Response to Book Meme

When Needleroozer tagged me, my reaction was, "Huh?  What on earth?"  Being new to blogland, I was unaware of these kinds of activities ; ).  But I went to her blog and figured out what's going on. 

The bad news is that the nearest book is really a tome:  Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student by Edward Corbett and Robert Connors.  I am reading it to prepare to teach a high-school grammar and composition class in the fall.  Here's my selection:

"In summary then, let us say that when we are engaged in any kind of deliberative discourse, we are seeking to convince someone to adopt a certain course of action because it is conducive to happiness or to reject a certain course of action because it will lead to unhappiness.  The two main special topics under the general head of happiness are the worthy and the advantageous.  In developing these special topics, we will sometimes have occasion to use some of the common topics, such as the possible and the impossible (when urging the advantage for instance, of a certain course of action, we may have to show that the course we are advocating is practicable or easy) and the topic of more and less (when seeking to direct a choice from among a number of goods, for instance, we have need of criteria to help us discriminate degrees of good)."

Long sentences, no?  Here's who I'm going to tag (don't know how to do live links yet):  DuraMater and Little Red House.  I read some other blogs, but I don't know them well enough to feel like I can tag them *blush.*  But hey, I tried to participate, which is a big step for me!

An Ode to . . . the Unabridged Dictionary!

I bought this dictionary almost 10 years ago on a whim. Now it resides in a prominent place on our homeschooling bookshelves, or it did until I started doing L&L. I keep pulling it off the shelf to weigh down projects. It helps hold down pesky lace motifs, it straightens out hem-lace backgrounds, and now, hopefully, it will save my bacon with this new lace strip project.

Maybe I should add it to the ingredients list!

What a tangled web we weave . . .

. . . when we try to do a project like this without MistyFuse. I've been trying to hold off on a Joggles order for a little while (short of $$$), but I might not last too much longer. After applying a LOT of paint, the best I could do was this:Not exactly flat, is it? Let's see it from the tabletop view:Looks more like a pathetic landscape than a L&L piece . . . sigh. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I put a piece of wax paper on it (paint still wet) and then added these tomes:WTMBoard users will note what I did NOT bring even into the VICINITY of wet paint:It's my copy--I bought it fair and square! Right after it was announced to be going out of print and there was an uproar on the boards, I walked into my local B&N and saw it on a display shelf. Well, I plucked that baby right up and marched to the cash register--it was the last one they had. Then, when the new one came out, I bought one of those also. I'm like that. Now I have both, so one child can use one and the other child can use the other. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! I don't think the red ones are going for $200 now, but it was kind of amusing while it lasted--to think I had such a valuable book in my possession ; ).

Anyway, I digress. I'm going to follow up this post with a short meditation on the importance of the dictionary to a L&L project. This has to be about the fifth time I've used it.

And stay tuned to see if the books can save the day with this project.

P.S. Do you think I can convince DH that I need more oversized, heavy books for . . . ahhh, lemme see . . . homeschooling . . . what subject, say you? . . . ahhh, Art, yeah, Art! Hmph. I didn't think so, but it was worth a try.

Lace Motif Pieces Finished (for now)

I plan to put them away for a few days and then see if I want to make any more changes, but I think I am done. I put two coats of glitter spray on each one. After I frame them, I will take new pictures and replace these, but here they are for now:





LB liked this one better in the pastels. I do have one more motif that I might do later in dark colors and then pastels on top like she suggests, but I have a new piece that I want to do first.

But I think I'm done with representational pieces for a while. I'm ready to do something different. I have a new piece of Lutradur drying right now with its first coat of foundational paint.

Lace Motif Piece #5

This is the last piece I have planned in this series. I am just getting going with it. I did the background in gold, then added highlights of purple and pink. I had decent success rubbing some dark purple just on the surface of the lace with my finger to highlight the details. This piece needs more richness of color.
Edited 1/18/08: I changed my mind. I don't think it needs more color. I think a limited palette is better for this piece. I did highlight a little in gold and add some glitter:
I think I'm going to put this one away for a few days and then decide if I'm going to do more to it.

Lace Motif Piece #4

Here is the other "curly" piece that I didn't get tamed in time. Oh well. This piece is turning out fairly well, although the gold wash canceled out more of the purple background than I planned. Maybe the wash wasn't weak enough. And I'm sorry I don't have an earlier picture of when the whole thing was dark purple. That was actually pretty interesting. Maybe that's the key to 1, 2, and 3--maybe they're too light.

