Have you ever stopped to think: "how did I get to this place in my life?"
The last two days have been a whirl wind as I have been making art and trying to pack up as I have to leave in a few days to teach. I have be working non stop in my studio. I can hardly believe that I made 5 pieces of art over the last few days. Below are three that I can share with you now. They are class samples for "the Journey" workshop that I will be teaching next week at art unraveled in Arizona. (there are still a few seats left if you would like to join in.)
This class is based on my earlier body of work so these little books are packed with mixed media. It was interesting for me to revisit my old work as I geared up to create these books.
I hope you enjoy looking at the mixed media free standing wire books bellow and if you want to see all the details take a look at the slide shows for each of the books.
"Lover of My Soul"
"Joys are our wings"
"Since July"
“You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have really lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.”
I have been underground with my creativity most of this year, as the majority of what I have made has been going out to various publications and I have not been able to share a lot of what I have been up to. I am happy that this road is starting to open up for me and its exciting for me to be able to share more of what I am doing as I do it. Over this year I have also found that I have been taking the majority of my photos with my I-phone as it so easy to alter then upload and share these photos all from my phone most of these photos end on my photo blog. This Photo was taken when I was working on some new jewelry pieces...
There was just something about this photo had me captivated and I knew that I wanted to do more with it. I have had some of Lesley Riley's TAP that I had been wanting to use in my work as well so I printed this image out on it and decided to create a dress around this image. would you like to see how the process unfolds?
Well first, I started out by drafting a pattern for my dress on unbleached muslin
then I cut it out
I ironed on the image that I printed out on the TAP
then it was soaked it in a hot tea bath
then it was tossed into the dryer
once dried the story was stitched on to the dress with my sewing machine, then the dress it self was sew together. followed by the process of me making many tiny hand stitches to gather up the fabric to create a scents of movement on the dress sculpture to make it appair that it is being worn.
and here in her entity "sewing mends the soul" story dress
"sewing mends the soul" is for sale please email me at ruthrae@gmail.com for details.
because the photo image on the dress is of me making a piece of jewelry I only thought it fitting that this soft sculptured dress also have its own little necklace, it occurred to me that I could create a more interactive piece of art by making it have a duel purpose.
So around her "neck" is something you can barrow, as the Necklace on dress can be removed to be worn as a choker or wrapped around your wrist for a bracelet.
I could not find the right poem for this dress so I wrote a little story for it myself.
This story dress reads:
she stitched a little story with a needle and thread she wrote of love and courage and how to take a stand. around her tiny neck a strand of buttons she knitted... she said: I like making a piece of string into something I can wear. she was sure that sewing mends the soul.
(back of dress)
I made this photo set if you would like to see how this dress unfolded from jewelry to dress. I think its a reminder that inspiration is truly all around us.
My friend Kecia has just started flea market Friday if you'd like to play, just take some photos of stuff that you got at the flea market, antique or thrift store post them to your blog then share your link over at her blog every Friday.
Here are some of my goodies from a antique shopping trip a few days ago, I scored a stack of 17 little green leather books along with a necklace and some great little mother of pearl buttons a few bits of old lace and a lovely old book from 1901 called the eternal city.
Happy Friday! "A fair price is the highest one a collector can be induced to pay."
I must fully admit the obvious, I am a magpie girl and my heart beats a little faster when ever I come across something that has been cherished, tattered, frayed and kissed by time.
To create my modern day romance I dipped into my beloved antique mother of pearl Victorian button collection. I dyed and cobbled soft velvet ribbon and vintage lace that I hand and machine stitched to embellish.
sections of vintage and antique glass, lucite and mother of pearl shank buttons along with beads were strung together and croshayed with a colored thread.
to create these versatile pieces of jewelry that may be worn as a necklace
I have chosen to take most of 2011 off from teaching, I will teach on the east cost in October (details soon) and I could be coaxed into a few more dates (so please don't be afraid to ask me)
My plan is to focus on my family and home.My house is begging for new decor and My son and I will be visiting potential collages next year. Creatively I need some time to play and work on expanding new ideas with my personal art. I also have some new ideas for my blog and I will be coming up with a few online workshops soon.I am truly looking forward to being open to new possibility's!
If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies. ~Author Unknown
