DANCING for the sheer pleasure of it!

dc100: dance


A few years ago my daughter and I owned [for about two years] a yahoo group where we swapped flat paper artdolls each month.  I went through my flickr. photos to find some dancing artdolls to show for this weeks' drawing challenge. The theme is dancing, for this 100 mark in the dcs' so it's a special post to celebrate. Our host this week is Patrice, who chose this fun theme for us all to play with. So pop on by to her blog to see all of the contributions with this theme. Let's kick up our heels!! Thanks Patrice!!

Make new contributions...

A new little book in the accordion style with 2 folds. This is called 'Make new contributions.'


The book features hummingbirds experiencing the joy of wisteria. Above is shown the front cover of the book [closed] and here is the back side of the book [closed]:


Here the book is opened so you can see the front cover side. This is a scene of wisteria and birds enjoying them:


The other side of the opened book shows rice plants, and the view of the back cover:


You can see the stamp [chop] image in the red cinnabar paste ink that is used for the chop seals. The scale of this chop is large compared to the little book and I am searching for the small seal I have that would be more suitable. This may take forever, so I've started searching on ebay to bid or purchase a seal that is more suitable for these little books I am making.  Meanwhile, I will have to use the large one. The meaning of the picture idea is 'eagle' and it is carved on a chunk of stone that has a cat carved at the top of it. Here's a picture of the stamps I do have:


I've had these for more than 20 years and they cannot be obtained any more. There was an older fella that carved the seals in his shop in Chinatown in Vancouver and once his shop closed the wonderful chops were no longer available. I only discovered this yesterday when I went racing down there to purchase a chop from somewhere. Noone does it any more. So I went to ebay and successfully bid on one from China. I'll receive it in a month. I can hardly wait. It's an old 'tiger' chop, which is my Chinese Astrology symbol.
This book that I've shown you today, is just the planning stage for a wisteria/hummingbird/rice  accordion style 2-fold little book with saying that I plan to sell on etsy. Thus you can see that the folds are not perfect in this rendition. I need to hunt down the proper size of envelope for it. Perhaps of a see-through material that I can't think of the name of right now. Thanks for dropping in today, and I hope to see you again soon, *smiles* Norma, x

Tile

dc99: Tiles

What are these hummers looking at?


They are wondering what this fish (of all things!!) is doing in their midst!


Flipped over, they see that it is a scrabble tile game piece made into a key chain. Oh, well then, that settles it...mystery solved!!
This weeks' drawing challenge has the theme TILES. Our beautiful host Ariane chose the theme, and to see more offerings with this theme, visit her blog to see the links. This is an interesting variety of art for us all to enjoy. The drawing challenges take place weekly and all are invited to join in.
This theme had me stumped. I could not figure out what to do. Time ran out and I was sitting working on a planning piece for a new little book I'm painting. I glanced up and realized that it looked like the humming birds are all looking at the same thing. So I decided they would be looking at a scrabble tile.
Thank you for dropping by today. I hope to see you again, soon, hugs, Norma, x.

Still the pain of a wound.

dc98: beauty



Beauty sometimes comes by surprise, totally unexpected, and always a gift when it arrives. Thus it was for me when I began this drawing challenge. I'd chosen a haiku to illustrate, using watercolour paints on a beautiful sample of Saint Armand paper from Montreal. I decided to cut and paste small size words from an English-Chinese dictionary which is in my stash of books that I cut up to use for art. The first word of the haiku was 'still' and so I hunted for that word and then when I found it I started reading the translation of it and came across this phrase 'still the pain of a wound' as an example of how to use the word 'still.' THAT was beautiful to me and that is what launched me into what I would offer for this drawing challenge with the theme BEAUTY.

So above you see the front cover of a little book which has two folds in an accordion style book. The dimensions are: 2 1/4" wide X 3 1/2" tall when closed. The book is tied closed with linen or flax or hemp [some unknown natural fibre] string, threaded with gold seed beads. Here is the back of the book closed:

I'm playing with sumi-e style painting using non sumi-e brushes which is not as easy as it would be with proper brushes, and my red ink for my stone stamps has dried up considerably since I last used it, and there are a number of issues but oh how I enjoyed making this book! Here it is opened [strings untied] with a view of both sides:


Our illustrious host Nadine chose the theme of BEAUTY and if you want to see more delicious and beautiful offerings with this theme, drop by to Nadine's blog to view many more sights. Thank you for dropping by today and I hope to see you again soon. May all of you, friends, have the pain of your wounds stilled. Norma, x

Is there a bird in there?

So far we have wire, paper and butcher's tape. Tomorrow I'll add more paper and some wet papier mache strips to see if I can further define the bird if it is there. We will have to see! And, I hope to see you again tomorrow. Night for now, Norma, x

Fraktur Scherenschnitte Folk Art

I have been trying to find this for days with no luck. It has meant that my studio space has clean areas now. Yeah! I'd wanted to especially find this in time for Sunday (yesterday) but fate was not to have that. I just found this, a day late. I did this in the 80s with zero drawing skills and zero confidence so it is unfinished and will remain that way. The original was found in a bible in Upper Canada and I don't know what era. Ages ago. This is my attempt to copy it. Here is a close up of the message area:

I am showing this to you in the name of folk art. I like the overall design a lot. I changed the message because the original was hand written in gorgeous old German gothic lettering [I could never find someone to help me translate the message.] Stunning. I just found this message and slipped it in using my usual script.

Thanks for dropping by and I hope to see you again soon, hugs, Norma, x