The first weekend that Kerry was in the hospital was the hardest. In all honesty, we didn't know if he was going to pull through or not. My friends in Israel said a prayer for him in their Synagogue and then sent me the prayer. Colleen wrote it in calligraphy 3 times. I loved that she would go to so much effort to get it right. So I wanted to preserve it.
Just click to enlarge. It's 16" x 20". The background is white velvet. The prayer is wrapped in an old prayer shawl, tallit, that I found at a thrift store....made of rayon...so when I washed it, it fell apart. I draped it around the prayer and let it dry, tucking the torn parts into the folds. No one will ever know!
Very vintage pale blue rose buds with handmade new silk roses, with a few flowers, leaves and ribbons tucked in...because he gave me a rose a week later.
Each of the corners have a sterling silver star of david added....
This is a 2" patera type finding....with over 100 swarvosky flat back crystals set into it. Took some time....but it really is gorgeous when you see it in person!
Each of the upper corners have crystals set in the pattern of swirls. Hmmm.....interesting getting hot glue to adhere to velvet....but it worked. Took most of the afternoon on just these 2 flourishes.
A closeup of how I did the folds. Now, my camera setting must have been off as this is pure white.
I will get this framed in the next couple of weeks....but I love the idea of making memories bigger than life....hanging them on the wall....especially this prayer, one I continue to pray every single day.
I have had this sterling silver charm for years. I always loved the chai symbol below the doves.....but it just was a bit too big for a necklace. It's perfect in the center of the bodice with the smaller Star of David just below it.
Positioned above the "title" of the project - it's perfect!
They didn't have swarovski crystals 33 years ago. It they had - this gown would have cost me a fortune. As it is, I hand set over 100 crystals throughout the collage.
I embedded tiny crystals in the leaves - 3 per leaf. The lt blue pearls were on the original dress.
The buttons that were on the sleeve cuffs - across the top of the bodice. I think you can follow where the bodice was...and where the filler is now.
I made several silk roses.....just to get the right size for the bottom corners. Had forgotten how beautiful silk roses are.
And then I remembered the pattern to make these roses and put them on the top corners, to anchor the 5 strands of silk ribbons coming down each side. Of course, there's a wooden dowel stitched into the top back to keep the center top from sagging. Part of "engineering" a piece like this.
When you put all the pieces together, it looks like this hanging on the wall. I do think I will have it framed in a shadow box.....but for now, my wedding collage is done. Click on any of the images to enlarge them.
Original gown took 3 months to create at the cost of about $200.00
Today's wedding collage took parts of 6 days and an additional $150.00
Preserving memories in a creative way.......PRICELESS!!!
It is amazing to me how much the journey of this dress is parallel to life. Today was not a good day for progress on this project! I started out at 8 am with my image transferred to batiste and fringed. Got this idea that I would iron on fusible backing, then iron it to the collage. Hmmm....when you reapply heat to the image...it transfers to whatever is under it - like the ironing board cover!!!
For my studio, I have this smaller board hanging on the back of the utility room door. Now it has my image on it! Of course, it's an odd size....and well, more on that later!
And the image was ruined because half of it transferred off to the ironing board cover!
So I went to print out another transfer, and my printer jammed. Then the paper would only go in crooked. I spent an hour online researching how to take it apart to clean the rollers. Finally had success....but by then, I had used up so much ink test printing....that it printed blue!
Got new ink and finally got it printed. Went in to iron it onto the fabric and since I was in a hurry by now, trying to make up for time, I used my big iron.....with steam. Totally forgot that transfers need to be done with dry heat. What happens if you use steam? Even the backing transfers off.....see the "Avery" label?
By now, the steam iron is clogging up and it's dirty, so I run to Boulder to McGuckins to get whink steam iron cleaner. Let me tell you - it works! I even cleaned out my big Euro-pro steam press! But in looking for a new ironing board cover - not even McGuckins had the right size.....and they have everything!
Came back home and finally got an image transferred perfectly back to fabric (but not fringed.) It was now 3 pm and I wasn't even where I started at 8 am this morning! A whole day and not a step forward!
And it's not like I don't have anything else on my mind! Kerry's spinal fusion surgery starts on Monday. Am I working on this to avoid thinking about that? Am I making mistakes (I KNOW you can't use steam on image transfers) because I'm not thinking about what I'm doing - I'm thinking about Monday?
But isn't that just like life. Sometimes we get to a point where we just spin our wheels. Or nothing is right. Or we make no progress. But we just keep trying. We repeat our mistakes. We do it all over. We try our best to make it right.
