The last of the handmade gifts. I can't BELIEVE I forgot to take a photo when it was framed. Chalk it up to the last minute rush. I made this small fabric landscape for my therapist, a wonderful doctor who has seen me through some very rough spots in life and to whom I will be eternally grateful!
I added some silk roving over the mountains to give a misty appearance-- pale blue and golden yellow, just before I added nonglare glass and a rustic handmade frame. I wanted to do a KY scene but my fingers kept pulling out those southwestern colors! Fortunately, she told me she has a couple of southwestern pieces in her home.

This is the reverse of Netta's fabric postcard purse insert -- made especially to celebrate her taking in the very gorgeous Morris -- her neighborhood's red tabby -- he's much prettier than the one in this faric -- maybe Netta will paint him -- er, will paint a likeness of him!

One of the fabric postcards for dear sweet Netta's little black Walmart purse! We both love Laurel Burch colors and especially the cats!

And one more fiber necklace for one more dear friend! Pink and blue and silver cat charms for Netta who is currently trying to "adopt" a neighborhood cat who she has named Morris and is the spitting image! Hurrah for Netta. Someone for their precious "Baby" -- a gray tabby -- and yup, that's her real name -- to play with.

I finished up Debra's fiber necklace -- cat of course -- and got it in the mail on Monday. I don't call myself the queen of the last minute for nothing!

Fiber necklace I made for Lois -- a very sweet lady who, with her daughter Mindy, operate the Mountains of Memories store in Frankfort where I am a member of one of their stamp clubs. Just my good luck that when I delivered it this week Lois was wearing a pink t-shirt with a cute scrapbook saying (nope, can't remember what it said, but at least my worries about what colors she might like were immediately allayed.

My friend Gina loves anything with an African cat look -- and so I made her this fiber necklace with wooden and clay beads that have African like designs and then used fall colors of ribbons to complement the fibers and beads. I had found an Anne Klein lion face necklace piece at a yard sale and found it recently in my "stash" so attached it to the end. Turns out Gina has the earrings to match and hasn't worn them in years. What luck!

As usual, I've loaded these wrong chronologically!
Finally, Laurel Burch designed some dogs after years of cats. I love the cats of course, but do have friends like Gina who have both a dog and a cat (as I did as a child). This is the back of her Minpin fabric piece. I left it plain as it's pretty busy all by itself. I had to dig through a LOT of LB fabric to find this one piece though!!!

Here's one of the back sides of the fabric post cards I made for Debra. I just love the bright Laurel Burch fabrics. Fortunately the stitching doesn't show when these are inserted into the purse pocket!

This is a little purse piece I made for another dear friend -- we figured out yesterday we will have been friends for 20 years in 2007! She has a red tabby named Whiskers. I love the way this one is posing!

This is Gina's other fabric "purse" post card. The dog is a piece I bought at the Nashville quilt show this summer. I think it looks a bit like her Minpin.
It's made on an embroidery machine and then cut out and is backed with iron on stuff. The line of dogs is a design on my 30 year old Singer. The ribbon is one from Michaels, already printed. I was running late with these so the quality leaves a bit to be desired.

I've been having fun making these 4" x 6" fabric pieces to go in the little "photo" purses from Walmart. I make them reversible so they can change their colors to suit their clothing!! There is a pocket on each side of the little purse so that makes 4 possible designs. Gina has a black and white cat named Cisco. I stamped the ribbon.

What I've been working on. I just completed and delivered this 8x10 fabric landscape to my dear friend Gina for Christmas. It was a lot of fun -- we both love Southwest scenes. I used my 30 year old Singer and it has a dog pattern on it. Gina has a Minpin she loves so this had to have a little doggy in it. I was afraid she'd think it was a coyote but she recognized the dog right off. Click on it to see the detail.

I am in two rubber stamping groups. I've posted some things previously from the Galorious Stampers group here in Lexington and just recently posted the items I made for our holiday swap. I'll post what I received yesterday in a day or so.

