Botanical Mandalas: 2 Inspirations

Spring is in the air and so are botanical mandalas! I love the idea of botanical mandalas and the two artists I'm featuring below create them in different ways, but both really beautiful. The first mandala artist is Daniel McPheeter.
 Daniel McPheeter's work:

He creates his mandalas with digital collage and images of flowers. His 2011 gallery show YouTube is below. His art takes it beyond just the circle and he has some really beautiful pieces. 

I also found Louise Gale's book Botanical Mandalas: Draw, Paint, and Create Expressive Mandala Art Inspired by Nature. When you buy her book you can also join her book club for free. There is also a preview of this book at this page and I'm so excited to see it in person (yes, I had to order it).

Watercolor Crayons: Distress Crayon, Neocolor II, Gelatos, & More... Compared

Cleaning my studio (I'm avoiding homework) but thought I'd take a break and try out a sample Marabu Art Crayon I got from Jerry's Artarama. At time of this posting, Jerry's has the Marabu red art crayon on a special "buy it/try it" deal of $2.25. I started using Stabilo Woody crayons on my mixed media pieces and then Gelatos from Faber Castell and Tim Holtz's Distress crayons came out... well, I keep buying and trying as the textures, color ranges and forms are all a touch different. Below I have tried the previous crayons with the addition of Caran d'ache Neocolor II Aquarells and Dina Wakley's scribble sticks.

There are pros and cons with all of them: I like the chunkiness of the Stabilo Woodys and the Marabu Art Crayon. That shape seems to works great when working on large canvases, but the gelatos are too creamy for canvas in my opinion-they get used up rather quickly, so I save them for paper. The Dina Wakely are harder and can be "scrubbed" off the paper so you don't see the drawn lines, if your paper can handle it. I like them for details. The Gelatos and Distress Crayons are good for mixing and stamping. The Neocolor II's are just smooth and lovely, come in just about every color, but in pricier sets. A note on the Stabilo Woodys: make sure you get a pencil sharpener with your set as these pencils are too big for most pencil sharpeners. 

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Paper Marbling Addiction

Took a class at Kalamazoo Book Arts in April and these are the wonderful papers that I made... more to come as I ordered 2 different types of marbling paints to try. Here's is my teacher Crystal's popular paper marbling video. Most were done on plain water, dripping sumi ink or suminagashi marbling ink alternating with soapy water. 

 

 

Apothicary Madness

I'm really into making the apothecary bottles that everyone is into right now. The labels are fun to make, the bottles fun to find and its all very Halloween! Laura Carson has a great series of tutorials going on right now on her blog. There's also great labels at Alpha Stamps and some great rub-on's at Stampington. Shown here is my remake of an old label for your enjoyment. If you make something wonderful with it, please email me a picture! I'd love to see it!

Jewelry Swaps - Halloween & Earrings

Had a great Labor Day holiday with my friend Rhea, making jewelry for a few swaps on Swapbot.

Smash Journal

This is the journal I made for Swapbot DIY Smashbook. Lots of pockets in hidden flaps.

Earring fiesta!

Whipped up some earrings this evening in a few colors I'm missing...

A List from the Library

The local public library records all the items one checks out and makes a list of "favorites." I just cam across my list and thought it to be an interesting snapshot of my life. Here are my top 50:

My Favorite Subjects
• Rock music.
• Polymer clay craft.
• Alternative rock music.
• Audiobooks.
• Popular music.
• Video recordings for the hearing impaired
• Feature films
• Comedy films.
• Wire craft.
• Celtic music.
• Crystals.
• Folk-rock music.
• Humorous stories.
• Imaginary places--Drama.
• Live sound recordings.
• Paper work.
• Salvage (Waste, etc.)
• Self-actualization (Psychology)
• Textile jewelry.
• Acquisitiveness.
• Alice (Fictitious character : Carroll)--Drama.
• Animals--Fiction.
• Astrology.
• Beadwork--Handbooks, manuals, etc.
• Compulsive behavior.
• Compulsive hoarding.
• Depression, Mental.
• Diary fiction.
• Electronic music.
• England--Fiction.
• Essays.
• Fantasy films.
• Fantasy in art.
• Folk music.
• Happiness.
• Italy--Guidebooks.
• Magic.
• New Age music.
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder.
• Refuse as art material.
• Rhythm and blues music.
• Self-help techniques.
• Soul music.
• Spirit photography.
• Trees--Michigan--Identification.
• Wit and humor, Pictorial.
• Addams, Charles, 1912-1988.
• Adultery--Drama.
• Aesthetics, Japanese--Fiction.

I like how "beadwork" is next to "complusive hoarding," there's a subject for "Imaginary places--Drama" & "Happiness." I'm not hearing impaired, nor do I commit adultery. I do think the list is quite witty!

Some other good topics that didn't make the top 50:
• Animals--War use.
• Cats--Therapeutic use.
• Mad scientist films.

Drama topics....
• Optical storage devices--Drama. (not so much)
• Queens--Drama. (of course!)
• Rabbits--Drama. (not really, unless they chew through the electric cord)
• Weddings--Drama. (always)

Soul Restoration Update

My pages from last week & my book cover... love those plastic flowers from Ornamentea. This week, we're making our personal time line, so I post that once I've made some progress on it.

Along with the clip art we're given with the Soul Restoration class, I've been getting more great clip art from the Graphics Fairy blog. She rocks!

I came up with a journal technique that works for me: I print out prompts on sticky-backed paper and stick them down when I need to jump start my writing. We're given prompts with each week of this class, so I've got plenty to work with.

Prep, Assemble, Create!

Got my class stuff printed and cut out,
got my classes playing on the computer, good music playing, candle burning...

hopefully will get some creating in tonight!