Garden Delights Gala – new arts & crafts!

My yearly gala – Garden Delights Holiday Gift Sale & Art Show, is the first 2 weekends of December this year! The Show is at my art studio on December 7-8 and 14-15, 2019, from 11 am to 5 pm – or by appointment at your convenience.

I’m proud to show my photos and mixed-media artwork & crafts, and also upcycled creations, where I bring fresh life to paper and fabric. Also hand-knits and fabulous felted creations! Fashionable fingerless mitts keep your hands cozy during mild winter weather … …

… NEW! Upcycled bags from sweaters and such …

Fancy knitted washcloths …

… pair with George’s soaps for a great gift …

Please stop by to relax during the holiday rush, enjoy snacks, and chat. Never any pressure to buy, but if you’ve got a list I’ve got a wide range of handmade and original-designed gifts, for yourself and for friends and family – including pets!

More new this year – George’s exquisite handmade 100% natural beeswax candles, including two sizes of tapers, from our honeybees’ wax. Read all about them at my article.

Jewelry, wearable art, purses, cards & prints, boxes, home decor, beeswax candles, and more! Our honeybees bless us with delicious honey, which many people swear helps their pollen allergies.

Want a postcard reminder sent to your mailbox, or would you like to drop by at a time that’s more convenient for you? Email me. Can’t make the show or want to see my artwork online? Click these links:

• Website
• Artfire Gallery
• My blog
• Zazzle shop
• Facebook

Save the Date! Holiday Gift Sale & Art Show

My yearly gala, the Garden Delights Holiday Gift Sale & Art Show, will be the first two weekends of December, so please save the date! If you want a postcard reminder sent to your mailbox email me your address.

The Show is at my art studio on December 1-2 and 8-9, from 11 am to 5 pm (or by appointment).

I’m so proud to show off my new photos, designs, and mixed-media artwork and crafts, and just as excited about my upcycled creations, where I bring fresh life to paper and fabric destined for landfill.

Come see my handmade bracelet cuffs, purses, phone and e-reader holders, all from fabric books and silk neckties; and envelopes and other paper crafts I make from outdated calendars and books. I’ve also been busy assembling kits and supplies for paper and fabric artists and crafters, ideal as a gift for yourself or for anyone who loves to create mixed-media, collage, book, and mail art.

Stop in to relax during the holiday rush, enjoy snacks, and chat. Never any pressure to buy, but if you’ve got a list you’ll find a wide range of handmade and original-designed gifts (for yourself and for friends and family – including pets), at all different prices.

Jewelry, wearable art, purses, cards and prints, boxes, home decor, books, beeswax candles, and more! Our honeybees blessed us with a great harvest of delicious honey, which many people swear help their pollen allergies.

And a new batch of soap – plus Honey Kissed lotion and lip balm, handcrafted by George from our honey and wax!

Can’t make the show or want to see my artwork online? Click these links:

Website

Artfire Gallery

My blog

Zazzle shop

Facebook

New Necktie Upcycling Class!

Hot off the press — a new online class, Upcycling Neckties Into Bracelets, first in my series of downloadable tutorials on upcycling at CraftArtEdu.

Create gorgeous bracelets from neckties! All you need to upcycle the swoon-worthy silky fabric of an unused tie into a unique bracelet is needle and thread, scissors, and a button, velcro or snap.

My 30-plus page tutorial takes you step-by-step through the entire process, with 60 full-color closeup photos showing you exactly what to do.

Learn how to size and sew the bracelet (no advanced skills or tools needed), plan ahead to maximize use of the rest of the tie, choose which of 4 closure options works best for your bracelet … and much more.

With many extra tips — about the care and treatment of ties, using a sewing machine if you have one — and more. I even give you leads on where to find ties to upcycle — no stealing your husband’s faves!

Warning – you’ll quickly become addicted to making these bracelets!

But after you run out of space on both arms to wear your favorites, start making more for friends and family, they’ll love your handmade gifts!

Click here for my CraftArtEdu main page.

