An Interesting Creative Exercise

My sewing machine is still in the shop so I am painting this week.

I was stalling on painting my Day of the Dead skull. To be honest, I was having yet another crisis of confidence. (It's looking doubtful that I will ever outgrow that. Sigh...) Anyway, being without a sewing machine pretty much forced me to pick up some brushes, lay out some paint, and get started. Once I painted in the eye sockets I got on a roll and just kept going!

My idea was to create a doll that celebrates my family's Dutch culture and heritage. Deciding on the idea was the easy part!



The colors in these photos are not true; her base color is a lovely rich white and the dark bits are all the shades of blue you can find on Delft ware.


The designs are traditional Delft motifs as well.


One of the reasons I hesitated to begin painting was because I was never very good at tole painting. Something must have just "clicked" in my brain once upon a time though, because once I got into it, it was pretty easy.



Working on this doll as been an unexpected challenge for me. Making her is definitely plowing up new soil in my brain -- she is bordering on inappropriate both from the viewpoint of my Dutch heritage and my upbringing. Halloween was never much of a big deal for us, and was usually downplayed in preference to remembering Reformation Day. And Death itself is surrounded by a lot of tabboos here in North America. (Would you think I was too weird if I said that the skulls that are so popular even on little kids clothes these days kind of freak me out?)

I guess what I mean to say is that my thoughts have been travelling down some new and interesting paths since I started work on her.

Do you LOVE tomatoes?

I love fresh garden tomatoes more than just about anything else. Hmmm... maybe even more than chocolate, LOL! Unfortunately, the weather patterns in the Pacific Northwest have been much cooler and wetter than normal this year, and my tomatoes, being tropical plants, are NOT happy. Ordinarily my garden would be awash in fresh tomatoes in the first week of September. This year, not only is the crop very small, it's very late. I was beginning to think we would have no fresh tomatoes at all this year, but today we had the first ones.

Now the problem is... how do you divide a measly 3 tomatoes among a family of 4 greedy tomatoes lovers? Why, a BLT of course.

This beautiful sandwich is not just any BLT either. The "Caprese BLT" is a family favorite that I make every year. I found the recipe a few years ago in a magazine where it had won a prize for creative sandwiches. If you love tomatoes as much as I do, you have to try this.


Caprese BLT

2 medium tomatoes, sliced thin
Salt
1 loaf ciabatta bread
1 1/3 cups packed fresh basil, divided
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
1/8 teaspoon hot sauce
8 slices bacon, cooked until crisp, drained, and crumbled
4 romaine lettuce leaves
8 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced thin
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Place tomatoes slices on several layers of paper towels and sprinkle with salt. Let sit for 15 minutes, then press with additional paper towels to extract excess moisture.
Slice bread in half horizontally and use your fingers to remove and discard all but about 1/2 inch of interior crumb.
Puree 1 cup of the basil leaves, mayonnaise, lemon juice, garlic, hot sauce, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a blender or food processor until smooth.
To assemble the sandwich, spread basil mayonnaise on both cut sides of the bread. Sprinkle the bacon on the bottom half and cover with the romaine leaves. Spread the tomato slices and cheese slices over the lettuce as evenly as possible -- be sure to use them all!
Mix the oil and vinegar together in a small bowl and drizzle over the tomatoes and cheese. Spread the remaining 1/3 cup of basil leaves over this and replace the top half of the bread.
Cut the sandwich crosswise into 2-inch thick slices and serve. I recommend lots of napkins. :-)

Enjoy -- It truly is as good as it looks! All I ask is, if you MUST use fat-free mayonnaise or turkey bacon, please don't tell me about it.

And the winner is...

I am in deep withdrawal today. Yesterday I took my sewing machine in to the city for some routine service. I forgot to take the holiday weekend into consideration, so it probably won't be back home with me until next Thursday. Oh my... I hadn't counted on it being gone for so long. Fortunately I have some painting and gluing to do, but... but... but... Aack! My room feels so empty with that bare corner.

