Some New News on Old Projects and News on a New Project

I wanted to let everyone know about some news on previous projects from this year.  Some of the projects I completed this year have been placed in competitions at the Virginia State Fair.  I am trying to get my work out there for people to see it in places other than online, so I thought I would put some of it into the competitions.  It is one of the few times I have entered my work anywhere. In this case, it is not so much about winning as it is about getting my work out in public.  The prizes at the state fair are small, five dollars for first place, second and third place are ribbons only, and a twenty dollar prize for best in category.  So the main thing is that thousands of people will walk by and see some of my art.  I am excited about that.

I entered three contests.  In the Wearable Art contest I entered the embroidered denim jacket that I completed this year.  It was a tough choice to pick between the Wearable Art category and the Embroidery category for the jacket.  Yes, it is embroidered, but I consider it to be more of wearable art item than an embroidery piece.  The category descriptions are somewhat nebulous, and the website states that the contest entrant is responsible for picking the category.  So maybe I picked the right category and maybe I did not.  No way to tell but to try and see if it flies.  If it is in the wrong category, it might not be eligible for judging.  So it could end up being disqualified.  But, from the standpoint of a jacket is something you can wear, and it does have art on it, I think the jacket fits the qualification.

 For the Handmade Stuffed Toy category I entered my Folk Art Lamb.  One of the few competition rules for all categories is that the item must have been made this year.  I did not start out making the lamb with a competition in mind.  I just happened to have decided at the beginning of the year that I would make a lamb.  Someone had seen my embroidered denim jacket and suggested that it aught to be displayed at the State Fair.  When I went online to check for information on entering the jacket I also learned about the other competitions.  And, I had recently completed the toy lamb.  So I decided to enter that as well. 

The third item entered was in the Handmade Doll, Dressed category. The doll entered was the Victorian Style Belsnickel doll that I had also completed this year.  That was the first art project that I started this January.  I generally don't like to work so far out of season, but this year I started the doll while it was still cold and wintery.  It seemed like a good time to be working on that type of doll even though Christmas was over.  Being that it fit the time limitation for eligibility into the competition, that went in as well. 

It was exciting to enter the competitions.  It was not expensive to enter the competitions either, just a dollar per entry.  So it was a great way to get the work out there.  Winning would be nice, but just having my work seen by people is thrilling enough in itself. 

Now onto the new project.  When I made my plans for the year I had said that I wanted to do some carving.  I would like to do both some carving to make stamps and some wood carving.  They are the two things that I have not gotten around to doing yet.  I think I will be starting on carving some linoleum first because there is a technique that I wanted to try using stamps and embossing powders.  I think this should be a fairly quick project.  I only have a couple of linoleum blocks.  However, the weather is turning cooler and it is getting to be a nice time to get outside and work on my outdoor table so I shall soon be doing some wood carving out there.  I want to do a little piece of carving on a block to develop some skill on using the tools.  Then I will start trying to carve a walking stick, although the walking stick may roll over to be a project for next year.  But those are my plans for the rest of the year. 

Check back on Thursday for the latest on my new project.