Dawn Sellers

Art journal pages not finished, but thought I'd share anyway

I started these a couple of weeks ago in one of my local art groups, Creative Circle.  We worked on Art Journaling and I mostly played around with paint, creating some fun backgrounds on watercolor paper.  I've tipped these into my art journal and was then inspired by a prompt from another group.  Lady In Red.

So far this is what I've come up with for my lady in red.  She needs some more work but I thought I'd share the page now.

 

I am loving the color on this second page.  Can you tell I'm feeling a little tropical?  I'm hoping to create some more work with brighter colors and get myself out of dreary mode of winter.

Spring Mitts and an Exciting Arrival

 

It as been so cold this early spring, it is hard to believe that the calendar is telling me March is almost over.  I'm ready for some sunshine and temperatures that get above 50 F.   I think the Cherry Blossoms are waiting too.  Each evening as I drive over the Willamette River towards home, I look down at the Waterfront and hope that I'll see a glimpse of a pink blossom.  Nothing yet, they are all still waiting - like me.

I've been working on a pair of spring mitts to keep my hands warm.  These are called Garden Trellis Mitts (ravelry link-you need to be a member to see- if you knit and are not a member, sign up quick to see what you've been missing).  I am knitting them with some amazingly soft Malabrigo Silky Merino.  I am addicted to Malabrigo, it is the drug of choice for many knitters.  Malabrigo comes in various weights, sock, chunky and worsted.  Then there is the Silky Merino in a double knit weight.  I have accumulated a bit of a stash. 

The computer has arrived!  My dad just called me (he's working at the store today) to tell me that the UPS man just delivered my new toy.  I am so excited to get home and play with it.  I've been looking up movies to download so I will have something to watch on the plane - if you know of a good site other than iTunes or Amazon leave me comment.  But not a free site, I believe in licensing and paying for the artists work.

I decided on the Acer Aspire One in white, with the hard drive (160 gb).  I know how I like to have my photoshop and other high demand software so I needed some space.  It is still lightweight (2.2 lbs) and tiny (8.9") and will fit into my bag.  I am going to try to get away without ordering the external dvd drive, we'll see how that goes. I did order the 16 gb flash drive but it was shipped seperately so isn't here yet.  I'm such a gadget geek.  I love them.  Now I need to find the perfect bag to carry all my stuff in (this is a never ending search in my life, for the perfect bag).   Hopefully there will be more photos and blog posts on a regular basis once I have a portable computer.  Here is the one I actually ordered:

Acer Aspire One

   

I have searched out all of the free wifi spots for my upcoming vacation to Kona, turns out there's free wifi at the condo where we will be staying and just up the road at the coffee shop on the beach (they advertise homemade cinnamon rolls too!) so watch for some vacation posts.  I plan to take tons of photos and I'm working on a travel journal to take with me so I can do a little vacation art journaling.

I am not looking forward to the flight so much.  I really do not like flying, in fact I'm terrified of it .  Something about that big plane way up there in the sky.  I try not to think to much about it and just enjoy my cocktails.

I am looking forward to getting together with my art friends on Sunday and hearing all about their upcoming trip to Artfest.  I won't be going this year but hopefully next, as I am certain they will all be wanting to go again.   I am planning to work on some fabric charms, two sets, for a swap I am in.  I need to get those finished and in the mail.  I also am hoping to make my paper bag pages tonight and let them dry so I can get those painted and bound into my travel journal for Hawaii.

Ahhhh, Spring at last . . . .

Even though it is a gray day, the calendar says it's spring.  That is very exciting.  We have had a crazy winter here in the Portland area.  More snow than I've ever seen in one winter and boy has it been cold.  I can feel a shift in the temperature just this week.  The bitter cold, you know the one.  It chills you down to your bones and you just can't get warm.  Well, it seems to have passed for the year.  At least I hope so.  The flowers are hoping so too as they bloom and start to brighten things up around here. 

I am looking forward to my first Sunday off since October.  This morning it hit me, I have nothing planned for Sunday, what will I do?  My first thought is that I will just lounge around and maybe watch a couple of movies and knit.  But then I realize that next Sunday I am finally going to get to join up with one of my art groups and I really can't take two Sundays off in a row without feeling a little guilty.  I will most likely work a bit at the store and get some things sorted and unpacked or maybe I will stay home and get back to sorting the tons of buttons and jewelry pieces that have just been sitting in my family room waiting for me.  We shall see.  I do know I won't be doing anything too strenuous.  My body is exhausted and needs some recovery time.  I've been having some hip pain that doesn't seem to go away.  I am blaming it on all of the trips up the stairs from the basement in that house, carrying boxes and such.

