Studio Cam: New Tinkerings

Hello Sweetie Pies! The HerSpeak studio has been hoppin': scattered with gold leaf, felt scraps and paint squishing about! Here's a peep at what's been shakin' this week:





New mini shrine: 3" wide. Gold leaf, sequins, found images, nails, candles, glitter, plastic beads, wood pieces and silk flowers. The best part about these projects is I buy nothing: every shrine is recycled or found materials. Fiddling around and figuring out the best way to pair objects together is half the fun of making!


A Dia de Los Muertos fabric vignette underway--still have to stich on the mustache! He should be a sharp looking skelly when he's all sewed up. The frame is, if possible, more ridiculous than the skeleton. Can't wait to show you the finished piece!


And finally, the beginnings of a new painting! This is the second in my new latest series. I need to finish two more and they'll have homes in a Salon here in Milwaukee. More inprogress peeks to come! (30"x40", acrylic, watercolor and sequins on canvas.)

What is the state of your studios these days, darlings?

Studded Squids: Upcycle Earrings

Hey Pudding Pops!* It's been craftasmagoria at HerSpeak Headquarters: I'm still slicing up t-shirts and in an effort to use up some of the scraps I made a pair of punk-ass earrings! (I think they look like little squids.) To make them I cut several diamond shapes from the carcass of a pink t-shirt, bedazzled them with metal studs and attached them to an existing pair of broken vintage earrings. Here they are in action:

The fabric curls in wonky directions all on it's own. They weigh nothing and have great movement--perfect funky summer accessories for flea marketing or rock festivals...or some kind of motorbaby lazer tag. :P

T-Shirt Slaughter Continues: Summer Scarf

Hello Starfish! I've been continuing my t-shirt carnage and just recently finished another Tank Girl inspired accessory. In an effort to push my last t-shirt upcycle project, I began this piece by cutting six different Goodwill shirts into skinny-minny strips to make several yards of yarn. Each shirt made a surprising amount of yarn--I had plenty of left-overs to make other projects...soon to be posted! After the yarn was made I began braiding the strands and wrapped the whole technicolor rope up like an extension chord, tied of the end and VOILA: a totally sweet scarf for summer.

A friend at work asked me how I'd describe my style. I told her, "A mix between mad max and a slumber party from Hell." I'm making more of these to share with my girlfriends. :) I'd love to know what crafty madness you've been making this week!

The Most Wonderful Dream

Hello DearHearts~

It's been an UP DOWN UP DOWN wonky tonk week--meetings, rehearsals, work, crazy dreams, an apartment purge and a roadtrip to the Twin Cities! I plan to take the rest of this week to hibernate, rejuvenate and update. I feel similar to a deflated spit filled balloon at this point: very busy but not particularly productive. A spot of Molly Time is in order. I've been slowly but surely been documenting work and preping surfaces for new summer time painting projects. And finally, FINALLY, I have the completed fibers projects documented. Huzzah! Here She Be!

"...the most wonderful dream..."

paper rope, yarn, cut papers, cheese cloth, glass beads

"By employing the natural tendencies of the materials and borrowed references from origin myths, I have chosen to illustrate my own fabricated creation story. According to Australian aboriginal myth, The Dream Time was an amorphous period prior to the creation of the cosmos. It was a time of incubation, great energy and divinity. I chose to use the spiral for its symbolic associations with beginnings, growth, continuation and infinity. The central figure represents a sleeping goddess, whose posture alludes to infancy, as she dreams the universe into existence one tendril at a time. The swirling shapes are reminiscent of plant roots, cobwebs, and organic matter with references to unrefined growth and naturally occurring materials that are simultaneously in a state of expansion and decay."

*

"Hecate's Veil"
Cotton cloth, cheese cloth, dye, glass beads, sequins, bells, found objects

The veil on its wig stand.

The veil in action.

