My little girls keep me busy, but I always find time to sneak away to the craft room. I am dabbling in many mediums to find my true calling (but I have an inkling it will always involve fabric)...
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Thursday September 02, 2010
Wow, its been crazy around here. Who knew cheerleading would be so demanding? My daughter decided to do cheerleading this year for the first time, and we had no idea what we were getting into! I haven’t even been able to make it to my Tuesday art meetings. :( I’ve also been busy working on art pieces for our upcoming art show in October. On top of that, I’ve been working on mini art pieces for swaps, and stamp carving! I am in love with carving stamps right now. I did a few many years ago in high school, and I’ve just picked it up again. I have quite a few listed for sale on my Rags-n-Tags.com website if you haven’t seen them already. Here’s one I just finished up today:
And a few of my favorites:
These stamps and more are available for sale on my Rags-n-Tags.com website! :)
As I’ve talked about before, my husband and I are doing a Punk Art Show this October. Not that either of us are “punk” but for some reason, we thought it would be fun to do. This will be my first ever art show, and I have been really nervous about it. BUT, my first painting was chosen by the group to be used in the advertising flyers! I’m so excited… I don’t feel so stressed anymore. :) Here’s a photo of my first piece I finished:
Anyway… I have had plenty to write about in the past few weeks, but I’ve been just avoiding it! I’ve been thinking about this blog a lot lately, and I really want to do something with it. Meaning… I want to focus on it a bit more, I need a theme or a smaller focus instead of it being a diary type blog. But I’m not sure yet in which direction to go. Of course it will be some sort of art/craft blog… but.. I dunno… I have some pondering to do… Until next time!!
PS I have been keeping my flickr up to date, so feel free to peek around there to see what I’ve been creating! :)
Wednesday March 31, 2010
Soooo, I went back to art league last night only to find my bust busted! She had huge cracks. I had expected some cracking, but I had no idea it would be this bad. I was crushed.
But luckily Pat, a friend and fellow art league member, had some ideas on how I could fix her, and I just happened to have all the supplies at hand. I wrapped her torso up in medical gauze, then paper mached over the whole thing. I would have rather of kept her in clay form, but I was afraid I would just get more cracking if I tried to patch her up with more clay. So, I spent the night making a mess with paper mache.
Today I researched my options on doing a mold. I think my best bet would be Urethane RTV which is similar to silicone. But since my bust is so large, its going to cost me a pretty penny to do it. I think for now I’m going to put a few more layers of paper mache on her, so that I can hollow her out some. I’ll just have to use the original at my upcoming shows and do the mold another time.
(See my previous post HERE on how I started my bust)
Thursday March 25, 2010
 I have always wanted an old dress form in my craft room. I just drool over the photos I find on the net… you know, the old fabric ones decorated with brooches or necklaces, sometimes a sparkly crown. But, I have no room for one right now, not to mention the extra funds. Plus, I don’t have many flea markets or vintage shops in the area, so I have no clue where to start looking. I did find the one I wanted to buy (pictured to the right), that is, if I can’t find an actual vintage one. I found it from DressFormMall on eBay.
Anyway, the reason I bring my love to your attention, is because I’ve decided to make one. Yup, MAKE one. I know, I’m crazy. But, you see, I’ve been creating a lot of necklaces for my upcoming Earth Day Fair, and I wanted to display them somehow. I love the look of necklaces on a bust, and because of my previously mentioned delemas on getting a full sized vintage one of my dreams, I started looking for a smaller tabletop version. I had no luck. They were either too expensive, or just too big. So, I had a crazy idea start brewing in my head… I could make one. And not only that, I plan to make a cast of it to recreate it. I know, its insane.
