Cake the day after...

The Birthday Bash was a ball, and the cake turned out great, if I do say so myself. I took a lot of pictures and will put some up later today.

Thanks to Lena and Berkeley for your input and work.

More Cake

Two of us got a pretty good start on the Birthday Cake project last Friday. Yesterday I went to Tacoma to take photos of the museum building and elsewhere around town. Had a bit of a setback when I got home and couldn't get the pictures to upload tot he 'puter. Apparently it has decided not to recognize the camera as a bona fide piece of equipment. Couldn't figure out what was wrong, and it was too late to do much about it so I took the evening off. Today I went to Bartell's and got the pictures on a disk, so now I'm Photoshopping and printing. All of which is boring as can be, I'm sure, but mostly that's an update for folks who might be wondering when we'll be working on it again...and that will be tomorrow, Wednesday, in the evening. (I might be there during the day...call first.)

Let's (not) Eat Cake!

The Tacoma Art Museum has called for non-edible Art Cakes to celebrate the 5th anniversary of its beautiful permanent home. I'm pretty busy with that for now, but I'm not sharing any details yet. Will post pictures after May 3. Meanwhile if any of you regulars want to come by this evening or some other time (call me) to work on it please do. We'll make our own party out of it!

Three of us had a nice quiet evening on Third Friday, sitting in the studio watching the blizzard. I do love that big wall of windows, even if I have to go to some lengths to keep the sunlight off the Stuff at times. It was beautiful.

Bras, Gelatin and Cats

Here are a few pictures from recent Art Parties in Room 206. Since Packing Tape Shoes I've been having fun with Packing Tape Bras; that's Berkeley and moi making gelatin prints, and those are some of Berkeley's wonderful Phone Wire Kitties. I'll see you all later, right now I have work to do.

First Tuesday tonight...

Sorry you folks on the mailing list didn't get a reminder this time...seems it came around awfully fast. Anyway - yes, the studio will be open to anyone who wants to drop in. It'll be a bit of a potluck this evening; we will be looking at samples and considering ideas for the next few gatherings. We might get started on Hats or Cats, or you can certainly come and cut rubber again (or for the first time.) Michelle Ward's April Art Crusade involves making stencils, and I have materials and tools to explore that as well. Come be Foolish!

See you after five.
Liisa

Time to Eat Words...

...your own or someone else's! Yes, tomorrow is International Edible Book Day. I am not making this up. IEBD is the creation of Judith A. Hoffberg and Béatrice Coron (a favorite paper and book artist of mine). Look here or here if you want to know more.

Rubber Fun

We had three people at Third Friday carving rubber stamps; Laurie, Lena and moi. First time for both if the other "L"s. Lena made a pretty little flower pot and left it behind at the studio. (If you don't come next time I'll bring it to you.) Laurie carved an image of birds...very cool. Reminds me of the Bremen Town Musicians. She has already posted a link to Michelle Ward's blog; rubber stamps is the theme project for the month of March. (I'll be going over there in a minute.)













I carved something I've been wanting/needing for a while: a fancy corner stamp. It turned out to be best to do it in two parts, that way I could cut the first side freehand and then stamp it on the rubber to get the other half. Does that make sense? The two halves can be stamped next to each other too, to get an interesting decorative element. Does that make sense? Well, the picture may help. Then I did a simple border that looks like little smiling Shmoos. My favorite thing to carve is heads/faces so I had to do another (shown here with some colored pencil embellishment), and then I carved up a few of the scraps that were left. Those turned out to be almost the best...they go together in all sorts of surprising ways. Typical. All in all a good evening, although the less said about the little bird, the better.

The rubber we used is called Safety-Kut ( yeah, I know, dumb name) and it's available online from the manufacturer. It's heavy stuff and the shipping really drives the price up, so if you can find it retail in your area you're better off getting it that way. In Seattle it's cheapest at the University Bookstore, but Daniel Smith has a better selection of sizes that I like, so I usually go there.

Home again.

We arrived late last night, and spent today (Thursday) getting back into the swing of things, and napping, and calling people. It's been quite a month and a half. We thank for your emails and words of encouragement during this stressful and sad time.

It feels good, if a little strange, to be back, and I am looking forward to Third Friday tomorrow - I need a project. I've missed my studio and my friends. Laurie mentioned rubber stamp carving, inspired by Art Crusade #18. Yes, yes...I love carving stamps, and what a great idea for a Friday evening! I went down to Dan Smith today and picked up a big slab of rubber and some extra Speedball #1 blades, so anyone who comes tomorrow and wants to can carve stamps. It really is easy - well, you can make it as difficult as you want to but it isn't necessary. Simple is wonderful - and easy. Even if you aren't interested in carving go visit Laurie's blog. It's full of beautiful things to look at and read. (That IS a very cool red purse!) And if you are interested in carving stamps, then check out Art Crusade #18. You may want to participate.

That's all for now... see you soon. I need to tall you about The Wedding and about Reading Frenzy and about the Best Coffee I've Ever Tasted. And I have a few words of advice for everyone who wants to listen. Now, if that isn't enough to get you to come back, I don't know what is!

Recent events

We've had an unexpected illness and death in our family and I've been, and will continue to be, out of the loop for a while. First Tuesday (the 4th) and Third Friday (the 21st) are on for March. It'll be good to see some folks. Take care.

Is it really February?

Well, yes. It is.

So - packing tape shoes led to packing tape other stuff...most recently brassieres formed on an old mannequin torso that lives in the studio and gets dressed up for holidays. So maybe this year she'll just have holiday lingerie. And now I'm thinking of Myra Breckinridge. Damn!

This is going to be a short post; last night I encountered the seamy side of my lovely Christmas present from Gordon. Suffice to say that the cabbage wasn't the only thing effortlessly sliced in pursuit of dinner. It's not that bad, no professional attention needed, but my queasy side just knows that if I move my left hand too much my whole arm will fall off and then I won't be able to drive myself to the studio tomorrow. And tomorrow is First Tuesday, the Valentine Edition. Can't miss that. Unfortunately I have a million things I wanted to do today. Oh well.

My mom renewed my zoo membership for my birthday again! The price of admission has gotten pretty high; now I have to go only three times in a year to make it worthwhile. I love feeling free to go there for just a few minutes, say hi to the grizzlies and then walk home again. And maybe I'll do that right now.