Ambitious knitting projects and rhinestones

When I lived in Baton Rouge, I worked with some folks who performed in drag. I, of course, became friends with them. I started knitting back then in order to develop a meditative habit. What I ended up getting was a full blown obsession with collecting kitting and crocheting patterns, a bunch of scarves, even more unfinished projects, and a couple of impressive projects for other people. I even sold a couple of pieces until a coworker who commissioned a scarf for her son went a little psycho on me when I gave her the final bill. That was enough to cure me of selling my homemade goods for a good long time. Well, when I started knitting, one of my friends who did drag asked me if I would knit him a dress, just a simple tube dress with straps. Because I am certifiable, I agreed. You see, I used to dive in when I learned how to do something new. I am surprised I didn't start out making lace shawls. The dress wasn't so hard, after all. Just very time consuming. I even made a hat for him, my first. That was such a hit, I made my other two friends who did drag hats in their favorite two colors. I wish I still had the pattern. I'd actually like one of those hats now.

When I was digging around for art journal fodder, I found the sketch Wes and I made of the plans for his dress. I threw it into one of the eclectic altered journals I mentioned in a previous post. (You really should take Christy's class. It really is fun!) I commemorated it with this journal page.

The stool is there because of a photo I once took in the "drag closet," the dressing room at the bar. His falsies were sitting on the chair and it struck me as humorous. I left them out, thinking I should be classier than that.

Wes now lives in San Francisco, a thriving costume designer. He making quite a name for himself, not that I am surprised. He used to design his own costumes, and some of the ones for his fellow drag queens and drag king. Some were quite elaborate, like the Titanic dress he used to perform My Heart Will Go On. He would dance around the stage, and during the climax of the song, he would collide with a large cardboard cutout of an iceberg. It was awesome! He also did a Scarlet O'Hara ruffle dress that rolled out into a giant rainbow flag. Today, he worked with Colleen Atwood, who designed costumes for Big Fish, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, Chicago, Edward Scissorhands, Memoirs of a Geisha, and I could go on. She has been nominated for 10 Oscars and won 3. Her work is extremely imaginative. I would be thrilled if this gives Wes some bigger opportunities.  So this page is dedicated to my dear, sweet, audacious, supremely talented friend Wes.

The cat doodle

Well, I haven't been keeping up with this blog as I intended. My year of action hasn't been very action-filled, unfortunately. While I am finding my way back to my plan, I have been absorbing inspiration from YouTube videos, random web surfing, and ill-advised shopping sprees.  I have even splurged on a paid online class. I have made my way through nearly half the lessons on video so far, well watching them, that is. The class is Eclectic Altered Journals by Christy Sobolewski, aka Gulfsprite. Here is a nice introductory video explaining the course. I am having a great time, so I highly recommend it. It is kind of the next class after the free altered backgrounds course I did. It shows how you can take a flimsy catalog/magazine (the kind that is stapled in the center) or a book you want to alter that has thin/glossy paper and turn it into an art journal with sturdy, workable pages. It is right up my alley. I can use my junk mail for much of it. It saves me from having to haul a bunch of junk mail to the recycle bins. Free samples and catalogs are fine. I am not such a fan of credit card offers that keep coming no matter what steps you take to make them stop. Now, instead of picking through for things to shred, a lot of them can be used in these journals as a first layer. Needless to say, I have been carefully sorting through my junk mail and catalogs for appropriate journal fodder and spending an hour or two each night with my glue stick. Whoopee! Eventually, like all my other started art journals, I will start making completed pages. I guess I am still in the cocoon.

Yesterday,  I was looking at my cat relaxing on my daybed next to me, and I decided it was time to sketch something. This portrait of my cat turned out pretty cute. I am thinking of making it a little paper doll one day. I just need to finish his body, add legs and a tail. Cute! I gave him jaunty whiskers like he was sporting in the photo.

Handsome, isn't he?

