Spring has begun?

Dear Reader, here in South Florida we are having a lovely early spring. It's been in the 70s and a few nights even lower. We are getting some much needed rain (we are on rationing here). So far my friends in the midwest have been safe, but it is going to take some time for them to clean up. Hope you are where the weather is lovely.

Since I last wrote, I went to see the Calder Jewelry exhibit at the Norton in Palm Beach. Calder made at least 1800 pieces of jewelry in his lifetime, mostly as gifts to his beloved wife and friends. I knew about his mobiles and stabiles, but hadn't really seen any of his jewelry and it was stunning! He used wire and found objects to make the most amazing pieces. Phenomenal. Please go see it or get the book on the exhibit. You will be blown away by what he could do with a piece of wire and a hammer.




Here's an altered tin for the spring altered tin swap from Unshelved Words. Trish told me about it and I couldn't resist. I cut out the front leaving a pretty frame and added a watercolor flower and a couple pressed flowers (under mica).




The inside is lined with some hand painted fabric and vintage lace. The poem is actually a haiku although space didn't allow the correct formating. Doesn't spring always make you think about starting again? What will you start this spring?

Beeswax collage with Claudine Hellmuth

Two weeks ago the Art League of Bonita Springs sponsored Claudine Hellmuth in a three day intensive on Beeswax Collage. The Art League has a beautiful facility. It was a terrific class and Claudine is a fantastic teacher. Even with a very large class, 24 students, she was able to spend time with each student each day, working on design issues and whatever. She is a bundle of energy and creative ideas. Many of the students were repeats and she is slated to return again next year.

I had a lot of problems to begin with. Doing collage with beeswax is very different than gluing. It took a couple of days to figure out that you really have to have different expectations as well as using different types of paper. Some papers will be too thick. Anything cardstock weight is too thick. What happens is that you get this build up of wax around the edge. So anything that has any height to it, compared to the prior layer, is going to have this filling in around the edges. Also, some pictures from magazines won't stand up to the heat. This can be used to effect, but you have to be expecting it...

Tissue papers work really nicely. And here's something way cool, use your Pitt pens to draw on white tissue. The white tissue disappears, and the drawing looks like it is on the previous layer. See the cat tails and leaves on the first Heron Collage here.

Lately I've been drawing herons. I want to do a mosaic medallion for the entry of our new home. I'll be using ceramic tile, indirect method. Wish me luck!

So these are several layers of tissue paper on canvas with beeswax. I drew on white tissue with Pitt pens. The herons are on computer paper. I drew the originals on watercolor paper, scanned them into photoshop and resized them. Then printed the pencil drawing. Colored with Pitt pens on the computer paper and cut out with Xacto.

You can polish the wax with a paper towel.

My Handmade Jewelry

There's a group online that's all about vintage costume jewelry, called JewelCollect. I've been a member off and on for something like 10 years now. It's an email group and they have something called the Topic of the Week (TOW). It was your own handmade jewelry, so I made this photo album with some of mine. Thought yall might be interested.

Handmade Paper

Since you can only put a few pictures at a time here, I've made an album of some of my handmade paper. I love making paper and books and journals. Please check it out and tell me what you think.

Barb V.

Puerta Vallarta Mosaics!

Nancy Shelby's Mosaic class in Puerta Vallarta was truly fab! She is a wonderful artist, and a good teacher too! I loved how much time she took to work with each of us individually. She helped me immensely with several things. Her sense of color usage with mosaics is most excellent, and I listened closely, not just when she was helping me, but also when she helped others. The colors that you might use when painting or collaging are different than when mosaicing. It's not just how it changes with grouting, but how the blending happens with the relatively large pieces. This is going to be a big help in the future. Also, her grouting demo really helped. Yes, that's maybe the easiest part for you, but I've been having trouble. And it seems that every class I take, the teacher just assumes that everyone can do that part. Nancy's demo really answered my biggest problem - why the grout goes down so much. Well, I've been just doing everything way too wet, and the wetter, the more the grout will sink down after drying. Another big help - make a test patch, using tessarae from your piece. Then grout with a couple colors so that you can pick the right color grout without messing up your piece.

As always, the best part of the class was meeting the teacher and other students. This class had some really interesting and talented women. Shelly and Joan, from Michigan, were second time students of Nancy's. And their work was WOW! And Shelly has a truly beautiful voice. On the last evening of the workshop, we all enjoyed a Russian ballad from Luba. She was born in Russia, but moved to Canada some years ago as a young mother. Her voice, too, was beautiful and we were all moved by the ballad and her rendition. Martine also sang for us and too has a beautiful voice. I was awed by the singing talent, and one evening just sat and enjoyed the lovely songs shared by my new amigas. Martine was very entertaining, as a screenwriter she had a repetoire of interesting stories to share. Although Madeline professed not to be able to sing, she is a talented artist and her watercolors are soon to appear in advertising for a watersports company in Canada.

See you at SAMA!

Blackbirds and a black cat

Hope everyone is having a nice holiday, whatever it is that you celebrate. How about celebrating that the days are getting longer again! Have you come up with resolutions for the New Year? My number one is to enjoy each and every day to the fullest. Isn't that hard sometimes? You really have to pay attention too.

Here is a recent piece. I have been using a pouring method to make multicolored sheets of paper. The pours are random. But, like inkblots, imaginations turns them into something!

Here is the sheet after it has dried. Do you see the blackbirds? Immediately the song by the Beatles, "Blackbirds" came into my head. This song has long struck me as an anthem to people who need to break free from whatever has brought them down.



"Blackbird singing in the dead of night,
take these broken wings and learn to fly.
All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise"

I love sewing, and sewing on paper is interesting. You can't not use a hole you've made, so make holes carefully. My teacher, Trish, says that I should do more of this. It's amazing how much stuff there is in the sheets of paper I've been making. Dear reader, you will no doubt be seeing more of these...

Salem trying to sleep in the basket on my worktable. He is so sweet, often purring gently while I work. Sometimes I'll look up at him, and one eye is just barely open, watching me work. It's good to have a friend, especially one who loves all that I do...

Plant love

This is our front porch now, in Pompano Beach, Fl. As you can see, it's getting overgrown, which is just how we like it. There are statues of Kwan Yin and Rebecca hidden under the pothos, and some shells and glass balls. We love the Vietnamese pots, and over the years we've collected a few of them for all the succulents.

























Behind all the pots in the front there are some ruella which aren't in bloom today, but when they are they are a lovely purple color. You can't see all the lizards, but I assure you, there at least a hundred of them, different kinds too. The iguana live out back in the gumbo limbo and palms near the canal. We had at least 8 babies hatch in our yard this year.