Art. Beading. Music. Cleaning out my studio.

Beading again.

And then this song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpunQZ4cUyI

Three Copyright Free Paintings

These are the three paintings that I mentioned in the previous post. They are acrylic paintings for a new artist journal that I am working on. They are just the base pages, ready for collage, drawing and writing.I offer them to you, completely copyright free, in gratitude for what abundance af art and beauty I live in, indeed for all the Gifts I have been given.Print them out for your own journals, Artist Trading Cards, greeting cards, origami, or whatever else you would like. Again, I - we - would love to see what you have done, so post a comment here with a link to your blog, flickr, site, wherever. You are free to pass this post/these pics to anyone you like.

Have fun!

I am here...

I feel like I am Rocky, in that moment where he is running up the steps and stretches out his arms into the morning sun. Well not quite that triumphant but bloody well determined anyway.

You probably thought that I fainted and fell off a cliff.

Not anytime soon.

Life happens. I go non-verbal while I process it all. I have been longing to get back to writing, so I am dragging myself over here to begin. I am seeing that when I hesitate, stumble around wordlessly, a bit scared (or even nigh on to petrified) maybe, perhaps, I am closer to saying the true thing, being the strong one. That Marianne Williamson quote about fearing our fabulousness. I swear to God that pisses me off: that any of us should ever doubt - that we are taught to doubt - what is excellent in us because it is outside the norm. Although I get the whole go-along-with-the-community-to-dwell-within-the-safety-of-the-community thing, I also am experienced enough to know that it is our unique gifts that will save the world.

Also I am a parent and see how very easy it is to get caught up in the yearning for status quo and bark at my family to strive for that too. Thus squashing the tender blossoming I am soooo honored to bear witness to.

I was graced yesterday to allow my deep need to fit into whatever personal version of "community synch" I imagined to be true just slide on past, and simply support my child and his demanding, but brilliant, pace of learning. I came home thrilled, or maybe just amazed that I had listened to that same God I just swore by. And I came home with a happy, engaged child. No squished blossoms on anyone's part.

Parenting is the most amazing Gift. Like the Goddess Inanna stripping off her every outer adornment and protection, we are offered an opportunity to leave every last vestage of "normal" and bear witness to Ereshkigal: moan and rock like the flies with the Queen of our Souls:

The kurgarra and galatur [the flies] moan with Ereshkigal, appeasing her anguish by the echo of their concern, affirming her in her suffering. Enki has understood that complaining is one voice of the dark goddess, a way of expressing life -- valid and deep in the feminine soul. Such complaining does not seek alleviation as much as it is to simply state the existence of things as they are felt to a sensitive and vulnerable being. There is no need for a stoic-heroic superego perspective of judging it as foolish and passive whining, but rather it should be viewed as autonomous fact -- “that's the way it is.” Suffering is seen as part of reverencing.

Ereshkigal is so touched by the attention they offer her in her pain that she extends herself and offers gifts of fertility and growth.

We are offered the chance to allow another's reality to be True and Good (straight from God) no matter how late it will make us at the grocery store or how awkward we think it might make us look in front of our friends, and that very stretching to listen (with God) to our unutterably marvelous children is, although absolutely a treasure for our children, also, fantastically, a gift to ourselves as well.

Like Ereshkigal, our children (and our own inner children) (and God) hear our attentive moaning with and extend themselves, offering us Blessings.

I grew up hearing all about how I was supposed to be seen but not heard. (Raise your hands: how many of you heard that too??) And so I thought that that was my job as a parent: to "spend the first two years of their lives teaching my children to walk and talk and the next sixteen years to sit down and shut up". But I now can see that this method just teaches us that we must be pretty enough to be visually pleasing and yet that we have nothing inside of any value to anyone, least of all ourselves. I can see, miraculously, in my children that this is blatently not true.

