White Stuff Falling From the Sky

A view from my studio.

Sometimes the mountains get magnified and hover over the trees bigger and brighter than ever.

Today is one of those days

First snow.... it's here!

We need to document these things don't we

~Our house~

...no just kidding, it was going to be a shop until I realized I didn't want random people coming off the highway and disturbing my concentration.

Which reminds me of something my son said when he was six.

He told me he was never going to get married because he was going to be an artist and "would need to concentrate"

Pretty funny thing for a six year old to come up with but if you knew him now at age 29 it would still make sense.

a dumpster diver special

I made myself... yes, MADE myself take a break from the torch and play with some paper.

It was like being at a real job lately, not bad though because it was like a real paycheck as well this last month. You guys bin keepin' me busy...and I love it.

But I needed a break to give birth to some new ideas in the temple of time

These are postcards.

I needed to float and stretch

A little Cat- Cow action

Scramble my  headpin pinhead brain and mix some images for the hell of it.

Make some sense of nonsense

glue and paper instead of glass and metal

Balance

You know what I mean

....Don't you?

Coming up with some new components too.

What do you think of these drops?

Bigger holes perhaps?

I was pretty pleased with these oober headpins.

I promise I'll make some more.

 I've segued into the indoor long distance shows now I may be slowing down a bit on listing this week because I have a real live bead show this week and not many supplies to bring down there because I've been listing everything as I make it lately.

Good news is that the locals are buying jewelry and commenting on my evolving change of style.

So I'm glad for that vote of confidence because I can't keep making the same stuff for too long.

Even my bread and butter items of the past are being phased out and it feels good.

Like these that I sold hundreds of...DONE!

( well, OK unless another wholesale order comes in)

and stringing seed beads too.

My eyes and hands can't handle that anymore.

So I'm de-stashing a load of those at my next show.

I sold a dozen sets of those glass tile magnets at my last show that I showed you how to make in the tutorial here.

If you're doing any shows coming up and are so inclined you may make a few $$.

Fun and easy

Now I'm going to go and make some things for my upcoming show in Anchorage

Alaska Bead & Gem Show.

 seeyallater

XOXO Kim

P.S. I mean to tell you that I intend on coming by and visiting your blogs too, I'm feeling kind of guilty lately for not stopping by and commenting more.

Pleeeese 4 Give meeeee!

Which reminds me of an epitaph that one could have.

"What if it was all about me?"

More Postcards

So I've kind of been on a postcard kick this week. Well, postcards, photographing, blogging and Etsy. Husband has gone to attend to the tiling of our new place so I've had more time to myself to go about my business... which besides studio time means catching up on a marathon of "In Treatment" in the evening and eating foods that he won't touch like eggplant and tempeh and nursing the cold I had.

(For those of you who may be confused...you see we now have a new apartment in Tucson two hours away which was too good of a deal to pass up so now we have a third place besides Alaska and Bisbee. When I say too good a deal to pass up I mean a one bedroom apt with access to a park and downtown and a swimming pool for less than the price of a new Subaru)

Gesso, pastels and scraps

Some more of my intuitive painting paper

 Boy, how I love using vintage diagrams in my collages!

Some more tequila decals. Credit for these stickers goes to artist Dr. Lakra

Time Life books at the thrift store are rife with images

For my own personal use of course... me and my potty mind

Why do group pictures of Chinese and Japanese women keep showing up in my pieces?

I think I need to dig deep into my collective Asian unconscious...err.. I mean subconcious for that answer.

Oh, you know by now how I am about head swapping and vintage lady bodies.

It's a delicious formula, try it sometime!

Uh oh, bad studio practices.. smudging...and not the purification kind.

I am such a hasty worker that everything gets all over everything else.

I know the rest of you artists are orderly and neat in every way...of course you are!

Postcards du jour

I find that if I have a limited stash of materials in front of me then I get less overwhelmed with the possibilities  of composition. I had a book of reproductions of old Victorian postcards that I wasn't especially fond of that someone had passed along to me and figured that I could cover them with collage.

I  was also given some tattoo like stickers that came with a very decorated box of tequila.

I've given the box away now since it was so nicely decorated I thought it would be wrong to cover it up .

You'll see evidence of some of the stickers on these postcards.

It's funny but some of the paper is from a printmaking class I took back in '91

The grid piece is from that time and matches up nicely with a scrap of the intuitive painting I did this summer at Sparkle Days Studio with Corrine

The painting was so big that she rolled it up in pieces to send to me. 

I like it better in pieces anyway and am having fun collage-ing with it.

The background is some monoprint paper that a friend gifted me when she was offloading old pieces of hers from art school. I pleaded with her not to toss it and send the paper to me instead.

Thanks, Nina.

In my state of less than ideal health yesterday, I cut pieces from old books.

That was after a nap and a cup of coffee. I needed my strength for this endeavor after all.

The last pieces of a vintage Cannabis poster that belonged to my brother in 1968.

I sold some of the rest of it on Etsy. Hmmm, selling cannabis on Etsy... not sure I should be saying that!

My friend Mountain Heather has given me one of her fabric catalogs to cut up for collage.

See lower right.

She's also given me these pieces of fake slate-like fused stone that I'm using for backgrounds for assemblage.

I know it's hard to tell with this scan but the body of the girl is a large shard of an old mirror that I found outside of an old church near the Mexican border. The shell piece was just given to me a couple of weeks ago and I found the embossed copper at a thrift shop. I only need to keep myself in Liquid Nails and Mod Podge as far as supplies go these days. I am totally overrun with supplies I realize and yet they still keep making their way to me somehow. My husband is off in Tucson attending to the tiling job in our new apartment. It seems he's talked the lady at the tile store into giving me a box of scraps of ceramic, porcelain and glass tile. I know I just won't turn it down!

Put a Head On It... more postcards

Warrior Pose

Queen Mummy

Wholesome Goodness

Tres Generaciones

Serious Postcard

I'm wrapping up loose ends before I head back east to Squam  Art Workshop

and to have a nice visit with the folks in Maine. 

I realize just how fortunate I am to have both of them around still in their 80's and want to just hang out with them more and indulge in some garage sailing and antiquing with them. you see they are the ones that trained me up on this scavenging business. they had a nice little side business for years fixing up old trunks and lining them with old sheet music images along along with other good finds.

My father got involved in auctioneering for fundraisers for a spell and they had good fun with that. Now they are downsizing, simplifying and passing on some of their belongings.

I am getting hurried along and really need to go home and finish packing.

Bye for now!

XOXO Kim

Postcards~ Two for One But Not Very Practical

I've been packing up some of my tools and supplies for the trip north but always need to leave and outlet for some creativity if the mood strikes.

I've been meaning to make up some postcards for mail art but I got a little carried away and decorated both sides making it a little difficult for any messages or addresses.

The good news is they can be flipped according to mood~

not very practical I know!

Side B

#2

2 B

#3

 3B

#4

4 B

#5

5B

#6

6B

#7

7B

#8

8B