Knot on Wood

Acrylics on 3 1/2" wood cube. I really love the wood knot on this block.

Bookhou + Geninne

I am so excited to show you a little sneak peek of a project between Bookhou & me. 

It is such a joy to collaborate with an incredibly talented & wonderful friend like Arounna.

We've been plotting this for the longest time and we're finally doing it!

She just sent me these awesome photos of the new screen she burnt with my 'Cactus Wrens' drawing. Can't wait to show you our finished product in a few weeks! 

Kitty Kat

Linen kitty kat dolly I finished this weekend. I made this as a gift but I can't say who the recipient is because it's a surprise :-)

Feather Display

This morning Manolo & I went to pick out the roof tiles for our house at a local clay brick/tile shop. This little brick caught my eye I knew it had to come home with me. I glued a piece of leather to the bottom to protect the furniture and it now houses my beautiful collection of feathers. All the feathers have been gifts from my lovely readers, friends and family. They know me well :)

Swallow

Watercolor & collage on paper. 6" x 8"

Hope you have a lovely weekend friends!

Most Frequently Asked Question

I thought today I'd tackle the answer to the question I'm asked the most:
"What material do you use to make your stamps?"
This is my humongous stash of Staedtler's MasterCarve rubber carving blocks. Unfortunately this wonderful material has been discontinued for a few years
and it doesn't look like it's making a comeback any time soon.
I have enough to last me a decade I guess :-)
There is a brand that is very similar and we used it during the stamp carving workshop I taught in Toronto last year, it's called MooCarve. The nice thing about it is that it has the same thickness as the MasterCarve blocks and is very easy to hold when stamping. I doesn't need to be mounted onto wood or acrylic if you don't want to.
I've also used Speedy-Carve rubber blocks by Speedball and it works really well but it only has a quarter of an inch in thickness and does need
some kind of backing with larger size stamps.
I also collect different brands of rubber erasers for smaller stamps. Lookout for the very dense erasers that won't crumble when you carve into them.
You can purchase the MooCarve blocks from Amazon, Blick Art Materials and other art & craft supply shops.

Protea Stamp

The thing with hand carved stamps is once you start, it's pretty hard to stop. 

It's quite addicting.

Bushy Tails

New hand carved stamps. For no other reason than a dear friend's love of squirrels. 

You know who you are ;-)

On My Desk

To do today: package up some orders from my Etsy shop 

and play around with bits of leather.

Ta da!

I'm really happy with my 'new' old linen skirt.

I screen printed my design all around the bottom in a lighter shade of green. 

I used Pebeo Setacolor fabric paint.
*In case you are dying to know:
My gorgeous shoes are from a wonderful company in NY called Aurora Shoe Co.

1st Test

Yes! That was extremely satisfying :-)
Now, I'm going to print that all around the bottom hem of one of my linen skirts!

Screen printing...where have you been all my life???

Screen Printing

Dipping my toes into screen printing. I chose a simple image from my sketchbook. I used a brush & screen drawing fluid which now has to dry completely so I can cover the screen with filler. If you do a YouTube search for 'screen drawing fluid' you'll find lots of videos that explain the process. What I drew on the screen with a brush will wash out leaving the screen ready to print. The last time I dabbled with screen printing was in college a long, long time ago. I wish my friend Arounna was here to give me some good pointers, she's a ninja screen printer.

Winter/Spring

It's getting kinda weird working on some fun projects for next Christmas when the weather is turning warm & springlike :-)

Moth Tote

I found this lovely natural hemp tote at our local organic supermarket and decided to paint an imaginary moth on it with Pebeo fabric paints after visiting this wonderful link about moths that my very talented friend Nicole mentioned in a recent interview she did for Vibeke's gorgeous blog. I was incredibly inspired by the amazing moth photos.

Indigo & Umber

Went back my good ol' watercolors this weekend. Watercolor on paper & digital collage.

Progress

Work in progress. Still working on this one... 40" x 40" Acrylics on canvas

Going Big

 So, I've had this big blank canvas leaning on the wall for over a year and yesterday I finally had the itch to paint something on it. Work in progress, acrylics on canvas 40 x 40 inches.  When I finished the background the sun was setting and my plants cast some lovely shadows on the canvas. I hope that the finished piece is a tiny bit as beautiful as what I captured last night.