Hunting, Gathering, Creating

Cabinet photographs from a yard sale
Some of the photo cards have elaborate designs on the back

My hunting and gathering urges were satisfied (for a while) last Saturday! I hit three garage sales, and got a lot of cool stuff for just the amount I'd set aside. Even got a couple of freebies.

More cabinet photos from my new stash

I have such mixed feelings coming upon a large collection of these old photographs. I always wonder how people can let go of their old family pictures, even if maybe they aren't sure who all the people in the photos are. I'm lucky to have lots of family photos of my ancestors on both sides. Some are original and many images are on a CD my uncle put together. It's impossible for me not to wonder about these garage sale photos and to imagine stories about the people in them.

Pages from my great-grandma Mary's photograph album. I'm not sure who the couple on the left are. The baby on the right is one of Mary's children who later died in infancy. She had six children, three who died as babies, and three who lived long lives.

A "look at" doll I got for 4.00

When I was a child I had lots of dolls who looked like this one, though mine were usually bride dolls. Apparently my relatives and family friends who gave them to me in the 1950's wanted to prepare me for my future, as they saw it. The dolls were elaborately dressed and coiffed. My mother called them "look at" dolls, hoping to preserve them in the same state they came in. Of course it didn't work. I played with them, undressed and redressed them, made alterations to their clothes, and once performed a haircut on one. I regretted this last action as soon as I'd done it, and was prostrate with grief for a good half hour.

Below is an old lantern I found at a second hand store. To me this lantern embodies the concept of Wabi-Sabi.

I have the fortune, or misfortune of living close to an antiques mall. Look at the bargain I found earlier this week! (Below)

Vintage electrical parts cabinet for the studio

The "larger" drawers. Perfect for holding widgets and rivets.

I found a few electrical gew-gaws in these smaller drawers and promptly used them in art pieces.

I've been having fun continuing to play with my book projects from Art Unraveled. I'm making progress on the Petite Vintage book from Traci Lyn and Marylin Huskamp's class.

One side of my fabric accordian book.

I printed images of family photos on iron-on paper. I then ironed the reversed images onto muslin. Then I added the images to the book with Steam A Seam. I'll be adding more embellishments on this section before moving to the other side of the book.

You know, I have to admit I haven't really gotten the thrill many mixed media artists express from fabric and notions. I sewed a little in the late sixties, seventies, and early eighties. Once I became a painter and expanded my horizons I didn't miss sewing at all.

However, making this fabric book has changed all that. I still don't want to sew clothes, but working with fabric, ribbon, and notions to make a piece of art feels exciting! I actually went to the fabric section of JoAnn and picked out some remnants and trim to add to my book and felt a pleasant frisson at being close to fabric again. I even ordered some vintage rickrack on etsy. Rickrack, yet! I haven't seen that up close since I was a kid. But now...I get it!

Vintage journal closeup (I guess it is now a photo album)

My great great grandparents embellished on the page. He fought in the Civil War and I knew their daughter in law well--my great grandma Nellie.

Another great-grandfather, Benjamin

Finally the City Inspectors have pronounced the plumbing and electrical work in my new studio to be Very Good. Now the rest of the work should go pretty quickly. We're still aiming for mid-September for completion. The great thing is that I have already started to work in there. I have never had a decent set up to do encaustic work, and as a result, have done little of it lately. Now that there's new wiring in the studio I was able to set up my encaustic station. Finally, enough outlets and plenty of room to move around. The old cabinet and counter arrangement that came with the garage worked great. I can't express how much better I felt working in there!

Plenty of space and outlets

The Portland chapter of International Encaustic artists is having a "jam session" retreat this Saturday. We're gonna spend all day playing with encaustic. I volunteered to do a demo on using 3-D elements in encaustic. Now, this is something I've done very little of, so I knew if I had to demo it would force me to get experimenting. I was able to use some of the electrical gadgetry I found in my new old drawers in the pieces below.

First Experiment

This as yet untitled piece contains: encaustic medium and paint on wood, fabric, vintage photo reproduction on muslin, a vintage British bus ticket, text from a favorite book, what I think are fuses, a fancy metal mini hanger, an image of a vintage hot air balloon, some electrical type cord, and vintage watch parts.

Hey, Nonny No

A Shakespeare (if it is indeed he) lid of a small mints tin inspired this piece which also contains: encaustic medium and paint on wood, silver colored copper wire, fabric trim, an old necklace I found around the house, a solo earring, and a blossom of Queen Anne's Lace.

The Medium

Encaustic medium and paint on wood, a vintage electrical thingy, repro. of vintage photo, and a round plastic thingy with a bit of oil paint over it.

Next, I want to try putting more layers of wax on the support so that I can explore embedding an object deeper into the wax. I'd be doing it now, if it wasn't so darn hot! (No fans in new studio yet, alas.)


