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Nature Face Photography

3/16/2020

I've often used glass floral beads to make eyes for various clay or sculpture projects but never for a photography project.

I found some large glass beads at our local dollar store and then painted up a few sets of eyes in different colours and styles (mammalian or reptilian). Then while out on a hike with my family we went looking for unique features in the forest where we could place a set of eyes and give nature a face.

It became a really fun outing, hiking and seeing some beautiful landscapes while also searching out the finer details that could be given nature a face. I think we'll keep a set of eyes in our camping supplies so that we can do this again on our next hike.

Avatar Stuffies

3/8/2020

Have you watched Avatar the Last Airbender? It was one of my families favorite shows when my kids were younger (and remains one of their top shows ever). It had fantastic character development and a good balance of adventure, humor and moral dilemmas.

The biggest problem with the show was lack of merchandise. This might be because we came to watch the show after its full run so we missed out on that.

Since I love to sew and my kids love to play imagination style games I decided to make the characters out of felt. I didn't really have an idea of how to make them so the process was slow but they turned out pretty good. These photos were taken after a few years of play hence the pilling and deformity (sorry Toph). I wish I had documented how I constructed these in case other fans wanted to attempt to make their own.

Paper Tube Sculptures

9/9/2019

I am always looking for free materials to use in my large drop in classes. Therefore, I rarely throw anything away that may have an artful purpose. So after saving up all my family toilet paper and paper towel tubes I thought about how I could combine them into a sculptural art piece. I was pretty happy with my end result which I had built as an example for a drop in art program I was running. It was really interesting to see what everyone created using these simple cardboard tubes.

This guy is also made from a toilet paper tube (not at the drop in event though). The tube was run under water first, scrunched into a face and then left to dry before it was painted and the glass eyes were added

It's kind of creepy and it's eyes follow you when you walk past, but I love it.

Industrial Organic Sculptures

9/1/2019

My latest creations are two sculpture created from many different materials, including wood, paper clay, chicken wire and magazines.

I had some wire screening scraps, wood and magazines left over in the garage and an idea came to me on how I might combine these elements. I wanted to combine organic shapes with an industrial look as if nature and human construction collided. I love the metallic colours contrasting with the twisted organic and almost coral-like shapes. It looks both man made and natural.

It has sparked many idea for future projects in my head along this line of thinking and may end up being the driving force behind several future pieces.

Rock Painting Extravaganza

4/1/2019

Spring is here and the ice has melted off the beach. For some that means no more shovelling snow or winter boots. For me it means I have access to the rocks at the beach. It’s rock painting season!

What started as my daughter and her friend gathering a few rocks to paint to sell at the school fundraiser turned into a full rock painting extravaganza. Where we live it is hard to go to the beach and not find a perfect rock for painting. We came home with bags of them and while the girls painted I hatched a grand idea painting names rocks for everyone in my family that I could give to my Dad on his upcoming 80th birthday. My Mom and Dad are gardeners and they a gorgeous front yard and backyard landscaped with thousands of flowers and plants, greenhouses full of tropical plants and several ponds, streams and waterfalls full of water plants and fish. Plus there are the rocks, lots of rocks, outlining beds and ponds and creating tiers down the front hill. I thought why not add some more rocks, one for each person in our family. There are 16 of us in all and now there are 16 more rocks in my Father’s garden.

So 16 rocks was the intent. I inadvertently painted more than 150 while making those 16 rocks. Every time I squeezed out some paint on my palette I used any left over paint to paint a few extra rocks, adding either a base coat or dots upon dots. The girls also had extra paint left over from their fundraising rocks and so I needed to use up their paint as well.

It was a nice break from lesson planning or trying new art techniques and was somewhat more akin to zen tangling or colouring. Something easy. Just make dots. Anyways, a few days later and I had about 50 rocks to go towards the school fundraiser and about 100 more to go with my Dad to a membership drive at a community gardening event. I think I’ll continue to keep rocks at the ready to continue to use up paint leftovers.

