Postcard Exchange Display

I finally decided on a way to display all the postcards I'm receiving in the monthly exchange (thanks, Jean!). Here's the whole display so far:





January's theme was black & white. Here are all the cards:







Here are the red cards from February:









March was turquoise and chocolate brown:







Can't wait until the entire wall is full of these gorgeous cards!

Colors of India Postcards

This month's postcard swap colors were "the Colors of India." Yum! I had been hearing about this red rosin paper on a Yahoo group, so I got some at the hardware store and went to town collaging delicious paper all over it, then turned them into cards, with the help of my mom's fancy schmancy sewing machine. Here are the results:


(I kept this dragonfly for myself!)






Everyone in the group got various different paisleys.

Here they are all together, before I sewed them onto some sturdy paper backing with a zigzag stitch around the edges:



I've posted a complete tutorial of all the steps involved in this project on one of the Yahoo groups, so if you're interested, send me an e-mail and I'll point you there.

Lori's Lexicon

Okay, so I've been working on this sort of artist's journal for a while, and I think I'm ready to share. I made a book using watercolor paper, with enough pages for a spread on each letter of the alphabet. On each spread, I'm including images and words starting with that letter that I'm drawn to. It's been very therapeutic, and I'm starting to like the outcome. Here are a few finished pages:







This one's my favorite so far. If you click on the image, you can see a larger version:









I've finished the pages up to G, and all the others are painted and ready for me to start adding images and words. Here are some of the painted backgrounds:







I'll continue to post the finished spreads as they emerge!

Emma's Recycled Sweater Purse

I mentioned in a previous post that my friend Melissa came over and made a purse for her daughter out of recycled and felted wool sweaters. She had sewn very little before and was able to finish it in just a few hours.

Emma loves it; her new journal (see post before last) fit right in and the pockets are perfect for pens and pencils, so she's going to use it as her art bag.



Here are some close-ups:





Great job, Melissa!

Mexican Primitive Postcards

Here are my March postcards for the postcard exchange group. The colors for March were chocolate brown and turquoise. I found this picture of a Mexican sculpture with turquoise mosaic across the face, and I just had to try to continue the mosaic look.





I used modeling paste to create the primitive-looking tiles, then painted the "grout" and embossed the color onto the top of them. Different, huh?

My First Art Class (as a Teacher)

I taught my first art class today with a delightful group of kids and one mom/friend who got the group together. The kids made wonderful journals with painted burlap covers.

As always with kids, I was amazed at their natural artistic abilities. How do we lose that confidence as we become adults?

Here are the kids (and Melissa!) hard a work:











And here they all are with their beautiful books:



















Working outside in the sunshine helped to make it a truly enjoyable day.

Jen's Recycled Sweater Purse

Just finished a purse for my sister, which she really loves. If you look back in my January posts, you'll see her daughter Alexa with a pink and dark gray sweater I made her, and Jen requested a purse in the same colors. So, here's what she got:







I lined this one, since I know she'll be giving it some abuse, and the lining helps strengthen the purse, since it's not stretchy like the felted sweater fabric.



These are so quick and easy to make. My friend Melissa came up last week and made one for her daughter, and she's hardly sewn before. I'll post a photo of that one as soon as she sends it to me (and you can bet I'll be bugging her about it!).

I'm hoping to get back to posting more often. I've been working on some personal artwork lately that I'm not ready to share. I picked up a pretty profound book, at least for me, called The Soul's Palette, and have been doing some of the exercises it contains that are purely process-oriented. Thus, not a lot of showable work, but I'm stunned at the personal transformations that can take place when you let your feelings out on paper and pay attention to the images you choose to work with. More on this topic later!

February is for RED

Somehow, without conscious effort, I've been making a lot of red art this month. Now, I'm not big on Valentine's Day, as i think it's a Hallmark Holiday, but red has been speaking to me this month.

SPOILER: for those of you in my postcard exhcange group, I'm posting photos of my Feb. cards, which you have not received yet!

First, I was inspired by a broken red glass bowl a friend of my Mom's gave me, as she knows I do mosaic. It was this gorgeous, thick red glass with a scalloped edge tipped in gold. I tranformed it into a candle holder, which ended up with more of a gothic feel than I intended:





Here's the best photo I could get without a tripod when the candle was lit:



Looks like it belongs in Kyle's apartment. Hmmm . . . .

February's color theme for the postcard exchange was red, and somehow I ended up with an India and Yoga theme for this one. The background is created with gesso and tissue paper and various texturing effects:





It's kinda cool to see them all together:



And I'm only sending ONE this month!