HappyDayArt!

Yeah, I'm packing but I still have a day and a half

and I got side tracked again and I had to show you all.  

The last time I mentioned Traci Bunkers, I had visited her blog and seen that she was experimenting with making double exposure photos with her Polaroid Pogo printer (and a second post here).  Wow!  What a great idea!  

So today I was charging my pogo because I want to take it with me on my trip and I started playing with it.  I printed one set of photos and then found other photos that were complementary to each and put my paper back in there and printed the new picture over top of the other one.  These are some of my results:

 

Click on each to look closer and to compare.

 

 

that's my foot while I was walking on the sidewalk (above) and the next one is of cherry blossoms in full bloom on the tree and a swatch of graffiti up close

 

 

this next one might look better if I outline the word 'grace' with a colorful pen

 

a fantastical make believe scene with my silver rabbit and some holographic metallic wrapping 

 

the house in the next one is from a wine label

 

the flower was from a greeting card

 

the next one is a photo of a dahlia and the other photo on it is of shallow water on the beach

 

 

the same shallow water but with an amusement park carousel (above)

another shot of the carousel with the teeny peony grid (above) and some lace (below) with text as the second print layer

 

and then my very favorite after I altered it to B&W in iPhoto!

 

Aren't these interesting?  These are the first ones I've made and I am going to practice combining photos.  

And I have to explain that I noticed that you can get SD cards for your camera on Amazon and they are really cheap!  So I bought about six of the 2GB size.  Big, but not too big so that if anything goes wrong you don't lose too many photos.  But here's my reason.  For the Pogo you either need a camera connected with the little cable that comes with the camera that has a USB connector on the other end or you need to get your photos sent by "bluetooth".  My little Canon camera has a connector and so when I take photos and after I have uploaded them to my computer, I go back to the camera and decide which photos are good to use as stickers or little collage sheets in the future and then I keep those good photos and erase all the others that don't work, like the ones where the subject of the photo is too small or too dark or I have to crop to get a good composition.  If it isn't a perfect shot, I toss it.  Then I keep taking photos on the SD card until my whole card is full and I no longer have any pictures I want to delete.  Those are my little image libraries and a pool of photos that can be used to print from your camera any time.  I label them and keep them in a safe little pouch. 

Good idea right?  Yeah, it's worth some exploration.

WAIT!  There's MORE!  OH my!  Go see this video these guys have made while manipulating their pogo photos.  I can't believe it.  Things are moving soooo fast, I am barely keeping up.

Wrapping things up before the end of the school year and a big trip

isn't as easy as I thought it would be.  If I thought I could just turn my creative mind and hands off like I could when my kids were small and they were my priority, I was mistaken.  I am having a hard time switching my mind to a slower gear and resetting myself to a new course but I've made many lists and I keep refocusing on my tasks and the next thing I have to do . . . with many side trips along the way. 

Like for instance I had to put all of my supplies away after my last teaching job when the boxes came home.  But then I got side tracked into a journal I was making and a journaling class, and making charms for a swap.  Then I took an  online writing class from Stephanie Lee and that was also about journaling.

Are you wondering why I got so interested in journaling?  It's because I want to know more about myself, express myself better and learn to be more open and also learn new ways of being with my family, my friends and in my creative life.  It's very important to me that this isn't where it all ends.  I am so lucky to have such a good life with health, happiness and comfort.  And yet, at 52, I still like change and I want to be open to what the world will offer me next.  I want more.

I have no idea what it is right now.  I think I would like to stay in present time and not daydream so much about what I wish would happen.  I want to keep my eyes and mind open and then when I see it and feel it I'm going to POUNCE!

In the meantime, I've planned a great trip with my daughter.  She's 16 and on the verge of exploring the world on her own.  Before that happens I want to take her somewhere and show her some things and talk to her and see what she thinks.  I want to find out how she feels about it all and maybe give her a couple of my words, give her my confidence in her ability to sail into her own life.

In a way I think I've been telling her these things all along but without words.  I've also been really wrapped up in my own jobs and making cycles, some of which have been doozies. 

A good friend of mine told me that I was doing it right, even though sometimes I have doubted I was paying enough attention to my family because I was so immersed in what I was working on that I even felt guilty about it.  I think that happens to most mothers but I'm not sure because I only know about this and myself.

Here is a doozie of a cycle that I was in over the last two weeks:

Stacking Rings

a drawing

 

 

 

 

appliqué

 

texture

 

serendipity!

 

☀

 

Argentium Blob Link Chain necklaces

20 gauge and 18 gauge with tiny charms

 

clasp detail:

 

charm detail:

 

earrings to complement the design:

 

Beaded Cuff with a Spiral Clasp

Plain cuff after I built it and hammer textured it:

 

and then I beaded it:

 

 

 

I thrive on the ideas I get.  They are like gifts from the Universe.

Gracie and I are going to Europe on Sunday!  We'll be gone for 3 weeks.  The guys are staying home and we watched "National Lampoon's European Vacation" a few nights ago and my husband said to us "that's why we aren't going with you".  That was so funny!  You really had to be there but if you've seen that movie, you know.

I've got almost everything planned out, hotels, trains, some restaurants are already booked.  For London, I got tickets to the "London Eye" and the "Victoria and Albert: Art & Love Exhibit" at the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace.  Oooooweeee!

I got us some comfortable walking shoes and adapters for our iThings.

After that we are going to go to Paris by train and staying in a little apartment in the Marais neighborhood, then from there Venice by overnight train and we are sharing a little cabin and we get a wake up call and arrive in Venice first thing in the morning.  Staying on the thin sliver of beach they call the Lido.  Then on to Florence for a couple of days and Rome for the last 4 and then home.  It's the longest I have ever been gone from my home.  We are going to do it right! 

We both have medium sized rolling suitcases and they are labeled.  I am taking 3 journals because they are all different.  One is small and just for words.  One is my heart journal and the other one is an old book with yellowed pages that I got from the flea market and I am going to draw in it.

And then because I know this about myself, that many times I live in and for the future, I made some plans for my return.  I believe you should always have something to look forward to and I believe that it's what keeps us going.

 

I've signed up for this amazing class at the Mendocino Art Center for the second week of August.  The instructor is Dana Driver and she lives up near the Art Center.  I want to learn what she knows!

And I want to learn how to cut and polish my own stones.  I want to learn how to carve my own stones.  I have seen some people using carved stones in their work but I can't find any in a reasonable price range.  So I guess I'll have to make them myself!

Anyway,

I'll be taking my iLectronics on my trip and post some photos and things I think are interesting and great that you might like to hear about.  I hope everything goes well for you this month while I am gone and I hope that you are feeling like you have something to look forward to as well.

Please keep in touch!