Here are links to my other CraftArtEdu classes, each with its own free preview:

Taking Great Photos of Your Artwork & Crafts

Taking Great Photos With Your Smartphone

Decorating Wood With Image Transfers

Fabulous Fabric Postcards

Handmade Pet Collars

Inkjet Printing on Fabric

Inkjet Printing on Lutradur

And my free basic classes:

Inkjet Inks: What You Need to Know for Your Artwork and Crafts

Introduction to Lutradur

 

 

 

An Evening of Poetry and Jazz with Jack Marshall

Jack Marshall, nationally- recognized poet and a resident of El Cerrito, will give a reading of his work to inaugurate the City of El Cerrito’s new Poet Laureate Program and to celebrate National Poetry Month in April.

A live jazz performance will accompany Marshall’s reading, to be held Tuesday April 12th from 7 to 8 pm, at the El Cerrito Public Library, 6510 Stockton Ave.

Born in Brooklyn to Jewish parents who emigrated from Iraq and Syria, Marshall now lives in El Cerrito. He is the author of the memoir From Baghdad to Brooklyn and several poetry collections that have received the PEN Center USA Award, two Northern California Book Awards, and a nomination from the National Book Critics Circle.

The City’s first Poet Laureate will serve a two-year term from September 1, 2016 to August 31, 2018. The Poet Laureate Call will be released during national poetry month on April 1, 2016. Interested? Click here to get more information and to find out how to submit an application.

The Evening of Poetry & Jazz is sponsored by the El Cerrito Arts and Culture Commission and the Friends of the El Cerrito Library.

Deconstructing Linda’s Air Mail Letter

I found a very important book from 1964 buried in a box at a book giveaway.

“Linda’s Air Mail Letter,” written by Norman Bell and illustrated by Patricia Villeman, is in the “Follett Beginning to Read Book” series at the first to second grade levels. However, even at my grade level I found the book absorbing; in fact I couldn’t put it down and have re-read it several times. The plot is fast-paced, with unexpected twists and turns, and the author utilizes character development to reveal universal Archetypes. Linda awakens with a fever one morning, and her mother (we are not given her name, thus she is “The Mother”) runs into several obstacles when trying to get help. The telephone doesn’t work, the back door is stuck, and a water pipe is dripping  Oh, and Linda’s father is “away on a trip” (“The Absent Father”). To keep Linda busy while over-worked Mother (presumably without the assistance of “Mother’s Little Helper”) attempts to run the household and deal with the above-described communication and infrastructure breakdowns, Mother suggests that Linda read a book or write a letter. Choosing the Active over the Passive, Linda, in her letter to “Anybody”writes about her angst: “I am stuck here. I cannot get out” and describes an archetypal familial dynamic: “My father is away on a trip. My mother needs help.”

Mother is too busy to give Linda clear direction on how to purchase an air mail stamp, so, empowered to use her imagination, Linda sends her letter out the window. Helpful Wind blows it all the way to the Post Office, where a postman picks it up. The back cover offers a concise plot summary.

In the end, all is well (a comforting lesson for the young readers of 1964, which we now perceive as an iconic Year of Upheaval). Spunky, fledgling feminist Linda informs Father that “Everything is all right now. Some things were out of order. But I fixed them.” As all Fathers do, Linda’s requires an explanation, and Linda, emerged as a successful mail artist, states: “Oh, I just wrote an air mail letter. It fixed everything!”

I am troubled that a mere four years later, “Linda’s Air Mail Letter” was branded an “Obsolete Book” by the South San Francisco Unified School District, pursuant to section 9701, 1, (g) of the California Education Code.

Perhaps, though, we can see this as a liberation and Rebirth – the tale of Linda being released from the confines of the School Library and sent out rather into the hands of “children and residents of the district,” much as Linda sent her letter out the window.

Little Free Library and Art Gallery

Our Little Free Library & Art Gallery is finally up! It has been a long journey since we first heard about the Little Free Library movement more than 2 years ago. It took us a while to find just the right old battered piece of furniture to use for the Library, and then we had to adorn it. Also, as an artist, I wanted to give away some of my work along with books, so we needed enough room for that – we ended up using the top shelf and an old real estate leaflet box that we hung on one side for artwork, crafts, prints, mail art and poems.

