Thursday Theme: Medieval Sauce

Wie geht's, Pocketeers?  That means what's up in German :)  Not surprisingly, my work recently has revolved around a particular theme of medieval awesomeness.  We'll be like Tenacious D and call it "sauce."  Medieval sauce.  And it's flavoring everything I work on.  Because being in Germany and seeing all the medieval sights at medieval sites (see what I did there?) brought back my taste for the medieval pretty strongly.  As soon as we got back, with my head bursting with ideas, I ordered a whole bunch of Michelle Ward's Gothic Collection stencils.  If you ever do anything with stencils or stamps ever, and you haven't seen them yet, click right there on the words "Gothic Collection" and take a look.  Go ahead.  I'll wait.

So they're gorgeous, right?  And super medieval, which is kind of the idea.  And perfect for many of my German-castle-and-monastery-inspired ideas.  And very fun to play with.  So here are a few things that I've been working on, with a hearty helping of the medieval sauce.

This panel was the result of me playing with the stencils applied one after the other in layers with heavy body gesso.  



I had so much fun with the layered panel that I decided to do little ones, with a coordinating shadow box.

And this is how they look now.  Still not finished, the moss isn't secured, there will be more in the shadow box, but I liked the layers of color.

Closeup of the treatment on the textured ones.

I went to experiment with some offprints that I did with the gesso-y stencils from those two projects onto cardstock, and had some misfires.  But those misfires led me to end up doing this:

Regular gesso and homemade ink spray using a Distress Ink reinker, on watercolor paper.

 

I loved playing with the sprays and letting them run all over the paper and between the gessoed areas and over the gesso and then wiping it off the gesso and seeing the reverse-windows I ended up with.  So these experiments are now destined to become individual paintings for our bedroom.  But first, they need some detail.  Remember this pic from last week?

I love the vines painted around the arch.  So I copied that style and cross-referenced it with some motifs in an old medieval manuscripts textbook of mine, and tested it out a bit, and then bit the bullet and went for it:

Detail painting is hard!  I have trouble making accurate brushstrokes, even with a tiny brush.

 

 

So far I've only done one side of one window.  But all three windows will be surrounded by the time I'm finished.  I want to add some shade and highlight to the vines as well.  But at this stage I'm pleased with how they're coming out.  I'm hoping that when they're finished and trimmed up, I'll have something that will remind me of our time in Germany but with my own personal seasoning.  Some modern seasoning in the medieval sauce.  

Sanguine

This spread is an ode to my favorite color.  It's my favorite color of nail polish, of lipstick, of balloons, of flowers... It was also an opportunity to "restrain" myself and let the color breathe on the page.  And that's something I needed to do, because Michelle's Last Crusade is a challenge to leave some space in our work.  To decide when enough is enough, you must choose - but choose wisely.  I've got lots of stamps I could've used to showcase my favorite color, a lot of embellishments I could've used, a lot of powders and glitzy things and fibers and crap.  But I chose a simple application - just paint, paper, and little tag swatches.  I hope I chose wisely.  What do you think?

I tried to bring different shades but not make it elaborate.  Still a lot going on here, but I tried to keep things solid.

The paper strip has different terms for shades of red written on it.  Hard to cover the whole thing.

So I'd have a record, I wrote in what colors of what materials I used.

I actually managed to get this posted early, so I might manage to squeeze in two entries this month.  It's Springtime, and I tend to go lighter this time of year, so I'm sure I'll come up with something :)

P.S. Mr. Pocket and I were watching Heat Seekers on the Food Network while I posted this; a lot of what they were eating could've gone into this spread.  But I'm not touching that stuff!

Less Than Three

Before I get to the real post, I have to take a line or two to honor a hero of mine.  Davy Jones passed away today, and I owe a lot of my self-confidence to him.  Rest in peace, Davy.  You meant a lot to me.

Michelle's penultimate GPP Street Team Crusade was to showcase what we love.  I realized that I couldn't decide what to showcase, and that this would be a great opportunity to finally start a whole art journal to showcase the things I love and the things that inspire me.  My favorite things.  But, this being me, I couldn't just buy a journal or sketchbook, I had to make one.  So, with some buffered paper, book board, and my new paper cutter, I cut and folded myself a nice little text block and covers.  I plan to do a Coptic binding (my first ever, from online tutorials) so that it lays flat when it's open, so I had to cover the boards before I bind it.  So rather than just cover them, I went ahead and decorated them too.

Front cover

I haven't sewn it together yet, but when I get the chance I'm going to go ahead and take a stab at this Coptic binding thing.  Since it's just for me, I don't really have to worry about it being perfect...

