Mixed Media Monday: Old Things (a few days late!)

The theme this week for MMM was 'Old Things' and I was at a loss for a time as to what to do. I got to thinking about all my vintage textiles and making new things out of old things, and once I got the itch to crochet yesterday, I decided to try and make an old hat.  It would give me a chance to try some more felting as well.

So here it is! It is made of wool that I recycled from a sweater, and the buttons were from my Great Aunt's sewing basket.

The felting didn't work as well as I  had hoped, but I think it is because the weave of the hat wasn't tight enough. Where I single crocheted, it felted. The double crochet areas, not as much. But I still am happy with the feel of it.

I had hoped for a little more shrinkage, and had even added a little more size to it to allow for it. Perhaps I should have given it one more washing and trip through the dryer!

(click on images to enlarge)

Mixed Media Monday Challenge: Vintage Ads and Labels

My piece this week for the MMM Challenge of Vintage Ads and Labels is a small  wall piece of layered fabrics. The starch ad is pinned to the fabric, and the small embellishment is acutally a Singer Sewing Machine tin emblem which unfortunately did not photograph very well!

I've sort of continued on with the organic, heavily textured pieces that I have done the last few weeks with the MMM Challenges.

This was a fun challenge! Thanks, Rosie!

It is another rainy day here in Minnesota, and so I am planning a full afternoon of stitching.  I am almost done with Fall Meditation of the miniature mandala group, and I think this my favorite so far. Might be due to the fact that Fall is my favorite season!

Mixed Media Monday: Floral Tribute

This week's Mixed Media Monday challenge is "Floral Tribute".  I have been working with felting vintage wool sweaters this last week or so, and started snipping and manipulating the felted wool, and pretty soon I had cut pretty little red flowers from the wool.  I put them through the washer and dryer one more time to try and 'curl' the petals, and it worked!  I went through the buttons and layered two pieces of the felted flowers together and stitched them together with the button in the center.

I'm not sure what I am going to do with them just yet, but I thought they were appropriate for this week's challenge!

I have some other wool felted in a variety of colors and of course going through my buttons is always a favorite pass time, and so I think there might be more of these blooms coming soon.  They are really very fun to make.

Mixed Media Monday Challenge: Personal Symbols & Myths

This week's Mixed Media Monday Challenge (from Beth!):  “Do you have any image, color or theme that seems to recur in your work? Why does this image call to you? Create a piece embracing that image, and share with us why this image/color/theme speaks to you.”

I find myself drawn to trees.  A good share of the fabric in my studio is nature themed. Leaves in particular. I spend a lot of time in the woods.  The dragonfly is my animal spirit guide and he is always popping up in my work. As he should, as he is always popping up in my life.

My piece this week is a mixed media collage. The leaves are cut from fabric and vintage handkerchiefs. The dragonfly poem from my shoebox of paper snipets that I have collected over the years. The little sterling dragonfly just one of many flitting about.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Mixed Media Monday Challenge: Childs Play

I am a couple days late with this, but I just really wanted to get something done for this challenge and get back into the swing of the MMM Group! I enjoy the challenges and have missed participating the last few weeks with the wrap up of my college courses taking up much of my time.

I played around with a couple of different ideas for this. I had drawn stick people with crayons. I dug through images of children playing. But then I thought about a quote from Picasso, "It takes a long time to become young."

I set the stick people aside and thought about some of the things that touched me as a child and what I crave to get closer to now, and have found that they are much the same.  And this piece reflects that discovery.

(click on image to enlarge)

Mixed Media Monday & Mandalas

This week's MMM Challenge is 'Look What I Found'.  I was reminded of something from my childhood and created off of that memory!  When out walking one night, an orange cat started following me. I picked it up and brought it home and told my mom that it followed me home. We named him Eddy and he lived with us for the next fifteen years!

This piece was done on canvas board with chalk pastels, colored pencil and sharpie pen. A few embellishments and cut out words and there you have it!  (Click image to enlarge.)

I also finished a new cross stitch piece. It is the first in my series of mandalas. I am really pleased with the way it turned out.  (Click on image to enlarge)

I have several more charted and will be working on them as the year progresses. They are really soothing to stitch.  Kreinik Manufacturing  has a new line of holographic threads that I will have in my hands very soon and I plan on working some of these vibrant threads into future mandalas.

I am returning to the Little Snowballz line with my next project and will be stitching "Stuart".

Mixed Media Monday Challenge: Eggs

This week's challenge for the Mixed Media Monday Group is Eggs.  I had originally thought to do a collage, but changed my mind and decided to do a little egg-shaped art quilt. I worked in a few stamped leaves and words 'hope, believe, imagine' and two sterling charms. I might still take another look at it and add some pearl buttons on the branch side. It feels a little bare for me for springtime!  (click image to enlarge)

OH! And I discovered a reeeeally cool website while working on an assignment for my flash animation class! Worth a look-see.

Color Chart: Reinventing Color 1950-Today

Mixed Media Monday: Vintage Children

This week's Mixed Media Monday challenge was "Vintage Children".  I decided on a collage this week. It was a fun challenge for me as I was already looking through pictures for my father's funeral later this week and found myself reminded of some very happy moments as a child myself. I found some other photos that I plan on doing something with at some point, too.  This particular piece however is a collage using a picture of a little girl that was my grandmother's cousin. I have also worked in a scan of an old envelope, a vintage hankerchief, antique tatting, and pearl buttons. I also did some stamping throughout.

The dragonfly is my animal spirit guide and I try and work an image of a dragonfly into everything I create. Sometimes I am the only one that knows it is there!  (click image to enlarge)

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I have also been playing with broken vintage jewelry and creating new pieces. These are two that I finished today.  It is definately a learning process. Jewelry making is an area that I have not played around with as much as I would like even though I have boxes and boxes of jewelry and more beads then I might use in four lifetimes!  

Mixed Media Monday: "Party Animals"

This is my submission for the "Party Animals" Mixed Media Monday Challenge.  It is a piece that I did some time ago but wanted to revisit it for a couple of reasons. I did not find time to get to the studio this weekend to do a new piece due to my father's illness. This piece always reminds me of him as he always liked to sing even if the backyard fence had one too many cats already wailing on it!

For My Dad

(click image to enlarge)