So, on Tuesday night I dragged a bag full of clay, wire, newspaper, tons of tape, and some tools to my art league meeting. Of course bringing in these odd supplies to an art league meeting stirred up some questions; so I had to explain myself. They thought I was nuts. I had an inkling of doubt, but I dove right in to the project determined to make it work. My plan was to create a wire form, stuff it with newspaper, then finish it off with clay. Luckily one of my buddies suggested I use a large soda bottle as a base. We just happened to have one in the room, so I gave that a try. With a little snipping in the back, it fit just perfectly within my bust template I had prepared. I worked on it for about two and a half hours, and the whole time I couldn’t stop myself from giggling as I sculpted her. We were all laughing about me sculpting “boobies”. lol
I ran out of time quickly. I stayed a bit later than usual but I wish I had even more time to work on her. I’m happy with the way it came out though. It’s a lot better than I had even hoped for. But, the whole time I was making it, I was cursing myself for forgetting my camera! lol So, no pictures yet. :( I had to leave the bust in our art room to dry. Next Tuesday I’ll probably take some more time to smooth out the clay some more and perfect it. After that, I’m scared. My plan was to make a cast of it out of plaster or perhaps silicone, so that I have a mold of it. That way, I could make copies out of paper mache. It would be much lighter in paper mache, plus I’d be able to make as many as I wanted. Right now in her clay version she weighs about five pounds! Making a mold of her would require cutting her in half. That’s what scares me. What if I ruin her? I’m not sure what to do… I guess I could always make another if she got ruined. I must face my fears!
I’ll leave you with some beautiful inspiration photos.
1. Paris Style Dress Form, 2. dress form party, 3. Vintage Dress Forms, 4. Mannequin with Jewelry, 5. Picture 351, 6. Cool Manni, 7. coco wearing my necklace, 8. sj studio, 9. Natasha’s Vintage Prom
PS I always wondered how people made these awesome photo mosaics. I finally discovered how! Just visit Mosaic Maker to make your own! For flickr photos, you just have to insert the page url, not the photo url that you get from right clicking on the photo. (I found that out the hard way of course!)
Wednesday February 24, 2010
Last night went pretty well at my art league meeting… I actually got some painting done! It was pretty quiet in the room, I think we all were concentrating very hard for once! Not sure if this is finished or not yet, but I like it! I may have to work more on his body; I couldn’t imagine what a real skeleton looked like! lol But I do like him without arms and jaw. Sorry, the photo has a bit of glare.
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Today, I had some time to update Rags-n-Tags. I’ve added quite a few more supplies to the supplies section, as well as some Easter goodies on my Originals and Made To Order pages. I’m in a Spring mood, I just can’t wait for the warm air to blow in, and the flowers to start blooming!
Wednesday February 10, 2010
My husband is planning on doing a collaborative art show in Hartford this fall – something he’s been doing every year for a while now… and something that I’ve always wished I could be a part of. I never really had the time or inspiration to create anything worthy of hanging on a wall… but this time I’m going to dip in and give it a try!
BUT…. the theme is going to be PUNK! Oh my! I’ve never been much of a punk person, although I’ve listened to my share of the Clash, Rancid, the Ramones, and a few others… and some may even have seen me with jelly bracelets, 6g earrings, a tongue ring, and metal spikes on my backpack during high school years… but going into full punk mode and trying to create art that is inspired by punk may be a bit challenging to say the least.
I’ve known about this show for months now; and have been struggling to find inspiration. Could it be because I’m in mommy mode for 95% of my day? lol Last night at my art league workshop I decided to just jump right in with no real plan. I ended up making more of a mess than any real art… too bad I didn’t have someone take my photo! I was covered in paint (good thing I wore my apron!), and it took forever for my canvas to dry because of the tons of layers I kept applying to it! No way am I brave enough to post a photo of it now… perhaps when I start to see something become of it. Go ahead, call me “scardy pants”! ’cause I am! ;0) he he
But, I will share with you some photos of my sketch book. A few weeks back, I was trying to get into punk mode and play around with some ideas in my book. These were just some playful sketches to help me get in the mood…
Here I used a page from a phone book, watered down acrylic, and marker.
This one I had a real hard time photographing… the colors are a more deep red and black, with much more detail than you can see in the photo. I had fun playing with a technique I read about in a collage book; using petroleum jelly to resist the paint. It was so much fun!
I love these characters! I used watercolor and charcoal pencil.
Well, this will be a challenging project (on top of everything else)… have you ever tried to create something outside of your “comfort box”? Is it possible to succeed? lol
Wednesday February 03, 2010
Last night at my Tuesday art league meeting we decided to take it back to basics and practice some watercolor washes. Boy is it harder than it looks! lol I have successfully finished two watercolor bird paintings in the past… {in which I suppose I avoided doing washes without even thinking}… because I just couldn’t get the hang of it! One and a half hours and ten sheets of paper later, I finally decided to call it quits. But, we all enjoyed ourselves experimenting, giggling, and complaining! I guess I need more practice… or perhaps I could blame it on the supplies. ;0)
After I gave up on the watercolor washes, I whipped out my journal and started doing some sketches. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m working on creating a new design for my blog which involves creating a cartoon of myself; so I needed to figure out a cartoon style that I liked. I came up with a couple cute ideas… now to decide on a direction and finalize one. The only problem is that I think the wider faces look cuter; but unfortunately I was born with a tall face! lol
Wednesday July 08, 2009
Last night I finally finished up my elephant collage for my daughter’s room. Yay! I love the way it came out, it looks great in her room… but now that its hung it looks so small! lol
I’m happy that its finished… I was starting to get sick of working on it! Now I can start with some experimenting in my art journal. I’m excited to start on something new.
