Returning to Our Desert Home

Newly acquired old distressed Mexican hutch

Perfect for our liquor cabinet

Score at a yard sale ~ entire contents $4

Ink-credible!

And the case ~ $5!

Much too heavy to carry but good for storage.

Picked up some more of these piloncillo molds

used to form Mexican brown sugar into cone shapes.

(not to be confused with pine cones)

The price was right on these vintage baby clothes patterns

(not that I plan on doing any sewing but they were so cute)

The images in these baby crochet and knitting pattern books are choice.

I love vintage catalogs. I recognize quite a few items from our grade school supplies.

Not sure what the year is on this  CRE-ART catalog is.

 Making the big shift moving from our Alaskan home to our Arizona home this last week.

We made it out in the nick of time. There was a rain storm in the forecast hours after our flight out of Fairbanks. I had an Artisan Expo at the Museum of the North in Fairbanks the day before our flight out which meant that I had to pack for a two day show and a 6 month  winter away from our Alaskan home. Both the plane and the Expo were 100 miles from our home so there was not turning back and no room for forgetfulness.

I'm happy to report that the Expo was a success even though sparsely attended and some of my new encaustics and altered pieces sold which was a nice confidence boost. The museum bought some of my higher end jewelry outright at the end of the show which was quite the bonus for me.

 Our late night flight left  the ground just  hours before the rain that turned to ice crippled the city of Fairbanks for days. An inch of ice ( 2.5 cm) coated everything. Schools were closed, people were advised to stay home from work. Impossible to walk on let alone drive on. I saw videos of folks skating on a flat road and careening in their cars on hills with numbers of them in ditches. We were lucky to get out. Then arriving in Seattle before dawn I was thinking it was a foggy day as it got light outside. Then I realized that I was looking at a snowstorm! It snowed like crazy during our 6 hour layover but we were able to take off  for Tucson even though they were down to one open runway. I heard that that close an hour after we took off after a cargo jet slid off of the runway. We were lucky indeed.

 Although temperatures had cooled in the desert when we arrived in Tucson were were happy to see the sunshine and enjoy the dry roads on our 2 hour trip to Bisbee.

I'm still settling in as we had to immediately drive north to Scottsdale for a family Thanksgiving. I'm glad to finally be home now to get back in the groove of exercise and making art. I left my entire inventory of finished pieces  back in Alaska so anything I may want to sell here has to be freshly made. Now I just need to find the key to my workroom!

 I'm pretty sure the gal that looks after our place while we're gone must have it and I need to wait for her return from a Mexican vacation.

We hit our favorite antique store and thrift store right off the bat and a nice yard sale on top of that  because I just can't seem to resist some of the deals here.

My life has changed here as well because I'm overjoyed to have high speed internet after 7 months of dismal dial-up. I feel as though I have some catching up to do now.

It's so much fun to revisit all of my stashes of supplies and ephemera that I've collected down here because as you must imagine I can't pack it with me back and forth each time. 

We have to save that space for coolers full of moose, salmon, blueberries and cranberries for  our southern freezer!

iPad troubles

So I was thrilled to get an Ipad for my birthday and now I'm finding out that there are quite the limitations with blogger on it. for example I can't upload pictures it seems.
what a disappointment as I had hope to be able to use it when I travel. anybody have any suggestions? I finally figured out how to scroll the inner scroll bar on my dashboard today.
any help would be appreciated.
thanks, KiM

Journal making with cereal boxes and muslin.

This was done on an already bound Russian book that they were withdrawing from the library.

I took out half of the pages within so that I'll have space to collage on the remaining pages.

This is a smallish journal about 4 inches square from a tissue box.

I found that the more texture with the muslin, the more fun I had painting it.

I love those Lumiere paints!

 The lavender dots changed everything.

Exterior of my first try at journal making.

Bible school publication and Chinese image

Antique coloring book image and handmade Balinese paper

Ode to an ocotillo

Exterior

Interior and pre-made scrapbook page

Using up the paints at the end of the day for a page

An inside that I decided to make an outside

Interior of a journal~ vintage book image and Balinese playing card

Alcohol inks and paint

From a small tissue box and Bible school image

After I was given a lovely homemade journal when visiting my blog friend Corrine from Dosfishes, I was inspired to try my hand at her method of using old cereal boxes and painting gessoed muslin as a covering for some homemade journals.

