Bringing Art To Life

My very first Flip Video movie, edited with Window Movie Maker. (I wanted more editing options than the Flip Video's built in software allows.) I made a minor mistake I couldn't fix-the text for the web addy for the company where you can get the charms is supposed to be at the end, not at the beginning, but hey, it's my first try. Next time I will get it right!

My husband just came by and heard talking so he came into the studio. I explained that I was watching the video I just made and he says "But who's talking?" *boggles* apparently after almost 18 years of marriage, he doesn't know the sound of my voice when he hears it! *laughs*

Anyway, it was fun to make, so expect to see more! Enjoy!

EDIT: My apologies-in the video, I said the kit was $3 when in fact it is $6. Still a great deal!

Proud New Owner

The last few days have been hectic so I haven't had time to post till now and I am actually posting on the fly. Yesterday I spent the day across the border in Seattle with friends and I got my Flip Video!! I did in fact get the green one. Originally, the green ones were only capable of 30 minutes of recording time, but they have changed them to include a 60 minute version, so I got the colour I wanted. YAY! I also bought a small tripod. I've only played around with it a little bit just to try it out, but hopefully in the next couple of days I will be able to post something!

In other news, my copy of Pasticcio Issue 3 finally arrived and I am very pleased with how my article "Common Threads: The Art of Healing" came out. Sarah and Angela did a fabulous job, as always with this issue. If you haven't checked out Pasticcio, then you don't know what you are missing!

Okay, must run! I am off to Vancouver to teach! Catcha on the flip side!

Studio Renovation!

So at long last, here are photos of my closet reno. First, this is what the closet looked like prior to renovation. It's pretty hideous, isn't it? One lone shelf and that's it. Everything was in boxes and every time I wanted or needed something, I had to take everything out to look for it. That got old pretty fast!

What you can't see is that on that shelf, there was a ton of stuff piled up and up-there is actually about 3 feet clearance above the shelf. Only problem is, I am not super tall so the more I stacked up there, the harder it became to get things down.

This is after the reno. My friend Lance, who is incredibly talented designed this built in shelving for me. It took a day and a half to cut and install it all and it's just fantastic! There are seven (count 'em seven!) levels of shelves, specifically sized to accommodate the boxes I had purchased to sort and store my art stuff in. Oh how I love Ikea!


I also have some nice paper trays, gifted to my by my friend Sandy that are perfect for storing the various envelopes, page protectors, etc. that I have. As you can see, I still have stuff stacked on the highest shelf, but it's not near as much as before and it's not anything I really need to access on regular basis anyway.



I have gone through everything, sorted it and carefully labelled it so that if I am looking for something, I can tell at a glance which box it's in. I can't tell you how much I love seeing everything neatly stored. It makes me happy knowing that I am never going to have to waste time searching for things!


Down at the bottom, Lance left enough room so that I could fit a Rubbermaid full of tools (soldering irons, bench block, hammer, clamps, etc.) on one side and my great big Xyron machine on the other. I wanted to have the heaviest stuff stored at the bottom so I could just slide them out when I need them and not worry about excessive weight on the shelves. The tool box weights a tonne!

I also wanted to show you this. It's the brainchild of my friend Penn. I was visiting with her a few weeks ago and bemoaning the fact that my paper ephemera is an absolute nightmare to organize. She suggested that I purchase a couple of literature sorters at an office supply store and then fit these recycled transparency boxes into it.

I sorted my ephemera into categories and then put them into a box and labelled the box. Now when I need something I can just reach over and pull out the box I need, get whatever I want from it and then just slide it back in! Brilliant! The sorter holds 32 boxes-that's alot of ephemera! Not all the boxes are full yet, but that's okay!
I purchased a new desk a few weeks ago and was able to reorganize that too. Now it is much more user friendly. I love the little metal flowerpots I found at Ikea. I thought they would work well for all the pens, markers, etc. that I like to have close at hand. I was even able to "decorate" them with some art magnets I had. If I get tired of them, I can always switch them out.



Okay so I know this probably isn't going to be too terribly exciting to anyone but me, but here's the digital tower fan I bought a week ago for my studio. I am in love! It's so quiet and has a remote control so I can turn it off and on, set the temperature and make it osculate without having to run over to it to do it. It even has a sleep timer and can be set to vary the strength of the breeze as if you were outside and the wind was softly blowing. Amazing!

Best of all, it's tall and skinny, so it hardly takes up any room in my studio. It's going to make being in here over the summer totally pleasant. We get full sun on this side of the house most of the day so if I didn't have this fan, I don't think I would be making much art!


