Inspire Me Thursday - Copycats

This week's prompt for Inspire Me Thursday is "copycats". I've been experimenting with image transfers, so I thought I'd share a couple of examples. For these transfers I used art from Dover, which I printed on plain paper on my laser printer, and applied it with Golden Gel Medium to some formica sample chips I found at a local home improvement store. Most of the color you see here is the formica showing through, although I added some Prismacolor pencil accents and some rubber-stamped crackling to the one on the right. I had planned on adding some gold leaf to both, but after an extensive search of my supplies, I couldn't find my metal leaf. After I seal these I'll probably use them as tags for collage.

Ladder of Success

This is the small fused quilt I've been working on, although it's not yet quilted. It is constructed entirely with fusible web (no stitching here), and measures approximately 7-3/4" x 15". In the next few days, I'll be fusing it to cotton batting and quilting it by machine. I used some of my hard-to-part-with hand-dyed fabrics for this piece. I don't know why it's so hard for me to cut into those fabrics, because I can always make more. I think I'll call this one Ladder of Success.

My niece Tara is already climbing the ladder of success. She graduated from 5th grade today and received at least 7 awards (I stopped counting). Certificates nowadays are a lot prettier than when I was a kid! She was also the only graduate who made the A Honor Roll the entire year, which was a pretty big deal and earned her a big blue ribbon.

Class of 2007

Here’s my niece, Amanda, a proud graduate of the College of Art and Design at Louisiana State University. She’s pictured here with her roommates, Anne and Kim. I drove over to Baton Rouge with family members last Thursday night, and we returned on Friday evening after graduation and a late lunch. This is the year for family graduations. Amanda’s sister, Sylvia, graduated from high school yesterday in Huntsville, and her youngest sister, Tara, will graduate from 5th grade tomorrow in Mobile (yes, they’ll have a ceremony!).

And speaking of ceremonies – my friend Joey earned his black belt in Tae Kwon Do on May 12th, in West Chester, PA. And he’s not even 11 yet! The photos were provided by his very proud mom and my dear friend, Dottie. In the second photo, Joey is 4th from the left in front. Congratulations, Joey!

Although my schedule has been pretty tight, I did find some time last night to work on a tiny fused quilt. I’ll post a photo of that later. For now, I’ll just share a stack of hand-dyed fabric that’s been waiting patiently since last spring to be used in projects. Most of these were dyed with the recipes from Ann Johnston’s book, Color By Accident. Others were my own recipes, based on experimentation and pure luck.

Circles

This is my very first submission for Inspire Me Thursday. The creative prompt this week is circles. I love circles, so I thought this was the perfect time to join this challenge. This is a photo collage of two images -- a huge,industrial sculpture I saw on a roadside in Pensacola, and coreopsis from my garden. I liked the idea of combining nature with a hard, man-made surface. I may have to take this natural vs. industrial concept a little further.

Ooh La La!

After a very long sewing and craft drought, I finally finished a bag that I started last summer. It was very easy to make, but I made a cutting mistake that I didn’t notice until after I’d already done some sewing. I wasn’t motivated enough to get out the seam ripper, thus the long delay in getting it finished. I used the Ooh La La pattern by Kathy Fernholz (Indygo Junction), and it’s available at Joggles. For the fabric, I just pieced together a bunch of wide strips (from some plaids and stripes I bought years ago at the Painted Pony in LaPorte, TX), crinkled the stitched piece, then embellished on my machine, mostly with a triple straight stitch, until I was sick of doing it. I still have some of the embellished fabric left, so I see a tiny bag in my future! Actually, this one isn’t very large -- just big enough to hold a wallet, cell phone, and keys. The original plan was to have a bag that coordinated with a favorite green top, which I’ve already been wearing without its matching purse.

Ooh La La Bag

Detail

On the list of items to complete: a vinyl tote bag to carry files and other business-related stuff; a velvet bag I started almost a year ago, when I wanted to sew and didn't feel like ripping out the Ooh La La bag; and a drawstring pouch for Dan's saxophone swab (yes, unusual, but he's been requesting it). Then hopefully on to some painting and mixed media.

Now off to the kitchen for a baking project to satisfy my sweet tooth!

Welcome!

Lenny da Vinci

Welcome to my new blog! On these pages I’ll be showing you samples of my creative work, sharing my inspiration, and keeping you up-to-date on all the little life events that, in the end, contribute to my creative process.

You will find that I love animals, have an uncontrollable sweet tooth, and think just about everything is beautiful. Although most of my photography is digital, and all the post processing is done on the computer, there’s still nothing quite like the smell of oil paints or the texture of a nicely hand-dyed piece of fabric to get me going creatively.

I am also a musician, I love to bake (although the cooking of “real” food is usually left to my husband, who enjoys it more than I do, unless it involves turning on an oven), and I like to dig in the dirt, always hopeful that I’ll get something to grow.

Pictured above is Lenny, who inspired the name of this blog. The poor little guy gets called an abundance of names, including Lynyrd Skynyrd, Lazy Lenny, Lenny da Vinny, and Lenny da Vinci, to mention just a few. Anyway, it’s only fitting that he be included in this first post. He is one of five, all cats who were strays that crossed our paths or were adopted from shelters.

Thanks for visiting, and please stop by every now and then to see what I’m up to!