This was a gift for a friend.. felt great to get back in the creative mood after work has been so hectic lately. All of the pieces used are recycled from thrift and antique stores or given to me from other friends. Still hiccuping on what this type of art is supposed to be categorized as? For now I’ll call it altered art but I think it has some elements of assemblage and mixed media collage, too. Whatever the propery category for it, I have such a great time making them!

Old frame from thrift store, page from the fishing supply section of a 1900’s Sears catalog, word rolls created from a book of poems by Robert Frost (my fave), turn-key spring from a rusted sardine can that Carol found out in the desert (thank you!), wooden girl holding seashell figurine from a local thrift store, red wooden disk from a vintage stacking bottlecap game I found at the antique store. Lots of glue.

I’ve added a vintage photograph below my preview that you can download. You can use it in your art but not to be added to any collection of photos for sale or sold online as I have the original. Have fun, let me know what you create I’d love to see it!

Click for full-size image

For those of you who like recycled art, altered art, mixed media collage using found treasures, etc etc AND for those of us that get to experience all of the strange questions (”what kind of art is THAT?”… blank stares and “oh my” facial expressions from friends and relatives – my mom actually sent me email saying “it’s so original” on one of my best pieces… ouch!) here’s a one-up for us. I’ll count this article as a proverbial feather in my cap so to speak…. altered art, recycled art, found treasures and every other catch phrase that’s been thrown around to describe exactly what kind of art we’re trying to do is being celebrated everywhere. Take a look at some of these pieces of art by very famous artists, and yes they ARE very good! So excited to see so many people taking part of something so fun to do. I think I’ll pass this article on to mom, too <g>

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/12/non-trashy-recycled-and-trash-art/

Sheesh can’t believe its been so long since I posted. I’ve been busy with work and the holidays like most people, unfortunately art has taken a back seat. This is my latest creation… made with a lot of different elements which I always love to do. I couldn’t get the “smiles” the way I had them in my mind… maybe when I have some better techniques under my belt I’ll be able to pull it off, but for now I opted to create an X over their lips to convey the same feeling. The next time I make this they will have huge Cheshire-cat smiles that at the same time, don’t look goofy. How I’ll manage that I have no clue! Have an excellent day, RS

On the back, there’s a quote that says “they always seemed to wear painted on smiles”

I was lucky enough to read an article on Martha’s blog where she shared a video on painting knives. This is a must see for anyone interested in creating Mixed Media art on canvas.(That’s on my to-do list.. maybe you’ll be surprised to see a finished canvas uploaded to my blog one day!)

I tore it up and redesigned the frame for my mixed media collage. This was a lot of work but I’m satisfied with how it came out. I’ll be submitting this and a few of my other past altered art projects to be juried into the crafters guild on Tuesday night. Crossing my fingers and toes!

(Click for full size view)

On Saturday I was invited to go on a treasure hunt to a rummage sale and craft fair with Cathy. She always great company and we had a lot of fun poking into all the nooks and cranny’s we came across. First stop was the rummage sale, bah! It was postponed until next week. So whats the next best thing but to hit up the quilting shop and then an antique store? I purchased some neat vintage thimbles (or what looks like antique, hard to tell with all the distressing techniques that people use, lol) and a few placards of black snaps. I also got a neat silver bangle/charm bracelet thing (six bucks!) a silver ring, two Halloween themed kitchen towels and a rubber-band and bead bookmark thing. Fun fun! We ended the day with a trip to Cathy’s house to meet her bird (seems my lack of remembering names crosses over into pets as well) and her well-stocked studio. Hope we get to do this again, really a great time all around.

On the 27th I’ll be going to the crafter’s guild to see about becoming a member. To do that I’ll need to bring in samples of my altered art. Since I’ve spent the past year learning techniques and also trying to get a community started for altered artists in Las Vegas, I haven’t made too much to show off. I have an idea of what to bring… and yesterday I created one additional piece that they can look at so they can see what direction I want to lean toward in the future. I love creating collage in 3d bases such as frames, shrines, wooden blocks, boxes… etc. Anyway this is my latest creation… just coming out of a two month hiatus and glad to be creating again.

I think the inside composition (made with polymer clay!) and the wire thing across the middle looks way better than the frame… I’ve really got to think of something that looks more polished.

