In My New Studio Today

 

 

Working on my first project in the new studio and its fabulous;  although its still technically under-construction.  

I still need:

A TV  ~ ( I am a TV  addict.  I don’t watch it when I work but the sound keeps me company since its mostly just me and the dogs when the hubby is at work.  I am so used to it being on that working in this new room with no sound is creepy.)

A rolling office chair for my sewing table.   (This one would be great)

 

 

A barstool for the work table ~ Just stole one from the kitchen for now, I want this one from Home Decorators Collection . I like the back since I am getting old and hunched over from overwork!  And I love the swivel.  I wish it was on rollers though.

And last but not least flooring ~  I will have to wait on that one for awhile.

 

 

I’m doing rough color studies for a new series of birds and flowers.  For this project I am using a combination of  watercolor pencils and traditional watercolors.  I print out my sketches first on Bristol paper and try to rough out the colors first so I know what I am doing on the final draft.  This saves me lots of time, effort, and paper since it takes me a few tries to get it right.

 

 

When I get a new set of watercolor pencils ( or regular colored pencils for that matter) I usually do a color chart so I can see what they look like after water has been applied. I do a small swatch of variegated color and label it with the pencil brand and number. Most watercolor pencils change significantly once they have been wet and then more after they dry.  This is a good quick visual reference but I still need to do mock ups to be sure about the colors I am using and how they will blend together.

Watercolor pencils are great for me because I tend to do small , detailed images and I don’t have a ton of experience with fluid watercolors.  I am learning though! 

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Diane Gilleland ~ Kanzashi in Bloom

 

I ran across this book on Amazon the other day and was instantly hooked. 

 

It shows endless possibilities for folding fabric into lovely flowers of all shapes and sizes. 

 

You know how my mind works ~ I immediately saw thousands of applications for these pretty posies.

 

I emailed the author the lovely Diane Gilleland to ask a few questions about how she got into this art form.

 

Diane with her lovely book

Jackie ~ How did you first hear about this art form? 

Diane ~  I spend a lot of time looking at all kinds of crafts on the web. Somehow, somewhere I stumbled onto some images of Japanese Kanzashi. I was gobsmacked at how detailed and delicate they were, and I wanted to learn more. If you go to YouTube and search "Kanzashi," you can find a whole lot of interesting video showing the traditional Japanese way of making these flowers. But that process is way too exacting for me, so I set about trying all kinds of simpler methods until I'd developed a process that produced nice flowers without too much specialized skill or equipment.

 

 

Jackie ~  Can you give a quick history of its origins?

Diane  ~  The word "Kanzashi" actually translates from Japanese as "hair ornament." Kanzashi date back to the Edo period in Japan (roughly the 1600's), when there was a rather sudden change in hairstyle fashion. Women stopped wearing their hair long and loose, and started putting it up. All kinds of elaborate combs and pins began to emerge as Japanese artisans invented new adornments for these upswept styles.

Floral kanzashi have always been part of the Geisha culture in Japan. Geisha adorn their hairstyles with these flowers for public occasions. There are specific Kanzashi for each month of the year, too – you'll see Geisha wearing silk cherry blossoms in April and silk chrysanthemums in October. There's just a handful of master Kanzashi artisans left in Japan, but luckily there's a whole new generation of enthusiasts helping to keep this art alive.

 

 

     

Diane has also developed a product with Clover Needlecraft that makes the construction of these flowers so easy it ridiculous!

 

 

Watch this short video to see her demonstrate hoe to use the Kanzashi templates.

 

 

Isn’t that amazing? 

 

I’ve already ordered my book, now I have to track down some templates. 

 

* all pics courtesy of Dianne Gilleland

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Paper Perfect ~ Helen Musselwhite

Paper artist Helen Musselwhite cuts – folds – and otherwise works magic with ordinary paper goods to create these wonderful three dimensional tributes to nature.

* all photos - Helen Musselwhite

See her amazing work here

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Room Redux at My House ~ Part II

The handsome husbands shoe room is progressing slowly. Apparently loading shoes onto racks is a tedious and time consuming task.

It is woefully apparent that I have vastly underestimated the volume of shoes that need to be housed! The amount of shelves needs to be doubled to even have a chance of holding most of his collection. Keep in mind this shelving is 8 feet high by 12 feet wide. You’d think they would fit right? NO!

The important thing is that I think this is making him happy. At the very least its got to be easier for him to find that one missing shoe now.

Now for the good part. My daughters room has been sitting vacant except for her occasional visits home from college in San Francisco, for 2 1/2 years now. I have been thinking about commandeering it for my art / sewing studio for awhile but just couldn’t get going. I think I am still in denial about her being grown up and living out of state.