At every turn my children open doors for me. Through loving them (listening to them, even when their hungers or needs don't fit my schedule or sense of decorum, and even when I am quite sure that I have no strength or talent for doing what they need to have done) I have experienced my own wonderfullness. This happens when I am making way for what they can do, as well as making allowances for what they cannot do.

And then sometimes, often, yesterday, if I stay right with them, mirroring to them what I see, confirming to them by altering my pace to suit theirs that they are infinately loveable, then what they used to not be able to do they can now accomplish.

Oh. My. God.

And so my life has been full lately of this work. Or maybe just reverence.

Anyway, also, I have been painting. I am going to put three of my latest base journal pages here. In gratitude for all of the Gifts and Blessings afore mentioned in this post, and to keep them flowing, I offer them to you, copyright free, to print out and draw on, or cut up and collage with, or whatever strikes your fancy. Of course you are free to tell your friends and blog readers where you got them, and of course I would love to see your blog or Flickr links to what you did, but really, they are free for you to use however you would like.

Eeeps! I am having trouble loading photos... I will post this and try to load the photos in a separate post...

Goddess Bless all of us parents.
Goddess Bless the artists.
Goddess Blessings on and on the children.

Kreativ Blogger Award

Good morning. You will see in my sidebar that I was given the Kreativ Blogger Award by GypsyLulu. Thanks, G. So: I need to tell you 7 things about me and then pass this award on.

Hmmm ... Let's pass this on to:

1. http://jafabrit.blogspot.com/
2. http://alewivesgirl.blogspot.com/
3. http://beadlust.blogspot.com/
4. http://comfortdolls.blogspot.com/
5. http://alteredbelly.blogspot.com/
6. http://paperforest.blogspot.com/
7. http://claudinejalajas.blogspot.com/

And now some public secrets ...
1. I always wanted to be an artist and thought that this title was about the most wonderful and completely out of reach in the world. For me, anyway.
2. I have been sewing and cutting/pasting paper since I was old enough to hold the scissors (about 4 years old).
3. Thought #2. and all those years of practice and training had very little impact on Thought #1 for many decades.
4. I still feel a little odd about letting it be O.K. that I am who I most want to be.
5. I tried to stop. I thought that my work had to be elsewhere, but figured out that I couldn't. I now have two careers, and am making inroads to a third. Third Job. Third concurrent job.
6. What am I: nuts?
7. Whatever. I am a Mom: single parent of two homeschooled children. I am an artist-writer working on my fourth book. And the third is some kind of advocacy professional. Haven't worked out the deets yet. Good thing I'm a woman.

I Love this song!

I Was Interviewed by Laura Bray

I have just finished an online class from Laura Bray called Multiple Streams of Income. Well, that is to say that the class is over, but I am not finished: I am going to be pouring over my class materials and learning from it for a very long time I think.

Laura is a great teacher, filled the 4 weeks with lots of information and really got me seeing all kinds of new options for my work. We were given lots of ways to view our livlihoods, and really asked to exercise and brainstorm our way through the possibilities with the company of others - worlwide. Very good.

Laura asked me for an interview at the end of class: read it here on her blog.

I would recommend her classes to any of you out there, not just artists.

Art Charms From Number 6 Plastic

Remember a couple of days ago when I showed you some images of how I made charms for my art quilts? (The birds and heart triangles.) Well I discovered a slightly healthier source of #6 plastic - shrink plastic. Newman's Organic Ginger-O's.

So here is a fun project.

#1. Eat the cookies. By the way, I am pretty sure that all of the different flavors of Newman-O's come in #6 trays. Share them with friends. Read fairy tales to your children in between nibbles. Settle in with a cup of tea, your dreams and a couple of cookies.

#2. When the cookies are all gone (or if you put your cookies in a jar) rinse out the tray. Dry it off or not: see below, #4.

#3. Take a regular hole punch and punch a few holes. Because I will be sewing this onto an art quilt, I punched once at each top corner and five times along the bottom so that I can both attach it to the quilt and also hang beaded dangles from the bottom edge. You will not be able to punch the charm after it is heated. It becomes very thick and strong. (Like the magic shine on my hole punch?)