"The Greek goddess Hecate was a mysterious deity whose realms included all things dark and strange. She was called “Queen of The Night”, the Dark Moon and Keeper of Witches. Her subjects included sleeping dreamers and the wandering spirits of the deceased. Though she watched over the dead, she is not a bringer of death, but instead called upon to ease pain, help in passing on into the next world or insight in making decisions. Because of her incredible powers of foresight, she was credited with bringing mortals information in the form of prophetic dreams. It was said she could part the Veil of Time to reveal messages to those who appeased her. This piece draws upon the goddess’s bizarre and unsettling nature by using a subdued pallet juxtaposed against bits of sparkling materials reminiscent of dew and cobwebs. In making this work, the artist’s objective was to create a garment that might be worn by the goddess, a priestess performing a rite in Her honor or an Oracle inspired by Hecate’s wisdom. The viewer is invited to wear the piece and experience its textures, sounds and smells in a more intimate way. "

Silly process story: I wanted this project to be interactive and I thought it was important for this garment to have a particular smell. So, I rounded up a sage bundle and some bay leaves and built a little hot house for the veil to rest in while I burned some herbs to give it just the right earthy funk. Now normally, a sage smudge only burns for a few seconds before going out...normally. I walked away from the project to go stir a dye bath only to return to my project--you guessed it--on fire. The ENTIRE sage bundle had burned to nothing but ashes including the twine holding it together! Luckily, the project burned in the best way possible, looked rad, was super SUPER stinky AND my apartment didn't burn down! My apartment, even after two weeks, still smells like a camp fire.

Was Hecate watching?

Perhaps.

I like to think so anyway. ;)

*

Until next time, my Pretties--

Much Joy and Merry Making!

Wishcasting Wednesday: What do you wish to read?

*****Wishcasting Wednesday*****

This wednesday our Wishtress Jamie asks us, "What do you wish to read?"

I wish to Read volumes of dusty poetry,

sticky tea leaves,

wandering clouds

and the EXPRESSION on their faces when

you and I amaze them!

What do You wish to read?

~*~

Hello Dear Hearts! It feels like it's been years--but in truth, simply a few busy weeks! Here's what's been stirring stirring stirring in the studio:

A spider lady revamp! The hoop frame was doing nothing for me--so I created a scrolly paper frame to house the spider goddess instead. Ahhhh, much better!
Etching intaglio plates, making proofs, and printing a small handmade book entitled, "This is WE: Prayers for Isis" for my Print and Narrative Forms course. I'm really enjoying the depth of line and happy accidents that occur with this method of printmaking. Tomorrow I finish printing the images and begin the process of hand coloring.


We're studying tie dying techniquest in my Fibers class. So I've been dying fabric and stitching bits and pieces together to make a Veil for Hecate. I've always wanted to make a wearable work! Last night I began the proccess of starching more cheese cloth to create a cobwebby crown that will sit on top of the head peice. Then on to beading!


And between meetings, class, work and studio time, I've been stealing quiet moments in the evening to DIVE into Women Who Run With the Wolves. As the Great Maya Angelou said, "Everyone who can read should read this book." Talk about an endorsement! If you haven't paged through it alreay, all I can say is it isTruly amazing mind twistin' stuff that your girl guts will Love.

OH! Last but not least--

the Winner of the Herspeak Goddess Give Away is:

Our Lovely 3rd Eye Muse! Hooray!

With school winding down to it's last week I'm cooking up more goddess goodies as week speak, so stay tuned for more give away treats! Now do tell me what you've been crafting in your studios, jotting in your journals and daydreaming about!

Until Next Time~

Much Joy and Merry Making, Friends!

Spider Woman and Goddess Give Away!

Hello Friends!
Though it was sleeting all afternoon there are sure signs of spring peeking out of the ground--all sorts of activity! There's been activity in Apartment Number 5 too! I began a weaving piece a few weeks ago and after much swearing and many yards of yarn, it is finished!

The planning stage:

Spider Woman has a wonderful mythology and busy busy fingers, so she seemed an appropriate subject for my Creatrix themed work this semester. Though the Hopi story is beautiful, I have no business lifting Hopi imagery. So, instead I borrowed the idea, tweaked it and created the HerSpeak version of the magickal earthy goddess.

