The Fisherman's Wife

My lovely group of "Art Girls" met on Friday (minus a few sorely-missed members) to play about with making some art dolls. None of us had any experience with this particular medium before, but had the advice of dear Martha, via long-distance (who also sent us a gorgeous surprise package of scrumptious fabrics and trims to play with), plus some books and magazines. I will ask for permission from the others to post pictures of their results, but in the meantime, here is "The Fisherman's Wife", both in progress and completed.

Muslin body, domino face, hand-dyed and distressed cheesecloth, seashell hair, coiled wire and beaded face, braided leather arms, beaded necklace, bracelet, and skirt. Oh yeah, and silk cocoon bra (nothing but the best for our girl).

Mariah Needs Her Mama

Elizabeth and some folks on the DD list have been talking about shisha mirrors, so I thought I'd post my only attempt at one ... in the upper right corner of this little 4" piece. The stitching says, "Mariah needs her Mama. She purrs even while she's biting me - Ouch! Sandpaper tongue. Sweet sharp kisses. Only crunchy food please. No bouncing! Velvet fur and tuna breath Yum."

I made this little piece in a Susan "Lucky" Shie http://www.turtlemoon.com/ workshop at QSDS (Quilt Surface Design Symposium) in 2004. You can click on the image for a larger view of how the shisha mirror was stitched into place.

some beading

I've been playing with making beaded pendants ... here are some of the results.

Forest Ghost

This started as a black-and-white photo of only half a face -- I thought I'd "just" flip the image to make a whole face, but it was harder than I imagined. Then came the fun of playing with colors and background ... I like the result, and this may become an art quilt.

More Treasure Boxes

Here are two more Treasure boxes ... one is the original "onion-head" shape, and one is triangular. There is also a shot of the inside of the triangle box, and a final shot of the 3 of the boxes together.

Triangle Treasure Box

This is a tiny little fabric box, a take-off on the Little Treasures boxes featured in Quilting Arts magazine a month or two ago. Maggie shared this triangular pattern with me ... thanks Maggie! Fabric, Timtex, hand-beading.

DD Day 20 - Painted Muslin

A small piece of plain muslin, base-painted, then stamped & over-painted. One of the pieces created in my Art Girls group today.

Some discharged fabrics

I spent the weekend at a lovely discharging workshop by Linda Thompson. She taught lots of different ways to take the color out of different kinds of fabrics. Here are a few of my results.

Day 14 DD - Bead Doll "The Gift"

Another beaded doll ... this one is a little too large to be used as a pin (a little over 5" tall), so he may be fitted to a stand so that he can stand up. Beads on a wire form. The head is an antique button.

Day 13 DD - Beaded Doll, "Dancing Diva"

I made this little doll last night with beads on wire, wrapped around a wire form. A lot of hours for such a little doll! It's about 2-1/2" tall.

I Am The Moon

The results of a quiz, "Which Tarot Card Are You?" that I picked up at Rachel Kitterman's blog. A link to the quiz is below. The result for me ("The Moon") seems appropriate, although the moon face in the illustration looks rather angry! (No the image is not mine ... it's by Stevee Postman.) Just a fun exercise.

You are the Moon card. Entering the Moon we enter
the intuitive and psychic realms. This is the
stuff dreams are made on. And like dreams the
imagery we find here may inspire us or torment
us. Understanding the moon requires looking
within. Our own bodily rhythms are echoed in
this luminary that circles the earth every
month and reflects the sun in its progress.
Listening to those rhythms may produce visions
and lead you towards insight. The Moon is a
force that has legends attached to it. It
carries with it both romance and insanity.
Moonlight reveals itself as an illusion and it
is only those willing to work with the force of
dreams that are able to withstand this
reflective light. Image from: Stevee Postman.
http://www.stevee.com/

Which Tarot Card Are You?
brought to you by

Day 13 DD - Self Portrait

After seeing Rachel Kitterman's beautiful self-portrait, I thought I'd attempt one too. Not quite what I was going for, but better than I'd hoped ... for a non-draw-er!

Day 12 DD - My Left Foot

Day 11 DD - 2 sketches

Heartburn Doll - watercolored

Fantasy Self-Portrait

Here's my "Fantasy Self Portrait", originally created for the Quilting Arts Magazine challenge. Mine wasn't selected for publication, but that doesn't change the fact that I had a lot of fun creating it.

The title is:
"Help! I'm Trapped Inside A Fat Lady!"

Day 11 DD - Heartburn Doll

Well, obviously, I drew this while fighting a bout of heartburn. Daniel Gregory encourages you to sketch with an ink pen, not a pencil, and to attempt no erasures ... just re-draw the line where you think it should be. For some reason, I'm enjoying the drawing process more with the pen than with the pencil ... maybe because it makes me feel a bit reckless! Gonzo Artist ... yeah, that's me!

Day 10 DD - Desert

I haven't drawn since I was in 5th grade, so why shouldn't my drawings look like they were made by a 5th grader? Here's my version of a desert lizard.

Day 9 DD - photo-play

The first picture shows my digital collage of 5 separate images. I attempted to meld the images well enough that the viewer can't tell where the images are added. (In case you're wondering, the separate images are: the large pink flower on the left with the tree; the little girl, the green blossom at the bottom, the rose in the little girl's hands, and the 3 roses floating in the air.)

The second picture shows the same collage, but I removed most of the color and selectively added some floral color back in. Not sure which one I like better ... the first one is certainly "prettier", but the second one is more delicate, I think.

Day 8 DD - another experiment

Here is another piece I started in Anne Eckley's workshop. Collage on paper and fabric, then machine-stitched. I didn't like the triteness of the paper hearts, until I saw how much different it looked by turning it on end, like this. Still not my favorite, but better. Finally finished stitching it today.