Things I like

Friday, October 10, 2014

Am I getting old or what??

Today is one of those days when I am ready to sell my studio -- a 12x20 Tuffshed complete with insulation, shelving, air conditioner, and over $10k worth of tools and art supplies -- all for $20,000.

The thing is, you'd have to move it.

Once in awhile I get like this.  Overwhelmed with all the things I could do out here, but wondering why I do it.  I spend at least one day a month organizing so I can go from one activity to a different one, and when I do that I find things I forgot I had.  I would say that easily 30% of my time is spent looking for things.  This has become very annoying.  Stressful.  Makes me want to scream.

Yep, this is that kind of day.

I just finished making (and dressing) about half a dozen polymer clay dolls, in several different sizes from 11" to 20".  I have some wood pieces I want to refinish, and printer's trays that I want to collage things into.  As I have worked on these other projects I have created a pile of "ephemera" for this project.  Yet I like to finish with any given project before I start a new one.

In 2014 I have done wood carving, made little houses, painted a bunch of paintings using the styles of Glenn Farquhar at Art Fusions  after downloading a few of his lessons.  Oh, and then my granddaughters used this computer and it crashed, so if I want to see those lessons again I'll have to go download them again.  Haven't done that yet.

I have accomplished a few things today.  I guess I should be satisfied with that, and go see if the Roku came today.


Tuesday, June 3, 2014

My Burridge Tree

While fiddling around on the Jerry's Artarama site, looking at brushes, I ran across the link to Artclick.tv, and was inspired to sign up for at least a month.  I've been looking at all the acrylic abstract instructions, and found a few I really liked.  Bob Burridge of course, and also Joe DiGiulio.  Joe does a lot of videos for Jerry's.  I don't like to buy instructional DVDs because I only watch them once!  So these online memberships are perfect for me.

As a result I've been trying some new techniques this week, and it's really fun.  Just splashing paint around seems to be the Burridge style, while Joe is a bit more confined in his approach.  But I did learn something new from each of them.

I have found that no matter how long I have been painting (in my case, 9 years nearly full-time) when I watch one of these instructional videos, the information I glean from them is quite different from what I would have grabbed onto five or even six years ago.  There is always something I hadn't thought of before.

So I'm sharing my "Bob Burridge Tree" which he demonstrates in his video.  It's quite simple, really, and involves using up all the paint on your palette at the end of a session, and then doing negative painting.

Like I said, it's really fun!

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

The Story of Freddy

I am staying temporarily at my father's house in the country.  I am alone here, or so I thought.

One night I was at the kitchen table, where I have created sort of a studio, and was creating some new paintings, backgrounds for journal pages, that sort of thing.  Suddenly in the corner of my eye I saw movement; a little mouse ran from the direction of the laundry room toward me.  He stopped under the table. I bent over to see where he went, and he sat up like a little squirrel, and just looked at me.  I told him rather impolitely to move on, and he did.


For at least a week, I saw him every day.  He would come to my bedroom door, look in, then I would yell at him and he would dash off to the bathroom and hide behind the toilet.  I decided to name him Freddy.

Each day when I returned home from my visits to the nursing home, I would call out to him, so he wouldn't startle me!

"Okay, Freddy, I'm home," I'd say. "Don't be jumping out and scaring me."  I would do the same sort of thing when I moved into the dark bedroom at night, or went into the bathroom.

It seemed he liked to be wherever I was.  I would only find evidence of his presence where I go every day: the guest room, the bathroom, the kitchen.  Apparently he also liked to somehow get on the table where I paint, unaware that acrylic polymer is not good to eat.  I never figured out why he followed me, unless it is because I might have scattered cookie crumbs.  But I did see that he had been behind my bed next to the wall, and right out in the open.

There was never any sign of him having been in any other part of the house or on the kitchen counter.  He was quite consistent, and after peeking in to look at me each night, he would wait for me to yell at him, "Get OUT of here, Freddy," then he'd run away.

I told my brother about Freddy.  We discussed the fact that since we snake-proofed the house last year, the mice may come back and be free to roam unimpeded.  He said he would pick up some green pellets and that would solve the problem.  I assumed he meant after I leave.  I decided I could tolerate Freddy as long as I didn't see his entire family or any other rodent visitors. He was small, and brown and kind of cute, actually. Most definitely an orphan, and he thought I was his mom.

