Quirky Dutch Summer #7 Using thread / Gebruik maken van draad

Marit does it again this time her inspiration is all about using thread in your art journaling …

I have not used the sewing machine to do any ‘real’ sewing for a long while but really do enjoy sewing paper and other mixed media bits with the machine I inherited from my mom…

I fashioned a shirt out of map paper and had to laugh abit at the shape of it deciding that I liked the winged looked…

I zigzagged randomly on the shirt leaving some loose threads hanging…

scraps of paper, fabric and dry wall mesh from my work table with some gesso and paints for the background…

 washi tape, rub ons and black and yellow shading with Stabilo Woody crayons for the finishing touches…

already looking forward to next Tuesday and Marit’s Quirky Dutch Summer #8

Quirky Dutch Summer #5 Mosaic / Mozaïek

Marit is an endless font of inspiration, you will not want to miss her Mosaic post full of ideas and more…

 we visited one of our favorite spots in Blacksburg, Virginia recently that has a wonderful mosaic constructed about 15 years ago by public school students, teachers and other volunteers on the side of a gas station…

imagine our shock and dismay to discover it was soon to be torn down and demolished…

we could not believe our eyes and felt so helpless…

 just what they need in Blacksburg more empty store fronts and office space in an ugly brownstone building…

by chance we got to meet the builder, Steve Hill, a former Blacksburg resident and member of Virginia Tech’s Class of 1970…

  we looked him in the eyes and he did not seem too concerned about the wrecking of the mural as he said it would have cost $10,000 or more to try and save the mosaic with no guarantees that it would not crumble…

the photo above is one we took back in 2009, the quote was obscured on this visit by construction debris…

it made me cry and all I could say as we left his office was “this is just so sad“…

 I printed a photo of part of the mosaic wall to use to create my mosaic journal pages…

cutting wavy pieces and using some of my flowers embedded in tissue paper as the focal image on each page…

I cut the shank off the back of a bee skep button to compliment the color in the Black Eyed Susan on the right page…

if you click on “Quirky Dutch Summer” near the top of my sidebar you will find Marit’s wonderful artist interview for this week along with a tutorial for making your own art journal from scratch…

“We are like the spider.
We weave our life and then move along in it.
We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives in the dream.
This is true for the entire universe.” ~The Upanishads

p.s. some of THE most fantastic mosaics we have ever seen are in Philadelphia at The Magic Garden…we visited back in April of 2008 here and here …

we look forward to another visit there some day

footnote: in trying to check who to give credit to for the quote on the mosaic wall I came upon this very interesting blog post…for the rest of the story and a great photo of the wall  you can visit here

“Inner vision is the prescription
Art is the physician
Art heals.

Work runs over me some days
My feet point to the sky
Sleep smothers me

If we’re not
we should be

If you were not already doing too much

You wouldn’t be doing this”

Quirky Dutch Summer #3

Marit’s challenge and inspiration last week was all about “Word Play/Met woorden spelen” …

time seems to be moving at warp speed and I am one week behind…

found poetry is something I really enjoy and it is always surprising how words will pop off the page and find you…

a favorite book to use is Simple Abundance but this time I copied pages from Mists of Avalon which is a great escape book and fabulous read…

to find the words for my altered poems I let my eyes float across the lines of the page noticing which words pop out at me not trying too hard at all to make it happen…

I circle any words that interest me and then see how they flow together…

here are a couple of examples from two different pages…

“my old friend wakes and cries in the night

she had come this way

blessed

forgetting face

and lips

and faded hair”

and another …

“cloak wrapped tight

the messenger captured her memory

her bones

her eyes

concealed within that veil

the answer

hidden in the unyielding sky”…

back in the fall of 2009 I was lucky enough to take some super on line classes with Julie Prichard (which she still offers btw) …

that is how long these blue monoprint pages have been waiting for me…

kinda felt like they were too nice to cover up…

my art cave was calling me today especially with it being crazy three digit hot outside so I got busy…

 the dramatic feel of my found words really inspired me…

along with the perfect piece of pretty golden sari ribbon and other golden bits…

having background pages ready certainly helped move along my creative process…

you can click here if you would like to see other pages in this art journal

*sorry I do not know who to give credit to for the lady image*

message in a bottle…

Marit’s challenge this week for her Quirky Dutch Summer #2 (link on my sidebar)  is “Mail art”…

I enjoy decorating things I send in the mail depending on what kind of envelope I use usually with paper/fabric collage and rubber stamping and sometimes paint…

I thought I would try something I have always wanted to use as a container to send in the mail…

we sliced an opening in a plastic bottle and filled it with bits of this and that and even stuffed one of my lavender wands thru the cap end of the bottle…

just in case I thought I would mail a handmade postcard separately to the same person to see if they arrive across the ocean around the same time…

thank you to Karen The Graphics Fairy for the moon face and to my Queen Bee friend Nathalie of Rubyfloy for the perfect punch card for the torn border at the bottom of my postcard…

it was extra fun to see how delighted the postal ladies were today asking was it okay to put necessary stickers here and there on the “package”…

“When we think of ourselves as human, we limit the way we express ourselves in life.  We hear, “I’m just human; I’m not perfect.”  But, if we call ourselves artists, where is that limitation?”  ~Don Miguel Ruiz

Marit’s “Quirky Dutch Summer #1”

if you don’t already know Marit you will definitely want to stop by her blog for a visit…

she is a powerhouse of ideas and inspiration and even has her own magazine called “FEATURING” which is all about art journaling, mixed media and more… 

here is what she says about her latest project…

“As of June 12, there will be an inspirational post on my blog every Tuesday this Summer. This will go on for 10 weeks – posts handling a theme or a technique or…  let’s say: ‘something’ that can be used as an inspiration to get your creative juices flowing. I will think of fun, small challenges to go with it, and you will probably have the possibility to leave your link with each post when you played along.”

Week #1 Fear of the Blank Page …

I am in the process of cleaning/clearing my art room which is a daunting and long overdue task …

I just had to stop for some playtime…

some of my favorite journals are old encyclopedias which are a bit of a rescue mission since everyone seems to be getting rid of them these days…

each of the pages in my 1931 Funk & Wagnalls, Volume III Bart-Book measures 4 x 6″…

I received a free Blue collage sheet in a recent ARTchix Studio order and that is what got me going on these pages…

you can see some of the other supplies I used above including an old Star Trek View Master disc …

the magical lady with her blue wings is layered on a piece of parchment paper that came in between packaged cheese slices…

I stamped the face on the back of a plastic tomato ‘carton’ top as the Lady Moon Organic food logo always speaks to me plus the produce is very good too…

oftentimes a quote or words are my spark for starting a page…

but this time the Lord Byron quote came last…

I do Love quotes and all shades of blue…

“Oh! `darkly, deeply, beautifully blue’, As someone somewhere sings about the sky.” ~Lord Byron

I am looking forward to Marit’s Tuesday prompts and her Quirky Dutch Summer