The Divine Feminine 2

Here are three more of the arches I made for the "DivineFeminine" swap.

The background for the image on the left is part of a strip collage. I took paper remnants and cut them into wedge shaped strips that I then glued onto a background sheet. The entire sheet was then painted green, to pull the scraps together and make them homogenous. Here, I stamped leaves and blooms onto the collage background and embossed them with clear embossing powder before applying the images. I made the wire embellishment in the peak using a pegboard.

The little girl looked divine to me. She is probably around eight or nine, which is a magical age: they have such confidence in the life ahead of them and still believe they can do and be anything. I imagined her writing her life in the book, and I added the wings so that she would always know she could fly, whatever....

This card contrasts with the girl card. Here, the divine woman is a young adult, crowned, but embedded in a life from which she looks out into the world.

The Divine Feminine

These are some arches I've made for a swap on the theme of "The Divine Feminine" for the Travelling Journals group. I have several more arches in production, and I'll upload the photos as I complete them.

Most of the arches I've been producing in response to this idea have some texture to them. As well as scraps of fabric or ribbon, I've used wire, micro beads, gesso, and random threads of glue from a hot glue gun. The glue gun texture makes interesting backgrounds, but as the threads of glue are fairly raised, it can be difficult to work on top. Once I have the feeling I've completed enough arches, I'll finish them off by adding fibres and beading, too.

Dimensional Paper

This is a variation on a technique I learned from Shakti a couple of years back. You'll find the link to Shakti's blog in the list on the right. The result is a highly dimensional paper that you could use to cover an altered book, for example.

Start with a sheet of black construction paper -- sometimes known as sugar paper. Crumple the paper well, then flatten it out an little and glue it to the center of a background sheet, preserving the folds by pushing and scrunching the paper together as you glue.

When the paper is dry, set up a palette with three shades of one color. I used bronze, copper, and gold acrylic paint. Using a dry brush, dab into the darkest shade and begin whisking the brush in one direction (for example, left to right) across the ridges to pick out the contours. When you've done that, turn the paper a quarter turn, then take the second color and repeat the dry brush whisking process, using the same direction you used the first time. In my case that would be left to right again. This highlights the same ridges you highlighted the first time from a different angle, and it also helps make more ridges visible. Repeat the process, turning the paper a further quarter turn and using the third color. Again, some ridges will be highlighted from yet another angle, and more new ridges will appear, because your brush will pass over more surfaces.

The paper and paint I used left me with a piece that looks like folded metal. Other colors of paper and paint will produce other effects.When the paint was dry, I cut off the protruding background paper, so I was left only with the dimensional paper.You can use the sheets as they are, or you might cut them into strips and squares and create a pattern by turning some of them.

If I get around to making another sheet today, I'll post a pattern example tomorrow or Monday.

Tinnie RAK

After seeing tinnies on Lisa Kaus' website, I wanted to try making one myself. I immediately ran into a problem in that I don't use tinned food often, so I had to go begging for an empty tin can (the ring pull kind, as they don't have sharp rims).

I made this tinnie with an aquaintance, Angelika, in mind, so it's decorated to her taste rather than mine. I really enjoyed the process, though.

I sanded and gessoed the tin, then painted it with acrylics in sand and pink. Then I cut scalloped strips of print and topped them with colourful paper, ribbons, punched hearts, and fun foam flowers.

After punching two holes near the top of the tin, I strung through a length of wire and threaded on painted wooden beads and a paper bead before adding bows. I glued four more painted beads to the bottom of the can with a hot glue gun. As a final touch, I cut some tags to pop into the tin.
I have a hunch Angelika will like her tinnie. It's also the kind of idea she can take further and use in her work as a kindergarten teacher.

I'll definitely be making more of these when I can lay hands on more suitable tins.

CPS Birthday RAK

Cloth Paper Studio (CPS) is one of the "artsy" online groups to which I subscribe. Each month the moderators post a list of birthdays, so members have the opportunity to send RAK to the birthday girls. This month I noted that three other women have birthdays on the same day as mine, so I decided to make a little something for each of them. These are the first two gifts; the third is in the making.

As with the booklets I posted a day or two back, these are fairly simple, so the recipients can add to them as they please.

I'll pop them in the post in the next day or two, even though they don't have to arrive until late in the month. Mail from Europe to the USA can take time, so the earlier the better.