Paper Grocery bag Journals

I managed to finish my dvd digitization project, at least, as much as I can do without additional software. Whew! This is just the sort of project made  for lengthy periods of unemployment. I still need to finish cataloging them in iTunes, so I can find them more easily. As I mentioned, I also planned to try to finish organizing my studio nook and I wanted to make art journals from the paper grocery bags I started preparing.  I did do some organizing, but I am far from reaching a good point. My cat is enjoying the chaos, as it is next to his little nesting cube. In his opinion, the rattier the better. I do not feel the same, so it will be a project I will continue over the week.

I did not completely finish making books from bags, but I have a fantastic start.  A week or so ago, I started the process by folding the bags the way they are folded naturally, and folding the front and back edges together, at the base. Cut off the very edge, where the two sides meet at the base. This does half the job of cutting off the base. From here, you will cut the rest of the base off and set aside, I plan on doing something with them. Gelatin prints? Hmm... Flatten the rest of the bag. I cut it open at the right-hand fold. It doesn't matter which edge you cut, if you do not care if the writing is not right side up. I did have a nice, neat stack, but Sid had other plans.

Sid has the bags arranged the way he likes them.

 Six of the bags were one size, and the other thirteen a couple of inches larger, so I used the 6 smaller ones for this project. I am thinking, right now, that I would like to make a large soft covered journal for the rest. That may change. While straightening up my art supplies, I decided to liberate  my cute little pink mini sewing machine from its box and display it. I think it is the perfect size to do stitching on paper, if all I want is to straight stitch. If only it also had a zig zag stitch. <sigh> The box is a great size for the kind of journal where you tie in a bunch of stitched signatures onto a wide spine, so I played with that for a bit, cutting off edge pieces, taping a side flap on the front cover and a top flap on the back cover. I taped all the edges so they were clean. All I need to do now is cover the box with pretty paper and put notches in it to tie in the signatures.

I decided, after some fiddling, that the cover would be perfect for a grocery bag journal. I folded the paper bags in half, lengthwise, then cut at the fold. I just tore along a yardstick, because I wanted a rougher look. Besides, I am a terrible cutter. Tearing always comes out better for me. Cut with scissors, or a slide cutter if you have one large enough, if that suits you better.

 I then cut each of those pieces of bag at the fold on the side. They were still a little too long for my cover, so I trimmed them. I found if I cut a strip of the bag off where it already folded, I had the perfect size. I folded them in half and made signatures, using three pages apiece. I ended up with eight signatures, the perfect size for this little sewing machine box cover.

The not-yet-put-together prototype of my little art journal.

 I am also going to make a little book from the strips I cut off my pages. I am thinking of something akin to a modified soft cover saddle stitched book (stitched like a composition book).  Or I may just experiment with the kind of book that sews together sewn signatures.  It is a small, manageable size. Why not?

 This kind of project is the perfect kind to do while watching YouTube videos, or avoiding the Super Bowl, lol. So what, I didn't do all three things I hoped to accomplish. I did one, and half of the other two. Two out of three ain't bad, right?

New stencils and stuff!

At long last, my order from Joanne's came in. It felt like I was getting so much more than I actually got, or maybe that is the memory of how much I spent. Since, my studio section of my studio apartment is still in disarray. I am not the most active organizer. I tend to do it in small bursts. That means there is still no work surface, so I cleaned off my tv tray and had a go with some of my new supplies.

First, I have to say the Crafters Workshop templates were AWESOME! I started out with the 6"x6" size, since it seemed to make more sense to me right now. The bigger ones will follow eventually, they are that awesome. I am trying to figure out the angel policy thing. When it says you are allowed to create "x" number of images for sale, do they mean the number of times one can use a given template/stamp in any original piece of art you use that product in, or does it only refer to when you make the same thing several times. For example, an original design can be recreated a number of times when someone makes greeting cards. Is that what they mean? It makes as much sense to me as the last couple of questions probably did to you. I figure I ought to get the copyright/fair use thing straight before I make something and try to sell it. I am not looking to be hassled.