NOTE: If you are using the kind of shrink plastic that is sold in craft stores you are likely to get a thicker sheet which will shrink, but not shrink as much as these trays. The Newman People make these trays as thin as they can to keep waste down to a minimum. Thank you Newman People. These thin trays shrink to almost 1/3 of their original size. I started with a 6" x 8" x 2" tray (15cm x 20.5cm x 5cm) and ended up with a charm measuring 2.5" x 3" (6cm x 7.5cm). So use a regular 1/4" (5mm) hole punch - nothing smaller as the resulting hole will be too small for a needle. Look below to see where I threaded the green floss to help you see where I put my holes.

#4. With either a heat gun or a designated art oven at 275 degrees F (I have an old toaster oven that we never use for food), and in a well ventilated area, heat the tray on a metal baking sheet. I use aluminum foil over the oven tray or an old aluminum baking tray with the heat gun. It took me about a minute with my heat gun. In the oven you have to watch it. In both cases the plastic wrinkles and curls - it may even flip over. It will then uncurl and nearly flatten. I use cloth or tongs to pick it up out of the aluminum tray (mine has ridges) and set it on something flat, and while it is still hot press the piece completely flat with something flat (I had a jar lid, or use a book, a block...) Oh! And do you see below where there are little spots and bubbles on my charm? I did not dry my tray off first and I think that the water spots made the plastic take the heat unevenly. I have decided that this was an intentional design consideration...

You can still see the happy cookie ridges.

#5. Decorate with permanent markers. Consider the possibilities of drawing one design on one side and another part of the picture or design on the other side: the trunk of a tree on the back and the leaves in the front? The frame on the back, with accents and a quote on the front? Something like that.

I hope that you have fun, and please do leave me a comment linking back to your blog with photos of your Newman-O's charm!

Online Open Studios Event

Greetings from my studio. Quilting Arts is publishing a fall issue of Studios magazine and invited its members to open our studios for an online tour. I am actually combining this with a view of some more of my Reconfigured Trash Art. You can go here to see who else is on the tour. This should be so, so good. I am going on tour as soon as I have posted. Meanwhile, Welcome! I am so glad that you stopped by!

Here is a view of one of the walls that I use for display. And below are some close-ups of a couple of my Trash Vessels.This one is called: Broken Shells From The Egg Of Desire. Can you see the diamonds from an egg carton? The beads are sterling silver.A close-up from "Bells of Clarity". The bells are caps from water bottles, the clappers are clothing clips. Those bugle beads are 14K goldfill.

This one is "Make A Wish" and has silver stars cut from milk cartons.I have been painting brown paper bags lately. I am finding that it makes a great collage-able paper. It is thick and makes even more dimensional the finished collages - which I like. Above is one in blues and greens. Below is the start of another. I first paint the brown paper - a bag cut open - with gesso which gives the paper a lovely malleable, rubbery hand.I am painting, you will see, on a piece of BlueBoard. It is an insulation board that I got at the hardware store. I think it came in a 4' x 8' piece and I cut it with a utility knife into six pieces. I paint on them - and don't mind the spatters - then pick up the whole board and place it somewhere out of the way to dry. Ever tried picking up wet paper? So awkward. This solves all that. I love these boards. If I ever decide that they are too paint ridden, I will carve into them, paint them and turn them into art. :)I have been taking painting lessons from a local painter. A whooole new way to use my brain and the acrylic. I am learning that one paints a little, lets it dry, adds new colors and depth, layering on until lovliness is achieved. I have a ways to go here...Here is a yummy view of one of my bead walls. Jam and peanut butter jars mostly on specifically measured shelves.

