Lisa Vollrath

And….Done!

I just finished putting the final sealer coat on the last page of my journal for The Sketchbook Project. Here’s the whole thing, with the pages in order:

And Then There Were Two…

Here’s one more set of pages from my book for The Sketchbook Project. It’s very timely. I went to my first vegan potluck with a group that formed recently in my neighborhood. Vegans in my neighborhood. In Texas. Go figure.

My garden calendar says that sometime in the next two weeks, I’m going to start planting cool weather crops. I have a little construction to do first, because the trellis I built for the peas last year is really too short. I’ll be sad to take it down, but I have an idea for one that arches over the pathways, which will look sort of cool, and make better use of the space.

Anyway, in the next couple of days, I’ll be finishing off the last two sets of pages in this little journal, and send it on its way to New York, where it will join hundreds of others. I’ll be both sad and relieved to see it go—and I’ll also have to find myself another journaling project before Friday’s art journal meeting. What’s next? I have several different journals on the work table, but I’m not sure which one to dive into first.

Look at me. I’m finally an art journaler. Sort of.

OK. What’s Next?

The Getting Things Done Mojo has been spending this week at my house. I’m ahead on all the work things I wanted to do this month. I’m also ahead on the financial things I wanted to do this month. I’m contemplating spending this afternoon working on my stalled bedroom remodel, which is just a few tiny pieces away from being ready to paint. Paint, flooring, trim, then move the heck in, and have a real bedroom without work things in it. I really want to make this happen, before I get distracted with spring gardening things, which are already calling my name.

Tonight is this year’s first meeting of my local art group, and at my suggestion, it’s a UFO night. Everyone is supposed to bring a project that’s been sitting around, unfinished—and finish it. I have so many unfinished objects to choose from, it’s going to be hard to pick one. Altered bottles that have been taking up space, mocking me, for a good six months? My Crush book, I started two years ago, and just haven’t been able to find time to work on? The magazine journal that I started before Christmas, that’s been sitting on my desk ever since? Hmm…

I’m still hacking away at my book for The Sketchbook Project. I have three, count ‘em, three, sets of pages left to letter and seal, and two weeks left to get them done. I’m hoping one set will be done before I leave for the meeting tonight. I’m SO ready for this book to be done and out of my life. I’ve enjoyed doing it, but it’s time to move on to something else!

Oh Well

So, my first goal of 2012 was to pack up my book for The Sketchbook Project, and send it on its way.

It’s not done yet, so obviously, I haven’t sent it. So much for finishing it as my first achievement of 2012. I mailed off a piece of artwork for another project instead.

The good news is that I realized I have until January 31st to get a postmark on my package. I have TONS of time left. So I’m still ahead of the deadline. See what I did there? I didn’t miss a deadline—I’m ahead of one. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it…

Meanwhile, I’m finishing up the last of six sample books for my Wall Books class. I’ve really enjoyed making them. Putting together online classes has become a great excuse to make a whole bunch of something I like making. I see more classes in my future!

Goodbye 2011

Here is what will probably be the last piece of personal artwork I do in 2011, since the remainder of today and all of tomorrow will be spent making things for the January issue of The Monthly Muse. It’s a four inch canvas, painted with acrylics, and then layered over with a four and a half inch tape transfer of a digital collage, made from photos I took in Fort Worth and New Orleans, and then over-painted a bit with more acrylics. It’s an insane process.

I did this piece for a swap on FreakWerx, which has reformed itself on Facebook. I haven’t swapped much this year. I just don’t have the time to organize projects, and I’m wary of joining projects hosted by others. I’m sad to see my perpetual swapping and round robin-ing fall by the wayside, but perhaps it’s just time for that part of my creative life to take a back seat to other things.

On the plus side, this is the 54th Weekly Thing post of this year, which means I more or less did keep up with the idea of making something to talk about every week. Although, just as it has been for the last six years, one my creative resolutions for 2012 is still to make more time for personal artwork, I feel like I’m finally doing a little better at managing that aspect of my life. Perhaps it’s due to spending less time on work for swaps and exchanges, and more on work that helps me stretch—like starting the year with art journaling classes on the Strathmore site, which I’m doing again this year. Perhaps it’s because I’m starting to develop online classes, which are based on the type of work I do when left to my own devices, and give me the extra financial boost I need to allow myself more time away from doing things for Ten Two Studios.