For decoration, we upcycled old, discarded book covers and other treasures scavenged at our city’s recycling center’s Exchange Zone. As with all of the artwork I make from repurposed materials, I’m only using books that are torn up or moldy so they’re beyond being read. This is the top.

And here’s the inside. We covered the two bottom shelves with discarded game boards. At the back of the top shelf we added an old framed mirror, so people can see themselves along with the artwork when they look in!

To the front we added an old brass door handle and old covers from books with … (of course) our names.

Inside the door we adhered an old leatherette photo folder, and I designed two signs to insert into it …

George consulted with Dora, our neighbors’ hen, regarding whether we would have enough copies of “Chicken Little” or “The Little Red Hen” to keep up with demand.

Our LFL&AG is evolving, and we love thinking up new things to add to it. Please stop by to visit if you’re in the El Cerrito Calilfornia area! We’re registered on the Little Free Library site as number 18978, and will eventually show up on their map.

Inkjet Printing on Fabric

I mailed one of my new no-sew fabric postcards to a Postcrossing friend in Italy. In her profile she talked about her passion for creating handmade things including sewing and découpage, and said that she’s always looking for new techniques. 

Wood hyacinth fabric postcard

When she got the postcard she asked for the link to my blog to find out more about printing on fabric. I found an old post that gave an overview but not much concrete info, and it’s high time for me to give you a full-fledged post with the basics of my favorite art process. After you read this if you’re itching to learn more, please check out my Inkjet Printing on Fabric ebook or online workshop.

Printing on fabric with your inkjet printer isn’t hard, but knowing a few things before you start will save you lots of time and money. There are two main components: your printer and the kind of ink it uses, and the fabric you’re printing on.

First: inks. To get the lowdown on the difference between dye and pigment inkjet inks and why that matters in printing fabric, go on over to CraftArtEdu to watch my free basic workshop about inkjet inks. Or here’s the really quick version: dye inkjet inks are not colorfast or waterfast, so they fade over time and run when exposed to moisture. Because pigment inks are colorfast and waterfast, they are by far the best option for printing on fabric.

Dye ink prints: colors fade and shift

Second – you need to choose what kind of fabric to print: (1) untreated, (2) fabric that you treat yourself, or (3) pre-treated commercial fabric. There are pros and cons for each, and what you want to use the fabric for is a factor, but in this post I’ll tell you about commercially pre-treated fabrics, because they’re the most versatile and give the best results for most purposes.

Untreated vs pre-treated fabric

Pre-treated fabrics are backed with paper or plastic to stiffen them so they’ll go through your printer without crumpling up and jamming your printer. You want the fabric sheet as flat as you can get it so the edges don’t catch as the printer heads go back and forth, which can make the fabric shift or leave ink on the edges.

There are a lot of different ways to flatten fabric — some tips: try curling it the other way by hand, flattening the sheet under a stack of books, or ironing it.

With so many pre-treated products to choose from it’d get expensive fast to sample them all to find the ones that work best for you. I advise starting out with a few that let you buy small quantities so you can test and compare. I’ve tried most of them, and my favorites for printing with pigment inks are Cotton Satin and Cotton Lawn by EQ Printables. The fabric feels wonderful and the quality of the print is great. In my opinion the plain EQ Printables (the package says only “Inkjet Fabric Sheets”) is not worth the money, so make sure the packages are either the Cotton Satin or Cotton Lawn. I also like June Tailor’s Colorfast Sew-in Inkjet Fabric. It’s stiffer than the EQ but the print quality is great and the stiffness can be ideal for certain projects: I use it for some of my fabric postcards and a lot of my home decor creations like fabric vases and bowls, covered light switch plates, etc.

