FALL has Arrived!

My favorite time of the year has FINALLY arrived in Okieland! We actually had a cold front come in the other night and I pulled out some flannel pjs and it was wonderful! I always look forward to the brisk Fall days and chilly nights - great weather to watch a good movie, create art, read a good book...just about anything!

As I told you the last time I wrote, I got a new digital camera for my b'day...and I've been trying it out...some of the pics are good, some not so good. BTW, how do I get rid of the flash glare on glass? Does anyone know about this?? I have a Sony digital camera - more specifics if you need them. Below are some of the pics I've been taking...some of my latest art projects, but mainly Ephemera that won't fit in my scanner (I've got to start somewhere, now don't I?). Hopefully, I will get better at this SOON!

This first picture is of a Vintage Crazy Quilt purse that I just finished! It has lots of handwork on it, including embroidery, beading, yo-yos made from old flour sacks, hand-dyed lace, antique lace, and lots and lots of time! These purses are always labors of love...and this one is no exception. The colors in this purse are not my usual palette of choice, but for some reason I was really drawn to do something with these colors and I really enjoyed changing from my normal Tuscany/Renaissance color palette. What do you think?

This is the back of the purse!

This is an artpiece on 8x10 canvas that I recently did using layering techniques. It has art tissue paper, cheesecloth, molding paste (using stencils), lots of layers of paint (Golden), vintage music, beads on wax linen thread, hand-dyed ribbon, a brass finding, and a photo image from Divas D'Este.

Now, I'll show you some of the new Ephemera that I've found on my excursions into dusty garages, estate sales, flea markets, etc. For me, the most fun part is the HUNT! I absolutely love to forage through old boxes, suitcases, cobweb covered hiddieholds...just about anyplace that my hide a TREASURE!!

Are you old enough to remember the old metal ice cream spoons? They are made out of aluminum I think. But these are so neat because they are already "aged" (sort of rusty and patina-ed). These will be up on the website by the 1st of November! Wouldn't they be fun to use on an assemblage or to punch a whole in the top of the handle to dangle from somthing?

Simply described, a player piano is a self-playing piano. A piano roll is a roll of paper with perforations (holes) punched in it. The position and length of the perforation determines the note played on the piano.

Beginning around 1900 and continuing for the next three decades, for the first time in history, music could be heard on demand. The player piano was like a jukebox; its "discs" were the paper piano rolls. The unique player, however, did not use speakers or electricity; it actually played itself using air pressure-- hammers struck the strings, strings vibrated and wood resonated.

The music recorded on the player piano roll reflected the changing social fabric of the day--the end of Victorian convention and the beginning of the uninhibited modern thinking and free-spending practices of the twentieth century.

You can use them as they are in scroll (rolled up) form to embellish and then unwind, tear/cut them into pieces of ephemera for just about any of your art projects, use as pages in your altered books, utilize the performations as peek-a-boo slits, AND THEN use the box as an assemblage! What terrific fun these little pieces of Victorian memorabilia are!!

That's all for today! My Bunko group meets tonight (loads of giggles and lots of girl fun), so I have to go make a dish to take. I'm making a Mexican Cornbread that's scrumptious! I usually do desserts, but it's cool tonight so thought the cornbread sounded warm and fallish! It has cream cheese, corn meal mix, chopped green chiles, grated cheese...yummy...if you want the recipe, just let me know!