Anyway, here’s my commitment to maintain this weekly creative blog for yet another year. One thing a week, whether it’s personal artwork, photography, or collaborative project work. Onward to 2012!

Counting Down

There are just two weeks left in 2011. Where did the time go?

I’ve spent today adding lettering to pages in my book for The Sketchbook Project. It’s getting done, little by little. I’ll be glad to see it boxed up and gone. I’m hoping I can do that on January 1st, to sort of start the year by finishing something. That has to be some sort of good omen, right?

So, the cover. I left it to almost last, because I wasn’t sure if I’d need some sort of closure. I decided against, played with a few things, and then settled on some plain black stenciled lettering. And it was boring. So I picked up my favorite ultra-fine pen, and started adding swirls. And it was better. Then I added some white dots. OK, good. Then, I swiped some sealer over the whole thing—and all the swirls disappeared, because my favorite pen was not permanent on and already sealed cover. Dammit! I grabbed a brush marker, redid all the swirls, and the heavier, darker lines made the lettering almost disappear. Cool. Done is beautiful.

I also left the first set of pages in the book blank, knowing I wanted to go back and add something that introduced the book—and also knowing that I should never, ever do that kind of page before the book is finished, because as much as I think I know what a book is going to be about, things change over the course of so many months. The idea I had for these pages stayed pretty much the same as my original one. I used a photo of my house taken on the day I bought it, and a couple from this spring, before the heat wave hit. I can’t help but feel just a little proud of the transformation I’ve made in the front of the house. It looks so very different than it did eleven years ago.

Speaking of which, I spent all day yesterday in the garden, cleaning and mowing and edging. And weeding. Oh, the weeding. Some scourge has sprouted all over the place, and is in every flower bed, gravel path, and between all the pavers on the paths. It sucks. It’s been raining a lot here over the past week or so, which is always a good thing, but especially good right now, because we are so low on rain for the year. However, it’s not good for the weedy scourge, which was growing so large in some areas that I could see the wind rippling through it. So I mowed a bunch of it down yesterday. In December. And I was not the only nut job in the neighborhood mowing.

The weather here. It’s messed up…

Whack. Whack. OUCH! $#&*

In about three weeks, I will have owned my house for eleven years.

Those of you who have been following me that long know that I’ve been renovating my house since before I moved into it. The ink wasn’t even dry on the paperwork before I started buying tile for the kitchen, which took me two years of tearing back to the studs, rewiring, and rebuilding to finish. And I use the word finish very loosely, because recently, I found myself staring at the back wall, thinking I should move the island to sit against it, and extend it to create a…wait, I’m getting off track…

When I left my last real job to start Ten Two Studios six years ago, I had just finished moving all the stuff in my office into the master bedroom, thinking I was going to do a quick paint and reflooring job, and move back into it. At the time, using the smallest of the three bedrooms as my office made sense, because I basically used it to play on the computer, print things for my artwork, and occasionally worked at home.

Starting my own business and working at home full time changed everything, and so, my simple little renovation came to a grinding halt. For a while, I thought I’d simply drop in some new wiring for the power-sucking printers and computer equipment, and continue to use the little bedroom as the office. At some point, I realized that using the smallest room in the house as the room in which I spend the most time every day was, well, stupid. I hatched a plan to turn the master bedroom into my office and kit-packing space, so I could stop dragging kit supplies into the living room, where I could watch TV while I worked.

One of the down sides of being my own business is that very often, when I have the time to do home improvement projects, I either don’t have the dollars because business is slow, or don’t have the energy, because I’m taking a few days off after a particularly hectic period. The home improvement progress has slowed to a halt in the past few years. And so, I’ve been working in my half-gutted bedroom for six years, crammed into temporary space that’s less than prime, and using portions of the living room, dining room, and studio for the overflow. It’s ugly.

