Head's Up!

(Hands belong to my UBC Health Mentors Program students & I.)

Yesterday was so busy, I didn't get a chance to post here and let you know that my first post (which is about the NMO advocacy work I am doing) is up at NMO Diaries! Be sure to bookmark the site if you'd like to follow along!

Exciting News!

Hi Everyone! I hope you had a great long weekend!

I can finally share with you some exciting news: A few weeks ago, I was invited by three amazing women, Jenna Drolet, Erin Miller and Christine Ha to join them in writing for their blog, NMO Diaries. The invitation came as a complete surprise and I was very pleased to humbly accept. The official announcement is on the blog today and my first post will be up next Monday. If you'd like to follow along, you can find us here. 

29 Days of Magic

I'm gearing up for another fabulous course with Vivienne, which starts in a matter of days! I am so excited about Montage, which is about working with video and stills to tell your own story. I'm a little nervous because this is a bit outside my comfort zone, but I'm excited to learn new things. The desire to learn new things always trumps the nervousness though, thankfully!

Meanwhile, I've been working on a few more photographs. The one above was taken at Burnaby Village Museum. I loved the look of the prices poking up inside an old cash register. I took this one while I was there for the End of Day Celebration. Once upon a time, I was a volunteer tour guide there while visiting BC on summer vacation. It was fun because I got to dress up in 1920's costumes every day for a month and teach people from around the world about local history.

This shot comes from the Downtown East Side. Vivienne recently held a class at Opus (a local art store) on double exposures and I discovered the lane ways nearby were full of graffiti. You'll remember me saying that my new benchmark for true friendship is that a real friend will say "YES!" when you say "Let's go shoot in a filthy alleyway." Curiosity also trumps trepidation.

May has been such a crazy month. I feel like I've lived 1000 lifetimes in the span of the last 29 days. Seth commented the other day that I must feel changed. Yes, in many ways I do. I'm still processing everything I learned and thinking about the important stuff. Really, it was almost too much goodness to take in at once.  

Yesterday was also a wonderful day. I had the pleasure of meeting Andrea Bundon, who is a PHD student at UBC. She launched a blog about disability and sport, called Athletes First some time ago, as part of her research. I've been following along, learning alot from the posts and people's responses and I've commented myself from time to time. Andrea asked me if I would be willing to do an interview with her about the my participation on her blog and what my thoughts were on a number of topics related to disability and spot. I was happy to help.

It turns out she's an incredibly interesting and lovely person and I had a great time having a very thoughtful discussion with her. It's always wonderful when you connect with other kindred spirits! (She's also a prairie girl!) I came away feeling like I'd learned so much and I'm excited to see where her research takes her. Andrea has kindly invited me to do a guest post at some point and I'm really excited about that!

Funnily enough, my day wasn't over after Andrea and I talked for 2 hours. Tiina, who is working the the MS Society's local chapter contacted me last week asking if I would be willing to do an interview. They want to feature me as a member of distinction on the MS Society website. So...there was two more hours of interesting conversation with Tiina who is also lovely. It was wonderful spending time with her.

I feel deeply grateful for everything that has happened in my life in the last 29 days. At times, I feel kind of emotional about it. Like I said, it's been alot to take in and I'm still processing. It will be good to turn inward for the next while and work on Montage. I think the timing is perfect.

Catching Up!

My last Petite Swap box arrived! Isn't this cool? It's was originally part of a box for a Parker Brothers Game of Palmistry. I've never see that before. Marlene knew I was into hand themed things so she hunted down some very cool goodies for me.

 See?! Things with the letter L, washi tape, hands, lots of red bits, silk ribbons and buddhas. Yummy!! Thanks Marlene! That was great fun!

 Meanwhile, I am still sick and struggling to find the energy to get back to work in the studio. Over the weekend, I had a bunch of the self portraits I've created printed. I had them done in 2 x 3 size, which was essentially a 4 x 6 with two prints of the same image on a single print. I just had to cut them apart. It was very inexpensive-66 photos for $7 and that included the tax.

I love this size-it's perfect for sewing into a ROD or doing a collage to frame. I've got 2 sets to work with, but I am torn about what I want to do with them. I'd like to make a book, but I kind of want to wait till the end of the year and have ALL the self portraits printed so I can have a year's worth in the book. Doesn't that sound cool? I mean how often do you get to have an entire year's worth of photos of yourself, taken of you BY you?! And artsy ones at that?

