Blogzine plug - Unruly Paper Arts

Greetings

A great new blogzine is about to launch - Unruly Paper Arts with some great features, inspirations and Art Quests to participate in and voting for the one you like best.

Hop over to find out more or better still to start your Art Quest pieces http://unrulypaperarts.blogspot.com/ there is a button on the right also.

Launch date is April 1st with some exciting Art Quests to participate in and features from some amazing artists of all genres.

Look out for something from yours truly in the Inky Minx features, in the meantime, here's a sneaky peek.

Can you See what it is yet?!

Whhhhaaaaatttt?! something from moi?  Heck yes!  

The fabulous Shar (Gingersnap Creations) invited me onto the regular team for a 6 month term.

I am delighted to say that I am an Unruly!
I will have a few features and my columns will be under the title Evolution because of my love for assemblage and how everything evolves into it's own life form!

Hope to see you all on Unruly Paper Arts.

Mind Mapping

The never ending story!  I keep having a dabble and adding to it as I go along and one day it just might be finished!

It's all about change, evolution, conformance and society expectations, the mind control of life - mind mapping.
You can view it in a few different ways - deep, cynical or inspiration for life - you have to move with the times, constantly evolving to keep up and not get left behind.  It's all of them and I want the weird and wacky to lift the tone and accentuate the inspiration.

I love the stamped statement, I wish I could lay claim to those words: I always knew that I would take this road, but yesterday I did not know that it would be today.  I have another thought that you do not always know the road that you will travel on but today you have that feeling that it might be tomorrow!

There is an effort to blend the items to the piece to make it all look like it belongs but also the need to keep it quirky and wacky to retain the upbeat inspirational side to it.  The clay hands, heads and the eyes have been painted to blend in, the cork letter tiles have a silver faux soldering border and so forth.  It annoys me that it is so disjointed but that is a part of it's quirkiness, it isn't meant to be fine art but at the same time, it needs bringing together or it would be totally disjointed and the messages contained would be lost.

Whilst writing this, I am thinking of adding 42 to it.... the answer from Deep Thought for the life, the universe and everything... but, what is the question?!  I shall leave you to ponder that while I look for a way of adding the number, perhaps at the bottom in the centre....

How great is this initiative? It's positively brilliant!
Thanks Fuschia - Lynn for the nomination, what a lovely surprise and I am suitably honoured.

The Liebster Award is given to smaller bloggers who have 200 or less followers in the hope it will bring them new followers and friends. The tradition is that it is then passed on to five other blogs to help them too. If you want to accept the award the steps are:

1. Link back to the persons blog who gave you the award and thank them.
2. Post the award on your blog.
3. Give the award to five fellow bloggers who inspire you.
4. Leave a comment on their blogs to let them know.

So without further ado....
in no particular order....
Katherine http://katherinesdabblings.blogspot.com/
Lynn http://fuchsias-craftynotions.blogspot.com/

Janie http://rubysummersewamazing.blogspot.com/
Sparkles http://sparklessimplestuff.blogspot.com/
Nicks... not allowed over 200 followers - but has been integral in my learning curve!

Thank you for your inspiration and encouragement.

xxx

Gingersnap Creations Colour Challenge & Happy Daze try something new challenge - Elixir of life

The challenge this month is green, one of my favourite colours but not necessarily so in crafting, I find it a hard one to work with, so I took on the challenge to stretch myself.

I am also entering it into the Happy Daze challenge - try something new - the Green man mould and flat leaf moulds are new to me as is working in green.

I have a new art mould of the Green Man, who is a symbol for growth and strength and he was the base that this project would evolve around.  For some odd reason it had to be on a green bottle... our minds work in mysterious ways and projects in even more mysterious ones!  I had ideas of cloth leaves and having a go with my sewing machine, but it was not meant to be!  

So on the front we have the Green Man surrounded in greenery and on the other side of the bottle Tiki who is symbol of fertility, a lucky dragon and green roses which are a symbol of growth, abundance and renewal of spirit.  

The wirework tree is mounted in silver foil and covered in texture paint, the round beads have been coated in alcohol inks, the remainder used various shades of acrylic greens and a gold dusting for some warmth. 

To join in the green fingered fun hop over to the challenge http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2012/01/gc136-color-challenge-glorious-greens.html

The Happy Daze challenge closes in a couple of days so you need to be quick! 

http://happydazedesignteam.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-challenge-for-2012-try-something.html

Materials: Jewelry wire and beads, alcohol inks, acrylic paints the Claudine ones are lush on clay models, Studio multi medium gloss to varnish, air dry clay, kitchen foil, green metallic thread, strong glue E6000.

WOYWW A reflective brew

Time for a breather, a nice cup of darjeeling and reflection.
Do you get frustrated with your craft/art work? are you chasing after improvement?

Do you take your work for granted?
Put the kettle on, sit down and look through your gallery.

Start at the beginning and jump forward in 6 monthly or 4 monthly intervals.
See how you have progressed. Have a giggle at some items, be inspired by some forgotten techniques.
Smile and give yourself a big pat on the back at how much you have progressed and what you have achieved.

Here's my cheery little selection of mugs, they make me smile.

A few years ago I started with peel-offs and a great desire to be creative and a great hunger to learn how!  Craft shop lessons, magazines, craft friends, books and You Tube, craft fair demos and generally having a go have progressed me onto ATCs, then mixed media, altered art and now I am loving assemblage.

Here is the culmination of those years in the first work of 2012 and then a selection of my favourites from 2011.

Altered bottles 2012, Powerade and Eternal Destiny. 

 

Mini shrines - never thought I would quite see my way to doing them, but two kind of created themselves!

Heart Surgeon and Tiki's Mate.

