ad libitum

CAT IN THE SINK

When I was visiting my older daughter last winter, I took some photos of her cat, Mo. Mo likes to sit in sinks and bathtubs.

TEXTURES AND MORE TEXTURES

It's Nancy's Texture Tuesday again. I have been busy traveling lately: after my trip to California, I took a road trip to New Jersey (to see Judy and Howie) and Connecticut (to see Sal and Eric) and I am just beginning to get back into art and out of piles of laundry and annoying daily life tasks. Nancy's testure challenge came at just the right time.

While I was visiting Judy, she took me shopping in Manhattan. I did more shopping than photographing (I bought jewelry findings, buttons, beads and ribbons); but I did manage to take some pictures.

Below is a picture of the street signs.

I cropped the photo and played with filters and levels and blending modes.

I added a bit of street grunge with Nancy's texture.

Below is a picture I took near the New York Public Library.

I played with it and added a couple of Nancy's textures.

Below, I added a film strip mask.

Of course, I had to take pictures of Macy's windows.

I then played with levels.

And then I added Nancy's texture to put in some city grunge.

Back in Jew Jersey, I took some photos of some of the decorative objects in Judy's studio.

More playing with levels and adding text...

The addition of Nancy's texts:

More playing with levels and adding a mask:

Here's a photo of a great vintage head Judy owns (can you feel the coveting?)

I cropped and played with levels.

And, then I added text, one of Nancy's textures as a background, and another of her textures across the face

Here's the photo I took of another of Judy's treasures.

And, here it is with Nancy's texture.

ALTERING CLOTHES IN CALIFORNIA

Late sunday night, I got back from an incredibly wonderful week in California. Fran Saperstein and I had a private workshop on altering clothes with Lorri Scott in her fantastic studio in Los Gatos.

Lorri has a great studio in a beautiful location.

Here's the view from the walk to the studio:

Lorri's studio is full of treasures:

Here's a photo of Lorri and Fran discussing Fran's dress (made from a top and doilies, laces and a tablecloth:

Here is Fran in her dress:

Sadly, I don't have a photo of the fabulous top Fran made from a t-shirt and trim.

I made a duster out of an old top that I bought years ago for my trip to Egypt (it's made of linen, good for hot weather, but it was very unstylish - basically a lightweight Nehru jacket). I forgot to take a before photo, but here are photos of the front,  back and the side. I added laces and doilies and my buttons.

Fran found a top in my size for a dollar and bought it for me (it had a rip and a random ink mark). It fit and under Lorri's tutelage, I transformed it into something that I will wear often. I added doilies, lace a handkerchief pocket and my buttons for trim.

Not only did we have delightful and productive times in the studio, we shopped and ate well and drove along the beautiful California coast.

Now it's time to catch up with life at home and to get ready for the next trip.

NANCY'S TEXTURE TUESDAY IS HERE

More playing with Nancy Donaldson's textures.

For this one, I started with a scan of a Cabinet Card from my private collection.

 

I had previously jazzed up the photo a little bit (back when I thought I could sell some of my images).

I added Nancy's cemetery#1 texture to this.

Below is a photo I took in a store window in New Orleans last year.

 

Here's the photo altered by a mask and another of Nancy's cemetery textures.

 

Below is a photo taken in 2011 in Cinque Terre, Italy:

Below is the photo with higher saturation, a mask and a cemetery texture from Nancy:

PURSES

It's time to make a new purse. I'm beginning to get to the point where I feel like I know what I'm doing with purse making (I don't use a pattern, I do guerilla purse making). I decided I wanted a rich jewel color purse this spring; so I dug into my fabric stash and made a mermaid/fairy purse.

A couple of years ago, I made a book bag. It just never seemed to be a practical book bad. I decided it would be a better purse than a book back, so I made a few modifications and now I have a new old purse.

 

 

TIME FOR MORE BUTTONS

I have a lot (A LOT) of polymer buttons. So, you would think that when I want a button, all I would have to do is dig into one of the various containers of buttons that I have. But, you'd be wrong. I need some shirt buttons (smaller than I usually make) and I want them to look vintage and antique-y. So, I spent last Tuesday and Wednesday making more buttons (after I made the small buttons, I added some medium sized ones, because I never know when I'll want some of those.

 

Here's a photo of my latest gaggle of buttons:

HOW I SPENT YESTERDAY

I have a To Do list that is a mile long. I totally ignored it and made another embroidery piece yesterday (with a short break for mailing in tax extension forms and checks; but we won't dwell on that).

 

VARIATIONS ON A WEEPING CHERRY

A couple of weeks ago, when it was unusually warm, my weeping cherry tree bloomed. I took this photo on a rainy morning.

I played with levels in Photoshop:

Then I played with some textures (let go and organic) by Kim Klassen. I played with blending modes (mostly darken and multiply) to get the following results.

PAINT SKETCH PLAY

Notice the new button on my sidebar. It will take you to Love to Photoshop, where you can sign up for a class from Marie Otero, a most wonderful online Photoshop teacher. Marie is teaching a new class titled Paint Sketch Play. I'm really looking forward to this class. And, I really recommend any class from Marie.

EARRINGS

Last month, my friend Britt had a jewelry party where six of us gathered and made jewelry. I soldered some jump rings and made some earrings. The pictures of the earrings have been sitting ibn my camera for two and a half weeks. Here they are (for your viewing pleasure).