Update

Right. So I suck at journaling. I've known that. I have been keeping up at finishing projects though. Who knew?

Here are some of the ones I've done over the last few months.





I really found I love wheel pottery. Trying to find a place to do it near by.



Look! My first finished shirt. There are some things I'd change, but overall I'm really happy with how it turned out. Plus, I learned to block!



Alas, this one looks cuter on. It's a lace shrug I did for Kiery's birthday. Love how it turned out. I may need to make more of these.



I made a pincushion out of felted sweaters! It even has a band so I can wear it around my wrist as I work. So happy with it!





This is an art journal I made out of entirely recycled pieces: felted sweater, homemade batik, magazine pages, old napkins, stamps and fibers.


I'll try to take more pictures of my projects and get back to posting them.

9 & 10/52

I know it's been awhile since I've posted. I've been finishing objects, I just haven't really taken pictures and sat down at the computer to post. So I'm doing that now.

For 9 I made a set of loop stitch markers. I kept getting frustrated with the hook ones I bought as they would slide off the yarn. Rather than buying another set I decided to make my own using earring wire and some beads I had on hand.



I also completed a spread in my altered book of plays. Mostly i was playing around with effects and pieces I had on hand to see what happened.



For week 10 I made another headband. You may be seeing a lot of these. I love the color of this yarn and its a great way to try out new stitches with a project you can finish in a few hours.



Look! I even have a picture of me wearing it!





I'll post stuff for this week tomorrow!

8/52

I know I'm a little late posting this week. Friday and Saturday I was working an overnight and all day long event with the youth group. It was both lots of fun and very exhausting. So my post is a day late, but I have three finished objects!

The first two are a pair of bracelets I made for my sister in law that go in the mail Monday. Cloisonne and seed beads.



And closeups in which I am playing with the macro function on the shiny camera!





And a cabled headband that I have finished the knitting on. I'm toying with the idea of doing an alternate closure on it. If I end up doing that I may even include a post with it on! Wonders will never cease.

7/52

Another shrine this week. Started with an altoid tin and covered it with gesso. Then painted it and added copper pen.

The keyhole piece on the front is built with several layers of cardboard.


And the inside.




I like how it turned out but closing it and opening it can make it stick. I need to figure out a better way to deal with that in future shrines.

6/52

I've been knitting this since early December, and I finally finished the Quinn bag. Really really happy with how it turned out.


And a detail shot.

5/52

Finally finished the love assemblage shrine for swap-bot. At least I think I finished. Let's be honest. I'm going to fuss with it until I finally stick it in the mail and in the efforts of not driving myself insane I'm going to say I'm done.

The base was a cheap plastic clock that I tore apart, covered the outside with molding paste and gessoed everything else. The center heart is an ornament that I covered with written paper.






And then there's the back of the shrine. I'm trying to do something with the fact that love seems pretty on the surface but its really a complicated messy alchemy. Hence the bottles filled with beads in glitter. If you only get the right mix... I think my favorite part is the spilled bottle on the bottom.

4/52

I actually finished these early last week, but my folks were in town so I didn't get photographs taken and put up until today.

First I finished a page in my altered book. It's a hardback tome of plays from Marlowe. I liked the picture I worked with last week so much that I decided to use a larger one to highlight this first page. Text highlighted below.







Next I did a couple of greeting cards. Simple for the most part, though I had a lot of fun creating the diagonal stripes on the one with strips of paper.

3/52

This was actually a frustrating week to complete something, despite my having a lot of time to work. Most of my crafting time as of late is put towards knitting my Quinn bag, but it is a lot of knitting and still only a third completed. Hopefully I'll have it as my completed piece coming up here.

The project I was going to use this week is a surrealist piece I did during my independent study art class. However on the drive home, a can of racquetballs rolled over the piece and managed to turn it into an unflattering mess. I was not pleased as it is by far my favorite piece that I have done thus far.

So instead I offer up an ATC. It's for the Night Court series on Swapbot, this is House Eglantine.



Materials used: Printout,watercolor pencils, water pen, tissue paper, modge podge, gold pen, gold charm, several ribbon fibers.

2/52

Dave gave me a skein of gorgeous hand-dyed worsted wool for Christmas. I wanted to use a simple pattern to show off the colors so I modified the Easy Lace Stashbuster Scarf by Donna MacLean.

I love the way to colors move back and forth across the pattern






I also worked on expanding the shrine I made last week and my sweater. Pictures to follow soon I'm sure!

Project 1/52

This one is actually a project I was doing for Swap Bot. It's an Assembalage Shrine using the themes of love/rocks/plants/gardens. So I used a skinny cow cheese container as my base and made kind of a hidden garden. Pictures below =)

Finishing Projects

That's my goal for this year: to finish one creative endeavor a week. I have a number of projects started and a few more half completed, but I'd like to start finishing things. That doesn't mean that every week I'll finish a big project, but by the end of the year I'd like to have finished 52 pieces of art.