It was fun for me as I haven't played with much painting in my artistic journey and it was very freeing to play with colors and layers and patterns. Also very messy too.

What I find fascinating is that even with different mediums I can recognize my characteristic style somehow.

I have a goodly collection of vintage imagery and papers to highlight the interiors so it's been fun compiling them to fill these journals.

These still will take a few more embellishments before they're finished but I wanted to show you all what I've been up to before I pack up the studio and head south.

In the works are some lampwork and copper paper clips for the journal pages that I hope to share with you once I am happy with how they come out!

Finding Uncle Henry

Someone's Uncle Henry Milliken

from Maine

My grandfather as a model~ Ralph Smith at 3 years old

for an advertisement for children's "waists"  in 1897

Leo Otte's (seated far left) bar 1930's in Toledo Ohio

An unknown girl from my husband's Otte side

circa late 1800's

I used the image as a transfer against some old correspondence

from a shop in Delphos that I found with the picture.

Husband David Cory's Great Grandfather Grant Cory 

circa late 1890's  post-Spanish American War.

Grant Cory's Cigar and  Bike shop~ Alexandria, Va

As I was going through the tintypes and cabinet photos that my Dad had picked up at a grange hall sale in Maine, I always like to look up names if there are any on the photos. Google is a good friend at these times. I was able to track down someone's Uncle Henry Milliken  (in the first photo) as possibly being on the Portland, Maine Board of Trade in 1887 and presiding over the marriage of John Blake  & Lena Smith in October 1883 in the town of Ellsworth, Maine, the same town where photo was found. He also was possibly the same Henry Milliken that was born in Bath, Me in 1843.


The second photo is one that had been saved by my family with my grandfather being used as a model for an advertisement for children's "waists" at 3 years old in 1897.


I have access to an album of my husband's family which I've scanned for artwork.


Less is known about my husband's family photo of the young girl with slightly crossed eyes other than it was taken in Delphos, Ohio.


So many of these old photos have no names on them except for the photography shop name  I'm finding.

How to Pick One~ Road Kill Art Supplies & Giveaway Winner

First you pull the dead porcupine over to the side of the road.

It helps to run cloth against the quills.

Easy pickin' now.

I think I can put these to good use.

Here I used some in my first encaustic work.

On our long ride home for Anchorage a few weeks ago I spied this dead porcupine in the road. We turned back quickly to retrieve some free art supplies for the taking... (Thank you Mr. Porcupine)


I would like to announce the winner of my first blogversary giveaway by using a random number generator that I found online. Thank you all for your comments and for checking in on my blog from time to time. I sure do appreciate your input and blog friendships.


And  I'm happy to announce that the winner is an Alaskan artist Tam from Tam Johannes Designs  who I have known over the years for her fused glass work. Congratulations Tam! and please contact me with your mailing address.

Prep Time for Travel

I had never seen a pomegranate tree until I moved to Arizona. 

They are usually a bit gone by by the time we arrive in early winter, but wow!

It will be nice to look at some different plants again.

It's the countdown month for heading south to our Arizona abode. I've been eyeing all belongings and categorizing them for pack, leave behind, don't freeze and which supplies I absolutely need to bring along knowing that I have a goodly stash on the other end.

I have other decisions as well, one of which is a revamp on my neglected website. It's offline for the time being due to unforeseen circumstances. Now is the time to streamline and make it better. Today was spent looking at other lampworker's websites, color swatches and fonts.

I've been getting advice to keep it more sleek than what you'd find on a blog, no quirky fonts,   and a neutral background. Hard for an artist type such as me to think about scaling back on.

I'm ready to retire my Papyrus font which at the time I thought was so cool but am beginning to find passe. (Why do I always make these decisions after a trip to the print shop for more labels and earring cards?) It will be a phasing out I suppose.

My work has taken a turn anyway since that website was set up and I hope to feature my mixed media work as well.

Our Alaskan winter is in full swing now and I feel as if I'm not quite here and not quite there yet. water is turned off in the Garaj Mahal studio and only one last show before I travel.