Art Dolls

The sweater is done!

I went to a knitting retreat this past weekend - lots of fun! We knit and ate, knit and drank, knit and ate, knit and chatted, and knit and ate. We stayed at a rustic lodge,which is actually a restored bunkhouse from an old gold mine. The place was neat but the lighting left a lot to be desired. Next time we'll have to bring some Ott lights along. This particular lodge is really popular in the winter with the Japanese tourists who come to see the Northern Lights and each bedroom had a bare red light bulb mounted on the wall so you could still see but didn't interfere with seeing outside. Didn't do much this time of year as it is already light most of the night but I thought it was a great idea and I might have to get one for my living room next winter!

Although a lot of the women knew each other from the yarn shop, this particular retreat was formed (created? sponsored?) through an online group from the knitty social network, Ravelry. I think it's pretty fascinating that the social landscape has changed so much - dating, crafting, friends, it's all so common on-line now. Here's a photo of Sarah's son Blake modeling my baby sweater ... I am so glad it is done. It has lots of mistakes but I learned so much doing it! Now I have some wrist warmers and a scarf on my needles!

Photo taken with my iPhone - can't believe I forgot my camera!

Leg bolts

I sure hope this works! I took the legs from a porcelain doll and filled them with steel shot - then I took tin foil and squished it into a leg extension shape and covered it with apoxie sculpt. I'll find out in the morning if it works. If it seems strong enough I will do the other leg. I also completely redid the colors of the clock box - you can't really see it in the background - but I really enjoyed doing it and I'll probably be adding more to it.

the photo sucks - too lazy to take it to the light box and the flash reflected off everything - ah well

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Beaded book thongs

I received these absolutely luscious beaded book thongs in a bookmark swap over at Swap-bot. I'm afraid every time I say book thong a different picture runs through my head LOL. There's some great charms on these! Click the image to really see them.

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Experiment #2 - stencils & alcohol inks

These are my results from messing around with the stencils I had cut when I etched the jar. I think it looks better when the stencil is inked over rather than through. You could make some cool candle holders this way - with personal messages or something.

Inking through the stencil



Inking over the contact paper cutouts

A new ribbon-eating puppy?

Brought home a new dog last night - another miniature American Eskimo - she is 6 months old. I wonder if she will love ribbons and fabric as much as my other Eskie did when he was little. We will see ... meet Candy Cane ... who just had a welcome home bath, LOL.

Art apron in progress

I went to a friend's house yesterday for an art day - we started working on art aprons using the instructions in Cloth Paper Scissors. This started out as bib overalls but the back of the overalls is now sewn to the front to create more pockets. I wanted to preserve the front top pocket so I put the back a bit lower than it should have been. Now the back pockets are down by my knees, LOL. I will have to do a bit more redesigning before I start painting it. I put the black and white border on it but that's it. It was a fun day - I need more play dates!

Another beautiful mermaid

I wanted to share a mermaid made by Kat Tyni from my mermaid pattern, Ruby of the Sea. Isn't she just the most gorgeous thing? She changed the arms and sculpted her fingers. I should add the arm pattern from my Northern Mermaid pattern to the Ruby pattern, she has separate fingers. I get a real thrill seeing what people make from my patterns! Thanks, Kat!

Etching glass with die cuts

Plushie fever has passed and I have been wondering if I wasted my money when I bought the die cut machine to use to make eyes. NOPE! I found another use for it - to decorate jars. I have no idea where this idea came from because I haven't etched glass in YEARS - probably 10 years. But I got out the contact paper and made 3 stencils using my new Flourish die (from Revolution). If you've never etched glass - it is soooo simple ...

Step one - cut your stencil from contact paper, stick it to the glass, and burnish so there's no air bubbles for the cream to sneak under.

Step two - cover it with the etching cream - which I don't think is brown but this stuff is over 10 years old - see what happens when you never throw out craft supplies, ha ha. Leave it on for 5 minutes then rinse it off with water

Step 3 - admire.

