Darkness Inspiration's Monster Challenge

Coffee Monster

Yes, this is what I look like before my morning coffee.  It's an inch and a half tall it's made of white earthenware clay and colored with crayons and black paint.

Check out Darkness Inspiration's Blog!

Frida Kahlo Inspired Self Portrait

Last week The Crafty Chica, Kathy Cano Murillo, challenged her blog readers to paint a Frida Kahlo inspired self portrait to honor the artist on her birthday.  I don't really paint, but I loved the idea.  So, I started with a box of chocolates, which I happily ate.  Then I sketched the portrait to go on the top of the box.  I cut it out, put it on, added colors, inks to age the box and attached some dangly earrings.

Note the uni brow and hint of moustache! Very Fridaesque.  I decided the piece would be about my inner artist, so the inside of the box would have to reflect the joy of creating art!  I love sculpting food!  Especially chocolate and coffee!  I used polymer clay to make the skeleton bits and chocolates.  Of course I had to add jewels and wire work.  Those things bring me joy, as well.

Then there's the Sacred Heart that my ribs can hardly contain.  That's all about my spiritual life.  You can't see it here, but I lined the inside of the box with a sparkly ribbon.  I do love to have sparkle and brilliant colors around me.  They feed my inner artist.

If you're not familiar with Frida's work, click here to see her work and read about her amazing life.

Daisy Makes the World a Prettier Place

Daisy is a fabulous subject. A lovely blank canvas When I read the Cloth Paper Scissors calendar challenge rules, Daisy sprang to mind with swirling, vivid colors around her. I thought about making her pretty, but it became about Daisy’s sense of presence and how that would interpret the theme.

I began by printing her on transfer paper and ironing the image onto an old white cotton pillow case. I took her to the fabric store and held her up to the brightest colors and amazing patterns. When we’d chosen our elements we went to work. I drew the scene on cardstock and cut it apart to use as a pattern. I fused the background fabrics to the work surface, added the throne and seated Daisy.
I gathered a selection of beads, wire, buttons, flowers and gems. I punched up Daisy’s image with colored pencils and gel pens, then burnished her with the back of a spoon to polish her coat a bit. The throne is topped with a ceramic button (I made a pile of them last year to make earrings; ceramic is my first love). The bones I made using polymer clay. Finally, I added the title by printing it on inkjet printable shrink plastic. Even with all the beading, wire wrapping and gem gluing, it’s Daisy that makes it pretty.

Zombie Coffee Magnets

So, I've been channeling some self indulgent art.  I love coffee and coffee cups, they are everywhere in my art!  I bent  a round cookie cutter into a coffee cup shape and cut a bunch from a slab of earthenware clay.

The tiny angular scraps that cutting the cup shapes left made me think of contorted faces, so I went with it!

I applied them to the coffee cups, fired them, decorated them with wax resist (crayons and black acrylic paint) and glued magnets on the back.  I love those little guys!

As I was catching up on blogs this morning I found a site called BRAINS vs COFFEE!  So funny!

Here's the link

BRAINS vs COFFEE

Go see it!  You'll love it, too!