Then it took me a while, but I finally decided what the first love I would showcase in my new journal would be.  Sepia tones.  They're my go-to palette, my neutrals that go with everything, my antique paper look.  And Tim Holtz's Distress Inks come in all the right shades.  Now, not having much art mojo for the last couple of months, I'm a little off my game.  But last night I managed to pull this together.  Not perfect, but it's something. 

I did the coloring on parts of the flourish with one of the new Distress Ink Pens.  Wow.  Love the pop that it provides.  Will definitely be accumulating more of those for more tone-on-tone details.  I do love me some tone-on-tone. 

Not sure what the next set of pages will be, probably an homage to the color RED.  Another favorite color.  But there will be sure to be some books, some bands, some movies, and more colors making appearances in the book of loves.  I intend for this to be an ongoing project, maybe even revisiting pages now and then, keeping everything a work in progress.  We'll see.  Stay tuned.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It's been a while again, but I want to be sure to say happy holidays to everyone who reads my blog.  I also want to participate in Michelle's latest Crusade, the goal of which was to simply get yourself in a picture.  I didn't get in front of the camera much, but I do have a picture from when I finished a project for another challenge. 

My favorite shop The Queen's Ink had a contest for decorating little houses for Christmas.  Apparently the project came from the magazine Cloth Paper Scissors.  Anyway, Mom and I did one each, and mine is a little alpine gnome home.  This is how it looks all finished, with me in there for scale ;):

The roof has pine cone shingles and the candles in the windows are toothpicks.  The curtains are paper doilies.  And the gnome was a stamp from Paper Source.  I had so much fun putting this together!

Of course, what makes things better is the iPhone game I've been hooked on.  Cut the Rope.  If you have an iPhone, Android, or iPad, get it.  It's the cutest game ever.  It's a puzzle game, where you have to get a piece of candy from where it is dangling from a rope to a little green monster named OmNom who eats candy.  They released a holiday version for free, too, and it had a little holiday card generator where you could add OmNom to your own photos... so of course... he had to visit the gnome home.

This was Mr. Pocket's and my first Christmas married.  We decorated our condo and hung stockings by the fireplace and everything.  I was trying to make him a stocking but I ran out of time, but it will be done for next year. 

In another photo for the Crusade, my mother in law got me an awesome Ravens hat:

Sorry there's not much crafty stuff to show in this post.  Since the gnome home and a tag class at The Queen's Ink, I've been kind of burned out.  I did do a few Christmas tags, but the photos of them are scattered across my phone and my real camera, so I might have to post those after our weekend away for New Year's.  See you in 2012!

I Believe

I believe I've been away too long again.  But this time I have to get in before the deadline for Michelle's October Crusade.  The Crusade is all about what you believe in and who you are as an artist.  So I've thought about it off and on all month, and a few things stick with me.  I didn't get around to creating anything to show it all, but I can tell what I believe in and what makes me make stuff.

I believe in aesthetics.  I don't know anything about the whole philosophy of aesthetics, but what I mean is that I believe art should be attractive.  Sure, express yourself, make a statement, whatever.  Just make sure it looks good.  I'm willing to make exceptions for realistic depictions of things that aren't pretty to begin with (spectacular zombie makeup, for example), but really, there's enough ugliness in the world.  I believe in using our powers for improvement.

I believe in the power of art.  Art in its many forms can be cathartic, uplifting, depressing, any number of emotional influences.  I like it best when it puts a smile on my face, but any effect a piece of art has means it has an impact.  As previously stated, I believe we can and should use this power to improve the world, even if it just means giving someone something pleasing for a few minutes on a bad day.  Every little bit helps.

I believe in the power of little things.  That thing I just said about giving someone something pleasing... it doesn't make life suck less overall, but it certainly adds to the awesome column.  To put it better, in the words of The Doctor, "The good things don't always soften the bad things, but vice-versa, the bad things don't necessarily spoil the good things and make them unimportant."  This is something that I find difficult to keep in mind myself, but when I'm feeling grouchy about things, I try to remind myself of what I do have going for me.   When depression is getting the better of me, it's not the big abstract things that make me feel better - it's the little tangible things like a cup of tea, snuggling with my husband, re-reading a favorite book, or working on my art that make me smile.  Accumulating enough of those little things gets me through until I balance out again.  I guess if anybody is going to believe in the power of little things, it should be a tiny, pocket-sized person like myself.


