What to Do with an Old Metal Wreath Form

Last week I went to a HUGE sale for charity that my dad organizes each year. I came home with one box full of tin lids- just tin lids. They were going to crush them down and toss them at the end of the sale so I "rescued" what I could from this terrible terrible fate. Then there were the books. Three huge tables of paperbacks, encyclopedias, cookbooks, self help books, you name it. I grabbed the most vintage-y looking of them. Then as I was getting ready to go I saw a pile of metal wreath forms. Metal of any sort attracts me and although I couldn't think of anything to do with them I knew I needed (ok wanted) one to play with.

Yesterday as I was unpacking all the sale things I brought home I pulled out that wreath form and started to think about it.

What could you do with a metal form? You could turn it into a hanging candle chandelier, you could wrap it with lights and suspend it, you could wrap it with fabric or moss. You could use it like stretcher bars and stitch canvas to it to make funky framed art.... Or you could go with the obvious and use it as a wreath form. I really wanted to see what I could do with it that would add to it yet not take away from the shabby chic charm of it. So here's what I came up with.

A couple of stitched branches, a bird, and some ribbon. Not much and maybe I didn't even need the flower but it covered up the wires attaching it all.... So there's answer no. 1 to the question of What to do with a metal wreath form. Now I'd like to get my hands on a few more and try some of those other ideas out.... Know of any good garage sales coming up??? ;)

Art Quote Collage- Inspired by Play

Yesterday I was looking for some inspiration. I was feeling like the thing I was working on wasn't coming together; so frustrated, I moved on to something else. One down. I got a little crazy with that next work, realized the smear of paint was not going to work. Sigh. Two down. I'm sure later I'll come back to it and figure out a new direction to take it, but yesterday, it felt RUINED.

Now desperate for something, anything to actually work out for me, I decided to calm down and just play a little. So I grabbed a little canvas I'd started to paint and collage a while back but set aside when I just wasn't feeling it, and I started to play on that. I got out all the yummy yummy art materials I've collected lately and haven't tried yet and started to piece them all out on this canvas. It got a little busy looking for my taste but it was fun and I couldn't, wouldn't stop. It felt like a luxury to be able to use all of these beautiful art materials and in the process of playing I let myself unwind and enjoy.

The quote came at the end- the very last thing I found and added. It makes me smile to realize that the words of Matisse were just the words I needed to hear when I began this piece. Don't wait for inspiration, don't worry about a lack of it, just go make stuff. You'll find that when you play, the inspiration comes through that very act of letting go and enjoying yourself and your materials. Matisse said it shorter but this is what I heard in his words. :)

Some of the fun materials I used:
An old carpenter's ruler
Melody Ross Artsy Urban line of chipboard stickers
A piece of a birds on a wire decal from Single Stone Studios
Fabric from my Basic Grey for Moda charm packs
Some lovely and fun Rub-on's from Jenni Bowlin studio
Some torn pieces of text from an old swedish poetry book
My fave crackle paint- Broken China from Ranger
Some scraps of Basic Grey's Urban Prarie scrapbooking paper
A couple of old buttons
Quote hand stamped on fabric and then stitched around edge
A wire heart- of course!

New Art Coming Soon!!

I'm getting really excited by all the new things I've been working up for Etsy! I plan to reopen the shop either later this week or early next. YAY!!!!

Here's a look at another one of the trays I've been playing with. This one has the word "sweet"written in wire and then attached to it. The added 3D element really made the composition for me. Fun!

Here's a picture of it up on my wall. To hang I used E6000 to glue on a little sawtooth hanger. The tray is insanely lightweight so I think it should work beautifully. SWEET!

And then there were TWO!!!

So the angel I created on Thursday night was so fun I went ahead and made another one yesterday. I don't think she's quite done yet but she was loads of fun to make. I love the idea of using art materials in my sculpture- not just to create it but to decorate it as well. So yesterday I grabbed a whole bunch of dried up Golden tubes I had left over from college and tried to wire them on to this girl's skirt. It ended up being a little too bulky seeming- but still a cool idea so I think I might have to work with it for another piece. Instead of the tubes of acrylic this little girl got a Tim Holtz ideology pendant that's stamped with the word "believe" and some yummy little clay fragments I had in my stash.

