The End Is Near

Yep, summer is coming to a grinding halt and I'm feeling a little bitter.  Oh well, I've got to work.  How else am I going to pay for all my supplies?  I got my new spinning wheel.  I'm still getting used to her and I have a bit of buyer's remorse.  It's all about the obsession, the acquisition, and then the let down.  

Here are some more alphabet pages.  

 J is for Jenny Superfine

N is for Nude in Solvang

G, H, I

G is for glasses and girls, H is for hen with dwarf wing, and I is for igloo.  I'm getting a little sick of this alphabet business.  Can I finish before school starts?

More Alphabet Pages

Here's D for duck, E for eggs and eyeless elephant, and F for flowers.

Alphabet Pages

I started illustrating the alphabet in July.  Here's A for Acorn, B for Brushes, Barbara, and Breast, and C for Clouds.

Dyeing Roving

Last week I did some dyeing and remembered to take photographs of the process.

7-26-11 Journal Spread

A little creepy, I know, but sometimes that's just what's in there and it's got to come out!

July Alphabet

I decided that I would do an illuminated alphabet for the month of July.  I started out doing just one letter per day, but then I got sick of it and I finished it this morning.  I used Derwent Inktense colored pencils, pitt superfine pen, Sharpee poster paint markers, gold Uniball pen, a little bit of gouach, some homemade rubber stamps, and a little bit of decorative rice paper.  Spread measures 10.5 x 15".

Long time no blog

It's been a long time since I blogged because my camera broke. The little door that holds the battery fell off and I lost it. I went to the camera store to order a new one and when I called them about 3 weeks later they acted like they'd never heard of me. So now I ordered one on ebay. I'm hopeful that that's all that's wrong with it. All the photos I post today will be from my phone.  All of the images are from the last month.  This summer has been wonderful.  When I get to stay home all day and flit from one project to the next I feel so lucky to be alive and have all these interests.  It wasn't always this way, so I'm very grateful.  Nora will be back from Europe on the 31st, so my solitude will end, but it's been good while it lasted.  Yay for summer!

                                                     Liz helping Ann model a stunning head dress
                                                     found beneath a palm tree

                                     Herding demo at Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon

              Paper drying on sliding doors from paper making workshop at Cal State Fullerton

                                   Spread of little faces from my journal inspired by JFFB's blog

                                                      My adorable children together in Italy

                                                        White sheep at Black Sheep

Handmade Books

I have been trying my hand at making books. I like that I can make books that have exactly the right kind of paper in them for painting, mixed media, or writing. It's also a nice personal touch to paint the paper to use for the covers. My sister, Rebecca pieintheskypress.com

is a fine book artist and even teaches book structures at Otis. She is very meticulous and her books are exquisite. Unfortunately, I will never be that fine of craftsperson and even though my books are super funky, I love the way they feel and I like having a personal connection to them. The bookmaking process is rewarding too. There are a lot of different steps, cool tools and sewing. It's fun. Now I have more books than I can use in a year, but still I want to make more. It just like it.

Create Retreat Costa Mesa

I took printmaking with rubber stamps at the Create Retreat in Costa Mesa yesterday with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. My stamps are pretty half assed, but I learned a lot. Julie is a real hoot and a wonderful teacher. I am socially awkward and my voice was missing due to a virus, so I couldn't really make the most of her friendly demeanor. It's hard to explain, but I spend a little bit of time looking into the minds of mixed media people everyday (via their blogs), and I feel like I kind of get to know them. When I saw Julie in person it was as though I was getting together with a friend who didn't recognize me. Is this healthy?

Fair Isle Cardigan and today's pages

Today's journal pages: Not so great, just documentation.
Last August I started this cardigan. I used info from a lot of different patterns and came up with my own. I relied heavily on Alice Starmore's, Book of Fair Isle Knitting, for the stitch patterns. I love this sweater. It fits really well, it's warm, and it's surprisingly

lightweight considering how much yarn is in it. I used Harrisville designs shetland for most of it, with a little bit of Knitpicks Pallets thrown in (shame on me!)

people

by accident.....