Last spring, I finally decided enough was enough, and got down to business. The little bedroom, which is now slated to be my bedroom, was a disaster. It was previously a baby’s room, complete with pink and blue wallpaper from hip down, and horrible stenciled bunnies across the beam. Under the baby wallpaper was a liner. Under that was fake grass cloth vinyl wallpaper. Under that, another liner. Under that, ugly pinky-beige paint. I scraped, wiped and peeled my way down to ugly paint for about a week. I moved the ceiling fixture box to make space for a small overhead fan. I filled holes left from the installation of the new electrical box, and from forty years of hanging things on the walls. I patched ceiling cracks—and then repatched them. I cussed a lot.

And then came summer, when it’s honestly too hot to move, let alone climb up a ladder and use power tools. I foolishly thought I’d get paint and flooring done this summer, and do trim and furniture in the fall. That didn’t happen.

Last week, I got a wild hair, and went ahead and ordered a storage bed I’d had my eye on for a while. I was on sale, and I got a free shipping deal—and it will be here Wednesday. I will now have two large boxes of bed parts laying in the middle of the living room until I finish preparing the bedroom. Incentive to finish the damned thing once and for all? I think so!

Yesterday, I started conquering the ugliest remaining job: installing bead board panels on the ceiling, to cover the too-cracked-to-repair sheet rock once and for all. Me installing masonite panels on a sloped ceiling by myself is, well, not pretty. It involves hammering very tiny nails, over my head, at an angle. My left thumb has a decidedly purple tinge to it this morning. However, I got half of it finished yesterday, it looks great, and I think I can finish the other half tomorrow. That leaves paint and flooring before I can move the bed in.

Perhaps I will be a grown-up, and have a real bedroom before the end of the year. With furniture that matches, and storage for all my clothes—and no work stuff in it. Pass me that hammer…

Duck and Cover

Here’s a cheery image for you on Black Friday—part of my journal for The Sketchbook Project. I decided I couldn’t really do a book about my garden, and not reference what happened this summer. In a sea of bright, cheery pages, this set stands out in its bleakness. And yes, just to make it even more obnoxious, it folds out, to make it twice as tall as the other pages. Go big, or go home, right?

Today begins that season which keeps me at home, far away from other people. I loathe the holiday shopping frenzy. Three years of working holidays in a craft store will cure you of any idea that the human race is good and kind. It brings out the worst in a lot of people. I refuse to participate in the whole Black Friday routine. There’s nothing anybody needs badly enough to get trampled, or, according to this morning’s news, pepper sprayed. I contributed to the economy by buying a new television last week, to replace one that I was given in 1990, and another that I bought when I moved into this house in 2000, and has been stuck on DVD for three years. That’s it. I’m out.

Tonight is art journaling night with my local group. Even though it’s a holiday weekend, we still have a small group of diehards attending, myself included. I have to run outside and take a few photos, and prep some pages with them this afternoon. I’m hoping that after tonight, all the pages in my Sketchbook Project book will have work on them. Between now and Christmas, I’ll do lettering and finishing. This morning, I did a round of Dorland’s wax on all the pages I’ve finished in the past few weeks. The number of pages with waxed paper between them to keep unsealed acrylics from sticking together is dwindling to a very few.

I’m also gearing up to start prepping another online class. My first one went really well, and I got some good input from the blind class evaluation forms. I think the next one is going to be a da Vinci themed book, with lots of interactive things going on inside. In a workroom filled with books waiting to be altered, the hold up is—having two books that are a normal size that everyone can find. I have tons of odd books tucked away for altering—tall, skinny, tiny, fat, huge, whatever—but none that are, say, the size of your basic hardcover novel. I was tempted to go to Half Price Books today, and use the 40% off coupon they emailed me, but I think I’ll stay home, and buy a couple of $3. clearance books on Monday instead…

Scattered

So, I blew off my local art group meeting last week, simply because I couldn’t pull it together to gather supplies and drive ten minutes. It’s that time of year.

The period between Halloween and Christmas is always brutal for me. I love Halloween so much that I continue to design products right up until the end of October—and then, November 1st, I realize I’ve done nothing about Christmas, at the very time when people who like to make things are ready to tackle it for real. Yes, there are a lot of folks who start buying Christmas things in July, and every year, when those orders start coming in, I think gee, I should be planning new Christmas things. But then, I look at the calendar, and see October, and all thoughts of Christmas go right out of my head. I admit it: I have the attention span of a four year old.

