i made this :: a little viking inspired pot

i had this picture in my head - combining ceramics and the driftwood i like to collect - but i've had trouble finding the right bit of driftwood for the right ceramic bowl. this time, i took a small handful of sticks with me to my ceramics course and made the holes in my pot accordingly. i'm very pleased with how it turned out. tied on with a bit of black, waxed cord, it looks much as i imagined it would. of course, i couldn't resist decorating the pot with one of my favorite nordic petrogyphs (aka helleristninger). 

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the best analysis of the genesis of our reality television president that i've read.

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nigel poor's photography project at san quentin state prison

you may know her from the wonderful ear hustle podcast.

finishing my torso (for now)

we're going to show our torsos this thursday with a big opening splash! so i've been frantically working on finishing mine. it's been sitting there on the sideboard, covered in words, painted blue, but unfinished.  i know i want to somehow incorporate some feathers, but i don't know yet how - perhaps this little feather bouquet i found on the beach contains an answer to that.

otherwise, i've been sketching and painting some small drawings of places i love and places which have been influential in my life to decorate the torso. this is the church of sv. jovan kaneo (john the baptist, if i remember correctly) at lake ohrid. influential since i met husband in macedonia, tho' not in ohrid.

st. basil's to signify my russian soul. i sketched or printed old sketches onto some pages from an old encyclopedia - that way the pictures still incorporate words, as words are important to my conception of my torso (and thus myself).

i couldn't resist using the colorful houses of nyhavn in copenhagen to represent denmark, which has, you may imagine, become an enormous influence upon me, having lived here for 15 years now. i loved those colorful houses along the canal when i first visited and seeing them still makes me smile.

and chicago, a sort of composite of places and buildings and that chicago pizza. it's the place from which i jumped off to my life in europe, so it had to be there.

and i couldn't resist a few helleristninger (nordic petroglyphs). they just speak to my soul. i drew them with that fabulous payne's grey ink.

i love this circle of life helleristning. it's long been a favorite. and symbolizes a feeling of community that spans the world (and which centers on this blog in many ways). it is essential to include on my torso.

these were some new helleristning that i came across that i'd never seen before. i love how the one figure appears to be floating away on a balloon. that felt symbolic and important as well. and in general i love that circle with the cross inside - it's the nordic sun symbol. light is so important in this part of the world, that it had to be included.

it is once again evident to me that i am a person in need of a deadline. i'd been procrastinating working on this and tho' i've thought about it pretty much endlessly, nothing was happening on it. but now, when the exhibition looms, ideas are coming together. i came across a package of little bitty people that i found in an antique store in the US last summer and i thought that since i've not used any photos of husband and sabin, that i'd use some little bitty figures to signify them. i included sabin's lost twin as well, because she's also part of who i am.

funny how once you start working, you get in a state of flow and ideas come and things just begin to happen. a garland on which i've written a bucket list to decorate the hanger. in that flow, i hit upon a way to incorporate a few feathers, which i seem to collect wherever i go.

i don't think i will be able to declare my torso officially finished on thursday when it goes to the exhibition, but it will be finished enough to show. i suspect that i will continue adding to it and it will change and grow evolve. just like me.

combining stitching and objects

i haven't yet shared all of the techniques i learned at the course last weekend. this is the one i'll likely use on my torso - we stitched some fine little embroideries onto very thin (but surprisingly sturdy) rice paper with ordinary sewing thread. when they were finished, we carefully ripped the paper around them, leaving a border to work with.

then we stuck the little embroideries onto a printed photo with a glue stick.

i chose to paint the rice paper with watercolors to match the photo background behind, but you could paint it another color and make them stand out.

i was looking for some kind of allusion to how denmark's past is also here in the present.

another technique we learned was how to set embroideries onto a stone or piece of driftwood. i took a piece of embroidery from a second-hand shop to use for my attempt. you trace around it and then cut out the shape in a piece of fiberglass wallpaper. you then glue the embroidery onto the fiberglass wallpaper and press it in a book to dry.   after that, you take colored pencils and draw around the edge. you can either choose to match the piece of wood or stone you're setting it on, or use a contrasting color. i chose contrast.

then, you glue it well, press it onto the stone or driftwood and wrap it in plastic film and then paper towels and then put on a bunch of rubberbands to hold it in place. we let it dry overnight. my fellow students used driftwood and theirs were dry by the next day. mine, which was set on a stone, was still pretty wet, since the stone didn't help by absorbing any of the moisture.

once it's fully dry, you can use colored pencil to blend it into the background better - mine was too wet that day, so i haven't done that yet. this is a technique i definitely want to play with a bit more, using my own embroideries and all of those stones i've been gathering.

now i'm off to print some photos to play with. what are you creating this weekend?