A couple of parting notes.  In the same Doctor Who episode from which I pulled the previous quote, an art historian says the following about Vincent Van Gough, and it brought tears to my eyes because it said a lot about what I love about art: 


"He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray, but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world, no one had ever done it before. Perhaps no one ever will again."


And lastly, this Cowboy mouth song really speaks to me and says a lot about my beliefs as well.  Take a listen, and see if you feel the same way.




P.S. If you've never listened to Cowboy Mouth, catch one of their shows when they're in town.  They just might change your life.

Turn, Turn, Turn...

It's been much too long since I played along with Michelle Ward's street team.  I often meant to participate, but things kept getting in the way, and the month would pass and I would have not posted to meet the challenge.  This month, though, I can't miss it.  Michelle has asked her crusaders whether we notice a change in our palette or style with the changing seasons.  Well, my dear, the answer is YES.  That phrase from Ecclesiastes that the Byrds made so famous might as well have been written about me.  I am such a seasonal person that even my taste in music and food change.  I'm almost a different person in the spring than I am in the winter.  Jeans remain a wardrobe staple, but instead of dark sweaters and boots, I'm wearing them with bright colors, especially green and white, and with mary janes until it's warm enough for sandals.  I start listening to lighter, happier music.  I eat more veggies and drink green tea instead of black (though I do still like a good cuppa black tea to get me going in the morning).  The advent of cherry blossoms makes me gravitate towards Japanese art and motifs - this is when I re-watch Rurouni Kenshin and dig out my scraps of kimono silk that I've bought at quilt shows, thinking maybe this year I'll decide what to do with them.  And my art definitely looks different.  In my paper and mixed media art, red moves aside for green, compositions get more open and less cluttered, I use less hardware, I move from crosses and gears and hardware to flowers and birds and the occasional butterfly.  Last year I showed this tag, which I think is one of my favorites of every tag I've ever made:

Very simple, two background colors and two stamps.  But it just says spring to me.  When yarn crafting in spring, I spin lighter colors into thinner yarns, I gravitate towards lace patterns in both knit and crochet, and I generally only work with light or bright colors.  I wound off one of those skeins of yarn I got at the Homespun Yarn Party this year.  Guess which one?

The color's a little washed out in this picture, but it's Downy Oshun, Hon!  Baltimorean beachy glory.  I've started a crochet project with it, but I don't like how it's coming out so I might frog it and start over.  It just needs to be a light, lacy triangle scarf or shawlette.  The only trouble is that it's wool.  That's my other spring thing.  I'd love to be working with cotton or silk.  Unfortunately, all my favorite yarns in my favorite weights and colors turn out to be wool or some other warm fiber.  Oh well.  Air conditioning generally requires a warmer layer, so it'll do.

I wish I had more to show you.  This spring has been a little busy:

(Okay, I know, I'm a showoff. But isn't he cute?)

Plus, having moved, my ability to do paper and mixed media art has declined.  See, Mom and I share supplies, or at least we always did when I lived at home.  Now that Mr. Pocket and I are on our own, I haven't built up enough supplies in my new home to really feel like I can do much yet.  As I acquire more, I'll be able to put things together, but now pickings are still slim.  On top of that, I haven't felt the knit or crochet mojo as much, so that's not happening.  I definitely feel the need to create, though, so hopefully I'll build up more supplies or be able to spend some time at my parents' house enough to do some work.  I did house-sit for my parents one night last week, and this is what I came home with:

It's a bit of a transition piece, spring into summer.  Maybe later this week, I'll post about summer, because that's a bolder, brighter style for me than spring...

Snowpocalypse?

Yeah, we've got a lot of snow out there.  But I'm one of the lucky ones.  We've got electricity (knock on wood) and no need to go anywhere.  So this has been a great opportunity to play along with Michelle Ward, which I haven't done in months! 

This month's GPP Street Team Crusade encourages using letters.  Preferably those particularly affectionate ones, X and O.  Well, I needed to make Valentines.  And I happen to be snowed in.  Soooo, perfect timing, right?  Pooling my inspirations from Michelle, Tim Holtz, the Scarlet Pimpernel, and, well, my own pure brain, I came up with a couple of well-lettered tags.

This one, I can only show part of, lest its recipient happen to check my blog this week...


I made my own shimmer mist (End of Time pt 1, anybody?  warning, spoilers...) with Perfect Pearls and reinker ink, diluted with water.  Got a little heavy handed on that first tag...
I've been rereading the Scarlet Pimpernel books.  I honestly don't think there's a more romantic story, anywhere.  And Tim's flourish stamp strikes me as somewhat 18th Century, somewhat romantic, definitely cool.  Aside from an initial wash of a neutral ink, I did every layer of this in the same Fired Brick Distress Ink.  No, I am not shilling for Ranger.


