Whatever....

I could promise I'll be starting all over with a renewed goal of blogging more frequently, but I'm afraid I  might be lying if I said that.  Daily entries were out of the question, and weekly ones, while completely doable, don't happen much either.  My blog is more like an annual report, right?  Whatever!  Does it really matter?  The important thing is, I'm still creating.... things.  Lots of things.  And true to my diagnosis, they are varied and completely sporadic.  Months ago, I recapped much of my art, especially the current pieces.  Then I had a little showing, and have done very little actual artwork since.  Oh, I guess there was the companion piece to 'The Fan', entitled 'The Other Fan'.

But then I got focused on making bracelets for the holidays.  They have been selling really well, and I might have to continue making them well into next year.

So, I'm about to embark on more chicken coop details.  That involves sawing lumber, drilling holes, screwing wood together, or attaching with hinges, angle plates, attaching hardware cloth, etc.  I have a couple problem roosters that occasionally need quarantining, so they'll have new cages for those episodes of 'time out'. 

I also get to finish a drywall project in the house, finish building a platform bed for our California King mattress, finish building an accent fence and decorative planting bed in the yard, finish knitting a scarf, and THEN start my next piece of artwork.  See?  I didn't even take credit for starting the drywall project, platform bed, accent fence, landscaping, and scarf.  I started most of those things since my last blog entry, so I defensively mention it now!  I did stuff!  I just didn't tell you about them.  Wow, I'm feeling punchy.  Maybe because I'm watching a Lewis C.K. special on Netflix.  Hmmm.

Anyway, I'm gonna create something else now, and I'm not going to talk about blog resolutions for the New Year.  I won't make any promises.  I'll check in sometime... don't know when.

Retrospective

I recently had the need to accumulate samples of many of my past artworks.   I was being considered to do a commissioned piece to be made into prints, and in order for the members of that organization to vote on my worthiness, they needed to see examples to judge the quality of my work.  (A side note, I cleared the hurdle, and will be doing that particular piece this fall!)  So... in accumulating and refining those images of pieces long gone, I have all new digital files of many more works to show off.  Sometimes I forget that just because I enter a photo in facebook, that doesn't mean everyone sees it.  Most of these works are a combination of graphite, watercolor and acrylic.

Here are pieces from my 'rock period':

'Timeline, Extended'

'Love ROCKS!'

'Nested'

And that transitions nicely into my 'egg period':

'Eleven'

'Family'

'Safety Nest'

I will probably never abandon fabric as one of my favorites in subject matter.

'Enrapport, Deux'

'Knot'

'Rapunzel Had a Better Idea'

'Screwed'

'Swag'

And my new favorite theme.... hands!

'Tug of War' collaboration with J.P. Morrison

(My contribution is the panel on the right.)

'The Fan'

My work in progress is a self portrait (of my hands only) holding 51 cents (which is also my age).  I'm working from about a dozen photos, and have only just begun, barely getting most of the outlines roughed in.  Soon, it will look something like this photo:

Reference for '51'

Well, that about sums it up, so it's back to the drawing board for me!

Me, again!

What????.... Twice in one day?!  I thought since I took a few  months off from blogging (and yes, I DO realize that was right after vowing to make weekly postings, which was right after taking almost a year off....) I thought it was fitting to turn in some extra credit homework.  It's not that I did nothing for the past few months.  On the contrary, I start many things and have a whole host of unfinished projects to show for it!  But in the midst of those are actually a few finshed things.  Hard to believe!

I decided if I was ever going to 'be an artist when I grew up', first I need to grow up, and secondly, I need to do art!  For years, I've been turning out only one or two pieces a year, which is really unacceptable.  So, sometime in February, I decided to get serious.  I layed out an outline of several juried exhibits and competitions I wanted to enter, and came up with a series of deadlines.  That is the kind of catalyst I usually need to get working.

First, I finally got around to drawing the Texas Longhorn hand gesture I'd been talking about doing for over a year.  I'm going to make prints of it soon, that will be for sale.

This hand gesture piece is titled 'The Fan', measures 10x10, and is a combination of graphite, watercolor and acrylic.  (To satisfy the 'Other Fans' around where I live, I'll also be doing the Texas A&M 'gig 'em' gesture soon.)

Then I made the following 'popcorn' piece and donated it to the Tulsa Artists Coalition Gallery for their annual 5x5 show and fundraiser sale.