Coming up....Art and Soul Portland, and Portland Open Studios...

More Art Unraveled and Studio Update

My Frozen Charlotte Collection

One of the great treats at Art Unraveled was the Vendor Event. I kept a fairly tight rein on my purse but couldn't resist adding to my small collection of Frozen Charlotte dolls. These dolls are mostly dug up outside old doll factories in Thuringia, Germany by dedicated souls who get down and dirty to find these relics of the past.

I believe these dolls were made between the 1860's and the 1920's. They get their name from an American ballad about a girl who froze to death because she didn't take a coat, or sneaked out to meet her boyfriend, or some such cautionary tale. I imagine the name also refers to the fact that the dolls don't have any moving parts. In addition to the Frozen Charlottes, I also have a Frozen Charlie and an Ari doll. They are perfect for mixed media art, but I don't know how I'll ever part with any of them.

I spent some delightful time at the retreat with a few people I met last May at Art and Soul in Hampton. I had a lot of fun with a kick-ass mother/daughter team from Texas, Pattie and Dana. Pattie was in my "Wabi-Sabi Wonder" class and really went to town with the wabi-sabi style. Monday night we shared show and tell time with what we'd all made in our classes.

Pattie and Dana. Would you ever believe they are a great-grandmother and grandmother?

Dana made this figure in one of her classes

Dana made this map in the same class, of a beloved childhood lake area

Pattie's unfinished floor cloth. It's beautiful and luminous.

Look at this amazing doll made in class!

I look forward to seeing these artists (yes you are, girls,) and other friends here in Portland in September!

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GASP Alert: Okay, these pictures aren't very exciting, but I'm excited that the bathroom is finished in the new studio. An inspector came out earlier in the week, but of course he wants a few minor changes...it's so hard to be patient!

The Sink

The Toilet

The Vanity

I'm still hoping for a completion date of mid-September so I can get to the fun stuff of decorating and organizing!

Art Unraveled!

My Fukiro Toji Book

What a wonderful time I had at Art Unraveled! Linda Young does a fantastic job of organizing this retreat and I had encouraging and talented instructors. An extra bonus was running into women I met at Art and Soul in Hampton,Va. last May.


I am so thrilled that I've learned how to bind a book in the easy style taught by Kelly Kilmer in her Fukuro Toji class. In May I did my best to learn how to do a book with the Coptic stitch. I came away with a cool book done in my own style: The Drunken Sailor stitch. I'll tackle that one again later, but in the meantime I'll do a few more bindings Kelly-style.

We started by painting pieces of scrapbook paper, using layer on layer of transparent paint in a variety of colors. We got richly colored pages that we then bound into a book. After that we had a blast collaging and embellishing our pages. I made a conscious effort to use materials and methods I'd never tried. Kelly turned us on to the possibilities of simple clear packing tape, as well as many decorated tapes. I'd never thought of using tape before. I even put a Hello Kitty image on one page, something I would never have done in the past. I did, however give Kitty a mouth--everyone should have a voice.

A student adds embellishments

A proud student with her book. They all looked different and equally wonderful.

Kelly demonstrating adding tape

Another proud student

I did a lot of pages in class, working fast and freely. Later in the evenings I watched t.v. while decorating more pages of the book.

My first pages

Love these crazy tapes

That's the infamous Kitty on the right. I made a pocket on the left to hold two ATC cards

The page on the left has some rusted mesh that I got at the Vendor Event from the wonderful Hannah Grey store.

There are still more pages to fill! Gotta get some of that cool tape. Who knew?

Cover of my Journal

Another book class I took was Petite Vintage Journal with Tracie Lynn and Marylin Huskamp, an energetic mother-in-law and daughter-in-law team. We learned how to make little journals without sewing! We chose from a vast array of fabric to cut out our page covers. We used watercolor paper cut to match our vintage book after first removing all the pages. I got Timon of Athens by Shakespeare. The cut out pages will be great for future collages. We used Steam A Seam to attach the fabric to our pages and to make seams to attach pages together for an accordion book.

The first page of my book

I didn't finish mine in class, but got a good start. We were able to take plenty of the Steam A Seam and fabric with us to finish the book at home. I'm hoping to finish mine this weekend. I chose fabric in colors that would go well together. Some of the fabric was quite different from anything I've used before as far as design. Even if I wasn't crazy about the fabric, once it was attached to the book it looked great. The teachers were so encouraging and helpful that I was able to overcome my occasional anxiety about doing something beyond my comfort level!

Marylin working on a sample page

A student lays out her book

Fusing the fabric to the page

Love the inside of this book!

Tracie Lyn takes a photo of a student book

The journals are meant to look home-made and vintage, so we didn't have to worry about unfinished edges and a few stray threads. Just what I like!

