meandering thru January

It's been bitterly cold here lately. It's to be expected, it is January after all and this is Michigan. That means a lot of indoors time. Which either means aimlessly watching tv or procrastinating on projects...

So, I went grocery shopping a couple weeks ago and found myself standing in Hobby Lobby. Don't worry, I don't cook with craft paint. Anyway, I'm a sucker for garden statuary, and low and behold they were setting up that section of the store... so, some critters followed me home. And since this stuff is just mass produced resin - I decided to repaint them to better match my decor and taste...

And then I decided to paint some watercolors. Evidently it's been a while since I had to vacuum salt up off the carpeting. For the uninitiated - you can see my watercolors here. I work with color and salt, and I mix in some gouache for kicks.

I have subsequently named all 22 new paintings, and will eventually get around to scanning them and adding them to the shop... eventually.

At the present moment my stuck-indoors-spree-of-projects has meandered on to working on a series of illustrations. So, I've scanned a bunch of sketches and printed them out as blue pages that I am in the midst of inking...

If you're also stuck indoors, hopefully your time is productive : )

the cold, the bad, & the ugly...

Remember the last post about the magnolias? Yeah, well, they got their 2 days of blooming and then it was over... the cold front came in, so the thing is one "spectacular mess" now:

However, this week I finished a project I've been working on for a few weeks now, so in order to get some things set up I needed to take some photos of some of my creations... as it turns out, I have taken a lot of crappy product shots. And I have found that the easiest way to get photos that require the least effort and editing is to take them outside in atmospheric light. So, I put on my gloves...

And just because there's a formula or a routine for something doesn't mean they're all spectacular shots... As it turns out, I make things that are difficult to photograph...

 Yes, those are worms. Well, polymer clay worms. What? You're a little grossed out? Ah. Don't be.  That's nature's garbage disposal system right there.  Well, that and less than stellar photos.

Anyway, I make weird things. And you know, we've been to this well before. So, I was standing in Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago in the aisle with all the "wood" stuff, and I picked up these little plaques and laughed and thought "I could make something weird with these." So, I picked through them and bought the 8 that looked good and square.

I had to think about how I was going to execute this project, since I have a tendency to be a little messy.  So I decided the plaques needed to be stained first.  Now, I had also bought these wooden discs a couple weeks prior. They're basically the same thing I use for brooches, except round.  And I'm pretty sure I bought them to use for brooches, but this whole wormhole idea big-footed that.

 So, while my stain was setting, I made my worms.  And then, while finally watching "The Rum Diary" on my first new television in fifteen years - I spackled and primed my wood pieces and added the worms... of course, then I had to wait for that to dry — which is when a week's worth of watercolors began.

Once the spackle was dry, then I added the dirt — which is essentially a combination of acrylic paint with glue and tea grounds, a couple more layers of tea grounds, and an overcoat of a mixture of paint, glue, water, and gloss varnish... and then that has to dry.  And then I sanded the edges of my plaques and gave them another coat of stain... and then painted all the backs white... and then gave the plaques a coat of gloss varnish. So, I still need to take some pictures of them, but, essentially, they're finally done.

Anyway, this frigid weekend part of my photography plans were to change up the pictures for my "bad apples." This is an old shot... Yeah, so basically, I changed the background.

 

This bad apple is one of my favorites, since they look like they're having a little conversation.

So, the entire photo shoot usually takes place on the back porch.  Either I put a 13X19 inch print out of one of my photos down on the porch steps or I set up a drawing board with the print out across the arms of one of the chairs. Product photography is rarely glamorous.

Anyway, the magnolia is right there next to the porch, so when I was done shooting the worm-work, I took some shots of the magnolia and it's big mess of petals...

 Ironically, real live worms were hard at work.  Of course, since it was cold out, as soon as I picked up the thing they were hiding under, they squirmed their way back to shelter.  Nature is funny like that.

And then it rained. Rain & cold are real impediments to getting photos done and out of the way, so then the project had to move indoors, where between 2 camera let's just say there are less than stellar results...

So, maybe today it won't be too cold or rainy and I can get my shots done. Maybe.

so beautiful or so what

So beautiful or So what? So, I'm a little behind on my musical releases... that's just kind of how I am. You know what? I didn't go out and buy skinny jeans whenever those became "stylish" again. It is what it is. Right now I have this song —  so beautiful or so what — stuck in my head. So, that's so what.

 Paul Simon's website...

Truth be told, I just took a shower. So, as I type this I'm waiting for my hair to dry.  Normally, I default to TRESemmé shampoo and Pantene conditioner.  I'm a creature of habit. But every once in a while one must be adventurous, or just wash all the residue out of one's hair. So, I liked the way this smelled. Yes, as a consumer of hair care products, these 2 Herbal Essences products had all the necessary marketing tricks:

√  purple stuff comes out of the bottle

√  the bottle is purple

√  alleges to smell like "wild cherry"

√  use of the word "orchid"

Okay, so I actually think it kind of smells like grapes. But, well, it made my hair all snazzy when I used it. In the event that it's not apparent — violet (and by proxy all purple derivatives) is my favorite color. I love cherries, and I have long curly hair.

