Word for the Week = HOT

For the last week it has been swelteringly hot. Between 95 and 110 degrees. I love summer, but trying to get anything done in that kind of heat just makes people and animals wilt. I have to do things either early in the morning, or later in the evening. However, that doesn't always work, as the day it hit 110, at 7:00 at night it was still 95. Usually, this kind of heat wave in our area doesn't last long. Maybe two weeks, on average. However "They" say this year it could last, on and off, all summer. With this being the fourth year in a row of drought, our biggest fear is fire.

The heat also affects the plants in the gardens. The squash and pumpkin leaves collapse in self defense, the basil wilts, the flowers fade out, and leaves get crispy around the edges. The potted flowers on the deck must get watered every night, or within hours they are wilting. But, some plants, like the peppers and tomatoes, love the heat and thrive.

Last evening I picked our first tomato of the season. Kinda cute, doncha think?

Even though I really liked this photo, and thought is very zen-like, it didn't show how tiny the little guy was, so I stood a wine cork next to it to show scale, and took another photo.

The plant this little fella came from is loaded with fruit, so we will be eating lots of these. I plan to put them in a big bowl on the kitchen counter, and we'll grab them to snack on as we pass by. This one was very sweet, so we are looking forward to using these in salads as well.

Other than tending the gardens and yard, and trying to keep them all from withering in the heat, I have been working on the painting Gypsy 3 - Soul Mates. Here is a photo of it after I inked the drawing and then erased out the pencil. Currently the base coats of paint are on parts of it, but I don't have a photo of that yet. I want it a bit further along before I show it again.

The other thing I have been working on, besides riding my horse - which the other day was so miserably hot I felt like a fried piece of bacon - is a new costume project. Robert and I didn't compete in the Rogue Mounted Archers International competition this year. We sweltered as ground crew. Next year we want to ride (I did the previous year), and for that we need "warrior" costumes. The norm is for everyone to go black leather, corsets, medieval, or native (which could be from any country, as riders come from all over the world). I can't ride in a corset, I have NO desire to wear black leather when it's 90 degrees plus, and I wear medieval when I do SCA stuff, so wanted something different. Then we watched the new Mad Max film, and shazam! Road warrior! Robert and I have already trolled the Goodwill for bits and pieces of stuff, and got pretty lucky. The idea of ripping, shredding, and coffee dying all of this has me very excited. Also adding bits of flotsom, and metal hardware to the clothing, is going to be way fun. It's all so different than what I am used to working on, so that is the really exciting part for me. Here are the items, other than two belts, we picked up from the Goodwill, laid out on my work table. This is the "Before" shot. Every item is between 90 and 100% cotton, so even if it gets hot, it will breath. All of this has to be comfortable when riding a horse and shooting a bow, which influences the design. A fun challenge. So, let the ripping, shredding, and dying begin!

 I will post updated photos of these pieces as I go along.

So, that's what's happening in the heatwave of Southern Oregon. Well, at least at our place.

Finished Sewing Projects, A New Painting Started, and Garden Photos

This is pretty much a "catch up" post. So I'll dive right in.

First photos are of the finished riding jerkin that I made for my husband. This is for our medieval horse gaming events, but it is nice enough to wear to SCA non-horse events as well. He hadn't had a new costume in, oh, about 30+ years so I figured he was due.

The material was given to me by a friend, and is a deep maroon, heavy damask with a leaf design. I lined the piece with brown linen from my stash of fabrics. The trim looks kinda pinkish in the photos, but isn't. It does have a lot of gold metallic threads, however. The nice clasps are from JoAnn's Craft store. Oh, and the pattern was a modified Simplicity 4059. It turned out so nice, and was so easy to make, I plan on making him another one.

Apologies for the O-ring shadows. I had to hang this from my antique French iron plant holder, and didn't, I admit, realize they were in the photos until I uploaded them onto my computer. My bad. Also, once these costumes are done, I never iron them again. He wore this one last month, which is why it's a tad wrinkly.

The next one to be finished was one I started last winter, got partly done, set it aside, then pulled it out and wore it, which made me decide I really needed to finish it.

