Imagine This

12 Days of Christmas - Ornament Swap

My friend, Deryn Mentock, had a grand idea. Twelve artists should make Christmas ornaments for each other and send them to be opened on one of the 12 days of Christmas.  With Deryn as the hostess of the swap, that is exactly what we have planned and when Somerset Studio found out, they published an article about it. Check out the great pictures of our ornaments in the current Nov/Dec 2007 issue, p62 - 65.

Of course, my ornament (pictured above) is a nontraditional one - think Weird! I was eager to try my hand at manipulating a piece of silverware so this swap was my first opportunity. I used a butane torch (not really hot enough so I won't be doing it with that kind of torch again.) and worked and worked to quickly get a coil in the fork tines before they cooled off too much to bend. I eventually managed but I recommend a hotter torch -- like mapp gas or something.

After I got the "hair" done, it was simply a matter of arranging and attaching the elements of the body with cold connections. Can you find the tiny screws holding the wings on? The legs, as you can tell, are skeleton keys with chain wrapped around them. I used teeny tiny nuts, screws, bolts and itty bitty brads as well as jump rings to connect everything except the vintage typewriter key "face." That I merely glued onto the fork. I even used a brad to attach the bow in her hair!

Several of the artists have posted more information about their ornaments on their blogs. For example, Kelly Snelling has a wonderful full explanation of the motivation and techniques she used to make her prayer pillow. (picture of front of pillow below.) You might notice that in the article you only get to see the back of Kelly's ornament pillow. Now that the article is out, more of the artists will probably make blog posts about their ornament.

The artists who participated are:

Jackie Allison
Melissa David
CeCe Grimes
Mary Haldeman
Hanne Mathiesen
Katie Kendrick
Lou McCulloch
Deryn Mentock
Crystal Neubauer
Jennifer Rowland
Kelly Snelling
Sally Turlington

YEA!!! I got a Blog of the Day Award!! WooHoo!

Who'da thunk it? I actually got an award for Blog of the Day! It was awarded today, October 16, 2007!

Check it out on Famous Blogs - Blog of the Day Awards.

How cool. Now I feel really motivated to post and post and post. Hmmm- m-m-m, better go do some art.

Another New Page Added

God Is Who He Says He Is

Who Do Men Say That I AM? (Final spread  of a three-page altered book piece.)

A second lesson summary is posted entitled, God Is Who He Says He Is. This is the second of a series of pages about one of my current Bible studies, Believing God. (See the introductory post here.)

Check out this second lesson synopsis and more pictures by clicking on the title in the upper right sidebar of this blog.

Mural Mosaics

Trust by the town of Cochran, AB Canada mural team.
Over 200 artists supervised by Lewis Lovoie.

You're gonna love this! I found this intriguing art linked in a post on Altered Route, a blog of altered art, mixed media, and shared learning & fun. I found Altered Route from my Recent Readers list (in the right sidebar of my blog.) I love finding new blogs to visit and Altered Route is a particularly interesting one with  varied types of posts. . . mixed media art, techniques, interesting links, tips on free stuff, and on and on. I enjoy reading this blog because there is always something worth exploring.

This is a mural from Lewis Lavoie's Mural Page on his engaging website, Mural Mosaics. (I picked this one out for you, Deb.) This mural is made from 216  paintings! From the mural page, you can click on each piece of the mural to see the individual paintings in detail.

Check this out - it's the painting that makes up the girl's mouth and tip of her nose (Squint your eyes and you'll see how it works.):

Just go to the Mural Page and click anywhere you would like to see the individual painting.

. . . and there is a You Tube movie of one of the murals on the Mural Mosaics home page.

O-o-o-h, it's so fun!

Can you imagine doing a mural with over 200 artists???

Meme Tag -- Middle Name Game

A couple of weeks ago, my dear friend and talented artist, Deryn PAIGE Mentock, tagged me for the Middle Name Game.

Rules: 

1.You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name.
3. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
4. When you are tagged you need to write your own blogpost with your own middle name game facts.
5. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.   
6. Don’t forget to leave a comment telling the folks you tag they’re tagged and to read your blog.

My middle name is RUTH. I was named for my late great aunt, Ruth Rogers, who was married to the late Roy Rogers - but probably not the Roy Rogers you know about. I've always liked my middle name - mostly because it isn't one people easily guess. Also, I've decided lately that it is a little more dignified name than Sally. Hmmmm, is that a good thing? Maybe not for a cut-up like me. LOL

 R . . . is for Religious Iconography.

                    It's everywhere . . .

                    in my art,

                    in my studio,

                    in my house,

                    in my jewelry.

U . . . is for Underground, as in Alice Underground.

Oh, how I love those charming characters that came from the imaginative mind of Lewis Carroll! I even have a collection of books ABOUT Alice and about Lewis Carroll. My kitchen has a corner dedicated to Alice. My all time favorite Alice illustrator is Anne Bachlier. Her paintings for the tale are a fantastic collection.

AIW paintings by Anne Bachlier

T . . . is for Tools, Tools, Tools.

Yummy, how I love my tools.

Love to shop for them.

Love to buy them.

Love to organize them,

Love to reorganize them.

Love to shop more, buy more, and organize all over again!

Oh, how I love my tools... especially my new TORCH and all it's paraphernalia. See my new tall torch table? One of our major department stores just went out of business and I bought this tall display table. Since I got experience with a torch in Susan Lenart Kazmer's class, I've been dying to set up my own area for torching things... (I'm still a little scared of that TANK.) Haven't actually USED the torch yet -- but it looks good, ya gotta admit. And all those Iris cart drawers for pliers and hammers and metal - oh my! Pliers and hammers and metal, oh my! 

 

 H . . . is for my Husband of 40 years!

  What a lucky girl am I!

  He knows me and loves me anyway. Knows my strengths and  tells me about them. Knows my weaknesses and never  mentions them. Knows I HAVE to be right and lets me be right... even when I'm wrong. Knows I can't handle criticism and never criticizes me , even behind my back. Knows I don't like to clean the kitchen, so he does it. Knows I'm a procrastinator, so he pays the bills.. . Need I go on? Woohoo!                     
I hit the Jackpot. Sorry, gals, the best one is taken. Not perfect, you understand, but when he snores or leaves the water running or wakes me too early with a pep chant to get me up to go to the gym to work out or gets on his all fours to crawl into the bath room barking like a dog and scares the peewaddle outta me (yeah, well, he'd have to be nuts to marry me, right?) ... ... I just try to think how I'd miss all those aggravations if I didn't have him around. I love you, Jer.

Hey, that was fun. Now I tag . . .Ruth, Ursala, Tuttle (Susan), Hanson (Rande)

Oh, and btw for anyone who was wondering - including me:

meme (mm) n.

A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.[Shortening  (modeled on gene) of mimeme, from Greek mimma, something imitated, from mimeisthai, to imitate; see mimesis.]