Making these items was a wonderful way to use up my scrap paper collage sheets.

Cloth Paper Studio

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/clothpaperstudio/

Eight Wishes RAK

This is a folded tag journal I made for a woman I met (in face to face life) a couple of weeks ago. There are eight pockets, each with a tag. I deliberately kept the style, format, and materials simple, because I wanted to make something she can easily reproduce using basic techniques and supplies. (I guess you all know my ongoing groans about the lack of interesting materials where I live, by now.)

The general idea is to enable constructive art and journaling in small steps, even at a time when little seems possible. One side of each tag is decorated, the other is blank and can be used to write a short journal entry. In this particular case, I'm going to suggest writing about wishes for areas of her life, for example: self, others/friends, relationship/lover, vocation/calling, earning/work, home, higher things, and future.


The pocket backgrounds are partly blank, so she can add her own art and embellishments. The different sizes of tag are a way of prioritising, and are completely replaceable at any time.

Four Arches

These are the remaining arches for the Travelling Journals group swap. Now I've completed these, I shall be making more for myself, so I can create a nice, full book when the time comes.

The image of the bird (of all the birds I've use in these particular cards) is from an old nature book (published in 1887) I picked up recently. Overall, the book was in poor condition, but I was able to salvage parts of the covers, the endpapers, and the color plates to use in my work. The images are simply gorgeous, and the paper on which they are printed has a texture that adds depth to the images.

The dead bird is one of my favorite pictures. Though the bird might have died during any season, in theory, the withered leaves seem to suggest autumn, and through that they emphasise the impression of endings and approaching decay.

The girl and the (I think) crow seem to be waiting at the veil, each on their own side. The girl is lost in thought, possibly sorrow, and the hands in her lap suggest patience to me. She accepts the inevitability of her loss, but she also appears at the veil and waits for the promised brief touching at the appointed time.

Two angels stand at the portal of the death realm. The door is set against a starry sky,whichto me suggests that the door is also an entryway into eternity. Above the door is a Celtic rose or cross with four directions and a mid-point, and, like many Celtic images contains single, eternally circling lines.

A House For Her Dreams

As you can see, this is a case of "and now for something completely different", in contrast to the rest of my work.

Earlier this year, I was overjoyed to find these little birdhouses in the euro (dollar) store. I picked up six, and now I'm just getting around to working with them. To do that I started by pulling off all the tacky deco and painting the equally somewhat strange background colors over with gesso, to create blank walls.

This weekend I wanted to make a house for a friend, Nati, as part of her birthday gift, so I pulled out her favorite colors (blues) and started off. I've been trying out some ideas based on the work of Lisa Kaus (link below). I reasoned that Lisa's "crafty" style is something Nati will like much more than my usual approaches and colors, so I chose to work on her house in that way.

I used a pencil to mark out grids on each of the surfaces. The lines remain visible n the finished product, but that only adds to the appeal. My next step was to color the spaces in the grids using water soluble pencils in shades of blue, lilac, and french grey. Then I spread and blurred the color with a paintbrush and water. Once the paint was dry, I drew spirals and dots in the squares, using the same color as the (now lighter) base layer in each case. After that I collaged scraps of printed paper and corrugated card onto some squares and went over the grid lines to bring them out more clearly.

I used buttons, tiny seashells, netting, rub-on transfers, and word stickers as embellishments on the outside. Then I thought it might be nice to raise the house off its flat base, so I painted four half circles and glued them to the underside.

To finish off, I punched around thirty little tags for Nati's hopes, wishes, and dreams, tied various blue yarns to them, and popped them inside the birdhouse. The gift tag, translated, reads "a house for your dreams", and has blue glass beads and shells threaded onto the tie.

Lisa Kaus
http://www.lisakaus.com/

Three Gothic Arches

Just to make you drool.... I'm sitting here listening to the new James Blunt album and scoffing Lindt mini pralines (but only one of those little tins with six in them).

These are first three of the gothic arches I've made for the Travelling Journals "Thirteenth Month" swap. I cut the arches from sturdy card stock then painted one side of each arch with gesso. The next step was to paint the backgrounds and then stamp some of them, too.

In the gargoyle arch, I used a diamond background stamp and part of a skeleton leaf I found last year, then I glued on the main image and added part of an line drawing of a bare branch.

The lady image is painted and stamped and incorporates a transparency and some painted netting.