This piece quickly sold at the TAC event.  All works are priced at $55, so some of them are real bargains, depending on what artist painted them.

I was on a roll, and by March, already having two pieces under my belt, finished another 5x5 piece.  I had originally thought of sending this one to the Tulsa gallery, but once it was completed, I sold it almost immediately.  

The piece is titled 'Happy Hour', measures 5"x5", and is also a combination of graphite, watercolor and acrylic, as is the popcorn piece above.

In April, I decided it was time to work on a piece I've been kicking around in my mind for a few years.  I ultimately want to do a set of three pieces, and this is going to be Part 3, which will hang below two other pieces that are all hung vertically in a row.  The set is titled 'Rapunzel Had a Better Idea'.

Again, the same three media are used here.  The size of the image area (excluding mat and frame) is 10"x20".

And finally, the piece finished most recently is titled, 'The Standoff'.  I'm hoping to have shown an basic array of symbolism without taking an obvious position on 'left' or 'right'.  Hopefully it will spark conversation amongst the viewing audience.

'The Standoff' measures about 7"x16".

Now- on to another piece I have been mulling over in my head for awhile, again involving a lot of hand gestures!  So I best get at it.

Bye Bye!

Market Bag.... Check!

Over the years I have started many projects that I never finished.  If you find that hard to believe, then you don't know me at ALL!  In fact, I probably haven't finished most projects I've started.  It's laughable that I still hold out hope for some of them, which have been tucked away for so many years that the style or fad has long since passed and they will looked far too dated to be worn or displayed.  I am not deterred by that!  I'm sure the trend will circle back around eventually, and I'll be right on time.... next time!

But in the last couple of years, I've gotten better.  (Cue the drum roll!)  So without further adieu, here's the finished market bag!

There is only one loose end, and that is to find better clips to attach the strap to the bag.  These clips are only brass plated, and I'd prefer solid brass.  The Tandy Leather store was out of them at the time, so I'll check again, or possibly find them online.  I will replace these with ones that don't swivel, as that will help keep the strap from twisting.

Originally I had a very rippled lower edge to the bag (you may recall the image in my last post), so I found a small leather belt at Goodwill and cut it to fit across the bottom edge.  It's held in place with some wide, crocheted 'belt loops' for removal of the belt if I launder the bag.  Here's the bag turned inside-out:

The side strips were hand-sewn in place, and buckles were attached.  (Those are solid brass.)  I used crocheted loops as well as leather ones that came on the purchased belt.  Here's a side view:

I made the side strap long enough to wrap around the inside of the bag, enclosing the solid brass D-ring at the top.  Those are all hand-sewn in place.

I ended up doubling the long strap, as it was twisting too badly with just one layer.  Again with the hand-sewing!  I put the two strap layers back to back and sewed with matching thread all along both edges.

Finally, I didn't like how the single-layer handles were looking so misshapen, so I crocheted matching shaped oval/circles to act as 'facings' on the back sides of the handles.  Once matched up, I stitched the facings around the inner rim, then placed a piece of thick piping around, and sewed the outside edge shut.  That made the handles nice and plump, and they keep their shape fairly well, even with a bit of weight in the bag.

All in all, I'm super-pleased with the results and am looking forward to going shopping with it!  It feels really good to be able to cross a task off my 'To Do List', which doesn't happen very often!

WooHOO!

BAH HUMBLOG!

Even when you take two or three weeks off  from classes, you can still call yourself a full-time student, right?  So the same should go for blogging.  Well, I have 'started a new semester', so to speak, and am now back to my regular blogging schedule.

I couldn't get focused during the holidays, and it was all I could do to get a bit of decorating done, however slight.  This year, WE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A CHRISTMAS TREE!!!!  I just strung a few lights around, set up a couple lighted mechanical reindeer in the yard, and did a little cooking, but I really only just wanted to curl up in a chair with some hot tea and crochet the days away!  The market bag I was designing proved to be quite time consuming.  I'm getting it almost done though.  Here it is in it's crude form, with end strings still dangling and the base is all rippled.  I will possibly remedy that with a strip of leather reinforcement.  My idea is to find the right size leather belt from a thrift store, but it has to be exactly the right size and color.