Tomorrow night I am getting together with some art firends to work on art journaling.  I'm really looking forward to this.  I brought my journaling bag to work with me today so I can do a little pruning and sorting and getting it ready for tomorrow.  I have a strong urge to start a new journal but I'm trying to fight that off and just continue in one of the two I have going.  What is the lure about starting a new project?  I have knitting patterns and yarn paired up for 4 new projects and I want to start them all at once. 

I have been taking some photos and they are all still on my camera, I'm finally getting a new laptop as soon as I can get to the computer store.  They have great prices but very limited hours.  I'm hoping to get there on Saturday.  This is the little gem I'm getting:

 

It is the Acer Aspire One, weighs 2.2 lbs.  It will fit in my bag!  Actually, I'm thinking of making a little felted sleeve for it.  I am getting it in black (not the blue shown in the photo).  It was between this and the Ipod Touch.  I was swayed to the Acer because of the keyboard.  I type with both hands so I wasn't too excited about having to type with one finger on the Ipod.  This way I can actually get some work done like website updates and blog posts and such.  And I'll be able to upload my photos more efficiently.  I have heard there have been some issues with this notebook when it first came out but I know someone who recently bought one and loves it.  I imagine like everything else it has improved since it  was first released.   Doug & I have been sharing the one laptop we have (also an Acer which has been a great computer, even after I spilled an entire cup of coffee on the keyboard) so it has been kind of a hassle.   When I was talking to my mom about this one she offered to buy it for me.  I'm a lucky girl!

I have a lot of catching up to do . . . .

Where have I been?  I should ask where does the time go?

Before I know it weeks have past since I've blogged about stuff.  Good news is that we have finally finished the never-ending estate we have been working on.  Since the end of October we have been working 7 days a week, many of them long days to empty a house that was way too full of stuff.  Good stuff, but just lots of it.  Everything is moved to the new store, waiting to be unpacked, cleaned, sorted and priced.  I estimate it will take us at least a year to get through all of the boxes.  But the hard part is over, this will be the fun part.

My parents are back from Arizona so that is a relief, I like having them here and not so far away.  They are a huge help at the stores too and will be dog sitting while we are in Hawaii (in less than a month!)

I am looking forward to having my Sundays back, relaxing with a Mimosa and making some art.  I've signed up for some swaps and have a few projects underway that I can look forward to.  I am going to meet up with some art friends this Saturday night and then another group next Sunday.  Very excited about this.

I was supposed to play Bunco tonight but it has been postponed to next Tuesday for which I am very happy.  I'm exhausted and stayed out too late last night at an informational meeting about revitalization of downtown Hillsboro.  I see this project is something I'm going to be involved in later this year to hopefully make downtown a better place for all.  More exciting stuff.

So, on the art front, here is what I have going on and coming up.

Tomorrow afternoon I am attending a Grant writing workshop at the Walters Cultural Art Center.  I am really looking forward to this.  The first workshop filled up before I had a chance to register and as luck would have it they added a second one.  This is something I have always been interested in and coupled with my art I can see using this experience in a few ways to help out the community.

Charm swaps - I have a few of these coming up.  I'm finishing some found object charms and will mail those tomorrow.  I be sure to take some photos to post.

Fabric charms - I have a few ideas for these and will start working on them soon.  Crown charms.  Since I missed out on the shrink plastic get together last month, I've been thinking about making these crowns from that.  I'll add a little bling in the form of crystals or glitter, we'll see how that goes.

Carved stamps swap.  I've signed up to swap two hand carved stamps and am looking forward to carving some nature inspired stamps for my trades.

Poetry and Painting paper bag book swap.  This is with the same group that did the Bird Bag Book last year which is soon to be published in LK Ludwig's Collaborative Art Journals and Shared Visions in Mixed Media due out in June (you can pre-order it now).  I've been collecting poems to use for my pages and need to start sketching out my designs.  I'm so looking forward to this project.

The same group is doing a POEtic gift exchange, so I'll be making 13 Poe inspired gifts to swap.

This Saturday night the Creative Inspirations group is meeting and Jeanne will be sharing all of her art journaling secrets (okay maybe not all of them, but hopefully several).  I have a little prep work to do in my art journal and I always look forward to spending time with this amazing group of artistis.