The 2nd group is called Inky Divas and meets at a wonderful store in Frankfort called Memories ala Mode which is owned and operated by two deligtful women -- Mendy and her mother Lois (as well as several really nice employees of whom I know Tobi best as she's also in our stamping group), In December we do "make and swap a gift." So for tonight's gathering I made a fiber necklace with ribbons, ultrasuede, angelina fibers, multicolored threads and three of my fabric "beads." Not knowing who will receive it, I hope the colors work for her. I also made two fabric "postcard" size pieces to go into the famous little $1.50 Walmart purse which is meant to hold two 4x6 inch photographs. The fabric pieces are shown below. I'll also post what I receive tomorrow!!!

This is one of two fabric pieces, postcard size, that I made to go in the little black WalMart purse (windows on either side). It's a landscape with stitching and angelina fibers and silk roving; made with a mixture of Sherrill Kahn and Laurel Burch fabrics.

This is the second side of the little purse -- collaged Sherrill Kahn fabrics on a SK background -- Fire Within II series. Sorry the decorative stitching is a little hard to see.

Now that it is finally, belatedly delivered, I can post the fiber necklace I made for my friend Gina for her birthday. It is comprised of fibers, ultra suede, multi-colored rayon and metallic threads, my fabric beads, and a bit of angelina fibers.

My friend Gina had a birthday in early Nov. but was way "under the weather" and then I went to NC and when I came back, she was still not up to company so I mailed her the fabric card

I'd made for her. Saturday I delivered her way overdue birthday gift and she had added her "card" to a pocket on her favorite turquoise cardigan (sweatshirt type material). It looks really cool. She's so sweet to "display" her friends' art.

I haven't "strung beads" in a long time and since my friend Pat's favorite color is green, I made her this green necklace for her birthday (which I delivered with her Christmas gifts) on
Saturday -- a few weeks late!

I was Pat's secret santa for the Galorious Stampers holiday meeting yesterday. At least part of the gift has to be handmade. I made her a fiber necklace in fall colors with a "leaf" theme. The ginko is one of Pat's favorites and I found a gold colored ginko pendant to hang from the bottom of the necklace. It doesn't look gold in the scan for some reason. The two green fabric beads at the top are made from scraps of kimono fabric that Terry brought us back from her trip to Japan and China.

I found some little black "purses" at Walmart for the amazing price of $1.50. Each side has a see-through window to hold 4x6 photos. I made fabric "post card" size pieces and placed them in the two windows. This is the first one for Pat, made from Sherrill Kahn's new fabrics: The Fire Within II and a small piece of two other fabrics that blended well.

This is the 2nd fabric "postcard" for Pat's little black "purse." There are gold charms for a few of Pat's favorite things: coffee (cup), a rubber stamp, a book, stars (for Star Wars!) and leaves.

Well, I started at the end of the story. Go down 3 images to start at the beginning of the Art of the Carolinas event and read upward!!

This is my final (I think) result from the Abstract from realistic painting. Here's what I did:
I brushed gel medium on a long triangular piece of fabric and laid it on the painting (on the left), pressed down on it and then left it for about 10 min. then gently lifted it up. I love the ghost like effect that left. Next I found some mulberry paper in my collage collection. I had stamped an image on it using a caramel stamp pad and the image didn't work. I tore the paper into strips and glued them to the top right dark blue portion. Then I cut a small square of needlepoint canvas and painted through it onto the long turquoise pice in the middle of the painting (using a red/orange papier paint). Then I lifted off the canvas and put it into the collage box! Then I found a small piece of Sherrill Kahn fabric and glued it across the bottom right. It's from her Fire Within series and I love the deep Southwest colors. Last I picked up some fur from my cat Rusty that was on the chair where he'd just had a nap. He has a neurological condition and sometimes pulls out pieces of his downy soft tummy fur. I washed a bit of it, dried it and then glued it to the right of the painting between the red and caramel colored blocks. I am thinking of adding a small fluffy white feather to the top teal block but maybe it's finished. What do you think?

On Sunday, the last day, I took an all day class with a wonderful artist and teacher named Bob Rankin. I have been so interested in abstract paintings recently -- the exact opposite of anything else I've ever liked or done. Anyway, this class was Abstracting realistic art (again, with acryllics) and the class was fabulous. Bob was an art teacher for 30 years and he is the consumate teacher, as well as a fabulous painter:
http://www.bobrankin.com/flash/index.htm
Bob paints very large and I like to paint small. In the class he painted a huge painting in under 19 minutes. Incredible work.
(http://www.boomnc.com/archive/articles_fiftyfabulous_2006sept.html)

Not only did Bob have excellent exercises to loosen us up but he gave everyone individual attention and was very supportive and answered zillions of questions. We did several exercises, with pencil, then with paints and then did a painting on our own with Bob coming around often to check our progress, offering advice and finding the good points in all our paintings. Bob had all kinds of paints and different texture mediums for us to play with and I'm sorry I didn't take more time with those. I did use one (lower left) and love the bumpy effect.

This is what I ended up with. I asked Bob's advice saying: I don't think I quite "got" it -- please critique this for me. He told me I was too linear -- lines too straight and even. As I looked at his work on display I could see what he meant. Still, I didn't want to give it up because I loved the Southwest colors so I brought it home and "watched" it for a coule weeks. I had remembered hearing Bob tell someone behind me: remember, you can always make a collage with it!!!

The other three classes I wanted to take were already filled when I registered (about a month in advance) so I chose another class with Betsy Stroud which I hoped would solve a problem I've always had with landscapes -- it sounded perfect for me -- what do you do after you've painted the sky and the mountains. This was also an acryllic class and we painted on a 10 x 14 canvas watercolor board. This class was at 5 p.m. on Saturday and I think both Betsy and I were tired! I didn't insist on the attention I needed or ask the questions I should have in order to get some help because after Betsy did a demo, we were again left on our own to work. Betsy is not the type to come around and look at what you are doing and offer advice and assistance. So this is what I ended up with. I blame myself for not being more assertive and going up to ask her advice. I think I could finish this if I just knew what to paint!!! Oh well, I was gaining experience with acryllics (which I hardly ever use). We painted from a color copy of fall trees in Colorado and actually there was very little in the foreground on the photo except the details of one tree but it was pretty far back. Our camera died a week or so before our trip so I didn't get to take pictures of what was going on in the classes.

In Nov. I was fortunate to be able to attend Art of the Carolinas in Raleigh, NC and stay with my dear friend Lin (http://viewfromtheoak.blogspot.com/).
It was a hectic trip. My DH drove us to Raleigh on Thurs. 11/9 and I attended my first class at 9:00 the next morning. It was Homage to the Box, taught by Betsy Dillard Stroud. We used acryllic paints (some metallics) on heavy weight watercolor paper. It was a fun class and this was my result (nothing like Betsy's and nothing like those around me -- I never seem to do well in classes). First we watched Betsy demo her technique and then we tried it on our own. Betsy did two paintings, using parts of the 2nd to cut up and collage to the first. The class ended before we got that far. I'm not happy with mine so I will probably cut it up for ATCs but will definitely try this technique again. I also finally carved my first stamp. It's stamped on the bottom left and the top, toward the middle -- those magnificent squiggly lines LOL. Betsy has a wonderful new book out which I ordered and just received. It's called "The Artist's Muse" and I hope to use the exercises in it to get a better handle on this process. Like they say, if you can't make it good, make it bright!!! And I did cut it up and use it for cards and ATCs!

An update on the Galorious Stampers retreat in September. Gina Burns taught us to decorate smooth white tiles using reinkers and isopropol alcohol. She then took them home and finished them with resin. Here are the three I made.
The bottom one contains a real leaf. I loved the way the effects on these kept changing as we added inks, metallic inks, and sprayed them with alcohol. They are much brighter and interesting than the scans show them to be.

Thanks again Gina.

The art bashers had a sale/swap session and exchanged things we had made, or were no longer using, for someone else's treasures. One of the special treasues I came home with was a gift from my dear friend GG (Gina Burns) who first got me interested in the group, invited me to the bash and put up with my driving to and from Cincinnati! In addition to being an extremely talented graphic designer, painter, collage artist and a truly artistic soul and a dear friend, Gina is one of those people who can take anything and make art from it. (http://www.PictureTrail.com/ggburns)

The top photo is one of a group of tiles GG brought to the exchange and she very generously let me choose one as a gift.