The other idea I am mulling over is also to have a giant frame with a black mat and to mount the images in grids. That would be so amazing on the wall. I don't think I would use all the photos, but pick the best of the bunch and mount those. Ikea has some pretty big frames that would work.

This is the stack I have to work with so far-it's 33 photos. I didn't print all of them-there were a few I missed accidentally, so I'll add them to the order for next time. Next time will be after July, when I've finished taking Light Hunters. I am sure I will have another tidy little stack by then. Who knew I would be so smitten with photography? Certainly not I!

I've also been writing like a mad woman for the new Someonelikeme.ca/Commemoi.ca  MS website and blog, which I told you about on Wednesday. I've been working on posts for my assignment there so I can stay ahead of the game. It's been good getting into the groove of serious wordsmithing again. Don't worry though-I won't be abandoning my blog. Would I do that to you? No way! This blog has been chugging along since August of 2004 and this post is number 1,270! That's alot of posts in almost 7 years! It's crazy to think that I started blogging in the dark ages, before most people were blogging, never mind artists!

Yes, I still have plenty to share, so I'm not going anywhere. Back with more soon!

World MS Day 2011

Copyright Lelainia Lloyd/Tattered Edge 2011
(Created in honour of World MS Day.)

Today, May 25th, 2011 is
World MS (Multiple Sclerosis) Day.  

I have some news I wanted to share with you. Today the Canadian MS Society is launching a new website targeting the needs of young people from the ages of 15-25 who have been diagnosed themselves or have had a loved one diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

Someonelikeme.ca/Commemoi.ca will include blogs, an online discussion forum and inspirational stories shared by a number of writers from across Canada who know what it's like to live with this disease. I am very pleased to share that I will be writing for the website on behalf of British Columbia. I'm honoured to have the opportunity to be involved in this important initiative.

The site is now up and running and content will continue to be added in the coming days. I've submitted my bio and my first blog post so those should be available shortly. If you're an adult who knows a young person affected by MS, I'd appreciate it if you'd help spread the word.

This N' That

I've been quite the last while because I've had my nose to the grindstone working on various projects, some of which were due this past weekend. One was the book project, which I posted about recently. The other was an article, which has gone off to be published. Busy, busy!!

This week, I've been working on a pair of shoes, which will be going to a gallery in Venice Beach, CA, to be part of a show in September. I spent the last 10 days trying to track down the perfect shoes to work on. It took some doing, but on Friday, I struck pay dirt! They're about 3/4's finished already. (I've been inspired. YAY!) I'll post photos when they're finished.

In other news, for those of you who've been paying attention over the years, you've heard me mention my friend Penn alot. She's my art partner in crime. A good number of us have nagged her off and on for years to get a blog so she can share her genius with the world. Well...out of the blue on Friday night, I got an email saying she'd done just that! I've linked her on my side bar-she's Radiant Crust. Now all I have to do in get her to upload some pics of her work! You'll want to add her to your blog roll-she's a great artists and all around wonderful person!

On Sunday, I bought this book for myself, after looking at it several times. (Which by my estimation, is a good sign that I need it to come home with me!) I don't know that I will write in it, but I like the idea of it. I got it mostly for inspiration purposes. I like lists!

And lastly, Sherri Lynn Wood of Dainty Time asked for some mantras to put up on her travel trailer. I shared one of the ones I always share with my students about making art: "There are no rules!" Apparently, posting this on the back of your trailer and tootling down the I5 brings surprising results. To see what I mean, you can read about it here. It's amusing to think my consciousness was being spread far and wide on her vacation.

Okay, time to get back to work here! Deadlines are looming!

From A Humble Eraser

This morning, I had the wild hare to carve some rubber stamps. These are the two I made from some small, dollar store erasers.

I used my Speedball linoleum cutter tool. It has all the different sized blades neatly stored in the handle. It's a relatively cheap tool to purchase-I think I spent a grand total of $13 CDN on mine.

I like how primitive and folky they turned out.

It took me awhile to carve them, as I have no feeling in my hands, but it was relaxing. I listened to my iTunes while I puttered.


