geraldine newfry

christmas goodies

finally, now that folks have opened their gifts, i can show you what i've been working on.

i knit a crow for my friend debb.  i got the pattern from natty knits.  here's her ravelry link.  i think it came out really cute.

 

for her husband, greg, i painted a small canvas using gear masks.  he likes gears.

i'm not sure why i took this picture sideways.  the clock goes on the right, not the bottom.  i was kind of rushing around making sure i had everything wrapped.

i painted the canvas with black gesso, placed the masks/stencils, went over it with white gesso and then painted with quinacridone magenta and deep purple.  i can't wait until it's warm again and i can use my spray paints.

happy boxing day!

beauty in nature

i can not believe what a gorgeous day it is here in chicago!  my mac tells me it's going to be nice all week.  thanks mac!

the theme for november 4 nanojoumo was beauty.

sorry about the shadow.  it seemed like a good idea to photograph it in the sun.  you can barely see, but i stenciled dots all over the page.  i used stencil creme and a foam brush.  not nearly as satisfying as spray paint.  i might be able to get in some more spray paint this week if the wind stays calm.

this spring we bought a beautiful little bush.  it's called an itea.  we had this hideously ugly pine tree bush that wasn't too awfully hard to remove.  the thing i like best about the itea is so far it looks beautiful in every season.  here it is when we planted it.  it's covered in sweet little flowers.  in the summer it was green and it's height complimented the other plants.

this is what it looks like now.

i love the colors.

i have some catching up to do for nanojoumo.  solitude, felicity and compassion.  but i did work in my journal nonetheless.  i needed some black gesso in there.  i'm finding it's hard for me to complete a journal page in one day.  they seem to turn out too simple.  but it's good practice to go down to the studio at the same time every day.

off to the studio now.  taking a walk when the bears game is over.  i'll be bringing my phone for the camera, even though i have yet to figure out how to get the pictures from the camera to the mac.  i'll have to explore the verizon site a little bit.

have a great day!  i hope it's beautiful by you too.

inspire journal page and seed stitch clutch

the nanojoumo journal prompt for november 3 was inspire.  i thought of a lot of different people, and different artists, but settled on buddha.  the way he lived his enlightened life is an inspiration to me.  i have to continually remind myself to be more compassionate, kind, centered ....  to just be in the moment.

i'm sad it's not showing up, but the rectangular strip above the dalai lama's image was from a parking receipt.  it included the date and time.  poo.  you'll have to use your imagination.

i wanted to share some other work besides the nanojoumo pages.  this is a seed stitch clutch (rav link) that i made for my friend's birthday...which was in april!  i think i did the knitting in march.  plenty of time, right?  but then came the parts i didn't know how to do: crochet, line the bag and add a zipper.  the pattern pictures included a lined bag, so i was disappointed when the pattern merely said something like "so you can line it and add a zipper if you want."  the whole process intimidated me.  i set it aside for a long while.

my friend was planning on moving away from chicago.  i was determined that the bag should go with her.  so one day i just finally decided to get serious.  i looked at a lot of websites, read the happy hooker, looked at more websites and just got to work.  i made a lot of mistakes, and i would probably do it differently were i to do it again.  but i accomplished it!  i was able to give her the bag at her going away party.  only 6 months late (i've never been that late before).

 

here we are together for the last time.  francine and gerri.

NaNoMania

i've always been intrigued by NaNoWriMo.  one month, one novel.  but it's not really something i would ever do.  i'm not a writer, as  you can probably tell.  this year a bunch of other NaNo...somethings came to my attention on november 1.  already a late start if i wanted to participate.

there's NaBloPoMo to commit to posting on your blog every day in november.  i gave that some thought.  then i realized it was crazy for me.  i've been feeling much better, but still struggling most days.  i didn't think i could commit to that.

i also found NaKniSweMo to commit to knitting a sweater in november.  from start to finish.  a 50,000 stitch sweater.  i'd love to be able to do this, but not in november.  i wouldn't have time to knit my gifts.

but then came NaNoJouMo.  This is the birth child of dawn sokol.  the idea is to do a little art journaling every day in november.  i discovered this one yesterday, november 2, so the pressure is off since i already missed a day.  but that doesn't mean i can't continue.  and yesterday i did two journal spreads to make up for my missed day.  dawn provides a word prompt per day, and encourages us to work in our journal in whatever way we can.

i thought this would be great for me.  a little bit of fun just for myself.  i've been working on the publication projects for what seems like forever.  and i haven't had anything to share.  so a little for me, and a little for you.  i scanned these, and my journal is so full it was hard to lie flat.  i think i will photograph them and see which works out better.  but for now, here they are.