Anyway, we are now smack in the middle of the scramble to catch up, and make Christmas things. I have so many projects going right now, I’m running out of horizontal work space. I have things going in my office, studio, dining room, kitchen and living room. I had to move furniture around in the office this week so I have more room to work. My house looks like a bomb went off in it. A big, glittery, red and green Christmas bomb…

Meanwhile, we’re experiencing yet another wave of Indian summer. The weather is unseasonably warm. I have little weedlings sprouting up in every corner of the garden. I had to take an afternoon off this week to mow the backyard, which should have gone dormant by now. Next week, it’s the front yard, which is also infested with tiny weed sprouts. It’s crazy.

I am determined to finish my book for The Sketchbook Project by Christmas. We have two more fourth Friday art journaling sessions scheduled at my local group—one is the day after Thanksgiving, and one is two days before Christmas. I’m thinking both meetings will be small and quiet, so I’ll be able to get a lot of work done. I’m SO close—three sets of unworked pages, and a few more that just need lettering and a little finishing. I can do this!

Elevens

Today is one of those magic dates: 11-11-11. I think we get one more of these, next December, and that’s it for my lifetime. Probably yours, too.

This week, I started playing with magazine pages and gesso. I’m not sure what I’m making yet. Some sort of journal thing, if it stays together long enough for me to keep working in it. Since it’s basically ripped up magazines, some gesso, and a little paint, I won’t be too heartbroken if it doesn’t work.

I’m determined that I’ll finish my journal for The Sketchbook Project by Christmas. I have three sets of unworked pages left, plus some lettering and finishing on about half a dozen others. The same folks who organize this project sent out an email this week looking for folks to do another journal project, due in April. I thought about it long and hard, and then passed. I’ve enjoyed working on the one I have, but I think I want to focus on some journal work that stays home before I dive into another project that goes away when it’s finished.

It’s Autumn. Right?

Yet another set of glue cards to swap with my local group. I now have three sets of three that are unswapped. I’m thinking the glue card swap experience is a bust. Perhaps I’ll put together an organized swap somewhere online.

I had a weird experience this week. I listed some things on Etsy. I had a few too many samples laying around—and also, a handful of assemblage pieces I made for this month’s issue of The Monthly Muse.

It’s been a while since I’ve made any really serious personal pieces. I’ve never really considered myself the kind of artist who makes amazing works that people will value enough to buy. My strength as an artist has always been my ability to look at something, and know exactly how to make it. I write amazing, clear, easy to follow instructions. I don’t make art that should hang in a gallery (although I’ve had the occasional piece in galleries) or a museum (although I do have two pieces that I know of in relatively obscure museums).

But these pieces I did for this month’s issue are different. I pushed my own envelope. I made myself do things I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I created two pieces, in particular, that are some of my best work ever.

And so, I stepped out of my usual “I’m getting rid of a bunch of samples” mentality, and listed those pieces as artwork with gallery pricing. Low gallery pricing, because it’s Etsy. But more than I would usually feel comfortable asking for anything I made.

And my artist friend who inquired about one of the pieces before I listed it didn’t faint at the price I was asking. I trust her, since she really is one of those gallery kind of artists. She would tell me if I was out of my mind on pricing.

It isn’t often that I feel anxious about my work. I do have the occasional oh-god-what-if-they-hate-this feeling when I try something new, but it goes away quickly. I’m pretty confident about what I do and the way I do it. But this was something outside my comfort zone.

And apparently, that’s a good thing.

