365/2013 - Day 316

several clusters of busy-ness

This morning was Wednesday Morning at Joan's with Joan and Leann.  Joan worked on her commission pieces, Leann was working on sketching and carving.  I worked on the lion-creature-guy -- I stitched his legs onto his body...this task (the stitching -- in the style of satin stitch) is pretty time consuming.  I didn't finish the purple flossed join yet...I will later on tonight.  And I decided for sure -- the lion-creature-guy does not need a tail...between all of the colors, his mane, etc...he is good like he is with no tail.

One of the topics we talked about this morning was the 6-ft lighted xmas tree at the Northville Community Center that the Northville Art House is decorating.  I haven't seen it -- I've never been in the Community Center ever (maybe this is a good time to check it out) but Joan was telling us about how she was trying to come up with ways to decorate the tree and represent the NAH.  She thought of small frames painted in different colors, a construction paper paper chain, small paint brushes, etc.  Leann suggested doing a few prototypes to show people the sort of thing you could do, but putting out pipe cleaners for people to make ornaments.  It is a great way for people to interact with the NAH's tree and (hopefully) whet their curiosity for the NAH classes, etc. 

While we were throwing out ideas, I thought how a tube of paint might be made.  In the afternoon I was at my computer and thinking about it more and I whipped up a sort of prototype using a short cardboard tube and a printed out NAH logo.  I put it together really quickly and showed it to Joan and Patti tonight at the Northville Arts Commission meeting.  I was thinking that maybe Patti would be able to use some with her holiday themed decorations in the NAH Store.  They liked the idea and Patti would like me to make a few colorful ones.  I think I will make them from plaster cloth and donate them to the Store...Patti can either just use them or if someone wants to buy a couple, any proceeds can be donated to the NAH.

The prototype...cardboard tube and cap from an airline sized bottle of flavored Absolut vodka...I know I have more of both the tubes and the caps.  The wide black line will be replaced by wide lines of color...to represent the pretend color of the pretend paint in the pretend/decoration tube.

I stopped by Hiller's on the way home from the meeting to find out more about the new Hiller's card points being used for a charitable donation (instead of coupons/redeeming the points for food items).  The NAH is on the drop down menu at the charities section at Hiller's website...I need to go back tomorrow because the manager on duty wasn't sure how that worked.  I want to find out how the points convert to cash for the charity -- how many points equal how much money, etc.  Some of the points you accumulate by shopping at Hiller's expire after a certain time and I was thinking I'd just donate them instead of letting them expire...and some weeks there just isn't anything I am interested in redeeming points for -- that'd be another way to use my points.

I'm also doing laundry tonight and a quick pre-clean up before tomorrow's bigger overall clean up before the big Second Thursday gathering.   Jan will be running a wet felting project with us.  I can hardly wait!

365/2013 - Day 288

a Wednesday Morning at Joan's...

...with surprise guests!  Well, one surprise surprise guest.  Leann told us she was bringing her mom to join us and we'd be making little ofrendas, but we were not expecting JANE!  Jane got to work this morning to find that the power was out and people were being sent home.  Then she remembered that Leann and her mom and Joan and I were getting together (to do fun stuff) and she met up with Leann and her mom and they all arrived as I was arriving at Joan's.  SO cool!

First -- Joan's house and yard are decorated for Halloween.  During the recent giveaway at Second Thursday Joan picked up my bag of antique crow decoys.  They look SO good in her yard -- wow!

I took the opportunity this morning to take some photos of Joan's incredible home and the various art pieces and wall/ceiling treatments.  Even the stairway to the basement and the bathroom are incredible.

Then we all sat at the kitchen table and Leann started putting out all of the materials she supplied for our ofrendas.  There were beads, various papers, rubber stamps that were carved by Leann, little teensy light bulbs, crepe paper, colored pencils, a box set of paints/oil crayons/pens/markers, glue, beads, paper skulls that Leann made...she thought of everything!  And we started working -- either on an ofrenda or a Halloween scene.  Here are the pics:

putting out the materials

workin'...workin'...

Leann's piece

"Mom's" piece

my piece

Jane's piece (in progress)

Joan's piece

Then they were on the move again to show Leann's mom more of Joan's house and stuff...including the xylophone wall and starry ceiling to the basement.  I stayed upstairs and took more photos.

Jane, Leann, Joan and "Mom"

And all too soon it was time to move on.  Joan needed to get to work and we all followed and went to show Leann and Jane's mom the current show at the Northville Art House...her kid has stuff in the show.

Jane trying out Mike Sivak's "Parcae" game.

"Mom" viewing Mary Fortuna's beeswax figures.

Alas, Joan couldn't join us...but we all went to lunch at the Starting Gate.  Delicious!  What a wonderful morning!

365/2013 - Day 218

Wednesday Morning at Joan's

What a lovely way to start the day -- with Joan and Leann for another Wednesday Morning at Joan's.

Joan collects heart shaped rocks and she found me this cat/heart shaped rock.  She found a skull/heart shaped rock for Leann last week.

Joan worked on a collage.

Leann worked on carving.

I packaged Tookies.

Yep...still not done yet.

And this evening I worked on the box labels for this set of Tookies.  It would be nice to know what I was doing, but I really have no interest whatsoever in learning computer skills.  It took me five tries, but I am happy with the last one.  I only wish they looked as saturated and bright in person as they do on the computer.

365/2013 - Day 44 (two days late)

I needed to take a short break from the blog for a couple of days

But here is the blog post for Day 44 (which should have been posted on Wednesday, February 13).

The day started out with a mobile version of Wednesday Morning at Joan's at Leann's house.  We worked on a printing technique using contact paper as a resist.

I didn't get very far with mine because I had so many cuts to make in the contact paper.  I ended just pulling most of it off and the photo above is what I was left with when I did the floating-the-acrylic-paint step.  I intended to work on it more when I got home but I didn't have time to.  I will work on it more eventually because I like it.

I needed to bring all of the seven pieces I am working on for the spirit show to the ready-to-paint stage.  That meant a couple more coats of gesso for a couple of the plaster cloth guys.  I mixed black paint into some white gesso for this coat so I could see where I'd already been.  I also intentionally made the gesso darker because the light in the temporary studio is odd.  Gah!  A few of the guys still need another gesso coat and a couple will need a touch up coat after that.

Whew -- then it was time (already!) to go meet up with Jane and Leann for a quick dinner before the Artist Trading Card meeting.  It was a great meeting.  We exchanged our ATCs and house book pages and bound our books.  I still have to make my cover but I wanted to get it bound while the equipment was there.  I will blog about the book more when I finish it, but here are a few photos.  The pages by the other nine artists are all so different and so wonderful.

I was so worn out by the time I got home and settled in front of tv with medication/elevation/cold packs that I apparently fell asleep and missed my deadline for the day.  That is why this blog entry is late.

I will catch up with Day 45 a little later on today...as well as posting today's "real" entry.