Vintage Pages completed

     These pages are a lot different from my previous work, but I did enjoy using more paper than paint for a change (I do miss the colors!).

     This was my mother's cousin, Catherine, who lived nearby in a beautiful home (her husband was a lawyer) while I was growing up.  I used to babysit for her when I was in high school.  Fond memories. . . .



     My favorite aunt, my mother's sister, Lena.  She and my uncle had no children, but they had a knack of making me feel welcome--I loved going to visit.  Aunt Lena was a fastidious housekeeper and always dressed beautifully.  She became my girls "grandmother" after my mother died, and made them her special companions.  She lived to be 92.



     And my Mom. She was a stay-at-home wife and mother who was always involved in many activities and valued education (she had put herself through college as a nanny).  She loved to sew and made most of my clothes, including several beautiful prom dresses.  Unfortunately, she died of breast cancer in 1965 at the age of 56.  I was only 26 (do the math) and my daughters were 4 and 1 years old.  Karen has vague memories of her which involve food, but Amy has none.  I regret that Mom and I didn't really get to know each other as adults, but I had a wonderful childhood.

One finished, another started

Here's the completed Art X 3 of the collaged gelatin prints using my chosen fabric background:



      I'm now in the process of putting together another piece using scraps of felted fabric left over from a project last winter.  I had three small sections of two different (but related) materials, none of which were large enough to make a 5 x 5 inch square.  Solution:  I cut them up into 3 x 2 and 2 x 2 pieces and sewed them back together again.  (Forgot to take pictures in progress!!!)  If you look closely at the photos below, you can see the seams.



     After constructing all three squares, I used a stencil to emboss a piece of sheet copper with three different leaves, cut them out. and sewed one down on each square.





     Last night I stitched small x's (using copper metalic embroidery thread) across the background of each piece, but this morning I'm not sure I like the whole effect--too many, too small.  I may snip them out and add a few larger, more scattered  X's using the same thread.  Hmmmmm.





     And here's the third square on a piece of brown art paper.  I am thinking of using this over the foam core and adding a bit of purple Lumiere paint with some copper shadows.  I'll try it out on a scrap before committing.  I'll be back. . . .

In Memory of. . . .

     The past few days I have been putting together several journal pages which commemorate four women who shaped my past:  mother, aunts, and second cousin.  All of the pages have a vintage feel since the women were all born in the early part of the 1900's.  I'm going to show a few details of how the pages were created:



     These scraps were taken from old sheet music and the pages of a ladies' magazine, Modern Priscilla, published in 1923.  I found several of these magazines last winter at an antique shop in AZ and have been using little bits of them in my collages and journal pages ever since.  Love them!!!  The paper practically melts onto the page.





     Next, I washed over the scraps with watered-down gesso, then added a bit of color using a purple Caron d' Ache water-soluble crayon and some pieces of wonderful old gift wrap (found in another antique shop, this time in Monterey, CA).

     I used my script stamp and two home-made ones for the next layer.  The pictured stamps were constructed using sticky-backed fun foam and a ballpoint pen--they take a bit of muscle, but are really quite fun to make (Melanie Testa has a great tutorial on her blog).

     These lines from one of my favorite poems, "Dirge without Music" by Edna St. Vincent Millay, were printed on my old standby--teabags.



     The finished page:  I added a window and woman from the magazine, the engagement portrait of my dad's sister, Valda, as well as the first stanza of the poem (words meld into the background a bit--which is probably good--the poem is a bit maudlin).  After adding a bit more color wash, I filled in the flower petals with darker purple. The other three pages will all be similar--using basically the same materials and format.  I'll publish them together when finished.

Inspired!!!

    I can't believe I'm posting twice in one day, but I saw something on Jane LaFazio's blog this morning that had my creative juices bubbling.  First, I dug into my drawer of gelatin-printed fabric and found a bunch of scraps (most of these pieces were actually printed last winter, in Arizona, where I had to use a purchased bouquet from the grocery store).



     I  then cut out three backgrounds,started collaging, and free-hand snipped some leaf stalks (a bit similar to Jane's, I'm afraid . . .).

Collage 1

     Collage 2

Collage 3

     All of the pieces measure @ 5.5 inches and will become another Art X 3.  I actually finished all of the sewing today!!!!!!!!!!



     Now for the backing--I decided I'd try fabric this time by previewing several different shades and patterns of aqua blue.  



     I think I know the one I like best, but I'll mull for a while and then adhere the fabric to a piece of foam core and glue down the collages.  Another post coming soon.

Journaling Work Space

    A quick entry to show you the COMPACT area in my kitchen where I work on art journaling and other mixed-media stuff:

     This what it looks like at the end of the day after I've put everything away!!!  I'll try to remember to take another picture of "work in progress."  Yikes.  (Hmmmm, I also need to remember to staighten that picture.)

And Some More

     I am working on other projects, but my journal pages seem to be the only thing I'm really completing right now.  The following pages all involve flowers (a diversion from birds!), stencils, stamps (again my favorites), a few Tim Holtz butterflies, and a flower quote printed on tissue paper and put down with gel medium.  I like the results, but I think I need to branch out and try something new.  Stay tuned.



     As you can tell from the above pages (as well as most of my other journaling entries), I seem to work best when I pick a "theme" and use the same processes to explore it for a few pages.  Having a very small space in which to work on my journaling, I find that limiting the supplies used for a project keeps the clean-up time to a minimum.  I can easily put all of my chosen work items and ephemera into my Current Project box until finished.   By the way, this "art corner" is in my kitchen!!! 

More Journal Pages

     I'm trying to get into the habit of posting several time a week, so I'm sharing some pages that were finished quite a while ago (actually when I was out in Rhode Island visiting my daughter, Karen).  These pages all involve a bird of some kind.

       Because I had just used a coupon at Michael's for Tim Holtz's resist paper stash, I decided to use bits and pieces for the next few pages.  The flying swallow was cut out from one of his pages as well as small scraps of music.

     Here the TH paper was torn and glued down, then stenciled and stamped over.  I used my "go to" script stamp as well as one of my homemade erasers.  The condor head came from National Geo (I was lucky enough to see one in person several years ago at the Grand Canyon).

     The prairie chicken is again from National Geo (they have the best bird photos) and the TH paper is a vintage-looking account entry.  I thought this seemed appropriate since this bird is very endangered.  Stamps are script and "eraser."

     This one was just for fun!  The bird and the egg didn't really belong together, but the "expression" on the crane's face fits.