november 1: freedom

 

november 2: purity

Related articles by Zemanta

• NaNoWriMo: A Pep Talk and a Warning (43folders.com)
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just a quick note

less herger of comfortable shoes studio has been writing several posts on background techniques and other relevant techniques for journalers.  take a look here.  she has several other posts too, but you can go back a ways to see the videos she's added.  do take the time to look at her other posts as well.  she has journal pages and books to see.

i'm currently working on a couple of books and journal pages for an upcoming publication.  i'm pretty much spending all my time doing that.  i suppose i can't show that work here.  so i've pretty much been stumped on what to blog about.  here are some more journal pages from june to keep you company.

 

 

 

Related articles by Zemanta

• How to get the most from your journaling habit (ismckenzie.com)
• When mom and teen couldn't talk, they wrote instead (timesunion.com)

why handmade books may seem expensive

Image by sweetmadness via Flickr

have you ever wondered what goes into a handmade book?

check out this picture

http://is.gd/30iit

and that's just the bookbinding part.  for me, the polymer clay part is much more labor intensive.

• making millefiore canes
• conditioning clay
• layering clay to proper thickness
• add surface decoration in clay
• choosing and adding rusty bits (this is the hardest part)
• baking
• sanding
• buffing
• painting
• creating holes for binding

i'm sure i'm forgetting something.

i'm working on more painted book board books.  these can be put together a lot more quickly.  i'm currently coating them in dorland's wax to protect them.  some are just backgrounds, waiting to be spray painted.  some are just gessoed.  all need to be bound.

making felt

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

my friend carrie and i have been getting together once a week for a while.  often i knit and she spins, but this month we've been trying something new.  we've been journaling a lot ("journal mania!") and one week we decided to make felt.

we started with wool.  i don't remember what wool in this form is called, but it's prior to roving.

 

i pulled out all the blue and chartreuse bits.  the first layer went pretty well, but was thin.  i had been intending to use it as a book cover.  i added some roving to the back, but had trouble making it stick.  we were still learning.  neither of us had done this before.

 

we did have a lot of fun putting the felt together.  our hands were pruny and soaked in soap.  that apparently was one of our problems.  too much soap!  but i managed to put together a sheet and set it out to dry on the rack.

 

here's a closer shot.

 

as you can see, after it dried and i got it home, that roving never did really turn to felt.  also none of the wool shrunk as it should.

but i love the front.  i love the raw edges and the colors.  carrie has been reading up on felting and we have some new things to try for the next time.

for the next few weeks though it's journal mania.  i have a book to bind and fill for publication.

binding and polymer clay

yesterday i went down to the studio, totally wanting to play with polymer.  but i have a commission for which to bind.  i sighed and put together the papers to fold.

 

then i remembered that i like to put the signatures in the book press overnight.

 

so there was time to play with clay!  i was working from donna kato's millefiore book.  i want to make beads for book marks.  i figured it would be helpful to make some fresh canes.  i was a bit impatient with the clay, not wanting to mix my own colors.  in the end i should have taken my time.  i made two ugly canes and two nice ones.  i think i'm going to turn the ugly cane into a kaleidoscope cane.  we'll see how that turns out.

i really need to prioritize my time.  i'm creating a few books for publication and they need to be full of journaled pages.  that's going to take a long time.  so i should really focus on that before making beads.  it's hard to tell my muse what to do though.

how do you set your priorities while still allowing the muse to roam free?

celine's inspiration tuesday

i just came across celine navarro's posts called "inspiration tuesday." scrapbooking isn't usually my thing, but reading between the lines i got tons of ideas for journaling.  and supplies!  i haven't been in a scrapbook store in ages, but celine made me want to go.  oh the paper!  the chipboard embellishments that could also be used with spray paint!!  the fun stickers!  perfect for my style of journaling.

see for yourself.  here.

journal pages

Image via Wikipedia

my recovery from surgery seems to be slowing me down.  at first i had a lot of energy, but it's all gone now.  i'm still trying to read up on polymer and stencilry, to keep my mind on art.  but it's frustrating when you don't even feel the energy to go down one flight of stairs to the studio.  fortunately these aren't my stairs!

so i thought i'd show you some more journal pages that i made last month.  i scanned them all and realized i only showed you a fraction of them.

 

 

 

 

i just got some new stencils in the mail.  i think i may try them out.  it's raining but my porch is covered.  we'll see how that works.