Found Treasures

I went back to the second-hand shop to search for more treasures, and found these:

crocheted lace

an oval doily

and a third lace! I think this one is machine-made. I'm gathering laces for my CQing stash. At 50 cents each, it's a steal! I can't help thinking of the many hours someone invested in creating the hand-made laces, and how under valued they are!

Then I found these handles from a purse, and a tie clip, each for only $1, so I scooped them up. The tie clip goes into my CQ stash, but I have an idea brewing for the plastic (lucite?) handles. It just might involve some or all of the following: dark brown corduroy, animal print cotton, rusty bits, laces, embroidery, ribbon, and tatting. Hmmmm, I wonder,.....

Wishing a Happy Columbus Day to all in the USA

I'll be celebrating a Happy Thanksgiving  and hope you are too.

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs from Suz

Paintings: Wolf and Nebula

I have made some additions to the wolf painting.
from this:

to this:

This third pic shows the addition of a third colour--green. I'm not sure if I like it yet. There is some more definition I want to add, but I don't want to do too much as I'm concerned it might negate the freshness of it and the feeling of the painting growing out of those initial paint smears. What do you think?






Shirley began her Nebula Experiment:

Then I added a little:

with another 'planet' and some warmer colours...

This painting is a bit more realistic in nature and execution than the Wolf, but I want to soften edges a bit and capture a more mysterious and ethereal look. I think I may need to darken the background and create vapours of noxious gases, stars, and hint at the abstract. The dilemma is how best to go about doing that. So, I'm thinking about it, and trying to conquer that 'fear factor'.
What would you do? Add some acrylic white to create those gases? Wink out sections of the planets to soften the hard edge look and push them back into the darkness? Add acrylic metallic paints for some glimmer?

I hope you have fun experimenting with new ideas today.
Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

Cluny Catastrophe

Georgia Seitz challenged The Online Tatting Class to tat her cluny bookmark. Having never tatted clunies before, I thought I'd give it a try. Oh, Boy!

I tried clunies with a plastic canvas loom. Nope. No good.

I tried clunies with a hand 'loom'. Unh-unh. Didn't work.
So I threw in the towel, at least temporarily. I really need to work on perfecting the tension. Really.

Here then, for your daily chuckle: Suz Cluny Catastrophe!

Are they not sad? All different shapes. All different sizes. And all the same pattern! Arrrgh!



I do love the thread, though. It's Yarnplayer's 'Stardate".   Hhmm, I think I'll go and try to make something simpler with what's left of the thread. ;-)










Hope you have better success with whatever you're doing today.
Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

Another Painting or Two, or.......

My friend Shirl and I decided to paint together during her recent visit. We began with a limited palette of 2 colours, added water to the paper in a random fashion, sploshed on paint, squirted water, dabbed, tilted, spritzed, sprinkled salt, and repeated the process until we saw something in the dried paint.
And I forgot to take pictures at this point!  Waaah!
We began to develop what we had seen in our paintings. My friend had never begun a painting in such an abstract  way before, but check out her work! I think it's fabulous!

Still in the beginning stages, she left her painting for me to complete! Having just moved, all her art supplies are packed. Gee, I hope I don't wreck it! I already have a few ideas percolating! This is going to be fun!

This is what I spied in my paint dabs. Shirl said it was evil! ;-) I saw a dragon, with flames spurting from the nostrils.......But a funny thing happened on the way to the dragon..-- it morphed into a wolf!   I still have to develop the left side of the paper and play with what's already there. Perhaps I'll add another colour........What do you think?

Well, now there are three painting experiments in progress! How I love to play!

I hope you have fun playing, too.

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs from Suz

More Colours of Autumn

I thought I would share a few shots, taken during this past week, of the vibrant colours in and around our home and along the driveway . I think the colours are near their peak. Although the yellows and golds may yet intensify, some of the trees, especially the reds and burgundies have lost half their leaves. Hope you enjoy.

I Won! I Won!

Judy and I have swapped postcards. But did you know she also has a second blog?  She has lovely giveaways! So I checked out Judy's Freebies and signed up for the August giveaway, and I won!

I won a Friendship Doll that Judy created, and it finally arrived !   Yay!

Isn't she beautiful?

Here's a close-up of her face. Judy creates the best faces! Fibre hair, gold beaded choker, hand-dyed laces, ribbon, machine embroidery, tulle, beads and buttons, gold dust, and fabrics galore! Wow!

You can see a bit more of the detail on the torso.

I shall be finding a special place in my 'studio' to hang my Friendship Doll where I can see her every time I look up from my work. It shall remind me of Judy's talents, and her generosity, and it shall hopefully inspire me to reach higher. Thank you, Judy!

Do you have a talisman that inspires you and sparks your creativity?
Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz

Postcard Swap

Judy and I swapped a postcard not long ago, and we had so much fun, we decided to do it again!

I found this in my mailbox!

      Judy told me she'd been working on a 'Faces' theme. Now, who would have thought she'd create the face of the sun? How marvelous!


 Isn't this gorgeous? The scanner just can't capture the intensity of colour nor the sparkle of the beads she used to create this. There are fabric pieces, machine embroidery, decorative threads, organza, and tulle all woven together. I love it, Judy! Thank you so much!

Judy's theme was "Faces", but she said I could do anything I wished. I thought about it. Should I do something safe? Faces are not my forte, so I knew it would be a challenge. I decided to go for it! (After all, I reasoned, if it didn't work out, I could always scrap it and do something else, couldn't I? Who would know?)Here's what I sent her:  

I started with a found piece of fabric, which I think might be polished cotton, and sketched the head, painting it onto the fabric using small brushes and watercolour crayons. At first, the paint kept dispersing and disappearing into the fabric, but once I decreased the amount of water, it seemed to work better.
I created an off-the-shoulder dress from some of my Birthday fabric, tatted her jewelery, and styled her eyelash yarn hair. Isn't she cute?

While there are many flaws in her creation, I am still rather pleased with the over-all effect...sort of a stylized  pixie look perhaps.

 

I hope you find some lovely surprises in your mailbox.

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs from Suz