Second page of my journal. More to come.

I had an all day workshop with the energetic and magical artist Emelina Figueroa, called "Accessing Your Creativity." This class was full of inspiration and experimentation. Emilina creates "Urbanic" art, using many natural materials that we got to try in class.

Emelina is full of contagious enthusiasm

We started our work by playing with mixing various natural and/or unusal substances with Elmer's glue. We had lentilsl, sunflower seeds, sand, rice, flax seed, wood putty, instant coffee, coffee grounds, and more to try out.

A couple of my experiments

I love the look of this sample sheet. The top two drawings are covered with toilet paper and a little instant coffee! The experiments were later sealed with polyurethane.

This great texture board has toilet paper "painted on" with coffee, sand, marble dust, plaster gauze, and wood putty.

Accessing the Child Past

My final piece. This wasn't at all what I thought I would do. This just emerged from my subconscious.

First I drew the design with pencil and then drew over that with a fine Sharpie. I then added pieces of toilet paper with instant coffee. Then I sealed the piece with polyurethane and let it dry in the Phoenix sun. I then painted with acrylic paint and sealed it again. I wasn't totally satisfied with it after class, and those who know me won't be surprised that I couldn't let it be. I tore off a bunch of the surface leaving the bare canvas with the drawings. I then began to add t.p. and the morning's coffee. I liked this a lot better and sealed the piece again.

I've been going through art retreat withdrawal since I got back yesterday. Now I'm looking forward to Art and Soul in Portland this fall where I'll be teaching and taking classes.

This post is long enough so tomorrow I'll continue with pictures of some of my art retreat friends and what they made plus another GASP update.

Yee-ha!

Having a fantastic time at Art Unraveled! I've learned how to make two easy yet fascinating books and have another class today. Can't wait to share my pictures when I get back.

I've been having fun connecting with former students/friends from Hampton last May and having so much time just to create.

See you soon!

GASPing along and Art Unraveled coming up

This cabinet and work top came with the garage--I'm in process of painting it with the floor paint I rejected for the bathroom.

Latest news on the Garage Art Studio Project:

The bathroom is built and painted. We painted the floor first. (Mostly done by the long-suffering Steve, contractor and carpenter.) I kind of chose a floor color at random, knowing the bathroom needed to be painted before the city inspectors beheld it. The wall color was similarly hurried. I like both colors but the combination looked 1940's institutional. Or like an old set from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Later I went over the floor with a wash of another color. I like the look but find it interesting that the green walls and red-brown floor replicate colors already in the garage that I plan to paint over.

New window, old trim and new walls

Saturday I went to Home Depot to look for a vanity and sink. I knew what size I needed so thought it would be simple. Haha. I don't know what it is, but I really suspect there's a network of home improvement stores that prepare for my visits. "She's headed toward the Johnson Creek Home Depot" or "Subject sighted at Acme Overhead Doors. Prepare to deflate!"

It unfolds like this. I enter the store, and find a helpful (ha) clerk. I explain clearly and concisely what I need. Said clerk then proceeds to tell me that what I (i.e. my contractor, plumber, or electrician) are planning to do Will Never Work.

If I tell them I need an insulated garage door with an R factor of 13 they'll tell me why I don't need that high an R factor. If I say I know I need a custom size door for my old garage, they'll tell me I don't and that my contractor measured it wrong. (Ha!)

So yesterday the helpful employee opined that none of the vanity units they had would work for my project and that the way my contractor and plumber proposed to handle the insertion of a water heater was Completely Wrong Headed. I called the long-suffering Steve, and wailed to him that he needed to talk to this mean man. They talked and little was resolved. Steve rightly suggested that I call the plumbing and electrical supervisor. I did and related my tale of woe. The latter stalwart fellow said he would go to Home Depot and sort out which vanity I needed.

I do try to do some of this myself, I really do. I did manage to get another color of floor paint to wash over the institutional gray, after hearing dire warnings from two clerks about how the paint would take days to dry and perhaps 1000 years to cure.

Repainted floor treatment

What I seem to be best at is popping into Goodwill when I have ten minutes to kill and coming out the owner of a huge armoire. As soon as I saw this, I knew I was a goner. What a patina. What character. I love it. The long-suffering Steve met me there and hauled it back to the studio. The next day he and my long-suffering son unloaded it.

Beautiful, isn't it?

I can't believe that I leave in a few days for Phoenix. Who would go to Phoenix in August? Many art lovers who will descend on the Embassy Suites for Art Unraveled. This will be my first time attending this retreat and I'm very excited. I know the Embassy Suites well from Art and Soul retreats, so I imagine there will be no need to leave the building and go into the hot sun! I'll tell you all about the retreat when I return.