My Foolish Muse!

I think that my birthday should have been April Fool's Day. I have always had a good sence of humor and many times it shows in my work. My daughter's due date was ACTUALLY on April Fool's Day, but thankfully she waited. I had crossed my fingers (and my legs) in hopes she wouldn't be born that day. All I could think of was that this poor child would have lots of teasing. Having presents that had nothing in them and other such pranks.

Without thinking of tomorrow's date, it seems as though I have prepared for it. The work above is that of an altered pop can. I made her for a friend in ND who wanted a piece of my work to hang in her cubical at the bank. I had a blast working on this one and used also another cut can to make the crown and the heart. The arms and legs are actually fishing lures covered with alcohol inks. I debated painting on a face and start pouring over glamour magazines and started cutting out different facial features from various subjects that humored me even more of this whimsical ruler!



Even cats make make great fools! I had wandered into an Alice In Wonderland charm swap and finished packageing and sending out my Cheshire Cat pieces. I can hardly wait for the swap to arrive! There were 25 participants, so we will be getting 25 back in the process.



My amusing Foolish Muse was working over time when this idea hit. I belong to an ATC group and periodically we get to choose a theme. I chose the theme WARP or WARPED! Mind you I had an idea with a technique in mind for a material to be warped as in bent out of shape physically, but I have yet to produce it! Instead my muse kicked in and this was one of the results. I love a play on of words and some times, it takes just a thought to put you into a belly laugh, so hence, this Warped sense of humor put into play. I believe this world could use more laughter. Great for your blood pressure too!



A second warped sense of humor emerged yesterday while playing with facial features from magazines. I so happened to find a photo of Angelina Jolie and decided to use her lips. I also had these great pair of eyes which had me thinking that I simply had to do a spoof on plastic surgery! After all, it can be kind of warped at that. Women make changes when they cannot find it in their heart to accept themselves as they are. The eyes remind me of Tammy Faye Baker (or perhaps even Michael Jackson's) and of course botox looking lips completed the face. While thinking plastic, flamingos came to mind. It occured to me that we are a plastic society and no doubt that there are more plastic flamingos than there are real ones in the U.S.! So,my warped became one strange bird. Of course after thoughts came about too after making this. I could have even added some silocone breasts. I may still do this!



I seemed to have been on a roll with a warped sense of humor and this was my 3rd result. I had gotten an email from a friend that showed you how to properly adjust your mirrors to avoid that blind spot, In which I never knew! What great information! Even something serious could have me giggling as I am reminded of the "objects in mirror are closer than they appear". I mean WHAT IF.... I imagined a close up of what could be seen in a mirror and at first I thought human and the more I thought, what if it were a just a tad scarier and used an eye of a creature! I wasn't sure if I had gotten this fully portrayed the way I wanted it as the dark green which is the color of my car, looks perhaps it could have even defined the animal itself! OH well, I shall leave the view for the interpreter to see what he sees. I also was going to print the words on a transparency in white and do darker shading with the eye, but alas to my amazement, it doesn't print in white! DUH! O.K. so it had to be dark gray, but I guess at least it showed up and if it weren't for the words, the viewer may not have known what the object really was!



Have you ever been teased as a child of your first or last name? I could certainly relate! My last name was Schneiderman and I grew up with the tag of Spiderman by some cruel kids, but never the less, it could have certainly been worse! Anyway, As I was thinking of the word WARP, the name Andy "Warp"hol came to mind. I thought of things I could warp with Marilyn Monroe, but then I decided to focus on his Cambell's soup cans that he had produced 32 cans of. The ATC represents a sampling of soup then (in 1965) during the pop movement and what it would be like today. It is a take on the stance of the state of the economy and things changing. Things get more expensive and ingredients changing during a recession. In all rights, I should have down sized the can to half the size, but you will just have to imagine that part as I also wanted the label change to show as if it was no longer condenced and you could perhaps find it on the market watered down. To make it a bigger spoof, I guess I could have added, beef with hormones!



O.K. so this one is a bit out of the ordinary in the whimsey department, but a creative process none the less and I am pleased with the results. I was also thinking of time warp and came across these photos of time swirling into space. I love the concept with the clocks so printed one with color and yet another one on a transparency. The woman is also a rubber stamp with clocks making up much of her face. It's been a favorite piece and wanted to find a place to put her on, and this was perfect! Although playing with the transparency, I felt it was too flat and really wasn't pleased with it, so I got the idea to suspend it. Remember me suspending the lutradur ATC's? This time the dimension would be the suspension. I used some sticky craft foam to outline the transparency and Somehow while playing, I decided to let some of the outer portion of the colors to show through and I liked it so much better! I love the 3 D effect!



This ATC doesn't really fit the part for April Fools, but it was one I was working on at the same time since I had the theme
Cherry Blossom to do for a trade. My immediate thoughts were Japanese Cherry Blossoms so chose to do an oriental flare. I am facinated by origami so have decided to do one in this style. Ironically I had gotten this paper that looked like cherry blossoms from a gal in a trade and seemed perfect for the komono. The background piece is actually a paint chip swatch that I picked up in the paint department at Lowes.

I am now amongst the chaos of my messy table, so time to let my foolish muse rest and regroup for the next round of creativity.

9 Lives And Then Some

I need a name for this fella! He's a Norwegian Forest Cat. Another sweetheart in my life. He will sleep beside me all night long. I am such a sucker for long haired cats. Now to find the perfect name!


This is Cheddar, my all time lover boy and favorite kitty. He's so sweet and loves to put his paws around my neck or lay on top of me when I am in bed. He also likes to nest in the sink.... so why is it when they don't like baths that they like to conform to that area? One will never know.