The magpie arch is painted and edged with scraps of print and what I believe is called "German scrap". (It seems to be called that everywhere except in Germany.). I colored the edging with watercolour pencils. The image also incorporates a scrap of wallpaper and a little fabric braid.

Magpies are said to be messenger birds of the faeries, and once a year they can carry the souls of the dead to the edge of the world, where the veil is thin and lovers parted by death can almost touch. This, of course, takes place during the thirteenth month.

All the cards are edged with a scraping of bronze acrylic paint.

Collage Postcard

This is one of the collage postcards from a series I've been working on in connection with an imagined journey. The ship is from a flyer for an exhibition about the "Titanic", which took place in Kiel this summer. The map fragment is from a newspaper search game. Both items go to show that material is everywhere, even though German advertising material is traditionally boring to the extreme. I'll admit I can get a little envious when my US-based art friends enthuse about AOL CD tins, fake credit cards and the like! Other items used include scraps of patterned papers and lacy cellulose paper.

Blessing Doll

I've been challenging myself to use up as many little scraps and images as possible, recently. Making collage paper is one good way of doing that; creating ATC and decorating paper dolls are others. Here is one of the "blessing dolls" I made last weekend. It's relatively simple, as I was away from home and had only my travelling box of supplies with me, so I had no way to add stamping, beading, or sewing. Even so, I enjoy the pleasure of knowing it is possible to create even if we have only limited resources.

Puzzle Pieces

A year or two back, it seemed that everyone was crazy about altering children's puzzle pieces. Somehow I never got around to them. Recently I found a handful of pieces in my "jumbled materials" box and gave it a whirl. Despite my initial skepsis, I found altering the puzzle parts was a nice play-around for lazy afternoons, and a wonderful way to make good use of scraps too small for much else.

Reliquiaries

On a recent expedition into the deep lands of Imagi-nation, I excavated these artifacts, which were identified by an expert as muse devotionals. Each of the reliquaries contains a much sought-after sacred bone from the hand of an ancient muse. Legend has it that an artist who possesses one of these bones will transcend all creative barriers and rise to express her artistic potential to the full.

The first (above left) is mine, of course, but the one with the golden crown (right) is waiting to find its true home. If you think that home should be with you, let me know. The object is approx. 20cm (8 in.) high, including the flame crown, and around 10 cm (4 in.) wide). You can contact me via the email address link in my profile (below on the right). I'll be happy to exchange for art or materials.

Summer and Winter

I completed the remaining paper dolls for the seasons swap. All that remains is to make a doll that represents me. I'll do that next week.

The red doll is "summer", and the cream/blue is "winter". It occurred to me that they could easily have been switched, particularly as the winter doll contains shore and water elements. On reflection, I think I made the winter doll as I did because I love clarity of the seashore in winter. The red and glitter of the summer doll represent the heat and flamboyance I see in some types of summer. Of course, another explanation might be that summer and winter have been highly confusable here this year. We had summer for a couple of weeks in April, and it has rained a lot over the traditional summer months, with only occasional -- and generally unpredicted -- fine days here and there.

The centre panel of the summer doll is embroidered and also features glass beads and mirrors. The winter doll is beaded, too, and she also features an ancient and highly traditional form of embellishment: fishbone. (My neighbour caught me a carp recently, and I thought the larger bones too interesting to toss away, so I dried them, with a view to including them in one or two art projects.)

I'll be putting the ladies in the post to France tomorrow, so here they are together for the last time.

Seasons

I'm participating in a paper doll swap this month, along with three other artists. The hostess has chosen "four seasons" as the theme. I'd already begun work on my first doll (typical me...) when the instructions were extended to ask us to include arms; that'S why I have two "spring" dolls on view here. I'll complete the set without arms for my own collection, while the dolls with arms will be sent for the swap.

The green doll is "spring", and the cream/brown doll is "autumn". Each of the dolls is cut from two pieces of my own collage paper, one full doll size, and the other slightly smaller in the body section. (I make the collage paper from scraps stuck on light card then washed with an acrylic glaze to pull them together visually.) The "hair" (florist's teasel grass) is sandwiched between the head sections of the layers.

Each of the dolls is beaded and then embellished with fibres and various found objects.

Words - Kari Gibson

It's time to show the first set of contributions I received from others as part of the fantasy dictionary project. These were sent to me by Kari Gibson. The photos don't do justice to Kari's work, and what you can't see here is that the cards are covered in beeswax, which feels and smells lovely.