I still plan to attach a buckle on that tab/band that extends out at both of the bottom corners.  Those will attach to side straps and can be cinched up however much I desire, depending on how rounded I want the overall shape to get, or it can be let out if I have something square and boxy to pack, such as a binder or album.  I also have a long shoulder strap in the works, which can be easily clipped on or removed.

With a bigger section of the crochet done, you can see the pattern much easier.  The grids of both colors are independent of each other and they may shift around a little, but they can't go far, as they are inter-woven and that stops them.  A little higher up on the bags shows a slightly tighter version of this same weave, and then the rim is made with several rows of single crochet stitches to support the handles better.

I'm not sure when I'll get the chance to run into Austin for some brass buckles, D-rings, clips, etc.... but I do have most of the straps crocheted.  In the photo above, you can see the small holes I worked in for the buckle prong to be inserted.  I can't really easily describe the way all these pieces will go together, but I can show you in the next couple of weeks (or years!), whenever I get it finished.  (I won't bore you with my new year's resolution of finishing old projects before I start new ones, but I'm sure you'll agree I'm exempt from it if I am held up because of waiting for a particular material, tool, piece, finding, or other ingredient!)

So, since that can't be shown off in its final form, how about a complete recipe?  I devised a spread a few days ago that reminded me of hummus, though it had little in common with true hummus.  It was very delicious, and I'm calling it 'yummus'!

Yummus Spread

6 hard-boiled eggs, roughly chopped

about 12 small carrots, likewise chopped

about 4 ounces of cheddar cheese, cubed (I used sharp white)

Puree these three ingredients together in a food processor, and then you can add any number of seasonings and flavors that appeal to you.  In my case, I felt it needed some water, as it was too thick and dry, and then I added a lot of garlic powder, some salt and pepper, onion powder, a pinch of jalapeño powder, and a few drops of sesame oil.

Granted, it doesn't look all that great, but it tasted amazing on a toasted baguette with some fresh spinach leaves and chopped onion!  "Bah YUMblog!"

The tree is growing

Not really feelin' it this week!  Been a little busy, but not so much that I couldn't have torn it up creatively, if I'd felt the urge.  The chicken foot is healing nicely though, thanks for asking.  Seriously, I had to learn all about bumblefoot quickly, and then go out and buy scalpels, Vetwrap, epsom salts, antibiotic cream, etc..., and do the unthinkable! (Well, for a city girl, it felt that way.)

So, Christmas is coming, people are having parties, I, in fact, had a birthday and Hubbs and I celebrated our 5th anniversary.  I also attended an art reception (some distance from home) where I collected prize money for a first place award.  So really, the fact that I accomplished anything at ALL is pretty surprising.

The 3-D ruffled stitches now cover the whole triangle grid that I posted last week in its initial stages.  And below is what the back looks like:

Next, I feel like it needs a tiny piece of a trunk attached to the bottom of the triangle, and then I'll be tacking the whole thing onto some ecru colored linen and turn it into a triangular shaped pillow.  I better get crankin' so I can enjoy it a little while before Christmas.

Then, the market bag isn't very far along either...

It is about 18 inches across the bottom, and those tabs at each side will wrap around D-rings that should cinch up the bag and slightly round the bottom corners.  Otherwise, it will basically be a square shaped bag, instead of the standard flouncy rounded shape of most market bags I've seen.

I'm liking the interwoven chains and quadruple stitches.  It's necessary to alternate back and forth between the two colors of yarn.  I opted for a fairly heavy 100% linen 'yarn', though it doesn't feel much like yarn, really.  It is turning out to be much stronger than the crochet cotton I used in my swatch, and should support a watermelon, jug of orange juice, or any other heavy groceries I might buy.

So.... I'll step it up this week and should have a finished Christmas tree pillow to show you next week.

Has it been a WEEK?

Wow, this past week went fast!  I have nothing new finished to show you but I still found ways to be creative last week, despite the sadness and distraction over losing one of our favorite kitties, and despite the trauma over the fact that Walking Dead aired it's last new show until next FEBRUARY, and despite the emotional tension of performing a surgical procedure on a case of infected 'bumblefoot' with one of my roosters... (breathe!)  Every couple of days seemed to produce something uncomfortable!  But, I eased the pain with crocheting!  I have been fiddling with two new projects.  One will be a small Christmas throw pillow, and the other is a crocheted market bag.  Hopefully the bag will turn out so well that I'll want to make several of them to use at the grocery store.

