Some Older Paintings

Today I thought I would share more of my older artwork. This week it’s some older paintings from between 1989 and 2001. I don’t have any of these paintings now but I have always tried to take photos of all of my work over the years.

I lived in Florida for these first paintings. I moved to Florida in 1988 and painted these first four purple pieces in 1989. There were probably seven or eight paintings and I called them the Amethyst Series. These were done in acrylic on 16x20 stretched canvases.

The first shows a traveler resting while walking on a road on a distant planet.

The second is called Druid’s Moon.

The third and fourth were just called Amethyst 3 and Amethyst 4. I love painting landscapes and my many years of reading science fiction and science fantasy definitely had a lot of influence in painting these.

The next pair of paintings were inspired after seeing the movie Total Recall. They are supposed to be Mars landscapes. I painted at least two more in this series but don’t have photos handy.

In 1994 I moved from Florida to Sedona, AZ and the dragon was painted late in 1994. It was done in acrylic on a 24x36” stretched canvas. I hand built a frame for this one. I love dragons and this was based on some of my drawings. (I have probably two or three dozen dragon drawings.)

These last two paintings were done in oil on gallery wrap canvas. I painted them when I was creating my new age store in Sedona.

The first was on a 9x12 canvas of Archangel Michael.  I sold it at a convention.

The second painting was done in 2001 on a 16x20 canvas and was inspired by my colored pencil sketch done in 1993. The original drawing was called Teacher and was a spirit drawing. The painting was called Wise One.

The most interesting thing about the drawing and then the painting is that they looked just like the man I met in 2002 in Sedona who I married in 2003. He is a Reiki Master Teacher, shaman, and spiritual counselor.

 I have found that my artwork changes when my life changes. Each move from one location to another and each life event has had an effect on what I do. Plus age has influence my work. The cowboy drawings were done when I was in my early thirties. The mask paintings were done in1992 when I was 41. The Archangel and Wise One were painted in 2001 when I was 50.

This year I turned 65, became a great grandma, and moved to a new location. Change is inevitable and it is usually best to embrace it and see where the flow of life takes you.

I look forward to see where I am going next with my art and creative endeavors.

I hope you have a wonderful week.

Terri

1KrazyRtist

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Altered Tin Robot

I get emails from Pinterest with new and interesting posts each week. I was looking at a recent one that included some recycled projects. It had some really cute robots made from tins and other found objects. It inspired this project.

I have had a greeting card tin for over a year just waiting for the right project. I found it in this robot idea. Now I have done robots before so this just sounded fun.

I gathered a bunch of items from my craft stash and laid them all out on the table.

I began by choosing an old clock for the head. The hands still move on it. The tabs on the bottom were perfect for attaching it. I drilled holes in the tin and put bolts through to secure the head. The long bolts let me attach the computer parts that my arm wires hooked to.

I had bought a mini sewing machine at a yard sale that included a whole bunch of mini spools of thread. I used these on the arm wires and added a heavy computer ring on the wire end for the hands.

I spent quite a bit of time thinking about how to attach legs to the tin. I finally figured out that if I drilled holes in the tin and used screws I could attach the wooden spools. Then I put a dowel inside the spools to glue the lower ones securely. I felt that the extra wood inside with the glue would hold better than just gluing the spools together.

My next dilemma was to find a way to attach items to the inside. The slick tin was not going to hold the glue too well. My plan was to make this robot so he could stand outside on the patio. Since I live in Arizona the weather ranges from 112 degrees to 20 degrees. So either extreme might compromise even the E6000 glue if it was on the metal.

I decided to drill holes along the edge of the back and run wire up and down plus back and forth. That way I could use wire to hold most things and the weather would not bother anything.

I slipped a couple things behind the wire and then began adding items using wire to attach them.






I kept adding until I felt it was full and would look right. I added the little ceramic dog for interest. It was glued using E6000 onto the little spool that is covered with foil.

The heart is polymer clay and miscellaneous watch and metal parts. I made it a few years ago as a necklace (along with a bunch more) but decided this was a good use for it.

Everything has been wired in so it won’t slip or fall out. I even ran some wires through the holes to be able to position parts in the right places.

I felt that the clock seemed a little small. So I used red and black wire to add crazy hair to make the head bigger.