The bashers also decided to exchange ATCs -- I've posted GG's (2nd photo). Of course I came away with one of those to add to my GG art collection!

We also exchanged small handmade items, the plan being to make something as a remembrance of our art weekend. As soon as I can find all the wonderful items I received I'll make something and post it.

And thus ends the saga of the two September art retreats -- a record for me and for Gina and the days it took us to recover from each were worth it! Art is Life.

I didn't get to take Chris Puls' class on eraser carving but so enjoyed meeting her and spending time with her during the bash. This gal can do eraser carvings like professional illustrators can draw -- the detail in her work is incredible.
A huge thank you to her for setting up Art Bash North in Cincinnati -- she not only taught the very first class -- early morning! but also attended to every detail of the retreat from the online work to hotel details to chauffering us to meals and all the hundreds of things that came up in between. The event was an experience I'll never forget and Chris worked very hard to make it all happen. Many many thanks to a very talented, happy lady. Her smile is infectious!
And check these out: http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=33016563 and
http://www.safehomevisits.com/

Nancy Curry teaching her marvelous techniques for ATCs (but they can be used for lots of other art pieces too).
(http://www.2artsy.blogspot.com/) and
(http://www.picturetrail.com/nancycurry)

Oh what a talented and creative person she is. I had worked my way through part of her wonderful book: Texture Effects last year with the Artists of the Round Table and so was very excited to be able to take Nancy's class at Art Bash North: Mixed Media ATCs). I loved the way she worked all kinds of paints and mediums with different tools -- creating an 8.5 x 11" sheet from which we could cut pieces to use as backrounds for ATCs. She also brought a lot of her own ATC creations for us to drool over.

Cindy Cade is another Art Basher who has a heart of gold and a laugh to go with it. But wow is she great with the Spellbinders Wizard. She put it through its paces and gave us a packet of several different materials to practice with.
It was a great learning experience. Unfortunately, I have put my results, along with the rest of my treasures from the get-together, in a safe place (!) and now I can't find them to scan. But trust me when I tell you that this gal knows the Wizard and does some great art pieces with it. My favorite is running a brass stencil through and getting an immediate fully dry embossed image -- no more tedious tracing on a light table with those little tools that always poke through the paper at least once. And then there's the textured embossing and embossing on metal, and, and and!

I was so happy to finally meet Wanda Hentges who drove all the way from Iowa to be with us and do this demo of ruffled plastic. Note the gorgeous shirt she is wearing -- yup, she decorated it. She and I did some swaps in another online group a couple years ago and she's every bit as wonderful in person as she is online -- look at that great smile -- it lasted all weekend and brightened the room! She also helped me through other techniques -- I'm usually the last one to "get it" but that's ONLY because I can't hear well. LOL

Here's Wanda demonstrating the ruffled plastic technique. Mix Lumiere paints with gel medium with a wooden stick, then add the various colors to a piece of shrink plastic. Hold the heat gun back from the plastic and heat just the mixture on top. When it is "ruffled" heat the entire piece so it shrinks and flattens. Wanda used black shrink plastic and punched out an oval piece with scalloped edges. Mine turned out a little wonky so she gave me her demo piece -- the one shown here.

These are some of Wanda's gorgeous pins and ear rings made with the "ruffled plastic" technique.
This was a lot of fun and you can tell that Wanda loves trying new things and then teaching them -- she made a little frame with this technique and put it on the front of a book -- very cool!

Here is Sarah Hodsdon teaching us a really neat cigar box -- checkers. We taped off the wooden box in a grid with blue masking tape, then painted it black, inside and out, and then added felt to the inside. Many people stamped on some of the squares with metallic paints. The "checkers" are round glass "thingies" that you buy at the craft stores or online. You can glue images on the bottom that are then magnified. Neat idea and a fun class -- mine's not finished yet ...... Sarah sat in front of me during the bash and is such a creative, sunny individual not to mention a fun teacher.