Lastly, this is the new printer my husband purchased last weekend. It's replacing the old Lexmark I had. While the Lexmark still works just fine, it was HUGE and very expensive to buy inks for. One ink cartridge was $50! I do a fair amount of printing and it just wasn't happy-making to have to go and drop $100 on ink. Anyway, this one is smaller and it's still an all-in-one like the old one. I haven't tried the scanner feature on it yet, but I'll be tackling that on the weekend.

So...that's what I've been up to the last week or so-working on organizing my studio and getting everything ship-shape for summer. A huge THANK YOU to Lance for all his help and expertise. It turned out exactly how I had envisioned and I am just so grateful for his time and energy. There's no way I could have done this without him. He is my renovation hero!

Preparing for Summer!

Sorry-no pictures today! I did want to post though to say that the closet reno is almost done. With the help of my friend Lance, (do-it-yourself-er extraordinaire!) we managed to get 10 shelves installed and we only have the two long upper shelves left to complete. We'll be putting those in on the weekend.

I went to Ikea and bought some more boxes to hold all the bits and I am labelling them as I go. It's amazing how much room that's created and it feels so much better to know that soon everything will have a place and if I need something I can put my hand on it instantly! It's making me excited about summer and having time to do some art for me!

In other news, I am launching a new project with friends, a collaborative book. It's been awhile since I hosted one and I wanted to do something fun and interactive over the summer. I am looking forward to that too.

I've ordered a bunch of books:

1.Wide Open: Creativity Notebook & Card Set: Inspiration & Techniques for Art Journaling on the Edge by Randi Feuerhelm-Watts

2. Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith

3. Art Making, Collections, and Obsessions: An Intimate Exploration of the Mixed-Media Work and Collections of 35 Artists by Lynne Perrella

4. Taking Flight: Inspiration And Techniques To Give Your Creative Spirit Wings by Kelly Rae Roberts

5. Pasticcio QuARTz by Angela Cartwright & Sarah Fishburn

And some goodies from Papier Valise. I am getting stocked up for summer inspiration! I am not good with heat so I tend to hibernate during the summer and what better way to keep cool than to spend time in my studio playing? The new digital tower fan I bought is wonderful and it makes it so nice in here. I want to learn and grow over the summer. I want to experiment and see where my creativity takes me!

So what about you? What are YOUR artistic plan for the summer going to be? I'd love to hear!

Where in the world....

....am I? Truth be told, I am hibernating in my studio. Yes, the warm weather is finally upon us and I do not tolerate heat well. Right now I have every fan I own running because it's about 28C in the house. UGH!

My guys are away on a "male bonding" weekend together in the interior so I have the pleasure of four whole days to run amuck! Yesterday I went summer clothes shopping. I've rented a stack of movies only I would enjoy watching. (So far, the Great Debators was really, really good.) I am reading Gordon Ramsey's autobiography, which is really interesting. I am making whatever suits my fancy for meals. It's an odd little vacation, but a good one.

Tomorrow my friend Lance, who is my best friend Lisa's husband is coming over to help me do my closet reno. I figured it would be easier to do it when they guys aren't here so I could just pull everything out of the closet and stack it in my son's bedroom across the hall.

Lance has kindly volunteered to help me buy the right stuff, bring tools and help me get it ship shape in a matter of hours. He's great with do-it-yourself projects so I am sure it's going to work out fine. I will post before and after photos of the reno in my next post so you can see how it all turned out.

Lisa will be coming over after work tomorrow to watch a couple movies I rented that she wanted to see too so we're having a girl's night. Hopefully it will be cooler tomorrow because we plan to make pizza. I can't imagine turning the oven on if it's like this. If it is, I think we'll end up ordering in or BBQ-ing....

Tuesday, I am going with them to Seattle for the day and picking up my Flip Video! 3 more days! I can hardly wait! Question is, what to film about first?!?

Happy Victoria Day weekend to my fellow Canadians! Travel safe if you are on the roads and have a good one!

Scenes from Mother's Day

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day. Mine was spent being spoiled! We started out at Stanley Park. It was sunny, but super windy on the 3rd Beach side where we planned to walk the sea wall. (See the whitecaps?)Too windy to be a comfortable walk, so we drove over to the aquarium side of the park.

We decided to go in, which we only do about every 2-3 years as it's quite expensive. ($55 for the three of us!) We enjoyed it though-there was so much to see. I love the giant sea anemonies-the colurs are spectacular and they look like alien flowers. The unfortunate thing is, the glass is always smudged so it's hard to get good photos. I tried!

I enjoyed seeing this little octopus. They strike me as being wise somehow. There was a guy standing in front of this tank sketching him and he really was quite good.

