Resin problem. Any help out there/

So, it's been four days, and the resin from the present i prepared still hasn't hardened completely (see previous post)! I searched the net for help on this, and found causes for this varying from changes in humidity to cheaper resin to insufficient hardening agent. What i did not find was an answer to how to fix this problem. Should i just add another layer of resin that will (hopefully) harden propperly this time? Is there some kind of 'hardener' or technique i can use to help it harden? Just putting this out there, i know some of you are so skilled at working with resin!

By the way, i just noticed that i am here my 2000th viewer to my blog! Wow! Thanks for all the hits guys. This is really great. I will have to do a giveaway or something someime soon.

As for how things are going with my looming move to Seoul, things are progressing fairly nicely. There have been a number of hitches and holdups along the way, but at this moment things seem to be going well :). Wish me luck for a speedy delivery and procesessing!

Present finished

I've been having a highly enjoyable weekend. Friday night, I went out with a friend i don't get to see very often, and we watched 'Burn After Reading'. Wow... i would highly recomend this movie to pretty much anyone, as long as you can handle movies with rather mysterious endings (this one didn't really have an ending at all, but it was perfect that way). I also saw Zach and Miri Make a Porno... it was unexpectadly endeering and cute.



I finished a nice case for the bracelet i made for my friend Erin. Here are some pics. I just felt like the bracelet was so tiny it made a little fragile puddle... it needed a case to hold it in (you can see the bracelet on it's own in the previous post. The case was created with a matchbox tin. I gessoed and painted it, drilled holes, wired it to a rusty washer on the top and a etched copper butterfly on the bottom. Glued onto it is a bottle cap, with a picture of a butterfly and the stamped word 'fly'. I really like how this piece turned out :). I hope Erin likes it.

I have a dilema... There is a workshop here in regina on wednesday evening about altering photos for artistic purposes, but wednesdays are also jazz band practices... I am so torn! Should i be off playing my trombone at practice, being responsible and such, or should i play hooky and go to the workshop??? hmmmm... i will see how i am feeling on wednesday.

Gesso and new bracelet

I occasionally pop in at the GPP Street Team website... this time i decided i would try out what they were talking about. The theme this time is gesso. I myself was specifically interested in the idea of stamping with gesso... that kinda blew my mind haha. Apparantly, the gesso acts as a resist when you stamp it, so that if you paint overtop of it with another colour after it dried, and then wipe off some of that colour the white (or whatever colour you used) of the gesso will show through. Fascinated by this, i thought i'd give it a shot.

I had previously stamped this card with the mask shape, as I found an irresistibly gorgeous hand carved stamp at an Artist Trading Card meeting (no one seemed to know who carved it...?). I got a couple stamps in while i could :). I then stamped the word 'masque' (french for mask) and used the resist technique... voila!






















































I have also been working on a bracelet for a friend of mine, Erin. I missed giving her a present on her birthday, so this is going to be a belated birthday present. I figure that late is better than none? This is a rather simple bracelet, made with twisted wire and these gorgeous beads I picked up while in the Rockies. Their frosted green colour reminded me of the ICY COLD glacial rivers where I went white water rafting. I want to finish of a nice case for it to go in. I am thinking something similar to the mint tin i made a while back for my friend Tasha's birthday... but with the bracelet inside instead of a unicorn.

I still don't have a date yet for when i leave for Korea... I am hoping that it will be soon. I kinda get the feeling like I am sitting here waiting for things to get started. That feeling you get when there is something totally exciting looming in the future, but it is uncertain when it will actually happen. Wish me luck that the immigration office processes our papers quickly :).

Candy Drops finished

Finished off another piece today... i was so very inspired by Sarah Ahearn's 'Falling fruit'. I created my own piece, 'Candy Drops' that was inspired by this.

