News

Retro Cafe Art
is giving away a beautiful piece of artwork. So get on over and just leave a comment and also a link on your own blog.

She also sells some great stuff in her shop as well, all kinds of alterable items, which i will be partaking of after my hols lol.


Maggies Monday Musings challenge is underway, so get on over, and join in the fun

It is also up for swaps as well, if you are interested, but you are under no obligation to swap if you do not wish to. Just state in your link that you do not wish to swap.

MATROYSHKA DOLL

Double good news for me today.

First off i sold one of my flower brooches today to my dear friend Cindy, in the USA>what a sweetheart she is.

English country garden

Secondly i was featured on Etsy Treasury, so doubly pleased.

So what am i up to today, on this wet and miserableSunday.

Making a matroyshka door hanger, that's what lol.

I bought the material from etsy a few months ago, and have only just got round to using it. I'm sewing on tiny seed beads, and having reeeeeeal trouble thread the needle. Broke two needle threaders so am having to resort to my DH being my needle threader LOL, hahaha.

The trouble is, you have to have a reeeeeeally fine needle to pass through the beads, and i can hardly see the eye, even with my new specs. Oh well. maybe get it finished today, we'll see, cos i'm not sure if i am going to cover it entirely with seed beads. I'll see as i go along.

I bought some beautiful lavender flower heads to put inside, so it could be used as a pomander, or as a scented wardrobe hanger.

If these don't sell, i think they would make great xmas pressies lol.

Yay, finished it, even though it's taken me all day. And boy does it smell beauuutiful. Put the English lavender instead along with the stuffing, and oooooh, brings back memories, of old aunties, english countryside etc.

NEED YOUR HELP

MAGGIES MONDAY MUSINGS IS NOW UP AND RUNNING.

THE LINK IS AT THE TOP ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE.


I'm very excited, as i have decided to set up a new blog, purposely for the intention of a weekly challenge.

I am truly thankful for everyone who visits my blog, and i really love looking at everyone elses pieces of art.

So what better way than for us all to join together, with a weekly challenge, where we can all view each others art work.

It will be called Maggies Monday Musings, and each week a different theme will be set, and everyone will make an ATC to that theme, and post the link to their work in the comments, enabling us all to view each others work

EVERYone will be given the chance to chose a theme.

I've chosen ATC's as the weekly challenge, as i feel that this makes it open to everyone. Maybe people will choose to swap with one another, if they want to.

Right, i'll announce further news of this when i have the new blog up and running. I'll announce the first theme, next week, and it will all start on the 14th July (I'm off on my hols before then so will be impossible for me to set the ball rolling before then.

I REALLY HOPE EVERYONE WILL JOIN IN WITH THIS. If not i'll just scrap the idea, but i would really love us all to come together on this project. Should be fun.

In the meantime here are a couple of photos of our dear faithful old timer, Toby.
We're not sure of his real age, as he was a rescue dog, but we think he's 13/14 years old. As you can see he's spoilt rotten. LOL

Chocolate Cupcakes

Here are two more brooches, both made from the faux leather.
It reminds me of a chocolate glaze, which inspired me to use them with the cupcakes. Hence the title Chocolate Cupcakes LOL.

The one on the left is an orange liquer base with lavendar scented icingtop, whereas the one on the right is a blueberry base with rose petal scented icing on top.

HAHA not really but if they WERE real cupcakes that is what they would be made of.

Getting a bit excited as my annual holiday is coming up, and i can't wait. We'll be staying in a luxury hotel (i hope lol), and be waited on hand and foot. After the massive upheaval of moving home, and with the various health issues with both myself and my dear husband, this holiday will be a very welcome break.

I've found a tutorial for making a dahlia brooch, which is made from ric rac, and hope to make several of these next week (when i've got the ric rac from ebay lol).

One good thing about putting the pictures of the brooches here on blog first, is that i can see exactly what needs adjusting.

The faux leather one with the vintage buttons definitely needs some additions and also the white lace one. So these will be done before placing them on etsy Friday evening.

Have a good day my friends

Fabric Brooches

Here are my latest fabric brooches

Faux Leather brooch
with vintage buttons and gold bugle beads


White Lace and pearls brooch
with tiny pearl seeds and gold bugle beads,
and white butterfly bead.

These will be going in my etsy shop on Friday evening, and will encased in a pure white organza bag.

FABRIC JEWELLERY

Here are my first attempts at f abric jewellery.

Flower brooch/corsage
Liberty fabric
approx 2.5"/6cm across


Flower brooch/corsage
Kaffe Fassett fabric
approx 2.5"/6cm across

These are the first two brooches i have made, and have completely hand sewn them. Not a big lover of machine sewing (even though Ern has promised me a lovely embroidery sewing machine yeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaah), and did try sewing the circle on my old machine, but oh boy no no no no no.