First of all, let me just say that I seem to be much more interested in the planning/designing of a project than the actual execution of it.  That's why I sketch things over and over, create swatches, do and re-do parts, trying to find the most unique and creative way to do it.  For instance, I mentioned wanting to make a market bag.  I hear they may be about to ban the plastic ones anyway, so I wanna be prepared with my own.  Now I'm faced with a lot of choices.  This could be a basic rectangular bag, or the slouchy one made with chain stitches that create holes between the loops, that looks more like a hobo bag.  Those are fine looking, and that's the direction I started to head.  But... my inclination is always to complicate things more and more (read: make aesthetic improvements!), so I was sure I could do better.  After having a very respectable start on a 'loopy bag', I tore it all out and went back to the drawing board to create some more scribble.

These doodles were an attempt to figure out something unique... how to combine two different grids, using different colors, and have them 'weave' in and out from each other.  I wanted each grid to be separate, not tacked to the other one, but interwoven so it couldn't shift around very far.  This entails crocheting each colored rows and alternating back and forth, and making the stitch alternate from front to back of the other one.

I made up this swatch using two different kinds of crochet cotton.  I took it apart several times before arriving at this pattern.  (I will be using different threads though.  I'm eyeing some expensive linen and hemp threads at the yarn store.)

I started on the bottom with a scale that would be fine for some other purpose, but too tight to be a market bag.  So, I enlarged the stitches to quadruple crochet and was happy with the spacing on the top section of this swatch.  I made one other change in the larger stitch, and now I've decided I don't like it as well.  In the image below, can you see how the lower part, the smaller weave, has a diagonal stair-step effect?  I didn't do it the same on the larger stitches, so I want to go back to that in the final project.

Okay, so that's all I have to show for myself on this market bag pattern.

But then there's the Christmas tree pillow I've begun as well.  It's barely more than a swatch itself!

This technique can be made into many different configurations.  I have made hot pads in square shapes, which resemble granny squares, only in 3-D.  The concept is to make a grid base for the raised stitches to attach to, and then work three dimensionally to attach the perpendicular stitches in a zig-zag pattern.  (Okay, maybe it's not exactly a zig-zag... it's not a Greek key either, but that would be excellent on a long retangular project.  It's really just a notched row.)  Anyway, my grid here is made with triple crochet stitches, and ch3 sections in between.  I drop a square off each end on each row to get the taper.  The vertical green stitches are also triples, four to a section.  There are no chain spaces between those sections.  You just turn the corner and continue the sets of 4 trc.  Below is how the back looks:

This 'tree' can be made any size, but the important thing is to have an even number of boxes in your first, largest row (bottom of the tree).  Mine has 36 boxes.  However many boxes you want, you multiply that number by four, and that will be the number of chain stitches you create for the bottom row.  Of course, at the turn, you'll want to also have added a ch7 (4+3) to replace your first triple stitch of the next row and the following three chains.  So I did 144+4+3, or 151 chains to start.  The box on the very top row needs to be centered over the second row, which consists of two boxes.  I learned this the hard way, as I originally started with an odd number of rows so my second-to-the-top row had three boxes and my top row had one.  That was all well and good until I started with the raised stitches.  They wouldn't flow around the corners from one row to the next!  I was always ending a row traveling downward, and I needed to go UP!  ARGH!

When you start the raised stitches, it's important to start at the very bottom outside corner and go UP the outer stem.  Any other way of starting will result in problems at the other end.  The idea is that it flawlessly turns the corner and continues onto the next row, which won't happen if you start in the wrong place or go the wrong direction!  Here's a crude example of what I mean:

If you start at the lower right-hand corner as shown, you'll end up turning the corner correctly at the other end:

Just continue working your way up the triangle in the same manner.  These aren't so much instructions to make this as it is a guideline which you can easily adapt to your own project if you are adept at crocheting.

When I've finished the green stitches,  I'll tack it down to a triangular shaped linen pillow, which I will also make.  The fabric I have is an ecru linen, so the color of the grid/base will disappear into it.  I'm debating adding some red beads in the tree pleats, or something similar to 'ornaments' here and there, maybe a trunk sticking out from the bottom, etc.  Can't wait to see how this evolves.

See ya next week...