iHannah's Postcard Swap 2011

Hannah's postcard swap ( www.ihanna.nu/ ) was in April this year. I thought I would just make "what I felt like." The first thing I wanted to do was paint skies in water color. So I did.  What next?  I'm still crazy about yarn.  I'd been wanting to experiment with some "motifs" which are small shapes in crochet. Of course, that meant that my postcards now needed envelopes.

I enjoyed playing with the color combos and yarn varieties.  Still a little plain.  What about some words?  We spent time on vacation at a place that had signs everywhere which read: "Deer have right of way."  We saw several herds of deer and came within 15 feet of a herd while on a hike. (Eagle Crest near Redmond, Oregon)

I added the words "Deer have right of way" to the cards on pieces of decorative tape.

As I was preparing the cards for mailing, I realized that I had 4 recipients who don't live in the USA. They are in Canada and The Netherlands.  Uh oh - that requires customs forms.  What am I doing?  This is supposed to be a simple post card swap.  If I send a package, will they have to go to the post office to pick it up? Fill out forms on their end?  That doesn't seem right.  So, I took off the crochet and added a free form deer head created from washi tape. 

I've been thinking about stencils lately and how you can suggest a figure with a minimum of shapes.

Anyway, it was an interesting experiment.  All of the postcards were mailed late and I apologize!  I've been receiving lots of fun ones.  I'll show photos in the next post.

Fun with hanks of yarn

I'm still playing with yarn while waiting for the weather to warm up so that I can work in the basement. When I started, I thought I could buy a hank of yarn (a big circle of yarn folded in on itself) and it would be easy to wind into a ball.



Not so! It is much more likely that I'll end up with a big tangled mess. So, I've learned to ask to have it wound when I buy it at the yarn store. But what to do with the hanks I have that came in the mail? Well, one part of the answer is a swift.



A swift holds the yarn in a circle. There are accordion-style swifts and peg swifts. I found a nice folding peg swift for a very reasonable price from a maker on eBay.

So you put the hank on the swift and then you can wind the yarn into a ball. But it takes so long! So then you can buy a yarn winder. But they're expensive uni-taskers and I'm tired of buying stuff. Well, thanks to my sweet husband, I don't have to. He brought up his cordless drill. Ta da! I just slid a paper towel core on the drill, wound the tail of yarn around and turned on the drill. Instant wound yarn! For the blue yarn, I used a cone from Yarnia that slid over the saw bit.

OK - it looks kind of funny but now I can get to work!

Latest Commissions

Oh - doesn't that sound nice: "Latest Commissions". My friend asked for a few more of the "Pear Mail" series. I made a few as gifts as well. (Jenny? Raegan?)


Of course, once I received a request and a deadline, I went into resistance mode. I put it off as long as I could.



The story of my life.

The same thing happened with crochet. My niece asked for a scarf made from yarn she chose. I had to make her a hat, scarf and gloves from yarn I picked out before I could get around to making the one she wanted. Of course, don't even get me started with my regular work.

The scarf and hat colors I chose.

The scarf and hat colors she chose

They're both nice. Both easy.

My sister Rachael's scarf.

I can't be the only person who has resistance issues. Anyone else have any stories? Remedies?

Dee Dee in the window on a sleepy January day in Portland.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas day!

My favorite gift was a visit from my sister and niece this past week. This is the only sketch I've done recently. I've been focusing more on "crafts" and less on "art" the past month, but I have lots of ideas I want to try soon.

This and that...

Art Journaling: Last year I tried to make cohesive pages surrounding the daily word prompt. It was a helpful exercise, but a bit stressful. This year I'm making sketches and seeing if they match any of the prompts. It's more relaxing.

Glass coaster and three glass candle holders

Douglas fir and cones

Last Friday, I took advantage of the sunshine and tried out Nature Printing Paper, which uses photographic technology. Place objects on the paper, expose to sun for 2 or 3 minutes, then soak in water for a minute and let dry.

As it is November and we're just above 45 degrees North Latitude, the sun was quite low in the sky at noon. You can see the elongated shadows in the photos. I don't know what I'm going to do with the pictures yet, but they sure were fun and easy to make. Nature Print Paper.


Yarn! Resistance is futile. I've been trying to avoid yarn stores for at least 5 years, but Yarnia opened up a few blocks away. Once I found out they make custom yarn, well, it was over. I'm resisting knitting, but I don't mind doing a little crocheting. It's a very relaxing and non-messy activity to do while watching TV with Bob. No ink or paint on my clothes!

I walked into Knit/Purl in downtown Portland for the first time today and found this pink-fuscia sock yarn to make a scarf for my niece. The color is called "Light of Love." I've always wondered how they've stayed in business. Well, their yarn is gorgeous and priced to match! It's a great treat to hang out in a place like this.

Art Journaling

It's November already. This is the month of several challenges such as NaNoWriMo and NaNoJouMo - which are, admittedly, pretty silly sounding. NaNoWriMo is for people wanting to write more - they accept a challenge to write a certain number of words each day of November. This site dawndsokol has NoNoJouMo (for National Nonstop Journaling Month) which challenges people to spend some time each day of November working in their art journal. Dawn gives a one word prompt every day and people can post their pages to the Flickr Group: NaNoJouMo.

Sadie's Halloween Costume last year:

This year she went as "Vicious Guard Dog" and barked at all of the trick-or-treaters.

"Pear Mail" Series

The other set I created for the Oregon Society of Artists show are done in watercolor with clear encaustic on top. The boards are Claybord Aquabord. The surface is more absorbent in order to use water media more easily.



Since we were supposed to paint a series, I started with 1 pear and added on. I had a hard time thinking of a subject. We had a bowl of beautiful pears on the table so I started with those.



After I painted the watercolors, I looked at them for a few days. They were OK, but not really thrilling me. Did I want to hang them on my wall? I felt they were a little bit boring.



At the same time, I've been reading a couple of books on mail art. Oh my goodness - Pear Mail! Get it - P-air Mail. That's it! I added postage stamps, ink stamps and imagined sending the pears off to foreign lands: Spain, France, Germany and well, San Francisco. They are finished with 2 layers of encaustic medium.



Numbers 3 and 4 were purchased by an Oregon Society of Artist member before the show even opened! The other two are listed for $20 each.