There's something very satisfying about making your own stamps. I want to make more. It really isn't all that hard and if I can do it, so can YOU!


If you need a really good tutorial I recommend Gennine's. Penn pointed me in her direction and if you don't know about Gennine's blog, you should!

Remember the wonderful funky tea mug I bought from Starbuck's as a birthday gift to myself? Well that was my inspiration. I just couldn't resist! Now I can stamp it into my journal and anywhere else I please!

If you get inspired to carve yourself some stamps, let me know and I'll link ya! The more eyecandy, the better. *wink*

Artist, Beware!

Last week, my friend Jen asked me to tea so she could pick my brain about getting into the artist biz. I immediately said "Yes, buy me a Starbuck's and I will tell you anything you want to know!" I believe strongly in mentoring. What good is having success in life if you can't pass on what you know to someone else?

Besides which, I think that success is always a shared thing-no one gets where they are without the help of others, whether it's someone who supports your decision to express yourself, or the person who gives you good advice, the person who helps you with the grunt work or someone who inspires you to follow your dreams. No one gets where they are without support-look at any of the big time awards shows-there's always a long-winded thank you speech that comes after a win!

Anyway, Jen and I spent quite some time talking about various aspects of the biz and one thing I talked about was branding. Alot of what I know about branding I learned from my pal Deb Trotter. Deb's done a ton of research on what artists should know about building a name for themselves. What I know, I passed on to Jen. Still following me? Okay now I'll get to the crux of this post:


It's come to my attention that someone out there on the world wide web has decided to take the name "Tattered Edge" and start a blog.

On Sunday, I emailed her and politely explained that I had spent a long time building my business and my name. It's out there in the world-I've taught, designed and published under this name. I gave her the benefit of the doubt that being new to blogging (her blog was just started this year) she probably didn't know that she should have at least Googled the name to see if anyone else was using it. Had she done that, lots of hits would have clearly shown her that Tattered Edge is synonymous with Lelainia Lloyd.

When she replied, she told me that she had changed the header on her blog to read "(her name) 's Tattered Edge" and figured that would suffice. I explained that that wasn't really what I meant when I encouraged her to change her blog name. I told her that if slapping your first name in front of someone else's business name was okay, I could go around calling myself "Lelainia Starbuck's" and expect the Starbuck's company to be okay with that. We all know that's not going to fly! Well, she didn't seem to like that an made some snide remarks about me not being kind. She said she thought the art world was a friendly and welcoming place. Well it is, if you have respect for other people and don't try and take what isn't yours and try to pass it off as your own.

Thing is, I am not disputing her right to have a blog. More power to her! I just wish she'd have the good sense to stop using a name I've worked so hard to build. I've been blogging as Tattered Edge since August 2004-anyone who looks at my archives can see that as plain as day. I was blogging in the dark ages of blogging when most people didn't even really have one, much less mixed media artists! It really irks me that someone would do this, be called on it and then have the bad taste to try and make me feel like I was in the wrong.

When I shared this with friends, Jen was quick to say how ironic this was, seeing as we'd just discussed the whole concept of branding and how it works only days before. I guess I forgot to mention the part where you have to deal with this sort of thing. What I want you to know this experience is not specific to me! Sadly, I've known several friends who have fallen victim to this same sort of thing. One friend has a self portrait image swiped off her blog and used in the form of greeting cards on Etsy. It took several cease and desist emails from her and a number of her friends to get the seller to stop.

Another closed down her Typepad blog, the address of which was her name and someone stranger quickly swooped in and snapped it up. This meant that all the traffic that belonged to her-people who were looking to her blog for art-were tricked into viewing a blog bearing her name that had morphed into a site selling stuff, using her name. It had nothing whatsoever to do with art or her personally and there was nothing she could do! She frantically emailed everyone she could think of that had linked to her blog and asked them to disconnect the link, but the damage had been done.

Yet another friend has recently discovered that art is being marketed and sold bearing her trademark. She has posted info on her blog so that people can be sure the art they are buying is indeed hers so the money they are spending is not supporting the person producing the knock offs.

So yes, there are people out there that are doing these kind of things, some of them unwittingly and some of them on purpose, but it's affecting our community whether you've been aware of it or not. I honestly don't know what we can do to stop it, other than to back one another up when it does happen and to be aware ourselves so we don't inadvertantly do the same thing to someone else.

