Back to Stones and other things

 I’ve been keeping a schedule which was one of my goals for this year.  Not perfect yet but a start. Another start is getting back to a sketch every day and stones.  Here are two small, 4x4 in, stone pieces finished. 

 

As promised, here are the two small ones from that free collage workshop I wrote about last week. These are also 4x4 in.  I didn’t realize it until I looked at the photo but the vintage paper on the right will be 100 years old on the 27^th of this month.

One concept she was teaching was pick papers you love for your collage based on what we had done in the class. Since I had picked colors that aren’t part of what I normally gravitate toward I wasn’t in love with any of them, vintage excluded, but I did like some way better than some others and I think that’s close enough and a good rule to follow. There are a couple shows coming up so I need to get busy doing more of these.

What else, daily sketching, so far I'm sticking to it..  I finally realized the for me, an art journal is part art and part journaling with the journaling being primary.  So, I’m back to doing some morning sketches and sometimes a bit of collage paper in the journal to separate out spaces to write.  At the end of a studio day I sit with that journal and write about what I did or did not do that day.  The hats are one subject.  That started with the one I posted last week.  Here are a couple more…  

  

The one on the left was very colorful.  I may do it again and take some time to add color.

Reviving An Old Practice And More Poppies

 

With warmer weather and some flowers, I revived an old practice of doing a quick watercolor and ink sketch on top of my morning journaling. Here are a couple more.

Another sketch -- poppies.  My Tuesday Painters group went to Fennville to sketch the Poppy Field this week.  What a beautiful site and a loving tribute to the son of the people who own the field.  His grave is in the cemetery next to the field.  Here is my sketch and an image of the field.

Now I'm off to a gathering of Art Tribe members to talk about our upcoming exhibit at the Gallery Uptown in July.  More on that in another post.

Tuesday At The Hackley Library

 What an amazing building!  There was so much to see and so little time to sit and sketch.  We're going back next week.  

There was so much carving on this fireplace and so little time I opted to just do a portion of it.  Next week I may do the entire fireplace -- or maybe the second fireplace in another room.

 

Or perhaps some of the wonderful old hardware.... these are just a few.

                     

I love old so this place was heaven for me.  The only thing better would have been an old boat yard but that would be outside and it's a bit nippy out.  

We have snow today, not enough yet but a start.  Winter is another love.  My husband says it's because I don't have to shovel it. That's true but I loved it even when I did have to do the shoveling.  The only problem I have with winter is the cold and my Renaud's Syndrome.  I use handwarmers.  My doctor suggested I put heated gloves on my Christmas list.  I didn't know there was such a thing but I put them on the list I gave my husband.  I may even help with the shoveling if he gets them for me.

If I don't get time to post next week I wish you a

  Very Merry Christmas 

and I'll be back before the start of 2023

Tuesdays and Christmas

 Another coffee shop with my Tuesday group.  This time Jumpin' Java because it was closing its doors at the end of the week.  We'll miss it but all is not lost, there are two more coffee shops in our downtown.

I'm still working on the 5 minute pieces but the most recent have been Christmas Ornaments. I started some awhile back intending to take them to the Gallery for the holiday exhibit. I didn't get enough done so I took Christmas Trees instead. The trees are similar to these that are around Ed's Sinterklass. I made him several years back for my Dutch husband. The ornaments will go to the Gallery next year.

 

 

Planning for next year has also been a priority but first a review of this year, the good and the bad.  Do you review your year?  I've been recording my thoughts on it in an art journal I recently made trying to improve my coptic stitch bookmaking. I still need to work on the stitching part.

 

My plan is to put a light coat of gesso over the journaling and use the journal this month to do some journaling about what I want to accomplish next year, another coat of gesso and start the new year with the journal actually serving as an art journal.  

Do you set goals and accomplish them?  I set them but don't always accomplish them. Intention matters to the artist—but so is play. The act of creation by nature is intentional. While art can be serendipitous, overall it is not accidental, we go into the studio with the intension to make art! I need to work on avoiding thinking, evaluating, judging or pre-conceiving when I start. I believe spontaneity and playing is an important part of the art process but I tend to miss that part.  Not always but often. 

