Garden Art- Starting a New Experiment-Photos

The snow and cold has kept me pretty close to home.  The roads were just barely clear of ice, and I made a trip out to the craft store to purchase some canvas in order to paint the peacock picture.  That is about as much as I have done, because the rest of the day was spent on grocery shopping and errands.  Another snow storm came through during the night and left us with as much snow as the last storm.  Looks like today's time will be spent on shoveling rather than crafting for the most part.

When winter weather sets in, people begin to make plans for the garden they will plant in the spring.  And along with gardens, people also make plans to create garden art.  I can tell that we have hit that point, because I am seeing a lot of hits to the blog for those garden posts.  I've also had some emails with some questions regarding making the balls.  I would like to address them in the blog today.

My gazing balls are build on a support of old bowling balls. (Scoll back to the January 2012 of this blog to get more information on the construction of the gazing balls.)  One of the questions that has come up is about obtaining a bowling ball to use as the base for the gazing ball.  There was something that was written on the internet several years ago that is not true, and it has been causing people a problem ever since.  The myth: that bowling alleys have racks of chipped bowling balls that they would hand out for free because they could not use them.  The reality:  bowling alleys send chipped balls back to the manufacturer for a credit.   They have no incentive what so ever to give away a product that will bring them in some money. 

Unfortunately, many people have shown up at bowling alleys after having read the myth expecting to pick up a ball.  When informed of the real situation, some people have offered to purchase the ball at the price that the alley would be credited, only to have that offer turned down as well.  Generally, the tale ends there.  I am also learning that some of the requests and responses have not been particularly polite from both sides of the equation.  So for the people requesting bowling balls, remember, you can't believe everything you read on the internet.  Also, try to understand that you are probably not the first person to have asked.  If you live near any center of population, you might possibly be the ten thousandth person to have made the request.  You might be able to understand why the bowling alley person has become a little irritable on the subject.

That said, there are some ways to obtain an old bowling ball.  Aside from canvassing family and friends, there is one method that has worked.  If you live in the United States, check to see if there is a Freecycle group in your area (Freecycle.org)  Freecycle is a national organization that has small local groups under its umbrella.  You don't sell things here, you give them away for free, hence the name Freecycle.  Once you have put an item up for adoption, then you are free to make a request for an item.  (FYI- you also agree not to resell for money the items you get on Freecycle.) I made a request for a bowling ball on Freecycle.  Withing twenty-four hours someone contacted me.  She had four bowling balls, I could have them if I agreed to take all four.  Not a problem for me.  Please remember that once you make an agreement with someone, please pick up the item promptly.  Someone has an old bowling ball stuffed away in a closet.  If they see your post, you might be in luck.

Sometimes, on rare occasions, you might find one at a thrift store.  However, I check my thrift store regularly and I have not seen one.  I can't say that it never happens, but I would not count on it as a regular means of obtaining bowling balls. 

Given the lack of availability of bowling balls, people have attempted to make gazing balls using other support structures.  Some work better than others.  Large hard plastic Christmas ornaments have had some success.  Some people have used hard plastic bowling balls from children's bowling sets as well.  Another choice is a styrofoam ball or floral foam ball.  Attempting to make a gazing ball from covering a children's plastic bouncing ball have not had as much success.  The ball tends to deform under the weight of glass and grout.  I have seen online recently that someone used a basket ball.  I do not know the long term success of that material.   Assuming that it survived the process without deforming, the ball could eventually lose air, leaving a hollow void.  I don't know whether the layer of tape and grout would be strong enough to hold up once the ball deflates.

The other problem with these materials are that they are expensive, and expense affects your planning. A new bowling ball could cost thirty-dollars or more.  A basket ball thirty-five.  A ten inch foam ball from a craft store could cost just under twenty dollars.  No one wants to purchase a new item to make a gazing ball if they can help it.

So, my experiment of the day is to attempt to find a way to make a form for a gazing ball that will be less expensive, and won't deflate or deform.  I think that I can figure out a way to make make the support relatively inexpensively, and that making a second or third experiment could bring the cost per ball down even further. (Once you start making gazing balls, it is hard to stop.)  Although it will be less expensive, it will take more time than just starting with a purchased or found object for the substrate.  If  you plan to make more than one, and have a little time to spend, it could end the hunt for a gazing ball substrate.  I've begun working on it and will have pictures soon.

