Thrincie Treasure Box

Side 1

Our little mixed media art group, heARTist Trading Cards, trade ATC's each month, but we also do mixed media side trades. Truth be told I think I like the side trades the best ! One of the most recent side trades was for fabric "thincies" - 3"x3" squares. Although we only had three participants it was one of my favorite trades, and it was size that I had not worked in before. I decided to make a small treasure box from the thrincies that I received in trade and the extras that I had made for myself, figuring that I would need them to complete the box.

I had a great time with this trade and I know that this little treasure box will hold good memories for many years to come.

Side 2

This one is the top of the box, and it was made by Karen Musgrave. As you may have noticed, I have a thing for crow's and raven's , and so it was a perfect top piece.
 It's a great example of thread painting!

This thrincie was made by Linda Edkins Wyatt. I love felted things so this was a perfect addition and I love the beaded elements!

This lovely mixed media thrincie is made by Patty Van-Huis Cox. I love the depth of color and the stitched embellishment. I added the 'dream' key as a closure, but I think that it worked well with Patty's embellishment. I had not wanted to detract from what she did, but I needed the weight of something like the key to keep the top closed and I liked the idea of a 'dream key'!

Mother's Day: Loss and Gratitude

My Mother with my Grandad, William Ellery in Brooklyn, New York, Circa 1935- 1940

I've never spoken about my Mother, and it is still difficult to do. Mother was my best friend and staunchest supporter. Her love was boundless and strong. She loved children, and I think she would have liked to have had more than just me! 

The problem is that she died much too young at the age of 46, from alcoholism. Of course, at that time is was not spoken of much, nor  did we speak of the frequent, nightmarish, hospitalizations. Losing my Mother was a pain that never goes away. I miss her with every fiber of my soul - every day that I live. She would have been 84 now. I was 2 days past 21 when she died. Her loss has touched me at every turn and yet I am grateful to have had her as my mother. I think that she was too fragile for this world - too confined by the strictures of the 1950's and 60's. when women were expected to stay home . Looking back on my parents, I can see how my Mother and my Father were, at first attracted to each other. Opposites can attract. They had two very different personalties. Sometimes that can work, but in this case it sure didn't ! My father was an ambitious man, an architectural engineer. He made it well up the corporate ladder before he and my Mom split up. My Mother remarried  not too long after the split - and I think that her second husband was more suited to her - he was a superior fine artist and an advertising executive.  The problem with them all was alcohol - they were all alcoholics, and at that time it was socially very acceptable. No one thought twice about cocktails at lunch and more cocktails in the evening. No one thought much of drunken arguments that tainted the atmosphere of the house so often. So much promise in these three people. Promise that was impaired by drinking too much too often.

I'm not sure how I managed to escape that taint, but I think that my career in aviation, with it's constant drug tests, help to keep me away from substance abuse. I am so grateful that the gene seems to have passed me by!

Ellen Marie Ellery  1927-1973

You can see that my love for felines began early! We had two cats at this time. 

This one, a red and white ,lovable, male was named Haska, in honor of their 

artist friend Ray Prohaska. Our other cat was a Siamese . Mother had deep auburn hair.

My maternal grandmother was the best! She had the biggest influence on my life, especially after my Mother passed away. It was her love that really carried me through. I don't think that she ever really recovered form my Mother's death and she too died three years later . I miss her every moment of every day. Sometimes I feel as though I can still inhale her scent.

I am grateful to both my Mother and my Grandmother for their boundless love and eternal support. I am proud of them both! I just wish that they had stayed around a bit longer - selfish of me!

Thea Elizabeth Kavanaugh Ellery 1918-1976
This is an image I made from a circa 1924 portrait of my Grandmother.
 She had rich golden auburn hair!

Zentangle ATC, How To Make a Foam Stamp Plus An Usable Alternative To Embossing Ink

This is the design that I came up with.

Over at heARTist Trading Cards our next theme is Zentangles. I love making Zentangles so I looked forward to rendering this theme

 The front and back of the cards, before any edge treatment to the ATC's

Four of the cards together

I water colored each card separately and then added some crackle and glass highlights to some of the berries. I wasn't sure what to do with the edges. When I finally did the edges (you will see more below) I decided that this time perhaps they should have gone with no edging. That being said, hindsight is 20/20 and I really did not want to remake all of the cards! Ratz! They came out alright but not quite as I had hoped for !

A single ATC - you can see the effect of the crackle gel and the gloss on some of the berries

This week I tried another experiment this week. It was something that I had been meaning to try. I had been meaning to see if I could use my Sissix Big Shot machine to cut out foam shapes to use as stamps. I'm happy to say the "yes! you can!"