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fascinating photo series of children around the world with their prized possessions. 

stitches and paper and paint, oh my!

another of the techniques we learned at anne brodersen's wonderful weekend course involved small embroideries and bits of torn handmade paper that we painted with watercolors. we tore up a 5x7 piece of rice paper and assembled the little bits on a sheet of scrap paper.

then we painted them with watercolors, in colors we thought either matched our small embroideries or (if you were me) colors we liked. i had no idea what my embroideries would look like, as i had to rush home and make some that evening while watching downton abbey (episode 2, season 3, so shh on what's going to happen).

yup, another shot of those fetching watercolors. what is it about them? they're so photogenic.

the next day, our little bits of tissue-like paper were dry and we could begin to assemble them into a collage. i stitched up some small fantasy animals based on helleristning (it was either that or feathers).

we laid out the little stitchings and our bits of paper into a pleasing pattern and then pinned them to the handmade paper base underneath. the next step was to stitch them all in place. it was a bit challenging not to get all tangled up and poked by pins at first, but it got easier as you could remove pins on the bits that were sewn down.

tho' anne recommended using a fine thread, i chose this variegated thread that was a bit thicker because the colors were perfect with the colors that i had painted on my bits of paper.

i like the confetti-like quality it gave in the end, tho' i'm not entirely convinced it matches my little paleoglyph animals. they are a bit frolicsome, so i'm choosing to view it as a good first attempt. everyone i show these to likes this one best (my own favorite is the one with husband). it has a very cheery, bright, happy quality that i think accurately reflected how i felt at the course.

this is what elizabeth made - you can see that her single-thread stitches (from a neat old spool of variegated blue thread that i picked up in an antique store in the states last summer and gave to her) have quite a different feel. her sweet little circle stitchings tell a story of the barriers we have around us as people and of a family. but i'll let her tell you that story herself (she hasn't told it yet, but do keep checking her blog, as i'm sure she will).

our other fellow-student created this bright, springy, eastery piece. it also has a bright, cheery quality that i think reflected how we all felt at the course - happy and open and bursting with color and creativity. it was such a wonderful environment, working with a patient and good teacher in her light, inviting, inspiring atelier.

and this last piece shows how anne herself has used the technique. she's more sparing with the stitches attaching the paper bits. and i am very inspired by her teeny tiny embroideries. i'll definitely be pursuing this technique as a way of incorporating some embroidery onto my torso.

it was such a wonderful, inspiring weekend and i'm not done telling you about it yet, so stay tuned for more. in fact, it made me so happy that the troglodyte's latest dictatorial outpourings just rolled right off me. proving that having good energy yourself can go a long way towards deflecting any bad energy you come across. it's just a matter of filling up the tank.

exposed or concealed?

hol(e)y valentine's day!

these two little lovelies - the latest in my hol(e)y stones series are now in my shop.

lisa and i were discussing the felted stone thing not long ago. i had snatched up her cocoon stone as soon as it was listed (i was lucky) and even as i'm striving to expose my felted stones after swathing them in wool, i loved the notion that she had concealed beads within her stone for texture and to embrace the notion of something hiding within. concealment and exposure, those are notions to ponder. 

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Art-o-Mat is seriously cool.

and speaking of lisa, even cooler that her stones will be available there!

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and how much do i want a storytelling house in my yard?

and to host retreats for wild, awesome women?

when rivers of ideas begin to flow

here's what happened with my green felted stone - in fact, in this shot, it's not even dry yet.  if you recall, i used lisa's stone felting tutorial. and i fussed about worried about over-thought pondered how to make it my own. with a little viking helleristning (petroglyph), i think i managed it. i'm not done with this idea yet.

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i have spent a couple of very energizing days with a friend with whom i feel very much in synch. so many ideas surfaced and best of all, it feels like there is action and impetus behind the ideas, so some of them may even materialize. i had the strangest feeling after we met last friday (what i thought would be a 2-hour meeting turned into 5 because we were so crazy in flow)...it felt like a dam had been released inside me and all of the pent-up ideas and thoughts i had had in recent months just began to surface and tho' they were coming quickly, it feels like it's at a pace where i can grab and examine them. some of them had been there for awhile, but some were entirely new. it was positively elating. it's odd how you can get all blocked and not even realize it until you're not blocked anymore.