Edited 1/18/08: I added some dark highlights to this piece, and I'm pretty happy with it. Again, like piece #5, I think a limited palette works better here.

Hem Lace and Curling Up--The Cure? Unabridged Dictionary

I have learned more about using hem lace. Yes, it does make the piece curl up. I have a lot of trouble with motif #3, the butterfly piece, for example. But I learned on two subsequent pieces (that I will post about in a moment), that I can put them under an unabridged dictionary overnight (with wax paper covering the pieces) when the hem lace is almost dry and they will flatten and stay that way. Pieces that I have tried to flatten later in the process don't work as well.

Wall Hanging Completed and Up!

Hooray! This little place in the hall has a wall directly across from it, so I had to stand slightly to the side in a doorway to take this shot. That's why the shot appears "crooked."

On the right side of the picture you can see the edge of the piano and have a peek into our schoolroom (we homeschool). On the left side of the picture you see a sliver of the long hallway to the laundry room, hall bath, and garage.

I'm very pleased with how this turned out. I just hope that I live in my purple house for a good long time so that I can enjoy this hanging in the setting it was designed for. Special thanks to Needleroozer for timely and helpful suggestions along the way.

Why I pasted lace motifs on separately

Needleroozer was kind enough to phone me today, and we had a wonderful, wide-ranging chat. But I forgot to mention to her why I pasted the lace motifs on separately . . . so I thought I would post it here. For these pieces, the layer of scrim or hem lace is just the background. Getting the background to stick takes a LOT of paint. By the time I finish, the piece is so saturated that it takes about 12-18 hours to dry. I've been reticent to try to attach the motifs at that time, thinking that it would just NEVER dry.

And so to save time, I've been painting the motifs off to the side while the background is drying and then using fabric glue to attach them. I probably *could* attach them with paint if I'm using the same paint as the background, but if I used a mix of paints (such as in the blue piece with the one motif in the center) and I ran out of that specific mix, it would be VERY hard to match. And since attaching the motif takes a lot of paint, the paint I used on the motif would spread to the background in what I think would be a yucky way. So, painting and then gluing seemed the least agony. But if someone has a better idea, I'd love to hear it.

With my current method, it takes a while (layers) to make the motifs seem integral to the piece instead of sort of hovering on top of it. One thing that has helped has been a weak wash over the entire piece, but this is a challenge if I really want to retain the background color, as I do in the butterfly piece. I'm still trying to figure out how to integrate the butterflies without washing out the background too much.

Lace Motif Piece #3

Here is the last one. I know it looks a little strange for the butterflies to be pink. It's what I had extra of at that moment--they won't stay pink. I made a hem lace strip background for this piece to fit the butterflies and flowers theme. The corner pieces look better when the piece is framed (I tried it before I glued them to see what it would look like).
Edited 1/17/08: Here is how it looks now. Of the three representational pieces so far, I like it the best.

Lace Motif Piece #2

This is the second piece, with three very lovely fans. I'm thinking that this piece should have more complicated colors in the final version because there is less compositional detail. I like the scrim stripes as a background for this piece as well.



Edited 1/17/08: Here is how the piece looks right now:

Lace Motif Piece #1

This is the first of three representational pieces in progress, with another two planned. I am hoping to place these pieces in frames. I laid down a background of "scrim stripes," painted the lace motif a correlating color, and then glued the motif down. In this picture you can see that the glue is not yet dry (the white spots).



Edited 1/17/08: I shortened the previous entry, keeping only some milestone photos. Here is how this piece looks now:I'm not sure whether I like it or not. I did the pastels, including highlighting different areas on the lace motif, but they seemed a bit too bright and distinct. So I did a gold wash over the whole thing, but now of course it is pale (although more unified). So I might put this away for a few days and decide where I want to go with it.

Edited 1/18/08: And now for something completely different. I went bold and limited palette with this piece. I redid it completely in bright blue and then rubbed on some subtle gold highlights:So, what do you think? Pastel, or bold? Which is better?

Fabric Glue Success

The fabric glue worked really well.  It took a loooong time to dry, but it was worth it.  I took off the book and wax paper yesterday morning, but some of the glue was still a little tacky as of last night.  But the tassels seem to be on firmly and spaced nicely.  Now I need to get the dowels, but it might be a couple of days.  I'm not going to post another picture because it looks pretty much the same as before.  But I am soooo relieved not to have to tack on each tassel by hand.  It was worth waiting for the glue to dry--I could work on *other* projects!

