By Definition

Two posts in one day? Yikes!

The January theme for the Milwaukee ATC group's live trade is "By Definition," and I was somewhat inspired by a book that Robin Kinney made for the exhibit "Serious Fun" at the Bay View Book Arts Gallery in which she contrasted photos of ordinary women with the epithets and insults commonly used against women. I went a little broader in my word choices but was still interested in how a different word can define the character of the anonymous woman depicted.

Gary had given me these ink jet transparencies of vintage photos from his collection, apparently all the same woman with and without a hat. I used these to practice doing gel medium transfers on to ATC backs that I had painted earlier. Some transferred well - some not so much, but that's what gives them character! There was also enough image left on the transparencies that I could cut those faces up and sew them onto the ATCs as well.

The tangled border of thread on "Hysterical" was made by loosening the thread tension on my old workhorse Singer sewing machine and running the card through upside down so all the bobbin thread ended up in swirly loops on the front. (Hysteria was once seen as a particularly female affliction, from the same root as "hysterectomy" and thought to be caused by the derangement of the female parts.)

I had some folks from my ATC group over last Saturday for a impromptu ATC & tea open house while my menfolk were out of town, and so I'll say for my mother's sake that someone else suggested the word I use the word "bitch" (Honestly, Mom! I never would have thought of it otherwise!)

I also learned some new things, for instance that "chaud-medley" is the killing of a man (only a man?) in the "heat of blood or passion." And the "seamy side" of things comes from sewing - the side on which the seams show.


Full series can be seen here.

Crafting 365, Days 17, 18, 19

Walk Like an Egyptian

Cleopatra, or Land of Denial

Rose Eytinge
Originally uploaded by libraryimages.net

Every once in awhile unrelated projects cross paths or intersect in some strange way. Over a week ago, I happened to be researching the family name Eytinge (no relation to me but it ties in with a history project I've had on the back burner for several years) and came across this print of actress Rose Eytinge on Flickr. As soon as I saw it, I realized I had seen her before in the Ten Two Studios Vaudeville Women faux postage set. So this was tucked away in my brain when I saw that this week's Make It Mondays theme was Egypt.

Rose was known for her portrayal of Cleopatra and had actually lived in Egypt for a time. I'm certain this print showed her in that role, given the hieroglyphics and Egyptian architecture in the background and the pseudo-Middle Eastern costume. So Rose's faux postage stamp had to be the central image on my ATC. Because the theme for the Milwaukee ATC group's January meeting is "By Definition," I added a dictionary entry that applied to Cleopatra: "ambition." At Clip Art, ETC, I found the hieroglyphics for Cleo's name and some other Egyptian motifs for my background. All these elements combined make my first ever Egyptian-themed ATC!

Pretending it's almost spring

Crafting 365, Days 14 & 15
Yesterday's high was below zero with windchills -30 to -40 degrees Fahrenheit, today's high was zero, so I was obviously fantasizing about spring when I made some of my samples for my Muskego classes in February and March. In February I'm teaching "Mini-Accordion Books" and in March "Easy Pop-Up Cards." In the card sample above, when you pull the sides of the card, a butterfly pops out, using the colorful butterfly faux postage from Ten Two Studios. The paper is Amy Butler double-sided scrapbook paper and the dreamy flapper is from the Ten Two Studios green collage set.

For the book class, I'm teaching a very basic accordion book like the one pictured above, as well as these little book ornaments or pendants (below), which were inspired by the mini-accordion book trade we did in the Mount Mary Book Arts Group last year and the "booklace" project featured in the September 2008 issue of the Monthly Muse.

For the pop-up class I'm focusing on basic designs that anyone can do (I hope!).

Crafting 365 rebooted

I decided to start 2009 by getting back into the Crafting 365 project, which I had been working on after I finished my ATC-a-Day project but fell out of the practice last summer when we started househunting and then moving.

On New Year's Day, my friend Jess Poor held an art play date at her studio, so we all started the year craftily. I wrestled with wire-wrapping techniques since I'm trying to improve my skills. My mom got me the book A Charming Exchange for Christmas, and I almost considered doing a "Charm-a-Day" project this year, but I quickly realized I was better off keeping my goals open-ended. So my official photo for Day #1 (above left) was of the Coiled Wire Knot charm in that book. This was my second attempt since on my first attempt, I wrapped my wire around a larger dowel and the coils just flopped around when I joined them together.

