Files and Journal Organized

With all the organizing going on around here I thought I would organize my office papers.  I had all kinds of papers just piled up and crammed in the shelf that now houses my important studio tools and supplies.  So they had to go somewhere.  I now have a filing system going for all my papers, like hubby's JoonBuggy shop, my future I Spy shop, my poems and songs, my novel notes (yes, one day I plan to write a novel - with my sister), short story notes, sketches, photography, and so on.  Here's a peek into my file folder.

Wow, it's so organized I almost don't believe it's mine.  I also had lots of scraps of short poems, little doodles, and word and craft ideas and inspirations that needed to go into my journal.  I cut them all out and taped them down or just wrote them into my journal.  I got several pages done, but here are four of my favorites.

Lino Cut Owl

With sales slowing down to a hault in my hubby's Etsy shop, JoonBuggy, I decided to give buyers an incentive to purchase books from our shop.  I will soon be introducing a print of my owl lino cut as a freebie to those who buy any book from his shop. 

This is the sketch I started with.  I used carbon paper to transfer the drawing to the lino surface.  I had to stop when I was half done and start over again because I forgot to transfer the reverse image to the carving surface and I did not like this guy as well in reverse.

Here is the lino halfway through the carving process.

I finished the carving and did a test print, but I really need a good brayer.  I have spots in each print that have less ink, and I also have places where the ink fills the carved lines.  This is all because the brayer I am using is a cheap plastic brayer that is very uneven.  It even has a few indentions in it.  Yikes.  I also forgot to sand the protective coating off the linoleum before I got started which causes the ink to kinda pool up on the surface.  Next time I will make sure to do more research before starting a project with an unfamiliar technique!

Here is the finished carving and a (sorry excuse for a) test print.

I believe I can make this work with a good brayer.  If not I will recarve this cute guy again.  Live and learn, right?

New Painting

No posts since February?  That's horrible isn't it?  Well I have been very busy though and have lots to share with you.  I am in the process of decorating my house on a very, very tight budget.  So most of the items I add will be hand made or thrifted. 

If you go back among my posts you will notice my first attempts at pillow making.  These sad creatures have been put out of their misery and their fluff transplanted into new ones.   I will post on these soon.  But first, here is a peek at my latest painting.

I needed a center piece for my living room, so I bought some canvas and went to work.  Thank you Hobby Lobby for 30% off sales!  With no home church and no job I have felt like a plant pulled from the roots and drug around by some weirdo gardener who isn't sure where to put me.  So roots have been on my mind.  And cities.  Always Jerusalem, beautiful and new waiting for her decent to her proper place in our world.  So I knew I wanted a city with roots in mid-air.  And since I have traveled abroad twice, both times landing in Frankfurt, Germany I decided to use her skyline as inspiration for my levitating city.  I typed "frankfurt, germany silhouette" into the google machine and did an image search and did a rough sketch of the coolest one I saw.  It is by Luigi Di Serio and you can find it here - scroll down and it is the third photo. 

Here is my sketch and a color test.

I am glad I used the color test as inspiration, but found this picture did not go as planned.  Funny how that happens, huh?  But I am pleased with the result.  Here is a photo of the tri-panel during the third layer, the addition of the city silhouette.

And the finished project. 

I think it almost looks like a battleship, what do you think?