August ATCs

This month, our ATC group has become integrated with a Wood Fair being held in the community center where we usually trade. For the occasion, we were given a theme for our cards: wood , of course! I cut a sheet of wood veneer, used to make "floating floors", into card size and glued them to a matboard backing. I went to work with my wood-burning tool to make a frame, a different one for each featured tree.

Since I had recently read "The Soul's Code" by James Hillman, I was inspired to see the seed produced by a tree as a capsule of it's future possibilities. Luckily, I had some rubber stamps of an oak, pine and spruce tree to use for the "genius" image. Then I got out my felt pens to draw the fruit of each tree. The final touch was a background, using my trusty liquid acrylics.

End of August and getting cooler already. On the way to work at 3 p.m. I have my AC on at 19 degrees and on the way home at midnight, I turn on the heater! It's already dark at 8 p.m. when I look out the window of the cafeteria. That's Nature.

First anniversary

Yesterday I celebrated the first birthday of my Fortune-Workshops blog with Kate, who got me started and inspired me with her own blog. We had lunch on my veranda, enjoying her scrumptious cheese and onion pie, followed by mesclun salad and my black currant parfait for dessert. Sorry, no photos! We were too busy ruminating about art, work, food and plans for the future. Although the sky was sunny with billowing cumulus clouds, we heard thunder rumbling and sudden flashes of lightening. All of a sudden, dark clouds moved in, wind whipped the treetops and sheets of rain pounded down. We watched, heard and smelled this drama from our table: it was over in a few minutes and the world seemed newly born. The air fresh and cool and the colors bright and clear.
Thank you August 11th 2009 and Lady Fortuna for all your blessings!
Another gift: this crocosmia blooming!

Daylily Season

Last fall, I made a flower bed in which I planted all the day lilies that were spread over my garden. They seem to like their new sunny spot and the cool and rainy weather we are having this summer.

July ATCs

This month I decided to use the matte medium transfer method to take images out of a magazine and re-design them into ATCs.

The method is this: choose an image and brush on a layer of acrylic matte medium. Let it dry well and apply another layer. I did about 20 layers until I was satisfied that it was really solid.
Step 2: Place the image in a bowl of water and wait a few minutes until the paper is well soaked. Then rub the paper away. The ink of the image will be imbeded in the medium....in mirror form. That is why this method doesn't work well for text transfers!
Step 3: Turn the image ink side up and glue it onto your ATC card with some acrylic medium. Now add color, lines and words with paint or pens to integrate the image is into your artwork.
p.s. I used the rubbed off paper to make a little "papier mache" bowl, by spreading the paper mush thinly over an upside down wire sieve. When it was dry, I cut the edge smoothly and painted it with acrylic paints.

The magazine I chose for this project was a 1980 edition of "Art-das Kunstmagazin" I had stashed away in my barn. I gave this project the title "woman Series, 1-13". Here you see 6 of them.