Jelly fish! These are so cool. They float etherally in their tanks and it's so interesting to watch them-almost meditative.

Sea turtle! I was amazed at the size of this one. It was swimming around with the sharks and was perfectly happy. I guess nothing messes with a sea turtle! I didn't take any photos of the belugas this time though they are my favourites.

After the aquarium, we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory in Gastown for a late lunch. It's one of our favourite places to eat. I always enjoy looking at all the antiques.

Isn't this fun? I love the script they used on it. You should see the stained glass and Tiffinay lamps they have. There is a huge round piece of stained glass with an empire crown on it that they have backlit. It's amazing, but with the lighting being what it is in there, it's impossible to get decent photos.

Anyway, after lunch we came home for a bit and then went to the movies to see The Visitor which I really enjoyed. It's a beautifully written movie about illegal immigrants in the US, post 9/11. The story doesn't get tied into a nice little bow at the end as you would expect, which I liked. Life can be messy and it's refreshing when Hollywood can make a movie that makes you think but doesn't try to tell you what to think. It's worth seeing.

On the good news front, I am going to be heading down to the US in a couple of weeks with friends and I am getting that Flip Video! Yes indeedy! I can hardly wait!

On a final note for today, if you need a dose of eyecandy and soem food for though, check out the newly uploaded One Word Challenge pieces at Artsmiths!

The Mum's Song

This is for all us mums because...well...this is what we do every single day from the moment they are born. What cracks me up is the applause and cheering at the end. You can tell all the mothers in the audience loved it! Happy Mother's Day!

Scenes from My Studio

Chai, the best part of my morning. In my favourite cup, turned "backwards" so you can see the pretty flowers. (I drink left handed.) It's not just any chai, but the kind you buy at Starbuck's in the tetra pack, like this:

YUM!! I drink it alot and discovered that the best way to order it from Starbuck's is with no water. This makes your latte spicier, so you can actually taste the chai. I liken it to biting into a really good ginger snap cookie-it wakes your mouth up!

These lovely bits of nature came from where you catch the Keystone ferry to go to Port Townsend. Penn and I arrived there with plenty of time to beach comb, which is one of my favourite things to do, living here on the west coast.



I love how the white rock is so egg like. The other one had such a perfect and pretty band in it, I had to pick it up.The starfish I found in the tide line and it was completely and perfectly dried out. It's a faded orange colour. I thought it would look really cool in an assemblage, so I brought it home.



The big stick is like a gnarled finger and the small one has worm holes all over it. The roundish one is really pretty-I don't know how it was formed like it is, but it would make an interesting addition to some piece of work.





Speaking of work, this is a work in progress. I am still in the fiddling and adding stage, but it's coming along. I am pleased with how the background came together.



This is my new obsession. I *want* one!! Sadly, it is not available in Canada nor are the US retailers allowed to ship them here, so I cannot simply buy one online. I am hoping a friend might be able to bring one back. They aren't banned here-it's just that the manufacturer probably hasn't made a deal with retailers here to carry them. It seems insane though that I can't order one online though-whose stupid idea was that? I mean come on people-aren't we living in a global village? The Internet makes the world a much smaller place and it's just unfair to tease the rest of us with toys we can't get!

I am determined to get one though. If it had been available here, I would be gifted with one for Mother's Day tomorrow. My guys like nothing better than to buy me the latest gizmo. (Tip: Ladies-ask for tools and technology-you are guaranteed they won't mind shopping for it!) My son asked me what I wanted this year. I told him, so he asked me to find a source here to purchase it at, which was when we found out it wasn't possible. They won't be available in Canada till likely the end of 2008. *curses the tragedy of geography*

So yes, I *need* this Flip. I want to vlog! I have visions of doing fun stuff in the studio and posting it here. I want to shoot places where I go and show you how beautiful BC is. There's so much to share!

My Little Corner of the World

Copyright Tattered Edge 2008

So how are things with you? Yes, I really want to know! I have been having a bit of a break this week from most of my usual routine. I think I'm a bit bored. Okay, truth be told, alot bored. I'm the kind of girl who need to keep busy and when I am between things, it makes me very restless.

Fortunately, this week is spring pick up, which means I've spent the last few days busy spring cleaning and moving junk out to the curb. Not that we had alot of junk-I very carefully weeded most of it out prior to packing for our move-who wants to spend time and energy moving junk?! Mainly it was stuff that has either died or outlived it's usefulness.

