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CHIRP! it's a birdie mobile!

awhile back i was involved in a swap over at amusing muses for bird shaped chunkies. chunky books, also known as fat books, are typically 4x4 pieces of art with lots of fiber and doodads added to them that are bound together with books rings (or a binding machine if you are lucky enough to have one). i have about 15 books on various themes. what was cool about this project was the shape lent itself to be something other than a book. sure, you could bind them with one ring at the top, but wouldn't something like a mobile be more fun? i thought so!

using an embroidery hoop, vintage seam binding and a hot glue gun i fashioned myself a mobile! the thing is so darn cute. right now it is hanging over my bed, we'll see how long it lasts there!

here is a look at the birds i received in the swap:




and here they are in their new mobile:



roc nicholas was the woman behind this brilliant idea and i asked her if she would mind if i hosted the same kind of swap over at atcsforall.com. the sweet lady said no problem! so come join me in making yummy birds! it's free to join the site and the swap, all i ask is you do your best work. there is a link to the template provided.

carnivals and brothers and fireworks oh my!

my older brother mac headed south from the heat of portland, or to visit me this 4th of july holiday. mac is a psytrance dj and graphic designer--dudes, he was the first person to ever get me high! not that i do that anymore, and neither does he, but it does create a bond, lol. my goal, since mac introduced me to lots of cool shit, was to introduce him to some cool shit. and what's cooler than art, right? actually, mac was even into art before me but he doesnt't do it for pleasure any more--just money. when he got here and after we'd had some eats and taken fun carnie pics i asked him to carve me a stamp. it was love at first sight. our mom was a printmaking major in college and he'd always wanted to try it. i ended the weekend with 4 kickass stamps, one of my online name katilady, and none of which i have taken a pic of. oops. but look for them in my art!

carnie pic:


after a bit mac suggested making a collaborative piece together. he wanted more decorations for some of the parties he throws in portland. we decided on a piece that would incorporate my collage skills with his zany skills, add sparkles and day-glo paint! basically i collaged a big particle board, and then he went jackson pollack over my collage with glow in the dark paint. when that dried we added a layer of gel medium and went impasto with it--carving in designs and imprinting stuff. while wet we added mica flakes. because this project was so involved he had to take it home to be finished. he was going to add charcoal and acrylic washes to it. here is a look at it in progress:



one of the best things about eureka, ca is their 4th of july celebration. a big festival takes over old town with lots of crafty goodness, yummy food and live music. this year i could def see some signs of our economic depression as the number of booths had gone way down. neverthless, it was a fun filled day full of people watching and yummy wares to ogle. here our a couple of my fave finds:

derby girl!


goddess!


and lastly the mug of mac!


i hope everyone has a beautiful week! share with me how you celebrated the 4th!

mother mary/blessed virgin mary swap

about 3 months ago i had the brilliant idea to host this swap and to host it as hand drawn. i am so glad i did. watching the most beautiful cards ever roll into my house has been such a treat. some people have the wildest notions of what mother mary looks like and i love it! although i was raised catholic i am no longer practicing, nor do i even consider myself to be a christian. my spirituality runs more along the lines of earth/goddess based crossed with hinduism, taoism, and buddhism . BUT i still have a thing for the blessed virgin. she was a prominent figure of my childhood and she represents an earthly aspect of jesus. beyond all this, mary art is simply stunning. growing up in arizona there are images of her as the virgen de guadalupe everywhere. so i challenged 30 0ther artists to join me in making art of her and in her honor. what's more, i got my mom, dotsdots on atcsforall.com, to join in. mom is a fabulous artist and she, along with others did not let me down. below you'll find a piece i did for the swap along with one of mom's. the one mom did is based on a photo of her mother, my grandmother. enjoy!

mine:


mom's:

new art

i belong to willowing's world of whimsy (silly name, i know--but she's fun!). i took her online course and added new techniques to my repertoire which is always a plus. there are several other things one can participate in on her website and art trading is one of those things. every month you can be paired up with another person and make them 2 atc's, one is based on a theme (this month was abstracts) and the other is whatever you want to do. my partner this month is a woman named evangeline from canada. i think her art is a lot of fun, so i look forward to seeing what she makes for me. below you'll find what i've made for her. the abstract, entitled 'blue bliss' was initially intended to be just a background, but when it was dry i thought it looked incredibly lovely and didn't want to cover it up. it was made with a collage of ephemera and acrylic pain, with a gold border.



the other card is entitled 'beg' and it is made with my new favorite technique: stamping funny heads and attaching them to bodies that obviously don't match. i always have fun doing this! i then add a word that sometimes makes sense and sometimes doesn't, i'll let you decide on this one!

Japanese Accordian Moleskin Round Robin

Moleskin makes these awesome journals called Japanese Accordion. They are approximately 3.5 x 5.5 and the pages are folded in such a way to look like an accordion. You can pull all the pages out into one long page. Which of course, makes them ideal for mail art.

I am involved in 2 round robins, one over at www.atcsforall.com and one at their sister site www.illustratedatcs.com. The theme of my moley on the AFA swap is 'art as a spiritual journey'. So each person in the swap will get a chance to do a 4 page spread on that theme. In return I will do a 4 page spread on each of their themes, which are: mermaids, home is where the heart is, houses cats or quotes, found poetry, and what makes your heart soar. This book is almost done--just 2 people to go!

On iATC's we are just getting started on our journey. Journals are to be mailed to their 1st destination on August 1. My theme for this book is 'dark goddess'. The other themes are: naughty burlesque, the space between you and me, open theme but with loud bright colors, mondo bizarro, fantasy steampunk airships in the sky, big beautiful rubenesque women & forbidden fruit, and empowered women writers. The challenge for this round robin is I can only create art in the division I was accepted onto iATC's for. Which means I have to keep hand drawn work to a minimum (no more than 30%) and rely solely on collage and mixed media techniques. As you can probably guess this may represent quite a challenge!

The 1st challenge was to get my own 3.5 page spread done to offer inspiration to the next artist. I present it here:



I have a few lasts tasks to make my moley ready to hit the world. I need to create an introduction spread which contains directions regarding my theme as well as a travelogue. The back of the moley contains a pocket in which i am going to enclose handmade envelopes for each artist. Each envie will contain a thank you gift and in return i as that each artist stick a little something back in there for me. Not art necessarily, but possibly a leaf or a pebble from a walk, or a bus ticket or a snippet from the newspaper. I'd also like each person to sign and date their envelope.

I'll keep you posted on how and where my little moley travels to!

Rolo's!

In the mail art world keeping addresses of your trading partners can be quite the hassle. I don't know how many times I have asked the same person for their address. Not too long ago I gave into the rolo fad. What's a rolo you ask? It's a rolodex card (the 3x5 variety) that has been decorated front and back and has your trading partners address on them. A clever and arty way to keep track of addresses. Since I am new to rolo's I only have a handful--but they are gorgeous! Some people have several rolodex's worth! People have even gone so far as decorationg their rolordexes. My rolodex is of the vintage variety, so I am not going to decorate it. The creativity people have shown with both the cards and the holders is flipping amazing! Here are a few cards I have made for other folks:





Here are some awesome rolodexes by folks at www.atcsforall.com:

By BlueEclipse:


By LisaB:


By Adriayna:


By BigKay: