NY Resolution 2010: Think Outside The Box

I'm working (and salvaging at the same time, teehee) an 8 x 10 mixed media canvas. During drying times and brainstorming, waiting for an idea, truth be told, I played around with 2 ATC's. Since I'm not ready to share my canvas, I'll share these 2 "out of the box" for me ATC's. I collect rubber stamps, I love them because I can't draw. I under utilize them and decided to bring em out and shake things up. There are so many inks, powders, paints, and all kinds of techniques that are available to make that stamped image your own individual piece of art. Here is what I came up with, "Black Gold":
I used the back of an old paperback as the substrate, and tried that ink swish method. ie use a non stick craft sheet, dab inks on it mist with water, then lay the card down and swish or smoosh it around. Yeah, it looked like crap, wiped that off. Tim Holz uses this technique a lot. I have no swish skills. sigh. So I just took a make up sponge dabbed the ink pad and dabbed the ink around on the card. I used a sage green, a goldish, and a burgundy. Then I stamped in black the flourish and embossed it with black embossing powders. ohh ahhh. shiney. I took a square of my handmade paper and inked the flower image, its one of Fred B Mulletts stamps. I took a piece of black paper I bought and gold embossed a leaf on it, but it didn't turn out very shiny. Wrapped some thread around card and taped on a flower charm. Sharpie'd the edges and layered with gold and then black paper. I did this quickly, rummaged around my paper scraps box. I tried to use this as an exercise to stretch out of "my style" and see what happens. Not using words, or having a sarcastic, or humorous, or R rated slant to my work is definitely out of the box for me. I was really kind of surprised with what I came up with. I may be spending some time forcing myself to work differently in order to refresh. I think that is a lovely New Year's Resolution, don't you?

I also really like the artist's who add stitching and fabric to their art. My friend PB, of Barn Owl Studios told me about an artist I never heard of before, Rebecca Sower, who utilizes fabric in her work, quite beautifully. Another artist, along similar lines, Ruth Rae, does gorgeous work I have admired for a long time. I have mentioned before that sewing on a sewing machine for me would be like driving a space shuttle. I have one gathering dust, but I am afraid of it. So I bought one of those hand held wheel thingys that pokes even holes when you roll it across paper and filled the holes with thread. Yeah, I bought it like two years ago and just took it out of the packaging. I should be a third generation quilter, my grandmother and mother are unsurpassed in their quilting skills. They tried to teach me. See that picture up there with my two brokn arms??? How do you think that happened? you guessed it, sewing lessons. teehee. not really tho. So instead of using fabric, altho I have several tubs of it from my mom, I used a napkin and mulberry paper on this one called "Buried in Trees":

You probably don't believe me, but those words are taken from "Wuthering Heights". Anything that is worthy in life can be taken from "Wuthering Heights". teehee. So the black card stock has a bit of the stem from Fred B. Mulletts Teasel stamp, that I bleached stamped. I used the German scrap bird, layered the papers, rolled that hole making thing, and filled those holes with red and a gold/black glittery thread from my cross stitching days. Dabbed a bit of ink on the blk and white napkin. So there you have it. This is a lot of writing about 2 average and humble ATC's. What makes them special, to me anyway, is that I tried to think intuitively and quickly, force myself to think outside of the box. They are a beginning only, and I'm hoping my findings from these exercises will help my "personal style" of art making evolve. How do you challenge yourself to keep your art work evolving? Please share your process, I'd love to hear. xoSusan

Dee's Teasel ATC

Dee, the glorious winner of my 200th blog post prize wins this 2 piece ATC. She likes Fred B. Mullett's teasel stamp. Bleached stamping, paper scraps, glimmer mist, chalk, rub-on corners, watch parts, embossing powder. I love this pair a lot, am quite proud of it. I hope Dee likes it. xoSusan

The Royal Treatment

I was very, very fortunate to be able to attend several classes given by Fred B. Mullett at The Queen's Ink, in Savage Maryland, this past weekend. I got lost looking for the hotel Friday night but somehow stumbled upon Foundry St., where The Queen's Ink is located. Serendipity. It was after 6 on Friday night and I figured there was no way they were open. So I thought I would just peek in the windows. Picture the setting: an old mill, brick front buildings, trees, pots of flowers, benches everywhere, loverly shops and places to eat. I walked up to the big glass doors and thought "I'll just pull on the door handle and see what happens" and like magic, the door opened and I gained entrance to the friendliest, most charming and well supplied artist haven I have ever had the pleasure to experience. The staff is amazing, Lauren, who goes by Lollie, Jan, Donna and The Queen, Patti, are most accommodating, knowledgeable,gracious and charming, not to mention talented artists. This is the vision I was hit with after a very trafficy and frustrating drive from New Jersey:

The store is huge with high ceilings, tall windows, hardwood floors and walls painted in Royal colors. The decor is awesome. Excuse the blurry shots, I was so excited, I was shaking. I can't think of ANYTHING that I use, covet, desire, would kill for, that this store does not carry. Can you imagine stumbling in from New Jersey, sweaty, lost, irritated and having hot flashes into this beautiful shop? It was like entering the gates of heaven.