Mini Clay Pole

1/1/2019

Welcome to 2019! Although I am happy winter has finally presented us with a dumping of snow (there is no bad weather just poor clothing choices) I am missing the longer days of spring. Darkness at 4:30 can be pretty gloomy day in and day out. After creating my large garden pole back in the the summer I thought how fun would it be to create one in ceramic like the ones I have seen others posting online that look fantastic in the garden. Sadly I do not have access to a kiln. I do however have access to a toaster over.

Voila, my mini shelf totems.

Using polymer clay I created lots of small shapes using bright colours to help push away my winter blues.. Once baked I used a metal wire from an old coat hangar and mounted it on a small piece of wood branch from my garden. I had a lot of fun making the shapes and got to experiment without getting too stressed out trying to be clever or creative.

Since the shapes are simply thread on a wire piece I can removed them and change the order any time I want making the piece look different each time. I recommend you try this one. I plan on teaching it in my next family art class at the gallery.

Painted Gourd

11/1/2018

With Thanksgiving and Halloween now past I have been used seeing all kind of decorative squashes and gourds around. I love the textures and shapes that make each on unique. My mother picked up some dried gourds and gave them to me for painting.

The one I chose to work on first had a natural spotted pattern on it's skin. It made me think of the repetition of shapes used in Gustav Kilmt's works. I used that as my inspiration to paint the gourd, circling and reinforcing the existing patterns and adding to it, to create the final piece.

I am quite happy with how it turned out.

Matryoshka Doll Wall Hanging

10/1/2018

I wanted to make a mobile for my cousins new baby girl and came across the pattern for a Matryoshka Doll on My Sparkle

I decided to sew five dolls each a bright colour and each with a decoration on their tummy representing our love of the four season. I hung them all from a piece of driftwood I found at the beach. I think it turned out quite beautifully.

Thanks to My Sparkle for sharing her initial pattern!

Mosaic Garden Sphere

8/1/2018

I keep coming across some really neat art pieces that you can put in your garden and one of the ideas that keep buzzing in my brain are the garden spheres. Sometimes they are reflective mirror-like balls and sometimes they have mosaic or glass bead patterns.

A couple of month back I bought some glass mosaic tiles which I had no purpose for. I just really liked the colours and the jar of tiles was on the discount rack so it was super cheap. Then I came across a bowling ball at the local thrift store and I knew what my next project would be. A mosaic garden sphere.

I read up a bit with some other artist who have tried this to get the right kind of glue (GE Silicon II works great) and started planning out some pleasing patterns with the tiles. I am always drawn to circles so of course I started with that.

Then after spraying the entire bowling ball black and filling two of the three holes with concrete I began gluing on the tiles. It took some time since I could only glue on tiles on the upper half of the ball and then I would have to wait until I could rotate the ball to work on another section. I used some glass beads as well that I bought at the dollar store. The large glass beads in the centre of each circle I also bought at the dollar store but I adjusted them by gluing decorative scrapbooking paper to the back of each to make the beads more unique looking.

Now that it is done I have a new addition to my garden. It looked awesome among the plants.

Rock Houses

6/1/2018

I found this neat book at the local thrift store about painting hoses and cottages on rocks. It was very specific. Since it was half price on books that day I bought it and shelved it for a couple of weeks. Then as Father's Day drew close I thought about making a rock house for my Dad's garden.

I have painted on rocks before, many times, but I have never turned rocks into houses. It was pretty fun and soon I was painting three houses. I started with an easy A-frame house like you might see in the Swiss Alps . I then attempted two Tutor cottages. My Dad loved the presents and my Mom asked me to paint one for my Uncle's birthday. I painted three more buildings, two more Tutor cottages and one Pub.

I used acrylic paint and then coated the rocks with a protective gloss spray once they were done. The chimneys and dormers were made by molding wood glue. It was easier to work on several rocks at the same time so you can move from one to the next while waiting for first one to dry.

I gathered the rocks from my own garden and now every time I am out there weeding I keep seeing all the rocks in my garden walls as different buildings. I don't think I'll ever be able to look at rocks now and NOT see buildings.