In the mean time, I will get to work on my peacock painting.  Now that I have a large canvas, I am ready to get to work.

Paper Mosaics and Field Project Photo

The weather has sort of derailed my art plans.  Snow, single digit temperatures, and windchill in the negative double digits have kept me inside.  I need to get to the arts and crafts store to buy a larger canvas before I begin the peacock painting.  I need to buy bees wax before I can do anything with encaustics.  Since I have some spare time, I've been working on a project I hope to share with some adult day programs at some point.  I thought I'd share the project here in case anyone wanted to do a similar project with a child, grandchild, or school program.  It is short enough and simple enough to do with younger children, although you would want to change from using acrylic gel medium to a water soluble glue stick.

The mosaics pictured here are paper mosaics.  The mosaic "tiles" are water color paper that has been painted with craft paint and cut into squares.  The smaller tiles are one half inch squares and the larger squares are one inch squares.  I tried different sizes to see how that affected the time it took to complete the project.  When you come in as a volunteer to do an art project, you have to make sure that the participants can complete the project in the allotted amount of time.  Generally, that would be one hour.  That hour has to include handing out the supplies, doing the project, and cleaning up afterwards so that they can go on to whatever is scheduled next.  This can be a challenge. In order to get the project done in a specific amount of time, I usually do some of the prep work ahead of time.  In this case, I cut the painted papers into squares, so that the group could begin with laying the squares onto the backing paper. 

Another challenge in working with a day program is that the program directors would like you to have your project work with skills or experiences that the program is working on, say letters and numbers or perhaps a field trip for that week.  All to often, the participant is handed a crayon and told to "draw a picture of ..(fill in the blank)... that we stheaw this morning" or "draw six of this and four of that". Drawing is definitely a valid art experience, but if you have to do it every time, then art class becomes part of the same old, same old.  I like to try to offer the opportunity to try new art materials  while staying within the request to add educational goals to the art class.  Perhaps this could be accomplished by having the person number each square if they are learning numbers, using some of the squares to write the letters of their name, or use the mosaic as a background and have the group draw and cut out pictures of things they saw on the field trip to paste on top of it.  There are plenty of ways to incorporate learning while still having the fun of trying something new.

Before beginning the mosaic, I plan to explain what mosaics are and point out some of the different types of patterns in the example.  For these mosaics, I used a small sheet of water color paper for the backing paper.  I used a foam brush to apply some acrylic gel medium to the backing paper (use washable glue sticks or school glue if working with children).  Then I added some more acrylic medium to the back of each tile and laid it on the background.  The half inch squares took 45 minutes to complete.  The one inch squares took only twenty-five minutes.  The larger squares were easier to manipulate, but (there is always a "but" isn't there) with acrylic medium I found that the edges of the one inch tiles tended to curl up from the paper.  Once they were pressed down again, they tended to stay.  Letting the particiants know in advance that the curling is expected and can be fixed will help prevent frustration.

Once the tiles were in place, the mosaics were given a coat of gel medium. (It would probably be better to skip this step with smaller children.)  After that the background was painted a slate gray.  This took ten minutes for the larger tiles and fifteen minutes for the smaller tiles. The different sized tiles give the mosaics very different looks.  Attempting to do the smaller tiles in an hour at a day program might be pushing the time limit.  Using the larger tiles would allow enough time for distributing the materials and cleaning up within the allotted hour.  Or, if you really wanted to do the smaller tiles, you could consider reducing the size of the backing paper so there was not as much area to cover.

All and all, it is a relatively quick project using something other than crayons.   The project could also be adapted to other things such as covering a small box or cup.  Although it may seem like a pointless project, doing a little experimenting at home helps me to give others a better art experience at the adult day programs.  Have some fun with paper mosaics.  They are inexpensive compared to working with glass or tiles.  If you make a pattern you really like, you might decide to make a real mosaic with it.  Or, you might cut the paper mosaics up to use in other pieces of art work. A fun little project can give you enjoyment more than once.

I'm also posting my weekly picture for the field project.  It is a balmy 18 degrees Fahrenheit outside this morning.  After days of single digit lows, it feels like a heat wave.  The snow has been on the ground since last Tuesday. 

Peacock Colors Test

Glass beads as a ground.

