Tuesday, March 29, 2016

More Lucky Stars and More Gelato Art

I spent the last two afternoons sewing away in our little mountain cabin.  Now some of the Lucky Stars squares have the rectangles sewn all the way around, making them fifteen-inch squares.  (The blocks are not sewn together yet.)



This will make sewing the rows together much less tedious.  I have lots more stars cut out and partially sewn.

I tried using my new Faber-Castell Gelatos on a Bible journal page.  The pastel colors look nice and soft.  I added some watercolor pencil for the stems and flower centers  I added just a little water with a brush for blending.



I took lots of photos this afternoon.  I love the long shadows and reflections in the afternoon sun.







Sunday, March 27, 2016

Trying out Gelatos

Happy Easter!  We are spending Easter weekend at our mountain cabin.  We plan to stay awhile and get some R&R.  Charlie got a drone for his birthday in March, and is having fun flying it around the mountain.  It provides some remarkable photos!

The first one is our cabin, driveway, and the pond below.  That is a reflection of the sun on the water.


The next one shows the cabin and surrounding land.



I recently ordered a set of Gelatos by Faber Castell.  I had noticed a lot of people using them on the Bible Art Journaling pages, and was interested in giving them a try.  The set I got had only pastel colors, a paintbrush, and some wedge-shaped sponges for blending and applying color.

                                                       

The first thing I always do when I get a new set of paints or "colors" is make a color chart.  These gelatos come in tubes like chapsticks.  I applied the color directly to a journal page, then used the paintbrush and water to blend them.  Don't you like the names of the colors?  Yum!


Next I tried making a background by just applying the colors straight from the tubes, blending with water, and then drawing over the background color with different Gelatos.  This have a rather pleasing effect.  The journal I am using has rather smooth paper.  I noticed you can still see the marks of the original application lines.  Probably should have used those blending sponges.


 Then I played around with a composition using the Gelatos to make fruit.  I had to add some darks with watercolor pencils after blending the Gelatos.  My set had only pastels and I just needed some darks for contrast!


I also brought up my Lucky Stars quilt materials to work on this weekend.  I now have stacks of background patches and lots of prints for making many more stars.  I even marked the diagonal line on all the small squares which become the star points.  I hope to do some sewing tomorrow.  I am making this quilt for my friend Marcia using fabrics that she purchased in Europe.  

                                       

I thought this would be a quick pattern to make, but it is not.  There is lots and lots of cutting, lots of seams to sew, and then you have to trim each block to size.  After that you add the rectangular blocks all around the stars to make 15" blocks.  Once those are done, it should be much faster to put this quilt together.



Here is a fun page that I made for the Bible Art Journaling Challenge.  It is about when Solomon was building the Temple, and all the artists and skilled women were called to weave and spin and make the garment for the priest to wear.  It is called an "ephod" and is worn with a breastplate that has twelve symbolic jewels.

I had to look up all this information, especially since I had no idea what an "ephod" was.  To illustrate this verse (Exodus 35:25-29) I decided to make an ephod and breastplate.


I fused Angelina fibers along with some Textiva film to make the garment.  The breastplate is on a piece of gold metallic fiber that you can sew through.  I glued on twelve hot-fix crystals.  I added two pieces of onyx beads for the shoulder straps of the ephod.  The ephod is attached to the page only at the top with Washi tape, so it can be lifted up to reveal the scripture beneath.

I used gold Lumiere paint to frame the actual scripture verses on the opposite page.



More later!

Friday, March 18, 2016

More Bible Art Journaling

Since coming home from Florida, I have been able to prep my Bible pages with clear gesso and use my watercolor paints and markers.  Here are some more of the pages I have illustrated in my journaling Bible.

The first three are my copies of examples in Joanne Sharpe's book, The Art of Whimsical Lettering.  I love her exuberant color palette and no-fear lettering styles.




This one is original.  I googled images for Solomon's temple and abstracted an image.


This one was fun to paint, although I ended up concealing almost all of the text on the waterfall page.