Just a Spoon Full of…Something

Last Friday’s altered art group meeting was all about altering spoons. I’ve been wanting to play with old silverware ever since I first made altered spoon pendants from stainless steel for the June 2007 issue of The Monthly Muse. I’d read that silver and silver plate respond differently to flattening than steel, and are easier to cut. I discovered that both are true—and also, that silver is easier to break inadvertently, in the totally wrong place *ahem*. Of the four spoons I purchased for our project, I ended up with two bowls and two handles to play with. I’m pretty happy with the handles. I had an embossed lettering failure with the flattened spoon, and in repairing it with my Dremel, ended up with a pendant that looks like it says “ONCE UPON A TINE” instead of “ONCE UPON A TIME”. I suppose that would work if the error was on a fork. On a spoon, it looks sort of goofy. The jury’s still out on the colored spoon. I like the words, but don’t like the way they stand out from the colored background. We’ll see if I do anything about it, or just toss it into the sample box.

The group was much smaller for Friday’s project, which meant we could all sit at the same long setup of four tables, and have one conversation, where we usually populate eight tables, and have three or four discussions going at all times. Since we’re coming to the end of the year, and there were questions on our discussion board about whether we’d be meeting for our usual fourth Friday art journaling session in November (the day after Thanksgiving, and Black Friday) or December (the Friday before the Christmas weekend), I asked a simple question: is everyone happy with how the group is structured, and what we’re doing?

We spent the next hour or so working on spoons and discussing what we were getting from the group, and how it fits into our lives. I learned a lot about the other members, and talked a little about the other art group in which I’d participated, which faced this same question in a less graceful way. Several members expressed their dissatisfaction with the journaling portion of our group, but it was more about their own focus and progress than the way that meeting time has been left unstructured. I listened as several people articulated their plans for that time in the New Year. At the end of the hour, many of us were smiling, and happy that we’d had the talk.

I’m planning on asking the same question at this coming Friday’s journaling meeting.

At one point, our group leader asked if I was looking for us to move in a different direction, or if I had ideas about things I’d rather do—but since the whole point of my being there is just to spend a couple of hours every two weeks around other arty folks, instead of sitting at my computer, obsessing about this week’s new product offerings, answering questions and writing instructions, I’m content to go with the flow rather than try to guide. I’m happy to teach occasionally, but I’m happier to just sit and play. I’d like to do more altered book work, but I don’t want to try to organize a round robin or a regular project, because I just don’t want to be the mom. That’s been a running theme with me through any art gathering in which I’ve participated: I’m happy to pull my weight, pitch in, and participate, but I don’t want to be in charge of anything.

Anyway, what I learned from talking with the other group members: it’s good to ask a question once in a while. It’s good to ask what we’re doing, and why we’re doing it, and if we can make it better. Not that anything has to change—it’s just good to take stock every so often, and remind ourselves what the goals are, and whether we’re doing the right things to meet them. Since the year is winding down, and we’re all about to get sucked into that swirling vortex that is the holiday season, now might be a good time to do that.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

It’s been a while since I’ve participated in Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, mostly because on the 15th of the last, oh, four months, my garden hasn’t had any blooms to speak of. It’s been a hot, bleak summer here in hardiness zone 7B, with 69 days of triple digit temperatures, and stage 1 water restrictions. However, last week, we had a few days of slow, steady rain, and a lot of the garden plants that didn’t die back completely burst into flower. Here’s what’s blooming today:

Another Year

Today is my birthday. Pretty much my favorite day of the year. Not because I’m doing anything special. Just because it makes me happy.

A year ago today, I was in Santa Fe, buying myself a birthday present: a ceramic sun face for my garden shed. It was something I really wanted—a little arty touch on my very functional shed. I even painted it bright blue, so the sun could float in a brilliant sky.

Sadly, a gust of wind caught the door of the shed one day while I was working, flinging it open, and smashing the little ceramic sun against the right front of the shed. It shattered, but due to my industrial strength installation job the pieces stayed in place. So, it looked perfectly fine from the kitchen window, but up close, it looked like this:

Not pretty.

Enter my summer project, the gigantic, flat, painted version of the smashed ceramic sun. It’s been sitting out in the garage, getting coats of acrylic varnish for a couple of weeks, and this morning, I finally decided to grit my teeth and drill holes in it for hanging. Drilling through finished artwork? Stressful.

So, here it is, hanging in place, as intended. Happy birthday to me!

I’m a Little Crispy

I spent most of last week getting Reborn Books class ready enough to open enrollment. I spent about a week longer than I thought I would getting all the videos ready, and I was already a month behind schedule for getting the classroom up and running. By the time Thursday rolled around, and I finally posted the enrollment message at Ten Two Studios, I was fried.