I'm testing colors that I want to use in my peacock painting.  I also wanted to test it with glass bead medium.  Glass bead medium is added to paint or used as a ground to give texture to a painting and add reflective qualities.  I had purchased the glass bead medium on impulse when it was on sale.  Now I am experimenting with it to see what it can do. I want to paint a peacock, but paintings of peacocks always seem a little flat.  I'm hoping that adding some shine and texture might yield a more satisfactory painting. 

Viewed from above.

 

The medium was on sale at such a good price that I decided that it was worthwhile to purchase it just to experiment to see what it could do.  When I first received it, I mixed it with paints and just painted on some paper, however I did not make any photos.  It did add gloss and texture and made the paint.  I purchased a fairly large quantity of the medium, so I expect it will be appearing in a number of future projects as well.

Viewed from an angle.

This time, I am testing some of the colors that I want to use in the peacock picture: Ultramarine Blue, Vivid Lime Green, and Deep Turquoise.  I decided that since I had previously mixed the glass bead medium with paint that this time I would experiment by using it as a ground.  I applied the medium to a primed canvas panel with a pallet knife, thoroughly covering most of the space and leaving other spaces open.  I allowed the medium to dry overnight.  Once the medium was dry, I painted over it with a 1:1 mixture of paint and water with Ultramarine Blue and Vivid Lime Green Liquitex acrylic paints.  After the paint was dry, I painted a portion of the blue and green with a mixture of Deep Turquoise mixed with gloss gel medium.


As a ground it added a lot of texture.  It is worthwhile to note that it looks quite different from different angles.  Viewed straight on, the color seems much deeper than when viewed from an angle.  When viewed from a deeper angle, it appears much lighter because you are looking through the bead gel medium.  Good to know before I start painting.

I had originally considered adding a color pour as well, but at this point I decided to end the experiment and get started on with painting the picture.  I thought I might enjoy working with Color Field; experimenting with developing shapes and patterns.  What I've learned is that I get bored.  I really like making Folk Art better.  Experimenting with different types of art has helped me to define my voice.  Folk Art may not be the most popular art form, but it is where I find my voice.

On to Another Project and Field Project Photo

1-19-2014

I'm starting with the Field Project today because it is the only photo for today's blog post.  I went  out this morning to snap my photo.  The temperature was a chilly 24 degrees Fahrenheit, but the sun was out and the wind was calm.  There has been no appreciable change in the field at this point, however I can see a small difference in the shadows.  Once we get closer to spring the plants will start changing from day to day. 

So far, no response to the photos from Google Awesome Photos as far as turning the field photos into an animation. (For a full explanation of the project, see the December 22, 2013 post on engaging artificial intelligence.)  However there has been a photo posted to the section where all the animation photos show up.  It is not an animation.  It is just a picture of the Orca that is on the the Shaman Staff walking stick.  Other than the animation of the moon phases on the walking stick, no other photos of the walking stick have been posted in that section up until this photo showed up.  When I double click on the photo, it shows my picture icon and a comment I made on Facebook about having completed the walking staff. I guess it picked up my blog address posted with the photo.


Just a side note here:  I had been unable to use the location setting on the blog for some time.  It appears to be fixed now.  I'm not sure why it was disabled or why it was decided to allow it to be used again.

Now on to more interesting things.  I have completed painting the gourds, and now I am on to something else.  In the fall, I purchased a large jar of glass bead gel medium on a whim.  It was on sale, so I decided to buy it and try it out when I had time.  Well, I am ready for a new project so I am ready to see what the product will do.  I want to paint a peacock picture.  Before I start on the peacock, I thought I would do some product testing to see what this material would do by testing it with the paint colors I want to use for the peacock.  That way I will be doing some color tests along with experimenting with the product.  Next blog post I will have some photos of those experiments.

Painted Gourds - Part 4 Photos

Alcohol ink over varnish.

Center section is lighter where varnish was removed.

