I get all Sleepy Hollowish in the Fall.
If you are like me you will understand the atmosphere I feel hovering about, enveloping me like a mist.
I become attracted to the "musty smelling", to mausoleums, ghost stories, anything broody!
So I decided to just go with the images I see in my mind at this time of year and create something different for Halloween and Mexico's Day of The Dead.
I call her "The Dreamer" and if you look closely you will see the faint impression of her bone structure underneath her skin. She is an apparition, a faint vision of another time and place.
I had fun making her and decided to add bee's wax over the cloth for an added aging effect.
More "creepiness" to come. BOO!
Today the weather had gotten cooler but I just knew something sweet was going to happen and lo and behold the mail arrived and yes she was there!!!!
Just over a week ago I was a very lucky lady as I had won one of Meg Mitchel's fabulous art pillows in her giveaway! I was over the moon then but I can tell you nothing compared to how I felt when I saw this wonderful little pillow! It is just beautiful. The attention to detail, the beautiful colors, I mean I had always admired Meg's work but when you see it in person it is so much more.
The amount of work Meg puts into her art is inspiring, not just the front but the back has a wonderful saying!
(It is so me)
Now I just have to decide where she is going to be sitting. I think I like her right near my desk on the shelf I have some family photos on. She looks really pretty there!
Thanks again Meg, she is so lovely and the packaging was sweet also!
If you haven't had the chance to view Meg's wonderful artwork just drop in on her blog here:
You'll enjoy your visit!
Here they are, my sweet girls, all ready to dance the night away!
They have their best cobwebby shawls on and a little silver witchy trinket over their hearts. Their freshly scrubbed and crackled faces looking eagerly for "Mister Wrong".
Clara whispers to her sister Calliope, "do you think anyone will notice our new hats?" Ah yes the hats....especially coated with many layers of bee's wax for that vintage look witches love so well.
"I just hope the snobs attending this ball notice the fabulous vintage trim on our collars and cuffs" piped Selma to her sister Sadie!
Well I know I look my very best, no sun has spoiled this lovely pale complexion! I have even laid off the fried eye of newt to keep this girlish figure at it's best for tonight!
Then Sadie whispered something they all had on their minds....was the Parfum de Frog maybe just a little too much for this night?
Maybe they should have gone with Eau de Slug after all!
I had these coffee table legs hanging around for forever and I just knew the would be perfect for something interesting sooner or later.
I wanted to do something for Halloween and had seen some lovely creations using table legs....well I love making dolls as it is a happy thing to do and then I got the idea to use these legs to make sweet witches. They are not finished yet but I just had to share today.
I have their little faces sketched in and now for the fun part, deciding hair color etc.
I already have the fabric for their dresses and made adorable hats which I coated with bee's wax. and for the finale they will be wearing stained cheesecloth wraps for the "Witches Ball"!
It took me awhile to decide exactly how to make them and then would they be wearing black or something more festive? The hats are black, but I thought the dresses could be something a little more colorful.
I also decided to pad the shoulder area (as seen on the lady on the right) so the fabric would drape fro the neck in a fashionable way. Then as luck would have it I found the most perfect silver buttons that will make an ideal adornment to hang around their necks.
I want to get them finished this week as I have paintings to catch up on and many more fabulous ideas for Christmas......
To make it all even more perfect to work on these this weekend I found my Jackie Gleason CD's....PERFECT!
I love Halloween I always have! Maybe it's the candy...hmmm!
Maybe it's the feeling of Autumn in the air, the chilly evenings, the falling leaves crunching underfoot!
And then there are all the lovely little witches out and about spreading spookiness!
This little sweetheart is about to take off on an adventure with her cat Bonbon upon her trusty broom....be home before dawn little Lulubelle!
I have mentioned before that my friend Julie and I have been painting every summer for a gentleman that lives about 30 minutes from me. We have known Don for about 4 years now and he will trust no one else to paint his beloved 200+ year old home.
Part of the fun of being there is that he has collected things (antique whatevers) for many years.
It is always fascinating to be taken on a tour of one of the levels of his 2 huge reconstructed barns. Each level is loaded with antique furniture, frame molds from his first job, antique hardware of every kind, church artifacts, and flag stone that is older than his house. He has a deconstructed Amish house that was moved from another New York location and next year we begin to reassemble and restore it.
During the time we are painting when we take a break I love to look around at the gardens and once in awhile there is something that catches the eye, just leaning against the barn. This cabinet is one of those things. It was in the house when Don and Diane began redoing the bathroom and they replaced this with antique shelves rather than a cabinet. I asked if it was for sale and he told me I could have it for $10!
Well even though it isn't OLD, it is older than I am and so I snapped it up!
I may even own a key that will work in these locks.
What will I do with it? Well I could refinish it and paint it with roses and sell it?
I really haven't thought that far ahead, I just knew I wanted it.
Another project for this winter...suggestions welcome! Have a great evening!
With everything that has been going on here lately, gardening, art swap, painting at a friend's house and removing wallpaper at another friend's house, it was getting hard to squeeze in some time to just do something "else"..:)
But I found a few hours here and there to do another floral oil painting and today I am calling it finished!
It was hard to get picture (with the light being so dull inside and so bright outside) where the real colors show to their best. I also chose this time to experiment a bit with antiquing the finished painting so it would look like something found tucked away in an attic after many years. I wanted to add an embellishment to give the impression it was hanging by the organza ribbon and I attached said ribbon with furniture tacks (a favorite of mine).
I also love sash chain, just wait till I get my hot hands on some of that!
As you can see I lightly sanded the sides and surface to age it and then applied a bit of 2 different antiquing products. The first was not making a visible change so I tried the other one and whoa...I had to quickly wipe quite a bit off. But in the end I had to admit it did look like some treasure found under the cobwebs!
Now on to the next exciting project!
Life is so great when you make something with your hands and heart!
Well my five pieces of art are finally done for the art swap organized by Jillayne @
http://quiltingfabrications.blogspot.com/2010/08/swap-update.html (Big thanks to Jillayne for being the inspiration)!
Each artist had to make 5 little pieces of art in whatever medium they chose. The only restriction was they needed to be 5"x 5" with a Winter/Christmas theme.
Each artist will receive back 5 different pieces by 5 different artists...isn't this exciting?
I'm not even sure how many participants there are but I am sure it is going to be a smashing success!
I decided to do a bit of mixed media. I had an idea of what I wanted to do but it took some planning to finally get it to where I wanted it. I started with bristol board and used it as a frame of sorts. I took some soft fine fabric I had and used it as my painting surface. I decided to use gouache and tempera (which are water based) so I had to seal the back of the fabric to stop color bleed through. Then I chose to pad the back of the design with cotton batting for a raised effect. Some ribbon sewn around the outside edge helped raise the design, and the addition of silver glitter, silver paint and then clear glitter around the outside edge gives it the icy winter look!
So tomorrow 5 little Snow Princesses are winging their way to British Columbia to make their debut at the Art Swap....I am going to miss you little guys..sniff!
But I can hardly wait to see what everyone else chose to do!!!
