Inching Artists

This month at Inching Artists the theme was Tryptichs. I've left it to the last minute as usual, despite having a couple of weeks. But it was fun!

Catching up on things

I have a tiny amount of internet fame: I'm the artist in the spotlight at Stacey Apeitos's website, Go-Make-Art.com

I've also merged my two google IDs, so that I don't have to keep logging in and out of Google to leave comments on blogs and be able to read my Gmail at the same time. This means that the notification on the comments that I read might look slightly different but it's still me. It's going to be so much easier to use just the one ID online.

It's deliciously rainy here! The damns are full, the creeks are running, the grass is green, and we're well positioned to head into the heat of summer.

Check out this creek, snapped at speed from the car window, because it's not a place you can stop and take photos. It's like the chocolate river in Willy Wonka! It's normally a dry bed.:



And this is Lake Colac - see the grass poking up through the water? That's where the water line used to be. That's how much water has flowed into the lake:


This makes for happy cows:


And a happy me.

Tagged!

I was tagged by Debbi for this meme.

The rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

1. My family is almost all Taurean. Four out of the six of us were born between the end of April and the middle of May. Mum claims that the only reason she can cope with four Taureans is because she's a Virgo. I think it's my Taurean tendencies that make me reach for the gold paint nine times out of ten. I like things to look lush.

2. I was a role-player - with the funny-shaped dice and the dragons and so on. This is why I get so carried away with the story-telling aspects of my art. I don't RP so much any more, but I still have those dice. They glow in the dark. I want to use them in an assemblage, as soon as I find the right piece.

3. I can't use microbeads. They swarm all over my mat like bugs and freak me out. I like to look at them when they're used well, but in their little jar, they look like caviar. I can't stand things that swarm. *shudders*

4. A few years before we both got into papercrafts, my mum threw out a box of ratty old photographs. We both mourn this loss terribly. This reinforces my need to hoard everything. HOARD EVERYTHING!

5. Sometimes I worry that I like to paint paper and make backgrounds more than I like to make actual art. I have folders and folders of painted paper that I'll never get rid of, and yet, when I'm starting a new project, the first thing I do is paint a collection of papers for inspiration. Maybe I should give them away?

6. Bury me with Stampington's True Colors. I think it's the most re-read of all my art books, and the one that inspires me the most.

7. When I'm stuck for an idea, I put random terms into Wikipedia and read. Some of my favourite pieces have been inspired by high physics or philosophy.


I don't really know enough bloggers to tag for this, so please feel free to do it if you want to. And link back here, so I can go and learn about you, too.

And now, some random art from the past, a spread in an altered book from a few years ago, demonstrating that the ability to write dodgy haiku is never a waste:

TMTA: Masks

This week's theme for TMTA was Masks. I was certain that I had some cute baroque-looking mask charms somewhere in the murky depths of our craftroom, but either I imagined buying them in the first place (which is weird, because I'm sure I've used a few), or I put them in a really, really safe and sensible place, which means I won't be seeing them for a few years.

So, I had to improvise.



The face is from a book of Indian clip art, and it's a mask of some kind, though it's uncannily realistic-looking. I cut the body out of card, and the hair out of some bright orange paper. It's a darker themed card than I'm used to making, but I like it.

ETA: And it looks like I was too slow for this theme - that will teach me to get my act together - I've had this card made for a few days and everything. Never mind!

Experimenting with fabric paper

I'm in a fabric postcard exchange, and this month we're to use Beryl Taylor's technique of making a stitchable fabric with collaged papers. There's instructions for this Cloth Paper Scissors #1.

I've never been good at following instructions.



I forgot the top layer of tissue paper that's supposed to hold everything down, so the paper flaked up once it was dry. It looked good, though, so I stitched it down again with an orange variegated thread.

It's going to be handy for cutting into pieces - I've already made a card from it, for a non-crafting blogger friend.



And I've got a few more pieces done correctly that are drying outside now.

Inching Artists - Rust

I'm hopelessly behind schedule here, but Inching Artists has miraculously not been updated yet, so I'm going to sneak this one in past-deadline.

I used hand-painted paper with a rusted, corroded look. Actually, it's scrap paper that I've been hoarding, I really liked the random way paint was slopped over it. Also used lead light tape to highlight the words - that tape seems to get mottled and tarnished very easily, but I really like the colour.