Tuesday Painters and A New Sketchbook

 This Tuesday there were just two of us at the Aldea Coffee Shop.

We have our granddog here this week so studio time has been limited.  But that didn't mean I didn't do any art making.  While I'm not a bookmaker I do make books every once in awhile and that seemed the perfect thing to do at the kitchen table while the granddog lay between my spouse and me.

Awhile back I had seen Laly Mille's youtube instructions on how to make a coptic stitch art journal without a a cover (it would be added later) and with all stitching on the outside rather than the inside.  Perfect time to try it so I got out paper and began making folios, then the signatures and finally stitching.  And when my spouse took the granddog for a walk I went into the studio to dig for paper to cover the book boards.  

 

This is a paper I made by layering the string between two pieces of tissue paper and applying gel medium.  Once dry I added the color.  Perfect size for what I needed.  So I covered the boards, glued them to the first and last pages of the journal and a leftover piece was perfect to cover the stitches on the spine.  Iset a bunch of books on top to be sure it all dried flat and happily opened it up the next morning.

I've decided to use this small one to review my year and hopefully figure out what I want to concentrate on next year.  Granddog is still here so I've started folding and stitching a larger one.

 

Tuesday Painters and Starting A Review

 This week my Tuesday Group went to the Spring Lake Library.  Libraries are favorites in winter months,winter is starting and we have 3 libraries to choose from.  We also do coffee shops and that's on the docket for next week.  This is what I did this week along with my morning 5 minutes.

And here are a couple of my 5 minutes in the morning pieces.

I'll continue doing the 5 minutes, at least until the end of the year.  And my Tuesday Group will continue and maybe I'll get out even more since some of us have joined Urban Sketchers West Michigan.

Meanwhile, it's time to begin a review of my year.  I read a few blogs,  Nicole Warrington is one of them and she had a list of review your year questions on her blog a couple years ago.  I kept the questions but never used them for my year end review.  This year I'm going to, they're good questions.  Here are a few of them in them:

    What did I discover this year about my art or my creative process?

    When during the week/day did I feel most creative?

    Where did I find support or community for my creative soul and my creative practice?

    What elements of 2022 do I want to bring forward in 2023.

There were several other posts on Nicoles blog that got me thinking about some things I may add to my morning routine.

And I did another feather this morning...

Until next time....

Back to Lake Michigan and a New Gadget

 This week the Tuesday Group went back to our friend Marna's cottage on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan.  It's our go-to spot when the weather turns chilly and the cottage is not yet closed up.

I think I spent more time visiting than sketching but that's part of the enjoyment.  That was Tuesday, I also got a new toy that day but didn't play with it until yesterday.  

A few days ago we had a visitor, she was actually in the yard next door but seemed quite content to stay where she was even while I took the time to put down my coffee cup and pulled my phone out of my pocket.  So what does that have to do with my new toy you ask -- my new toy is Sprocket, a pocket printer that prints 2x3" photos from a phone.  Had to try it.  

I've been doing 5 min something in this little sketchbook, 4x5".  This morning I used it for my 5 minute piece I added the photo.  Part of the fun of these little photos is there is a sticky back if one wants to use it so, of course, I had to try that too.

As long as I'm talking about the 5 minute pieces I'll share a couple of them.  This began as a challenge and I challenged myself to use an eco dyed handmade journal and the scraps that were in a pile on my desk.  It was a 15 day challenge but I had a lot more scraps and a couple more eco dyed handmade journals so I kept going.

I started this challenge in September.  Patting myself on the back for keeping it going.  

Tuesday Group Visited Lake Michigan Today

 It's nice to have friends who have cottages overlooking Lake Michigan.  Our group was blessed this very cold and windy day.  We were up above the lake in one of the wonderful cottages on Peterson's Ridge, thanks to a Peterson daughter.  This was my view --

We'll go back there next week.  There are many views to choose from but this one always seems to be the first one I do every year that we've gone out there.

Snow and A Reminder of Home

We have snow.... lots of it.  Facebook posts by some of my friends say "Michigan Is Closed."  Not everything but a lot is closed.  Usually my dear husband does all of our shoveling.  He has a huge snow blower that does a magnificent job.  Unfortunately it is too large for me to use and he has been sick since Friday.  It has been snowing every day since Fridays so the shovel has gotten a workout..

