Geisha Tea Paper Dolls

The Paper Doll Swap group's April theme is Geisha Tea Dolls.  Fabric,  paper, beads and tea bag packaging was used to create my dolls.
The Paper Doll Swap group can be found on the Roses On My Table blog. They are a very talented group. You should drop by and check out their paper doll creations.

Three Muses Challenge-It Might As Well Be Spring ( Song Lyrics)

I did as instructed and googled the song lyrics to It Might As Well Be Spring. The song is from the 1945 movie State Fair.  Here in the States, State Fairs are a summer time occurrence. The singer of the song has just met someone interesting and as most of these type of musicals go, you have two lines of dialog for every four songs. Use to drive me crazy when I was a kid. Kisses to the inventor of the mute button. Anyway, I digress,one line in the song  is  "I'm as jumpy as a Puppet on a string." With that in mind my entry for this TMC is my Day of the Dead puppet Frida. She's always up for a little Spring Time Frolic!

Third Blog Anniversary and Giveaway

On March 30th, I will be celebrating my third year of creating and posting on my blog, Art Dust.
The experience of growing my knowledge on how to use the computer, sharing my ever changing art and meeting and discovering all sorts of lovely people and their blogs has been great and very rewarding.

Since it is a well known saying that the " Third time is the charm." I've decided to give away a small altered  art book as my anniversary present to one of my much appreciated followers.
I'm mulling over the theme and I've decided it will have to be all about letters, writing items, stamps and such.
I'm running short of time too.  I had planned to post this much early in the month but health issues have taken a lot of my time. Therefore I will set the giveaway date at April 30th, 3 years and a month.

I plan on posting the page spreads as I work through the book.
Please comment and let me know if you're interested in having your name put in the drawing.

Early Spring

Happy Spring !! Tuesday March 20, 2012- Spring Equinox

Page Spreads 1 and 2 for My Book of Red

Finding the correct lighting when I'm ready to take a photo of a finished piece of art gets to be a challenge. My little camera can only do so much, not to mention the fact that the photographer doesn't possess a lot of technical skills.
On the first page spread I used an acrylic paint called Metallic Garnet Red. It worked well with the two paint swatches,Garnet Rose and Faded Courtly Rose, that were my inspirations for each vignette. Because of the paints metallic quality it changes color intensity depending on the light.
On the second page spread I used a piece of fabric for one background and some scrap book paper for the other.
Next up are the paint swatches,  Classic Cherry Cream and Misty Alpine Strawberry.
Stay Tuned!

A Favorite Place to Read

Working on My Book of Red

I have begun creating my next altered art book and have decided to do a series of Color books. The first in the series is my Book of Green. I've previously posted photos of it.

In Cloth Paper Scissors's Summer 2005 issue there is an article written by Margaret Talbot titled Painted Textures.  By sewing left over pieces of lace, rickrack, braids, crocheted motifs and nylon netting onto a piece of muslin fabric, after which a film of expandable paints are scraped across the surface, allowed to dry, heated and painted with acrylics, she created some wonderful textured painted art cloth.

Inspired by this article I took a piece of black Halloween Spider designed nylon netting and set about creating my own art cloths. I used a piece of the cloth painted in acrylic reds to make the cover for my book.

The Time of the Tooth

I haven't posted in a bit due to dental issues. They're not resolved as of yet but I'll be back soon.