Lately I have become sorta obsessed with bohemian kimonos (I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to them), so when I found this light rayon blouse at the Goodwill, I fell in love with the pattern, the fact that it already had gold beads on it, and that it was all floaty and light (read that as baggy and floppy). I bought it for $3.99, even though it was an extra large. I just thought it would make a great shortish kimono/jacket. I cut it up the front, secured some of the beads that were coming off...they are still coming off and I try and catch them before I lose them...and wore it like that. But it needed something along the hemline. On Pinterest I saw examples of kimonos hemmed in fringe (my favorite), lace, beads, or left plain. I couldn't find any fringe, lace was WAY too expensive, so I opted for beads, since I already had ones that would work. The other day I sewed beads all along the hem. It worked out perfectly, and added just enough weight to the piece to make it hang nicely. And it adds that lovely clickity-click that beads make when they come in contact with, oh, chair backs, tables, etc. The only thing I haven't decided on is whether to shorten the sleeves. They hang below my wrists, which usually bugs the crap out of me, but as I was walking through the freezer section of the grocery store the other day, with this kimono over just a tank top, I was grateful to have those longer sleeves, otherwise I would have ended up with frostbite. So they may stay...for a while. After I make that decision, I will add beads to the hem of the sleeves. Also, it needs some kind of clasp for the top front. Not because I would ever wear it closed, but because it is so light and wonky, it falls of the hanger without being secured. Currently it is held in place with a clothespin. In the photos, I held it with a sewing pin, then took it out for the last shot, so you could see how it hangs, and how I wear it. It looked smashing with a black tank top and jeans.

Next in line is the preliminary drawing for another painting. This is number three in the Gypsy series, titled Soul Mates. Before I can ink this, and start the painting, I need to head to the art supply store and buy new ink pens and better brushes. Working on that first painting, with old supplies, some over 35 years old, was not fun.

Lastly are some misc. garden/deck photos I took about a week ago...before the temps hit 107, and a thunder storm came through and trashed a lot of the blooms. Look closely! Some of the blossoms have little guards posted!

This deck is where we spend a lot of time relaxing.

One last photo of the deck at dusk, fairy lights on, and Robert having his evening beer.

That's it, folks. Hope you are all enjoying your summer...or winter...depending on which side of the equator you're on.

Gypsy 2 - Gemini

This has been a very interesting, frustrating, and ultimately satisfying experience. Back into paint. Back into color. Back into trying to figure things out, correct mistakes, and admit when I'm done and leave it alone. Which is hard, because I have a tendency to want to keep tweaking things until I have killed the picture. Death by tweaking! (No, not twerking. That is a WHOLE different thing!)

This was the progression with the color. And as I have stated before, I have a love/hate relationship with color. I like it, but often it doesn't like me.

Blocking in color. The faces and arms are done with watercolor pencils, which at this point hasn't been blended with a brush and a bit of water. The dresses are way too bright, but these are under-colors and will be toned down as things go along. Hopefully, that will work. At this point, I wasn't sure it would. I haven't played with acrylics since the 70s.

On this next one, you can see more colors filled in, and the color of the dresses toned down. What REALLY wasn't working was the dark section at the bottom. I let the painting sit for about four days, thinking about what was wrong. Was it too dark, too chopped, too blah? I ended up answering yes to all three of those questions. I even dragged my husband out to the garage to look at it, and tell me what he thought. He's no artist, but he surprised me by saying out loud what I had been thinking. "It's too chopped up." He asked, "What is the dark part? A floor? A rug? Is the blue behind them a sheet or backdrop?" Hmmm, I thought, he has a point.

I wanted them to be outside. They are gypsy girls, after all. So, how to fix it? I tried lightening the area a little, but that didn't help. It still looked blah and too heavy and dark.

Then, I had a "duh" moment. Grass! Make them standing in grass, and add little flower blossoms in the colors of the dresses. Shazam. That did the trick. I like the painting much better now.

So, as of right now, I have walked away from this one and declared it finished. Sort of. I am leaving it out for a few days so I can keep looking at it, and if something really annoying leaps out at me I will fix it - if it can be fixed. For my first attempt at getting back into painting, I don't think it's too bad. In all honesty, it turned out better than I thought it would. I was expecting a disaster.

