2012/365 - Day 213

more fun at the Northville Art House

Suzanne and I had our days messed up -- we are meeting on Wednesday night to work on the top secret plans/project...not tonight...which freed up my day again so I was able to go back to the Northville Art House and help with day two of intake for the Thoughts With Thread exhibition that opens on Friday.  

On my way in, I stopped to marvel at the newest additions to the yarn bombing and take some photos.

Here are a few:

 You can see all of the additions to my Facebook album HERE.

While the Art House was closed during July, I emptied out the Art-o-mat machine and unplugged it.

Today it was time to refill it and plug it back in!

Yep -- time to start August now.  Carla is back from her European vacation, Greeny is restocked and waiting patiently for people to come and get some great original art for $5, and there is a wonderful new exhibition for First Friday!

IN the Art-o-mat machine at the Northville Art House for the month of August:

• Paintings by Maija Peeples-Bright
• Lil' Woodies lucky wooden coins by Laurelle Conte Moon
• Photographic study of horses by Missy Gaido Allen
• Fiber collages by Sharon Benton
• Hankie Pankie screen printed handkerchiefs by Woodie Anderson
• Animal People collages by Took Gallagher
• Handmade one-of-a-kind blank books by Judy Sullens & Sue Clancy
• Stoneware folk art animals with tiny accessories by Joyce Lyman
• Folk Art paintings by Mike Filippello -- very limited/only four available

Go and see what's new at the Northville Art House this month --and say "hello!" to Carla and Joan !

2012/365 - Day 212

crunch time

If you've ever looked around at my blog you probably noticed several things:

• my "plans" change several times...okay, a LOT...during pretty much every project
• I don't sketch very often (even though I mean to)
• even with the best intentions, things often don't get completed until the very last second
• I am generally as surprised by the end results as anyone else is 
• I rarely have something turn out in real life the way it looks in my head

With all of that in mind, I am still working towards the baby shower gift.

Suzanne and I had planned on getting together tonight and working on a super secret project.  However -- Suzanne was wiped out from teaching a class today and I am wiped out from a double whammy: having to return Fitz to the Humane Society (and the emotion surrounding my decision -- although I know he is much happier back at the Humane Society) plus I have been out of the samples of my new/old medication for a couple of days now and wow -- I really notice it this time.  I guess I really DO need to get my own prescription of it...I was actually feeling pretty good for a short while there and didn't even realize it!

OKAY -- here are a couple of sort of sketches...but rest assured the end result will most likely not bear much resemblance to these photos.

(Oh...And I didn't just slack off today...aside from taking Fitz back "home", I put in some cool volunteer time at the Northville Art House this morning...doing intake of artists' work for the upcoming fiber exhibit that opens this Friday.)

2012/365 - Day 211

sadly...a change of plans for the baby shower gift

I will need to make something else for the baby shower gift.  Both of these plaster cloth lamby/goaty-like guys are going to require much too much work to get either one of them done in time.  I have another idea for a gift I can make and I hope it will be something they like.

Today I wanted to insert arms into the body of the creature (now no longer a lamby/goaty).  This sort of thing worked pretty well when I added the "antlers/horns" to the Atomic Fireball Happy Hour guy.

This morning has been spent drilling little close together holes into the sides of the creature.  I know there is probably a safer, easier way to do this but this is all I could think of this morning.  After drilling the little holes I was able to slide that saw in and cut the rest of the way around.  Then I cut off two sections from one of the old Studio Snake sections that already had plaster cloth and gesso on it and inserted them into the new arm holes.  I will either add another arm section or just hands -- I haven't decided yet. 

Oh yeah...I forgot to mention I got a first layer of plaster cloth on this guy last night.  I had a lot of trouble with re-shaping the face into a flatter wedge to resemble a goaty -- I thought I'd be able to hold the shape tightly for a minute or two until the plaster cloth hardened a little but this guy was just not having it.  The surrounding plaster cloth started to pull away from the rest of the head and neck, so I had to give up on that idea.  IF this gets goatier, I will have to add on and then the head will get even bigger...the snowman effect...not sure I want that.

Now I need to clean up all the little bits of shredded plastic from the drilling...LOL  (Oh -- the green glow in the first few pics comes from the green walls and bad lighting in the studio bathroom -- there was a handy electrical outlet in there.)

2012/365 - Day 210

starting over on the lamby/goaty

Okay...I am feeling a bit better about this guy already.  I am starting from scratch, building everything as I go along...starting with trying to get a wedge sort of shape for the face.  I am using all "scrap"/leftover materials.

Yeah...I do like this guy better...and he feels more kidly.  I like the first guy, but he needs a LOT of work.  I am going to get the plaster cloth on this guy tonight and see where I am from there.  I have pulled the masking tape as tightly as I can to flatten the rounded parts but the wet plaster cloth will help to shape it better.

2012/365 - Day 209

working on the lamby/goaty guy...one more time

Here is a quick progression of the changes on the lamby/goaty guy.   I am not sure I can pull this off -- I seriously might have to do something totally different for the baby shower gift.  It will still be lamby/goaty, but just might not be this guy. 

He is definitely better than when I first started, but I don't know yet.

