Halloween costume: Medusa Headdress

My daughter wanted to be Medusa for Halloween, so I made her a snake headdress. I used large gauge floral wire and some green fabric to make seven stuffed snakes. I sewed the wire to the seam allowance at the head of the snake before turning it so the wire was inside. Then I stuffed the snakes with polyfil and sewed the opening closed. I also sewed some of the fabric close to the wire.

I built a frame by wrapping more floral wire around my daughter's head--and leaving enough wire to adjust it later as the snake tails would add bulk. The photo shows how I would wrap the snake tails around the headband. But first I needed to paint them.
I painted them with acrylic paint mixed with a fabric paint medium. When the snakes were painted I set the paint by steaming them with steam from the iron.
I sewed on little beads for the eyes. The tongues are leather cord, cut at the end to make a split. (the tongues were inserted in the initial sewing)
And here it is, a dramatic Medusa headdress with snakes that can be adjusted. My daughter loved changing their positions.

Sweater make over

I haven't posted in quite a while--but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy with creative things.

I had this chenille sweater, which while pretty, was also shapeless and a solid color. So I decided to make it fancy. I took it in at the waist to give it some shape, and then appliqued butterflies cut from a fleece print to it. Then I stitched down the applique with embroidery thread and added embroidered details. Below is the basted design on the back.
Design basted to sweater front.
Embroidery.
finished back.

Extreme Makeover: T-shirt

I haven't been doing much 2-D work lately, but I have been working with fabric. When I went to the San Mateo County fair, I saw some t-shirts that had been re-styled and I thought, Oh I could do that with some of my old shirts. So I started with these two. One was from a school my kids no longer attend--back in Texas, but I like the design. The other was a sleeveless shirt. Just not as necessary in the San Francisco Bay Area as it was in Texas; I rarely find a good day to wear it. So I decided to combine the two.
I cut the design off the T-shirt, and put it on the sleeveless at an angle to add more interest. Then I cut sleeves from the body of the T-shirt. I edged the sleeves with a roll hem on the serger using a contrasting red thread to pick up the red in the design.
Then I stitched in the sleeves.
And Viola! a cute "new" shirt.

Fish Mobile

The fish mobile is finally finished. I haven't been working on much flat artwork recently but I've been working on 3-D and clothing projects. This is one that I've been working on for a while, doing bits and pieces as I go along. My daughter has an ocean themed room--and got an idea for a fish mobile with ribbons on it to be like water. But I ended up making my own ribbons from fabric which came out more like seaweed, or jelly fish tendrils.

Here is a close up of the fabric and some of the beads.
This was the first layer put on the framework. I used a floral wreath framework, which has several layers of wire for support.
I started by creating the fish, one at a time over a few weeks. This was the final fish I made.

The orange fish was the first fish I made.

Illustration Friday: Gesture (and frustration)

It started with a delightful book I'd made at a FABMO workshop. I'd layered in tissue paper in the book--and so I did a gesture drawing of my cat on the white page, and a line drawing on the tissue paper over that.

But then it got more complicated--I really liked the idea of the overlay, and I wanted to translate that to my blog post. And then I got frustrated. I didn't have the right tools to easily make an animated gif, and once I finally figured that out, I discovered that Blogger doesn't support animated gifs--and the only way to get them on there was a complicated work around which involved getting an account I don't already have...

So, reluctantly (and somewhat defiantly) I took my dear hubby's advice to take a break. When I came back I decided to try from a different angle--I would make a movie. So I did that. Started to make a post--and then wanted to add in the photo--and I couldn't get to the photo upload screen. So I saved the post to try a different browser--only when I pulled up the saved post: there was nothing there!

Big sigh that I finally got my post up--almost the way I want.

Garden

I have garden envy. My mom has lived in the same house for 31 years. And in the course of that time she, (with my father’s help) has built up lovely gardens. She belongs to a garden club and they get together and discuss flowers, and living in the Southwest: drought.

I’ve moved five times in the past five years. I currently live in a rental house, with a postage stamp yard and mature landscaping. (more like a postage stamp with a house shaped hole in the middle…) But the yard includes some beautiful tree-sized rosebays that occlude the privacy fence. And earlier we had Pride of Madeira spiking up. And one tomato, and one zucchini valiantly struggle in pots on the driveway.

My husband has plans to build an aquaponics structure. It is like hydroponics plus fish. The funny thing is aquaponics doesn’t qualify as organic gardening, because the fish manure is fresh! But aside from a small scale experiment that was dismantled, once the roof overhang shadowed the window from the summer sun, this is still locked in his head.

But then inside my head is a garden too. I've planted ideas: some have grown, some have blossomed, and some have withered on the vine. New ideas flit in and land briefly, like a humming bird, and flit off again--not even disturbing the branch. Were they even there?

Illustration Friday: Remedy

It has been quite a while since I responded to an Illustration Friday prompt. I had started waiting for inspiration, which wasn't coming. When I started doing IF, it was a sort of practice. I would do an illustration even if I didn't have inspiration. Then life got in the way.

So this week's topic "Remedy" reminded me of Rescue Remedy: a homeopathic treatment from flower essences. I'm still not sure where I stand on homeopathy, but there is something pleasant about the idea of essence.

I've been reading Karen Maezen Miller's book Hand Wash Cold: care instructions for an ordinary life. She is a Zen priest. And whenever I read about Zen, my ego starts getting uncomfortable. And all the work I've been doing around my identity becomes Important. But being reminded to stop judging helps me sigh a little and let go. And wouldn't my identity be more comfortable just living in my ordinary life?

Maybe I should start practicing something again, but maybe I should be practicing nothing.