Madame Butterfly and snake bites

This week brought an unexpected adventure. Our cat, Tux, was bitten by a snake, presumably a copperhead, the ubiquitous poisonous snake that plagues the South. Rest assured, he has recovered now and is back to his rambunctious self. And he has forgiven me for quarantining him for a week. All is well here. 

Tux the Brave

The role of caretaker is one I take (too?) seriously, so art time suffered a bit. But I did manage to complete three more spreads in my Madam Butterfly mixed media journal. (To keep him calm, I spent a lot of time with Tux, resting on the bed and reading The Grapes of Wrath, sometimes aloud! No regrets.)

The mermaid page. 

Lar has been away this week, so there is a travel theme happening.

It ties in with Pinkerton, the naval lieutenant in Madame Butterfly.

The letter from Pinkerton page

No personal connection here!

Madam Butterfly believes that Pinkerton is faithful and true.

Sharpless, his envoi, has no luck convincing her otherwise.

And what an adventure!

I connected this with an upcoming getaway that Lar and I have planned.

I hope it ends better than Madame Butterfly's.

I've been playing with ModPodge as a resist.

I love the background: resist and Lindy's Magical pigments.

I started drawing chrysanthemums and later remembered that,

in French, Madame Butterfly is "Madame Chrysantheme".

The map reminded me of the wiggles in the flowers,

and fit in with the travel theme.

I'll be off for an adventure of my own for a couple weeks. Until then, enjoy your adventures.

Art JournalS

I love finding new techniques for making journals. Here's a new one. There are 8 pocket pages, of which 4 have file folder tabs. This was from a kit from Pink Monarch. I learned how to use book binding tape--so exciting! It's about the size of a deck of cards, so I can fill the pockets with Artists' Trading Cards.

I made two birthday cards this weekend.

Our local little free art gallery was getting hungry, so I made these mini collages that are also paper clips and dropped them off.

The long weekend gave me a chance to organize my desk and supplies. Ahhh.

Back to work yesterday, I reached for my mini file folder journal, Madam Butterfly.

"Do it now! Today will be yesterday tomorrow."

This angry Madam Butterfly makes me laugh.

I remember when I used to listen to opera on my commute

home from work. Whatever challenges I had faced during the day

paled when I listened to the melodrama! And the characters were

singing about it!!! Sometimes I would try to sing about the "melodrama" in my life. 

That really made me laugh!

 

Mini File Folder Art Journal

In my junk journaling journey, I've discovered mini file folders. Think file folder for 3 x 5 index cards. After watching some tutorials this week, I embarked on making them into a new art journal. They allow me to pursue the junk journal techniques I'm learning--making pockets, "belly bands", tucks, tags, tabs, collages, etc.--and to use my own art rather than the pre-made kits. This journal began with some printed mini file folders from The Graphics Fairy. The theme is Madam Butterfly. There are 5 folders, so 20 pages.  (I love the feel of this journal in my hands. It has a high holdability score!)

NB: Some people wonder what you do with these little journals. I wonder, too, sometimes. I have different handmade journals from years past. They sit together in a cubby of my dad's--now my writing desk. Sometimes I take them out and enjoy seeing what I've done. I don't have a lot of wall space, and don't like a lot of clutter. These little journals feel manageable and organized.

Here are the first 5 pages. 

2 pockets with one collage card in the larger one.

A collage pocket with a journal page tucked inside

A collage pocket with a collage and Zentangle card inside

My art work before the collage and distressing

Zentangle and collage card that flips open

Zentangle background

Collage card and belly band

One last picture of some 3D mini folders I made this week to stash some collage elements on my desk. They fit nicely into a repurposed decorated cracker box.

Happy and joyful creating!

A mixed bag

A little mixed media, a bit of Zentangle, a touch of origami.

Here's what happened:

"For absent mothers. For absent children."

The cover of my "Sistars" photo book, from CZT AE2023.

This lesson was by Lisa Hoesing, CZT.

A photo page from the "Sistars" photo album.

The squares behind the envelopes are a 1-inch grid. These are for collage pieces. Or tiny letters!

 

Fits and Starts

Monday was Art Day! A day of play, exploring, learning, trying and failing and trying again! I like to have a day every week for this, but it doesn't often happen. Honestly, I get caught up in producing something I can use here, even it's not something I love. Monday I spent several hours messing around. I wanted to try the embossing ink as a resist. I came to the conclusion that I am resistant to resists! (Embossing ink on paper is supposed to resist any water based color.) Sigh. I had several 3 x 4 inch pieces of heavy cardstock, so I decided to just keep trying different techniques. I drew, stenciled and stamped with the stuff, with disappointing results. But my goal was to try new things, so I succeeded! Here's one piece I managed to use for a collage:

Here's another, in a larger format. The embossing doesn't really show.

4x6 inches

This piece was inspired by a Mother's Day card tutorial on The Graphics Fairy.

When you need to rest

This week has been teaching me to rest and listen to my body, so I don't have a lot to show. 

"Ankh: The Key of Life", a CZT AE lesson by Rashmi Agarwal, CZT, had me drawing on vellum again. I created a papyrus-like texture on the "back" of the tile and added the ankh symbol on the front.

Gelly rolls and pastel pencils on the back

Microns on the front

Can you see the additional blue I added on the back?

It represents the Nile. The egg represents birth/life and the arms represent

the earth, with papyrus and the blue lotus flower.

I recently purchased some lovely papers from Pink Monarch Prints. They inspired this mixed media art journal page, which had my head spinning. I lost my sense of up and down! When I caught my upside down text, I covered it with an arrow pattern called Schway (as in "which way?"). I had to put it aside before I could finish it. I like the text on top.

Everytime I looked at, I heard Maria saying, "There's no

up or down in Zentangle!" Grateful for this tenet of the Zentangle Method!

Art Journal: 3D!

If you've been following the blog for a while, you have heard me mention CZT (Certified Zentangle Teacher) AE (Artifex Editio, or Master Class) 2023. This online class from 7F5R Studio in Singapore includes 27 classes from CZTs all over the world. Once purchased, it is available for 1 year. My year is about 2/3 up! So I've been working to move along through the curriculum, since I would hate to lose any of its great opportunities. 

This week, both classes involved 3D projects. The first, "12 Faces",  by Nina Dreher-Goddertz, resulted in a dodecahedron, from a single sheet of cardstock. (I used a lovely textured pink digital collage sheet,)

Step 1: Print the template. Cut, fold and crease.

Step 2: Draw. I used a Micron 05 in "brown", which is more of a maroon. I inked the edges with distress ink.

Step 3: Shade and highlight. I added color with a pastel pencil.

Step 4: Fold and glue. (No picture, since I had glue all over my fingers!)

Step 5: Appreciate!

My second project was "Graceful Grays", by Tomomi Galeano. I decided to go rogue a little on this one. The Kousa dogwood in my garden is in full bloom. This tree reminds me of Connecticut, where it grows profusely. They are not very common here in North Carolina, where the common dogwood with rounded petals grows wild, so I have spent some time every day admiring it. It became the inspiration for the floral "bouquet" in the center of my tile.

Step 1: Draw the centerpiece, using black and gray pens.

Steps 3 and 4: Tangle the border. Shade.

Step 5: Create a 3D blossom on vellum. Step 6: Cut it out and soak it in water for 1-2 minutes to make it curl up.

Step Seven: Apply it to the tile.

Definitely different this week!

Thanks for stopping by, and thanks to Nina Dreher-Goddertz and Tomomi Galeano for these wonderful classes!