So...if you see something like this happening, please let the artist know and when you make a choice about a blog you visit, or the art you buy, when in doubt, check with the artist to make sure it really is the person you intend to be supporting. If there's no support for knock offs, (be it blogs or actual art) then hopefully it will fizzle and die on its own, as it should.

The good news is that, as my friend Penn always tells me, I've got a very distinctive style and anyone who reads my blog or sees my art knows me in an instant. What you see here is always 100% pure, authentic Tattered Edge. Accept no imitations!

Making Change in the World

Charm for TTB-"Love Lifted Me"

I wanted to share with you that a project I participated in, Ties that Bind, which is a fundraiser for ovarian cancer, has reached another mile stone. The doll, which was being made from a series of altered ties and handmade charms is now complete. If you click the link on my sidebar, you can read the latest post about the project. You may also click here to view the photo album of the doll in all her glory.

Charm for TTB-"In Honour of Gilda Radner"

What is most incredible about this piece is that this doll stands almost as tall as a person! When I was working on my charms for the project, I was thinking it was only about 12 inches tall. I don't have a clue where I got that idea. It's impressive that doll artist Jan Brown was able to create such a cohesive piece, given the scale of the project and the wealth of materials involved.

The doll is on its way to be photographed for publishing and then it will be raffled off. 100% of the profit goes to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, in support of their mission to help ovarian cancer patients and their loved ones. Be sure to keep an eye on the Ties that Bind blog if you wish to buy tickets for the raffle. I am sure they will be announcing it before too long.

In other news, I suppose I should say a word or two about the fact that if you attempt to visit my website, it is no longer. Yes, it's true. After much thought, I decided that in simplifying my life, that was one thing I could let go of.

My feeling is that while I had lots of visitors to my website, my blog is by far easier to keep updated. To contact me (other than by commenting here on my blog) you will find my email addy with my Blogger profile. I am not 100% impressed with the blogger profile template, so I am working on figuring out a way to alter it to suit me. (Meaning my profile would contain important info, not just trivial things like what kind of music and movies I like.)

I am hosting all my art photos on my Flickr, which you can access via my sidebar. One of my Flickr albums contains all the books and Zines I have been published in, so if you are looking for that info, that's where you will find it.

It's a work in progress, but I think it will make it much easier to keep on top of things. My philosophy is that if a thing is worth doing, then it's worth doing well and I think in this case, less is more. It was time for a change and I am embracing that opportunity.

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.

Holiday Preparations

Copyright Tattered Edge 2007

It's amazing the things you find when you are unpacking. These guys were in a tin I had forgotten about. They're little wool ornies I made and then stashed. I also came across a collection of artsy Xmas ornies from friends that I have collected over the years. I guess I should look for some sort of small tree for in my studio to hang them on.

Speaking of decorating, when American Thanksgiving rolls around, I always get a twinge of envy. Not for the Thanksgiving itself-I am perfectly happy celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving, which falls in the first week of October. No, the envy comes from having a pre-set, socially acceptable day to kick off the holidays. I always think that US turkey day is like the starter's pistol going off at the beginnign of a race. "And they're off!!" They know once the left overs are safely tucked into the fridge they can begin the shopping, decorating, card writing and all the 1001 other detail of Xmas with a clear conscience. Most Canadians will put off all this stuff until absolutely necessary. If anyone has lights on their house before December 1st, their neighbours think they are freaks!

I have already entertained the thought several times as to whether or not I should suggest getting our tree. I am afraid if I bring it up any time before the 18th, my husband will grumble. He thinks the tree should go up on Xmas Eve and come down on Boxing Day. LOL! I personally don't mind putting it up, I hate taking it down! And of course ours will be a real tree. My son actually asked me what kind we would get this year, as if there were any question. I told him we live in a province known for forestry so why on earth would we have a fake tree?!? EWW! If I am going to have a tree, then it had better smell like a tree-that the best part about it!

Oh and for those of you who were wondering, the sneaux was indeed gone come Monday morning-we had a rain storm that washed it all away. The roads are bare now, if not a tad icy in the mornings, but yesterday I went out in the evening in only a hoodie, so that tells you what the temperatures were like. Most of the time, it's not terribly cold here.