New images

I used stencils and hand carved rubber stamps for the tree series. The other ones just sort of appeared

.

Halloween Face

This is me at Gaby's Halloween party. I love wearing this make up. I actually feel more comfortable like this than without it!

GGIF 2010

Terry and Donna

Horses on the beach at Point Reyes

Here are some of my roommates at GGIF. I was a little off my game when I was there. I was having lots of arthritis pain and I was a little depressed. I had wonderful roommates, though, who were supportive and SANE. Those are nice qualities in roommates.
I have been making lots of art yarn since then, but I still haven't finished my second sock. I have so many projects going on that I don't know if I'm coming or going.

Here's pictures of when Zane started kindergarten and when he was graduating from high school. The way both of our appearances changed is interesting.

After I wrote that last post, things kind of fell apart for me. I was judging myself so harshly for spending so much time in solitude. I was napping a lot and I was a little sad. I decided to talk to my sponsor about it and she said I should get involved in some service work. It had crossed my mind that I could teach art to the women at the House of Hope. I ran that past her and she thought it was a great idea. After that meeting, I came home and starting researching art journaling which I had heard about in a magazine I get. I thought it would be a good project for recovering women. I had no idea that there is such a wealth of information and youtube videos on the subject. I'm completely hooked! It's like a miracle in my life. I went out and bought some supplies and made a journal. On Monday, Nora and Ann were here and I showed them how to make a journal and we spent 4 1/2 hours working on them. I have four dates set up with the House of Hope and I'm trying to think of how I can show 18 women how to fold a book and start journaling.

summer again

It's vacation time again. Historically, the solitude and downtime look good from a distance, but once they become a reality, things seem slow and very quiet. As my mother used to say, "You can only be happy if you make art." So that's exactly what I intend to do.

Already I've made a couple of hats. The first one was a sampler of fair isle patterns. It's small and fits Grant, who wouldn't wear it if his life depended on it because he's overheated all of the time. The second one was for John who wanted one that had a lot of green in it. It has

a few mistakes, but it's a nice looking hat and I learned a lot about working with value in fair isle design. He tried it on yesterday and it fits him well.

I've been dyeing a lot of Knitpicks fingering weight highland wool yarn to add to my stash for fair isle knitting. I started a cardigan and I'm not sure how the color combinations are working out. I'll give it a little more time.

Collaging has become one of my new interests. I have been inspired by Eric Carle's method of preparing painted papers. I've been combining those papers with little block prints and other materials. I made Luiz a cityscape collage for the gift book the visual arts teachers presented to him. I think it looked really nice.

Things are going well for the first week and I have a lot more ideas so Happy Summer!

Christmas

Christmas has come and gone. I had planned on making a lot of felted scarves for my family for Christmas, but then I got really sick and I could only make 3 (one of which was too ugly to use). Mark gave me a beautiful bird bath and some other really cool figurines from H and H Nursery in Lakewood. Vacation was wonderful aside from the nasty virus and going back to work took some getting used to. I have been knitting constantly and now I'm taking a week off because I need to heal the holes in my fingers from using cheap knitting needles that are too sharp. Mark said he could use another hat and I might make myself a scarf from some wool/silk roving that I dyed and spun. I finished my second sweater. I wish is was a bit longer, but it's really cozy. I need to take the buttons off and sew them on again. I must have been having a spell when I sewed them on because when I button the sweater it's a bit askew like a little kid who buttoned their sweater wrong. I'll post pictures of the hats and sweater later. Oh, I turned 53 yesterday! I look some pictures of myself and my glasses are so dirty that it's hard to take me seriously. Me at 53: smudgy with lip wrinkles.

winter is coming

ooooh! It's so cold. Heavy rain is expected tomorrow. I'm so glad because my plants really need it. Here are two knitting projects I completed lately: monkey socks, and shawl that jazz. When I went to the golden gate fiber institute, one of my classmates wore a shawl that she made from this pattern. I don't think mine ended up as drapey as hers. The wool I used came from Drambui's fleece and it's very springy.