I also got a few daubers of distress inks, a few stamps, and a few containers of acrylic ink. The distress inks were very nice. I stamped with the walnut stain color. I frankly used as much as I thought I could get away with on one page. Somehow it seems to work. It is a beautiful mess. The most interesting thing on the page, however, wasn't one of the many new supplies. It was the set of homemade stamps I made. I have had a couple of keyboards bite the dust. With my computer/tv set up, it gets knocked down a lot, so tings happen. I tend to get the cheapest Apple keyboards I can find, which are reasonable. When I inevitably kill them, I take them apart for parts. Not to build a new franken-keyboard, but to eventually use in an art project. This is the first time I followed through. The frame for the keys is a big grid of Xes. I thought it would be cool to use configurations of them to stamp with, so I cut that bit apart and pulled out a couple of shapes that appealed to me, and glued them to some cheap Dollar Tree crafts sheets and cardboard. They worked beautifully. I also have a single one waiting to be mounted, and the rest of the part can be taken apart and mounted as well, melting down the Xes a little so they have wider edges. But I am not feeling ambitious enough to do that quite yet. I already have the mess of organizing supplies, making the art journal from paper bags, and backing up all my hard copy dvds to deal with. I figure I have enough to chew on for right now. 

My experimental art journal page. This is what happens when I test my new stuff out. My new letter stamps, the crackle stamp (I am going to love that!), a black gelato, a damask stamp, a damask TCW template, a couple of blops of acrylic ink, all colors of my new distress ink,  my homemade glimmer mist, and a couple of homemade stamps. Whew!

A close up of my page, with the homemade stamps that created the "X" images. Plus, you can really see the glimmer in this shot. Oooh...ahhh.

I also made a couple of black and white backgrounds. They are the image of perfect-ish symmetry. I seem to have customized my damask template by bending a couple of parts, making the page like a wallpaper/Rorschach test combo. Still, I like it...and the imperfect houndstooth. That one just makes me happy...and a little dizzy.

I love the chicken wire template. The small size makes the part that makes this design look like wire very subtle, so it looks like honeycomb. Very cool!

The houndstooth of hell! I guess i went a little heavy in spots.

My Rorschach sheet, I mean damask. Even though it is very girly, damask really appeals to me.

This weekend, I will be winding down my dvd project and moving my dvd tower to its rightful place, as an organizer for my art supplies. I will put the dvds in storage and finish my organization so I have room to work. Then, I will iron those paper bags and trim them, and lovingly craft them into a couple of fabulous art journals. Who am I kidding? I am pretty sure I will finish the dvd project. I will probably get absorbed in YouTube videos and/or some of the movies I have downloaded, since I haven't watched them in years, but the rest is probably not going to happen. It doesn't hurt to aim high...

Getting it together

Since Friday. I have been battling migraines and other misc. ailments, so I have not done much in the line of art. What I have been doing is organizing, bit by bit, from the inside out. It still looks like a tornado blew through my studio apartment, but things are slowly getting organized. I started in my art studio space by going through containers of supplies. I had a few that were nearly empty, which seemed like a waste of space. So, I reorganized the containers. Along the way, I decided it was time I started organizing my paint by color family. I have so much, I would have to reorganize my container every time I used any paint. Unfortunately, I do not have any containers in the proper size, so that is a long term project.

Along with the organization of my art supplies, I have been digitizing my dvd collection. That is a massive undertaking. But I am unemployed, so I have the free time, and I have the space on my back up hard drive, so why not. Last year, I replaced my Mac mini. The new ones no longer come with a DVD-ROM. I have an external one, since the one in my last computer was bad, but it is a pain to go through the whole process of plugging it in and waiting for it to load. I have more digital movies than ones on dvd, so it really makes sense to have them in one place. I love the movies I own hard copies of, but rarely watch them because it is simply easier to just watch something I have on the computer. And I refuse to repurchase movies I spent good money on, when I have the technology to convert them. Legal/shmegal...I am not pirating them and I spent a lot of hard earned money to purchase them, so I should be able to do what I like with them within the confines of my home. After all, I can upload my music cds onto iTunes for ease of use, so why can't I legally do that with my dvd collection? Seems to be a double standard, if you ask me.