Friday was the monthly art journaling meeting with my local group. I usually work on my book for The Sketchbook Project. After running around doing all the week’s errands all day, I had nothing prepared for journaling, so instead, I packed up a gluebook and some magazines, and spent the evening cutting and pasting. It was a great way to de-stress after a hard week. I forget sometimes how freeing it is to gluebook.

For the Birds

I looked at my calendar today, and realized it’s Wednesday. The last time I looked, it was last Monday. I’ve lost a week…

Well, not lost a week, so much as worked right through it. I’m this close to having my first online class ready to post, and have been working like a mad woman to get things written and recorded and ready. I’ve shot 24 or so little videos, edited them, and converted them to Flash files, then uploaded them and inserted them into the classroom site. Who knew video was so labor intensive?

This morning, I forced myself to take an hour, and do these glue cards, so I’ll have them to swap at the local group meeting this Friday. I’ve been itching to make them, but the idea in my head is much better than the execution. Still, they’re done, and done is beautiful.

The other thing I did this week was buy a cheap web cam, and start playing with it on sites like Google+ and Ustream. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it yet. Video chat, anyone? Last night on Ustream, I watched someone working in her journal. Live. It’s a nifty toy, and probably what will finally drive me to buying a laptop, and setting up a wireless router.

The weather is lovely here for most of the day. We still have that ugly couple of hours in the afternoon where the a/c kicks on, but mornings and late afternoons as the sun starts to sink are pretty great. I should be working in the garden, but honestly, it’s too depressing at the moment. There are dead things there. Expensive dead things. I should replace them now, because fall is prime planting time for perennials, and all the nurseries are having sales to make up for all the revenue they lost during this brutal summer, when nobody was planting anything. I just hate pulling out dead plants. I feel like a gardening failure each time I lose one.

OK, back to work for me. Class eye candy is coming soon, because I’ve made half a dozen new books while shooting the videos.

I’m Not Proud of This

I don’t have any new art to show this week, so I thought I’d show you the current state of my workroom. I know. It’s bad.

In my defense, I’m working on videos for an online class I’m hoping to announce soon. I started working on a basic ATC class, but I got bogged down in what exactly I wanted to do with it, and whether anyone on the planet actually needs a basic ATC class at this point. Yesterday, I moved on, to a class I actually sort of taught in real life to my local group last month. Except I only had two hours, and really this class should take weeks. Which it will, when I get the online class together. But first, I have to do a bunch of videos, and some written lessons, and maybe a few collage sheets. Oh, and samples. Lots more samples. Which is why my workroom looks like someone tossed a grenade into it.

Actually, that’s not a bad idea at this point. Tossing a grenade in. Because it’s bad. It’s really bad. It’s time to drag in the big trash can, and toss some serious junk. And before you ask—yes, the rest of the house is also a mess, but not like this. I do manage to control the clutter elsewhere. Right now, the whole house needs a good floor mopping and dusting, or a couple of hours of maid service.

There is one portion of the house that is relatively free of clutter:

This is the two square feet of my table that you usually see. It’s where I shoot hand shots for projects. That black thing clamped to the table is a monopod for the camera. I just bought a quick-release for my new camera, so instead of screwing it onto the pod each time, I just flip a lever and slide it into place. It’s brilliant. I saved a ton of time last night, as I moved back and forth between the work table and the computer, shooting videos, and then downloading them to turn them into Flash files for the classroom.

Oh, and did you notice that I didn’t start this post with complaints about the weather? Today, we’re having our first double digit high temperature in two months. I celebrated by cooking something in the oven this morning—something I just don’t do in the summer unless I absolutely can’t avoid it. Tonight, it’s supposed to be in the 60s, which is about twenty degrees cooler than it’s been at night all summer. I intend to throw open the windows, shut off the air conditioner, and enjoy the heck out of it.

Is It Autumn Yet?