Since most of my art and sewing supplies were stored in the shoe room it was only natural to extend my room makeover to my daughters room as well so I would have a place to put everything taken out of the shoe room. I know – crazy – it’s like a Chinese fire drill of room contents around here. My goal for this room, after spending a small fortune on “cheap” shelving for the shoe room, was to use only stuff I had around the house and in the garage. ( trust me – there is plenty of stuff here to use) The only thing I am allowing myself to spend money on is the white paint for the furniture.

The first order of business was to have my wonderful son Geordie, who is home for the summer, tear out the carpet. I plan to paint the floor white for now since I am not allowing myself to buy flooring.

My sister bought this fabulous metal cart for her home office and when it arrived she realized that it was too big to fit through the door of her room! So naturally, she gave it to me for my birthday! Its actually fantastic because its on casters and it will slide right under the center of my worktable and pull out easily when I need additional table space. Right now it is the painting center.

For the rest of the pieces I need I am using furniture that I designed and had built for my husbands old office at work which he brought home last year after moving into a bigger office. I tried to give this stuff away about ten times over the past year but had no takers. Boy, am I glad I kept it! It is going to work out perfectly. Its a bunch of cubes of different shapes and sizes – some with drawers – some with shelves – that can stack into different configurations.

These cubes are the perfect height for my work table when I stack two on top of one another. I am painting everything white so it will blend together. The cubes were originally all bright man colors so its taking two coats of white paint to cover it up UGH!

There is even a sectiont of the old furniture that is on giant casters and can serve as a window seat.

The walls of the room are a super sunny yellow that my daughter picked out. I thought of painting them but they remind me of her so I am keeping them for now. They just need a bit of touch up from the thousands of nail holes she put in the walls over time !

The only furniture I kept from my daughters stuff was her dresser and hutch for storage.

One of the great features of this room is that is has an enormous closet that has its own window. In fact, this room has four windows in it so its super sunny and has great natural light all day long.

I am so blessed to have such a great home and to be able to create such a great working space for myself – I feel a little bit guilty taking over so much room in the house but since its just sitting there unused I am sure I will get over it. I am so excited – I can't wait till it's done.

* If you have a great studio – workroom – craft room or whatever room – I would love to see it and possibly share your photos here on my blog. Please send me some pics to jackie_vontobel at msn.com

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Vintage Chairs ~ Three Times The Fun

 

What a great idea for those random chairs sitting around your house.  Kindall from Creations blog shows her step by step process here, for creating this adorable settee out of three old chairs she found. 

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Room Redux at My House ~ Part 1

 

 

I don’t mind saying that I think my husband is a bit of a hunk.   Even after all of these years he still looks pretty darn good and he’ll tell you so to!   Unfortunately, when it comes to his tennis shoes ( he would say “kicks” or something trendy like that)  he thinks he is thirty year old rap star. 

 

These are the, apparently super rare, limited edition,  “Tiffany”, Nikes that he was sporting to work this morning.  He  has hundreds of shoes ( I am not exaggerating) and as many clothes and it has become somewhat of a running joke in our house.  He has completely taken over five ( yes I said 5 ) of the closets in the house  ( I have one) and they are all filled to the brim.  So,  since his birthday was last week and its been three years since any of our three kids have actually  lived at home,  I decided to clear out my sons room which had been serving as a sort of catch all storage area ( since my husband was using all of the closets).  As his birthday gift I am turning it into his “shoe” room. 

 

This is the kind of ridiculous stuff you start doing for each other after your kids fly the coup.  Sounds romantic doesn’t it?  After a week of sporadic cleaning and throwing away of old junk the room is finally clear and the shelves are ready to go up. 

 

I am sure that this is what my handsome hubby has in mind when I say “shoe room”.

 

 

Or perhaps this lovely design.

 

 

How about this?  It has a great nautical sort of flair combined with rugged woodsiness.

 

 

Now this is actually more his style – super clean and modern.

 

 

Before you get too excited let me bring you back down to Earth.    Here is the reality of the poor man’s shoe room!  Granted,  it is a work in progress.  Just got a few of the uprights attached to the wall before I realized I had bought the wrong type of screws.  It’s been a couple of years since I have piloted power tools and my construction skills are a bit rusty. 

 

I am actually excited that he will have this space of his own.  The girly bed will be moved to the downstairs guest room and a more masculine bed brought upstairs just in case one of the kids does show up.  It needs some window treatments and the rest of the shelves put up and then the shoe installation will begin. 

 

I’ll keep you posted!

 

Coming up – Handsome Hubby isn't the only one in the house getting a new room!  Stay tuned to see my new art & sewing studio come together in what was once my daughters room. ………..

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Painted Planet Licensing ~ My New Agent

 

 

 

I am thrilled to announce that I have signed with a fabulous art licensing agency, Painted Planet Licensing Group.  They will be my exclusive agents in the licensing of my art and illustrations. 

 

 

I am in good company as you can see by the artists they currently represent above. 

 

 

hopefully you will be seeing my new collections coming to life on home decor products,

 

 

tableware

 

 

and wall art. 

 

 

I can’t wait !!!

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