Art ADD works for me

Taste of Cleveland

2008-08-30T23:08:00.000-07:00

Two down, two to go. I work doing ticket sales at a some summer events, this one being the last of the season. 4 days of styley food, ethnic dancers, and rock and roll on the Cuyahoga River. Oh yeah... and 12-14 hour workdays. Some of us have been doing this for 10-15 years and it's always fun to see each other. So here's what I'm up to/into and I'll answer mail on Tuesday...

This is right across from my ticket tent. Where's my fabric and vinegar?? That's one big rusty something-or-other! How many bolts do you suppose it would take...?

These lovely young ladies were performing traditional Japanese dances. So graceful!

The Airshow is also going on, so we get to see a lot of the Blue Angels.

Maybe a thread painting of this scene?

Sunset on the river

I didn't mean to use the flash, but I love the way it turned out...

Breaking Traditons -- With One voice

2008-08-29T05:45:00.000-07:00

My entry for the exhibit is dedicated to Sadako Sasaki and the World Peace Project for Children.

12x12

Detail of origami crane

Journal Quilt - Elements -- rejected

2008-08-26T13:56:00.000-07:00

I have a great fascination (obsession really -- have a blog for that too) with lighthouses and shipwrecks and Great Lakes history, so for me, the 'elements' theme spoke loudly to that. When we visit a lighthouse, I'm always in awe of the power of the wind and water and the keepers and lifesavers that lived in those isolated places and braved the elements to keep the ships safe.

Crisp Point Light

This light is in the Michigan UP on the Lake Superior coast and it's one of those very isolated lights. It was better than an hour drive from a real road. Now, I love the UP, but half the "roads" are snowmobile tracks in the winter. We had to buy a snowmobile map to get to some places on our last visit!

And the Yoopers can be real comedians, when it some to giving directions...

For example, we were told to follow this one road (track) and look for another track going off to the right, but "there's no sign, so when ever you pass a track, look over your shoulder on the right and you'll see this green shed back in the woods -- you can't see it from the direction you're driving -- if they didn't tear it down yet, that's where you back up and turn..." HUH??

So, even if you visit in August -- trust me on this-- you need a snowmobile trail map!

Rusty things - done over

2008-08-25T18:56:00.000-07:00

I picked 3 names to win some fabric. I heard from Linda, but I still need an address from Maggie and TJMwannabe. Please e-mail me privately with your info at artgoose@sbcglobal.net .

This was wrapped in several pieces of rebar. 5' x 3' and my personal favorite.

Detail of rebar

The keys also turned out really well

The fire pit...not so much.

A piece of cheesecloth that I had dyed yellow, then rusted.

I can probably never duplicate this one. Damn.

Bath time

2008-08-25T17:28:00.000-07:00

Here's something you don't get to see every day!

This is Ursa. She lives at the zoo here and has free roam of the building she's in.

She's awesome.

Something Fishy at the Zoo

2008-08-25T17:17:00.000-07:00

Some photos from the aquarium at the Cleveland Zoo

These are sooo creepy, yet pretty...

Is this the girliest fish environment ever? OMG -- it's Underseas Barbie-fish!! Stop it!!

I found Nemo

Spike

Buck quilt for Dee

2008-08-25T17:03:00.000-07:00

I made another Buck quilt -- this time for Dee. She going away to earn her doctorate and I know she'll miss Buck..
This was fun to make. I posted a how-to when I did the first Buck piece -- just look for the tag 'buck'. Or applique. On this one I thought the background was a little boring, so I carved a little dog bone stamp and stamped it to add a little interest.

It's his best where-are-you-going-without-me look.

Dee liked it -- Bucky's going to Philly

Eyembellishments

2008-08-25T16:32:00.000-07:00

Lovely Michele at Eyembellishments made this set for me. How cool are these guys? They'll become a part of something for Joe. Something doggy-ish, since those are his little sweeties.
When I told Michele that the dog where named after Patsy and Edie in the Brit-com Absolutely Fabulous, she suggested the martini glass to go with the pooches. Perfect, no?