This week, I happened to read a blog entry from exactly a year ago. In it, I talked about turning off the air conditioner and opening the windows for the first time since June. That’s a big deal around here—opening the windows to let the cool air in, and generally air out the house after a long, hot summer. Unfortunately, with highs still in the triple digits, and lows in the 80s, that day is nowhere in sight.

I managed not to do much work on my journal for The Sketchbook Project this month, so when my local art group’s monthly journaling day rolled around on Friday, I hadn’t prepared any pages for backgrounds or textures. I finished a little lettering, and did one little section of a new set of pages, but mostly, it was a waste of my precious two hours of working time. I’m really going to try to get this book finished by the end of October, so I can move on to another project that’s been sitting undone for over a year.

Anyway, I did finish these rose pages this weekend. That’s something, right?

Done. Or Done-ish.

For those of you who don’t follow my Facebook page, here’s the finished sun-face. Minus a little drilling, and a lot of sealing, which I’m leaving until the weather cools. That part is messy and stinky, and has to be done in the garage, which is about 300 degrees right now. I managed to get one good coat of matte spray sealer on it to hold it over until I can do the heavy-duty stuff. So there.

I don’t do art just for me very often, so it’s been a real joy to finish this project. Once it’s up on the shed door, I’ll be able to see it any time I’m in the kitchen, which is decorated in sort of the same colors as this piece. Wait, I have a picture of it, when it was first finished…

I spent the first two years I lived in this house working on this kitchen. I did all the work with my own two little hands, tearing it back to the studs, removing a wall, extending another wall, drawing and redrawing the kitchen plans to fit the maximum number of cabinets into a ridiculously small space. My kitchen designer gave me the thumbs up when I presented the plans, but questioned my choice of dark cabinets and a white counter top, because with my slate floors, it was completely devoid of color. Then I took him out into the garage, and showed him the pile of tiles I’d been buying, a few at a time, for two years, and he approved. I knew I wanted this colorful back splash before I bought the house. I tore a photo out of a decorating magazine with sort of the same idea, but in solids. I did the tile work myself, over a Thanksgiving weekend. It’s my favorite thing in the house, which is mostly very subdued in color. Guys like my living room, front bathroom, and hallway for all the dark wood, leather furniture, and solid neutral colors. Women turn the corner into the kitchen and breathe a sigh of relief when they see bright, light, and color. Even the door is colorful—in a sea of brown wood doors, I painted the back door from the kitchen to the garage the same green that’s in the back splash.

There you have it. A little peek into my world.

Here Comes The Sun

Remember this sun-face design I posted a while back? Well, since my camera was out of commission, I couldn’t really do a lot of work this week. I took that as a sign that I should do some cleaning, and work on a few unfinished projects. I’ve been dragging my feet on this big piece, so I hauled it out, threw it up onto the bed, and made myself work on it.

Here’s how it looked Monday afternoon, just moments after my new camera arrived. I base-coated the wood, black on the back and sides, and gesso on the front, and then traced the design onto the surface. I saw a tracing method on Pinterest, using old newspaper as the tracing paper. You basically find a piece of newspaper that’s very inky (dark ads, like in the movie listings, or in my case, the restaurant ads of my favorite local Chinese newspaper), slide that between the image you want to trace and the surface you want to trace it on, and draw over the image with a pencil. It takes a little fiddling, but it works—and since I had the newspapers in the house, it was available and free. Yay! Once traced, I went over the design with a black Sharpie, a method I had stored away from when I used to paint murals on the rooftop of my college theatre.

Tuesday morning, I had it this far along. I painted the background and sun rays, and it looked a little flat and boring. The sun face I’m replacing is Mexican talavera tile, and very ornately painted. I wanted to keep some of that, and also create something that integrates with the garden. I decided to paint the second layer of rays as leaves. Better, but still sort of flat. I rummaged around in my file drawers, and found a flower stencil. I started stenciling. It looked better.

Here’s the way it looked this morning. The piece is so large that I’ve only been working on one side, so I don’t have to keep lifting it up and turning it. I started to stencil the background with flowers. I’m thinking I’ll do some dots in between the flowers. I also want to do something with the circular band around the face, and on the cheeks and forehead.

I also have to figure out how I’m going to mount this on the door of the garden shed. I should do that soon. But first, more stenciling…