ODE TO THE GRAPE

I finished the current art quilt today and am sharing it with you all. This is all hand stitched and hand lettered. The image is a photo of a wine bottle and wine glass from our pantry. I printed it off on muslin in sepia tones and then colored it lightly with pencils. Using the filter option in PhotoShop I was able to give it a mosaic look which I really like. The dimensions are 18"X 18". There are some pink glass seed beeds stitched in the glass that look a little like bubbles. Enjoy!

SHE WHO LIVES UNDER THE PORCH. OR....HOW TO MAKE A PRIMITIVE DOLL

I have been looking at primitive dolls and I like what I see. So, I decided to give it a try. This first one is finished and I am ready to make the next!

The first thing I did was "rust" some fabric. This is easy to do by wetting any cotton or silk fabric and then putting it in a plastic bag with metal pieces that will rust. Periodically I sprayed into the bag with a 50/50 mixture of water and vinegar. It took about 48 hours to get the amount of rust I wanted. Then I designed a pattern for my doll. The pattern was placed on the fabric and cut out, stitched up and stuffed. Let the fun part began!

The entire doll body was darkened (grunged) by sponging it with a mixture of coffee and vanilla. As it dried it left a wonderful mottled look that simulates what this poor doll might have looked like if she HAD been left under the porch for several years. Then I made some pantaloons and a skirt for her. The skirt was made from raw silk and you can see it took the rust very well! I painted her bodice and gave her some wispy hair using embroidery floss. Her face is done in colored pencil. The final step is to rough up her seams ( to look more aged) by using an emery board and then rubbing cinnamon into the seams to simulate years of dirt that would accumulate there. She needs a name........any suggestions?

THIS MORNING AT ALPINE ALLEY COFFEEHOUSE

It was wonderful! Roy had his annual physical this morning and rather than sit in a waiting room with sick people I elected to spend the time at our local coffeehouse. I took my art journal book with me as well as a big bag of colored pencils, oil pastels, colored markers and a gold leaf pen. What fun I had! I drank really good coffee, had a raspberry scone and played with color. Here is the result. I am quite taken with drawing hands at the moment. The photograph in the lower right corner is one of me that I enhanced in PhotoShop. I like manipulating photos and plan to learn more about that for sure. Oh, we rearranged my studio last week. Here you can see my drafting table where I work. We gave away the large and very heavy table I was using. This works better as I am not able to collect stuff in large piles any more! It is smaller so I am forced to keep it clean. I want to live at the coffeehouse....... I will take photos next visit to share with you. A very cool place!

CHURCH PEWS FOR SALE...

For all of my local readers, we have two 9-foot long church pews for sale. They sat outside on a covered porch last winter so are kinda rough. They should be sanded and maybe sealed to make them smooth to sit on. If you are interested, you can send me a private e-mail. (judemowris@aol.com) They are presently listed on CraigsList for $400 each or both for $700. Ask your friends.....someone would love to have these!

OH YES, WE HAVE CEILINGS.....

We have been living with saggy brown insulation for ceilings for several years. No more! We now have ceilings in the bedroom and in my studio and in the bathroom. We still need them finished in the closet and laundry room. I woke up this morning and did NOT look up to read "fiberglass insulation". It was wonderful! The next step is to get them painted. I am so happy! We also took this opportunity to rearrange the rooms and remove unnecessary stuff. Minimalism is starting to work for me I think.

The viga poles really look beautiful against all the white spaces.

I'M STILL HERE!

It has been awhile since I posted so wanted to assure you I am alive and well. The past few days we have been getting ceilings put in the bedroom, my studio, the bathroom, 2 closets and my fabric storage closet. So, absolutely NO art was happening! And, I must say I have been getting increasingly cranky as a result. We have managed to get almost everything back in order this evening so I am feeling a bit better. Perhaps tomorrow I create! In the meantime, since I have neglected you, here is a wee bit of eye candy. This is called "Lagoon" and is an exercise in melted polyester using my trusty heat gun. I selected several pieces of that nasty polyester (why was that ever invented?) and attacked it with my heat gun to produce these wonderful peaks and valleys and darkened wrinkled pieces. I sewed them to a backing and added beads and stitching. The beads hanging from wire off the bottom edge are hand made beads from Tyvek (used FedEx envelope). After painting them several colors, I rolled strips of the Tyvek around a chopstick and glued it. Then, I hit it with the heat gun and the beads began to curl and change shape. After they stopped melting and were cool enough to work with, I wrapped them with some thin colored wire. these were a lot of fun to make!

LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE HANDS.....

This most recent journal prompt was to create a journal page using our hands as the subject. Or, any one's hands actually! I had no idea how much fun this would be! I colored the background of the page using an almost dried out stamp pad. That was quick and easy. Then, using my brayer, I smeared antique white acrylic paint all over my hands, one at a time of course. Then I made hand prints on the page. After the paint was dry, I placed my hands over the paint areas and drew around them with a pencil. Using my Micron pen I outlined my hands and also the painted areas created with the acrylic. At the same time I made designs in all of the unpainted areas. Suddenly my hands looked like oceans and continents. How cool is that? Then, using basic colored pencils I colored in the designs. For additional interest, I used a Krylon bronze leaf pen in selected areas and glued a red rhinestone on one of the finger rings. I finished by smearing purple and blue acrylic paints around with my fingers to outline the hands. Go do this! It is really fun!

AND THE SKY CONTINUES TO OPEN.....

We have been in our monsoon season for several days now. Every afternoon/evening the clouds build and the rains come. And it is beautiful! Our land floods briefly and then it all disappears until the next afternoon ....and it comes again. This is so good......