Before I get on to blogging about the gourds, I wanted to offer an explanation as to what happened to the photos in the last  blog post, in case readers have not seen the update on that post.  The pictures were there initially.  When I came back to the blog later, the photos were gone, although the captions remained.  I had to post them again.  So, here is what happened from my perspective.  I clicked on the icon to post the photo and a new box came up that said that the photos had to be posted from Google Drive.  It went on to say that the photos would be viewable in more types of devices using this method.  In fact, I had to use that method because it would not let me post them any other way.  So I loaded the photos to Google Drive then added the photos to the blog.  Everything looked fine on the blog at that time.  I checked on the blog the next day and all the photos were gone.  I'm guessing that there was some programming error and they had to reload to an earlier backup.  That is just a guess, but it seems like a likely scenario.  Anyway, the photos have been reloaded to the previous blog post.  Scroll back to that post if you want to see those pictures.

Brown section is duller with no varnish.

Now, on to happier things.  The first set of gourds were painted with acrylic paints.  By then, I was bored with dabbing paint on gourds, so I decided to try something else.  How else do you know what materials will do (or not do) if you don't experiment.  In the tutorials I blogged about earlier, the gourds were painted with ink dyes.  I did not have ink dyes, but I did have a set of alcohol inks.  I figured I would give them a try.  I had some interesting results.

Opaque alcohol inks.

First off, the good news:  these inks dry almost instantaneously, so there was really no waiting period before I can go on to the next section.  The bad news:  these inks dry almost instantaneously, so there was very little working time.  I had to constantly stop painting and add another drop of ink to the pallet.  The further news: the new application of ink could dissolve the ink next to it, leaving a smeary section.  Other than that, I had great time with this product.  However, they do have some limitations on gourds.  Read on.

The first gourd I colored to look like a gourd.  After that I was bored with painting gourds to look like gourds.  For the last two gourds I was just having some fun.  But I am getting ahead of myself here.  These gourds already had several coats of gloss acrylic craft varnish on them.  The alcohol inks went on well over the varnish.  They have such a glossy finish that they almost look metallic.  In fact, they are so shiny that I had a lot of trouble photographing them because I could not get rid of hot spots even when bouncing the light on something reflective rather than shining it on the gourd directly.  The first inks I used were transparent colors that let the gourd's natural finish show through.  I rather liked it.  The ink and varnish reflected light in a way that made it look more like a live gourd.

As I mentioned above, I grew bored with making gourds look like gourds, so I decided that I would add some patterns.  So the last two gourds had grids drawn on them with a extra fine line marker.  On the second gourd, I used a piece of low tack painter's tape as a guide for drawing the center section.  I learned something very useful from that.  When I removed the painter's tape, it pulled off some or all of the varnish across that section of the gourd
.  This seriously affected how the ink reacted with the gourd.  In the sections where all of the varnish was removed, the ink stained the gourd, but it was very dull and much lighter in color in comparison to the rest of the sections.  In areas where only some of the varnish came off, the color appeared much lighter as well.  I have added a close up photo of the section where the varnish came off so you can see how things worked out.  I had read in the forums on gourds that people had a lot of trouble with paints chipping off gourds, but up until this point I did not really understand just how much of a problem it was.

The third gourd used inks from the set that were fairly opaque.  They colored the gourd nicely, and were opaque enough that the natural coloration of the gourds were obscured.  The one thing that surprised me on this, was that they dried much darker than I thought they would.  The blue ink came out of the bottle in a color that I would have to describe as a peacock blue.  It dried to a dark navy.  The red is a really beautiful ruby red.

The inks really set into the brush.  They did not completely come clean when washed with soap and water.  I used 90% isopropyl alcohol to clean the brushes thoroughly.

That is about the end of the gourds commentary.  Check back again on Sunday for a new project.

Painted Gourds-Part 3 Photos also-Field Project Photo

Dried gourds painted with tube acrylics.

Apologies to readers that looked at this blog post yesterday and could not see the photos.  The pictures were there when I posted the blog.  When I cam back to the blog this morning I could only see the captions.  It must be a problem with Google Drive because it would not allow the photos to load unless I uploaded them to Google Drive first.  Today when I went in to fix the pictures, the old method of loading photos to the blog was back in place.  Hopefully, the photos will stay in place this time.  Other than this paragraph, the blog is the same as yesterday.

Craft acrylics look chalky.

I have been painting on some of the gourds this week.  They took much more time to paint than I thought they would.  I ended up repainting one of them because I had used craft paints on it and it just looked chalky.  I have posted a picture of that gourd painted with the craft paints, but I am not sure if you will be able to tell that much difference over a photo uploaded to the internet.  The gourd that was repainted is the one in the front on the left.