 

I also like cake. Strawberry with cream cheese frosting... mostly because that's what I found in the cupboards. Mmm, cake.

I decided, on a whim, that I wanted to do some watercolors... which might have something to do with the sudden influx of watercolors to my sarahknight etsy shop.  You know, when I list them I have to leaf through the pile and make sure that I've scanned them, and then I'm probably day dreaming about my fantasy house with all my paintings on the wall or something.

Anyway, yesterday  when I got home from work I sat down and caught up on the last 2 episodes of Californication and cleared off a good area on the floor in order to get out my case of paints, the box of watercolors, the box of gouache, the set of gouaches, the watercolor palette, the gouache palette, the bowl of salt... and then I spent a good 10 minutes cleaning up paintbrushes so that I would have something with which to fling wet pigment at the parchment...

I highly recommend Californication as a series.  I always enjoy being surprised by the plot twists on this show... and like Hank, I can't exactly say I have any fondness for Tyler...

I painted 14 yesterday, and four so far today. And now I'm waiting for them to dry. That's probably the hardest part.  There's a difference between the way they look when they're wet and how they look when they're dry. And even though I've been using this painting technique for 12 years — there's always an element of surprise, and it's usually the good kind.  I already scraped the salt off the 14 I painted yesterday, and it's going to be hard to not put most of them in the "keep pile."

Some notable keep pile escapees... here, and here, and here, and here...

It's unseasonably warm here in Michigan right now. A couple days ago I got my bike out of the shed and pumped up the tires. The first ride after the winter lay off is always the toughest... anyway, the crocuses have already bloomed, and now the daffodils, the forsythia, and the magnolia are going at it. I'm convinced it's going to snow tomorrow, even if the calendar indicates that spring has now begun.

Anyway, I recommend having a nice slice of cake and then going out to wander about and look at all the springy things popping up here and there... and maybe catch up on some Paul Simon too.
: )

Happy Holidays!

Everyone out there in blogger land,
Have a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!
I hope you enjoyed the holiday season and got or did whatever you wanted : )

Yes, I know, my last entry was in October... sometimes life gets in the way. But now that I've worked on (what feels like) a cajillion projects — now I have some time to relax and actually share those. So, regular posting should resume in the new year.

Every year I make a calendar for all my relatives for Christmas... this year I was a little behind on the graphics, which are traditionally my illustrations. If I've really run out of time then occasionally I default to using photos... but generally I draw everything. So, on the first of December when I had 1 illustration done, well, it was crunch time. And in part that is where my time has been... I would come home from work and I'd either be packing etsy orders or illustrating.

I'd like to thank all my etsy customers from both sarahkdesigns & sarahknight : )
And a special thank you to akacinders : )
I hope you all enjoyed your stuff & had wonderful holidays!

Otherwise there was a tirade of cleaning and organizing, even though all my relatives know that the house is generally in a state chaos.

Oh, and, of course, there was the traditional marathon of Christmas cookies. In the event that you've never ventured to this blog in previous years, well, every year I make Christmas cookies. They're actually sour cream cookies, and the recipe yields like 8-10 dozen (depending on the amount of flour and the size of the cookie cutters). This year there were 120 cookies frosted in 19 different colors of frosting. It took 4.5 hours to produce this batch... and, of course, there were photos.

The dough.

Mixing in the 5+ cups of flour is always the hard part. Well, that and trying to remember whether it's baking soda or baking powder... oh, crap it's baking soda. Did I buy baking soda in the weeks before Christmas? No. Was there a moment of panic at 1am when I was set to make these cookies? Yes. Fortunately, the baking soda was right there in the spice cupboard next to the allspice and the Hungarian paprika...

Bake for 5-7 minutes, 375˚F

cleaned up for next year

Time to frost the cookies...
frosting √
food coloring √
sprinkles √
happy-go-lucky knife (aka butter knife) √

there is a system

They're finally frosted! Now they just have to sit on the table for 4 hours for the frosting to dry so that when I put them in the storage container (cake holder turned upside down) they don't all clump together into one giant messy cookie.

(click on graphic to enlarge)

Yes, 19 different colors. 1 box of standard 4-color food coloring, 1 box of neon color food coloring, and you get a good color of violet by just buying violet colored food colorant from the cake decorating section of any store. In the event that we've never covered this before - violet is my favorite color and YES it is that important.

So, again, I hope you're having a wonderful holiday season! And next time around I'll start showing off all the new pictures I've made in the last 25 days.
(or you can peter around here for a sneak peak)