Circles

It's been hard to "do" art lately with my materials and supplies spread throughout the house. The studio is now painted and the major furniture pieces are built. I'm still adding a few shelves to the closet and need to re-attach the peg boards, but things are starting to be functional. Yippee!!

I wanted something artsy on the walls. I thought of all manner of border possiblities (from fabric swatches to tissue paper to ceramic tile and more), but when my eyes fell on the chipboard circles at Craft Warehouse the bells and whistles went off. I will be creating groupings of various sized circles in several places in the room. So, just about daily I am decorating circles using various techniques. Each is finished with a high gloss coat of Diamond Glaze or ultra thick clear embossing powder. I may use polyurethane and/or resin in the future, too. (I was interested to note that there are glossy little design circles given on Facebook called Flair. That is kind of what will be on my walls.)

The circles are various sizes, so if I only have a little time I can choose a smaller circle! The fun part is that I get to play with a variety of materials and mediums. I have so far used paper packing tape, acrylic paints (some metallic, of course), ink, glitter, mica powder and fabric. Yesterday's is my favorite so far, that is why it begins this blog! (3" chipboard circle, fabric, rubber stamping, metallic paint, metallic marker)

My Latest Art

This year I have to teach US History. Me and History, friends? Not really. So, teaching it again (I muddled through two years ago) stands as a challenge to my days. The four boys in my class are nearly non-readers, so there is no "read chapter 5 tonight, we'll have a quiz tomorrow" kind of lessons. Everything must be basic and clear in class.

After struggling through a month and getting nowhere, I had to rethink my entire approach to teaching this class. I looked at the state required standards for history. I looked through the textbook I was given. I knew I couldn't teach the entire book, so tried to decide the important concepts.

About this time I finally found an old suitcase to alter, though it was a bit larger than I had wanted. Right there in the Goodwill checkout line it hit me! I would use my altered suitcase and create a Kidspace style model inside to represent our topic. It would be hands-on and visual for my students and I would also have fun!

Our first topic is immigration. Here is the grand tour...

All those old books and magazines I've collected donated the outside photos. Those who know me will quickly notice the paint - metallics: russet and gold. The maps and other pictures inside were culled from weeks of internet research. (I found the best historic map site! (David Rumsey Map Collection)

I introduced the suitcase yesterday and let them explore. I told them nothing except everything inside goes together; they had to guess what it was all about. They were not to discuss their guesses with each other. When they had an idea, they came to my "booth" and described what they thought. I gave a prize to the one who guessed the closest.

Today, they began identifying the 6 maps and answering questions about the cities and countries represented. Tomorrow we begin working on family trees and I introduce them to Ancestry.com. They will see my tree and start to learn about one of the 4 immigrants we are studying - my great-great-grandfather.

We'll see in a month if my scheme actually works. At least I'm having a good time!

Not a Heart...

...but made with love!


My older granddaughter, Kady, wanted to be Wall-E for Halloween, but that's obviously not a popular choice this year as costumes are hard to come by. The one I found wasn't very good and cost $50!

Given the time and money, I think I'd have scrounged local thrift shops and created a replica of Wall-E that would even have motorized/light-up parts. As it is, I told Kady I'd spend $10 to make her a costume. We went to PaperZone to find a cube-shaped box that would fit her properly (12 x 12 turned out to be the right size). I mixed up a yellow-gold with some gesso for the base coat and made a darker gold glaze to dry brush over spots.

I cut the wheels/treads from another box and painted shades of gray in roughly the right shapes. I also painted the gray "control" area on the front. Then made a cardboard console and applied a 4x6 mailing label I had printed from my computer (designed in Adobe Illustrator). I covered that with clear mailing tape to look like glass over the "solar" indicator. I also downloaded the correct font (Gunship ) to make the name. My trusty X-acto made the head, arm and leg openings.

A purchased Wall-E mask saved me time and I loaned her my small cooler, not only to be like Wall-E, but to put her Treats in.
The next day I went to a thrift shop and purchased some small, old shoes. I found a bargain plant at Wal-Mart and snipped off a few leaves and voila, I had Wall-E's little plant.

Shalom

The next Expressions gallery exhibit at church focuses on the names of God found in the Bible. While many of His names are meaningful to me, I chose to focus on Jehovah Shalom - The Lord is Peace.