More about those soon.  I have several small things in the works.

Short Ode to Fabric Glue

Oh, how I love thee, let me count the ways!

You help lace take its proper place.

You anchor pesky flowers that insist on curling up.

And most of all:

You allow me to glue on tassels to the back and space them out while the glue is wet!

Well, it doesn't rhyme, but you get the idea.  I decided to use the tassles (Freudian slip between "tassels" and "hassles") with the gold showing, but was despairing of how to sew them on one by one, keep them evenly spaced, and keep my sanity.  

After some thought, I decided to try the glue.  Then I laid a piece of wax paper over the project and put a heavy unabridged dictionary on top.  See, homeschooling is good for your crafting life!  

My fingers are crossed until everything dries, though.  I'll post how it turns out.  Even if I need to tack the tassels on in addition, at least they will be positioned.

Can't Resist

So, should I name this piece "Purple Rain?"  

Hardeeeharrrharr.

Edited:  DH didn't see the humor.  He growled, "I don't even want to ACKNOWLEDGE that person."  Umm, OK.  I'll just sign the back then.  It's not worth marital discord.  But I still think it's pretty funny.

To Fringe or Not to Fringe?

I have included two sets of photos below. You can see from my last posting the wall hanging as it currently is, with no fringe. But the cord I bought to hang it with had a bundle of tassels at each end. The tassel thingies were too gaudy and bulky, but when I took them apart I had a bunch of smaller, usable tassels that I threaded in a line and laid at the bottom of the piece. Well, I guess it's the bottom! I'll have to decide which end is up.

Anyway, I have laid the tassels out two ways. Here are the tassels showing the gold wrapping:


Here are the tassels with the gold wrapping hidden:


OK. (1) Should I tassel? (2) If so, which way looks nicer (showing gold or not)? (3) How do I attach the crazy things?  I wouldn't want to try to stitch them to the back and have the stitches show through, for example.  (4) Are they too long (should I give them a haircut)?

I vacillate between liking the gold showing and thinking it's a distraction. Also, I have to spread them out slightly to cover the subject. So, if I attach them with the gold showing, will it look odd that they are spaced out? I'm wondering if it will be less noticeable that I barely have enough of them ; ) if I attach them with the gold hidden.  In addition, I wonder if it will continue the "flowy" theme of the piece to have the gold hidden so that the purple tassels flow out from the lace.

Or maybe I'm overanalyzing because I have no idea how I would attach them! 

Decisions, decisions.

A Trial In Situ

We had the rarest of rarities here today in the Northwest--a SUNNY January Saturday! So I asked my DH to hold up the piece against the wall where it will be going so I could photograph it "in situ." A little Latin lingo, there.

Above I included a couple of different shots, uncropped, to try to show the wall color. It, like the Lutradur & Lace, does not photograph well. It is a medium mauvy tone with a burgundy tinge as well. The third shot shows more of a closeup to see the colors together.

I also took the plunge at Needleroozer's suggestion and did zig-zag stitching to finish the edges. It was a little tough at top and bottom where the lace goes to the edge and is thick. Don't look too closely! I'm not sure yet if I like it, but I need some distance and time from the piece to decide. I still might fool a little with a few of the flowers, but otherwise I think I'm done. I need to make sleeves for the back and get some dowels and paint them. I have a nice cord to hang it with.

Black Holes Banished

I feel like I'm finally seeing this project start to look the way I envisioned it. Again, I'm not sure how much the change is apparent in the photo, but in person it's significant (to me anyway). I "washed" parts of the piece with Halo Violet Gold. I took a small paintbrush and carefully went along the sides of the long pieces of lace and around each flower, using the flow of the water to help me fill in the dark, non-iridescent places that were left. In this case, I had too much "depth" to the piece! Now the whole piece appears "brighter" and doesn't act like it has been up all night with a vomiting child (black circles around "eyes" AKA flowers). It was a lot of detail work, but it was worth it.
Here is a closer view. I also gave this piece a heavy dousing of glitter spray last night. I heart glitter spray, as the Pioneer Woman would say. After this flurry of work, where I'm starting to get in the zone of, "I'm beginning to be happy with this piece," I think I should let it rest for a few days. This method works well when writing an essay or research paper (English major here), so I think I will apply it here, put the piece away, and then come to it again in a little while with a fresh eye to see what finishing touches it needs. Also, I now need to give more thought to how I will finish it for hanging. I've had a few ideas but I haven't really "settled" on anything.