The important part for me is, that I am painting again. And that I didn't get halfway through, start to cry because I felt so inept (part of my brain kept screaming "High school kids can paint better than this!), and toss the piece in the trash. Although I admit, at one point I was VERY tempted.

Lastly, here is my little corner, with the finished painting still in place, until I decide it really is finished.

Now, it is on to the next painting in the Gypsy series. Maybe this one will have a horse in it along with the figure. Gypsies were great horse people, and let's face it, ...crafty and not so honest horse traders. I guess I should go out and start taking more photos of my horses, just in case.

My Little Corner

Until we did a major cleaning out of the garage, I had no place to put the nice drafting table I was given several years ago, when a man I worked for, who owned a sign company, retired. It is a heavy duty piece, with shelves and drawers, and a tilting work surface. I like it because I can stand and work, and I can work on bigger pieces, and with paint. Also, the light is the best, coming from a window to my left. And since our garage is now insulated and drywalled, it doesn't get brutally cold in winter, or like an oven during the summer. Right outside the window is the fountain we have in the entryway, so as I work, I hear splashing water, and the birds who come in to drink chirping and talking to each other. Perfect!

It doesn't look like much, but for someone who had nothing but a dark room, a flat table, and carpet under foot in the only other place I could work, this is heaven.

I want to put a cork board on the wall next to the window, and get a bigger supply table (you can see my stuff is bleeding over to the top of the freezer).  The cork board will be for ideas and pictures pulled from magazines or the Internet. I have them pinned and taped to the cardboard protecting the surface of the table, but a real "mood board" would be more fun. The tall thing is a portable standing easel that my first husband made for me. Back in the 70s I used to do really BIG acrylic paintings. These days, the biggest thing I will probably do is 16" x 20" which is what is on the table right now.

With that all set up, I can now work on my next picture in the Gypsy series. This one is Gypsy 2 - Gemini. I am working on illustration board, which I picked up at Craft Warehouse and had them cut to size. There is NO PLACE in Grants Pass, where I live, where I can get illustration board. I have to drive 35 miles into the next county to find it. Nor does my lovely town have any kind of art supply store, so the only place I can attempt to find things, which tends to be limited, is the local JoAnn's, which is a small one, so it only carries the basics, and mainly for crafters, not for painters.

But I really like working on illustration board, so when I have used up the three pieces I currently have, I will have to make that 40 minute drive again. I will console myself with lunch at Olive Garden. I'll call my mom and see if she wants to make a road trip with lunch included.

Here is the preliminary drawing for Gemini, my first attempt at two figures in the same painting, and then a photo of it inked - which is another rant. I was out of my usual pens in the softer colors I like, so settled for what I could get at the grocery store's teensy art section - JoAnn's only sells kits of pens in a bunch of colors I never use. I got two blues I thought would work, and a fine line black. The blues were too blue, so I used the black, which I don't really like, and isn't as fine lined as I had hoped or was marked on the pen, but I wanted to get started, so I used it anyway. Will have to slog back to Michael's in the next county to stock up on pens again.

After looking at the drawing for two or three days, I decided that the face of the figure on the left was too small. I adjusted it, and had to also adjust her features, and lost the original expression on her face, which I like better. But these drawings/painting are all part of my learning curve in getting back into this kind of work, so it just shows I need lots more practice. But boy, did I wear out an erasure trying to get it right. You can see the difference in the inked version. She looks sterner, like she is the sensible one, as compared to her happier sister.

The pose I got from a fashion magazine, and it was of three figures, but I only used two, which for me was scary enough! The garments the women are wearing, and the jewelry are ones I made up. The tattoo on the righthand figure is the astrological symbol for gemini. Gotta love a Google search when you need one! It gave me tons of designs to choose from. I picked one and modified it.

Before this, I had been working on paper, and the paper had a texture that created a bit of drag when I inked things in. Wow, forgot how slick illustration board is, and nearly skated my first lines way out of whack before taking a deep breath and starting again.  Next step is to add color, which has me hyperventilating at the very thought, but I will battle on!