The fragments were made by Teri of Terraworks studio on Etsy, several months ago. I'd had the idea of creating a wire ball and then stitching in the clay pieces but the clay sticked out a little too much when I tried it, upsetting the rounded shape of the ball. Which I hated admitting to myself because they were just too cool. So I reluctantly set them aside trusting that I'd find a place for them in the future. And wouldn't you know they are the perfect accents for this angel. I love her so much more with these little fragmented bits of art wired into her skirt. They help to give her a personality and I just love that.

So now the ideas are just flowing in and I want to try all sorts of things with this form. But not today. Today I have to work on writing the introductions for each project in the book. So I will stop using you all as an excuse to procrastinate. Have a good weekend!

Creating My Own Fall Garden

It's been a crazy summer weather-wise this year. Much cooler than usual. We seem to have gone from Spring right into fall with maybe a few odd days of 90's. Yesterday I saw my first orange leaves announcing the advent of fall. I do enjoy fall and fall colors are my absolute favorite to play with especially when I was doing weddings. Orange red callas with deep purple mums and chartreuse little kermit mums make me swoon. So this week when I decided it was time to restock the Etsy shop I created some fun springy blooms of wire and then indulged in some fall colored fabrics. I just loved working with these. So here's a photo of my springy-fall blooms and maybe the colors and patterns will get you thinking it too! The majority of them will be listed soon in my shop as well. YAY!

So Charming- the latest Somerset Home!!!

Ok folks! The latest Somerset Home is now available and has in it a "how to" for my jewelry tree AND my wire bird lamp! The article is titled Art as usual and in it I mention how I discovered that motto and applied it to my life. Which you, my wonderful readers know all about- but I bet you'd still like the "how to" part.

Both the tree and the lamp are classic designs from my Etsy shop but new to this version are the clay charms. I wanted to up the "art" part of the tree for the magazine so I came up with the charms. Here's a little about them...

The charms are made of wire and polymer clay. I used Studio Sculpey brand clay. The stamps I used were from the Magnetic Poetry "family and friends" collection of word stamps. I also used the Studio Sculpey brand of brown antiquing glaze for a slightly distressed look. On the back of the charms I glued on little scraps of fabric to match the tree branches. Just seemed like a nice little finishing detail. They were tied on with little scraps of embroidery floss (DMC 844). It was a fun project!!

This won't be in the book but I will be including a more detailed "how to" of the charms for a charm bracelet project that will also have cute little fabric charms. SO cute!! Hope you enjoy it!

Fall Colors

This weekend was the turning point for a project I've been working through lately. I've been trying to come up with a fall leaf garland and although I had the basic conceptual of it fairly early on some the "how to" was taking it's dear sweet time actualizing. It was the fabrics that were giving me the most trouble. They would define the mood and feel. Felt- a little cozy and comfy but definitely simple and a little kids- crafty. Seasonal Quilt fabric- ok but a little too much in my opinion. It screamed fall and as the shape will do that, so I thought the fabric didn't need to as well. I found a lovely scrolled ornate pattern I liked that would probably work and it came in both orange and brown but no red for the maple leaves. But then I found a scrap of batik I had and I love how the sun shines through this fabric. It would look beautiful hanging in front of a window, which is where I kind of visualized putting it. YAY! Problem solved!

The basic leaf concept I came up last year as I was casting about for some fall decorations. I wanted leaves to hang from my chandelier over the dining room table. For V-day I hang a stitched and stuffed wire heart, for Christmas some ornaments I've made. It's my revolving seasonal display. Thinking about it some- I realized what a big inspiration the calendar can be. Creating your own handmade decor for the holidays and seasons can prompt you to play with color schemes and imagery you might never have tried before. I don't naturally turn to browns and yellows in my work. But I love working with them. I just don't think to. But for fall? I can't think of anything I like better than to be surrounded with the browns and oranges and deep reds and golden yellows that define the season. So think about it. How could you surround yourself with the loveliness of the season? Then let yourself be inspired!

And We're going to Disney World...

I signed it, stuck it in an envelope and sent it off this morning!!! My first BOOK CONTRACT!!!! I've been hesitant to mention it til now but it seems I really am going to get my book published! It's to be titled Creative Bent and will be released November of 2010. Crazy!

I thought about keeping it under wraps but found it's hard to write a blog about my art and inspiration and not mention the book about my art and inspiration I'm writing as well. I'll try to let you know as much as I can about what I'm doing as I go. Although I can't share the finished projects I believe I can show you some of the others I'm experimenting with as I'm developing the submitted works. SO I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to get any comments from any of you as I work through this!