I have been busy with family visiting and staying with us this week, so I haven't had much studio time. It's back to work today! In the meantime, if you want some artsy inspiration and excitement, please check out the new Artpub Blog. There's plenty to keep you entertained-free images, give-aways and all sorts of other good stuff. On my little corner of it, I've posted shared some ideas about my approach to goal setting, just in time for the new year. This blog is not going anywhere-this is my main blog, but I will be posting from time to time on the new one and the content will be unique to that blog. You'll want to bookmark though, it so you don't miss anything!

There is also alot going on over at the 12 Days of Xmas exchange blog. We begin opening our gifts next Wednesday and will share what's inside one by one. Apparently, I've started quite a trend-there are similar projects popping up all over the place.

Okay, time for me to run-I want to pop into my Post Office and see what goodies are waiting in the magic mailbox this morning. I have 5 more gifts that should be arriving any minute now. Laters!

Good Things

So today I am the Guest Star over at the Rare Bird Finds blog. I just love this blog-it's like a daily dose of eye candy, kitsch and window shopping (or real shopping if you can't resist) all rolled into one! What more could a girl ask for? I subscribe through an RSS feed, but you can also just bookmark their blog if you like. Click the pic to see my Fab 5 Friday picks. I posted about some of my favourite artists and the wonderful things that you can buy for your very own. Thanks for having me Mei-Lynn & Sharla!



In other news, I am excited that some of my work will be published in the new year. Can't say what or where yet, but it makes me incredibly happy. It's something that is very near and dear to me.





Today's magic mail box yielded a whole package of Paper Artsy rubber. In addition to this plate, I also got a whole pile of the minis. I see lots of designing in my future...if I can just unearth my stamp pads from the chaos. Somewhere there is a box full of them hiding....

A Randomati Post

There are a couple things I wanted to share with you this morning. First of all, the talented Stephanie Lee has just joined the blogging world. Her new blog is called Semiprecious Salvage. Stephanie made the pendant shown above. It was the piece I bought at this year's Artfest. I just love it! Go check her out!

The other things was that I just received my copy of Portals Zine, issue #5. It's jam packed full of great articles and wonderful art. Heather has also added some tutorials for making mixed media charms for those of us who can't get enough of those little handmade trinkets. If you haven't checked this publication out yet, you have no idea what you're missing out on!

On a completely random note, on the recommendation of my best friend, I rented a series on DVD called "The Lost Room" and started watching it last night. Here's the synopsis from the official website:

"In the 1960s, there still were hundreds of motels with thousands of rooms along Route 66 as it twisted its way from Chicago to L.A. and back. None of them stood out from the rest until one day when some unknown event at the Sunshine Motel transformed ordinary things into items of wonder.

Room 10 of the Sunshine Motel and many of its mundane contents — a pair of scissors, a comb and so on — gained unique and inexplicable properties on that day, transforming them from ordinary objects into indestructible Objects.

The Scissors can turn and rotate any item in three dimensions. The Comb stops time for 10 seconds when you run it through your hair. The Eyeglasses inhibit all combustion in a 20-foot radius. The Room itself is an unchanging haven and a portal to any destination. But it can also take that which you value more than your own life.

To possess an Object is to possess its power.Using each Object exacts a physical, emotional or psychological cost from the owner. Just holding one makes you a target for murder. For decades, maybe since the first moment that the Motel Room was ripped from this reality, cabals have formed to collect all the Objects.

As always, some just want unlimited power, and they believe getting all of the Objects will give them that. Others want to prevent anyone from ever again using the Objects.And though their motives vary, the cabals' tactics are similar. It's said that while you have one of the Objects, you have no friends, only people waiting for an opening."

Police Det. Joe Miller was introduced to the Motel Room when a fatally shot young man gave him one of the most powerful and coveted Objects of them all: the Key to the Motel Room. His life is immediately turned upside down when his young daughter becomes lost in the room. In his relentless quest to rescue his little girl, Joe becomes the target of shadowy figures who will stop at nothing to take from him his only hope of saving her — the Key.

You can learn a bit more about it here. I was hooked about 20 minutes in and now I can't wait to watch the rest of the episodes. If you're looking for something to amuse you during the TV wasteland that is the summer, rent it! It reminds me a bit of "Heros", which I love. It's fantastic!