Another ATC holder book completed

I got some more shiny beads from Bead Monkey and finished this one for a friend who I traded supplies with. Now I'm working on a third one that someone is actually ordering from my Etsy shop!!! Hooray!

Did Amelia Sell?

I don't know yet.

Ah, the joys of community volunteer events. On the website it says you have to take your art home that night after the show (10pm) if it didn't sell, or pick it up at such-and-such location between 1 and 3pm on Sunday March 25th. I didn't know if mine sold because there were no bids yet when I left. Secondly, Sunday was the next day, which was also Easter, but it was not March 25th. Perhaps this text was left on the website from last year's show? Who knows. And no one was answering the phone. So we had to drive over there Sunday just to find out if anyone was there and make sure I didn't lose my art. No, no one there.

On Tuesday I finally get an email basically saying I might get a check within the next two weeks if my piece sold, or if not she's going on vacation and so I'll be notified when she gets back that it didn't sell and then I can come pick it up at some other location.

Kind of anti-climactic. The show itself I saw for about 30 minutes, and that was a long, cramped, sweaty half hour. There were over 400 people there, so it was basically mobbed. It was hot and I was carrying Lily and there was nowhere to sit. To give her credit, she behaved impeccably. Some wisenheimer called her "a real piece of 'Living Art'" (the theme of the show) and I just nodded and let her think she was exceedingly clever. There was supposed to be desserts but all I saw were crackers with mystery smush which could have been hummus or could have been shrimp, so I didn't touch it. The line to get these delectables was blocking a lot of the art (bad planning) and also the entrance to the coatroom and restrooms. And I wasn't impressed with most of the art. I thought a lot of it was ok but boring.

So that was the show. Plllllllttttt.

Hee hee

Happy Easter!

Just kidding! I didn't make this doll for Easter, I just happened to make it on Easter. And it came out a little scary. But I think she's cool. Maybe a little voodoo, but her hair rocks. Mom gave me the skull fabric, a hanky from Wal-Mart. I think I put it to good use. This is actually for a dotee doll swap in my local group. It's a little bigger than your average dotee, and we didn't pick any theme, so I just did what I wanted. I'm sure someone will love her. And I loved sewing it without any pattern or plan. Now I want to make more. Maybe a cuter one for Lily.

And From the Top

One more shot, because I know you can't get enough of it. I am very happy with how this turned out. I didn't want to do anything real obvious, like a map of her route, or have a lot of words like "courage" or "pioneer" because I hate that kind of crap. I wanted it to be more abstract, a view of her as an adventurer without me having to say "adventurer"! And I liked the idea of used bits of hardware to represent her tenacity and her mechanical prowess. I like that the doors are a bit warped, the paint is uneven, the washers are rusty, which gives it all a slightly grimy imperfect feel. And I like how my rubber stamp images look like rough woodcuts. I have the soft lace, but it's cheap and strange-looking with unevenly dyed bits. So she's not girly. I didn't want to do a straight "here's the manly Amelia and here's the spongy feminine Amelia" and I think I've achieved that. Hoorah!

So this piece is being shown and auctioned off at the Kingfield Community Living Art Show this Saturday, March 22, at Rau + Barber gallery on 4244 Nicollet Ave. in Mpls. I gave it a starting bid of $75, I hope that's not too high, it's really hard for me to figure that crap out. I just want to make stuff. You can see a photo gallery of most of the pieces here. Mine is in there! It's so exciting!

Outsides

These shots give a view of the outside sides. Basically it's more dyed lace, hardware pieces, fuses, wire that I curled, and packing tape transfers of writing from Amelia's flight journals, which is mostly indecipherable but interesting to look at, and a little stamping.

Let's Look Inside

Here are two different views so you can see the sides instead of just the back of the inside. In the bottom picture, you can see another image of Amelia, this one as a child--this is also a rubber stamp I carved based on a photo. She's very similar-looking to her adult self: looking straight into the camera and smiling with her mouth closed. I also had a little fuse box with the name "Littelfuse" which I thought would go cute with the image of the adventurous little girl. There's a doll shoe I found on a walk. I know those are cottle pins, but I think they look like hairpins, so I thought that worked well. The lace is plain white dyed with the same blue wash as on the box itself, and hot-glued on to stand up in ruffles (there's also some more of this lace on the top of the box). 1897 is the year she was born.

In the top photo you can see I used a bunch of postage stamps on the other side. I found old airmail stamps with great pics of old planes on them. Then I used her flight license number to add to that grouping. The postage stamp on the inside is the Amelia Earhart stamp, and 1937 is the year she disappeared (she was 39 on her round-the world flight!).

The bar I mentioned for hanging Barbie clothes is wrapped in some novelty yarn so it looks sorta like clouds and sky. The die is from a Monopoly game variant and says "go" on two sides. The blue fluffy stuff in the bottom inside is tulle, and I glued 3 similar-looking bits of hardware in it.

Ta Da! The Amelia Earhart Shrine

Here it is! This is with the doors closed. This little box I got at a thrift store last year. It was a total piece of crap, covered in ugly brown contact paper, looked like maybe it had been used a Barbie clothes closet, because it has a little bar inside where you could hang little clothes. But it was wood, and wood is always salvagable. So I stripped the vinyl-y paper off it, painted it with gesso, painted it blue, then did a wash with a darker blue so it's not a flat color. I took the doors off and worked on those separately,praying I would be able to reattach them--they're kind of warped and I didn't write down which hinge went where.

Here you see on the left door a recognizable image of Amelia in her flight goggles. I carved this rubber stamp based on an old photo. She also used to wear a string of pearls with her flightsuit, so I outlined the door in pearls. The right door is supposed to look vaguely like plane propellors. I thought about going to the toy store and buying some party favor planes and using those but then I decided that because I have so much STUFF, I would challenge myself to use only what I had on hand to create what I needed. So, the propellor thingies are bottle caps with flip tops from injection bottles (from our IVF days) glued on top, then I cut out vaguely propellor-shaped bits from some copper tags I had. And hot glued it all together. Oh, and then they are all a wee bit different, with some added bit of hardware thrown in. I stained them with alcohol ink and then bits of coppery paint. I found a wing nut for the left door handle and some other handle-y thing for the right door. There's also another wing nut on the top with a bottle cap, a washer, and something else, all painted copper, just a little flight sculpture.

Art Iz Not Done Yet

I am working diligently on my Amelia Earhart shrine for the local Kingfield "Living Art" show, and no, I don't have any pictures yet. Too bizee to take 'em. So this instead:

OWOH Giveaway bracelet #2

Here's my second bracelet that I finally finished and sent off to the winner, who already got it and really likes it, which makes me happy. This is the first one I've pieced, and it was from this great pack of 5" squares from a fabric line called "Katie Jump Rope." I love that name. It was a Xmas present from this online store called the Fat Quarter Shop, and they have these yummy packs of fabric called Charm Packs that are 5" squares from a whole line of fabrics, perfect for small projects.

My Pink Art Square

Okay, so it's not the greatest picture, but it's hard to take a good picture of something this small! It's only 2 inches square, and the flower mode for my camera doesn't work so hot. Anyway, I like how this square turned out. I wanted to keep it simple and joyful. So there is a little beading (the pink beads across the top are hard to see), and then 2 pink buttons sewn together in the center over some silver ribbon. The tiny jingle bells are really silver, the camera flash made them look brass-colored. And of course, the ice cream truck charm. I finished this over a couple days and sent it in ON the deadline day, so I'm happy I got it done at all. I've been battling big migraines lately and it's been hard to get to any art as most down time is spent resting. So this tiny 2" square feels like a big accomplishment!