1-12-2014

For these gourds, I was just trying to make them look something like they looked before they dried and turned brown.  Although some people think this type of gourd is ugly, I enjoy their colorful, bumpy shapes.  I really like their  bright colors and unpredictable patterns.  Nature is sometimes chaotic. 

Regular readers know that I other than just painting gourds, I am trying to experiment with various materials on these gourds to see what works well and what does not.  After doing some reading on the internet, I decided that I would follow one persons advice that the gourds should be covered in multiple layers of acrylic craft varnish before painting.  There was also much discussion on the web as to whether gesso should be used or not.  So, I painted one with gesso and tried it with only the acrylic craft varnish on one gourd.  I found that even after multiple coats of the varnish that when the gourds were painted with a fairly opaque (student grade) acrylic tube paints that you could still see spots and lines from the gourds showing through.  So if you are painting something and don't want the gourd's natural coloration to show through, you will probably want to use gesso.  The gourd with gesso had a much smoother color.

In the case of some of these gourds, I painted the entire gourd one color and then added the lighter color over it.  The lighter color required two coats.  That was annoying, but I don't think you save any time by painting the bumps the lighter color and trying to paint around it with the darker color.  I tried that with one gourd, and it did not go very well.  I kept accidentally brushing the color against the raised bumps, making a mess.  All the gourds were sealed with gloss varnish when the painting was complete.

I still have three gourds left.  For my experiment on those gourds I am going to use inks, which are supposed to work better than acrylic paints.  My results on those gourds will be in the next blog posts.

Sunday is photo day for my Field Project.  My plan is to take a photo of the same field from more or less the same position at the same time of day once a week to document it's changes over the course of the year.  There is a second component to this experiment.  For more details on that, please read my blog post from entitled Engaging Artificial Intelligence (Dec. 29, 2013).  Today's picture is the first day I have a picture of the field with sunshine on it.  The past three weeks it has rained on Sunday.  I was beginning to think it would be another rainy day photo because it has rained without stop for the last two days.  However, this morning the rain had cleared out.

So far, there has not been any animation of the field photos.  I had not really expected to see anything quite this early, but I have been checking my photos just in case.  There has not been much change in the field over the last three weeks.  And, since the photos have been on gray, cloudy days, it was hard to tell that it was not the same photo.  At least today's photo has sunlight and shadows. 

Gourd Painting Part 2-

It is really cold outside today.  For the last two days we have had single digit temperatures.  I'm glad that it is not a day I have to go out to take a picture of the field.  Despite the cold temperatures, I still went out to go to the grocery store.  Other than that, I have spent time getting the gourds sealed with the acrylic varnish so I could start painting them.  I have just begun to get the first coat of paint on the gourds.  I had only finished about half of each of three gourds before I had to stop to get on with the shopping, so the first coat is not complete yet.  Sometimes it seems hardly worth the effort to start something when you only have a few minutes, but life is busy.  If I only have fifteen or twenty minutes to work on something I try to go ahead and get started.  Numerous twenty minute segments eventually add up to hours of work on the project.

As I blogged last time, I want to paint these gourds to look like gourds.  When they were purchased fresh, they were brilliantly colored in hues of green, yellow, orange, and red.  Once dried, they changed to an brownish orange color.  My plan is to use these dried gourds in decorative baskets during Halloween and Thanksgiving.  So instead of painting them with designs, I am painting them to look like they looked when they were fresh.  I'll save adding decoration to gourds for a future project.

Before getting started, I read different forums around the web and watched some tutorials on decorating gourds before getting started.  Since then, I have sealed the gourds and have just begun starting the painting process.  So, now I am at the experimental stage.  I always like to try to find out an answer to something while I am doing a project.  During my reading of various forums, I found that some people primed with gesso before  painting the gourds and others did not.  Also, some people used tube type acrylics and others used the more liquid craft paints.  I decided to check out the various options for myself to see which I thought worked best for my intentions for these gourds.

I decided to experiment with three gourds.  One gourd would have a base coat of gesso before painting to see if  the paint would hold to the gourd better.  Another gourds would just receive a base coat of a student grade acrylic tube paint.  The third gourd would be painted with acrylic craft paint.  From there I could make decisions on how to proceed with the other gourds.

