The agony and ecstasy of moving

I have been busy getting ready for my big moving day in a little over a week. Everything has been on hold until I'm settled but i am excited since I will be able to have multiple work areas, including outdoor space, to resume my creative work in my new home. In the meantime I am dealing with my pack rat tendencies and packing has really been a chore. Hence my absence from my recently resurrected blog. I will miss my city apartment but am hopeful for a more productive future. And I have been documenting my mood board walls and other vignettes that I will miss.

Handmade gratitude

My first posts here were about my struggles and triumphs working on my first aceo collection. These cards became highly layered and i had some creative fears as to covering up areas, feeling too attached and becoming over-precious about outcomes. Which is of course an attitude that kills art production. So i pushed forward, photographing stages so i could still "have" the various layers before i painted or covered up details that weren't working with the whole.
Anyway, after all that work, i was heartened when many of these little cards sold. I always wondered how artist cards are/would be displayed. I had heard people keep them in sleeves like baseball cards. So i was intrigued when Amy from Bumblebelly Designs bought two cards and then convo-ed that she was using my cards to create an "Etsy inspiration board". I wondered what her project would look like.
This week i received another Etsy e-mail inviting me to view said inpiration board on her wonderful blog. It is so sensitively put together. The juxtaposition of the different subtly-colored cards makes each little card more beautiful. The whole is greater than the parts.

A tray flown to london

My first experience with personal feedback via Etsy occurred when I sold a large rectangular glass tray to a buyer in London,England. She sent me a convo saying my work was beautiful but my photos were bad. And this was true. I was using our business digital camera and was not familiar with settings etc so my pictures were too yellow and dark. In the meantime, after she received her tray, she sent me beautiful photographs of it residing on her coffee table. I found out later that she was a famous Romanian documentary filmmaker. I was inspired to work on improving my photos. And I cherish the images she sent me.

Etsy's personal touch

One of things i love about selling on Etsy is that my customers have an identity and transactions feel more personal. Buyers are more than credit card numbers and addresses. In recognition of this i try to wrap purchases in a unique way with added handmade gift tags, etc. One of the surprising benefits of the internal e-mail that Etsy provides (called convos) has been customers that are kind enough to follow through and not only give feedback. They have shared with me how they are enjoying my crafts in their homes via photographs. Since i am the kind of maker that, in the past, has had irrational issues of separation anxiety concerning my work these gestures are more than welcome. Instead of anxiety i feel pride!

Decoupage pears

After creating a secure base of crumpled newspaper I covered the forms with newspaper strips saturated in a methyl cellulose wallpaper paste. After the surface dried I drilled screws into the tops and coated them with a plaster mixture to smooth out the pear shape, sanding the surface when dry. Atop the plaster skin I then applied cut-out patterns from magazines saturated in wallpaper paste and white glue. When dry I sprayed them with acrylic gloss varnish.

Experiments in papier mache

Lately I have been attempting to diversify my creative endeavors and investigate some new techniques. Although I love creating glass plates with decoupaged images I was starting to feel that my product didn't seem "handmade" and decided to create other kinds of bases for images and patterns. Thus began my latest experiments with papier mache. I started by making some basic pear shapes.

More Colourlovers

Here are a few more of my newest color palettes paired with inspiration source images.

Colourlovers

Before I continue with my discussion of decoupage and papercrafts in general, i would like to talk about the amazing, inspiring fun that is colourlovers.com. This color community is a live index of color combinations created by members (almost 800,000 and counting). It is free to join and I would encourage any design enthusiast to do so. Not only are members challenged to come up with a dizzying array of palettes and patterns, we are also required to name all combos as well as any new colors created. The titles people come up with run from seriously descriptive to completely random. 5-color palettes can be created by simply using the color tool provided until you come up with a combination that suits your mood. Or lately I have been using images from my vast digital collections as inspiration: you can pixilate the image and pick out 5 tones for your palette. For instance, my "finlandic borealis" color combo came from a source photo in my extensive "atmospheric optics" folder (both pictured above)

My Romance with Decoupage

When I began this blog I somehow never got around to discussing my love of all things decoupage. It seems silly in hindsight since my etsy shop and most of my crafting is devoted to it. And by decoupage I mean cutting and pasting and lacquering images. In the sixties my mother created neat trompe l'oeil wooden panels where she decoupaged cut-out objects from magazines so I was acquainted with the process. Then I was lucky enough to read a book "The New Decoupage" by decoupage guru Durwin Rice. His website is a treasure trove of tutorials, including videos, and supplies for the descerning crafter.
His book is packed with great ideas, in his inimitable style, and his writing style is casual and encouraging.

Back from a long hiatus

It has been a while since I last posted. I had an intense 2008 which featured being laid-off and acquiring a severe double-fracture and dislocation of my left elbow.
Add to that political anxiety and you'll see a good recipe for writer's block.
So, now that the dust has settled I'm feeling pretty energized and am re-embarking via this blog. Throughout the year I kept up with my handmade work as best I could and am now back on track and will be sharing this with you readers.
It's nice to be back!