I drilled holes in the sides of the lid and the tin and screwed the lid on so it wouldn’t fall off from the weather.

I thought this was a fun project, but it took me two days to complete. I am thinking that a small tin would be quicker and require fewer parts to make. This robot stands over 12 inches tall. It was a large project, but it looks cool in the yard with my wire wrap bugs.

Til next week.

Terri

1KrazyRtist

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Small Denim Jeans Bag

Yep, it’s late again. I really do have Tuesdays in mind for posting this blog when working on my projects. But right now my internet connection is not great and most days I cannot get on the net at all. But here is my latest project.

In the last couple of weeks I have made a couple of tote bags, one for my Etsy shop and one as a gift. I had bought some fabric that turned out to be stamped that it could not be used for commercial purposes. So I used it to make a gift. But I found some great horse fabric that was perfect for products for my Etsy shop. (living in Wickenburg, AZ is definitely influencing my ideas for projects).

Today I am sharing a small bag I made that was inspired by some nice little bags I saw in a gift shop last Saturday, while attending a festival here in Wickenburg.

 

I started with a pair of old jeans, cutting off the top and cutting them apart at the seams. Then I took the part of the back leg with the pocket, folded it to get the bag size, then cut it off. I measured it to make sure things were even all around. 

I got crazy and made it wider at the bottom, but you could just cut it square and longer or shorter, or even smaller without the pocket.

I used the piece I had cut as the pattern to cut out my lining fabric.

Then I cut a piece of fabric with horses on it and pinned it to the bag on the opposite side from the pocket. This would be the front of the bag. The pocket would be the back (and would be perfect for holding a phone or business cards).

I cut some one inch brown grosgrain ribbon and put one piece across the bottom of the fabric right where it would fold. The ribbon will show on the side where the pocket is. I then framed the fabric on the sides with the ribbon.

A pocket was created for inside by cutting a piece of fabric and a lining and sewing them right sides together. The sides and bottom of the pocket were sewn and then a strip of fabric was sewn to the top and folded over for a nice clean finish. The top edge was sewn to a piece of ribbon. Then the piece was sewn to the bag lining. The sides and bottom of the pocket were sewn and then the ribbon ends were sewn down. The ribbon runs across the entire side of the bag.

The lining was inserted into the outer bag and pinned together with safety pins. This is a quilting tip. The safety pins are great in place of regular straight pins, because you have no chance of getting stabbed and they won’t slip when you are moving the fabric around.

Strips of fabric were sewn onto the top edges of the lining and the denim bag to create a nice finish. The edges will be sewn together after the strap is made. 

A strap was made from a long strip of the fabric I used for the top edge of the bag, and a strip of denim from one leg of the jeans. I had to sew two pieces together to get the length I wanted so I did it with the standard technique, on the bias. 

I pinned the front and back of the strap together, folding the edges. I decided not to do the normal right sides together sewing and then turning it right side out. The denim is so stiff that it would have been too hard to do it that way.

 

The strap is pinned in between the bag and lining so it is sewn right into the bag and very secure. That also makes it so that you don’t have to make finished ends on the strap. The strap could be finished on the ends and sewn to the outside of the bag if desired.

 I wanted a bag that could be worn across the body. The strap could be made from many things, even braided fabrics. The strap was sewn onto the bag so that one end was on the front and one on the back.

 

To finish the bag on the outside I added a large button, glass beads and a piece of lace to make it more decorative and fun.

Using old jeans to make little handbags is fun. You can make them without lining if you want. The only thing to remember when using denim is that is ravels easily. So it is always good to stitch closely along all cut edges before sewing the bag together so it won’t start unraveling later. The stitching doesn’t show when the bag is finished.

Denim is a thick fabric and is sometimes difficult to sew along seams where the fabric is stacked. Try to flatten seams, trim and offset seams when possible. Even my machine, which is supposed to sew up to seven layers of denim, has a hard time sewing over a spot where I have two seams matched up.

When considering what fabrics to use to make tote bags, handbags and other things, look to old clothes. I have some really great bags made from men’s western style dress shirts. Thrift stores are a great place to find clothing to use for sewing projects, at a really great price. Look for shirts, long skirts, robes, and of course old jeans in a variety of colors. Think outside the box on this type of project.

This bag will be going into the Etsy shop this morning.

Til next time

Terri

1KrazyRtist

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