Irises

 

Thank God irises bloom, in spite of my lack of attention!

 

 

A corner of our yard is an overgrown, abandoned garden.

It requires bulldozing to clear the area and start again

(no exaggeration)

and somehow we just don't get around to it.

I don't have the ability to operate heavy machinery

 and my husband is never home long enough to get it done.

So again, thank God for irises.

 

 

They add a refined beauty to our corner "wilderness".

**********

I hope you are enjoying your Memorial Day Weekend!

 



The Cat Man: An On-line Collaboration

 

 

Many years ago, I happily joined in a "Library Card Project",

headed by Femminismo.

(If you click on her blog's name, you can see her wonderful journaling and Haikus.)

Each participant was sent a library book pocket and an excerpt from a story she had written

and were asked to illustrate that bit of her story.

She now has the story published on her blog, along with her collection of illustrations.

It's a very cool story that I am honored to be a part of.

You can see it all here.

Remember Me 'Til Niagra Falls

 

I love tacky vintage souvenirs.

I normally gravitate to souvenir plates, but when I saw this painted slice of wood,
I couldn't resist!

I got it for next to nothing at my favorite little thrift store, The Classic Shop.

Just as I thought, the Niagra Falls vista looks stunning hanging in my kitchen!

 

 

It's right at home with a Norman Rockwell calender

 (compliments of my local bank),

The Last Supper (on a plate)

and a reproduction wall phone that really works.

I don't know why, but the slice of wood made me think of painted saw blades.

The germ of a new collection...

 

 

 

One For the Record Books

No, this is not a photo taken during this past winter.

It was taken this morning.

May 3, 2013.

A record breaking May 3 snowfall not seen since 1905.

Normal for Canada, but not for Missouri.

It looks peaceful, serene, and even pretty.

But it's highly destructive!

(dramatic music- dum, dum, DUM!)

 

 

The trees have all leafed out, because it is spring (duh!)

so the heavy, wet snow had plenty to cling to.

This is our poor old maple littering our backyard, its crown splintered.

I hope we don't have to take it down--
it's the only thing between our house and the blistering summer sun
and helps our air conditioning bill.

Although I'm not running the a/c today!

A lot of trees in the area suffered similar damage--

the old hardwoods that can't bend much under extreme stress.
What's sad is that in a day the pretty snow will all be melted (or washed away by rain)
and only mud and the carnage will be left.
All from a 24 hour freak blizzard.
Life can change that fast.

 

 

On a lighter note, it's good to have a friend on a day like today.

I bought this tin of toxically bitter throat lozenges for the package.

Wouldn't you?

Just inhaling the vapors from the packet inside is enough to clear your sinuses!

Having the heat on in the house has made my throat dry (just like it's winter all over again)

and I tell ya, one of these babies numbs my throat and makes my sinuses feel like a wind tunnel!

If they didn't work so well, I'd have a hard time eating them.

They look like brown Necco Wafers and taste like Vicks VapoRub

laced with pure, black strap molasses.
The actual ingredients are eucalyptus oil and licorice with just a trace of sugar
(sugar is listed next to last)

How's that for a flavor sensation?

*********

Happy Spring!

Altered Books- My First Love

 

My first exposure to "altered" art was altered books.

So when I'm in the mood to create, I often default to altering yet another book.

I have a few started. Very few (maybe one?) completed.
(Can you relate?  I hope I'm not alone in this.)

I started this book about two weeks ago.

It's a little hardbound, pocket sized, book of Christian devotionals, copyrighted 1948.

I found it, while putting away a box of books, left from our move last December.

I don't use Christian themed books exclusively, but, I like to use them because,

1. I love God.

2. I love encouraging words.

3. I like to allow printed words to show through my art so

the words need to have a positive message.
4. A book with a positive message gives off a good vibe.
5. A book with a good vibe will more likely get worked in-- and maybe, just maybe,
 I will complete it. Or I will just really enjoy working in it a lot.
 

 

I admire people who paint in their books with wild abandon, but I am so uptight that I dislike wrinkled pages (and paint is so messy!) so in this book especially, I started with rubber stamped images (quick drying ink) and minimal collage (quick drying glue stick).  I don't like to plan a whole lot and doing messy art means I have to cover my desk and worry about spatters and pages sticking together, etc, etc.   I'm such a whiner, aren't I?

But, in this book, there's no mistaking that it's an actual book (the lettering shows through everywhere) and I like that the words become part of the design.

They are encourging, so I don't know if I want to hide them anyway.

Also I like to do folds and pockets which work better when the pages aren't encrusted with gesso and paint.  That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

 

There is no particular theme to this book, although I started with the vague idea of using some of my favorite rubber stamps-- ones that more often get used on a card or art that gets sent away for a swap or gift.  I have a lot of Asian stamps which, of course led to an Asian themed page, which led to another, because I chose to wrap a page edge in origami paper. My apologies to China and Japan for mixing your images like I don't know that your cultures have distinctions-- I cry "artistic license".

 

Technical notes:

*The best altered books start with a stitched, not glued, binding.

Peek into the spine and if you don't see clear signatures (folded groups of pages) or thread within the book, move on.  Glue cracks over time and your hard worked pages will fall out.

Also if the pages are brittle (break instead of crease), reject that book also. Brittle pages work better as collage material than as foundations for art.

*There are no rules.  But, you will thank yourself to prep your book a little.  I went through this devotional and tore out 3 full sheets of folded paper from the center of each signature.  The binding thread is relaxed, so the pages will open flat to be worked on, and the spine is relaxed so I can bulk up the pages with collaged elements and not have the book straining to close in the end.

 

Now go make something!

 

 

 



All That Jazz at 18th & Vine

 

Yesterday, I tagged along with my friend Gretchen on a home school field trip.

Unlike my kids, who are stuck in a class room all day,

Gretchen's kids are exposed to a lot more "culture",

since their school schedule is much more flexible.

 

Yesterday's experience was the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, Misssouri.

A small, but mighty museum in the 18th & Vine district where jazz evolved and grew in the first half of the 20th century.

Luckily we latched onto a larger group that was lead by a docent so we learned more about jazz, its stars and the 18th & Vine culture than if we had just read the exhibits.

There were segregation lessons to be learned too.

I highly recommend a visit.

 

 

Ella Fitzgerald's favorite sequined gown is on display as well as Charles Parker's brass and plastic sax.  It's gorgeous!

Bill Clinton's all brass saxophone graces the lobby.

There were listening stations and viewing stations for music and early films.

(Duke Ellington made the first "music video"!)

Part of our tour included The Blue Room,

a working jazz club, within the museum, where local and not so local,

jazz musicians do their thing nightly.

They even have amateur night to encourage budding musicians.

I want to go!

 

 

The Gem Theatre is directly across the street from the jazz museum.

(that's me standing under the sign)

It's a historical venue restored and updated to host jazz concerts and other performing arts events.

If you click on my link, you'll learn that The Gem was was a movie house in the early 1900s.

We didn't go inside (it was closed), but I can only imagine what its art deco interior must look like.

I'll just have to go see a show there sometime!

 



My "New" Sewing Machine

Circa 1953 (the last copyright date in the manual that came with it).

My "old" Singer (circa 1980s) had stopped working just a couple weeks ago.

The needle stuck, the bobbin stitches tangled, there was a grinding sound coming from the bobbin compartment and finally the feed dogs stopped working.

I hand cranked the machine and manually moved the fabric, to finish a couple small stitching projects before I pronounced the machine "dead".

I'm sure it can be repaired, but the "Tropical Fish and Sewing Machine Repair" shop in the nearest small town had closed years ago, so it means searching for a place in The City and hauling the machine an hour or more somewhere to be left for a week to be repaired at great expense.

*sigh*

Then last week an older gentleman came into the post office and asked if I knew anyone who could use a sewing machine.

Really?!

Walter comes in often to say hello, but this day he was on a mission

 to empty the back seat of his Crown Vic.

He had somehow bought the sewing machine at a silent auction,

without meaning to, paid little for it, but now had to find a home for it.

His daughter already had two sewing machines

(I asked).

So, of course I said "yes", depending on how it looked and ran.

Walter assured me that the auction place had test driven the machine and said it ran great.

And yes, it was "free".

He didn't want money.  He just didn't want to be stuck with it.

 

So I brought it home.

My son helped me haul my old machine down from my studio and bring up the "new" one, grumbling the whole time.

Thirteen year olds have lots of more important things to do,

dontcha know!

But once we had the cabinet set in place and the machine flipped up in working position,

his eyes lit up.

The machine is a thing of beauty.

Sexy even.

Seth had recently made a pillowcase (with French seams!) in school

and has been itching to sew more since.

I threaded the machine easily and admired the pretty foot and how industrial the machine looks compared to its more modern sisters.

I got aquainted with the bobbin compartment and the bobbin thread winder and together Seth and I figured out how to back stitch, reading the manual.
The machine is so old that the stich plate doesn't have markings for seam widths, so someone had carefully placed a length of cellophane tape at the half inch mark.
Amazingly, the tape hasn't dried up and fallen off.

 

 

I tried a few stitches and then let my son have a go at it.  We both grinnned at the dainty, "ince-ince-ince-ince" (rhymes with "since") sound the machine made as it ran.  Beautiful!

I will just miss the zigzag feature on newer machines, but to be able to sew on something so old and elegant is a treat!

The machine came with a shoebox of attachments so at some point "we" (my son is fascinated too) will try out the ruffler and button hole maker.
You can bet that there will be blog posts about those experiments!

 

***************

 

 

In the same shoebox, along with bobbins and other sewing machine bits and bobs, I found a pair of pinking shears, lovingly kept "nice" in their original box, and a lovely folio of sewing needles.  The shears are razor sharp and cut fabric like paper while the card of needles is also in very nice condition.  I will be listing both of those treasures for sale in my etsy shop...  but the sewing machine is all mine!

 

 

Why am I giving up a perfectly good pair of pinking shears?

Because while cleaning out my old machine's storage compartment,

I found I had 3 pairs.

*blush*

I have a weakness for scissors and pick them up whenever I see a pair at a garage sale or thrift store.

Surely I can spare a pair, especially if they are kept nice in their original box!