Altered Art Collage - "You Become Me" by Robin Schar

Altered Art - "You Become Me" (closeup) by Robin Schar

I visited with the ladies of the Las Vegas Crafters Guild today and finally made some art! Remember the Halloween finger-bone necklace tutorial I shared with you a while back? Well I finally got a chance to make it this morning and it was extremely easy to do. Here are my results… only hint I can offer to anyone else is to remember that bones are white, not beige like skin. What was I thinking, lol!? No wonder Cathy kept suggesting I add more white to the mix, roflol! I didn’t realize my error until they were baked but truly… I am very happy with how these came out and will definitely be making more. Bev was kind enough to let me know about Primo clay… and true to her word Primo baked up much harder than Sculpey did. The trade off is that the Primo takes more muscle to blend than the softer clays but for my uses (making accents for altered art and assemblages) polymer clay is perfect. Thanks again to Marie Segal of “Art from my Heart” blog for her tutorial… this was too much fun to create.

This is after “squishing” in my hands, before baking them

This is after baking and a little smidgin’ of acrylic in burnt umber

I didn’t make any art this month, couldn’t “get in the mood” for the life of me! I did have a swap I had committed to though and I used my day at Las Vegas Altered Art to finish 20 Halloween themed ATC’s I had been working on. It’s called a tombstone swap, 20 people joined in so we’ll each contribute 20 ATC’s each and in turn, we each get a return of a cute ATC book… 20 pages total, one from each of us. If you ever have the chance to join in on a group swap like that I do suggest it, making them was heck of a lot of fun even though my “art” mood was way out in left field somewhere.

The Las Vegas Crafters Guild is hosting a craft fair on Oct 2nd and Oct 3rd, featuring wares from many talented Las Vegas artisans. Some of the crafts include Stained Glass, Fine Handcrafted Jewelry, Painted Gourds, Quilted & Fabric Crafts, Crocheted & Knitted Items, Ceramics, Decorative Painting, Polymer Clay Sculptures, Hair Bows, Scrapbooking & Paper Crafts & More! Check out their flyer for more information here: http://files.meetup.com/1386442/GuildCraftFair.pdf

This afternoon I was dancing on daisies since we had some leftover pizza to give the kids for dinner it left me hours to do art! All good intentions aside, after nearly 5 hours trying to get my supplies together it looks like art is going to happen on another day after all. The good news is that I finally got some of my vintage photos scanned and I wanted to share them with you. I’ll be using the blond girl or the lady with the egg for a fabric collage, not sure which yet. The green stamps sheet was used as a bookmark in an old book at the antique store (I don’t think they knew it was in there, I keep secrets really well too! lol) and the photo of the baby in the chair came from an old flea market when we were visiting Branson, MO this past spring break. Can’t say much for Branson, but they do have some neat antique stores. Beware the tourist-y towns that have a lot of antique stores though, I had purchased some tin-type images that turned out to be fakes. They just dress people up to look like its vintage but in actuality they are unsold soveniers from the photo place that takes “old-tyme” photographs to tourists. Whatever they don’t sell gets purchased by someone that has a spot in the antique store, which misrepresents the tin-type look a like’s as the real thing. I still like them, but wish the seller had been more honest. Here’s your free collage sheet… they have been digitally enhanced by me. If you would like the actual scan instead just leave a comment with your email address or a link to your blog. Click the preview for full size download. Enjoy….

Singles below… and the back of the Lady-Egg postcard which is interesting.

Have you noticed that some things cross the line between altered art, mixed media and even the category’s listed under them? This started out as an Altered Shrine… but since its so flat I’m guessing it’s not really a shrine but instead a mixed media piece… but then again it uses 3d elements, so it must be a shrine? Ha-ha, who knows… I just like how it came out! We had a great time at the art party yesterday and I’m so glad to see the group blossoming as it is. Looking at the first year anniversary (I started the group in November) time passes so fast! I’m going to try to think of a special something to do for the members to celebrate  :)  Hope you like my latest creation… I listed the things used to create it… such a trip what people throw away! Going to add this to my etsy store and see if anyone else likes it too. xoxox

Old wood frame, Baby board book, Sewing pattern, Vintage image, Faux pearl beads, Images from old catalog, Old necklace clasp, Vintage key, Woven cotton fabric, Grandfather clock piece, Glass beads, Wire and Acrylic paints.

