Mostly Twisted - Art from found objects, and junk

Links

Lacydolls: I have always been a dreamer. It has led me to unexpected adventures. I invite you to come and see.
Magpie's Mumblings: Wherein you might find a little knittin', a little bitchin', some paper crafts, and just general mumblings about life.
Ink Spillers Attic: Fragments... Oddments... Enchantments
Sew Many: Sew Many Things... Sew Little Time
Dollistic!!: Gone ballistic for Art Dolls!

What do you mean it's not Thursday?

Created on: 3/26, 2010 at 06:50 pm

This morning Husband creaks the bedroom door open and asks "Did you forget about Valerie and the park?" Groggy from sleep, I think no, I didn't forget, but it's not Friday. It's Thursday. Mentally, the week flashes past and I realize, horrified, that it IS Friday. I was up, showered, and dressed in 10 minutes. Husband got the kids ready and I was frog marching to the park before I had the chance to wake up properly. While thoroughly mortified that I was late, I was very happy that I was late to nothing more than a play-date. Nothing was life-threatening and, in the grand scheme of things, all was pretty much well.

So, here's what I've been up to this week.

First of all, I'm never going to send out a plain post card again! This was sent from South Africa by Cleopatra. Look how gorgeous it is! The front is scenes from the Port Elizabeth Oceanarium, but the back is the side I'm going to display. I'm not all into Kawaii, but look how cute! Cleopatra, your pink pony sticker made my day. Thank you!

I also love how the Kawaii is juxtaposed by the stamp- some kind of raptor dino.

I joined an ATC challenge to create a work of art from your junk mail. I got right to it and created this one. I don't know who it's going to yet, but it was a great idea.

When I do art to give, I try to do something similar in my art journal. I used the best pieces of junk mail on the ATC, so I raided some magazines looking for adverts. Advertisers know that emotion sells; it's not the product, it's how you feel when you're using the product. I chose items for this collage that go right for the heart, trying to make you feel instead of think. Except for the sausages. That just made me laugh.

Very, very slowly, I'm getting the challenge doll together. Here's her face.

I love how it came out with those black glowing eyes. Gonna have to make more of these!

Teeny Tiny Stuffie Swap #15 hosted by Carotte

Created on: 3/19, 2010 at 09:21 pm

I loved the rules for this swap. Two inches by two inches total is all the bigger it could be. This is actually my first stuffie. I thought about needle felting something, but Carotte's examples were all stitched felt.

I sent to Isabell in Germany who loves all things Route 66. I completely love Route 66 myself, so I sent her a saguaro cactus, one of the things I like most to see when driving that trip.

Karma's Miss Elsepeth

Created on: 3/15, 2010 at 12:17 am

This, I think, is my favorite doll in the round. They're all completely fantastic, but as a needle felter, this one rang all my bells. Here she is, brand new, waiting for her turn to get worked on. Mind you, this was all last summer. You know I've got better things to do than sit one more minute than I have to at the keyboard after I'm done with my day's work. I love to do the art, been suckin' at getting it posted. My apologies to Elsepeth and Karma for taking so long.

Elsepeth's personality is that of a Lady Detective of the steam-punk genre. She needed a skirt, something sexy and lush. I cut petals out of silk ribbon and froufed it up with some raw silk strips.

I had these hands in my stash.

I got them from a friend who ripped them off a used-up Christmas elf. I appreciate how other dolls get to live on when parts of them are worn through and falling appart.

Journal, pages 1&2

Journal, pages 3&4

Journal, pages 5&6

Journal, page 7 This is such a great journal. The shape rocks. I love the little-tiny steam-punk stuff Karma put on the cover, but I didn't think to photograph it. Gears and stuff. Love it!

MA's Spring Challenge

Created on: 3/12, 2010 at 05:34 pm

Over at Gail's art doll round robin, the Coolabberation 2009, one of the members, MA, had a wicked idea. What can a group of creative women do with junk? She mailed us a mystery item and told us to make a doll. Because it's Friday, and time for an update, here's my doll, in progress.

The Queen of Hearts

Created on: 3/9, 2010 at 11:33 pm

Allow me to introduce the Queen of Hearts. She belongs to Jeanne who lives just a stone's throw away from me, over on the peninsula.

The Queen has an established personality; "Off with her head!" I was incredibly excited to do some work on her. The thing is, she was already so beautifully done, I didn't know what to add that wouldn't detract from the whole. I decided that her skirt, while sparkly, still needed some embellishment. After a few false starts with materials that didn't work out, these ten-sided mandalas were perfect.

I made five of them and spread them along the front of her skirt.

One of the things that didn't work out was this ring of peyote. I decided to slip it over Karma's rose just as a lark. Turns out, the Queen liked it.

She was screaming for a petticoat while I was still slitting the tape on the the box. As soon as I pulled her out, I went, "Yeah, petticoat!" But then I started looking at Robyn's incredible bloomers and thought it would be a shame to cover them. The Queen won out in the end. I used black silk ruched with red silk cord to make this under-skirt. Now the bloomers are the Queen's secret, a pleasure to find hiding under all that skirt.

I love this journal style. We each had our own cover and mini-book to fill. It's so great to see all the different ways to do art journals. Very inspiring.