July 8

July 12

Today -- July  27

July 27

July 27

I might go ahead and plaster cloth him tomorrow and see how he looks.  I am just not sure about him.  I need to like him to be able to give him away.  (I "get it" now, Joan!)

and the new baby cat is named

Muscled, black with steel green eye 

Swishing through the rye grass 

With thoughts of mouse and apple pie 

Tail balancing at half mast 

And the mouse police never sleeps 

Lying in the cherry tree 

Savage bed foot warmer 

Of purest feline ancestry 

Look out, little furry folk 

He's the all night working cat

Eats but one in every ten 

Leaves the others on the mat 

And the mouse police never sleeps

Waiting by the cellar door 

Window box town crier 

Birth and death registrar

With claws that rake a furrow red 

Licensed to mutilate 

From warm milk on a lazy day 

To dawn patrol on hungry hate 

No, the mouse police never sleeps 

Climbing on the ivy 

Windy roof top weathercock 

Warm blooded night on a cold tile 

The mouse police never sleeps 

The mouse police never sleeps 

The mouse police never sleeps...

Ian Anderson is a cat lover...especially black cats.  I have loved Jethro Tull since the first note of the first song I ever heard.  This song expresses cats so well.  Mr. Anderson has written several songs about his dear black cats.

My new baby cat's name is Tull.

2012/365 - Day 208

new baby kitteh

He has no name yet, but he OWNS this house.  He stomps around like a tiny bulldog (when he is walking) and flies around like ninja/kitten-Twink (when he is running) but the new kid is like 10 times faster than Twink!

I took these photos yesterday.  Today I had a few errands to run and the rest of the day will be pretty much like the last few photos...the new kitteh holding me down in my chair.  We need some bonding time and we need to discuss his name.  I won't be doing much of anything besides that...Ruth might come by to visit...but mostly it's baby cat time.

You can see all of the photos from my Facebook album HERE.

2012/365 - Day 207 (updated)

yarn bombing the Northville Art House

What fun!  In celebration and anticipation of the upcoming juried fiber art exhibition -- "Thoughts With Thread" -- (August 3-24) -- a bunch of friends of the Art House got together for a yarn bombing.

Many wonderful colorful pieces of knitting and crocheting were donated.   This was the project I was making the spool loom ropes and long red scarfy thing and snake for.

You can see all of the photos I took of the early stages of the yarn bombing in my Facebook album HERE.

The other major thing that happened today was that I adopted another new baby.  He OWNS the house!

I don't have a name for him yet.

Thank You, Leann, for coming with me and going to lunch at the great Polish restaurant and being so patient during the whole adoption process!

More tomorrow.

2012/365 - Day 206

dreamy...preoccupied

I can't concentrate on much today.  Roto-Rooter was here tearing up my basement floor and putting in a new trap and drains and knocking roots out of my sewer lines.  Much ado.

The other thing that has me dreamy and preoccupied is the thought of the two cats I am looking at tomorrow.  Both are black DSH males.  I have been compiling a list of possible names.  I don't know if I will end up with one or both or neither of them. 

In no particular order, here is the short list:

• Nori
• Whid
• Woof
• Sass
• Tull
• Hound
• Hattah

Of course I need to meet them, spend some time with them and then if one/both of them come home with me I need to live with them for a few days until I find out their names.

In the meantime I am prepping the house in anticipation. 

I am also gathering up stuff for tomorrow's knitting project -- I can't wait!

2012/365 - Day 205

DONE with my part of the knitting and making for the upcoming surprise project

I had a whole lot of fun making the ropes with the spool loom and Embellish-Knit! machine and knitting the scarfy thing.  And today I finished the snake's eyes and face.  I am anxious to see how it all comes together later this week!

 What I made:  (sizes approximate)

1 red rope/5-peg  39 ft 6 in

1 rose rope/Embellish-Knit!  2 ft 7 in

1 rose rope/Embellish-Knit!  2 ft 3 in

1 orange/yellow rope/8-peg  12 ft

1 blue/purple/charteuse rope/5-peg  11 ft 6 in

1 multi-colored rope/5-peg  11 ft  6 in

1 green rope/5-peg   4 ft

1 red scarfy thing/knitted with needles  6 ft

1 snake put together with a donated scarf from Ruth, floaty swimming pool bopper thing and plastic containers  -- 

5 ft  6in including head and tail

I wanted to make the snake's eyes from yellow or white poker chips with holes drilled in -- like giant buttons.  I thought I had some but I didn't.  I decided I didn't want to purchase a set of poker chips so I looked around in the studio stash and finally found these round wooden tuit coins.  I drilled them and they worked great!  I think I got them from a stash trade with Anita or Juana.

I flipped the coins over and I liked the circular designs...you won't be able to read them from a distance anyway.

Then I decided it still looked too plain.

I added the yellow wooden beads as nostrils with green embroidery floss. 

Then I added some of the yellow/orange cotton thread-like yarn in a sort of circle outline of the eye and sewed it on with yellow floss.

 Then I thought he needed a mouth so I folded over the leftover yarn and knotted it at the sides and sewed it on with yellow floss.

I decided I didn't like the green floss on the nostrils and switched it with yellow floss.

This all took longer than it probably looks...all the while I was chiding myself that I didn't know how to do it...then I quit fussing and just did it.

This is what the tail end looks like.  I braided the fringe together and sewed it together.

This is what they look like all together -- for now.  I am getting excited for the actual project!!!