Fabric vases

After printing all you have to do is remove the backing from the fabric sheet. If you’re using pigment inks there’s no need to heat set or wash; you can use it right away in your sewing or other art projects. However, even though the fabric will feel dry to the touch, it actually takes quite a while for pigment inks to thoroughly dry. If you don’t need to use the fabric right away you’ll get best results by putting it aside for a week or so.

That’s it for the basics! If you want to learn more this is the link to my blog post about my ebook “Inkjet Printing on Fabric.” My website has a page with links to all of the different options to find my ebook, including the kindle version where you can see a preview of the book.

 Or click here to go to my online workshop on CraftArtEdu, which also includes a free preview.

Lars art quilt, made with different kinds of printed fabric

Book Review: How to Start Marketing Your Art, by Tamara Holland

My pal Tamara has written a sweet new ebook, How To Start Marketing Your Art: 100 DIY Tips. It’s the much-awaited sequel to her first book, How To Start Making Your Art Your Business: 100 DIY Tips.

Tamara is a wonderfully creative person who brings her positive energy and generosity to both her life and her art. I loved the book and definitely recommend it. I posted a book review on Amazon, and wanted to share my thoughts with you as well.

If you’ve read my blog for a while, you know that Tamara is a friend of mine, and that she has been the sales rep for my greeting cards. I also profiled her in my book about selling artwork and crafts online. I pointed out in the Amazon review that although I’m not objective about Tamara-my-friend, the fact that I also write books and lead workshops about selling art means that I take very seriously my responsibility to be objective in my recommendations on this topic.

With that disclaimer, I wholeheartedly recommend Tamara’s ebook to anyone starting out in the difficult business of marketing their art. Most artists are not natural-born salespeople, but Tamara makes this subject which many artists find either foreign or even distasteful seem if not fun at least manageable. She breaks down what can feel like an overwhelming subject into do-able tasks, and offers a great variety of creative ideas for people to pick and choose what best fits their personality, abilities and situation. It’s also a great refresher for people who are already doing their own marketing but could use some new ideas and an infusion of Tamara’s infectious positive attitude.

Although it’s comprehensive and offers a wide range of marketing topics, there’s no “fat or filler” in this book. It’s focused and to the point; Tamara doesn’t waste your time with unrealistic suggestions or goals. And the generosity and cheerleading attitude that Tamara advises artists to adopt in their marketing shines through the entire book.

Tamara is refreshingly up-front about what her book is, and who it’s for. If you’re starting out and committed to doing-it-yourself art marketing, her 100 tips are invaluable. They will save you a lot of time and money re-inventing the wheel, and will point you in the right direction to do deeper research into the tips that fit for you.

Transfer This! Free Workshop at Flax Art

I’m beyond excited that Flax Art & Design, the fabulous art store in San Francisco, is having me put on a free workshop demonstrating my favorite products, Transfer Artist Paper (TAP) and Lutradur!

I’ve told you about both products in many blog posts (see my list below). TAP is my go-to heat transfer paper, the best I’ve ever used. TAP allows you to easily transfer crisp, colorfast and washable images to almost any surface with your household iron. You can inkjet print, paint, stamp, or draw images onto TAP for a variety of amazing effects.

Lutradur, which I’ve also written extensively about, is a spun-bonded polyester that combines the best qualities of fabric and paper. It’s a fantastic medium for mixed media as well as for artists looking to add a new level of texture to their work.

I’m a demonstrator and teacher for C&T Publishing,makers of TAP and Lutradur. In this free 2-hour lecture/demo at Flax, I’ll show you the entire process – from creating an image on TAP to successfully transferring it to Lutradur. I’ll bring a wide variety of samples to show you the endless potential that these two products make possible, and to spark your creativity and imagination.

The free workshop is March 15th, from 1 to 3 pm. Space is limited, so sign up today to reserve your spot! Call Flax Art & Design at 415.552.2355, or click here to sign up online.

Want to know more?

Check out my book: Inkjet Printing on Lutradur.

CraftArtEdu class: Inkjet Printing on Lutradur.

CraftArtEdu class about using TAP and other heat transfers onto wood.