Buy something from her -- she's awesome -- lots of cool ceramic stuff that she makes is in her store -- a link to her site is on the right.
Do it now, before you forget! Seriously -- you'll thank me. I thanked Lynn.

The dogs are white and the martini is silver, but I didn't color correct so you could see the texture on the dogs.

Couldn't let it go...

2008-08-05T14:59:00.000-07:00

Okay, if my DH grumbles, I'm blaming it on my QA friends! Nah, he won't grumble. He'll just roll his eyes and wander away...LOL!

Awesomely rusted.

Wrapped in fabric and wet

Wrapped in trash bags.

Oh, this is gonna be so cool!

100th post giveaway

2008-08-04T11:59:00.000-07:00

To celebrate my 100th post, I'm going to give away a couple of pieces of rusted fabric. I'll draw 2 names from anyone that leaves a comment and send them a piece of what's batching now.

I almost forgot about these. Little rusty tin trees from Cataan's. the have a whole aisle of this stuff! Even sheets of tin you can cut yourself. Sheets come with rusting directions.

This is about 8'' across -- wrought iron

Here's something I'd love to use. It is awesomely rusty, but that would mean no more backyard fires. Maybe I'll just scrape off some rusty bits instead.

Rusty things

2008-08-04T10:34:00.000-07:00

Inspired by all the recent talk on the Quilt Art list, I'm trying my hand at something new. (which seems to be a weekly occurrence these days...) Got a bunch of funky old keys to use from my friend Alex -- perfect!

Laid out before folding fabric

Kind of a creepy-torture-device-looking key. Anyone know what this if for??

Had a few pieces of re bar.

Rolled it up and wrapped it with wire.

Had some steel wool from my etching supplies...

The yellow scrim is wrapped around a canolli tube with wire

All bundled up in a trash bag outside, ready to soak

On my way!

Got 'er done

2008-08-01T20:30:00.000-07:00

Finished and submitted my piece for the Journal Quilt Project II. It's the first fiber piece that I've ever submitted anywhere. Now I think I'll go get sick...scary stuff. ;)

Treasures

2008-07-29T11:04:00.001-07:00

These are from my neighbor, Alex. she spent the weekend with her family and brought home these goodies. Hundreds of wonderfully rusty old keys. Obviously a sign that I should try rusting fabric...

Sweet!

Large pieces - overdyed

2008-07-29T10:59:00.000-07:00

These are the 2 big pieces that I did in the bathtub with dyes that were no longer at their full strength. Overdyed them and now I'm happy with them.

Ackkk

2008-07-28T12:10:00.000-07:00

I am beyond frustrated with trying to remove the rest of the wax from the batiks. I really love the fabrics, but this part is making me question my sanity. It's been in the eighties and muggy here and I've had a big pot of water and fabric boiling on my stove for days. does that sound like something a sane person would do. Of course not...

Vodka and wax

2008-07-19T14:48:00.000-07:00

Currants from the garden soaking in vodka. There weren't enough to make jelly or wine. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

These may be a little harder to skewer than the other fruits I've made into schnapps...

From the fabrics that got a second layer of wax stamping. With all the wax removed.

Not quite what I was trying for, but it's okay.

I'm hoping that washing will get rid of those kind of greasy-looking places around where the wax was.
Detail

Day at the beach

2008-07-19T11:32:00.000-07:00

Hey! You lookin' at my butt?

Paulie's first time seeing waves -- he was fascinated.

Brendan's favorite activity...fall face first into the water.

Presque Isle lighthouse

Sawdoctor's guitar

2008-07-19T11:15:00.000-07:00

Tjay built this case for Tommy. The guitar is signed by the Sawdoctors and it;s going to hang at P J MacIntyre's.

Red oak lined with green velvet.

After the wax is removed...

2008-07-16T09:47:00.000-07:00

...you get to see what you actually have! I love surprises.

The right upper corner after I started taking off the wax. Not what I expected at all. By the time I got to this point, I had forgotten what the original dye job looked like...

Yes, it's this bright in person!