I'm also participating in Jeanne's Library Card Project.  You can read more about that on her Rendezous blog.  I am working on decorating the library card pocket and look forward to reading the entire story that goes along with it.

So, as you can see I have lots of fun art stuff coming up and I have several ideas for more.  I am starting a new knitting project (a lacy tank to wear in Hawaii - I'll probably be finishing it on the plane).  I have a brainstorm that I want to make a felted tote out of an old wool sweater and do some needle felting on it.  Found the old sweater and a pattern to make the tote.  Lots of ideas for this one.  This might be an on-going project because I'd like to do some beading on it too.  So many ideas and so little time.  This is what I get for staying away from art for a while.

There have also been yarn purchases which I will share soon.  Some more of that yummy Malabrigo, this time enough for a sweater and a skein for a cowl and another skein for a hat.  A skein of their silky merino that I'm currently knitting up into a pair of fingerless mitts in a beautiful lavender color for spring.  I'm halfway done with those.

Oh, not to leave out the Disintegration Project.  I'll try to get some updated photos to share, it has been very stormy here - wind, hail and lots of rain.  I hope it is working it's magic on my project.

Spring is in the air

 

This was the view from in front of my house a few days ago, as I left for work.  One of the best, The best thing about having to get up early.  The photo doesn't even do the colors justice.  This was my view as I drove east to work.   I am so excited that the time changes this weekend and that it will be light when I get home at night.

 

I really do not know why everthing is centered in this post.  I am really frustrated with Typepad lately.  When posting it goes super slow and cannot keep up with my typing.  Sometimes it will skip letters, so don't think I am a bad typist, just a poor proofreader . . . .

 

I have a few different art projects coming up that I am looking forward to getting started on.  I signed up for another collaborative book, this time it is Painting and Poetry.  I went to the art store today and found canvas paper pads, 6 x 6" on sale 2 for 1, so $3.00 for two pads of 10 pages each.  The pages will need to be about 5x5 so I can just trim them down a bit.  I plan to do some acrylic painting and see how that all goes.

 

I've also joined in Jeanne's library card project.  I was really disappointed when I didn't find one of her guerilla valentines so I jumped at the chance to join in this time.  More to come on this. 

 

I've also signed up for a couple of charm swaps, fabric charms and found objects.  I'm still considering a third one - Crowns, Crowns, Crowns.  But not sure how my time is going to be in the next few months.

 

Today at the art store I also bought some newsprint pads to use next time I do the gelatin printing.  Really looking forward to trying those again.

 

Well, tomorrow we load in for the antique show and the weekend will be busy.  I do plan to cast on a new knitting project (maybe tonight), one that I hope to finish before our trip to Hawaii. 

 

Wow, as I look back on this list I think after a bit of a dry spell with my art, I'm back in the game.

Maybe it is the feeling of Spring soon approaching or maybe it was the inspiration from last night's Art Walk.  Doug & I walked around downtown Hillsboro, looking at some fun artwork, visiting the studios, meeting up with people we know, and drinking wine.  It was a fun time in a great city.

 

 

 

Gelatin Prints

I have been wanting to try gelatin prints for some time now.  Last weekend I decided it was the time.  So I bought some unflavored gelatin (just the store brand generic) and mixed it up.  I just used a one of my metal pans with a flat bottom and low sides.  I mixed up enough to make two large gelatin plates and let it set up overnight.

The next evening I gathered some of my acrylic paints (ceramcoat and folk art brands) and my brayer and started mixing colors and brayering it on the gelatin plate, a nice thin coat.  Made some designs with plants, strings, foam stamps, a plastic, whatever I could find to provide some texture.  The bubble wrap didn't work for me so well but I am going to try that one again next time.

Anyway, here's what I came up with in less than an hour.  I used recycled copy paper because this was just a practice run.  Next time I will use watercolor paper and heavier cardstock, I think it will give a better finished product.  I know many people use newsprint and I may try some of that too.

                           

I am not happy with all of these but learned how the gelatin, paint and other objects react.  I also learned some things about layering colors.  Sometimes the layers worked and sometimes they didn't.  So I do have my favorites out of this bunch.  I'm interested in hearing which ones you like and why.

I'll most likely cut these up into smaller pieces and use them in projects.  Or build layers of other stuff on top and use them as backgrounds.  I also have an idea for a project that can be done with some finished pages.  So more to come . . . .