And by the end of the day, I had the photo stitched onto the collage. I used a pale blue silk ribbon, 1/4" wide to make the stitch around the photo. There's a tiny edge of fringe on the outside of this. It's coming together, it's starting to take shape!
Part of the creative process is to experiment, make mistakes, try it with something else, change it up, do it differently. I think it's what I love the most about being creative.
As for Monday, Millie reminded me of this verse:
"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make your request known to Jehovah".
Come dress yourself in love....let the journey begin! Hannah reminded me that there is a spiritual hint in this as well. I believe that she is referring to a Christian, who dresses in the love of Christ when they accept Him, and their journey in Him begins. But I'd like to take that one step farther. I believe that the Messiah is the bride of Israel and that she, Israel, is "dressing" herself for the time when He will enter through the walled Golden gate....
Yesterday, I was talking about layering lace. Today, we're going to alter old lace by adding new lace/trim to it. Here's the lace that came off the bottom of the gown:
Here it is biz-bleached:
This is some silk ribbon ruffled into rosettes that I picked up at the Berry Patch
and the 1/2 yard of flowers:
layered together.........completely alters the look of that original piece of lace! I didn't need to put them all the way up the piece as I'm saving room for the image transfer.
I ran some quilt backing behind it and then sticthed down the scallops using silver metallic thread. Not sure if you can see the thread....but it adds just a first hint of bling.
That silk trim went down one side. On the other side, I'll be putting this georgeous piece of "fluff". But I have to wait til the very last thing to add it.
That's actually on elastic and we decided it's meant for cute little girl headbands.....but I'm using it to give "balance" to the other side of what I'm doing. Got your curiosity going yet???
Of course, after this is the "word" piece. And this is my prototype. I know what it's going to say, but will embroider it onto a better piece of fabric from the dress. The little doves were on the veil of the hat. It will be a fringed, quilted piece.....so there's still much to do!
But just as in scrapbooking - where we sketch out an idea, with fabric, I sketched my phrase right on the fabric in about the size I think I want it to do and this will serve as the pattern for the real thing.
There are some of us who even sketch out our ideas for our lives, write down what our plans are, and then work towards those thoughts and ideas. Who knew the journey of a wedding dress is much like the journey of one's life?
I have been thinking lately about my poor Sunday School teachers when I was a kid. They must have just shuddered when they saw me walking into class armed with my Bible....and all my questions! I remember questioning one of them about the Lord's Prayer:
"Our Father, Which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name.... Thy Kingdom come......on earth as it is in heaven."
Did you ever stop to think about that? He taught us to pray for His Kingdom to come to earth and be like it is in heaven. I remember asking, "where on earth is it going to be?" I remember they told me it was NOT going to be on earth....it was up in the skies because we were going to be "raptured" and taken there.
Well, with a little bit of Bible study, I haven't actually found the word "rapture" anywhere.....but rather than us flying off to someplace called heaven that is up in the skies.....I tend to think we might board an airplane and fly over to Jerusalem, where His kingdom will be set up on earth.....as it is in heaven. I know...I'm really giving you things to think about, huh? Is it too much? I don't ask that you agree.....just that you try to seriously think about what was written "then" vs what is going on in the world now.
If Jerusalem is to be where His kingdom will be on earth, then for that single reason, I stand with Israel. I stand with the Jews.
Where do you stand?
Hamas is a terrorist organization. I was in Israel in October 2005 just days before Israel withdrew from the Gaza strip. I have been following the news daily since then. I know that Hamas has continued to send missiles into Israel. And Israel has a right to defend her borders from attack. Waiting over 3 years...I believe they have been more than patient.
If you watch that video, simply ask yourself one question....."Have we already forgotten 911?" Have we forgotten what a terrorist is capable of doing? The shock of watching them take their own lives as the airplanes crashed into the twin towers? Have we become so apathetic that we do not care what terrorism is doing to Israel?
I stand with Israel. I stand with the Jews. And I am creating art that affirms my beliefs.
I love creating art with a purpose. OK, I can't tell you how much I am loving this! This collage started as a t-shirt that I cut up and stretched on a regular artist's canvas:
and then I used Radiant Rains to turn the white cotton to wonderful colors that shimmer! Yep....radiant rains on cotton - so cool! Then I put Glossy Accents over the letters. When that dried, I took my Ranger white pen and gave "shadows" to the letters. Used my cuttlebug embossing folder and embossed the candles in copper and then hand-cut them out. That's an EK Success Star of David embellishment that I painted with Dabbers, then Krylon copper pen on top.
At the top, another cuttlebug cut and emboss folder for the dove and leaf - with stickles over distress ink on that one. The Chai letters are cut from paper by Zsiage. I have always thought that the golden bear (Vail CO) looked like the Chai, so I took one that I don't use any more and added it here. Below that, a $20 shekel bill (is that what you call them?) and some coins from our trip to Israel.