I have art hung everywhere...And my computer: an important art tool. Recognise the wallpaper there? It is from my birthday party in June.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I have a little door prize for the first 25 visitors: an ATC, an ATC sized piece of that blue and green painted paper that I just showed to you, and a bit of ephemera from my studio. Just leave your mailing address at my email: robinsunne@robinsunne.com. (Don't leave it here: not so private for you.) International address are O.K. I will amend this post when I have your 25 addresses.

Hi--- Thanks for all of the visitors and comments. The doorprizes are all done. I will send them out today, Monday, you should have them by the end of the week.

"See" you around...

Accordion Book Hinge Part II

Well ... here are the results:

I would say that those are too many glue warpings. Huh. Does anyone know: is there a better kind of glue to use? Would the warps flatten out if I left them under the books overnight (instead of for only 1/2 an hour?)

Now that pale green/contrasting fabric is really noticeable. I would want to use fabric that was the width of both pages and whose pattern or color really added to the statement of the book. For now I like better the matching blue:And here is the book all folded up:I think that I will fill the book and post about that later.

Was this helpful?

Accordion Book Hinges

Good Morning/Day/Night (wherever, whenever you are).

I am a member of the TrueNorthArts Yahoo Group and there was a question of how to make a really loooong accordion book without really loooong paper: how does one connect shorter papers without bulking up the book?

Here's the idea I had: use fabric as the hinge. Now, as I am not really sure what I am talking about, I thought I'd do it myself, photograph the steps and see what happens. Let's go.

Step One:

Cut your papers into the correct height for your book's pages. I am using Canson art paper here. A little shout out to the Canson People. Nice papers, thank you.

Step Two:

Fold the papers into the correct width for your book's pages. You might be noticing that not all of the papers are folded to the same width. I just wanted to see what would happen. Stay tuned.

Step Three:

Cut one piece of fabric for each hinge between two ends of the various accordion folds for your book. NOTE: Cut them a bit taller than the paper - we'll trim them exactly later. I used solid cotton broadcloth. Now I have cut one pale green fabric that doesn't match the paper for contrast? An artistic statement? And then I used one blue cloth that almost exactly matches the fabric to see how invisible I can make this hinge.

Step Four:

I neatened the long, vertical edges, cutting off the little fringies and unwoven threads. I did not cut the top or bottom as we will do that later.

Step Five:
I placed one fabric piece on a piece of clean paper (I cut up all of my recycled papers to make notebooks for myself and didn't have any big enough for this project.) I got out my Elmer's white glue (Hello Elmer's Products, Inc.) and squirted some (too much! - read below) on to get ready for ...
Step Six:

...where I painted the glue all over the fabric. Make sure that you get the glue evenly spread aaaall over the fabric. Pick up the gluey fabric and put it on a clean piece of paper (so that you don't get the extra brushed glue where you don't want it.)

Step Seven:

Place one end of one folded paper down, rubbing it into place.

Step Eight:

Then press the other down. Now, see how the papers are wrinkling a bit? Too much glue. I tried using less glue on the next hinge...

Step Nine:

So I tried less glue ... but it wasn't enough ... so I about doubled the amount shown here, ending up at slightly less than the pale fabric above.

Step Ten:

I put the next set of folded papers on, abutting them about as precisely as I could. But I was in a hurry and cut badly - see how they don't match at the top?With the pale fabric I cut off the extra fabric at the top and bottom with a pair of scissors, but here I used a metal straight edge and an X-Acto knife.I liked how very much easier and neater that was. Can you see in this photo that I just cut off the extra tall paper. (No one ever accused me of being a Type A personality.)

Step Eleven:

I covered each page, both sides, with some plastic wrappers that I had in my studio then laid books on top of the paper/cloth hinges. I will send off this post, go undo the stack - hoping that the wet-glue-warps might have flattened out, and post you the results. (A short advertisement here - I used my own books for the stack! Nannee, The Great Library ATC Swap and Chang E, The Lady of the Moon.)

Open Virtual Studio this Weekend

Hey! I am going to be a part of Quilting Arts' Online Open Studios Event! It takes place on this Saturday and Sunday. Do stop by my blog, here. I will be waiting for you and might even have a door prize for you.