As usual, I really had no idea what the final piece would look like, but work through the piece just doing the next step as best I can. Titled simply "Inside," it was constructed on a 24" x 22" scrap piece of masonite board. Most of the texture and heart are made from plater-laden gauze. I had fun working with this medium! Various paints and papers add colors, textures and the obvious words.

(Hmm. A heart. Metallic paints. Text. Seems I have recurring elements in my art, huh?)


Below is the description I submitted with my piece...

JEHOVAH-SHALOM. The Lord is Peace.

The world searches for peace. If we could just solve the problems that face us - war, disputes among family members, the unreasonable boss, the collapse of financial institutions, too much month left at the end of the paycheck or a rebellious child – then we would have peace. If only.

But peace does not come with diligence of will. Peace comes with a person – Our God, Our Shalom. When He resides within, there is peace within. Peace that no person, no event, no trouble can take away.

I am so thankful for that peace
---

It seems there are so many things that threaten to steal our peace. Certainly our heart is even pierced by the turmoil at times. Yet inside we can rest in His peace in the midst of the storms of life.



Peace to you, my friends.

New Grandbaby!

Little Autumn Rose is the newest addition to my family. Her mom, my older daughter, Jessica, is doing well and so is the big sister, Kady. Dad, Nathan, is thrilled, too! The morning C-section was delayed until nearly 3 pm because no one told my daughter not to eat before the surgery, but baby Autumn is worth the wait.

My Other Art

The State Fair is over and what a fair it has been! For those who don't know, I love to cook and especially love to invent new recipes. That is my "other" art - creative combinations in the kitchen. Every year I enter contests at the fair and have won quite a few ribbons. At the Oregon State Fair, entering the "daily" contests give you free admission, which was the initial reason I started entering 10 years ago.

This year I entered 7 contests - 6 for food and one Trash-to-Treasure (see Aug 27th post). Of those, I won a 3rd place ribbon for my fresh Tropical Salsa,

1st place ($200, apron, tote bag ribbons and entry into the national competition) in the Hidden Valley Ranch "Fresh Taste for the Family" contest with my Summer Confetti Slaw


and 2nd place ($50, apron and ribbon) in the Great American SPAM appetizer contest with my Sunday Brunch Shooters.

In addition to the cash, aprons and ribbons, I occasionally have extra "winnings." This year, the call came right away to demonstrate my salad live on the morning news show in Eugene, Oregon (about 65 miles to the south). I had to bring everything prepped and ready to go and be there at 5:45 am, then be back in Salem ready to work by 7:30 am. I had about 2 minutes to talk about and demonstrate my dish. Here is the link for the video and recipe: http://kezi.com/infocus It works currently, but I know eventually it will be replaced with more current news.

When I got home work that day, I had a message from the local newspaper. My recipe will be featured next Wednesday in the food section. They want a photo shoot of me making the salad and the finished salad to run with the recipe. After a few rounds of phone-tag, we have scheduled the shoot for next Monday.

Imagine my surprise when a coworker approached me at work today saying she had seen my name in the paper this morning! They ran a feature article about the Trash to Treasure contest in the home section of the paper today. Though I didn't win anything, my purse was pictured and described. How random was that?


It has been fun having all the attention. I'm so glad people like my stuff. Of course I am beginning to wonder where the riches are that should go with all my "fame!"

Trash to Treasure

I decided to finish off my felt purse for tomorrow's Trash-to-Treasure contest at the Oregon State Fair. If I had more time, I'd love to embellish more and more, especially decorative stitching.





The purse and handles are made of wool sweaters from the thrift store which was felted in the wash. The handles are braided strips of the two felts with funky yarns braided with them. I added a found credit card case for an outside pocket and embellished with other found objects.



I wanted a more rustic closure, so used a chunky button and hand stitched button hole. The lining is made from a thrift store shirt.




I added a few buttons from my stash on the back










I made tags and hung them with funky yarns on one handle. One is a London vacation ad made into a transparency and words all from a 1952 National Geographic magazine. There is a recycle symbol on the back of the "Bargain and/or Priceless" tag. Both these tags were made in 1.5" square slides. I also made a metal tag from a pop can - the part that says "please recycle." There are also a few old dog tags.