I am not pleased with the quality of the photo here. Usually, i take a photo and then if it is giving me problems i adjust the lighting and sharpness in photoshop. However, I have bought a new laptop (woo!) but it does not have Adobe Photoshop. I would love to have it here on my laptop but it is sooooo expensive!! I cannot even upload my pics of my atcs on the ATCSforall website as they are too big. With photoshop, i could re-save it as a smaller file. I'm putting a question out to you guys... what program do you use? I do not need the immensity of power that is in photoshop, just something where i can edit photos brightness/contrast, crop, and most importantly shrink the size of the pictures (as in sort of compress or something). Any suggestions out there????

Finally back!

Things got a little crazy in the past couple months, and i had to let a couple things slip just a bit to get my bearings... blogging was one of those things. However, i am back and now ready to go again! I feel like i have so much to talk about, in relation to art and just my life in general! Many things are happening here. Sorry for the really long post here.... just getting all caught up.

I will be moving to Seoul, Korea to go teach overseas sometime late November to early December. I have been sooo busy lately with preparations to go... packing, preparing paperwork, working out storage etc. However, lately i have still been finding some time for art. I am very pleased about this.


I had signed up for an awesome swap on ATCs for all. I was very pleased with how my cards turned out. I experimented with acrylics on the pear card, with beading on the corn card, and with "stitching" (loosely termed) on the strawberry card. All cards turned out great.

















I also have been working on a new atc with a kind of christmasy theme. This is the card so far... but it is not done yet. I started by hand stitching together two pieces of canvas, and then stitching on two fabric pieces and an image of holly. Now, i feel that it needed a kind of stitching or something around the edges, more of a decorative type of stitch. I was originally inspired on this piece by Collette's blog piece here and i couldn't resist the blanket stitch around the edge... but i had never done one before. I found a fabulous tutorial on the web, and decided it was time to learn how... (tutorial here).













After many many MANY mistakes, a couple words coming out of my mouth I'm not quite proud of (oops) and a couple tries, i finally figured it out. Here is an edited version of my practice stitching... by the end i think i pretty much got it!

















I also picked up the new issue of cloth paper scissors! How exciting. I really enjoyed this issue. I was especially inspired by the art of Sarah Ahearn, in her 'artist profile'. I really liked her colour palettes she used, especially her use of gorgeous pastel colours. The pic here is a piece i was particularly inspired by. She called it Falling Fruit.
























I couldn't resist making my own impression of what she did here. I started with mixing watercolours and iridescent medium (my favorite thing to give things that bit of sparkle) and painted the background with nice pastel colours of blues, greens, yellows, and browns. I then covered it with a thin blotchy coat of white, and next added some drops of colour. It is still a work in progress, but this is what i have so far...


Just wanted to put out a little thank you out there to the bloggers who were so supportive of me while i was gone for a bit... thanks for thinking of me ladies! You are truly wonderful.

Another ATC for New York

I have finished another ATC for the New York swap i talked about earlier. The theme is domestic things and such... it doesn't get much more domestic than strings. I like the multiple meanings and symbols behind the idea of 'mom's apron strings', with both good and bad connotations.

It didn't scan great because of the bump where the knot and ties are, but it is good enough to see what it is :).

This one was fun to make. I used both hand stitching and machine stitching on fabric.

Two down, seven more to go to be ready for the exhibition in New York.

Life Changes

I know i haven't been posting much lately. I have been sort of thinking about things and doing my best to stay as busy as possible. Last week, i ended my relationship with Ray, after having been together for 9 years. This had been coming for some time and wasn't a shock or anything, but still is a little unsettling and sad. However, i am doing surprisingly okay.

I just got back from a visit with my grandparents. My grandmother gave me some lovely art supplies that i am very excited to give a go. Most exciting is a lovely set of gouache paints. I remember there once being a challenge on Jen Worden's blog that used gouache that looked great but i didn't have any.,... maybe now is the time lol.

I have finished off a couple more atcs that i need to post. I will get to doing that soon :)