The funny thing about spring pick up is everyone participates in this ritual. Then we all spend the week of the pick up driving around looking at other people's junk! Yes, it's like a giant curbside free for all. The rule is, if you put it out, it's fair game for anyone who wants to rescue any of it. There are scrap guys who come around to salvage anything metal. It's comical because one year, we put an old defunct BBQ out on the lane way and over the course of 3 days, it disappeared. First, the lid went. Then the next day the inner workings went. The final day, someone sawed off the body of it and all that was left was the legs. It was as if metal rats were nibbling on it in the night.

Occasionally someone puts out stuff that really should just go to a local thrift store. Once in awhile, you can find good art fodder. So far this year, I haven't seen anything worth stopping for. My son said one of the houses in the neighbourhood near his school put out a perfectly good DVD player. His buddy took it home and there was nothing wrong with it! One man's trash...

I cleaned out the closet in my studio which is about to have a bit of a reno. (The closet, not the studio.) I have a stack of stuff in the dining room that I am trying to decide what to do with-it's art stuff I haven't used, nor do I think I am going to. I wish I had sorted through those boxes prior to Artfest-it all could have gone to the art asylum. Oh well, I will figure it out eventually!

The studio closet is going to get some shelves built in shortly. My friend Lance was over last night and measured it. He's going to help me so I can maximize the storage space. As I think I've mentioned before, everything in the closet is in big boxes so any time I need something, it's always on the bottom of the piles and I pretty much have to empty the closet to get to it. It's driving me mad, so it's time to build some shelves. Then I can go through everything in the big boxes and sort them into much smaller (and prettier!) boxes with labels and shelve them. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's wasting time looking for things. I would rather spend my time making art than looking for what I need to make it!

Today I am off to Vancouver to teach little kids at an elementary school. I've taught there before. The school is an old one and reminds me of my elementary school. It's stone and 3 stories and situated right in the middle of an old established neighbourhood. It's all stairs so I always have to think about what I am packing and taking with me for my class because I have to carry it up and down 3 big flights of stairs. Art is not for wimps! *grins*

So what's happening in your world? Do tell!

Here, There & Everywhere

Bloggity, blog, blog, blog! I feel like I have been posting all over the place in the last week and indeed, I have! In the interest of "keepin' it fresh", I want to remind you about two other sites where I post.

First off, there is ARTSMITHS, which is a wonderful group I belong to with an amazing group of incredibly talented and kind hearted women. Right now, you can learn more about one of them, by checking out our Artist of the Month interview. This month's shining star Tiffini Elektra X. For those of you who don't know Tiffini (or TEX as we like to call her), my first experience with her was an amazing one. You can read all about it here. Deb, who does all our Artist of the Months interviews came up with some wonderful questions that will give you some great insight into Tiffini's work.

We are also in the midst of a group challenge called ONE WORD. Each artist is creating a piece of art based on one word that describes them. To see which word they chose and the art that resulted, visit the Artsmiths blog and click on the "challenge" listing of our archives. New art will be uploaded as it is completed.

The other blog that I am posting at right now, is Hannah Grey's Diary. As the design team completes work, the projects are uploaded to the blog with instructions and links to the products in the Hannah Grey shop. There is quite a bit of new stuff to look at and lots of inspiration, for FREE, so be sure and check it out! I've got 3 designs uploaded so far (including the one pictured above) and more in the works. Each of the projects is categorized as mixed media, paper arts, jewellery, assemblage, collage, etc. so it's easy to find the eyecandy you're looking for.

I just wanted to also take a moment to say THANK YOU to everyone for their kind words about the clip. I loved doing it-it was fun and it always makes me incredibly happy to share what I love (art) with whomever wants to learn about it. It was especially nice to be able to share the experience with my son, who went with me. I think it gave him a better idea of why I love what I do so much.

15 Seconds of Fame

So here at long last, with Farrell's help, is the clip from my TV appearance in January where I talk about ATCs. It seems longer watching it than it felt actually doing it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it-it's about the one and only time you will see me on the internet!

Blessed

This morning, the magical mail box held my birthday gift from Deb & Deryn. When I opened the package and held Deryn's beautiful work in my own two hands, it took my breath away.

This piece of peerless artistry was created especially for me and I feel so incredibly blessed to have friends who wanted so much for me to have something like this. If you would like to see images far better than mine and learn about some of the symbology of it, please read Deryn's posting about it here.

I wore it today and it made me feel so loved and protected and special. I can't thank Deb and Deryn enough for this incredible gift and I want them to know I am deeply grateful and will treasure it always. *happy tears* I will wear it often and think of you two each time I do.

Namaste my friends, namaste. xo

Free Eyecandy & Tutorials!

Good Morning everyone! Just a quick post to let you know some of my designs have been uploaded with instructions to the Hannah Grey blog. You will want to bookmark it as the design team will be uploading new projects fairly often and it's a great source of inspiration!

Happy surfing!