These next two were originally one tag, but then I decided the two elements didn't go together physically or stylistically, so I cut them into two tags.  One hang tag and one little rectangular one.  The Dymo label on the top one came after the cut.




Michelle did say to do letters any way we wanted, and when I sat down at the work counter and saw my Dymo labeler, I knew it just needed to be involved.

Sometime I'll have to catch up and post stuff that I've started and finished since the last time I posted.  But for now this post is just dedicated to the Crusade.  Tune in later for yarny goodness.

By the Lion!

Oops. My, time did fly past this month, didn't it? Here it is, last day of the month again, and I'm just now posting my GPP Crusade entry. And I apologize, fellow Crusaders; I haven't kept up with everybody else's entries either. Only read a few of them so far.

This month's crusade assignment was stencil cutting. OMG. Michelle is such an enabler. I mean, there are worse things to be addicted to, true, but really, how many addictions does she think we can handle?

For my stencil, I decided to go with a Narnian theme. Gee I wonder why. Anyway, what came to mind was Peter's shield, the one that Father Christmas gives him. "The shield was the color of silver and across it there ramped a red lion, as bright as a ripe strawberry at the moment when you pick it." The shield of the kings of Narnia.

And of course I couldn't do something easy and/or conventional. That wouldn't be any fun. But more on that later...

So I dug out my little Dover heraldry book that I've had since the 6th grade, enlarged a lion rampant and a shield, and lo, I had my design. So I got a slab of glass that Mom happened to have lying about from our days of experimenting with polymer clay, dug out some quilter's template, and opened my brand-new handy-dandy little stencil burning tool, popped in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe DVD, and set to work.



The design:

See all those little points? Why I do this to myself remains a mystery.

Step 1, the Lion:

All those little black spots are where the stencil burner actually, well, burned the quilter's template. Apparently that stuff's not as hardy as it looks. Works, though.

After cutting out the Lion, I then cut the outline of the shield. This way, the shield with the Lion cut out of the middle would be a combination mask+stencil, with the additional Lion mask that came out of the middle of the shield. (Was that coherent?) Two pieces of plastic = two masks + one stencil. w00ties! My master plan. I'm sure someone somewhere has done this before me. But I didn't know about them, so I'm gonna claim it as my idea. *plants flag*
Dum-dum (that's me) didn't take a pic of the shield before actually using them, so you only get to see its shape after it's been doused with paint. These, and others, to be precise:


The results of which are such:

The one at the far left bottom had the Lion mask laid down and the paper spritzed with copper Shimmer Mist, then the mask peeled up and the shield laid down and pounced with red acrylic paint on a sponge. The middle top one was the same sequence, with gold and red acrylic paints applied by sponge. The far right was also the same sequence, with acrylics and Shiva Paintsticks sponged on.

And yes, I know, it's supposed to be silver, not gold. Gold shows up better and I like the way it looks with red. And copper is just what we happened to have in the Shimmer Mist. Oh well.

With the Lion laid back into the stencil after all that painting, it looks like this:

Pretty spiff, no?

Anyway, I have now purchased some spray fabric paint, and have grand plans for this stencil. I'm also resisting the urge to stencil it on EVERYTHING I OWN.

Me? Obsessive? Nah. Well, maybe a little.

And...
Coming Soon to a Pocket Near You: The Chronicles of a Narnia Scarf

There's Always Room for Another Obsession

Michelle Ward is evil. In a good way ;)

Sometime back in 8th grade art class, we did block prints with blocks of rubbery stuff that we carved with these spiffy little carving tools. I loved it, and have always wanted to try doing it again, but didn't know where to get or even look for the materials. Michelle and her latest crusade have shown me the light.




I looked for local suppliers that might have the carving blocks I needed, and sure enough, they were there all along, at my local store. Stupid me. Friday in a mad whirl I stopped there after work and bought a few blocks and a carving tool that's got all the blades and the spares can be stored in the handle (how cool is that?). That night I set to work, and now I have my first two handmade stamps!

First stamp:




And on the back of the block, the negative image, carved on Saturday morning:


And really, are you surprised at what they are? Seriously.

I have so many images that I want to turn into stamps! I'll definitely be working on more soon. A little strapped for time at the moment, as I've got to put together a lecture on the St. John's Bible for my old high school, but as soon as that's done, I'm back to the carving! And I haven't even thought about stencils yet... In the meantime, click the button at the top of the post and check out the stuff other people are cutting. They're awesome!