To distract myself, I set up my Blogiversary drawing. Now this was fun! I put the names of everyone who left me comments on a slips of paper, put all the little papers in a big bowl, and had my daughter draw a name. Then... (yes, I am this indecisive some times...) I couldn't decide which of the little pieces to give away, so I decided to give them BOTH away, and so Lydia drew another name.

And here they are...















Congratulations to Kerry and Jacque on winning this drawing. (I'm almost a little nervous to send these out, because if you check out their blog links associated with their names, you will see that both of these ladies are very talented artists.) THANK YOU to both of you for being my friends in the Blog World. Thank you to everybody who shares my adventures here and lets me know it. You are little lights in my life and I appreciate you so much.

Birth of a Sprite, and a Blog-iversary

My Sprite is coming along nicely, though I *had* hoped she'd be done by now. I should know better than to actually put myself on a time frame...

Here she she is as she was on Saturday -- all her parts are skinned, stuffed, and ready to paint.

I used Dyna-Flow paints, aiming for an ever-so-slightly tie dyed effect. It was just what I wanted when I finished, unfortunately, it dried a little darker than it appears in this "wet" photo. It still looks OK, just not what I was aiming for.


Oh yeah... I also skinned and assembled the skull mask -- I was on a roll and had to do SOMETHING while waiting for the paint to dry! When the glue dried I took off the rubber band and filled the seam with paper clay.



I know you could have seen more detail if I had zoomed in a bit, but I think Mocha the Doll Inspector is more interesting than to look at than watching clay and paint dry, don't you agree?



Today she is wearing pieces of her dress, her wig, and the beginnings of her hat. Oh my, how I love that piece of velvet her hat is made from. I am SO glad that I found something to do with it. It was too nice a scrap to throw away...



She still needs some sleeves and her wings. Maybe by this time NEXT week I will finally have a Finished Object to share!

AND... this is my 200th post. I will be drawing names for my give-away on Saturday, so be sure to leave a comment!

Thank You Thomas

All the arrangements have been made -- it's too late to back out now! -- and I owe it all... well, OK, some of it anyway... to Tom Selleck. I (yes, ME!) have reservations and confirmations and credit card statements that say that I will be in Marshalltown, Iowa over the weekend of September 12-14. What could be more exciting??

"Iowa? Exciting?" you ask, and I say YES!! Sherry Goshon and Jean Bernard are hosting a dollmakers retreat there that weekend, and *I* get to go! When the opportunity for me to attend this retreat came up, I thought about it, but gave it up as too selfish to spend that kind of money on just me. Jake MADE me sign up, insisted I go.

(I confess, I didn't argue too much.)

So... what does this have to do with Tom Selleck? Well... let's just say that I love my husband and my husband loves "Magnum, P.I.". Over the last couple of Christmases I have bought him every last episode released to date on DVD. Every. Last. One. (I think we're about through season 8 by now. Oh my.) Lately, we have watched one episode after another in lieu of network TV for... a long time now. I usually work a sudoku puzzle or work on a hand project, but he likes it that I'm there with him.

I think this is his way of saying Thank You. Isn't he the best??

I love you Jake! And...

Thank YOU Thomas!

We interrupt this artist...

...with a leg injury. Ouch! I was afraid that I had injured my knee, but it was "only" an acute muscle strain. After a week of wearing a knee brace and hobbling around on crutches, I have graduated to walking with a cane, and can get up off the couch at last! Woo Hoo! I can't wait to get back to normal.

Back-to-School shopping has persuaded me to continue my "no new craft supplies" challenge for now, at least through the end of summer. (Secretly... I'm tickled to be using up old supplies, and enjoying the challenge of coming up with alternative methods. Shhhh... Don't tell my husband!) I've been waiting to finish my Dancing Sprite doll until I could purchase some flesh colored 4-way stretch skin fabric, but I am aching to get back to work on her, so I decided use some of the white I have on hand instead.

Hey, am I not an artist? Am I not AMPLY supplied with paints of all kinds? This is going to be fun. I'm going to give my sewing machine a test drive tonight and see how it goes. I may have to learn to sew left footed...


These are front and back pieces destined to come together and become the head of a Halloween challenge doll. I used Paperclay pressed into a mold used to make sugar skulls for Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico. Isn't it the coolest thing? As you can see I have some serious sanding and patching to do, but I want to make absolutely sure it's dry before I do anything to them.