I also have Josie Cirincione's latest book Bent, Bound & Stitched, from which I got the instructions for the button pendant above (Day #2 - above right). I had a little trouble bending my wire to fit my button!



Day 6 was another technique from Charming Exchange in which I learned I can twist wire with my little cordless Dremel rotary tool but I'm not very good at twisting it around itself. I want wire to behave like thread, but it seems to have a mind of its own. I'm getting better, but I do end up with a lot of distorted wire scraps (which of course I can't throw away, because I might be able to use them for SOMETHING).

A Fresh Start

This week's Make It Monday's theme is Fresh Start, and this year I'm rebooting my Crafting 365 project. My goals for 2009 include trying new techniques and having a go at all those projects that I bought supplies for but never did!

When my mom and I visited Oregon in October 2007, we went thrifting with Corinne (shown here with her finds) and I bought some lovely tarnished silver-plated spoons intending to do the spoon pendant project I had seen in the June 2007 issue of The Monthly Muse. Flash forward more than a year later, when we moved house in Nov. 2008 and I rediscovered those spoons still waiting to be altered...

I had originally had more of an egg/bird's nest theme in mind because of the shape of the spoon, but then I decided to use the blue and white bead doodads that I had wire-wrapped on New Year's Day at Jess's art play date and from there I chose this lovely Ingres portrait from the Ten Two Studios Little Dickens collage sheet. And so I made something new that I had never done before - hurrah!

Moving House and the Mystery Cat

Sister, can you spare some kibble?

Since last I blogged, my husband and I ended up taking advantage of the slow real estate market and buying a house (my first). After what seems like months (well, weeks anyway) of packing, moving, cleaning, fixing, unpacking, reorganizing, etc, we're finally mostly settled in but still have boxes to be unpacked and art lying against the walls rather than hanging on it.

We had seen a black cat hanging around our back yard, but hadn't thought much of it until after the first big snow when it showed up at our front door looking for food. We asked our neighbor who it belonged to and he said as far as he knew it didn't have an owner. The previous owners of our house had been leaving food out for it the past few years, and it apparently lives under our deck.

It's extremely shy, though it has let me pet it while it's eating. This is the best photo I've managed to take of it because when it hears the camera whir open, it bolts. We've been waiting to hear whether the realtor was able to learn anything from the previous owners - did they ever take it to the vet? Have it neutered? Give it shelter in winter?

We can't let it inside, even if it wanted to come, because we already have two cats who can be very aggressive and territorial. (Nuts once chased our landlord's dog out of the yard at our old house, and Ruby freaks whenever she sees another cat out the window. They don't even get along with each other very well.) If it truly is a feral cat, it can't be adopted in the traditional way and suddenly be transformed into a house cat. And assuming it's been living here several years and knows this territory well, it might not do well being relocated (as much as I would like to take it to my sister's farm -- haven't convinced her to buy into that one yet ;o)

It survived our subzero temperatures before Christmas, but after doing a little research on-line I made a temporary feral cat shelter using stuff we had around the house: cardboard box, plastic sheeting, foam insulation board, and duct tape, plus some hay from my sister's farm. I'm not sure yet what the long term plan will be....

Thrift Addiction

Not that I'm procrastinating the pile of dirty dishes waiting to be washed, but I just thought I'd take a moment to show off the box of old tools I bought at an estate sale around the corner from us last weekend. On the Friday, I had stopped and fondled the tools (marked at $1 each) and bought five that I thought I would actually use, including a cool scrap of folding wooden ruler and two awls (which I have been using this week for punching holes in metal). The woman in charge said these had been her father-in-law's and they would be half-price on Saturday, but I knew I'd be gone all day for the Milwaukee ATC group's monthly meeting (which included a field trip up to West Bend to visit the Museum of Wisconsin Art)

So Saturday morning, I left home a little early so I could stop at the estate sale again, and I asked how much she wanted for the entire box. $10? So for $15 total I am now the proud owner of some 40+ tools, many of which I have no idea what they do. But they have cool wooden handles and that worn look that you just can't fake. My favorite is a spiral screwdriver stamped "Goodell Bro's Shelburne Falls Mass/ Patented July 22.1890 Nov.17.1891" It still spirals in and out beautifully! And hoorah for Google Patents and all those tool collectors who share their research on the internet!

And the sad thing is I'm not even a tool collector.... I just adore old junk...