Crow's Apothecary

Crow's Apothecary 10 x13"

Several months ago my friend Destiny
 found this old spice rack at Goodwill, 

bought it and challenged me to "do something
steampunky and cool" with it.

And Crow's Apothecary was born.

 It was so much fun filling all the little bottles 

with skulls, badger toe bones, wish bones,

rusty nails, and blueberry syrup!

I backed them all with tea-dyed cheese
cloth and added small number labels.

A vintage key, Mr Crow and his sign and a handful of 

vintage receipts with stamps finish it off.

Destiny says I met the challenge, and I agree!

A Murder of Crows

Crow up a Tree  11x14"

Have finished the last pieces for this weekend's show.

Crow by the Numbers 11x14"

Using the same techniques, but done on 11x14" canvas panels.

Steampunk Crow 11x14" 

It was fun trying out different stencil patterns for each one.

Stencils are from Tim Holtz and Artist Cellar.

Cathedral Crow 11x14

Now that the creating is done, it's down to the nitty-gritty of printing labels, cleaning the house 

and displaying all the art.  Art Girlz in Autumn this Sunday, September 28 10-5 

at Altered by the Sea Studio in Morro Bay. Hope to see you here!

Crows on a Web

Crows on a Web  10x20"

Another crow piece, this one for the upcoming

Art Girlz in Autumn Studio Show.

Prepped canvas with gesso and old dress pattern tissue,

then painted with Golden Fluid Acrylics in

Red Oxide, Titanium Buff, Quinacridone/Nickel Azo Gold,

and Quinacridone Crimson.

Stenciled the background using the
  Mary Beth Shaw's Web design.

Then added the crows, which are stenciled with
Tim Holtz's Shattered layering stencil.

The crows' eyes are hitch fasteners from Holtz's Idealogy line.

The final touch - leaf shaped brads in
 a variety of autumnal colours.

Something to Crow About

Different steps on the way to the completed paintings

 One of the most anticipated events in Cambria every year is the Scarecrow Festival when over 300 hand built scarecrows are found all over town.  Created by individuals, clubs, groups, service organizations and others they run the gamut from traditional to "Way-out-there!"

Time for Crows  10x20"

Cambria Center for the Arts, during September and October, 

to coincide with the Festival, will be featuring

 an exhibit of Crows, Scared or Not.

Crows Up a Tree  10x20"

Using gesso, old dress patterns,
cheesecloth, Golden Fluid Acrylics, 

black card stock cutouts, stencils and masks, leaf brads,

charms and rubber stamps I created my entries.

Definitely crows - whether scared or not I leave to you.

Details from the above two pieces

A Crow in the Ferns

My younger daughter Jenny is a department manager at Michaels. This is a very good thing. Not only do I get a family member discount, but I get a heads-up on all the sales, what the coupons are gong to be and she lets me know when something really cool has come in.Like this guy above. A Halloween decoration from two years ago. But alas, I missed out the first year, when I went in to get it they were all gone. Jenny said she'd let me know if any more came in, but they didn't, that year.

So last year as soon as Michaels started getting their Halloween stuff in, I got a call - "Hey Mom, we've got the ravens again - should I pick one up for you?" DUH! Later that week she came over with one, we set him up amongst the ferns by the front walk, and he's lived there quite comfortably ever since. When I was out taking pictures of my non-disintegrating book pile yesterday, I thought "that raven deserves a blog post" - so here it is.