Everywhere there is work displayed by students or artist instructors from previous workshops. Here are some shots of of artwork artfully displayed:

Photos are taken with permission from The Queen, Patti. What the Queen says, goes, so be it.
I took photos, regrouped my senses on the couch, and shopped while Patti graciously called my hotel and found out Where in the Name of all that is Holy, they were located. I met Donna, who is hilarious, uber friendly, a talented artist, has a HOT husband, teehee, and best of all she walked me to the bathroom after my long drive. What's not to like???? While shopping, I bought the latest Somerset Studio magazine, which I couldn't wait to get, because my blogging buddy and magical artist Marsha, from Tumble Fish Studio, has artwork in it. I walked around the store showing everyone her page, going "This is my friend Marsha's work, isn't it amazing!!!!" Yeah I am living vicariously through you, Marsha!! Congratulations are in order again I see, because you are about to be published with Somerset Studios again. By the way, I see you have that piece back from them, you know the one with the two girl fairies with the eyeglasses and the Fleur de lis on their heads?? Since I'm an optician, and eyeglasses are my real job, I think you should earmark that one for ME. Yeah, I said it. I went there.

Saturday Morning at The Queen's Ink was the first workshop with Fred B. Mullett, "Dancing Rubber Fish". Fred is an organized, charismatic and generous teacher. We've all been to that workshop that is too unstructured, almost just studio time, where the teacher is disorganized, timid and doesn't share techniques freely. This was NOT the case with Fred. His teaching style is relaxed, organized, funny and approachable. I do believe that I DID end up being teachers pet, although I did have some stiff competition. teehee. I highly recommend attending his workshops. I am well on my way to becoming a better artist because of them. So the first workshop was "painting" with embossing powders. We also used watercolors, which was a first for me. Here are pics of my fish, showing each step and the completed fish at the end. There are 3.

I was frustrated because I over stamped on the tail area. Here is fish 2:

Pleased with this one, but I painted outside the lines. I am a messy painter and gluer. Sigh. Here is fish 3:

Yeah, I over stamped on the fin too. Crap. But this one is my favorite. I copied Marie, who was sitting across from me, by adding the dots. Marie was hilarious!! and very talented, as was her daughter Erin. Talent runs in that family. I miss you Marie! I wish you lived closer! email me! I ended up buying this stamp at the shop, I became so enamoured of it. I am so thrilled Fred taught us how to do the eyes. Everyone else might have known how to do it, I did not. Remember, I am completely self taught. This was a wonderful class and I highly recommend it. We broke for lunch that Patti had delivered. Shopped and bonded some more! Here is the workshop:

So organized!

Look at those windows! The lighting was fantastic. Here is the display of Fred's products in the store:

I'll show you what I bought later. Back to class now. The afternoon class was "Spritz me Baby". We used water and markers on the stamps to created washes on envelopes:

I met Theresa in this class, who is very friendly, funny and talented. We hit it off right away. I miss you Theresa, I wish you lived closer, email me!!! Hey, are you sensing a pattern here???teehee. This class made me re-realize I am a control freak and need to loosen up. By the end of the class I learned the secret for me is not to over ink the stamp with the marker and to use the same amount of spritzed water for every stamping. What a great gift a ribbon tied bundle of these envelopes would be! The afternoon we spent learning to remove the color from black paper with bleach, replace the color with our stamping, and then add details with yet another layer of stamping. I bought Fred's stamp positioner. During the class it worked quite well over stamping on the envelopes but I had serious issues with the octopus and larger fish stamp. I can't to geometry or physics either. I think the positioner gave me bad flashbacks to flunking both in college. I just need practice on the big stamps. Fred's tool is amazing and I have mastered using it on the smaller stamps. So here is some bleach stamping:


Here is the pic of my misplaced over stamping, whose fault is all my own, It's NEVER the Positioner, It's ALWAYS the Operator, teehee:
And here are the Octopi:

You can see how I missed placing the stamp directly on top of the bleached area.
This photo shows the third stamp with the white detail. I ended up taking a wet brush and dabbing paint off the marker and filling in the bleached areas. These are terrible but they are a first attempt. And my daughter thinks they are cool. so there. teehee.

What a full first day! I stopped and got a to go dinner of Crab Macaroni and Cheese and headed to hotel to collapse and prepare to check out in the am. Sunday morning's class was " The Elegant Mess" and I loved it. We made paper. My favorite thing to do in the whole wide world, expect kissing maybe. teehee. Patti let Theresa and I pick through her ABUNDANT supply of Twinkling H2O's to use for class. It was my first experience with them and I am ADDICTED. They are amazing, so creamy, so rich in color, so glittery. HEAVEN. It was torture picking only 9 colors to play with. We made art cards and here are the pics:

I did not finish making the art cards with the stencils. I was too saturated with information and tired. I did finish 2 cards below:

And here is the man himself, Fred B. Mullett, showing us how it's done:
Here is the loot I came home with:

You know I had to have this.

Love that Teasel stamp. The above are Fred's products. So all in all I had a FANTASTIC time, I highly recommend the venue for classes, Fred as a teacher, the shop as a destination for all your art needs, even the ones you didn't know you had! Here is a pic of The Queen, Patti, with her Most Loyal Subject, Me:
I know, I know. I look nothing like that pic in the upper right hand corner of my blog. That pic took 75 takes and was 3 years, 3 chins, and 3 men ago. Get Over It. Lord knows I have. teehee. xoSusan