Artist Showcase

Although the primary focus of Sweet Leaf Notebook is to show the stuff I've been making, I do like to recognize the artists and crafters who make things I like enough to purchase.

Beautiful northern lights mug made by The Queen's Potter at the Bristol Renaissance Faire. It makes me look forward to my morning tea! The makers are Mike and Sara Wisdom at Hearthstone Arts. This lovely green seems to be called "Forest Isle." It reminds me of the glow of Northern Lights.

Cocobolo pen by Northwoods Penworks (Guy Kaplan), purchased at the Black Hawk Music Festival in Mt. Morris, WI. This rich red wood comes from South America. I thought I needed such a nice pen to go with my journals. ;-)

Smashed and Whipped for Shelagh's Creative Challengers

Lesson 2 of Shelagh's Creative Challengers. I can't say much about the techniques as Shelagh asked us not to. Join us for the next challenge!

Here the jam jar strips have been smashed down, or needle felted. I borrowed a friend's embellishing machine for this job. It was too big to do with my little Clover needle felting tool. Don't the strips look dreamy?



Here it's free-motion stitched. The "bad tension" was intentional, meant to mimic micro-beading.



Now we wait for the next steps ...

Creative Cue : Pink

This is a photo of a hollyhock flower in my garden. If you look closely, you can see a bee working hard at the center stamen of this flower. They like pink, too!

Other ideas for Pink were :
* a sketch of pinking sheers
* blood-shot or allergy eyes (Oliver's idea)
* "In the Pink"
* Kayleigh Spring

See other Creative Cue interpretations for Pink.

Creative Cue : Nail

I was thinking about how sports commentators get all excited when athletes "nail a jump" or "nail a landing." So I depicted a skater in a perfect landing stance. No matter what the jump, all the landings should look like this. I was originally planning to thread sketch this, but it's too hot to sew! So this is just a drawing in my notebook ... colored with the watercolor pencils.

I also added the line of travel, listing the edges (RFI=Right-Forward-Inside Edge; RBO=Right Back Outside Edge). If my memory serves (and it's been a while since I list did one of these jumps), this maps out a toe loop. At one point in my life, I would doodle the lines of travel for various jumps when I was off the ice, just to make them stick in my brain. What a JOY skating was to me then. Makes me want to get back out there!

See other Creative Cues for Nail.

Creative Cues : Drink and Cloud

I decided to combine 2 recent Creative Cues into this one image. This brilliant idea occurred to me after a rain storm. I visit a 94 year old lady once a week in a nursing home. As I was waiting in the common area outside her room, I saw a live image very similar to this one : The skies were clearing; the still puddle on the cement outside the patio door perfectly reflected the sky. A rabbit hopped up to take a drink from the clouds. He was only there for about 2 seconds. I wished I had my camera along, but the shot would have been gone by the time my camera had charged. This lovely image has been locked safe inside my brain ever since ... until I set it down in my Creative Cues Notebook!

This is a mixed media collage. The background is strips of hand-dyed fabric left over from another project. The rabbit is printed on paper and cut out, as are the grass tufts. It's all just simply glued into my notebook. Too hot to sew these days!

See other Creative Cue interpretations for Drink and Cloud.

More Sweet Leaf Notebooks

I'll be selling my journals at the Black Hawk Folk Music Festival in Mt. Morris, WI, on July 10. Stop in if you're in the area!

Here are some of the new journals that will be on display :

Composed Fabric Cover - Front
Back


Rust-Dyed Fabric
Detail


Front - Lutradur with paint and salt
Back





Rust-Dyed Fabric Front
Rust-Dyed Fabric - Back














Rusted Tyvek Journal with Flap
Rusted Tyvek - Back




Rusted Tyvek - crinkled


Rusted Tyvek with red highlights