Saturday, December 5, 2009

Rocks

Last Spring I got the idea to do some collage art on rocks and lay them outside in the flower beds as a little unexpected surprise when folks are strolling through on a garden tour. I was all excited and it was too much fun doing this art on the rocks. But, the idea I had for the method I used wasn't such a keen idea. Turns out, unless sheltered, the rocks didn't like the hot sun beating on them or days of rain and temperature variables from hot to cold in a single day. Now if I were painting them, it wouldn't matter and they would hold up. But I didn't want to take forever to do these little wonders, I wanted to do a lot of them and have fun, too, not be all tedious. So I did little collages using the same things as other collages, napkins, ink jet prints, stencils, paint, rub ons and so forth. The first few I used outdoor Mod Podge to seal them, gave them several coats or until I felt they were well covered and sealed. On others I used some triple thick glaze and now I forget what else I used. Most of the gluing was with mod podge I think and some have layers of glitter mod podge or other glitter stuff. I wanted them to sparkle in the light and catch someones eye. So, as it turns out, they'll make cute paper weights, sit on tables or desks as a little pretty or go out on a covered or protected porch or deck, maybe peeking out from a potted plant, but not in the weather and hot sun. I think using ink jet prints wasn't good, they fade in the sun even under layers of glaze, a couple turned cloudy and stayed that way, others clouded in the cool dampness and cleared in the sun, a couple that were more hid by the flowers or shaded did pretty good. None the less, I got irked with myself and quit working on them. I was hoping it would be something to sell cheap and not cost a lot to make nor take a lot of time. Just fancy free and fun! I may end up doing more but doubt they'll be going outside in the flower garden with the fairies and totems! If anyone has a suggestion for weather proofing, I'd love to hear them. I'm sure maybe using ink jet prints isn't a good idea.  Here's a few pictures of what I still have. These were outside and they weathered fairly well but I rescued them before they got too bad. The little fairy babies did pucker and start to crack, so it looks like crackle! Maybe I didn't glue them down well enough. Tomorrow I'll show and tell about another "bright" idea I had.
                                                         

I used a magazine print for the background and the little fairy is from Lisa's Altered Art collage sheets. Remember to click on the picture a better large view.


For this one I used a napkin for the background, using gel medium and a print of the gargoyle, I don't recall where I found the quote. It's touched up with water color pencil. This is my favorite; I'll use him more in other things.


These little fairies are also from Lisa's Altered Art collage sheets, I'm not sure about the nest or quote. I added some glitter to the wings and their dresses. This one tried to lift and pucker and you can see the crackle effect that is unintentional!
Oh, these images are all shadowed with either watercolor pencil or marker.


This one is just a simple print with watercolor pencil and glitter. I cannot remember where I found the print.  Even though I sized the print  wrong, I used it anyway and this simple little rock got lots of comments! Go figure.


This is a painted background, a print from the internet and again I forget where the quote came from. Just a touch of pencil added. I have several sheets of words and quotes from different places, some bought, some free.

Friday, December 4, 2009

art/computer table?

Just going to show one more photo for today. This is where I migrated to the dining room area and set up a table for art and the computer; thinking I would do collage stuff out here. It didn't work, so when there's a clear spot I do smaller things here . I will be trying to clear this off so I can use this area to work along with classes and video's from the computer. I had an idea to use the lap top in the art room but I'm not sure how that will work; we'll see. I'm not good on the laptop at all, not even close.
And BTW, yes, that is snow you can see out any window views. Just having flurries today but it is COLD and going to get COLDER and stay that way for a while. I dislike Hate Winter!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Art Room?

I'm gonna do it! I'm really going to show pictures of my room. There's one way to make myself get in there, not get side-tracked and truly finish changing it around and cleaning it up so I have room to do any art in there; that's to embarrass myself in front of the whole world. Keep in mind when I show these that the room was in disarray as it was, then I changed it around but it didn't work ( I know, measure twice, move once!) so it had to be put back the way it was with some minor changes. So now it's really a mess and believe it or not I have toted 3 trash bags out from amid that mess. Some of the piles are to be gone through and put away yet, others are to be listed on eBay at some point. A lot of the containers hold pictures to be used in collage, some cut and trimmed, some not.  Most of the stools showing aren't to sit on, they're waiting to be painted along with other things shoved in there. I have no where to keep them so they get shoved around. Well, no more excuses; here is where I attempt to do what I do.

Looking straight in from the entrance; it's a deceiving picture!


Where I sit, do some art, watch TV


on the right side



continuing around to the right, another table and book shelves



 The right of the shelves and drawing table in the center, closet behind



continue around to the right and the entrance


shelves of things waiting to be used and back to the beginning.
Don't even think that's all of it! I didn't show all the containers and piles below those tables and I still have a table art/computer area I use in the dining room, too. I'll show that next time. Right now I'm going to hide and work on that mess! Really!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Did it Again

I went days without posting at all. I think maybe this will take some getting used to or maybe I just need to think I have something interesting to say. I found some pictures I can show of things I had done already but still need to take new photos of others I have here and lost the pictures. I started to take pictures and of course the batteries died in the camera and so I just bought more today.
We spent part of the afternoon at the Credit Union re-financing the Explorer. Such fun! On the Saturday of father's day week end, Rocket was going to lower WI to bury his Mom's ashes and 1/2 way down the Jimmy decided to quit. On a Saturday! He called home and we decided he'd look over the car lot where he was and see about a new (new used) vehicle because he couldn't stay down there until Monday. His son met him there and helped to make sure he picked something nice and got a good deal. I got on the phone with the salesman and swore I'd do bodily harm if I found out we didn't get a deal. YUP, I'm tough!  Not really, but I can pretend sometimes when I need to. We did get a good deal but had to take financing where ever we could get it that day. We've paid on that since June and decided now was the time to do a local re-fi and save some much needed money.
 Funny how a trip to the local small Business Supply store to get ART SUPPLIES on Monday made me realize even more how tight our money was. I haven't gone on-line to check Blicks price but it has to be better than the $9.89 I had to pay for a small bottle of Masking Fluid! Then I noticed a small...I say SMALL glass bottle of Matte medium that I needed.....that was $6.75! Most of the time I forget where my mouth is and stay quiet but I managed to give the owner a little monologue on what art supplies to stock along with what size and even mentioned brands other than Windsor & Newton! How I wish we had a Blicks or Michael's or anything with art supplies near here. We don't. It's either on-line or drive almost 100 miles one way. Of course, a gal could learn to happy with what she has in that art room where she can barely move as it is! But you know, just one more medium, one more color of paint, new brushes and the must have patterns or How-to books and magazines. I can never choose a project where I have everything I need. Hard to believe when you look in my room but it's sadly true. Actually I haven't touched the paint in so long that some of it has dried up. That's so bad!!!!
So here's a few pictures of things I have here that I did a while back. I haven't done another page in the altered book yet so nothing new there; not even in the altered pages book.

This was my first (only) attempt at a beeswax collage. I made it into a magnet for the fridge.


This is a button fairy also made into a magnet


Another Button fairy as a magnet


Another Button Fairy


and one more Button fairy.
I don't have pictures of more because they're given as gifts and I lost the pictures.
That's all for tonight. I have batteries now so maybe pictures of the art room tomorrow, IF I don't chicken out on showing that!