 The learning highlight of 2011 - art workshop with Michael DeMeng - Navigators Journal

 

I won a competition at work for decorated eggs - this was the winning entry!

That's a bit disturbing isn't it?!

Decorated egg competition - not placed!

See what I mean about disturbing?!

 The all seeing eye - be grateful it can't talk!

Every W.C. should have one!!!

Those little stickers have a lot to answer for! 

The event of the year.

Hugbinders day in loving memory of the very dearest Mr Sparkles

Cheers!

To have a canter round other bloggers workdesks click on this link
and join the fun on the marvellous Mrs Dunnits blog. http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/

Happy Daze challenge - try something new

Happy Daze have a great challenge - try something new.
What better way to start the new year - and a great kick up the posterior for me to actually join the fun with some challenges.  To join in follow this link  http://happydazedesignteam.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-challenge-for-2012-try-something.html

A couple of new year hangers - I haven't done birds before and I had some new art moulds to play with, so I gathered these bits together and thought of doing wall hangings as I haven't done any. Materials are listed below the pictures.  Note the bird is coated in platinum crackle paint and the paint has lifted the ink colour, this was a serendipitous incident many months ago and I love doing it.

Heart - art mould by Krafty Lady, Roses - Kabuka art mould
Base colour -  Plum Twist Cosmic Shimmer ink
Viva Croco crackling colour paint - Platinum - work it into the bird to lift the ink colour
Varnish - Glossy Accents - to stop the paint chipping off!
Highlight colour on clay mouldings - Inka gold paint - Silver, Viva Decor
Birds - from Santa!
Heart mould - Krafty Lady - Heart Plaque and roses - Karantha art mould in Delight air dry clay

Beads and wire and heart charms. The second picture has jewelry from a car boot find.

GINGERSNAP CREATIONS RIBBON CHALLENGE

Congratulations to incredibly talented craft friend Nicks http://www.nicksartystuff.blogspot.com/ for her Monthly Muse appointment by Gingersnap Creations http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/ and her first fabulous feature art piece and tutorial .

Wow, what a great site and I love the fact they have challenges that are 3 weeks long for those of us who are busy with work and other irrelevances and irritants such as dust and creased clothes that keep us out of the craft room!

I saw the Spicy Supply Challenge GC134 to use Ribbon... Ribbon???? oh yes.. that strange massed ball of stuff in a drawer that hides in silent protest at my treatment and neglect thereof!

 I have craft friends who would be having a coronary seeing this or on their way here to sort it out and make it all nice, but I don't really use ribbon as ribbon, it gets terribly mistreated in my work. I find this mixture of textiles rather creative and inspirational actually.....!!

Here is my ribbonfest entry, chiffon ribbon 'aged' with the help of the heatgun to curl and create holes in the ribbon.

 All very simply done with some clay moulded figures, paint in sand and bronze colours, paint wash mix, tissues and a heat gun.

If you want to take part in the Ribbon challenge and see the other entries click on this link   http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2012/01/gc134-spicy-supply-challenge-ribbon.html

To see the site and other challenges the link is in the beginning of this post or click the banner in the right hand column, it is a most excellent blog that I shall be following with keen interest now that I have found it. There is a wealth of talent, interest and a lot of tutorials to explore.
Enjoy!

Knowledge is power

Knowledge is power, seek and hold knowledge to build your future.
There's a bit of an Eddison lighthouse thing going on here! I like the idea of knowledge being power and gave it that quirk of the electrical elements in the piece.  The eye is to seek the knowledge, and it is surrounded by squiggles that are question marks and exclamation marks.
It was very difficult for me to give this away because I am rather chuffed with how it evolved.

So how was it cobbled together? A miniature Baileys bottle, champagne cork wire caging, car headlamp bulb, and other bits and bobs have been  cobbled together to create this eeerrrrmmm bit of faffed up tat!

Bottle was wrapped with strips of dry baby wipes glued on, Ferro metal effect paint, layer of heated fabric ribbon stuff round the base, clay moulded hands, an old clock hand and old mirror piece, an old charm and a new toy eye. Now you know, you can have a bash at one!

Hitting the bottle! WOYWW

I have hit the bottle!  having long wanted to do some bottles, I have finally made a start with one completed bottle which is a total shock to me, pink and pretty - how on earth that happened I do not know but I am hoping normal service will resume with the next bottles! (especially as they were inspired by Michael DeMengs Pretty Vial Things altered bottles!) Sneak preview of two works in progress follow.

This bottle is inspired by an art mould clay figure with the 3 muses and reminds of some historical info, folklore or fiction that there were 3 goddesses who wove your life and decided your fate, hence the thread twining the male and female figures with the flight of hope/fancy dragon fly. Those 3 muses certainly were my muse for this project, they are pictured at the end of this blog entry.

Eternal Destiny

oh gosh I am loving these oranges, they are scrupmtious!

Uh-ohhh been caught red handed with a guilty pleasure on show - Marmite and oatcakes mmmm!
Gloriously messy - you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs! This is messy work!

The muse for this project - the 3 muses

If you want to join in the bloghopping fun and seeing what others are up to and how a properly tidy workdesk should be click on the the link to the marvellous Mrs Dunnits blog and all will become apparent.

How was it done?  lots of headscratching mojo hunting, plenty of messy stuff - glued cloth onto the bottle (dry baby wipes!), then coated with Viva ferro paint, heated fabric for the base, art mould clay figures glued on, painted over with Viva metallic paints in crimson and pistachio, bit of jewellery wrapping work and some silver thread draped around and Bobs your aunty Flo!

Pewterised

A little box of bits for my sis made with a puffed out pewter sheet on the top, patina and metal polish round the figure and silver leave on the torso.  The box was full of clay figures to use for projects of her own, looking forward to seeing what she makes.