I haven't been completely idle while resting my leg. I also got a chance to learn more about levels, selection tools, and blending modes in my Photoshop. The photos I took of Alice were perfect to play and practice with.


I especially love the "Cross Processing" effect on her Next Top Model attitude pic. It's getting easier to remember which buttons to press with each photo I process, and I'm SO grateful to have had my Photoshop to keep my mind busy this past week!

Wow! I just checked my Dashboard, and this is my 198th blog post! Just 2 more posts until I draw the names from my comments for a winner for the beaded doll. I absolutely love it when people drop by and say "hi", so I want to give something back to say thanks for keeping me company in my art and messes. Everyone who has ever left me a comment (except for maybe the person who said I had the worst blog ever) has blessed my life.

Learning to see ONLY what the camera sees...

...isn't as simple as it sounds. I am find it challenging to take my brain out of the way, to let my eyes do the work without interpretation.

My youngest daughter decided that she'd rather spend her summer wages on new clothes than on a photographer, so she asked me to try taking her senior pictures for her. We packed up and headed out to the city park, she with a couple changes of outfits, and me with ALL my camera toys... lenses, tripod, and I even bought a real photographer's reflector for the occasion. I had so much fun! (You might notice we really liked the shiny gold light bounce, though I think the soft white made for better pictures. Still learning!)

I am pleased with what I did for the most part, but I still have a tendency to miss key lighting issues. This first portrait would have been perfect if I hadn't let it get so backlit. Sigh...






This one is my favorite, up to and including that little cowlick that got away from us. It's so HER.









If ONLY I had used a white light bounce for this one it would be so much better. I still love the way the light on her hair halos her face.




















Another favorite of mine, but she doesn't like it so much.




















Everything came together just right in this one. Now, if I could only learn to do it like this EVERY time, LOL!






It helps to have such a pretty girl as a subject too.

Finished Jewelry

Like many families across the country, we have been faced with rising expenses and static income. In an effort to save a little money, I committed myself "no new art supply purchases" this month. I haven't felt deprived yet as I went "shopping" in my stash instead, including looking over patterns and tutorials that were paid for and never attempted.


This Woven Cuff Bracelet is from a tutorial by Eni Oken, one of my favorite jewelry designers. All of the stones, charms, and wire -- every last one -- were left over from other projects. I bought the silver fish charms a looooong time ago to make earrings, but I could never get them to look right. It was so gratifying to finally find a project to put them in -- they weren't cheap! It is amazingly comfortable to wear, even for me, the "Queen of Those Who Fidget with their Bracelets".

Let's see... there's amethyst, amber, kyanite, rhodochrosite, jade, turquoise, denim lapis, pink quartz, carnelian, moonstone, peridot, citrine, aquamarine... it's a real show-stopper and goes with just about everything.

I bought the pattern for this Woven Hearts Necklace as soon as I saw on her blog that she had released it. The process is a little fussy, but it went together quickly. I was able to complete it in two evenings' work time. The focal stone is ametrine, a lovely blend of yellow and purple. I intend to thread it onto another chain eventually as this one is too heavy for the work, but in the meantime it's wearable as it is.

There are so many other design possibilities for this technique too! Until I can purchase some more wire, I will be sketching out some ideas of my own -- that ought to keep me busy for a while.

I have one more piece started (Eni's "Chaos Necklace"), but it's still in pieces and not ready for it's photo op yet. If it turns out as planned, it too is going to be a new favorite. Isn't Eni's stuff beautiful?

Another Distraction

I have been busy -- I have! -- but instead of photographing my finished objects, I have been enjoying a series of deliciously beautiful summer days. I promise to get some photos of my finished objects up soon, but in the meantime, these beautiful days are so precious and so few, it seems like a terrible waste to spend them inside.

We had some excitement here today -- a camera crew came to our farm to shoot a commercial featuring Jake and our creamery's products. It was very interesting as well as educational to watch them work, and I got a chance to play with my camera as well.