Anyway, that is mainly what I have been up to. I have more paper grocery bags than I know what to do with, plus I found some in our garbage room that I couldn't resist taking to use. I spent a lot of time today cutting them open in  order to make journals out of them. Two journals is what I have in mind. I hope to finish them in time for the weekend, so you can look forward to seeing those.

In the meantime, enjoy a couple of pictures I took in my neighborhood.

Graffiti in an alley a few blocks from my apartment building.

The graffiti in context. I love seeing these little treasures out of the corner of my eye when I am walking around. It brightens my day.

Apparently, someone installed an electrified back door. The mind reels. This is the kind of thing that can only be found in the city, lol.

Imaginary ladies galore

I made the decision to finally start working on basic painting skills. I would like to learn how to shade. Right now, I am not necessarily looking for realism. I just want some dimension in my work. I think the perfect subject matter is lady's faces, so I drew a boatload. I drew them on old poetry I weeded out of a journal I am altering as an art journal. Did you know that if you draw with a Sharpie, or similar permanent pen, and cover it with gesso, the ink bleeds through. There is a technique floating around the internets called ghosting, where you do just that. I traced my drawings in Sharpie so I would have a guide when I covered my bad poetry with gesso. Did you also know that ghosting is not only a phenomena that occurs when covering permanent marker with gesso? It also happens with ballpoint pen and cheap felt tip pens. Yep, the bad poetry I am trying to free myself from came right back at me like a bad dream. I tried a second coating of gesso on some pages, to no avail. Then, I hoped a coat of matte gel medium would seal of of that. I retraced my drawings in permanent marker, then gesso again. Better. But not good enough. Sigh...deep sigh. This paper is going to be so thick with gesso and mediums it will be able to stand upright without support. But I will persist.  I think I am at a point where I only have to touch up critical areas before painting. In the meantime, here are strategically cropped photos of most of the drawings. I really quite like them. I like them so much I am going to scan them so I can reuse them, especially if I end up destroying them when I try to paint. I hope you like them, too.

My favorite is the one on my left. Please forgive me if you can read any of the hideous poetry. I was emo before emo became a thing.

The center drawing is the only one I even somewhat modeled after someone else. I was watching the season finale of American Horror Story: Asylum, and I really like Lana's reporter look.

Another completed page!

Today, I thought I would play around with my Inktense pencils and make a harlequin background. One thing led to another and I completed an entire page! As I have alluded to in the past, I was laid off in July and haven't been able to find another job yet. I have reworked my cover letters and resumes a dozen times, trying to highlight how much experience I have and how adaptable I am to little avail. Employers seem to be looking for what I call a "plug and play employee," one that has done the exact same position in the exact same industry for 3-5 years. I have seen some ridiculous ads out there, y'all. No one is going to be able to just pick up where the employee who had been working there for "X" amount of years left off. It takes time to acclimate yourself to new people, policies, etc. It takes time and training to know the ins and outs of any position. No one seems to want to do that at all anymore, and I am very frustrated. So, that is where the page is coming from.

"My Persistence Will Be Rewarded"

I have been going a little nuts with the Inktense pencils today. I started drawing random things and painting them in with water. Then, I started in on women's faces. I told myself I wouldn't do faces in my art journal all the time because everyone seems to be doing it, but they are just so darn fun to do. I used to draw them all the time when I was much younger, but stopped. I have a bunch that are drawn out, so I can practice painting. They are on the sheets of my old poetry I ripped out of the book I am altering. I really don't want to be able to read the words, so i am going to paint those with acrylic. It will be good practice learning how to actually paint and shade.

I took the recycling out today, and what should be on the top? This little beauty.

Score!

It was the most beautiful cigar box lid! My scan does not do all of the lovely foil work justice. Plus, it seems like the substrate might be wood. It has weight like no cigar box I have ever seen. Apparently, the Cubans make fine cigar boxes to go with their fine cigars (ick!).  Unfortunately, it was only the lid, so I foresee it will become a book cover one day.  And since I scanned it, I will always have this beautiful image to print and play with.