January Full Moon #2

January 2014 Altar Project

The Final Creation!

The year has whizzed by and it is hard to believe that this is the final piece to fit into our little altars!  To celebrate, I thought I would do something with flowers ….. but the question was what?  I had already done some felted and button flowers so it needed to be something different.  This project is going to Kimberly.

Then I got a beautiful postcard in the mail from a gallery in Bellevue and I loved the image.  It just had to be incorporated somehow.  The postcard looked like quilled paper and it was in a beautiful golden yellow color.  So the background it became!

Flowers need a vase…or a basket!  So using copper wire I made a ½ basket so it would sit flat in the space.  And with two spaces to fill I could allow the flowers to overlap and reach up into the top space.

The flowers are made with recycled paper that had a subtle texture and were similar to the color of the full moon …perfect!  So the paper was cut and then folded and the stems were made with copper wire so they would coordinate with the basket.   Voila!  A basket of flowers to celebrate our final episode!

It has been a pleasure working on this project…thank you to Peg for dreaming it up! And what fun it has been getting a package in the mail each month with something new to contemplate, celebrate and enjoy!

Thank you to all of you who have participated!!

Kathy

November Full Moon #1

November Altar Project

My November Altar project goes to Nancy!

While working on cleaning out the Bellevue house I found lots of little “treasures”….. or at least I thought they were at some point in time.  Opening containers I found old letters, beads, and others were little bits off stuff.  It made me start to think of time capsules and messages in bottles.  I thought it would be fun to start a project were we all sent a message out in a bottle to see where it ended up – anyone interested??

So my project for this month, simple as it is, was to send Nancy a message in a bottle.  The message is a take-off on a poem that I have always loved called “How to be an Artist”.  I added a few things to the poem and changed it around a little but I still think it is a good message…basically – try something new!  But one of the thoughts was especially appropriate…Take a bath in the moonlight!  So as our full moon for November is upon us…maybe you will be taking a bath in the moonlight tonight!!

A Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!!

Kathy

October Full Moon #11

 October Altar piece for Marilyn

Dearest Marilyn and other members of our Altar group….. I apologize for not getting my piece turned in on time last month but at least it is as it is for the full moon this month!  The move from Bellevue ended up being so much more than we anticipated and it was totally consuming and exhausting but alas it is over!

Knowing that Marilyn was a quilter I had this brainy idea to do a quilt block for her – with real blocks.  The intent was to cover all 6 sides of a cube with different pictures so she would be able to move them around and make different “quilt blocks” with them.  A fun idea!  But the paper would not adhere to the wood blocks and trying to get them all even was a nightmare. I worked on it for a few days, would set it aside, and then work on it again.  I finally decided that covering 4 of the sides was enough to give the idea.  I would like to revisit the idea in the future and perhaps it will give all of you an idea to try a different type of “quilt block”.

Then I had to set out to figure out a way to keep the square of smaller squares in the altar section.  So I came up with a box with a window covering that will open.

I hope you enjoy the idea…and who knows maybe you too will make a contemporary wood quilter’s block!!

Kathy

September Full Moon #3

September Altar Project

My project this month goes to Lou!  The moon is known as the harvest moon this month but I have been thinking of it as the “salmon running” month. Harvest moon makes perfect sense for most of the world as they are not lucky enough to live in an area where the salmon return at this time of the year to spawn.  Here in the NW it is definitely a salmon spawning time!

About 2 weeks ago I was out on my deck late in the evening when it was very still and quiet.  I could hear a slapping and plopping sound all along our bank.  It was loud enough that I called Peter to ask him what was out there.  He too could hear it and we decided that it must be the fish jumping as they headed back to spawn in their river of origin.  The next morning one could see dozens of fish jumping and slapping the water.  It was amazing and fun to watch.  And while it still is happening it is not with the intensity that I experienced two weeks ago.

With sorting and cleaning out all of my PO I have had ideas streaming through my head.  But the fish were the deciding factor.  I found some small  “fribbles” (fabric swatches that measure 2.5 “ by 5”) that had beautiful metallic fish on them.  And my idea took off.  The fabric was too small for the space so I had to combine two of them.  I hand quilted around the fish to give them some definition.  Then to cover the join of the two pieces I used some the prickly pear cactus webbing that I use for jewelry.  To me it looked like seaweed or sea grass.  To frame the piece and cover all my messy stitches I found some of the salmon fish leather I had collected when we lived in Juneau, Alaska (25 years ago!).  The leather was a little hard to stitch through by hand but I think it makes a nice frame.

So I hope Lou likes it and it fits into her Altar as a NW inspired piece! 

Kathy

AUGUST FULL MOON #1

Dear Fellow Artists!