One day when I came back, I saw "rat pills" in my bed. Freddy evidence!  I examined them closely, still not wanting to believe he'd been up there.  I mean, who's ever heard of that? The next day I saw even more evidence, this time on the mattress base which sticks out a bit from under the mattress.  (Okay, so I did eat cookies in bed one night, but still!)  Wasn't he the least bit afraid of me? Guess not.  He clearly had no experience with people.

Early yesterday morning, 3:00 a.m. as it turned out, I was awakened by a fluttering of something right across my face.  I slapped at it to throw it onto the floor, and switched the lamp on quickly.

There was Freddy, right in the middle of the floor, unhurt of course but I yelled at him; he ran into the bathroom.  I slammed the bathroom door (aware that he could crawl under it if he wanted to) and loudly closed the door to my room where I knew the carpet would make it more difficult for him to squeeze under.

I hardly slept the rest of the night, and I determined that I was going to buy some de-mousing product as soon as possible.  To heck with friendship or waiting for my brother to handle it!  As soon as I could yesterday, I went to the store and bought some D-con, and two little traps that you put peanut butter in and it traps the mouse alive.  The idea is that then you put the sprung trap in the garbage, or set him free outside. I really hoped that would be his choice.

 I readied all this before dark and placed the items in areas where I knew he had been but not so that I would necessarily see them until I prepared myself first!  In other words, I didn't want to see some dead, or half-trapped struggling Freddy until I was up to it.  And just in case, I again closed my bedroom door.

I felt bad about what I had done, but there wasn't any real choice, right?  Right?  I mean, I really needed some sleep.  I was safe inside my room, but as luck would have it, I needed another trip to the bathroom before I really could fall asleep.  I thought I would just glance in, and if Freddy was in there behind the toilet I would just grab a roll of toilet paper, run out of the room and make sure the door was closed before I used the other bathroom and got back to safety.

I didn't see him, but then I saw swirling water in the toilet.  I wondered if the toilet was still running from hours earlier, but no.  Poor desperate little Freddy.  He was swimming as hard as he could, trying to get up the sides of the toilet, first this side, then the other side.

I stood there trying to think of a way to get him out. I needed a net or something. or a scoop, and I would put him into a bucket or something and carry him outside.  But then I knew how quick he was and he would scramble away from me before I could do that. I went to the laundry room and considered using a dustpan to help him.  And then it dawned on me that there was no way I could remove him from that toilet really, and guarantee that the sopping-wet Freddy wouldn't end up in my bed again.  I had, after all, been prepared to trap him or poison him and let him bleed to death.

Reality bites.  I asked for forgiveness as I took the only alternative available. I flushed him.  I watched as he helplessly spun down through the bottom of the toilet, telling myself it was a much better way to die.  He would, I suspected, drown very quickly and before he had time to realize what was happening.

Last night I dreamed that he swam back up, and came back hairless from the ghastly septic tank experience. Each time I go into the bathroom, I make sure that hasn't happened.

I kind of miss Freddy.  I just didn't want to sleep with him.

Monday, May 12, 2014

Grandmother's House

This latest creation is based on the last home my grandparents lived in.  Boy, did I learn a lot making this one.   It is 5" wide by 7" deep, and is scaled at 1"=4'.  It has a "composition" roof and is pier and beam. It even has a porch with wood stain.  There are more windows on the other side, not shown.

 Lots of mistakes, lots of "I should have done this first" events, and it still needs some touches before I could ever offer it for sale.  The next one will be a lot easier.  (She says.)  But at my age, I am so slow at anything.

My grandmother loved this house, because it was the only one she ever owned.  My grandfather had been a tenant farmer all his life, therefore they had lived in other people's houses although they only had to move twice. She died in 1985, I think, and the house was sold for $10,000.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Mother's Day 2014

I've been a mother for quite some time now, and the thing I most want every year -- and every day, actually -- is peace and quiet.  I so enjoy time to create, and I do best in total solitude.  I do entertain myself with podcasts and I subscribe to three.  I've been behind in listening to them and have three more to listen to before I'm caught up!  This I will do today, as I put the finishing touches on the first little house I have ever made that isn't a square or rectangle.  This one has a porch, and looks much like the last house my grandparents lived in.

I'm also working on a self-portrait, trying out some new clay, and would like some time just to experiment with some inks I've had for some time.  It seems to me that everything takes me three times as long as it used to... for instance, yesterday it took all day just to miter and glue frames to the house I'm working on.  Somehow I will develop a system for that.

