Art Spirals

Isn't the start of a new project invigorating?  I just LOVE it...so much so that I often don't finish a project just to hook into the excitement of a new one.

 

I had this heavy foamcore/cardboard shape from a collection of bath gels, dyed cotton batting and had fun with my embellisher.

 

 

And here's the first "paint" and the sideview.  Click on the photos for a more detailed view.

From The Mommy Glove-- Finished June 2008 -- prize winner October 2009!!

The Mommy Glove won the Lelaroy Williams prize in the Arts International show, sponsored by the El Paso Art Association, in October 2009.  And it came with real money! Imagine! Yes, that's me with an artistically draped double splint covering my broken wrist. 

Here's a closeup of the case with the mirror back.

I've blogged about this before. Items had to be for sale to be included in the show, so I decided to put a price of $16000 on the glove, so that it wouldn't sell.  I definitely want to keep it!   Click on the picasa album address to see pics of the glove in progress.

I made a fabric cone for Wendy's birthday this year.  My aim was to pack as much glorious summer color in it and whimsy and fun, to brighten up the (occasional) day of gloomy weather in England.  I think it turned out cool.

The curly thing hanging in front of the back is the fringe edge I had to trim away to make it a fringe.  It just curled up so cute, I had to put it on.  I’ve been wanting to use those vintage paper flowers for the longest time too, and I think pom pom fringe is just plain old fun!

 

Another friend called it a "clown in a box".  That's fitting.

 

 

 

There are more wallpockets to see too.

These beauties appeared on the surface of our little pond today.  These plants (water hyacinths) didn't bloom at all last year, in fact they suffered through the year, we believe trying to survive the hot desert sun.  My DH built a lovely sail shade for the pond this year and we're keeping up on enzymes and the like, and fish, plants, and humans are liking it better.  The pic below was taken in early June.  The plants have grown a bunch since then.

View of both blooms and both fish. 

Today my Mother in Law and I went on a tour of five cactus gardens, hosted by the local rock garden/cactus club. Several of them were phenomenal, including the one in Kern Place. When we pulled up to the house, I realized I had sketched the house in the past several months, and happened to have that sketchbook along with me. I haven't had as much sketch time recently, so it's still in my car, waiting to be filled up!

So I took it over to show the owner. What a neat thing! It made our garden tour more special, and I got to see that inside the garden gate is even more lovely than outside it! So I don't believe I shared this with you all, and since I scanned it to email her, I'll post it here:

From Drawing 2008

Inside her garden she also has a dead fruit tree -- but hers is upright and used to hang baskets of flowers and garden art on. Ours is upside down in one of the gardens and I use it to train up Lady Banks' rose vine with an orange bells bush inside the teepee of its branches.

Last week I got a partially constructed victorian balsa wood dollhouse at a garage sale -- for free! The folks were so frustrated with it, they wanted it off their hands. So the girls and I glued it together last Sat night...we had a blast, and this weekend, they and I (well, mostly they!) painted it. And here it is in all its glory!

From Kids' Art

From Kids' Art