Last night I was pretty tired from all that shoveling.  However, before going to bed I had to do one quick sketch from a photo that had been posted on the Weekend Drawing Event over on wetcanvas.com.  The photo was posted by a friend, a view from her front yard in Oklahoma.  It could have been the front yard of the house I grew up in …. had to at least get a quick sketch done...  The only thing different is the foliage in the foreground.  Otherwise that's the little bay our home was on looking out at the big bay the other side of the peninsula.  There was a log cabin on the end of that peninsula.... should have put that in my sketch,

 

Today was the worst but I live in a great neighborhood... neighbors pitched in and did the worst of it. Now I'm ready for the next blast which they say is coming tonight.

My Sketch Makes It To A Soap Package

I was thrilled when Original Fizz wanted one of my sketches for it's gardener's soap. Lorna Gallop is the one who saw my sketch posted on wetcanvas and asked to use it.

Lorna  makes soap.  Her company is Original Fizz and all of its products are handmade  She says “All our Soap Cakes and Bars are made by hand from start to finish using the traditional Cold Process method of soap making. All packaging is designed and hand cut by us to give you a unique gift for any occasion.

My little wheelbarrow now adorns her Gardener’s Soap Package.  It looks quite nice I think.  She makes Handmade Soap Cakes, Beeswax Hand & Foot Balms.  She also does Wedding Favours, Children's Party Favours. And Bath Bomb Workshops for children & Adults. I haven't seen it in real life yet, the company is in England.  Some of my friends may be getting soap for Christmas.

Another Square for the blanket

The more I looked at him the more I thought he ought to be the center block.  I may end up making this block larger than the others.  I'll have to look at it for awhile before I decide.

Last post I said I need to get back to color.  This is a piece of pillow ticking that I'm using to practice some stitches that I like but need to practice more and to add some color.  It may become a small bag to carry my stitching tools in.  Once again, we shall see.

And I haven't given up painting entirely.  I still paint with my Tuesday Morning group and I plan to take a sketchbook with me to France.  This is yesterday's effort.  It was a grey day but I added color in the name, we were at a local restaurant, Jelly's.

A little sketching and a lot of stitching

It's part of my DNA; stitching.  And for a long time I denied it. "No, I do not like to stitch."  Yes, I can do it but I don't like too.  But I kept buying fabric and embroidery floss and yarn, and I didn't get rid of all of the leftover fabric, yarn and equipment from earlier days -- way earlier.  Comparing a package of my embroidery needles with some I looked at last week -- the package of Boye needles I have, still marked 15 cents and it's just one of many.  The package of the cheaper brand I looked at... $2.49.

So why am I writing about this you ask.  Because I've discovered that I truly do like to stitch, what I didn't like was having to do it perfectly.  Yes, there are some things that I'd like to do better and I'm willing to practice those things so I know I will get better -- again.  A blog I enjoy is Jude Hill's Spirit Cloth, she practices on small pieces and keeps them, sometimes using them later in larger works.  I like that idea.  I also like Jude's classes and started to watch videos of a heart class.  I thought I'd do the heart thing so started with this one...

But realized I seemed to be doing more circles. Hmmm, is that because I seem to run in circles at times or at least feel like I am. Perhaps.  Anyway circles became moons became faces.  Here are a few...

 This one is a piece of discharged denim, I added stitch to the center trying repeat sizes.

then another discharged piece that still needs something

 This one got a face

So did this one though not a happy one.

And this one

Then I decided to try printing a face on fabric and adding it to other fabric.  This is a Christy Girl from a very old book I have.  If the book where in good shape it would be something to sell but it isn't so I use the pages.

And then just faces that may end up as circles but at the moment, just features

 

And then I had to practice some stitches I like to do.  The woven picot forms the petals and french knots fill the center.

The woven spider web is another one I love to do.

And an open circle, something Jude posted that I had to try

Jude also does a lot of feathers so I had to try one of those too.

But still painting as well.  Here are a couple sketches done with my Tuesday Painters.

Beth's Bonsai

and Connie's Coffee Grinder that isn't functional.

Now I'm off to do more work on that first piece I posted today.  I need to finish the satin stitch and then put it away for awhile.