We have a black cat outdoors we have named Nova, so now we have Caine. Nothing like pairing up names with a little creativity. LOL Anyway, Caine is a sweet male and needs some loving. Wish we could keep them all indoors, but have more than plenty. Would love to give this guy a home, but one thing for sure, we never let the fur babies around here go hungry!

This is Jack (as in One Eyed Jack) Yes, he only has one eye and even part of an ear missing. He was always fighting with Caine, but now there is no contest now that they are both fixed. He is another good loving cat that would like to have a home. He stays at the old homestead next door, but he would like nothing more than to be loved all day long.
No picture of Morris yet, yep another one that hangs around. He is all orange and a nice big boy. I shall be getting him neutered soon! That 's the price cats pay when they enter our yard. I had to think of how many cats we have spayed/ neutered over the years and to date is 23! If only everyone else would be so responsible. At least we are doing our part in the neighborhood cleaning up everyone's unwanted litter! The real eye opener is that if 1 male and 1 female cat mate and produce kittens, over a 10 year period, the two cats will have produced 2 million cats with their offspring! Sadly 5-10 million cats and dogs are put down each year in shelters because there are not enough homes.

Lets face it!

Today I finished up teaching an online face painting on fabric class. Makes me feel worthwhile when I teach. Here's the final drawing and a few changes I ended up doing by the time I finished the painting.

Lutradur Crazy

I have been wanting to play with some lutradur ever since I bought it, but there never seems enough time to do all that I would like. As it turns out, an ATC group's theme was "something new", so when the opportunity presents itself, I decided to jump on it . I first painted the lutradur with a watered down wash of acrylics and let it dry fully. I added some glitter paint lightly spread out and let it dry again. With a heat gun, the lutradur was heated to melt in various areas. I love the texture it left behind! I used batik background fabric and laid the lutradur on top and stitched them into ATC's. I then began my designing of each one a bit differently. With this one below, I cut away areas to match the shapes of the glass stones and suspended them with wire within the design. I actually like this method a lot! Reminds me of perhaps the surface of the moon. The glass pebbles were found very inexpensively at the dollar store.



I am always saving bits of fabric that I have used in other projects so I took this little square and made it a feature inside of this ATC. This time I stitched thread across the piece to suspend it.



This was also another left over piece of fabric I designed for a project. The beginnings of this fabric in the center was actually paint on fusible web and then adhered to the fabric with other bits of fabric and stitching.



This time I used beads and strung it through on a stringer to fill up the hole area.


With this one, I stitched completely across and let the threads hold onto themselves. Sort of reminisent of dream catcher or even darning socks!



In between working on these, I have been teaching a face painting class so when I get the final piece ready, I will post that one too.

Challenge DAY 3

It's today!!! The unveiling of the finished project! We were to sew the pieces at the half way point on each piece so that they over lapped. It looked a bit funky at first!



Then embellishments were added revealing a crown book. It can be worn(Very tiny for my head, I might add. lol) or the pieces opened up as pages around the crown could have words in them to make a continuous book. Here's my very lovely royal display!



Thanks Leilani! Loved working on the challenge with so many lovely pieces from everyone in so many different styles:)

Challenge DAY 2

Today is day 2 of the blind challenge. Our instruction was to cut about a half inch down with a jagged edge and then to cut the strips into 4 equal pieces. We could flip front to back or all one side, add light embellishment and to put a line in the middle of the back of the piece.

Hmmmm..... which do you like best? This one ?


Or This one? I am tempted to add these left over pieces from the top and attach them with black thread and french knots.
I think I like this side best because of the brighter colors. Reminds me of salsa and peppers!



I can hardly wait until tomorrow though to see what we do for our final step. What will it be? A crown, a book, an open box? We shall soon see!

A New Blind Challenge

I am up for a new "Blind" challenge. Leilani is posting a 3 day challenge from one of my fiberart groups. I am looking forward to what it will become. The first step was to use a piece of light weight canvas and to paint, dye, stamp etc. on a 4"X 15"piece and then to fuse it with another light weight piece and to stitch it randomly. I made my piece reversible, so don't know what side I will altimately use, but tomorrow's instruction may give me a direction.



This piece I had taken masking tape and marked it off as a resist technique. I then used watered down acrylic paints to make a wash with the design. I just strait stitched mimicing the lines in the masking.



This other side was still done with dilluted acrylics. The fabric was wet to allow it to flow more. I then used a stamp and applied StazOn ink to it. I shall now await until tomorrow for the next instruction.

Me, Myself and I

Finally! I went back to working on my portrait. Mind you this is my first attempt with working a portrait in fabric. It was late last night by the time I got started on it and then finally went to bed about 4 A.M. I had a hard time focusing by then, and should have waited for a better light and prosective.



Somehow it looked all right in those wee hours of the morning but got a better look and laugh at it today. One thing for sure, I will be doing this again, only I shall have to invest in some small extra sharp scissors as regular sissors weren't quite cutting it. (Literally!) Especially with fine detail around the nose. It needs more depth and detail and am tempted to redo. Maybe stitching would have been better in some areas or the fact that I was working small may have had a lot to do with it. All in all, I don't suppose it's bad for my first self taught fiber portrait atempt, but definitely room for improvement!

Loving Myself

I think that everyone should love themselves. Whether they can for who they are or how they can change to make them more loveable! So I have decided to do a self portrait. I think artists can love themselves even more as they can improve their own likeness so to speak! For instance, the wrinkles can get ironed out a bit. Like those crows feet we often get as we age, well in my case I think that they are actually eagles talons!

Actually I have decided to do some studies with my portrait in other mediums. So I will up date another one after I get these @*#%& taxes finished.