This is what I have observed from the little bit of painting that has been completed.  The gourd painted with green tube type paint is a little streaky.  It will definitely need a second coat.  Also, the thicker paint was a little hard to scrub in between the bumps on the gourd.  The orange paint on the second gourd is acrylic craft paint.  It seems a little chalky.  I'm wondering if a second coat would help the chalky look or whether it might look better after the final coat of varnish is on it.  I have a coat of gesso on the third gourd, but that is about as far as I have had time to work with it.

So that is about where things stand right now.  More on painting the gourds at the next blog post.

Decorative Gourds

Last blog post I mentioned that my husband had reminded me of some gourds in the shed.  I had put them there to dry after Thanksgiving of 2012.  I put them out there and promptly forgot about them.  Well, they are nice and dry by now.  I simultaneously received a newsletter that offered free tutorials on working with gourds, so I guess I'll take a hint from the universe and start on the gourd project.  It is probably good timing.  If I wait until autumn to get started, the season to display them would most likely be over before I get them finished.  This way, at least the gourd painting will be completed, and I will be ready to add them to decorations.

I have wanted to work with gourds for a while, but just never got around to it.  I usually purchase some gourds in the fall for part of my decorations that span across Halloween and Thanksgiving.  The gourds sit in a wooden pumpkin bowl while the Halloween decorations are out, then transfer into a wicker cornucopia to last through Thanksgiving.  However, I am trying to be more budget conscious these days.  Depending on where they are purchased, I could be paying for them by the pound or by the bag.  Enough gourds for my intended purposes usually runs me twelve to fifteen dollars.  That cost won't break the bank, but over the course of a decade that amount is roughly the equivalent of an electricity bill.  I decided that I would dry the gourds and paint them so they could be used year after year, rather than purchasing new ones each year.  So that is how the gourds came to be drying out in the shed.

Earlier on in my crafting career, I had a hard time with working with crafts out of season.  However, I have learned how to work on seasonal projects at other times of the year because there have been many times that the holiday came before I had completed the project.  It always seems that a project takes much longer than I think it is going to take.  At least I am not the only one with this problem.  I recently read a newsletter from the Chamber of Commerce that had an article on the difficulties that arise between a business and its client when there is not a good understanding of how much time it will take to complete a project.  It just does not seem as if it should take so long to do something, but thinking about how to do it and actually working on it are two different things.  Many times it takes double or triple the perceived time to complete a task.  I have learned to start early on seasonal projects, even if it does not feel right.

Before getting started on my gourds, I watched the tutorials on painting gourds (See Wednesday, Jan. 1st. blog post for a link to the tutorials.)  The tutorials had a lot of good information, but a lot of it was on how to use specific products designed for that company.  I am sure they were well designed for the purpose of painting gourds, and if I were to go into painting gourds in a big way I would probably purchase a kit.  However, at this initial stage, I am planning to use materials I have on hand.  For example, the company recommends sealing the gourds with their Formula 49.  They don't say what it is.  In the past, I've run into situations where purchasing some company's special product meant that I was purchasing something that could have been obtained in a generic form at a better price.  So I decided that I would read some gourd forums on the web before deciding on how to proceed with my gourds.

One thing I can tell you is that there is no consensus on how to seal a gourd.  There are many different methods out there.  I'm giving some of the highlights of my reading here.  Some people submerged their gourds in buckets of Thompson's water sealer.  However, many of the posts did not say for how long to submerge them.  I suppose if you were going to do a lot of gourds on a regular basis you could save the product and reuse it, but for a one off project, that is a little expensive.  Other people used Spar Varnish, but noted that if you do not cure the gourds in sunlight, the varnish would yellow.  Sealing with multiple coats of polyurethane was also popular, but someone said that the yellowish color of the dried gourd bled through.  Others used acrylic craft varnish.  One person, who seemed to be involved with painting quantities of decorated gourds said that she used up to seven coats of acrylic varnish on the gourd before painting to make sure that mold stains did not bleed through the paint.  Since I only have a few gourds, I'm probably going to use the acrylic varnish I have on hand.  As a side note, virtually everyone said that they had trouble with paint peeling on the gourds if they were used outdoors, regardless of the pre and post painting sealing methods.  There seemed to be a consensus that wood burning without painting was the best way to go for outdoor applications.