Another Trash Walk Through My Studio

Hi, another Thursday, another Trash Walk.
You asked for photos of the whole pieces, so here you are: Prayers I and Prayers II: These art quilts were both done on cotton cloth; mostly reverse applique, then embellished with either sterling silver or 14K goldfill beads, then glass beads and various bits of reconfigured trash. They are each about 43" x 9" (1.25 x .25m). This week's detail pics come from Prayers I.

Here in the first close-up is a silver colored, plastic wrapper from a printer ink, cut to shape and fit to shape the triangle that I had made, and then sewn on with silver thread.

These lovely stars were cut from black vegetable tray foam with a little polymer clay cookie cutter. It actually only impressed the foam. I had to go back and finish cutting with a craft knife.Next is a row of CD drops.A chip cut from the top of an oatmeal box.Another little glass vial with a teatag saying in it.

A feather shape cut from that silver plastic, this time slightly etched with a dull pencil for texture, and sewn again with silver thread.

A curious couple of lines: the top one has tiny squares of blue packaging held on with one size 11 seed bead each. The bottom one has silver beads bracketing a piece of packaging wire that I wound around a pencil then fanned into shape.More packaging black plastic with silver beads to hold it on.And lastly an applique web with the silver nibs from some pens.

I loved making these. Maybe I will make some more someday.

I have more to show you so stop by next Thursday, O.K.?

A chat with Jane Davies, a trash walk through my studio ...

I just got a lovely email from Jane Davies, author of Collage Journeys. She and I have been chatting a bit about using recycled items in one's work. I told her that I would tell her a bit of what I have done, but I thought that you all might enjoy the conversation too. The photos that I will be telling you about all come from a work entitled Prayers II which I did in 2006.

This view has one of my favorite uses for "reconfigured trash". There are three letter beads caught in what I keep calling bubble packaging - plastic packaging that is blown out to generally conform to the shape of the item inside. There is usually a flat outer rim which is perfect for sewing, or gluing, onto one's art surface. This bubble was around a short camera battery and I must not have liked the color of the torn off cardboard because here I cut a rectangle a little smaller than the outer shape, clipped the corners and turned the fabric under making a reverse applique hole for the bubble to fit into. I sewed it all down with size 11 seed beads.Next there were some polymer clay fish cut from a pancake of bits and pieces left over from another project. That center blue diamond is very carefully stitched foil that once graced a rather nice chocolate. :)


Sorry about the fuzzy focus on this one: between some more reverse applique I sewed little tiny bottles of the chopped up purple plastic of a raisin tub top. What if one could buy little bottles of LOVE from the apothecary? I wondered... These bottles came from stampington.com

Here is more of that purple top cut to fit the applique and blend nicely with some more beads. Above the triangles are more leftover clay buttons. Very marvellous how a bit of faux gold leafing classes them up.


I hope that you can see these well enough. They are water bottle tops over the little world maps that are printed on those fake credit cards they used to send us in the mail.

More chocolate wrappers cut to echo the shapes that I had sewn. Those are little blue birds settling in made of shrink plastic. DID YOU KNOW that #6 plastic (a very brittle plastic often used for bakery and deli foods at our local grocery store) is shrink plastic?? Depending on what you buy at the grocery store, this could be good news.More shrink plastic ... I drew the hearts and borders in gold marker and it kind of bubbled up as I heated/shrank it. Interesting.Here I put in two dollar coins with a shisha stitch and a cancelled USA stamp. The purple cardboard had been another piece of junk mail.And lastly an image from an old Tibetan incense box. In China two fish mean "abundance". Is it the same in Tibet

In Prayers II I put 24K goldfill beads next to plastic beads and real coins next to trash, but cut and framed by cloth, and thread, and bead, it all starts to make sense. Just like prayers.

Did you enjoy this little walk through my studio? Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear what you are doing with your reconfigured trash.