Belated Thank Yous and Making Progress

First of all and very important, let me say a belated thank you to all my blogger buddies for your wonderful support during what is a difficult time, my husband, Gary's unexpected heart surgery. Thank you Jan for the beautiful heart pin, it has cheered my spirits. It is a real work of art.

 Gary is on the mend and doing well. It is hard to believe that he left the hospital two weeks ago. We start rehab. next week, 3 times a week.

While Gary was undergoing surgery, I escaped into my own world by beading my vintage flapper goodies onto a felt jacket that I was making for a woman for her son's wedding. This kept my mind off of worrying the whole time, which does no good at all (worrying.)  I will take a picture of her with her jacket and necklace on once she is all decked out. I made her necklace also.

Garden Lady by Cindy
Jenkens

An elf riding a turtle

A teapot

Before Gary realized that his heart was at risk, he and my son Bryan had torn out part of our deck and we had great plans to make a courtyard out of our backyard. Since going to Paris I have loved courtyards. Well, one doesn't carry sand, gravel and pavers after having major heart surgery, and we weren't going to hire anyone to carry out our plans. So this will have to wait until next year. I am going to have heart surgery also, we have known that since early May. Gary's was the surprise. How many couples do you know who have both had major heart surgery within a couple of months of each other? Crazy life...


In the meantime, I am enjoying our flowers. I have gotten into my own form of "garden art." I have gotten lots of metal things, figures, antigues, candle holders, old pottery, etc. and put it in with the flowers and let them grow up around the stuff. Come winter it will probably look like a junk yard, so I will gather it in and replant it next spring. Next spring will bring a lot of new things,
THANK GOD!!!

A torn up deck

A garden path

Where the hostas grow

An old oil can

Old metal shoes

Much love and many hugs for all of you,
Cameron

"Life Happens When You Are Planning Other Things"

 

I am finally getting around to showing you how wonderful Maggi looks in her new jackety-shawl. Sorry that it took me so long to show your wonderful picture, Maggi.  

  My life was interrupted big time when my husband developed chest pains which evolved into quadruple bypass surgery. I was reminded of the words to the song God Laughs by Delta Goodrem. The chorus is:

 "We're all walking in quicksand, 

When we're busy making our plans,

God Laughs." 

The song is a bit cynical but often so true.

 To keep myself marginally sane, I have been making jackets for the holidays, putting vintage lace and fun vintage appliques on them. 

Love and hugs to all,

Cameron

Beautiful Artistry and a Fun Contest

Audrey

Lorna

A little over a month ago I started a contest to make a shawl pin. I had several people express interest, and I mailed out small clamps  from Home Depot. A few folks could not finish the pin due to health issues or vacation plans, but I did get back 7 entries, and they are fantastic!!!   I asked artist friends of mine to do the judging, a very hard job. The judging criteria were creativity and wearability. The winner is Maggi. I have the artist's permission to show their work. You will see how difficult the decision was.

 Maggi has won a jackety-shawl from me, but they have all won my admiration, thanks, and many, many hugs. Love, Cameron

Patty

Yvette

Maggi

The human mind and imagination are truly amazing.

Riet

Sue

Can't Wait

As it draws closer to the end of this month I grow more excited to show the results of this more than month long contest to make a shawl pin/clamp. The results so far are fantastic. The artists have put this blogger to shame. What creativity!!!

 I have decided to have 3 of my artist friends do the judging as "blind judges," and to pull myself out of that role. I will just be the one to give away the prize.  If that sounds like a "cop out", I am doing it because I have blogged with some of the artists far longer than others and I don't want any feelings to get in the way. My friends will never know anything about anyone, just see the pin. Remember the criterion are creativity and wear-ability.

I have heard from many of the contestants that they have had a lot of fun with this. I have had a blast.

Love and hugs to all, and get those pictures in, right up to the last minute.
Many, many hugs, Cameron

Great Fair and New Friends

Picture by Reathel Geary

I had so much fun at the Salem Art Fair, met wonderful people and sold several of my garments. I have no real comparison for whether or not I did "well" monetarily, but I am happy with the results. I learned a lot about what I would do the same to set up my tent space and what I would change, because we are going to do this again at several stops in Oregon.

