Our New Fireplace!

It's finally done! And I love, love, love the difference it makes in our living room!

The grouting iself was not too bad (although messy!), but we didn't clean enough of the grout off the tiles while it was still wet, so Mark ended up scrubbing for days with phosphoric acid to get all the grout off so the color of the tiles would show. The slate gray with blue tones and the rust are just perfect for the room.

Here are a few photos, plain and with some accessories added!







Next up, bamboo floors! (Well, at least I can dream.)

Vita Art Party: Greeting Cards

Friday before last, Melissa and I taught at Vita's first monthly Art Party. This is an event Mary (Vita's owner) conceived to get arty folk together to mingle, party, and create. She provided snacks and wine and music, and 15 of us had a ball making some unique greeting cards.

Melissa was able to snap a few photos, but I was too busy teaching everyone how to do heat embossing. I love teaching this, as it seems magical to the uninitiated!

Amazing Altered Photos and Postcards!

Last Monday was the second in the Altered Mondays series I'm teaching at Vita, and I was so impressed by the amazing results the students got with their photos and postcards. They loved the techniques and would have gone on creating late into the night if I hadn't packed up my materials and gone home!

Altered Mondays

Two Mondays ago, I began teaching a series of six classes at Vita Art Center we're calling "Altered Mondays." In the first class, we altered various papers, including sheet music, ledger paper, maps, and book pages. I didn't get any good photos of the finished papers (bummer!), but I did get a few of my students and the tons of supplies I hauled to class.

I Own a Jean Angle Original!

My friend Jean, whose work I have admired for several years now, took one of my failed collages and created this amazing work of art, which now hangs in my living room!

The only thing that remains of my original collage is those arches in the lower center. And Jean even made the monk's face and hands from paper clay and used lots of copper to go with my living room decor. I LOVE this!

Valentine Magnets

Just a few magnets I made to sell at Made in Ojai. They're made using UTEE, shrink plastic, and various coloring methods. Somehow I slipped these in between class preparations.

OY! My Achin' Back!

Mark and I spent the weekend adding slate tiles over the top of the brick surrounding our fireplace. Talk about crouching and bending! Me at the fireplace and Mark doing the cutting; we both had sore backs when it was all done.

Of course, its NOT all done, though. Still have to grout. But the hard part is done and I love the look. Have a peek:







I'll post another pic once the grouting is done, but it will have to wait until this weekend.

UTEE Experiments

My friend Kristen came over last week to play with UTEE and the techniques in one of Suze Weinberg's books. We made a few things with mixed success, but of course I had to keep on going with this since I had everything out on my art table.

Here are some of the embellishments I made with UTEE, shrink plastic, PearlEx, stamps, inks, Rub 'n Buff, cardboard shapes, acrylic shapes, etc.