I have also painted several Bible-related journal pages.  I think I will print these on vellum or printer paper and add them as "tip-ins" to my journaling Bible.

The first one is watercolor and acrylic, and resulted from watching Bob Burridges's videos.



The next one is just watercolor and black ink.


And one more watercolor with black ink.


Hope you like these.  Again, I am participating in the Original Bible Art Challenge and the Heaven is Calling challenge by Rebekah R. Jones.  The first challenge was in 2015, but is still available, and there is a huge number of people still participating and posting their work on Facebook. The Heaven is Calling Challenge is ongoing and a new prompt is given once a month.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Bible Art Journaling

Recently I have gone in a new direction with my art journaling.  I discovered that many people are journaling directly into their Bibles, either illustrating certain passages or writing journaling notes in the margins.  This project really helped me when we were in Florida for my husband's cancer treatment.  I could get a page done on the way to Sarasota while hubby drove.  (I always drove him home.)

I bought the ESV Double Column Journaling Bible at the Lifeway Christian book store.  There is whole section of these Bibles with wide margins that have light lines for writing.  Now that I have more experience, I wish I had purchased the ESV-Interleaved Bible which has an entire blank page on the right side of each Bible page.  Then I would not be covering up the text so much with my art.

In 2015 Rebekah R. Jones began a weekly Bible Art Journaling Challenge with a You Tube video lesson for each week.  She offers insight and ministry into the selected passage, as well as journaling advice on techniques and materials.  The challenges are still available in the archives of the website.  If you choose, you can publish your journaled pages on Facebook.

I decided to do the pages in order of the challenge.  It was amazing how each one seemed to be just what I needed for that day in my life.

Here are some of the pages I have done.




                                   


 I used watercolors on the more vibrant colored ones.  Prepping the thin Bible page with clear gesso is key to prevent wrinkles and bleed-through.  I did a few pages before we left home, but the ones I did in Florida were not prepped before-hand.  I used watercolor pencils, watercolor markers, and ink pens, mostly while riding in the car.










This is the one that I illustrated on the way to Sarasota on the day we found out that Charlie was in remission.  Our hope was well founded.


I hope that you like these and perhaps might try something similar if you are so inclined.  I will share the ones that I have done since coming back home in a future post.



Sunday, March 13, 2016

Home Galleries

The weather has been glorious and spring is well on its way here in Raleigh, North Carolina.  I got the urge to hang some artwork on my walls to liven them up a bit.

I kept finding little quilts and unframed paintings to hang in groups.  

These are the ones at the top of our stairs.



On the sunny golden walls of the kitchen I have bright watercolors and mixed media pieces.



On another kitchen wall I hung some of my grandchildren's paintings as well as some of my own.


Speaking of grandchildren, they were all here this weekend.  We had so much fun playing outside.  We have a pond behind our house that is a very good fishing spot.  All the kids caught one.



We have a large paved driveway that was the scene of hopscotch and chalk artwork.


My son got a new truck, and we gave him a cover for the bed.  The men got that installed yesterday.


And the big box that the cover was in became a slide for the three oldest kids.  I think their ulterior motive was to ride it all the way into the pond!  Fortunately that did not happen.


I love my family and warm spring days!

Friday, March 11, 2016

Life is Beautiful

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind.  We soaked in a lot of beauty in Florida on our daily travels to and from Sarasota.




 We splurged and stayed for two days at Lido Key in Sarasota to save a bit of travel time and relax on the beautiful gulf beach.

                                          


We crossed a lot of bridges, both literally and figuratively.





And we are happy to say that on the last day, Charlie's doctor told us that he is in complete remission!  We cannot believe it.  It is almost a miracle!

Here is our Florida team that was with us all the way...my brother Jeff and his wife Anna.  We cannot thank them enough for providing a home, car, meals, and constant support and friendship.



So this part of our journey is over.  We are home.  We are feeling blessed and grateful.


If anyone you know is experiencing prostate cancer, even advanced cases with metastasis like Charlie's, I can highly recommend Dattoli Cancer Center in Sarasota, Florida.  All they do is treat prostate cancer.  And they do it well.