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things i'm pondering:

what it might mean to be a social artist

community gardens.

art walls.

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i think my keyboard may be menopausal - the period is getting pretty unpredictable.

sorry. bad joke. couldn't help myself.

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what's your type?

find out here.

apparently i'm architype van doesburg (a brutally fair typeface).

play the game, if only to hear the narrator's awesome accent.

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the p boards on pinterest: patchwork. peacocks. personal style. photos that make me think.

so far so good

granted, it's only day four, but my daily art in my moleskine calendars is going very well. i'm motivated and when i sit down to work, i clear my mind and just see what comes out. and i'm finding myself drawn to watercolors. and oddly enough, the lines aren't bothering me at all. i'm able to just ignore them.

musings stamped into the journal yesterday resulted in an experiment involving my beloved helleristninger or petroglyphs, my gocco printer and some natural linen cloth. what could be better than ancient ships, natural fabrics and ink?

i'm really pleased with how they came out. next, i need to use them.

from a rainy weekend

a bit of the weekend's creativity to share...it rained most of the weekend, so we had to stay indoors (when we weren't running off to riding lessons) and i didn't want to be too far from the fireplace, what with my battle against the dreaded twine foo...

the latest addition to my fiber art journal

it seems that with all of the focus on getting the house ready for sale, my fiber art journal wouldn't be complete without a reference to the house. i was watching husband paint up high on a scaffolding and i saw suddenly before my eyes a helleristning based on our street address. naturally, because of my blue room, i stitched it in shades of turquoisey blue. and i had to include a nordic sun symbol, as a nod to the importance of light year-round in these nordic climes.

i also started a little experiment based on this wonderful book, eco colour by india flint. it's all about using natural processes and plants to dye fibers. so i dashed out between showers and gathered some of the beautiful fall leaves from my yard and wrapped them in some plain, neutral, cream-colored cotton cloth and treated them with a sprinkling of vinegar before rolling them up into tight rolls.

i took leaves from cherry trees (above), blueberry bushes (they're a beautiful red color), red maple, some beech and some birch, plus a rowan leaf.

even a few of the last flowers from the greenhouse, just to see what happens.

now to have the patience to wait at least a month to see what happens. sigh.

and sabin and her big sister added to the growing group of happy plushie dolls.

once we crack a pattern challenge we're having with attaching heads to bodies on these, they are going to be for sale in my etsy shop. we're getting closer, but we're not quite there yet.

and the winner is...

we printed out the post from tuesday and clipped out all of the names of everyone (except me) who left comments. my lovely assistant folded them and put them in this little pink bag.

it is so fitting that the name that my lovely assistant then drew out of the little pink bag o'names in my yay-i-made-the-gold-issue-of-discounderworld helleristning/petroglyph giveaway belongs to none other than....

stacey childs, editor of discounderworld!  stacey, please send me your snail mail address and i'll send a little piece of denmark your way (because i ended up using a stone from a danish beach--it just fit better than the ones from norway).

the stone itself is fashioned after this helleristning which we saw at an exhibition at our local little fjord museum last year. i used red ink because that's often what they use on the helleristninger out in nature in order to make them more visible for photographs. sometimes, like below, they also use white. it just depends on the color of the stone.

i wish i had enough smooth rocks suitable for painting on so that i could send one to everyone who entered (but oddly, i do not--must go back to the beach soon). thanks for playing and be watching in the near future for another opportunity. this was fun!

don't forget! big petroglyph giveaway tomorrow!

remember--if you want to be in on the big thank-you-for-voting-for-me-for-the-gold-issue-of-discounderworld petroglyph/helleristning/stone giveaway (i need to work on these names) tomorrow, do leave a comment back on this post. i'll print them all tomorrow morning, snip them up and have one of my lovely assistants draw the lucky winner. because yes, it's constitution day tomorrow and therefore, a holiday. ya gotta love denmark

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and while we're on the subject of giveaways, mal* at turning*turning, the most thought-provoking art therapist out there, is giving away a lovely mini quilt in my most favoritest colors to celebrate her 100th post and you can enter to win that as well. so run over there--she actually gives you five ways to have a chance to win! but you've gotta be on twitter for one of them. ;-)