It is the corn moon and while I played around with several thoughts about incorporating corn into this month’s section – it just didn’t come together.  Going through my “PO” I found a corn charm – but not very exciting.  And then I found the handle of an old silver spoon that had corn on it but it was too late to make a mold and use PMC to make something a little more exciting.  So that will get saved for another day!

Most all of you planted your seeds that were generously given to us by Peg.  As I knew no one would be home to tend them as they started to grow I have left them in the packets…maybe next year!  So instead of corn I decided to make my own fantasy flowers to share with all of you.  They are a combination of bead embroidery, vintage buttons, felt and horse hair flowers. 

I started with felting around glass marbles and then cut the hollow felt balls off of the marbles.  Now that is a challenge!  Trying to get the felt thickness even around the marble and then trying to cut them in half and have the halves even took a little doing!  I made them in a variety of colors and two different sizes.  The different sizes allowed me to stack the smaller halves in the larger halves to give them a little more “punch”.  I also felted a small flat piece that could be used for the back ground.  The center of 3 of the flowers have blue woven horse hair flowers in them that come from Chile.  The others have a combination of beads and vintage buttons.

The flowers were then sewn through a piece of foam and the green felt so they would fit nicely into the space and the piece had some body to support the flowers.  The horse hair flowers originally had green horsehair stems that I couldn’t let go to waste.  I stitched the green stems through the backing to look like blades of grass coming up through the flowers.

So now you have seen my fantasy flowers….all coming from those wonderful seed packets given to us by Peg!  It was a fun project and now I have visions of felted and embroidered flowers on wire stems so one could make a bouquet.

Now on to the next space…….H.  And my mind is racing with things that start with H…..happy…hooray…holy cow…..hallelujah……halibut…hamster….handles…hat…..heaven…..so many!!!!!

Kathy

JULY FULL MOON #9

This month of July  created a interesting twist of creation as the Little Altars project has 11 artists and 12 months of exchange. I worked for days creating a schedule of exchange that would be as random as possible, in order to keep this fresh and ever changing.  And during the exchange each person would have 1 month to create just for them selves.

What occurred in July was 3 of our Artist all had their names and created  a varied bounty of delights.

 Here is Kimberly Kostals" piece Pennies& Cupid Doll 

Waiting to hear the inspiration for this little altar

 Kathy's 52 inspirations

Lynn Vernons' Inspired by Viking knit

JUNE MOON #11

Yes, it is true….I am late!! 

One month to be exact!  We were gone in France and I really didn’t have the chance to work on something plus I was waiting for inspiration.  We had a great time and for a while my head was chocked full of ideas…unfortunately many of them either fell out – or were washed away with the good French wine!

While traveling we visited many typical French marketplaces – the ones that travel from town to town bringing great fresh produce and products.  Every one of them had several “honey” stalls and as we drove through the country side we also saw homes with different types of bee hives set up.  We also did one of the flea markets in Paris and one of the travelers found a great heavy brass mold with different figures on it.  The closest we could figure out was that it was for making marzipan.  But it had a great bee and the word “Miel” which means honey in French.

I had been wanting to get out my paper clay and use it for something so I used the paper clay to make both the bees and the little pieces saying miel.   After it dried I had to file it as the clay was pretty rough trying to get it out of the meatl molds.  The paper clay was then colored – and I had to try a variety of things on it as it did not color as easily as I had anticipated.  Probably acrylic paint would have worked the best but I didn’t have any of it around.  There are three of each style and they can now be used to play….Tic-Tac- Bee!

So enjoy your little miniature game!

Kathy

JULY MOON #4

July Altar Project

The Bag of Possibilities!

We are enjoying a glorious summer!  Home from our trip, working in the yard, enjoying company and soon to be off to work the Bellevue Art Fair with my good friend, Maggie Meister.  If you are like me, I think of great ideas for projects when I am involved with other projects (like weeding the yard), but when it comes time to sit and create I come up dry.  And I seem to say to myself…I’ll do that tomorrow…and then other things get in the way and I don’t seem to make the time to sit and create or play with ideas.

So I decided for this month’s little project I would try to do something to help me focus and yet be motivated to do something!

I was intrigued several years ago by the “inchies” that Peg talked about.  So I made little fold over almost inch size cards and started a list of ideas and things to do.  Initially I will have 52 – one for each week – but I expect the group to grow.

I hand stitched a draw string bag (no sewing machine readily available) and then glued it in place over the two “F” sections.  Inside the bag is a place for the “inchie” ideas to be done and the other side is a place to put the things that I have done.  So hopefully this will inspire, motivate and goad me into doing something different each week!  The first one …was play with paper clay…– which I did in creating my little Tic –Tac – Bee game for Lynn for the June project which also just got finished.