Quite addictive these things are, and have made even smaller flowers (3/4" /2cm) in co-ordinating fabric to make bracelets. They will be interspersed with beads. If nobody likes em i can keep em myself HAHAHAHA.

These will be added to my etsy shop later this week, as i need to make a few more in different colours.

I'm making a white lace one with pearls and pearl buttons. I thought these would be lovely as Wedding corsages instead of the run of the mill carnation buttonholes. These would then be a lasting momento of the occasion.

Will show you that one tomorrow.

I have ideas to make some really arty farty ones, so will see what happens, both with the making and the sales if any.

Last minute makes

Managed to sneak in a couple of more things to take to the exhibition this afternoon.

First off a captured fairy in a jar. I've been longing to have a go at one of these, and will definitely make another, but next time not so rushed.

Veeery difficult to photograph

Next up is an old acrylic painting of mine, on paper. The poor thing has been stuck in a folder for quite some time, so dragged it out of the mothballs lol, and mounted it on canvas. Added a few lace flowers and buttons, and voila, Cat Fairy has been re-born.

Now everything is done, i will spend this evening giving my room a good clean up. I must be the world's messiest painter/crafter. So everything will be put in order, and then i am going to have a go at making some fabric bracelets for my etsy shop, plus other things as well.

This next lot will be my last go at making my etsy shop work. I'll give it another 4 months, and then i will definitely pack it in, if i don't make any sales. Bit disappointing really, but they say your shop has be jam packed with stuff, but i can't really afford to do that.

Oh well we'll see how it goes. Like i said, i'm going to be adding a bigger array of goods, and eventually some Fine Art as well.

Zetti & Shabby Chic

Well what a mixture, LOL.

Here are the final two pieces of work that hopefully will be exhibited this coming weekend.

I have already said how worried I am about the gallery owner not liking my work, so have emailed the photos of them all, and stated that i won't be offended if he doesn't like them.

So here is the altered photo frame, which took me over 2 weeks to make. Longer than a bloomin painting i might add LOL

The second piece of work, is my acrylic painting on canvas, of a Derby Ram.

The Derby Ram (known as the Derby Tup in Derbyshire), is the emblem of Derbyshire. The buildings are of the Market Hall, Crooked Spire, and one of a pub LOL. Had to get that one in.

DERBY RAM GONE ZETTI

Acrylic on Canvas
24" x 20"

I'll let you know the gallery/shop owner's reaction.

So the exhibition hopefully will consist of the 3 altered angels, altered jigsaw and bottle, Mona goes Zetti painting and Chesterfield goes Zetti paintings and the 3 Zetti Fairys

ANOTHER ALTERED ANGEL

Well here is the final altered Angel.
The Queen

Not the best of pictures, as it is a scan. Don't forget to click on the picture to enlarge.

This was made using a buckle sent to me by my friend Sheila. As soon as i received the buckle i could see the Altered Angel in my mind.

The 'wings' are cut out from cereal packets, the halo is from a pastry cutter, there is a hair slide placed at the bottom, and buttons, a washer and some beads.

The canvas has be coloured using distressed ink pads.

The text inside the buckle is from a vintage book about Royal palaces in England, hence her name.

These are the final altered angels for the exhibition.

Struggling with the painting, but nearly finished one. Not sure whether to go with another painting or more altered art. I havn't much time, as i will have to deliver the goods on Wednesday, so think i will be cutting it fine by doing anything else.

I have to make sure that the canvases have clean edges, and varnished, make sure the altered art is TRULY glued down, and then wrap and pack, and off to my beloved Chesterfield.

BTW, the altered photo frame and the final painting will be posted as soon as it's bright enough and the wind has stopped so that i can take photos.

Altered Bottle

Here is an altered Sarsons Vinegar Bottle, heavily embossed with verdigre embossing powder, which gives it a look of enamelling.

I used a resin butterfly (christmas ornament), silk flowers, and a silver photo frame.

FRONT OF BOTTLE


BACK OF BOTTLE



The bird bead ,sitting on top of the bottle in amongst its nest,
was kindly given to me by my friend Dot
from Australia

GOOD NEWS

Well received some good news today.

Another gallery in London has approached me about exhibiting my paintings in their Gallery.

Several months ago, another gallery in London accepted me to exhibit in their Gallery on the Banks of the River Thames, but THEY WANTED £500/$1000 per week from me to pay for it. Needless to say i had to refrain.