Lastly, just an FYI to clarify. I am throwing these preliminary drawings on here not so much for comments on whether they are good or bad (feel free to do so, but be kind!), but to show the trials and many tribulations of someone like me, or anyone, who is trying to reclaim a talent that has been dormant for over 30 years. It is fun, frustrating, and a little sad, when I think of how much better technically I would be had I kept honing those skills for all those lost years. But I am excited as well, and even if this piece turns out to be a total bust, which it probably will, I will have learned from it and will move on to the next one.

All I am trying to say with these posts about my journey back into art, is that anyone wanting to reclaim a talent or skill they once had can do it. When I posted about this on Facebook, I had several people remember things they used to do years ago and had let slide. For one it was playing a musical instrument, for another it was a loom she used to work on which had been sitting idle for years. And so it went.

I am lucky in that I now have the time and the space to work. It makes this journey, bumpy as it will be, a bit easier. It is a journey I am already enjoying, and it has only just started. It would be nice if, by posting these early attempts,  I could inspire a few others to start their own journey.

Dragonfly T-Shirt

While my computer was down this is the project I was working on, and just finished yesterday. It is another project involving stencils, which I love. The shirt is from the Goodwill (big surprise) and the blue bit is from the sleeve of an old T-shirt of mine, and the purple bit is from a piece left over from a bolero I made quite a while back. The beads are from my stash.


The stencil if from Martha Stewart, bought at Michaels craft store. The paint is DecoArt in Glamour Dust Purple Passion. It is a glitter paint, but not bright, cheesy glitter. It is very fine, like fairy dust.

This photo makes the material look green. It isn't, but you can see how fine the glitter is.

The dragonfly appliqué is stitched onto the shirt with a beaded backstitch, using doubled regular sewing thread. The stitching around the dragonfly is a single thread, while the swirls with pearls (he, he), are again doubled threads. I figure since all of the clothes I have made over the years have held together just fine using regular sewing thread, using it for this should be no problem. Embroidery thread would have been too thick.

When I had finished doing the dragonfly appliqué, I decided the design looked a bit skimpy, so I added the lettering piece. It is sewn on with a doubled thread, with beads at each corner. The letters were a stamp, and it didn't come out as bright as I thought it would, so I did tiny, single thread stitches within the stamped letters, to get them to show up better. The paint was more of the DecoArt,  satin finish (no glitter), in a color called Coastal Waters. This is the first experiments I have done with the DecoArt paints, which are supposed to be multi-surface, with fabric being one of those. I saw them at Michaels craft store, and really hoped they would work out, since there are a bazillion colors to choose from, including metallics, and more colors with fine glitter. I have a metallic copper I am going to try next. So far, I like them, but they do make the fabric a bit stiff.

I think the lettering piece would be a lot better if the paint had been brighter, but, oh well. I still like the way the shirt  came out. I wanted to keep it all pretty simple, so this one is done.  I will not be adding beads or stitching to the neckline and sleeves of the T-shirt, like I have done on other projects.

Now it's on to the next sewing project, which will be an SCA riding tunic for Robert. We have an event coming up in May, and all of his other costumes are 30+ years old, so I think he deserves something new. All I have to do is clear off my work table in the garage, which since the last time I used it has collected a bunch of clutter that needs to be put away.

I also have another drawing in the gypsy series I want to start...maybe today.
And the garden is in and the new veggies need watering.
And the horse stalls need cleaning.

Always something...

Life WC = Without Computer

The day after Easter Sunday my computer stopped working. I would turn it on, it would sing a few bars of its merry wakeup tune, then it would turn itself off. Not good. After about the forth or fifth time it did that, I decided something was really wrong, and called the MAC Genius. I was told to bring the machine in, as it sounded like it was the power board that had gone out. So, I unplugged everything and off to the MAC Genius I went.