I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone else has done with their 2 “F” spaces!

I hope you are all enjoying your summer- it is going by too fast!

Kathy

MAY PINK FLOWER MILK MOON #1

MAY ALTAR PROJECT!!

Tonight is the full moon!  I don’t know how many of you saw it last night but it looked very full then too! 

While the May full moon is known as the Flower Moon I decided to deviate from that type of theme for this month.

I should call it the “ I’m happy to have survived the last month” full moon.  I was eating, thinking and living jewelry making- you notice I didn’t add sleeping in there because I got very little of it!  But I am happy to report that I did very well at my two weeks of Camano Island studio tour and survived!

Now I have changed gear and am getting prepared for the groups of people that we are taking off to France!  Between the two groups I have 45 people…so that too is a lot of prep!

With France on my mind I wanted to do a little something with a French theme.  I did have some fun French flower pictures and prints but they all turned out too big for this month’s space.  So old nostalgia prints and a few resin charms was what I set out to work on.

I have to admit that I am not overly pleased with this month’s  exploration.  I had wanted to do some things with resin for my studio tour and luckily I didn‘t get to it or spend a lot of time on it.  I transferred my “resin” exploration over to the Altar Project and certainly have learned what products I won’t be working with again.  I was looking for something different from the two part resin that I had used with Peg’s class several years ago so off I went to the craft stores.  I bought a couple of things and the gal there raved about the Mod Podge resin product.  I don’t know if it is me, my expectations, or the product!  Things buckled, took much longer to dry than I wanted and I tried to make a piece without a mold ( I did the Eiffel Tour) using tin foil under it and it all cracked when I tried to remove it from the tin foil backing.  So I will try some things again and let you know if it is ever worth buying!!

So my inspiration to share is to try another product first next time!  I wanted something fabulous for Cyn as she does great work – so in the future – maybe and hopefully I will have it worked out!!!

Kathy

SEED MOON #4

The full moon is here!!  And it arrived early as far as I can tell!  I have been entrenched in making jewelry for the Camano Arts Studio Tour and have hardly come up for air.  You are all invited to come up!  The information can be found through my websitewww.kathydannerbeck.com or through the Camano Arts Association website atwww.camanoarts.org .  I would love to see you!!

The project for this month has been in the works for a while.  I too did research and found that this is the month for planting, seeds and all the good things that Peg told us about.  And this full moon is also called the pink moon.  So in trying to do something that fit with the moon names and knowing that Beth loves gardening and plants....I came up with “Strawberry Fields Forever!”

The strawberries are sort of pinkish/red, they have seeds on them, and Beth loves gardening!  The slight little snafu is that all the berries didn’t ripen yet so there is only one in the spot now....but with more to come!

The berry is felted and then bead embroidered!  Fun to make!!  If only we could eat it too!

 Kathy

Snow Moon 5

It is February 10^th and the moon is a waxing crescent moon at the moment. I had hoped to have this written and done when it was a new moon – since this is a new project! But Alas… I didn't quite make it.

Hopefully, I am the first to turn in this month’s project.  But that is because I am leaving for Asia and will be enjoying the full moon in Luang Prabang, Laos.  But I will be thinking of all of you!

As many of you know, Peg is the queen of possibilities, and I have never met anyone who is so talented at all she tries!  So everything is a possibility!  So with having her space for the February project, she had to be a queen… and it is February so the Queen of Hearts seemed perfect! But after seeing her beautiful altar with its soft muted colors, a bright red February altar seemed to be too glaring.  So I returned to the thousands of pictures that I have taken and chose a door from Germany.  The colors looked like they fit well and so I planned it so Peg could open the door to find her Queen of Hearts and Altar surprise!  This is the original Picture:

I printed it and then worked with it to make it look more like a water color. I did this by putting a paper glue on the back of the paper (and lots of it!) so it completely soaked the paper.  It gently washed the ink out so it gave a watercolor effect.  I had planned to cute the door down and then make it open the center to reveal the red altar inside. But, that did not work as well as I had hoped.  So I attached it to recycled tyvek stuff from a mailing envelope so that it could be glued to the Altar box and the door could be lifted.  The small green dot you see in the picture is the “door handle”.  And now the picture looks like:

I also went over some of the detail of the door with a watercolor pencil so it gave it some more definition.  And when you open the door… there is a surprise to the Queen of Hearts!!!

I have wanted to start making some pins and this is the first!!  A heart for Valentine’s Day! But remember… it is the first and there was much to be learned from this!

So I am thinking of all of you and looking forward to seeing what each one of you does!

Kathy D