My studio threw up in my work space

AAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Downstairs Upstairs and Two Jacks

Went downstairs today and made a Jack-in-the-Box.

 

 

 

 Then I went upstairs and created a pumpkin-head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack-in-the-box and Jack-O-Lantern

creative in other ways

 

I'm feeling a little "saturated" today. I should be working in my studio, getting work done for my last show of the season. (Rochester Museum & Science Center Holiday Bazaar) But I wasn't feeling "it" this morning. I've been working on these little date magnets for my Advent calendars for the last 4 days now and I'm getting a little burned out. Or saturated.

 

 

So I went out to mow the lawn. Then I broke the mower.

Now what??

On my way back into the house to figure out what to do next, I passed my wagon full of ripening tomatoes plucked from the garden just before the last frost and suddenly knew what I was going to do next!

I would cook up the ripe tomatoes, along with some peppers, including some habeneros I bought last weekend at the farmer's market and then freeze it to use as a chili or soup base. And just like my artwork, this idea evolved.

It tasted wonderful and had quite a spicy kick to it! I only used 1 habenero, but I also used some fresh jalepenos and a tiny hungarian pepper from the garden. I decided instead, to make some black bean dip.

 

After simmering the tomatoes in olive oil with onions and fresh garlic, I added sea salt, some pickled jalepeno juice, and (yes) cinnamon and sugar. Added to that, 3 cans of black beans.

 



 

This delicious concoction is now simmering to perfection and I feel as if I created something today ~in my kitchen, if not in my studio.

 

Now I need to go get some tortilla chips!

 

 

 

 

 



BCA Project Update

Yikes! Now I'm stymied!! I am suffering from artist's block, probably brought on by the deadline for this project being August 15th if I want it photographed.
Well, this is what I completed 2 days ago. I added a vintage faux pearl choker to which I added a vintage trim of glass beads, probably from a Flapper's dress!
I affixed a stone heart to a rusty metal heart and stuck that on with some glue and some rusty wire. Vintage lace was added to the bottom and a mix of different shades of pink and white sequins were glued to the breasts.

Hopefully, I'll get an idea or 2 today. I guess if I didn't get any more ideas and didn't do anything else to it, it could be done. But in my mind, it is not completed.

Breast Cancer Awareness Project

These next couple of blog entries will document my progress with the Impact Artists Gallery Altered Perceptions: A Journey of Strength and Courage project. 80 artists were asked to donate their creative imagination with recycled PVC mannequins. These mannequins will then be exhibited, juried, with the 30 best printed on a poster for sale, and finally, put up for bid in a bidders' live auction.

First, I made a plaster cast of the PVC mannequin. The top is then decoupaged with dress pattern tissue paper. The bodice is painted with pink, acrylic paint.

So far, I've glued tiny, square glass and stone tiles left over from one of my husband's construction projects across the top of the bodice. I affixed the stone heart to a rusty metal heart and affixed both with wire and glue to the form. 2 vintage drapery tie back tacks have been added to the center of each breast and a line of m.o.p. buttons embellished with rusty wire has been created down the center of the bodice.

That's all for now!

Sidetracked

I thought this blog would be titled, "Two Done", but on Monday, when I was downstairs in my studio working on yet another "Alice in Wonderland" inspired piece.(which is another 'story' in itself) I got distracted. I was looking for something to help complete the piece when I found a little altered doll head I'd made some time last year. (Ooh! Something shiny!)
I pulled it out and then went to find a piece if wood from my collection of Cape Cod beach finds to mount it on (because that was the idea I had for this head). I pulled out the wood, placed the tiny head in it and determined it wasn't going to work the way I thought it would.

From there I grabbed a small Victorian Era photo pin back of a woman, stuck that to the small piece of drift woodand just kept on going with it. Eventually, I had something and decided it was going to look best in a shallow black box. Ooh! And so would this other idea that just popped into my head, so why don't I paint two boxes black as long as I'm getting the black paint out...By the time the afternoon was over and it was time to get the kids off the bus, I had completed two really cool pieces of artwork. Except the one I was trying to complete is still downstairs, unfinished, and awaiting my undivided attention. Maybe tomorrow...

(Wow! After I published this blog, I saw how awful these pictures are! They are so grainy! And not by design. : (   

I'll have to retake them and repost them another time. I'm not Blog Savvy enough to know how to remove them.)

New work, no title

New artwork, but I don't have a name for it. Any ideas?

And sometimes it IS pretty!

I've had this match safe for a while, not really knowing what to do with it. While I was working on creating some nests for another project, I suddenly got the inspriration to turn the match safe into a garden.

It's available now in my etsy shop

http://www.rustybuittonstudio.etsy.com/



Works in Progress

If you read my last blog entry, then you know I had a fantastic last show and practically sold out. I've been busy working in my studio creating...

Nothing is actually finished yet

Everything needs a few finishing touches

I'm anxiously waiting by my mailbox for some of Lisa Jurist's wonderfully hand dyed sari ribbons to add

When I'm not by my mailbox getting soaked by rain or road spray, I'm in my studio

Trick or Treat!

On a heavier note, my husband starts his chemo tomorrow. And its a rough one. Five days in the hospital, then six days outpatient. Off for about a week and then back at it again. We could use your prayers...