After a week and a half of trial and error he finally figured out what was wrong, but it took the following process for that to happen: Power board = nope, hard drive = nope, memory board = nope, and finally, RAM board = shazzam! Apparently it took so long to figure it out, because if one of the RAM boards (I had three) goes out, a little beep sounds when you turn on the machine. Mine didn't beep, hence that was the last place he looked for a problem. So, he pulled out the bad board and everything was good to go. He also did an upgrade, so I am now running the current MAC program, called Yosemite, since they have moved away from naming the programs after big cats, and have now moved to Scenic Places in California.

While the computer was gone I discover something important. But it took me three or four days to realize it. At day one, I was in withdrawals. At day two, I was getting used to the idea that it was gone. By day three, I was actually glad it was gone. Strange, I know! I told my husband I felt free. I no longer felt compelled to fire it up first thing in the morning, troll through FB to see what everyone else was doing, get lost for hours on Pinterest, or check blog sites—my own included. I compare it to a drug addict going through withdrawals. Once past the worst of it, I realized I didn't need it. I didn't have the angst of making sure I stayed "in the loop" on FB, or felt hurt if no one commented on something I posted. By day four, I almost wished it would go away permanently.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy social media as much as the next girl, but it was refreshing to realize that I could get along without it. Instead of looking at kewl stuff on Pinterest, I was busy making kewl stuff instead. Rather than trolling FB, which is mostly people ranting about politics, religion, or posting dumb memes, or pictures of their pets, I was out working in my garden. Out in the real world!

Granted, I am not, nor was I ever, a "sit in front of the computer all day" kind of person, but I came to realize that I could spend even less time on it than I was, and get WAY more things done. Since I got the computer back, yes, I check FB, blogs, and keep informed about the clubs I belong to which have FB pages. I check in with the friends I really care about, who post things I am interested in. But all that has been cut back to a minimum.

Would I ever give up the computer completely? No. I love the fact that I can google search anything and get an answer. If I need resource material or pictures, I can find them. There are two blog sites that I follow, both by artists, that I would not want to be without. And even though it can be a grossly addicting time warp, I do like to troll Pinterest, and would not want to be without my own board on that site. I guess it all boils down to dosage. Less time spent, make it quality time, and then bail out.

So, there really is life WC—or at least LC = Less Computer.

The "Save That Ratty Workshirt" Project

I was looking for an on-going project I could work on in between other things. You know, like when I only have maybe half an hour or so of dead time, but not ready to start another major project. Something I can stuff in a bag and drag along with me, or ignore for months and not feel guilty about neglecting it.

Years and years ago (back in the 70s) I did a lot of embroidery on a man's cotton work shirt. I wore it to death, and still have it. It was even featured in an "Clothing as Art" show at the Riverside Art Center and Museum, in Riverside, Ca. So I thought, why not start another shirt, only this time use up all my bits and pieces of leftover fabric, trim, beads, embroidery floss, etc to mend one of my husband's. He had a few, all given to him by pet food companies (he drives a big rig truck delivering pet food), and one of them, which had been relegated to the "wear it around the house/yard only" box, was pretty, well...ratty. I decided to rescue it and give it a new life.

This resurrection may not work. The shirt material is very worn and thin, and there are lots of frayed edges, and rips in the fabric. But the cotton is so very soft, and even if the shirt ends up totally covered, that nice cotton will still be the lining inside.

Here is what the shirt looks like. Yeah, pretty ratty.

It's obvious that the whole thing is going to have to be reinforced in some way. But, I can work on small sections of fabric adding beads or embroidery, or stenciling, then take that finished bit and sew it onto the shirt. Or I can work directly on the shirt.

This is what I have added so far. The denim patch was a piece cut from a pair of jeans, that  I was experimenting on with a bleach pen. The skull is a stamp. On the edge of the collar I sewed a leftover strip of binding from the Spring Bolero project. The little key is a cheap charm I dug out of my stash of "stuff."

I'm going to add beads to the denim patch, and I think the stitching is kinda-sorta like Japanese boro stitching, but much sloppier. This whole shirt project is meant to be a no-brainer, so I am not going to get anal over the stitching. I even left the end knots and tails on the outside, which I NEVER do on other things.

It may be years before this shirt is totally covered, or it may take only a few months before I decide the whole bloody project is a waste of time.  However, if I do manage to get the whole shirt covered, I bet it will look really awesome!