Getting back to the classes at Art Bash North (Oct. in Cincinnati), below is Pat Wiley-Shafer demonstrating the proper way to hold the brush to do Sumi-E painting. Pat is a lovely person, a great teacher, and it's not her fault that I don't
have results to post -- I just can't make the shift from mind to fingers with this form. I want to do learn to Sumi-E cats but can't seem to get the basic strokes. Chris Puhls produced some magnificent bamboo and as you can see, Cindy Cade "just playing around" produced this lovely Sumi-E design before painting over it during Sarah's cigar box class. And Sarah drew a cat in a lightning flash, with just water on her pen, and handed it back to me but unfortunately it won't scan and I can't even trace it! LOL These gals are truly talented and amazing.

This is Pat K. Thomas, on the left, marbling artist and teacher extraordinaire! She hails from Sevierville, TN and her fantastic art can be seen at this gallery:
http://www.cliffdwellersgallery.com/pat_thomas.htm

Here she is demonstrating the proper way to hold the
brushes to begin Sumigashi marbling to Pat Wiley-Shafer (more about her later!).

Pat K. Thomas pulling
a sheet of Sumigashi
marbling. I'm sorry the
detail doesn't show; she
demonstrated the procedure
and then pulled a gorgeous
pale image of pink and blue.

Okay, my turn! Dip the
Japenese brushes into the
paints, drop them on the
water, repeat, left, right,
left right. Oh, this is
fascinating to watch.
Then blow on the water to
disperse the paints and
the concentric look.

Now it's time to transfer the
marbling from the water to
the paper. Breathe deeply -
remember -- it's a zen thing!

Laying the paper down onto
the Sumigashi ink/water.
and bottom right to top left --
easier said than done!

My first Sumigashi page.
Pay no attention to that
white spot at the bottom
left -- the page can be cut!!!
There is a trick to not only
laying down the paper but
also one to picking it up!

Okay, enough of plain water Sumigashi (what I call Marbelling Light! And on to the marbling with deeper darker colors and "sizing" in the water to make the paints float on top and if they float to the bottom, they are out of the way.

Here Pat is demonstrating laying the paper down correctly onto the marbled surface of the prepared water. Isn't that a beautiful design!
Unfortunately I couldn't locate a picture of her showing how to drop the inks onto the water.

I have dropped the colors onto the prepared water trying to form a color pattern I think will work well for this design.
Here I am starting to move the paint around after dropping blue, yellow and purple onto the surface of the prepared water, using a long thin wooden "stick." There are many patterns one can make with this method and all are gorgeous.

Here's my sheet part way
into the multi-step
marbling process.

Here's my final product. Not perfect but I love the colors. I marbled several other sheets, including a ghost sheet of this one (second laying down of paper on water) and hope to have lots of fun playing with these. And I plan to try this at home in the future (OH NO!).

To put it all into perspective, here's the gorgeous check book cover I purchased from Pat Thomas. This scan does not do it justice -- silver, gold, copper and black --
incredible work! I hope to post things I make with her wonderful sheets of paper in the future.

I am very late posting about Art Bash North, held in Cincinnati in October. This was put on by the Artists of the Round Table -- a wonderful online group of artists that I am fortunate to be a part of -- even though I am way behind in my assignments! My dear friend Gina (far left, back row), introduced me to this group and yup, that's
the famous Nancy Curry (smack in the middle of the back row). She is such a super person, as are all these gals.

This is our group photo in the lobby of the hotel where the event was held and we are holding the "flat people" who could not attend in person.

This were two days of non-stop classes, taught by several of the members pictured here, sharing of art we'd brought, discussions, food, a swap and sale (did I mention food!!!). A great time was had by all and I made some terrific new friends whom I've sadly neglected as I worked on other projects. But I know they are a forgiving group. Just look at those smiles. Thanks Chris for setting this up, Jacqui for starting this group and your leadership that makes it the wonderful group it is, and to all the instructors who will be featured in subsequent posts in the next few days as I catch up.