Picture by Reathel Geary

Picture by Reathel Geary

My fellow emerging artist was next door, a photographer named Reathel Geary. He took many of the photos that I will show you here on my blog. The one in the left upper corner is his, and he got this result using his iPhone. The next two are also great shots of women in my garments, one the artist on the other side of me, the curly headed one, my niece. I think that Reathel is going to make a name for himself in the world of photography, as you can see. Marcia, on the left is a painter. I now have one of her paintings, what a beauty.

Good ol' Oregon. On Sunday it started raining seriously and my tent started dripping. Even the more expensive tents were having a few issues. Instead of that open, inviting look that you want to draw people in, everything was crammed into the tent to keep in out of the rain. Then the drips got it, I mean the rain drips, there were no people drips. I didn't need to worry about having enough room as there weren't any people around anyway. This picture shows how my tent looked for most of the morning.

A woman came in with her friend and her silly brother. The brother tried on one of my capes and said that I could take his picture for my blog. As you can see he was very dramatic. I think that he is destined for Hollywood. His sister came back 3 more time and on the fourth time purchased a jackety-shawl.

Also on the last day a woman came in who turned out to be a fellow felter. We started talking and she showed me some of the great characters that she creates out of felt and other media. Her name is Claudia Knous and she can be found on a site called wildwomenartists.com. She also makes scarves that are wonderful. As we talked I found out that she had just ridden in a bicycle race that my sister in law usually rides in, and yes out of all the people who ride in the race, she knew my sister in law and my brother. She had given my sister in law, Paula, a scarf tthat  Paula had then given to me. This was the scarf that had gotten me started felting, and this was the woman who had made that scarf.dhamatic. R

How likely was it that this woman would come from a bicycle race in Portland, 45 miles away, on a rainy Sunday and visit my tent. She lives in Nevada. I can only think that "God, the universe, fate, etc." whatever you believe, has plans for all of us. I was thrilled to meet her, my inspiration, and I want to stay in touch.e

Enough for now about the fair.

I have 2 contest entries so far. I won't post anything until the end of the month. I hope that all is going well, let me know.

Thanks for all of your support. Love and hugs, Cameron

Art Fair a Few Days Away

More Tips and More Lace

I did it again, I went on line to an auction and bid on a lot of vintage lace and got it. This whole box that you see is full of vintage hand made white, off white and ecru lace trims of all widths. It is amazing. I can just picture the women who worked on these beauties. I have also taken a picture of an antique show advertisement where someone once sold some of them. 

And now for a little contest information. I have sent off all of the pin/clamps but one. That will go out tomorrow. The ones to Europe should be arriving soon if not already. Please let me know.

I made a few smaller pins today and took a picture of the whole lot. I used a new glue which seemed to work pretty well, but I haven't tried to pull the jewelry off of the pin so who knows. The glue is Loctite Super Glue.


A friend told me about another glue called E 6000 which is supposed to be very good. The problem is that it smells awful, so if you use it, use it outside or in a well ventilated garage.

                                                 

Patty, I couldn't find the glue that you recommended but I'll keep looking. That's it for now, stay in touch.

Hugs, Cameron

Contestants, Possible Helps, Possible Extension

I am so pleased with the response I have had to this contest. What fun! And now, I want to share a few tips that I learned along the way while making these pins.

At first I used a paint that is used to cover outdoor metal furniture to protect it from rust and I also primed it. I sprayed both primer and the covering black paint on the clip and ended up with a mess. I used my sanding bit to try to clean them up and gummed it all up. Then I used a touch up paint to paint in the spots that were unpainted. They still looked a mess. I then added more misery to the situation by using a glue that dries and shows .  The tube below is the first glue I tried, didn't work well for this project. Also, when using glass, I needed to rough up the glass back to get any glue to stick.

The second glue that I used didn't work either. By this time I was making the paint look better by using my rub and buff paints to add some metallic appeal. The process was frustrating but also fun experimentation as is all creativity. I also started using a better black paint. This one had better coverage and I didn't use a primer.

I hope that my sharing doesn't scare anyone away as it has been fun. I will share a few more of my pins/clamps with you.

As I have mentioned earlier this is a fun contest, designed for sharing ideas. Since most of the contestants live in Europe, I may have to extend the timeline. We will deal with that later, but be aware that I am willing if the need arises. I will be sharing more, and hope that once you get your pins you will share. I still have not found a glue that I like. If anyone out there has an idea please share.

Talk soon, Hugs, Cameron