Above: On the left is the Spellbinder's die (see more about which one below) and, on the right top is the cut foam stamp and, on the right bottom, the stamp applied to paper with some watercolor added.

Above :

Again, the Spellbinder's die is on the left. The craft foam (orange) an the cut (and inked) foam 'stamp'" is laid out on the top alongside the Ancient Page brand stamp pad.

I use my favorite Stillman & Birn Beta series notebook for my experiments. I'm going to try their new Zeta series sketch book a try soon.

My craft foam was adhesive back, but you could certainly just use regular craft foam sheets. I cut it with my Sissix Big Shot using a Spellbinder's "Grateful Lattice" die  and, voila!, the die cut became a foam stamp! It worked - and it worked well even!  I used an Ancient Page brand stamp pad in black, and it did not budge when I used watercolors to paint! I did have to use a cardboard shim to get enough pressure to on the cutting plate to make clean cuts with the foam, but it worked quite easily enough.

Experiment number two this week was about using embossing powders when an embossing pad is just not juicy enough to get the job done.  My most recent favorite brand of embossing powder is Stampendous  Frantage Embossing powders. I like them because they are chunkier then regular embossing powders. 

I have never used embossing powders quite the way most stampers do, but I do like the effect that they can give for borders and edges. The problem has always been that in order to get a rich, full embossed edge I need to repeatedly adding layers of embossing inks and powders several times to get a good edge, and that is simply too time consuming for me!

I decided to see if I could find any kind of substitute that would work well as an embossing ink and not require multiple applications. I've tried multiple types and brands of adhesives and nothing worked. Duh! Of course they were probably not supposed to. Then I had the idea to try using glycerin. It's an emollient, thick, liquid that you can find in the drug store. I had it on hand because I use it in hand cream recipes. I decided to try adding about two pumps of Purell to the mix, I think the alcohol helped with adhesion, but it works just fine without it.

So here's what I did:

• Top left: a little aluminum foil 'boat' large enough to dip the edges of an ATC into and thin enough to able to have a thick layer of embossing powder in it. 
• Top right: a bottle of common glycerine.
• Middle: A small plastic container and some Frantage embossing powder. An ATC about to get embossed edges and a well used brush to apply the glycerine with

Dipping the edge of the ATC into the embossing powder that
 is contained in my little aluminum foil 'boat'

The edge of the ATC covered with embossing powder

Heated. Thick and glossy!

The ATC with and without the embossed edge. The process works but now that I have edged the cards I wish that I had left them blank. I think the raw edge looked a bit cleaner . Oh well, next time I will leave well enough alone (maybe!).

Tart Caladan Shawl and Natural Inspirations

My newest finished shawlette. This is the second Caladan shawl from Barbara Benson Designs that I have made. I just really enjoy  knitting with beads - and this shawl has just the right amount of beading...not too many and not too few. I knit this with Madeline Tosh Pashima yarn in their Tart colorway. It's an absolutely luscious yarn to know being made of : 75% superwash wool, 15% silk and 10% cashmere

 A close up of the bead placement

Our hummingbirds are back in force going through 5 quarts of solution per day. In the evening we have at least 325-30 birds around each of the 5 feeders at once. I'm going to try to set up the camera and take a little video with sudio because it's one on those sights that you can;t believe until you see it and hear it !

Here's our red fox friend Lulu. She's been having 'dinner' at our house since she was kit. She comes by everying afternoon, waits patiently by the door, follows DH out to the food station, takes her meal and returns to her den across the street. She waits and lets the other critters get their food before she takes hers. Lulu seems to be very social, very courteous and very, well, cute and foxy. She is a 'red' fox in a dark grey colorway. Although common sense dictates caution she lets me come within a foot of her to take photos - no agression, no stress - she just looks at me with these sweet, soulful eyes. What a treat to be able to see a wild one interact in such a positive way.

One Chapter Ends...

No art filled news this week, but the week became unexpectedly momentous for me. I officially handed in my resignation and will retire on the day of the summer Solstice, June 21. I knew that it would happen, I just hadn't been certain when it would happen, or how it would look when it happened. During a discussion with my most excellent 'boss lady' this week I knew that the moment had arrived. 

For some months I had been having inner dialogues with myself and dithering about the practicalities, the "what if's", the good, bad and indifferent considerations. How much notice to give, would it even matter how much notice I gave? Was I even sure that this was a change I wanted to make? Of course, I think that we all struggle with retirement, and I don't mean just on the financial "what-if" level. There are so many things to consider. We have our family family, our friends family and our work family. These connections are not severed willy nilly - at least not when one is of a more mature age  and has been in a job for quite a long time!