This was kind of cool. The flag is printed on Jacquard's printable silk. and backed with paper. There are 2 other unbacked flags in the collage - do you see them? One of mom's watercolor roses and some silk flowers. More candles for a total of 8 - for 8 nights of lights. Diecut flourishes and swarovsky crystals.
A closeup of a piece of vellum that I hand cut, added alcohol ink, and then my white pen:
I think I posted this shekel before, but wanted a closeup here - it's Art Clay Silver over a coin. Just love it!
This is a complete experiment and I don't know if I like it or not, but it works on this collage. It's glass from Amaco and the Star of David is brass that I fired between 2 layers of glass. Look at all those air bubbles - extremely interesting, huh?
And finally, a close up view of the flag printed on silk, backed with paper. I used tiny mixing straws behind this to make the "waves" in the flag.
I have fallen in love with this collage. Wherever I stand, I stand with Israel. Where do you stand???
I have Monday's off while teaching in San Diego, so guess what I did today? I took a class! LOL! Went to Sally's house and she showed me how to paint myself. Here is one of her self-portraits....these are huge....on canvas...and a mixed media collage:
This is the one she is currently working on....so it's a work in progress: (just click on it to see a larger view)
You start with a portrait and blow up each quandrant to 8x11. So this is 16 x 22 overall.
The hardest thing was to match up the center lines. Took me forever!
Then you paint each quadrant separately. Then lay them all on canvas. Paint them on the canvas using gel medium, then blend the paint on the original quadrants into each other. Wow! What complete fun!!!
I decided to be part blonde, part red head, part blue hair, and I'm not sure what the purple and bronze age is....maybe really old! And there's silver metallic flecks throughout all my hair.....yep, reflective of all the grey!
I got this much done today and decided to wait a day or 2 and then start my collage. But the more I look at this, the more I think I might just leave it as it is. You know me, when I start to collage....I just never know when to finish!
When my brother was little, we had this great "game" we played with him. We would stack those old alphabet blocks up as high as we could, then call him and he would crawl over and knock them over. I remember it was just the most fun ever and we would restack those blocks until he wore out!
I don't know how, but someone got a photo of him in action - and it has always been one of my very favorite photos. So I decided to use it in this beeswax collage titled "Play".
Bind-it-all makes 6" canvas boards that you can alter and use as binder covers. But I think it makes a pretty fun wall hanging just as it is!
I'll be teaching beeswax collage while in San Diego. I have hundreds (probably thousands) of game pieces I'll be sharing. Should be a totally fun class!
My friend, Cindy, came over and brought a bunch of coin bezels and said, "what can we do with these?" And she tossed out a handful of coin bezels on the table.
You know me, my brain just jumped into high gear! LOL! You unscrew the knob on top and pull open the bezel like this:
and insert a coin, screw the top back on, and it's an automatic pendant.
Kerry has traveled all over the world, so I ran upstairs to the desk and pulled out all the foreign coins we have. I found this one from Argentina that fit in the quarter bezel. I layered a piece of Art Clay Silver paper type (that I had already diecut and fired) in the center of the coin. Then covered it all with Glossy Accents and let it dry. Not bad, huh? Just another method of showcasing fine silver in a piece of jewelry!
There is a little depth to these bezels - enough to encase a quarter, so I thought......paper? For this next one, I simply cut out a circle from a Crafty Secrets sticker and placed it on a piece of poster board inside the circle. Then I added a fine silver heart on top. Hey! I think we are on to something!
So, Cindy and I started thinking up names and of course, Coin Bezel Art - CBAs came to mind and just stuck! She's off preparing a website to showcase our new line of jewelry and will be selling the bezels. So if you want bezels, just click here to email her!
For the next one, I decided to go full blown mini collage. Just cut up tiny little pieces. Now, that's my baby photo printed on vellum with a postcard behind it, a little cherub to the left, the word "Remember" on top. and 3 pieces of Art Clay Silver paper type (punched and fired) over on the left. So that I will "remember that angels have watched over me my entire life!"
Of course, you don't have to put fine silver in yours - you can do anything you want! And you could just punch a circle of clear acrylic to put over the top (hey! I forgot, Lucy's little store has inkjet and laser sheets for just $.50 each!)
And Cindy's already working on a Coin Bezel Art website! That girl is FAST!!!
Coin Bezel Art! I think we should have a CBA swap! Anyone want to trade art? I also want to get the bezels in dime or nickel size and make a bracelet - oh dear! I just need more play time! Hmm....Kerry, can we just skip lunch today? LOLOL!!!