I started playing with eyes a few days ago; and was happy to find that I at least still have some talent to work with! he he
I think I’ll be playing around with faces some more… I really need to practice on the nose. I’ve been watching some videos on you-tube; and I also can’t wait to try out some of the technique’s I’ve watched people do in their art journals. It feels so great to be getting back in drawing and painting again!!
Friday June 26, 2009
My mother in law invited me to join the town’s art league on Tuesday nights… of course I readily agreed! I haven’t done much drawing or painting since college, so I am so excited to have a set time to do some art. Over the past couple years I’ve been researching and enjoying collage art on the internet; I’ve even collected my share of books. But, I’ve never really had the time, patience, or motivation to actually dip myself into the world of collage. I’ve taken this opportunity to get myself into it and just do it!
My first project… although now that I’m into it, I think I should have started out with a more experimental piece… is a collage piece of elephants to go in my baby’s room. I’ve been wanting to do a piece for her room since she was born, but never had the time for it. I’m glad at least now I know it will be finished before she graduates from her crib! lol It was so great to just work on it for hours at a time with no distractions. I meant to take photos along the way, but kep forgetting; sorry! But here’s a photo how it looks now… this is with four hours of work. It’s taking me a lot longer than I imagined it would!
I think next time, I will just do the whole background, then put my image on top. It’s hard to work around the elephant shapes! I can’t wait until its finished… I can’t wait even more to see what else I can come up with when I’m just playing around with no set ideas in my head! ;0)
Monday March 16, 2009
So, I was browsing blogs the other day, and came across a wonderful post by an artist named Martha Brown. I have always been intrigued by collages; have even bought dozens of books and magazines.. and have also tried many techniques and failed. But, as I sat there reading her post about a collage in progress, it all came clear to me. The technique was so simple; and yet I struggled for years to understand it.
At first, I was just excited to learn a new technique that I could someday use… but, as I started thinking of Create a Prim again and how I will be updating it; an idea popped into my head. I could recreate my house graphics in collage art! You see, a few days ago I had decided that I will be changing the business name “Create a Prim” to “Crafty Avenue”; so that it would appeal to a broader audience. Looking at all the prim colors and graphics, I knew that will have to be updated too. So, then I got really excited! I set up my easel, taped down some bristol board and dragged out my paints. I was itching all day to get the kids to bed so I could get to work!
Finally the time came to play, and I had a blast! I tried to take photos along the way, but I was too excited, so I kept forgetting! lol First I drew up a sketch on paper the houses I needed to create. Then, I sketched them out on my bristol board. I pasted down some black and white scraps of paper that I got from newspapers, and images I made on the computer then printed.
Next, I did a very light gesso wash over the papers so it wasn’t so dark. Then painted color washes over the houses. I forgot to not color over where I wanted the doors and windows! uh oh! Good thing I know how to edit photos in PhotoShop. I’ll take care of that later..
I added finishing touches with colored paper, some text from newspapers, and my favorite part: charcoal pencil! I love how the charcoal pencil finishes it all up.
It was a really messy first try; but I think over all it was a success! I have some major cleaning up to do in PhotoShop. Here’s a sample of what I’ve done on the computer so far:
As you can see, I’ve cut the houses out from the original messy background; then added in a drop shadow. I’ve also enlarged the text on the houses so you can read it at this small size (still need to do the shop one!). I also changed the color of the windows and doors a bit so they stand out more. A little more work, and we have new graphics for Create a Prim… I mean Crafty Avenue! ;0)
This has been so much fun; I can’t wait to start on some collage art that I can actually hang on the wall! My easel will not be put away until I give it another try. But first I have some cleaning up to do around it! lol
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Please Take Note © Kristal Lee (Twiddle Lee)
Feel free to link to me, but if you wish to use any of my text, photos, etc. please ask for my permission first. Thank you
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