Pictures to come!

Thursday, May 8, 2014

What am I creating today?

Today the only thing I am creating is coordination somewhat of Google accounts. Don't have time to search out the help section. We have a major thunderstorm today, and I actually have an appointment and have to get out there on the road. Yaay.

But yesterday I finished two major projects: a "room box" for my granddaughter, which is basically a partial dollhouse. I made it from an old drawer that I got from Canton some years ago. I discovered that repainting, and adding a shelf in the middle, then standing it on end (the front of the drawer is the base) it was easy to do. I added patterned paper for wallpaper, and some craft felt for carpet. I furnished it with some dollhouse furniture, and I have more packed away somewhere but I'll have to dig through the garage to find it.

I also decided what to do with a painting I am doing of a Buddhist meditating, and am winding up a new self-portrait that I will use as profile photo as soon as it is finished. I'm fairly pleased with it.
I am also in the process of switching to a new email address. I am on way too many lists and get distracted easily by whatever Ikea or Jerry's Artarama is trying to sell me. I'm an old lady and gotta stick to the budget!Today the only thing I am creating is coordination somewhat of Google accounts. Don't have time to search out the help section. We have a major thunderstorm today, and I actually have an appointment and have to get out there on the road. Yaay.

But yesterday I finished two major projects: a "room box" for my granddaughter, which is basically a partial dollhouse. I made it from an old drawer that I got from Canton some years ago. I discovered that repainting, and adding a shelf in the middle, then standing it on end (the front of the drawer is the base) it was easy to do. I added patterned paper for wallpaper, and some craft felt for carpet. I furnished it with some dollhouse furniture, and I have more packed away somewhere but I'll have to dig through the garage to find it.

I also decided what to do with a painting I am doing of a Buddhist meditating, and am winding up a new self-portrait that I will use as profile photo as soon as it is finished. I'm fairly pleased with it.

I am also in the process of switching to a new email address. I am on way too many lists and get distracted easily by whatever Ikea or Jerry's Artarama is trying to sell me. I'm an old lady and gotta stick to the budget!

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Paint, Saw and Sand?

4.25x4.25 handmade house from basswood
Since all I have been doing this year so far is woodworking, first with the Craftsman scroll saw and the new Dremel Moto-Saw I gave myself for Christmas, maybe I should change the name of this blog!  However, I am still painting too.  Right now, I have three paintings in the works while I work on all the little houses I am making for a marketplace, and it really is a great way to satisfy my ADD tendencies; while glazes on the paintings are drying, I go do something with wood.  And vice-versa.

In February I began learning wood carving.  First, I bought a set of carving tools from Woodcraft, but because that aggravated the arthritis in my hands, I bought carving bits to use with my old Dremel and began to learn power carving.   I bought a Wecheer power carver on sale at Woodcraft, and one of the handpieces went bad within a month.  Annoying.  However, after an extended correspondence with somebody in China, they finally replaced it at no cost to me.  Great, since a handpiece can cost $50 alone!

And lo and behold, now Dremel has come out with its own power carver called the Fortiflex, and I love it!  It takes all the same bits as the original Dremel.  So I keep sanding bits on the Wecheer, and change out the Dremels for carving or cutting.  I started making little houses in April and so far have made about half a dozen.  I have trivet frames left over from my engraving/sublimation business and am carving 4.5x4.5 pieces to fit inside them, to add to my market inventory.

Oh, and because I am fascinated with routers, I found a refurbished Dremel Trio which can do things I have learned how to do yet.  I made my own mini miter box for my little houses, but I found one on eBay which I am anxious to receive.  And I have promised myself NO MORE PURCHASES.  We'll see how long that lasts. (Just saw that Dremel now has another new product!)  I got tiny hinges from Christina at Sky Blue Pink where I always can find tiny stuff, and found an eBay store that sells construction items for dollhouses that I can use on my own houses.  Mine tend to be perhaps 1:24 scale, but usually not any particular scale.  They only open at the front door, so they really are not toys.  No point in putting furniture in there, in other words.  They can be lighted with battery-powered tea lights, so I have decided to put patterned paper inside all the subsequent ones I make.

Okay.  So that's my update for now.  And yesterday, I learned about a mixed-media postcard swap, so off I go to make a bunch of those..... but first I have to finish the house I am working on now.  Really!