And here’s a list of my blog posts about Lutradur and TAP:

Egret in flight lutradur art quilt

Transfer artist paper on lutradur

Photos on wooden boxes

Evolon and Transfer Artist Paper

Transfer Artist Paper on cotton

Digital collage on art board

Image Transfer to Wood

More on lutradur, Digital Ground and TAP

Wingspread Mixed-Media Art Doll

Printing with Golden’s Digital Grounds on Lutradur

Butterfly Bliss mini-art hanging

Upcycling Books into Art

How do you feel about altered book art? I know it’s controversial and discussions about the subject can become heated. I’ve been reading a lot of books about using books for art, and am interested to find that they all contain an explanation, with varying degrees of defensiveness, of the author’s philosophy.

My take is definitely colored by my nature as a lifelong book-lover. Growing up, the inevitable answer to my parents’ question, where’s Heidi? was “in her room, reading a book.” After early jobs in fast food joints, I started my “real” work-life in libraries after graduating with a degree in English Lit. My current law job involves constant reading, and now my answer to George’s question, where are you? is still pretty much the same.

So it probably makes sense that when I first found out about altered book art it made me squeamish. I understand other artists’ philosophies, but I still would not be comfortable tearing up, painting in, or cutting a book in good shape that someone else might want to read, for art or craft. My increasing interest in upcycling, defined by Wikipedia as “the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value” has helped clarify my personal stance.

In my recent blog post “Mail Art Pen Pal” I told you about upcycled envelopes I’ve been making. Here’s one from an old calendar of botanical drawings.

Out-of-date calendar pages are ideal for upcycling into collages and other mixed-media artwork, or to use as wrapping paper. And similarly, I’ll use books that other people would not want to read – those that are headed for landfill or downcycling because they’re unreadable, ripped and torn, scribbled in, or outdated but not historically significant.

I made this set of envelopes from a 1990 Thomas Bros’ book of maps, not old enough to be valuable vintage ephemera and too old to be relied upon by the few people around who don’t use Google maps or have a smartphone or GPS!

I’ve been gathering books that fit my strict criteria at the El Cerrito Recycling + Environmental Resource Center, 8501 Schmidt Lane, El Cerrito. Along with an award-winning recycling program, the Center houses an “Exchange Zone,” where people donate and take home “reusable and gently-used materials.” There’s a big dumpster filled with newly-dropped off books to scrounge through, and many are also shelved in a vague sort of order by volunteers. If I’m not sure I’ll hold it up and ask George “would anyone use this?” He has the final word.

We’re also very lucky to live near another wonderful resource, the Bay Area Free Book Exchange, where you can take any book for free (up to 100 a day!) and also donate books. According to the Exchange’s website, they currently have “approximately 10,000 free books in [the] store, and have given away 406,010 books since May 2009. All books on all of the shelves are free for the taking. If you are interested in donating books, you are welcome to drop off during our business hours, Saturday & Sunday 9am-6pm.”  The Book Exchange is at 10520 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito.

Since my artistic focus is using my photographs and the images I create from them in my artwork, I’m just very slowly starting to use books in my mixed-media pieces.

I found some pages from an old ripped-up French/English piano music book for children. Leafing through it, this page for “Le petit oiseau / The Warbler” jumped out at me. I chose several of my bird photographs and arranged them on a blank canvas in Photoshop Elements the same size as the sheet music, which I cut down slightly so it would fit in my printer. It went through with no problem. Printing on untreated paper doesn’t look the same as on paper that’s treated for inkjet inks, so the colors are a bit muted and the resolution isn’t as sharp, but I like the effect on the aged paper and with the musical notes running through the images.

I love the idea of honoring old books that were once loved but are now tattered and torn, by using them in artwork. And re-using old paper saves a sheet of the new.

Interested in finding out more? These are two of the books I found at the San Francisco Public Library: Book Art : Creative Ideas to Transform Your Books– Decorations, Stationery, Display Scenes, and More, by Clare Youngs and Playing with Books : the Art of Upcycling, Deconstructing, and Reimagining the Book, by Jason Thompson.