This week’s art:  another book sculpture character doll .  I used vintage buttons, a vintage 50′s West German tape measure in case (the necklace), and the book base is a vintage trig and calculus text geared to surveying technique. (bleah).  So what’s a girl to do?  Become “Queen of All She Surveys”!  The red paper is Japanese and is a large sheet I’ve been hoarding for heaven knows what- so in my spirit of de-stashing, I felt it was the right paper to use, being all about mountains.  This gal is hung by a sturdy vintage door hinge, compliments of me re-doing one of our small attic doors (shown in previous post).

Detail of the Survey Transit- I love old technical drawings!

While I’m here, I’ll also post my new art form- YardArt- art on a yardstick.

These are collages on old book covers, screwed onto a vintage yardstick.  The angle from which I took this picture makes the collages look oddly sized – in reality, the top and third collage are the same size, as are the 2nd and fourth. Items used, in addition to the book covers: washi paper tape, lokta paper, yellow scrap paper, chopsticks, wool roving, threads, Italian silk fragments, square metal 1″ frames with beads, and vintage sheet music.

Collage By the Yard

I chose to hard boil the eggs so that I can devil them this weekend. I love this dish I put them in- it was a present to myself  a few years ago when I visited my sister-in-law in San Luis Obispo, CA. (GREAT shopping town! )

Just for fun:

View 1

View 2

This book sculpture is a flower, carved from the book’s pages, embellished as you see, and is happy now.  She is “Blooming Prose”.

Blooming Prose hanging on the side of our pantry cupboard. The fibers have buttons tied to them.

The four buttons in the corners are vintage reds, from my mom’s stash.

Side View - the flower curls turned out as I'd hoped.

Next – a view of the ‘interior’:

The back has more vintage buttons, with a simple hanger of doubled 4-ply wax linen, threaded through the small drilled holes.  The book’s pages are NOT glued in a block- but secured at the corners instead.  It feels more organic to me when the main block of pages is left unglued.  — Finished!

I painted the face with water-soluble oil pastels on canvas paper.  The interior is created with acrylic paint and white gesso, with stamped words and spirals.  (double click the images to enlarge them.)

Amy's - o1

Amy's - o2

The second spread in Amy’s book is “The Giant Flower Tree”.  I used fabric and paper flowers I had stored up, and drew the tree and squirrels and signs.  Notice anything??

The Giant Flower Tree

The pages do not lie flat as the book is completely loaded with altered pages and etc.!

1950's Metal basket painted with alcohol inks.

This next image is an altered cigar box- the box was in bad condition – I now use it to store some ‘aqua’ postage stamps!

Box Top - the pink domino is a tab with which to lift the lid.

Cigar Box interior - with postage stamps....

And last but not least, my week included painting this little attic door in the bedroom. The door is only about 4 feet high – and the attic space is on the south (sunny) side of the house and is not used (any longer) – it really has minimal space and is a bit too hot in the summer – after spray-painting the door outdoors earlier in the week when it was warmer, I added a new handle and hinges.  I have yet to paint the framing around the door.  The little crystal knob top left holds the door firmly closed. I may add more to this later- not sure.

I borrowed the phrase from J.K. Rowlings’ Harry Potter book 2. (one of my all-time favorite series). I stamped the letters with black gesso, as the door paint is very glossy.

Mini attic door to empty attic....at least I think it's empty... ???

“A Place To Bark” is a no-kill animal rescue organization I donate to every  month- it’s not much, but every bit helps and is needed!  Have fun with your artwork, and benefit the critters too!  Do check it out! Thanks!

Here is ‘Chance’ – our wonderful cat that we got from A Place To Bark – by ‘chance’ he was delivered in person by Bernie Berlin- owner/operator/artist/loving person extraordinaire!

Chance- feline ruler of my heart!

“Members are free to share what project they are working on, through a link to their blog or through the photos section of the group. (also through messages to the group!)
Members are free to share links to other art sites or possibly interesting art groups.
Members are free to share links to their Etsy store or Ebay store – this is limited to ONE day a week – Sunday – (to keep the group from becoming nothing but ads and comms.)
Members are free to share quotes or experiences about their art – and feel FREE to share anything else in their lives that comes to mind, if they want to.”

There will sometimes be swaps or challenges, but no one ‘has’ to participate- it’s all free will (or won’t) .  We wanted a home base in which to knock around mixed media art ideas, techniques, info, etc., without the pressure of ‘rules’ to do this or do that or you must sign up for this or that, etc.  Check us out and join!- see if you like it- and better yet, come to build our community of like minded artists.  We may be walking different paths of life and activity, but we share a common love of arts and crafts – and we love sharing about them!  Facebook has various friends lists, and is not always a comfortable venue for some folks – so we thought a one-stop ‘shopping’ for art ideas place might appeal to others as it has to us.

Hope to see you there!

Front Cover

Finished Gluebook

To see all of the pages in between, go to THIS ALBUM (link will open in separate window.)  You can double click each image to enlarge them.  Thanks for looking!

I continue to de-stash the art supplies I no longer use.  I have given away to local friends, to charity , and some things I’m selling, such as these stamps.  Many are used, and many never used.  Such is the way with my ‘stuff’.   I quote the prices here, but please go to my Etsy Store to Purchase these stamps and more!  I added more lots to my Etsy store on Monday, March 12!

Here we go:  (CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM)

LOT 06 - 55 stamps- 2 are unmounted (the 3-fold red) - $50.00

MORE WILL BE ADDED TO THIS POST SHORTLY!!!

Here they are!

LOT 07 - 49 woodmounted stamps and one acrylic -mounted rubber stamp - $50.00

LOT 09- 53 Stamps - 2 are unmounted rubber- the rest are wood-mounted. - $50.00

LOT 08 - 59 Wonderful rubber stamps- 2 units are cd cases with unmounted rubber - the rest are wood-mounted rubber stamps.-- $60.00

LOT 07 - Mixed Lot - 20 'units' - some are unmounted rubber in CD cases, a couple small ones are mounted on foam core, and there are 9 wood- mounted stamps. - $20.00

There comes a time in a girl’s life when she looks around her and says: “Where did all of this come from?!”  Well- I KNOW where it came from,  , and am grateful to have been able to use a ton of these stamps, but my mixed media art does not include much stamping anymore- so I’m putting them up for sale- CHEAP!!!! One USPS flat rate ‘large’ box will hold approx 50-60 wood-mounted stamps.  I am putting the stamps in lots of about 50- sometimes more- sometimes a bit less.  Each lot will be in one of these large flat rate boxes (12″x12″x 5.5″H). The postage is $14.65 for each box.  Below are pics of what’s for sale- with prices.  If interested, email me and I’ll give you my PayPal addy- I will only accept payment through PayPal- and alas, due to the weight, these are for US residents only.  Many of the stamps are unused!!