Just a couple collages I did recently. The left has a “postage stamp” I painted in watercolors, and the right one contains the CMYK color samples we printed at my work years ago and have provided miles and miles of material for my collage work.
Archive for the 'My Artwork' Category
The countdown to spring is on! 19 days left. If the rest of those 19 days are as nice as today was, this should be a breeze. The snow was all melty and I was able to drive around with my window rolled down half way.
Today was one of my days where I have to go in to work at 2 a.m. so I had the daylight to myself. I got a lot done. Grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking, etc., etc. I also finally got around to listing the rings I made last month for Thing-a-Day.
The circle Paper Wrapped Spiral Stratum Rings are a new offering for my shop. I love the pendants that I make like this so much that I had to make some as rings as well. Dare I say, these rings are even more beautiful than the pendants?
Other rings that have been added are more collage based, similar to other rings that have been in my shop previously. I love this abstract piece above. It is very much like something I could see myself wearing all the time.
Here is a ring dedicated to my love of Polaroid. When I was in college I used to incorporate a lot of the polaroid shape into my artwork, printmaking primarily. This was about 10 years ago now and before Polaroid was becoming extinct, so I don’t think my teacher understood or appreciated it very much. It warms my heart now to see the Polaroid image in so much artwork nowadays. Each time I see it, it’s like me sticking out my tongue and giving a big raspberry to that teacher and saying “See, other people get it, why couldn’t you?”
And finally, here is the last ring. Picture it as a whisper of the spring to come. It looks like the underside of a leaf, but it’s actually a real leaf skeleton, with a green cardstock paper visible from behind, all encased and preserved in resin.
One thing I’ve been thinking about this month is how I wish that Thing-a-Day was in the summer, when there was plenty of sunlight and hours to work in daylight after I get home from work.
Today I received some new ring blanks I purchased recently. I was very excited to make some paper wrapped spiral rings, like the pendants I’ve made and had success with before. They will take about 24 hours to harden and then if everything goes well, I’ll be adding them to my Etsy shop.
Once they were all assembled, I was so thrilled with the circle ones that I almost gasped at how beautiful they were.
Onto last night. (Mim and Rachel, you might want to brace yourself)
(picture by roll_initiative on flickr)
My brother, sister and I went to go see Neil Gaiman speak at a nearby high school. If you are not familiar with Neil, he is the author of Stardust and Coraline, as well as many other books, graphic novels, his blog and even twitter. I love seeing and hearing creative people talk. It always inspires me to much that I just want to rush home to my studio and start working madly at my own art. Listening to him talk filled my inspiration well.
He first read from Stardust (which I read some years ago) and then Anansi Boys (which I want to read now after hearing him). Then he did a Q&A with the audience. I just want to share a couple things from last night.
(Let me preface this by saying that it might not have really played out like this, but it sure sounded like it to me)
Audience Member: What is your favorite thing?
Neil Gaiman: What is my favorite thing or theme?
AM: Thing
NG: I’d have to say my favorite thing is Amanda Palmer
Audience: Erupts, goes wild
AM: Actually, I said theme
NG: Oh, I really liked that question, what’s your favorite thing
hehe, I just found a twitter referencing it :)
He spoke of how, growing up, people like to do things until they are informed by others that they can’t do those things. It’s a topic close to my heart. One of my favorite quotes is “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” Pablo Picasso. Neil shared an anecdote that each child is born with the ability to be a tight rope walker, and it isn’t until people tell them that they can’t, they wouldn’t be able to do it.
I could have listened to Q&A with him forever. Girls, now I can understand your crushes. Plus, I just read he’s a bee keeper. sigh.
Today for Thing-A-Day I finished a mix CD I’ve been working on, tweaking and refining for a long time. I burned the first copy and listened to it to make sure there were no skips and the music all flowed properly from song to song. I am still brainstorming for ideas on the album artwork. I sat down at my drawing table to begin working on the artwork when I remembered a post I saw earlier today.
I saw this tutorial post on iHanna’s blog about making fabric paper and it seemed like fun.
The first one I made I really liked, but then I wanted to “tint” it and added some acrylic paints and I wasn’t thrilled with the outcome. That is more than a light tint, wouldn’t you say? I wanted it to be light yellow with “barely there” touches of green and orange, and instead it became red and green. Go figure.
I had fun though, so I decided to do another one. This one (all the more “white” images above) I left alone. I chose more neutral colored paper bits and I think I might come back over it later with a very watered down wash of white.
What will I end up doing with these? Who knows, but I thought I might scan them in and do some digital work over it for the album artwork.
Today for my Thing-A-Day I taught my 7 year old niece to knit. She’s been wanting to learn so I brought along needles and yarn. It’s the second time I’ve taught a 7 year old to knit, but honestly, I think 8 would be ideal. Although she took it up pretty easily she also got lost just as easily and was hoping that what she was working on would be able to turn into a sweater, lol. cute.
I also finally got around to listing the three new paper wrapped spiral pendants to my Etsy shop.
Also, I got a message that I’m featured in this Etsy Treasury with one of my Quilted and Framed Yoyo Sets. It will be up until Monday so please head over and check out the links :)
Today for my Thing-a-Day post I made this mixed media wearable art pendant. It’s your birthday and here’s confetti and the horse you’ve always wanted.
Robyn fun fact: I’ve never wanted a pony or a horse. I love animals, and I had my share of My Little Ponys when I was little, but I’ve never understood the whole wanting a horse thing. In fact this silhouette is traced from a zebra. Now, zebras are animal I can understand. Having a pet zebra would be a fashionable accessory to me = I love black and white stripes.
If you’ve always yearned for a horse, well, now is your chance. I’ve listed this pendant in my Etsy shop.
Today I was so inspired by thing-a-dayer ninadinoff’s project “ring-a-day”. I took a couple years of metalwork classes and love-love-love rings. It’s funny because I’m not much for wearing jewelry, but I do love me a nice art ring. Anyway, seeing her projects and accompanying flickr group I ran to my book shelf and took down my 1000 Rings book, which then led me to taking down my Paper Jewelry book. The result was this sweet simple necklace made from watercolor paper punched holes, watercolors, a basic cotton string and silver findings. It wasn’t a tutorial from the book, but a combination of a few different designs.
A while ago I did a post where I listed a bunch of cool things that I had received recently and I completely forgot to mention this book. Today I finally broke it out and used it for my thing-a-day.
In December my sister and I went to the One-of-a-Kind show in Chicago where I purchased the above book. It’s a beautiful green leather covered, mini handbound/stitched book with an assortment of encyclopedia pages mixed with quality drawing papers. I’m in love with the book from GreenTrikePress. Check out her shop, seriously, her books are gorgeous and amazingly constructed. When my sister saw these books she said to me “here is a seller after your own heart”. I was beyond thrilled because I had actually been working on making more books like this. I just love that the pages are filled with a variety of pages. I’ve decided to fill the pages with collage and mixed media work.
Here is the first page, that I did today.
Day four from Thing-a-Day.
Today I did these 4 quick collages, in my sketchbook, which will be used later for painting references.
My previous Thing-a-day 2010 posts: Day One, Day Two, Day Three,