This week has been interesting! First off the good news that my shrine is completed and it came out better than I expected my first would look like. Have to say I wrote out plans of what I wanted, even drew diagrams of what went where, and also wrote a checklist of step by steps… so I think that helped to get it done quickly. Well, quicker than I thought it would at least!

On Sunday the family was bored so I decided I’d pay the 16 year old $20 to help me move out of my office/art room… then move me back in after I’d cleaned things up a bit. We didn’t finish until.. well most of it is finished.. just a few straggling boxes left in the living room… holy sheesh if I never have to organize more altered art supplies I’ll forever be grateful. The new setup has my work desk with computer at one side of the room (yay! no art stuff to distract me) and a dedicated art area to the other side that isn’t strewn about with work folders. This is truly a winning combination!

Last that happened was on… I think Monday… I contracted a virus from a program I downloaded online. Ick it was a nasty one… two anti-virus programs couldn’t lick it so today I had to wipe the drive and begin again new. Thank God for my portable drive, I remember when having more than one hard drive was unheard of but now I have five! Watch out for any… never mind if you have this virus you know it… but here’s the name: PAV or, Personal Anti Virus. It’s horrid.

Here’s some photos of the shrine… ready to take a trip to the Las Vegas Altered Art group on Saturday. I’ll be making a paper one then… looking forward to that too!

(Click on photo for close up)

Cheers!

I’m working on an Altered Shrine and needed some flourishes for the side made out of polymer clay. Because of the slight bend in the wood, I had to bake the polymer directly on the wood in the oven and this is what happened. I’m not sure if it was the wood varnish already on the wood piece, the polymer clay reacting to the wood, the epoxy resin I used to fix the top arch a few days ago or the acrylic paints I used to touch up the small “dings” here and there but it bubbled up and left a brown tinge to the rest of the polymer clay creations I had baking in the oven at the same time. Whatever it was I couldn’t repeat it if I tried, lol… and it gave the wood a great distressed look to it. Read below for some of the other things I made in Polymer today… so love that stuff!

Here’s the flourishes I made for the sides (funny THEY didn’t turn brown and were baked on the wood itself while everything else did turn brown that I had on the parchent paper, hmmm) a neat leaf and a few round doo-dads I can use on other future projects.

I saw the cutest buttons on another blog website this morning… so wish I had pretty vintage buttons and not all the ugly, plain ones in my collection. So polymer to the rescue… they still have to be painted but with some pearlescent and metallic paints they’ll be a knockout.

I ran some polymer through my paper crinkle hand tool thing and it made some neat textures! The polymer stuck to it like white rice on paper but the effect’s pretty cool. I think I’ll save these for a mixed media canvas I’m thinking about.

I’ve been dying to make atc’s out of polymer so I made a base sized at 2.5 x 3.5 inches. What I do with it I have no idea, but that’s for another day. I also made a few small square pieces to use on other projects and too neat… I ran my sheet of prepared polymer into a “stamp” shape punch-stamp and it worked! The impression came out beautifully. The second one didn’t align to the edges correctly and I only got 1/2 a stamp out of it, but it looks old and torn which is more than perfect.

That’s it for my polymer creations…. have to get back to my Altered Shrine and see what to do next!

I found this artist by accident as I was trying to locate different examples of tryptych shrines. Ok now seriously, I want to grow up and do art just like she’s accomplishing… holy cow its fabulous! Here’s an example and a link to her blog, be prepared to drool

Link: Nora Johnson – Mixed Media Artist

I found Manon’s blog… she has several posts showing how she creates texture on her mixed media canvas pieces. She also shows her blopper videos for all to see.. so nice to see a person willing to show their mistakes! I’ve subscribed to keep up with her… suggest you take a peek too.

Manon Doyle : Mixed Media and Mosiac Artist

A lady-friend of mine taught our local altered art group about polymer clay this past Saturday so I played a bit this morning. It’s so easy and fun to work with! I used Primo brand clay in pearl and ecru, regular metal scrapbooking brads for the eyes, a glass leaf charm for the tail and some champaign glass seed-beads to accent the bottom of the fur. After it baked I removed and re-attached the beads with glue and used some liquid walnut ink to bring out the texture. Fun!

I don’t think I’ll be able to post all of my past stuff but here’s a few of my favorites and a link to my gallery if you want to see them all. So much art, so little time!  :)

My Flickr Galley: http://www.flickr.com/photos/daziladi/sets/72157613713039229/