The shoot was originally scheduled for this morning, and Jake and I were up at an even more ungodly hour than usual, but the weather was cloudy for the first time in weeks and the light just wasn't good enough. The photographer and his crew came back this evening instead to take advantage of the afternoon sun.


While Jake is not stereotypically handsome, he is very photogenic and has a great presence. Even the cows were curious. After all, their quiet pasture is not often invaded by so many humans. (I'm practicing portraits this week -- I'm pretty sure that the book I'm working from sort of meant for me to work with humans, but I like this one anyway.)


For every picture I shot, the real photographer shot about 25. I could NOT believe the size of his camera nor the variety of his lenses! I'm not envious though -- I am barely smart enough to operate my own camera.

Eventually they got what they wanted and went away again. I look forward to see what comes out of all of this, but no matter what, it was SO much more fun than spending the evening watching TV!

Distracted!

I haven't gotten much done lately. I had a nice long 4-day holiday weekend, but it was filled with distractions, including this big one...


My granddaughter Annika is 4 months old already, and as far as I know, this is the first photo anyone has gotten of her smiling AT the camera. My son is holding her across one arm like a football, and I sat under his feet to snap this pic. I kind of got the feeling that he thought I was a little nuts, but I think catching this moment was worth a small loss of dignity.

I spent most of my play time with my continuing experiments in Photoshop Elements. I have just discovered Actions. Oh my!

It was nearly dark when I took this next photo, but not nearly dark enough to produce the image I had planned. I was experimenting with long exposure times, so here the sky looks as if it is still full daylight. Oh well... I'll try again next year.


My daughter snapped this photo of herself after having had her makeup professionally applied...

... and this is what I did with it.


I did some basic editing on my own, and then applied an action called "Gothic Glow" that I found at ATNCentral. Lots of fun toys for Photoshop there! They don't all work with Elements, but some of them do, and just looking around on the site was an education. It took me 3 days to figure it all out, so I guess that this counts as my latest "finished project", LOL.

I'm not done with this photo quite yet, but I wanted SOMETHING to post this week. Hope everyone who celebrates had a wonderful 4th of July!

Almost there

I had intended to post before we left on a camping trip, but now I'm glad I waited because I see that this piece isn't quite finished after all.

I am pretty happy with it for the most part, though I curse the moment I thought that #$%^&* octopus would be a good idea. I am about out of ideas as to how to make it look better, but oh well. I see I also need to add a few more highlights to the seahorse and a little more depth to her hair.

Hmmmmm... a bit more green in her tail might also help to set off the jewel a bit better. That jewel and those bubbles were SO much fun to paint!

I've already started another piece using this technique. It is VERY different, as I am DETERMINED to break out of my "pretty" mold. I'll post a WIP photo here soon.

Happy Father's Day

I hope Father's Day was filled with the joy it ought to bring for everyone who reads this. I know there are bad fathers out there, so perhaps for some the day is painful instead, and oh! I am so sorry! But I am blessed with a wonderful Father of my own, and blessed again to be married to the wonderful father of my kids. I don't tell them how much I appreciate them nearly as often as I should, but I hope they know how much I love them anyway.

Another blessing of the day was the special music number at our church. One of our men sang Stephen Curtis Chapman's "Cinderella" while 3 sets of dads and daughters danced. It was so beautiful and touching I had to bring along the new camera -- I hope I didn't bother anybody. Look though... no flash!


Who WOULDN'T want to give this darling little princess a big twirl?


These waltzers looked as if they were floating. The grace and ease with which they danced was a pleasure to watch.

Alice danced the part of the 3rd daughter, the bride-to-be. I confess... I cried.

Jake isn't much of a dancer ordinarily, but he held his end up. Aren't they a beautiful couple? He's going to have a hard time of it when he real Wedding Waltz plays, and I don't mean with just the steps.

I'm so glad the clock hasn't quite "struck midnight" for us just yet.

I have a new camera...

...and I am beginning to wonder if I am smart enough to use it, LOL! Actually, I am becoming more confident with my "eye" every day, but remembering which settings to use (without having to stop and think about it...) well, I'm not there yet. I will keep at it though. I may never be the next Annie Lebowitz, but it won't be for lack of trying.

