, the head of a soap baby that was passed down from her older sister to my mom (the baby of the family).

This pink cup came from my grandfather's family; as a small boy he was allowed to have orange juice in it when he was sick.

Thanks Dad  altered book 

These are not art supplies, but I did make xerox copies of the picture of my dad in his uniform and use them for two pieces in "The Pity of War".

Full Tilt Boogie deja vu

 One more book using techniques from Mary Ann Moss's Full Tilt Boogie Class.  This one uses covers from a vintage celluloid photo album (purchased from Etsy).

 I removed the book block of photo frames, then re-enforced the spine with book cloth tape - conveniently on sale at Paper Source.

 Made of signatures from scrapbook paper, book pages and watercolour paper that I prepared with Distress Ink in several different shades-

  using techniques learned in Tim Holtz's Creative
Chemistry 101 class that I took earlier this year.

Sewed the signatures with a kettle stitch and then

 glued the endpapers to the inside book covers.

Finished off with a hand dyed French ribbon and 

upholstery/button closure - all ready to journal in!

More Full Tilt Boogie

I've finished several books now using the techniques from Mary Ann Moss's Full Tilt Boogie on-line class.

For this one I used old book covers - The Speaker's Library and a combination of scrapbook papers,

 chevron design papers (again from Mary Ann, see link here)

and papers I made using cardstock and photos of kiosk detritus that I took last year in Portland.

The combination of the chevrons and kiosks made this lovely pattern along the spine.

 This second book was much easier to do, after having learned a lot of what not to do with the first one.  I'm hooked now and have done several more which I'll show in upcoming posts.

Life on the Coast

A lazy summer Sunday, coming in for a landing 

on the Cayucos Pier.  Enjoy your weekend!

From the Book Shelf

Another Shabby Chic book?  Always a good thing.  Rachel Ashwell's American take on wabi-sabi has been around for over 20 years now - but it still works and is still popular.  In her new book she takes us on a tour of her own dwellings, and those of friends, and shows us how to get from "inspiration" to"in fact".  Absolutely gorgeous photography - massive eye candy - and tips and ideas for your own cottage or mansion.

Buried Treasure - Kiosk Art

It's time again for "Buried Treasure" - every year  Seth Apter of The Altered Page invites his readers to re-post a favourite blog entry and then lists them on his blog.  It becomes a wonderful blog hop and a great way to find blogs you might not otherwise come across.

This post first published in March 2011 following our trip to Portland, I love the decayed papers so much, I wanted to share them again

In Portland every telephone pole was covered in
posters, notices, flyers and announcements.

Some were in the process of being cleaned off,
leaving amazing bits and pieces and detritus behind.

Beautiful artworks in themselves.

I couldn't resist capturing them on film
and sharing them with you.

Small Score - Major Cool

 Our Friends of the Library had a treasure sale last weekend, lots of donations of wonderful goodies dug out from Grandma's attic and Great Aunt Ethel's lumber room.
One of the perks of working for the library is getting a preview when they do a sale, so we got to go over and peruse on the day before it opened to the general public.

 I didn't get a lot, but I found some very cool items!  Don't ask me why, but ever since I began doing assemblage I've wanted some bronze baby shoes (if you're under 35 you probably have no idea about these, but in my youth it was all the thing to do this to your baby's old shoes to keep as a memento).  And lo and behold!  not one but two pairs!  I had to pry them off the bookends and ashtray stand - but here they are.

My friend Joen found this beautiful beaded bag for me.

 I see this small broach on a ribbon wrapped around 

the front cover of a journal or altered book.

 

And two well-worn and delightfully graphiced flour sacks.  

Good score!

Suitcase Saturday

 A decorative hatbox this time, found at Michael's, 30% off and a 20% off total purchase coupon to boot!  It holds my collection of vintage photos(ones that are not cabinet cards or cartes de visite).

I've found them at antique malls and faires, 

flea markets, thrift stores and swap meets.

 On our trip to England several years ago I scoured the street markets at Greenwich and Portobello Road, the boot sales, small antique shops and jumble sales.

There are snaps, formal studio shots, even a few tintypes!

I love to look at the long-ago faces and try to divine their secrets.

 Barbara & Blanche Rose
 altered book 8.5x6" closed

They are perfect for altered books, journals, 

in the corner of a collage or assemblage. 

D is for Destiny

My friend and work colleague Destiny Carter has a birthday coming up this weekend.  She has long admired a collection of E's that I made for myself and I thought it would be fun to do one of D's for her.

I've spent a year collecting them from various places - a small funky antique store in Berkeley, Remnants of the Past vintage show in San Luis Obispo,

a shop in Troutdale just outside of Portland,
 various thrift stores, 

rummage and garage sales and of course - Michael's.

I stenciled on a piece of mason board using an alphabet stencil and Liquetex spray paints in black, orange and red.  Then I affixed all the different D's with E-6000.

The gold frame was a find in my garage studio stash and voila! 

 - D is for Destiny !  Happy Birthday.!