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Collage class

Had to show you this photo - it's a collage that will be taught at Doll Street next month by Linda Misa of Australia. I just LOVE her work! I already bought my canvases so I can give this a whirl. It should be a lot of fun.

She uses one of my favorite tools too - sequin waste! Just smaller than what I use - I need to buy some!

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Kiva loan

I made my first Kiva loan today! Kiva allows people like us to make small (think - $25) loans to people in developing nations so they can lift themselves out of poverty through business. I lent money to a woman in Peru who wants to buy embroidery thread and cloth. The money is actually managed through third parties and although there is risk you may eventually get your money back (so you can lend it to someone else!) I read about it through Lisa Vollrath's blog - she is a lender too. Go make a loan today! It will make you feel good!

Knitty stuff

Being proficient with a sewing machine can come in handy - made myself a knitting needle roll yesterday. Had to redo the top binding because it didn't leave enough room for the flap to cover the long needles - this is the before picture. It works much better now. Found a pattern on the net and then modified it. Then I decided to play with clay and I covered these knitting needles. I put the needles in an oven bag before I put them in to cook - when I made the first set yesterday the fumes from the clay and the needles were horrible - and that was in a bag too - just not sealed shut. So today I sealed it with wire. Way better. No fumes. I was worried that the bamboo would warp but I guess the temperature is low enough because they were fine. You can't see it but I stamped the size of each needle on it's top - the green ones have a red center - looks like an olive gone bad, LOL. Too bad I can't sculpt - I could imagine some very cool things to put on the knobs! Ah well. These were fun anyway.

Who is this woman?

... someone who thought it would be fun to make a change in her life ...you should have heard the women in the salon .. looking at all the hair on the floor and asking if it was from one person .. yes, it was ... ME!

sorry about the grainy image .. hard to take a photo of yourself in the bathroom mirror without a flash! The little photo is of me 3 years ago when I had my hair foiled for the first time, but my hair was about that long this morning.

The bookmark tutorial is done

I actually made the time to write this - and before I wrote that online class on altered CDs and domino art too! Free stuff before paid stuff - what am I thinking? LOL. Anyhow - there's 3 pages and you can print it out and link to it. Just no copying it. Have fun and send me photos if you make any.

You'll learn to make packing tape transfers in this tutorial. These bookmarks will make great gifts so make lots!

Do you twitter?

I have no idea why I did this - but I signed up with Twitter - it's kind of like microblogging - I don't know how much I'll use it but we'll see. If you twitter you can follow me under JudiW. Add me and I'll add you back.

Bookmarks in progress

I've been working on a whole bunch of bookmarks for a swap I'm doing - I needed to make 9 of them. I came up with three designs and I'm repeating them. That's pretty unusual for me; I don't normally work in series (unless it's mermaids, ha ha). Anyhow - the main images are made with packing tape transfers and I enclosed the whole thing in laminate (which I sewed on). I have taken enough photos to write a tutorial for these, so if anyone is interested in me doing that please leave a comment. I"m off to water aerobics now and then to the coffee house for a 'stitch'n'bitch' with some Fairbanks knitters I met through ravelry.com.

A little home dec

It's been a while since I posted. I've been doing a few things but nothing to write home about .. or here either. But I figured I'd at least show one thing .. the tablecloth I just finished. It's amazing how even the most simple things take hours to make. I have 6 yards of the blue batik and I'm going to cover the chairs with it too. The orange borders match my curtains and the table runner - same material. I even mitered the corners - had to pull out a quilting book to learn how though. Easier than I thought. The table runner was made for our previous table and it's way too big for this one. I have to decide if I should cut it down or just make another one. I do have a little bit more of the orange/mustard colored batik. Speaking of batik - even though I washed these it still felt like the needle was punching through paper when I was sewing it. Should soften up after a few washes though. I am going to go buy some acrylic felt off the bolt to put under the tablecloth - don't know why - it just make it feel nicer. Plus then I don't have to worry if hot things get put on the table. Okay - I'm rambling now - time to go!