This is like looking through one of those ripply glass shower doors. If I squint, it makes me dizzy. I know, I know -- don't squint!

I love the colors on this. I have plans for hyper-embellishing this piece.

A detail of the 4th piece.

The rest of the pieces have been waxed again and redyed. Unveiling -- later today!

More flowers

2008-07-16T09:32:00.000-07:00

Maybe I'll use these pictures as reference for some flower quilts to make in the winter. I LOVE my garden!

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Fabric in my garden

2008-07-11T13:08:00.001-07:00

Okay -- this drove the bees crazy!

What a fun and easy way to rinse out the dye. Got some funny looks from my neighbors though...

The gnome loved this one. See how happy he looks? Hey, what can I say? I'm German and I'm a sucker for gnomes

Fishies
Do the mashed potato!
Vaguely patriotic looking

I'm going to stamp this one some more and dye it again. The colors are so bright and I left lots of space for more waxing.

I wish I had made a bigger piece of this. I would totally wear this. Maybe I will.

Hope I did this right...

2008-07-11T12:42:00.000-07:00

Last night I mixed up some dyes and dyed the batiks for the second time. As I was prepping stuff, I checked my books and found that I should have put the fabrics in the soda ash solution, BEFORE applying the wax...oops! I hauled out a big flattish tub and carefully put all the waxed pieces inside to soak.
Then I got to wondering about how to batch these, since I wanted several different colors in each piece. Here's what i came up with:

I cut a stack of big trash bags down one side and opened up the top one. Pulled the first piece out of the soda ash and laid it on the opened plastic 'envelope.'

Squirted dye to my heart's content. :)

Laid the top of the bag back over the fabric, folded up all the edges and lifted the whole piece (more or less flat) and laid it another tub.I kept stacking them up that way, put a lid on it and set the stove to batch overnight. The pilot lights on the stove seem to keep it a nice temperature for batching.

Then today, I took the whole lot outside, pulled them out of the plastic, hung them on a line in the yard and hosed them off. Here's that piece in the other pictures.

Trying my hand at batiks.

2008-07-10T12:39:00.000-07:00

Made some stamps for doing batiks. Got to use TJay's scroll saw. Cool. Cut out the pieces and used Gorilla Glue to attach the pieces-parts to a backing. Clamped them and waited an hour.

Endless possibilities for making stamps with power tools...

Made some other stamps after drawing a design on wood and pounding nails. Also endless possibilities...

I'll dye these again this evening. The dark places are where the wax is stamped.

I found that each time I started with a different stamp, I had to hold it in the wax for a little bit, to warm up the tool too.

This will be cool...I hope.

Waves, fishies and bubbles. The fabric was textured too, which adds something extra to this one. I think it needs more waxing, before I dye it.

I'll stamp this one again, after the next dye bath.

And the potato masher made as awesome design!

Fabric hardener experiment

2008-07-10T12:16:00.000-07:00

I tried the Paverpol last week. I decided that it was really kind of awful to work with. The stuff was horribly thick and the working time was very short. It was drying on the fabric as quick as I could get it on there.
Someone suggested exterior wood glue, so I'm trying that now. I like $8 a quart better than over $40 a litre (with shipping). It's yellow in the bottle, but has dried pretty close to clear.

I covered a pint glass with cling wrap and covered it with strips of fabric thoroughly saturated with Titebond II.

Removed the glass and cling wrap after 24 hours. Here it is after 4 days, pretty dry and hard. I'm moving outside to test for sun and rain. Then I'll stick it in the freezer...

I got some terra cotta colored Powertex from Crafter's Cafe and will try that next. Powertex also comes in bronze, clear, and charcoal colors.

More work on Ballycroy.

Awww! Isn't Biscuit pretty in the flowers?

Goodies in the garden

2008-07-02T23:16:00.001-07:00

Red currants to pick tomorrow.

Millions of mulberries. Time to make a new batch of Chateau Towner Mulberry Port

And the first blackberries from the plant I started 4 years ago! Yay!

And a bazillion strawberries...