Cleaning the gourds is another matter.  Dried gourds are covered with mold.  Wear a mask or respirator when cleaning them.  I scrubbed mine in a bleach and water solution with a stiff brush.  If I planned to work with gourds regularly, I would just as soon purchase them pre-cleaned.  I can't say that cleaning gourds outside in winter was a fun activity.  But, the gourds are clean, dry, and ready to be sealed.  The picture above was taken after they were cleaned and dried.  I have begun to put on the coats of acrylic varnish.  I expect that will take a few days to complete the sealing process as I have to varnish a portion of each gourd and let it dry, then come back to varnish the other portion.  I should have the coats complete
in three or four days. 

I updated the blog page today to show the picture taken this morning for my series of photos on how this field changes over the course of the year.  It was raining again this morning.  This is the third Sunday in a row that it has rained.  An ominous sign has appeared in the field, which is shown in the second shot.  The plot of land has come up for sale.  This has happened before.  Sometimes a for sale sign sits there for a year and then is taken down to wait for a better time to sell.  The appearance of the sign causes a lot of concern in the neighborhood  because sooner or later some developer is going to buy it and change it into at best more homes, and at worst, a commercial building of some sort.  I hope I have the opportunity to see the field bloom with vegetation this year.

Folk Art Projects for 2014

Happy New Year everyone!  It seemed like the last year just flew by.  When I was thinking back over the last year, I felt like I did not accomplish very much.  However, as I scrolled through the blog, I found that I had actually done more work than I thought.  I completed two major projects, the Folk Art Carousel and the Shaman Staff walking stick.  There were also some smaller projects: two Halloween mask decorations and a painted floor cloth.  And then there were things I did just to have some fun: three painted boxes and some mixed media hearts.  Also, there were two projects that did not make it to the blog.  One project was a set of three art jewelry bracelets that I made for a magazine submission.  (One of the bracelets was featured in the gallery section of GreenCraft magazine.)  The other project was a large Johnny Cake Face similar to the small Johnny Cake faces on the Folk Art Carousel.  I gave that as a gift to someone.  So all in all, it was a pretty productive year.

Now I am facing a new year, and a new set of projects.  I have spent the last few days thinking about what I want to accomplish this year.  Sometimes that can seem like a daunting task.  I finally decided that one of the things I need to do is to try to use up some of the things in my studio.  So a fair amount of work this year is going to be assemblage.  I don't have an exact plan as to what they will look like at this point.  I've found that sometimes when I can't figure out what to do that it is best to start and let the work speak to me as it goes along.  People have donated items left over from their projects.  This includes computer parts, bits of hardware, sea glass, shells, wire, and fabric.  I'm going to do my best to put some of these things into good use this year. 

I also have some small gourds that I had saved from a year ago and dried out in the shed.  I plan to paint them with dyes and may use some of them in some type of Halloween scenario or for an autumn wreath or decoration for later in the year.  Actually, I had forgotten about them until my husband reminded me they were out there the other day.  In a case of serendipity, the same day he reminded me that they were out there, an email newsletter I receive had a link to a set of free tutorials on working  with gourds.  So I am going to take this as the universe is making the suggestion that I get started on those gourds. 

If you are interested you can check out the tutorials here: 
http://www.welburngourdfarm.com/videotutorials.aspx As its name implies, the site does sell gourds and products for working with gourds.  If you have never done any work with gourds, or are interested in learning about how to work with gourds, this is a great opportunity to learn about it through a series of relatively short tutorials.  Side note:  most of the gourds they sell are already cleaned, which is convenient. 

I also plan to do some painting and experimenting with acrylic products.  Earlier this year I purchased some expensive glass bead acrylic medium when it was on sale.  Now I need to figure out what I'm going to do with it.  I am thinking of recreating my peacock mosaic in a painting using the glass bead medium.  I expect that this material may show up in some of my assemblage pieces as well.   I also would like to paint a winter scene of some pictures that I took at the cabin. 

Another project is to make some paper and encaustic mosaics.  I have some painted papers that I made for a group project that weren't used.  I plan to use this for one times when I need to take a break from more serious projects. 

If I get through all of those projects, I still have some walking sticks that should be well dried and ready for decoration.  There is always plenty to do although sometimes I am unsure of where to start.