For me, being the hermit that I am, work was my "in the world" time. Now I will have to push myself to socialize more, but I'm thinking that this is something that I will choose to do more easily without the constant fatigue of the work week.

This morning a friend sent me a congratulations quote that says "the longer that you wait for the future the shorter it will be "(loesje). That really did have an impact on me! The only thing that I have ever wanted to do was to make art. My father refused to pay for art school and so, at age 16, I set off into the real world of rent and food and bills, and I had little time to worry about making art. I was more into 'making the bills' every month! It's amazing how much the monetary reality of life can change your prospective! I'm proud that I was successful in a more right minded business for so long, but it did, inevitably, drain my soul. Now, it's time for me to reclaim a bit of that artful longing that drove my youth.

This is my chance to 'be' the person that I had always hoped to be. I may not be famous, but I do hope to make a little extra money selling my felted bags and other small art works, but I will, once again, have the word 'possibility' in my vocabulary. My life will spread out before like a dew kissed wide green lawn on a summer morning; sparkling with possibilities and, I'm sure, a few moments of utter terror and my life rearranges itself. I feel like I have taken the first step onto a diving board and, as I approach the end of board, I hope to have the courage and the faith to simply leap off of the end in joy.

Fiber Thrincies = New Mixed Media Fun

One of the side trades over at heARTist Trading Cards is for 'thrincies'; or  three inch squares. I plan to use the thrincies that I get to make a small treasure box with. heARTist Trading Cards is all about the love of small art. Our regular, monthly, trades are made in the standard ATC format of 3.5" X 2.5". The fun thing about this group is that we always have side trades going. Our side trades are always optional to participate in, and the trades are, generally, all focused on 'small art'. I love being able to explore a variety of shapes and themes, and the group is short on rules which makes participation even more of an exploratory bit of fun.

For this set of 'thrincies' I used a muslin piece that I had, at one time, used to wipe a printing plate clean with. I overprinted it with a simple pattern and then added paper bits and a quote for added textural appeal.

For the backs of the 'thrincies' I monoprinted another muslin piece with a limited palette of only three colors and then added the word joy - because that's what playing with the 'thrincie' theme brought me ! Next side trade is "Foursies", yep, that's right a four inch theme...maybe another box? Maybe a montage. It all equals fun!

What Was I Thinking?! Too Many 25 Patch Blocks!

At our recent retreat to Vashon Island last month I worked on 25 patch blocks until I could do it no longer and still manage to maintain a smile on my face. 

In order to break up the '25 patch blues' I decided to make a much needed 'designer' cover for my sewing machine. I have it all 'put together' (see the image above) and I am working on what sort of free motion quilting I want to do on it. The fabrics are all from various Kaffe Fasset fabric lines. Vashon Island boasts the most amazing quilt shop, Island Quilter. They have the largest selection of Kaffe Fasset fabrics that I've ever seen. They specialize in Kaffe. The vibrabt flowers fabric above is actually a home dec fabric. The same pattern was available in a 'regular' quilting cloth but, for some odd reason, the colors in the quilting fabrics were far more subdued than the colors in the home dec line.

Below is the '25 patch blues' project that I am slogging through.

I have been working on this traditional bed quilt pattern (king size) for more years than I care to admit to. It's a Darlene Zimmerman pattern called Amelie's Story, Many Blessings'. I have a yen for making bed quilts in traditional repro fabrics (both CW as well as 30's). I like sleeping under them, but they can be very repetitive to make - some more so than others!

This image is taken from the front of the quilt pattern  booklet and is what the basic idea for this quilt is.  I chose to use a lot of coordinating fabrics from my stash for the blocks instead of more solid looking colors, but I do plan to use a mix of muslin light colors for the sashes and borders.

 I have piles and piles of 25 patch blocks and 2.50 inch, hand cut, strips. What was I thinking?! No wonder this quilt is taking me so darn long to get through. I need 120 of these blocks - or more in case I have placement issues - plus I want to use some for the back as well. All of the prints are from Judy Rothermels's various collections - they're beautiful quality, and scarp quilts make using these half yards feasible...but how tedious are 25 patch blocks anyway ?!! Very tedious indeed!

The question is - will I finish it? I am SO tempted to slice them all up and use them in a contemporary way - something far more abstract. I'm really considering doing that because making these blocks (think of the perfect corners and joins!) is making me crazier than I already am! I think the could easily work these blocks into a quilt  whose message would be that I am combining the old, traditional, with the new, more abstract quilt. Hummmmmm..... thoughts? Ideas? Comments?!