I have a nasty feeling that this is going to happen again.

Which brings me to the point of 'struggling artists'.

We all have the notion of struggling/starving artists, both in the present as well as the Masters of the Past.

But if you think about it, NONE of them were actually struggling as such. The majority came from very wealthy backgrounds who were helped by their families or had patrons.

So just like then, today you have to be wealthy to be able to actually achieve fame. Well that's my theory anyway.

I come from a fairly poor background, and as my husband is disabled, money is still a problem for me.

So i have now given up on the notion of every having my work displayed in the Tate Modern (again on the banks of the River Thames LOL).
C'est la vie my friends.

ALTERED ANGEL - Whisk

Here is altered Angel, number 2.

This was very difficult to photograph, because of the glare on the forks, but gives you a reasonable idea of the colouring.

Once again she is mounted on canvas, 7..5" x 5".

She consists of 2 cake forks, which i've stained with red and green alcohol inks, then embossed with verdigre powder. and hung silver feathers from, stampedover with turquoise ink.

The main body is a miniature whisk, which is a magnet really. On top of the whisk i have added a buckle and adorned with brass caps with gold beads on top.

The legs are silver screws which i've rubbed on gold leaf, and stamped once again with the turquoise ink.
The miniature domino, is inked with green stazon, and embossed with verdigre again.

The face is handmade from air dry clay, and the crown is heavy metal, and was donated to me by my dear friend Tanya, over in the USA>=.

I have another angel finished as well as an altered bottle, but the batteries died in my camera yesterday, and what with the move i can't find the bloomin battery charger, but hopefully will be able to take some photos today. LOL

Everything is falling into place, but i am sooooo unsure about my stuff. The gallery owner insisted on me doing Altered Art, even though he hasn't got a clue what it is about. Got a feeling it will not be his cup of tea.
My next two projects are a fairy in a jar, and a lovely shaped coffee jar is going to be a doll.
Next week will have to be entirely devoted to painting, so i'm not sure if i will have time to blog.

ALTERED JIGSAW

Another finished piece for the exhibition. Still panicking as it's only 11 days away.
STILL HAVN'T DONE ANY MORE PAINTING. Will have to pull my socks up next week.

This piece is an altered jigsaw, which has turned out very pretty, which is something i can't seem to get away from at the moment. Zetti has definitely been put on the back burner for the moment.

Click on the picture to enlarge

This jigsaw piece was one of 3 kindly donated to me by my friend Maureen
It is a large piece and is displayed on a canvas 7" x 9.5", so this shows how large the actual jigsaw piece is.

Coming tomorrow, hopefully, another altered angel. Not sure if it needs anything else added to it first, so will leave it alone for another 24 hours, to make up my mind whether to add on, or just leave as it is.

I am also altering a vinegar bottle. With this, i have embossed the entire bottle with verdigre embossing powder, ( my absolutely favourite piece of equipment)and then inked over with turquoise ink (my second favouriteLOL). Looking good even though i say so myself. It has a look of enamelling, but i know this will not show up in any photo that i will take of it.
This i hope to finish quite soon.

Still waiting on my supplies from HongKong. That is the trouble ordering from so far overseas. It takes AAAAAGES to arrive. REALLY shouldbe here this week. If not, i will have to change my plans on some of my pieces of work.

ALTERED ANGEL

Hooooooray, i've finished my first Altered Angel for the exhibition.

Enjoyed doing this and fairly pleased with the results.

Everything that you see has been altered including the canvas. This i bought for a mere 25p, because it had quite a disgusting print on it, but i'm never one to pass up a bargain, and knew instantly that it would be perfect for displaying an altered angel.

I hope to have another one completed tomorrow. This time i'm using small cake forks, and a miniature whisk. LOL

ALTERED ART

Phew, well i really didn't mean to be this long away from my blog, but the pressure of the upcoming exhibition finally got to me.

I have at least 7 projects on the go, and not one of them entirely finished. Waiting for embellishments to arrive etc, has put me all behind, but when they all eventually turn up, it won't take me long to finish them (fingers crossed).

Here is a sneak preview of one of the projects.

It's an altered photo frame, with 8 compartments in all. I have removed the glass, and am making a stand for it using 4 childrens building blocks.

So far this is my favourite compartment. The china dolly i bought on ebay over a year ago, and have been dying to use her, i just hope she likes her new home.

my bottles of alcohol inks arrived this morning, so am off to have a play with them. I'm making Angels out of kitchen utensils, and wanted the inks desperately to alter them with.

So hopefully it won't be toooooo long before i'm posting again.

PS i STILL havn't done any more paintings, naughty naughty girl. LOL