Benefit for Prune Belly Syndrome

TinkerAndPo was looking for folks to donate items for a benefit auction for Prune Belly, a devastating illness that kills 20% of infants before they are born and 30% within two years due to kidney problems.

I decided to donate a 5"x7" painting that I'm currently working on. It's a smaller version of one I finished earlier in the month, Mountain Stream.

Read about Prune Belly and the benefit at Prune Belly Syndrome. If you can't afford to bid on items in the auction, please consider making a small donation on the site (and be included in some raffles as a result). Every little bit helps.

I've recently donated to diabetes research and pancreatic cancer research but since I'm not always able to donate money to more causes (even if I'd like to), being able to donate an item to auction off is just one way I can help.

This month, I'm also working on getting donations for the American Diabetes Association. My paternal grandmother died from complications due to diabetes and my mother's older sister is suffering from diabetes and the results of having it for so long.

-darlisa

Halloween painting ...

New painting completed from the September class, titled "Welcome Home" ... Everyone's happy to see me come home except one troublemaker! Next month's class is a fall scene, with a pumpkin patch.

A few paintings to show off

It's been a couple of months since I last posted but I haven't been slacking off, I guarantee that!

First off, I've been getting ready for the Fall Issue of Crochet Uncut. I've been having trouble accessing the site, along with Salt City Gifts, and the hosting company determined that there were two scripts being run on other accounts that were taking up all the CPU. So they were disabled. A few days later, the same problem came up and they found another script using up all the CPU. Everything was fine for several days, then lo and behold, it happened again. So the hosting company moved my sites to a brand spankin' new server ... Of course, this has put me behind on the Fall issue, but so far so good on the site access.

I've also taken two more classes from Jon McNaughton and finished the paintings - which you can see below. Click on the images to see larger versions on my Flickr gallery.

This painting is called "Hollyhock Path" and while I still can't get the hollyhock stalks right yet (they're too "lush"), I'm still quite happy with it. There was also supposed to be a little girl on the path, but I decided not to put her in on this one.

Acrylic on masonite, 11x14

This next one, I'm not so happy with when it comes to the aspens (too uniform) and the clouds, but I love the mountains, pines, and stream - so I guess it balances out. This one is called "Mountain Stream."

Acrylic on masonite, 11x14

This next painting I went out on my own, kinda, using a lesson from Inspirations Vol. Two by Jerry Yarnell. I mixed his directions with my own style and some of Jon McNaughton's techniques and, so far, this is my favorite painting. This painting is called "Resting Wren."

Acrylic on masonite, 11x14

The class for September is a Halloween scene, October is a pumpkin patch, November is a Christmas scene, and December is a head study. Jon's also hoping to have a 3-day workshop next year on painting figures and I told him that if he did, I'd definitely take the three days off work to take the workshop.

I've been paying about $3.50 per masonite panel at Provo Art & Frame and while that's not a bad price (especially with my discount), it still adds up. I spent about $35 last weekend on ten 11x14 panels so this weekend, I decided to go to Lowes. There I found 4'x8' sheets of masonite and for a $9 cutting fee along with 4 panels, I paid $44 for the following (odd sizes were from scrap left after cutting the main sizes):

Main sizes:

• 5" x 7" - 48 panels
  
• 8" x 10" - 27 panels
• 11" x 14" - 71 panels

Scrap sizes:

• 4.5" x 8" - 3 panels
• 5" x 9" - 4 panels
• 10" x 11" - 4 panels
• 10.75" x 11" - 4 panels
• 11" x 11.25" - 3 panels
• 3" x 24" scraps

So now I have plenty of panels to do lots of paintings with. I'm planning on using the smaller panels to practice painting flowers on. I figure the small size will let me do one or two flowers without overdoing it. If I had purchased the main panels at the art store, I'd have paid $356 plus tax.

I'll post my progress here as I go and you can also keep an eye on my Flickr gallery to see what's been completed.

Getting back into the painting groove

I've been extremely busy lately but finally have a few minutes to post something.

The Summer issue of Crochet Uncut has been published and it is a very nice issue with plenty of patterns and articles. Go check it out!

Last week I took a two day painting class from Jon McNaughton, a local Provo artist. He does a lot of gorgeous landscapes but his religious art is absolutely breathtaking. I've been wanting to get back into painting since I haven't done anything since 1983 unless it was a digital painting or painting on nested dolls.

Anyway, I finished the painting from class and varnished it last night.



Click on the image to see larger versions if you'd like.

As soon as the varnish is dry, this painting will be on its way to my father for Father's Day.

I've started a second painting, same scene, so I can practice more and improve my techniques. I enjoy using acrylics as there are far fewer smells and stuff that can make me ill.

I'd really like to take one of Jon's three-day workshops, but I'd have to take three days vacation in order to do so. Maybe next year?

Excuse me while I digress for a moment ...

I.WANT.A.THERAMIN!!!

That is all .... now back to your regularly scheduled day.

No spinning for me and flying yarn

I've been asked when I'm going to start spinning to which I answered, "Never!" - not because I don't want to but because I cannot handle another hobby. It's hard enough working a full-time job, doing contract work, publishing an e-zine, crocheting, designing, knitting, and now dying yarn, while trying too keep up with my cross stitching, weaving, pysanky, sewing, and painting nested dolls! Oh, and don't forget finding time to do my artwork ...

Anyway, I was balling up my Mango Madness yarn last night because I didn't like the way it had re-skeined on the swift and wanted to redo it on my warping board. I was trying to keep the yarn loose so it would come out easily and the first skein went very well, no problems. The second skein was doing well, behaving, etc. and I was watching the pretty colors fly by, turning the handle on the ball winder ... fun! However, I was apparently turning too fast and not holding the yarn with enough tension and suddenly I saw a flash go in front of my face and land on the floor. After a moment of shock, I noticed that the ball winder was empty and there on the floor was the half finished ball of yarn! (sigh) So I had to untangle it and start over. This time I made sure that I had more tension on the yarn and it behaved this time.

I also re-skeined the yarn I'd dyed over the weekend. The colors started with a yellow on one end but it ended up too muddy even though I only put a couple drops of black in the dye mix. So, I dumped some red dye in the pot (don't ask how much, I don't know as I just added dye until it looked pretty) and dumped the rest of the skein in the pot.

And this is the result, which my sister named "Lobster Bisque" and has a bit of a burnt orange mixed in where the original icky yellow used to be:



Not too bad for a "ewwwww ... fix it" dye job!

This is using a Knit Picks Bare yarn and it is available for purchase (two skeins available) in my etsy shop along with the two skeins of Mango Madness.

Yarn therapy needed

I think I need some therapy to get over my addiction for learning new things ... like dying yarn.

My first attempt at dying was Skacel Merino Lace, 1375 yards in a gorgeous green. Of course, as I was trying to wind the finished skein into a cake, my swift decided to start sticking which meant that the ball was too tight and I had to re-ball it. Lovely, soft stuff. I'm hoping to design a wrap for it.

Here's the yarn hanging up to dry:



And after being made into a fairly nice cake:



So that was on the 19th and 20th. Over this last weekend, I dyed two skeins of Trekking sock yarn. One was Wool/Nylon while the other was Wool/Bamboo. I put an extra knot on one of the ties so I could tell which one it was and promptly forgot which one it was.

Here is the yarn in the glass pan after I had nuked it:



This is the one I think in the nylon mix:



And the one I think is the bamboo mix:



My sister said they looked like mangos, so I called this colorway "Mango Madness."