The book will focus on my wire and fabric work but will include a ton of variations on this combination. I have mixed media, jewelry, home decor, as well as a lot of versions of some of my current designs. Right now it's a YAY!/Panic thing I've got going but as with all things- I know that if I trust God and rely on Him to lead me this whole experience is going to ROCK!!!!

P.S.- I told my son we'll go to Disney World when mommy's finished. It's my incentive to get him to let me work when I need to. We were going to go anyways but I figured he might as well think he's getting something out of this too. :)

New to the Shop!

I found a little time to play the other night and came up with these two designs. One is a jewelry display and the other is a photo holder. The photo holder just makes me laugh when I look at it because it's an image that I've noticed a lot lately while out driving and that it came out during my play just shows how single minded I can be. So I have a bird atop a tree. Then because I felt like it I added the nest. Have to admit that nest isn't all that practical. It's small and wouldn't hold much but the little birdie seemed to want it. It said "please please make me a nest!" So I did. Besides, who says even functional art has to be completely practical? As long as it's lovely!

I also did this little mixed media piece over the weekend. I painted the background and stamped on it before I left for North Dakota and then added the stitching and doodling while I was there. I like it and it's happy but I think it might want a few more 3d elements. I'll let it sit for a while and see.
I hope all of you are enjoying your spring and thanks for letting me share some of my play pieces with you!

Butterflies on My Brain...

I've got butterflies on my brain. Maybe because I can feel them so much in my stomach right now. This week has been spent doing some serious brainstorming. I'm trying to come up with some new projects and although I had a ton of ideas I didn't really know where to start. So I did some sketches, and planned some things out step by step on paper. Some of these ideas came about because they were variations of other projects I've done. It was just a matter at looking a little differently at what I had already made. Like the lamp. I found out this week that the lamp I was planning on using in one publication couldn't be used as I had already published it somewhere else. These were two different formats and for some reason I didn't put two and two together that published is published regardless of the format. The lamp was a great piece and I was actually counting on it wow-ing the publishing folks into loving my work. Alas, I can't use it. So back to the drawing board. Except this time instead of allowing the ideas to just come to me I'm forcing it a bit more. It's a challenge th0ugh and challenges are good for forcing growth. Bird's nest and birds lamp design out- butterfly lamp in. I can still use some of my same techniques and the lamp base but the look had to be completely different.


I thought it might be fun to actually wrap wire around the shade this time and use some paper instead of the fabric. But the look just isn't right. I don't hate it-(I actually like it a lot) but it doesn't have the polished look of the first lamp. So Jeremy to the rescue! We stood in front of the lamp and just started to brainstorm together and I think the look on this next lamp is going to be a little closer to my birds nest lamp and have the same polished look but is still different. I'm excited to create it. The sketchbook page at the top of this post has a little sketch I did for myself to remember what I planned. And I did like the wire and paper butterfly shade and I think I'll work a little more with it and maybe add some stitching. But it's going to have to wait for me to get this other lamp done and ready to be shipped. Tomorrow being the weekend I'd like to think I'll have some time to do this but we've got a ton of stuff going on and I don't know when I'll have the time. But the more I get done the less stressed I'll feel about the whole deadline. I guess the solution is to stop blogging and go work! But I did want to share some of the work I've been doing this week with you. When I've finished the next incarnation of the butterfly lamp I'll post it and you can all let me know what YOU think about the two. Thanks!

Time Mis-management

Just a quickie post today. I've been swamped with all kinds of little time distractions. Not the little meanderings I talked about last- but life stuff. Things that are important but take time. For instance, super cool that both queries I sent to Sew Somerset were accepted but there is the whole have to write the articles thing now. Tuesday afternoon a reporter from WCCO called and wanted to interview me about Etsy. SUPER COOL but that meant frantic cleaning and prepping the project they wanted me to work on. Tuesday and Wednesday- shot. And there's this book I decided to write on the back burner constantly simmering.Today I realized that I have 20+ wire flowers to make for keychains for my Moms group to stitch tomorrow. It'll be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the teaching experience but....it all takes time and right now all I want to do is play with the beautiful new fabrics I picked up this morning. How to balance the "life" stuff and "fun stuff" is still a mystery to me. If any of you have a clue- I'd love to hear from you!