Ispirato

Back again with the little bowl I made a couple of weeks ago. I added some machine stitched metallic threads to jazz it up a little.

George, Chris and I went to the Weird Al Yankovich concert at the Melbourne Arts Centre Friday night. I have never before seen more nerds gathered together in one place . . . outside of the comic book collectors fair I got dragged to once.  And going to the Weird Al concert had been my idea! So what did this make me? White and nerdy to the max.

Gotta tell ya, though, it was a fun night out! He is an amazing talent. His lyrics are SOOO clever and he can sing, dance and play the accordion. Wow. Do you know Weird Al was valedictorian of his high school class? Not surprising.

So yesterday being Saturday, I decided to finish off this miniature vignette I started in a VAME (Victorian Association of Miniature Enthusiasts) workshop two and a half years ago. Okay. I don’t know what is more embarassing - the fact that I had let so much time lapse before finishing the project OR the fact that I craft dollhouse miniatures in the first place. Yes, speaking of white and nerdy, dollhouse minis is a kindof hokey craft to do.  But hey, it’s fun! I like it. And I’ve made some great friends through this hobby.

Continue with this post to see some close-up photos.

(There is more where this came from … )

I needed a bit of pepping-up and a voucher arrived in the mail from my salon for a discounted pedicure and manicure combined. So off I trotted for my second-ever professional pedicure. (Here’s a very important lesson I learned the first time: You need to wear THONGS so you don’t mess up your toenails on the way home.)

 I picked this pinkish red. It is such a gorgeous color. But 36 hours have passed and I keep staring at my nails - I can’t believe they are mine. I rarely wear a bold color polish like this. And they are all a decent length, for once. And most amazing of all - there are no ink or paint stains on my fingers. WOW! Surely this is a dream . . .

George and I lost a friend yesterday - Vicki, just 46, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer less than a month ago.

She is the second girlfriend my age to have died of cancer . . . An especially sobering thought, as I had my own “cancer experience” four and a half years ago. It changes your world - many, like me, will say they are better, stronger people for the experience. But Vicki had little time to get her head around the illness, it claimed her life so soon. That’s not to say she wasn’t brave. She was. She was incredibly brave!

I have escaped death from cancer - so far. I have a scar across my breast and a greater appreciation for all life has to offer. I also feel more peaceful and accepting of death. Are you surprised by my heading labeling death as creative? To me death is an act of transformation; metamorphosis from this physical existence to our more authentic self. We are not human beings having the occasional spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

It seems ironic to say that death is a creative act for there is no artistic masterpiece left behind. The soul leaves the body and we earth-bound humans stare blankly, trying to make sense of it all. We have photographs and memories and strange painful emotions. We’ve forgotten what is on the other side in the non-physical world. We don’t see the transformation. We only see that the person is “gone”. (There is more where this came from … )

We had Labour Day in Victoria, Australia last weekend and my boys went camping. So just like this time last year, I pulled out wool fibers and batts and had a personal stay-at-home felting retreat.

Didn’t make as much this year as last. I’m working on some 3-D felt projects at the moment. I made four felt vessels using styrofoam balls as forms. I’m gonna jazz them up with some stitching and beads or polymer clay doo-dads, I think.

Check out the little red and green bowl I made. (There is more where this came from … )

I’m a Lens Master! What’s that, you ask? I’ve written a Squidoo Lens about stamping and molding polymer clay. It’s a single web page you write dedicated to a very specific topic. Squidoo says everyone is an expert at something, so we should share the knowledge!

I’ve put in my own hot tips on the subject of stamping and molding polymer clay plus web links, a relevant YouTube video, a list of books on the subject and a link to a web page where I show how to make art doll brooches like the mermaid shown here.

Felicity put me onto Squidoo. She’s done a lens called Making Art is Good 4 U. 

 

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This is Alyson B Stanfield and she’s an art business coach in the US. Alyson has this fantastic website at http://www.artbizconnection.com which supports groups of artists who want to learn about marketing. Alyson knows the value in networking, so she encourages the establishment of artist salons. With at least three members in your salon you can enroll in a nine-session program via her website. How magnificent will it be, working through the program as part of an artist salon?! And guess what - it is absolutely free. I think this is marvelous.

I’ve been busy over at Amazon.com, one of my favourite web sites. In the past week I’ve created a number of craft book Listmania Lists and more involved “So you’d like to . . .” Guides - one called “Immerse yourself in collage and mixed media techniques” and the other is “Use art as a tool for self-discovery”.  You should have seen the books piled around me and my computer.

Given the number of books I have, I felt like I was performing a civic duty for the reading public! It was an interesting exercise and I will be adding more lists in the future.Â