Happy Dance... of Shame

Guess what??? MAH COMPUTER'S FIXED!!!

After a valiant effort by Pam's wonderful husband Kris (give that man some pie, Pam!), it still refused to hold onto a connection to the internet. I thought there must be somethin in my tubez blockin my internets. Turns out my tubez were not running with the latest drivers. The Lexi found this. He updated my wireless driver and voila! Like magic! I are dumb. And Lexi is my hero. I knew I love him for a reason.

Now surfing the net is far more pleasant at home! And with this newfound lack of frustration, I bring you Handspun Monday. How's your memory for fibers? Remember the batt I got from Gryphon? The one in, ya know, the last post before this one? It's now this:

NOM. It's been on the bobbin for a week now. I'm going to be plying it with some beads in. Stay tuned for updates :)

Another thing I've been meaning to get to. It's too late for the actual crusade deadline cos I'm lame, but I actually did participate in Michelle Ward's GPP Street Team Crusade #17! The mission was to put together a travelling art journal kit. A grab-and-go toolbox of all the essentials. So I did, a good week and a half before the deadline. Did I post about it? Noooooo. Why? Well, remember the part where I'm lame? Yeah. Combination of not spending enough productive time on the internet and me forgetting. Anyway, I used a makeup organizer. Ta-daa!





There are sketchbook pages, a pencil, extra lead, a sharpie, watercolors and brushes, a good eraser, a deck of cards cos I like to use those, a rub-on transfer book that I loooove, scissors, glue, and tape. Now there are also journal tags that I got from The Paper Pixie, which I just got this weekend. I'm super excited. I really plan on doing more of this journaling thing.

I have more to show off, but that will wait. I can't cram everything into one blog post, now can I? I wouldn't have anything else to post about, would I? Oh, I would? Well nevermind. I'm still saving some for tomorrow.

Obsession Confession

Alright, alright! I'll talk!

Ever since she was kind enough to comment on my post, I've been reading Michelle Ward's blog. I've always admired her work in Somerset Studio. Little did I know that we seem to have a lot of the same tastes. I mean come on; gothic style fan, HIM fan, uses a lot of architecture and gothic elements in her design work... To those of you who know me in real life, does that not sound like ALL of my favorite things?

Anyway, she's got a street team. And the Crusades for this street team are really more like creative challenges. The most recent of which is to share something (or things) that you have a "crush" on. Person, place, or thing. Anybody that knows me knows that I have kind of an obsessive personality, and so I fixate on something for a while, only to move on to the next shiny object later. Because of this, I had a hard time thinking of anything I could post as a single, sustained "crush." Well, on the very last possible day to join in, I finally have a post.

I, Carrie, have a crush on crosses.

Being Catholic (or Catholic-ish), I do place a personal and spiritual value on them. But I also find them aesthetically pleasing, thrilling even. I know, it's probably a little weird. But I just love crosses. Latin, Greek, Maltese (my favorite), Jerusalem (my other favorite), embellished, plain, crucifix, stone, wood, metal, painted, I just love them. You might say I'm a connoiseur of crosses.

Michelle Ward's "Graven" set of unmounted rubber stamps caught my fancy as soon as I saw them. They are the most beautiful collection of crosses and related motifs. I had to have them. Well, they arrived today, and I have just been in such a good mood. Not only that, but I also decided that hmm, I DO have a crush to post!

I gathered some of my things with crosses for a photoshoot. I'm sure I have other stuff scattered about the house, but this is the stuff I could lay my hands on (and remembered where it all was!) and that I knew is my favorite stuff.




True to form, it's a sorta crappy photograph. Sorry. I really need to work on my photography skills. At any rate, ignoring the poor quality of the picture, the items featured are as follows, from left to right:
1. the shirt I bought at my first Billy Idol concert in 2003. Incidentally, Billy Idol is also fond of crosses. (And no, the autograph on the shirt is not real, it's printed. The real one is on my concert pants!)
2. (on top of the shirt) a cross that I bought to wear with my SCA garb.
3. the Graven sheet
4. (on top of the rubber) the necklace I wear almost every day. (closeup to follow)
5. two of my favorite belts. The one on top is identical to the one I spotted on my best friend not long after we met, and I'd been looking for one like it. Found it at PacSun. The one below that, with the huge buckle, is from New York and Company.

The necklace I wear most days has two very meaningful pendants. One is a Jerusalem cross that I bought to wear in my friend's show Last Rights. The other is a medal of Our Lady of Perpetual Help that I bought on my high school senior retreat.



So there you have it. I've come clean. I love crosses, and I'm not ashamed!