Busy in the Studio

There is another addition to my Stepping Out series....House Hunting, or Mine, I Saw It First!  I had some fun with Polymer Clay.  Does anyone need some practice frogs??


I have a new diversion as well, Free Form Knitting and Crochet.  What fun to play with!!  You can do wonderfull stuff with it. 
I wonder when I will start doing wonderfull....my first piece:
 7" x 5" as yet unnamed....suggestions appreciated.

Now I get to shop for yarn stash.......Wheeeee!

I am getting ideas more quickly now, sometimes it helps to run off a few small projects like this Button Snake!

I have had fun with a diptych, Future Dreaming and Past Reminiscing. I am pleased with the concept, but I think the ocean needs a bit more difinition.

Interestingly, the foreground is the reverse of the sky fabric, and it was snow dyed with cold water dye!  Who'da thunk it?

This playing around with fibre is always fun and interesting.

What is it?

 My world was full of skeptics when I told thim that this was going to be a bird bath?  Doesn't anyone have creative vision anymore?

I have finished the fountain that consumed me for the entire spring.

I was gifted with an absolutely gorgeous piece of driftwood 4 ft. long with several holes in it.  It took me a while to come up with this. 

It is in the garden now and looking lovely; actually a bit like something out of Raiders of the Lost Ark!  The bowls are kitty litter bucket bottoms draped with gray Paverpol.  The catch basin has a Paverpol framed screen to catch leaves and disguise the bucket.   Very effective.

Meanwhile, back in the studio...........

I found a whole bunch of little metal display frames, post card size, at a garage sale and am making a bunch of bead studies.  They can be slipped out of the frames to be matted and framed any way you like as the edges are all finished.  They are wonderfull samples for ideas of larger works.  The ideas are starting to come.

IV  Blue

V Hollyhock

VI Mountains

looks a bit dull, I really do have to sharpen up my camera skills

I have a new shoe started which will incorporate a couple of polymer clay frogs.  Another dicipline I will have to learn.  This art is uphill all the way!!

I am going to sit out in the garden with my DH for a bit, then back to the studio.

Love to all.

Steppin' out some more

Since we still have two feet of snow on the garden I have been working in my studio and have finished the best (read fun to do) shoe yet!

Steppin out of the swamp.  It is heavy with beads, glass and gemstones.  There are 'dinosaur' bones in it, shells, three lizards and a turtle (thanks to Pat F.)  There is much froth, foam and spray, and lots of flowing water.  All this is on a base of upholstery material.  The bottom is fabric covered so it won't mar your coffee table.

This one is headed for the Eastern Manitoba Judged Art Show in May.

I am trying to psych myself into tidying up and putting all the beads and components away...sigh, for me the hardest part of any piece.  lol

I am preparing another shoe, trying to decide on what colour....hmmmm...

Winter...don'cha just love it!

Whoosh!!! all the snow and ice on the tin garage roof come down on our walk way two days ago!  DH and I shovelled it out.  Snow blower was of little use as it was mostly large pieces of ice. Then we decided to dig out the Barbecue as the weather is so nice, just below freezing.

The result of the whole thing is neither of us could move yesterday.  Old folks should not get that enthusiastic about snow removal.  lol  Job satisfaction was great, but aching muscles was not.  We were even too tired to cook anything on it.

Keeping the pathway open to the bird feeder has bee a chore this winter too.  I just lugged in a 45 lb. bag of sunflower seeds and the Blue Jays think they have died and gone to heaven!!

All this snow is four feet + deep in some areas.  They are predicting major flooding on the Red river this spring.  This does not affect us here in Steinbach, but we have run off to fear.  If all this melts too quickly we will drown.  Those of us in basement suites are particularly nervous.

Mind you it is glorious to walk in the yard when the temperature is only a degree or two below freezing, and the sun is shining brightly.  It seems that spring will actually come this year.  Praise the Lord.

Steppin' Out series...

I have finally gotten busy in my studio.  It has been a while, and lots of excitement under the bridge.  An armed robbery and a 65th surprise birthday party!  So there was good and bad.

There were 42 people at the party, from my life from when I was 13 years old to present!  I am awed and humbled that so many friends are still with me.  Such love in the room.  Friends from my riding days, friends from our wedding party, stitching friends, art group friends, just friends anyway friends, and all sorts of relatives.  A good time was had by all.

But now I am seriously  working on shoes.  I am calling them my Steppin' Out series.  I am amassing quite a collection of shoe blanks.

Steppin' Out...on the beach.  Covered with a tie, a beaded jasper cab and two kinds of shells.  The top pic is closer to the true colour.

This is Steppin' Out....with a spring of pearls.  This shoe (vivid pink cloth) was the first shoe I collected.  It started it all.   It is honkin' huge, but has turned out quite outstanding.  Lots of rat tail and glass pearls on a piece of gorgeous fabric I bought just knowing I would find a use for it sometime.

 All the mechanics are done with Paverpol....what wonderful stuff!

I am now working on Steppin' Out....of the swamp.  Covered in dark moss green upholstery fabric it features three little lizzards, an ammonite, some sari waste yarn and a vast amount of beadwork.  This will take a while to finish.

Going to get right to it now.

Household chores

Well I have finally done it.  I inherited some fabulous hand painted ceramic lamps from my Mom's estate.  They are about 65 years old.  I think the shades were the original, as they were rotting off like confetti.  We had only been using them for 22 years....eeek....lol.

DH finally pulled off all the silk and plunked them in the middle of the worktable in my studio....kinda forced my hand.

We auditioned fabric for a while and came up with a very tasteful cream coloured fabric and a nice narrow cream coloured trim.  Yawn.

This is what I did:

Lots of semi sheer scarves from the self help, and bead fringe. I did not have enough of either kind to do both lampshades, so I combined them...Way funky!

Since the furniture is bamboo covered with blue denim, the only thing that doesn't go well here is the actual lamps!!  But they are beautiful though.  The furniture is as old as the lamps........and me!  Good grief!

DH makes a table centre for the owners of his gym every year.  He is getting quite creative even though we no longer have the flower shop.  We are downsizing the jungle in my studio (which has the only bright window) and the Norfolk Island Pine is over two feet tall, so out it goes set in an artificial wreath decorated with chocolate and candy.  An edible Christmas decoration that they can keep year round.  I hope they have a big house.  My mom had one that grew to 16 feet!  It outgrew here cathedral ceiling.

He is in the process of unpacking his egg carving studio.  I swear he had as many boxes as I did.  He and one of his friends insulated and carpeted half the garage just off my studio.  DH didn't like the idea of working in his studio waaaaaayyy far at the other end of the house and down a flight of stairs in the spare bedroom.  He wanted to be near me......isn't that sweet?  We now use the spare bedroom for my extra bins of fabric which had been in the front half of the garage.  These bins are getting a lot of mileage on them, all up and down stairs!

We were given a huge roll of brand new carpet which did his studio, the now spare bedroom, my wee tiny sitting room (room for a rocking chair, a lamp and a small bookcase) and a runner in front of the washer and dryer.  A very generous gift indeed.



I am now feeling the urge to do more shoes.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.