The Battenburg piece? Well, I'm definitely NOT in the zone on that one. I think I'll put it away for a few days too, for a different reason--for this one I shall hope for fresh inspiration. ; )

Lace motifs!

Can you tell I'm enthusiastic about my order from Lace and Beyond? Here are a few hasty closeups of some of my favorite motifs:

Bookmarks

Here are a couple of bookmarks that I made for my children. Mr. Boy's favorite color is blue, so I gave him a blue and gold one. Here I was trying for some more scrim stripes, but I tried to do it with too much "gather." Next time I'll cut back. The bookmark looks fine and works fine, but it would be a mistake on a larger piece. My girly-girl loves pink, but I couldn't resist an undercoat of blue on it as well. The hem lace laid in strips is my second subtle background concept that I want to try behind a lace medallion piece. I like the way it turned out. You can highlight or tone down the lace as much as you want. The hem lace does seem to want to make the piece curl up a little--I don't know if that's just because the piece is so small. I guess I'll find out later when I try a larger piece!

I didn't put anything that "sticks out" on either bookmark based on my lesson learned a few weeks ago. Since they are for the children, they will see some hard use, so I wanted them to be durable.

Weak Wash and Accenting of Wall Hanging

This morning, I took a picture of the effects of the weak wash. Now, I'm not sure how apparent the change is from the photos (yesterday's vs. today's), but in person, the effect subtlely seems more "pulled together." It's a good start.
Here's a closeup:
Then, I lightly brushed with an almost dry round sponge over the top of the wide lace. I tried my finger, but it was verrrry slow. Making sure the sponge was almost dry was key, as well as just gliding it over the top of the lace carefully, making sure the color stayed just on top. I like how it turned out. Then, I also added some pink in some areas and one a few flowers. Again, the effect is subtle. I think it adds some depth to the piece. Here's an overall shot and then a closeup:

Starting to pick out accents on Wall Hanging

This project is going a little better than the other one.  At this stage I am experimenting with picking out some of the different lace in different colors of purple to see how they look.  It doesn't look unified yet. 

One thing that is surprising me about this piece is how I am NOT really liking the dark purple peeking out from behind the lace.  It is more "drastic" than I planned, and because it doesn't have iridescence, it looks like black holes or something behind the lace pieces.  But I think I have some ways I can tone that down.  Here's an overall view:

Next I have included a couple of closer-up views:

Now, clearly this needs more work, but it is coming along.  I thought that I needed to accent the skinnier lace, but I think I need to accent the flatter, wider lace as well.  For the next round, I think I will accent that as well, but I will probably apply the paint lightly with a finger rather than a brush or a round foam applicator for a lighter touch.  In previous pieces the effect has been too "heavy" with this type of lace.  The holes inbetween are quite large.

Also, this stage is where I encountered the difficulty with the dark purple being a distraction to the piece.  I decided to do two things:  (1) Apply a glitter spray to see if that masked the lack of iridescence in that layer, and (2) Try the wash again, but a really weak one.

The glitter did just about nothing.  Don't take me wrong, I like glitter, but it didn't help in this case.  I'll be painting over most of it and will have to re-apply it later.  Oh well, nothing was messed up, anyway.  No biggie.  

The wash actually helped a little.  I made a REALLY weak one because I was spooked about what happened last time, but I think I made it a little too weak.  I did  the weak wash with Halo Violet Gold so I wouldn't mess anything up by it being too dark.  If anything, I erred on the light side, but at least I didn't hurt anything.  The downsides were that it took a long time to do because there is so much texture on this piece and it took a long time to dry.  But overall I think the piece does look more unified now.  I don't have a photo of that yet--I'm planning to wait for daylight tomorrow.  

Major lesson learned:  Lay down a layer of iridescent paint before I lay down lace.  I didn't here because of the large area--I was concerned with how much paint it would take.  I thought it would work to have just a good color.  Nope.  Next time I'll know better.

I am, on the other hand, really liking the scrim background "stripes" on this piece.  I think it gives the piece a lot more interest than a plain background (like the Battenburg piece).  I plan to try this method again, along with another one that I have up my sleeve.

Oh, a small bummer--the small butterflies I ordered are a teeny bit too large for this piece.  Oh well, that just means I can use them for something else!  I'm mentally planning a series of smaller pieces.  But, later!