The other night we had an evening from Eden dropped into the miserable excuse for spring that is Oregon in 2008. Jake told me that there were ducklings on the lagoon, so we took advantage of a lovely evening to walk out to see if we could spot them.

Our first mistake was to take Sailor the dachshund with us for the walk. (Seriously... what WERE we thinking! Ducklings... and a dog? aghhhhh...!)

We hadn't even cleared the barn yard before he spotted a cat and went into full voice! (That's Chrissy, the Calf Barn Cat. Does she look at ALL worried to you?)

Jake's legs are much longer than mine, so he got quite a ways ahead of me as we walked up the hay alley to the gate that would let us out into the lagoon field. I like that "artyness" of this shot. (Oooh, it's in focus too!)



I was playing with my telephoto lens... this cow was a good 6feet away from me, but just look at all the detail captured in her face. She is a sweetheart Jake says -- you can see it in her eyes -- and I can almost smell her sweet grass breath from the photo.


When we got across the field to the lagoon we saw 2 nests of ducklings floating peacefully on the water with their parents, but by the time I got my lens to focus, they were half way across to the other side. The adults have long since flown away...


In an effort to try to end around and get a better shot, Lydia took Sailor under control. Too late. The ducklings were GONE! (We thought we saw where they went, but by the time we got there... nothing.) I still love this picture though. Can you SEE the tension in Sailor's body and how badly he wants to leap down and give chase? As if a dachshund could ever run fast enough to catch... anything, LOL!


As we walked back to the house, I decided to take a shot of Mt. Hood, seeing as how it was actually visible for the first time in months. I knew about the foreshortening effect of the telephoto lens, but I had no idea it would bring the mountain THIS close. This will be something fun to play with in the future.



One last treat for the evening... a guy in a personal aircraft flew by over our heads. My old camera would never have gotten a shot like this.


I know I have a lot to learn, but I am looking forward to the lessons.

Finished?

I set myself to finish this painting today, and I *think* I did. I'm not sure. I'm going to let it sit for a few days and then look at it again to see what there is to see with fresh eyes. In the meantime, here it is: "Blue Butterfly Spirit: a tribute to Laurel Burch."



I have worked on the mermaid collage since I last posted photos. I'm teaching myself to use a new camera though, so I was happy enough to get a decent photo of just the ONE painting today.

I do have one last little Being to share though. Remember the mask I made for my daughter's prom? Her best friend since first grade elected not to wear a real mask, but to do her make-up in such as way as to suggest a mask. I was completely blown away by the photos, which immediately suggested a doll to me. I don't have permission to post her photo yet, but I can share this cloth-over-clay mask. Meet "Diana, a Dance Sprite".

The mold is "Elodie Whisper", from an original sculpt by Sherry Goshon. Darn it, will I EVER learn to catch an accurate photograph of an item embellished with Pearl-Ex?
.

I won!

I need to stop jumping up and down here for just long enough to post these pictures. I am so excited! (Can you tell, LOL?!) I just got the e-mail telling me that I won both First Place in the Advanced category AND Viewer's Choice in Doll Street's Dark Fairy Challenge. I love this doll so much... it's nice to know other people like her too.

Without further ado, here she is. Meet Nightshade and her little pet Arachne.

I may try photographing her again. Or at least taking a close up of Arachne. I just couldn't figure out a way to show all her details.

Her head is cloth over clay. The head began as Jean Bernard's "Mother" mold. Her body is a heavily modified version of Sherry Goshon's "Cinnamon" made of a cotton/lycra blend fabric which was then gessoed and painted with acrylics. I collaged dyed tussah silk and flash onto her body as a kind of leotard, then added a skirt, bust ruffle, and sleeve drapes made of needle-lace.

Her wings are made of china silk and wire heavily painted and embellished with microbeads. Her boots and corset (and the nightshade vine) are made of apoxie sculpt, and her hair is tibetan lamb. The nightshade berries and the spider are beaded. The instructions for this very interesting and fun-to-make spider can be found here.

Whew!

I was going to post some more photos I took with my new telephoto lens, but those will have to wait. This was much more fun!