Kari is "real" artist -- degree and all -- who lives in Scotland. You can see more of Kari's work on her blog, and you'll also find links to her Etsy site, where you can purchase her art.

Inky Tinker - www.inkytinker.typepad.com/

Here are Kari's definitions:

Dembent (noun - dom-BON): A person who collects spoons; a spoon collector. Term particularly used in silverware auction rooms for bids obsessively for spoon collections.
Example of use: My uncle was a great dembent. He spent all his spare income on spoons.

Cesper (noun - SESS-per): The part of a jug handle that joins the handle to the jug. In pottery making, the handle usually forms an inverted "S" and the cesper is the part that is the lower part of the "S" and is joined to the jug with watery clay, called slip.
Example of use: Mary was upset that her lovely new jug had broken, just above the cesper, and can no longer be used.

Abronone (adjective - ab-ron-OWN): Describes the feel of the weight of a helmet on the wearers head. It is similar in meaning to the words heavy or dense, but refers in particular to the special weight of metal on scalp.
Example of use: Arthur complained that the abronone helmet was contributing to his increasing hair loss.

Ornocone (verb - orn-o-KONE-eh): The vibrations that occur when more than one animal of the canine species (usually wolves) howls. The effects are particularly noticeable during a full moon.
Example of use: It was one of those wonderful clear nights, and the ornocone howling of wolves could be heard from the other side of the woods.

Three Ladies

Life has been somewhat overwhelming (mostly in the negative) of late, with much happening that has taken time to handle. Just today, Gena asked me what I'd been doing art-wise of late, and I responded that I'd just been ticking over. I've completed one or two small things, but my energy is so depleted that I can't work on the larger projects right now.

Here are three paper doll ladies I created from a template outline by Sherry Goshon. I have several more of these in progress on my workbench.

If you are interested in a personal one for one swap, please feel welcome to contact me through the link in my profile.

Dictionary Definition: Kyabi

Kyabi (noun): kai-AH-bi. The philosophical, metaphysical aspect of existence. The divine order that requires interpretation and cannot be understood solely through the physical senses. In everyday language, kyabi is used to describe fate or fortune. Among the healers enciani, quilard, etc.) and scientists (volmyri, morgisti, etc.), it is used to describe the interplay between seeming chaos and perceived order that determines the course of individual lives and shapes their thinking.

Kyabi is the part of life circumstances over which individuals have no direct control -- if you like: it is the wheel of fortune, or the cards tossed onto the table by an unseen hand. Kyabi is not determined by personal choice, though humans do have personal choice that can affect and wield kyabi. Nor is kyabi blind (divine) determination (though many believe that, too, exists in the world in question). Kyabi can be influenced to a degree, though.

Part of the work of healers, in particular, is to work with individuals to help them define and understand their kyabi. The next step is to find ways to help individuals make suitable life choices so that difficult aspects of kyabi have less effect and fortunate aspects lead to personal success and gratification.

Dictionary Definition: Inglot

Inglot (noun): IN-glo. Inglot describes a psychological state, an existential experience of tumbling alone, numbed, and helpless through the gaps in the fabric of the world.

Some of the alibin and quilard are endowed with the ability to find and rescue "tumblers", that is, individuals lost in inglot.

Inglot occurs when individuals become trapped in lives that sever them from contact with positive aspects of their kyabi. There are no known cases of intentional inglot, but inglot is prevalent among those who are not grounded through stable circumstances and strong relationships.

Healing inglot requires a form of re-birthing in which the individual is integrated into circumstances and relationships that correspond with the positive aspects of her or his kyabi and match some of the individuals core talents and dreams. It is essential that the structures already exist, at least in their basic form, or else the risk of renewed isolation and a repeated experience of inglot becomes too great.

Dictionary Definition: Descabeas

Descabeas (noun): des-KA-bee-ass. The rules that underlie nature or crafts and skills.

Descabeas are methodical ways of exploring, measuring, and interpreting the world and also the term for the rules or laws that can be described as a result of those explorations, for example, mathematical equations, or the cycles of the moon. Descabeas can also be created, as in notation systems for music or rules for types of poetry, or the usually unspoken rules for successful communication that underlie social exchanges.

In an extended sense, it can also be said that individuals create personal descabeas to structure their lives. Uncovering and understanding these personal descabeas is part of the work undertaken by healers.