In progress:

This weaving is made up of 5 different colored yarns, each being trimmed and changed after 5 stitches to create a painterly background as opposed to one flat color. After weaving the circular background, stars, pearls and glass beads were embroidered onto the blue circle.

The finished work!

I wanted there to be an interactive element to the piece, so I chose to place a grommet where the Spider Woman's third eye would be, through which you can pull a periwinkle colored thread. (There is a bobbin mounted on her back. It makes a delightfull whirring sound when you pull it!)

Now, on to the good stuff--

***A Goddess Give Away!***

To say Thank You to all you gorgeous souls out there for your support, commentary, thoughtful discussion and insight, I will be giving away this limited edition print! This HerSpeak Tarot Card is 1 of 18 double-sided hand pulled, 5"x7" lithographs printed with a vibrant violet ink on hand torn cream domestic etch paper:

The verso side reads:

"THE HERSPEAK IS A SOFT CARD; ITS VISION IS OF TOMORROW, MAYBE NEXT WEEK, CERTAINLY NOT IMMEDIATE. SHE LOUNGES ABOUT THE DECK ONLY TO POUNCE WHEN THE QUERENT LEAST SUSPECTS IT. (BE SURE TO CHECK IN ON THE THIRTEENTH HOUR OF THE THIRTEENTH DAY FOR BEST RESULTS!) THE HERSPEAK CARD IS ONE OF JACK KNIFE POSSIBILITIES, OF HOPE, OF EXPLORATION. THIS CARD ASKS YOU TO LISTEN, YOU SEE; THE UNIVERSE HAS MUCH TO TELL US IF WE ONLY LISTEN TO H E R S P E A K."

This printed was lovingly made and signed by yours truly. Get in on the Give Away fun by leaving a comment saying what YOU are doing to listen to the music of the spheres, the wind, your intuition by Midnight on Monday April 20th! Tuesday morning, the ever awesome Muffin will randomly draw a winner! Which of you will it be, my pretties?

Until Next Time--

Many Blissings and Merry Making, Friends!

Wishcasting: Famous Graves + Studio News!

***Hello, My Pretties!***

Though we've been pelted with snow and rain the past few days, spring is on the way! I can feel the movement--can you? All this mud makes a perfect place to plant wishes! This week our Wishtress Jamie asks, "What do you wish to trust in?"

***I wish to trust in me--

To be confident in my abilities.

I wish to trust in my voice--
to mean what I say and say what I mean.
I wish to trust my intution--

To relax and listen because my guts know where to go.

What do You wish for?

Life has been happening here at a breakneck pace--so many exciting developments, so little time! Here's a quick peek at what's been shakin' in Apartment Number 5!:

Firstly, I've been asked to lead the organization for a major kick off gala for the Women's Artist Resource Network (W.A.R.N.) here in Milwaukee. I've been buzzing from meeting to meeting, typing minutes, meeting with awesome professional artists of all kinds, visiting studios, creating contact lists and researching decor, floral and video possibilities. This event is PACKED to the gills: three levels of film, red carpet, swag bags, fashion shows, gallery spaces, live music, signiture cocktails, vallet parking and of course, totally Amazing women from floor to ceiling! I can't wait!

I've also been helping my wunderkind mother put together a porfolio that is as rad as she is! We spent all day saturday doing a photoshoot of her incredible costume work. (Here's a pic of her wearing one of her insane vampire creations.) Skallywag Fashions--skandalously fashionable! Her work will be available online soon! We're also collaborating on a Gallery Night fashion show--we're thinking of going with a Nasferatu steam punk theme. We're going to be the best dressed undead in the entire city!

The Famous Graves are in full throttle! We've been compiling lists of new tunes as we'll be performing at the W.A.R.N. gala event this summer! It's good to be back in the swing of playing, and I'm excited to continue exploring jazz as a new Famous Graves frontier. We'll be rehearsing again on Sunday--R.O.C.K!

I've been bussing back and forth from downtown this week as I was invited to participate in the MIAD Thesis exhibition as a performer. It is a BFA show titled "22 Years of Inventory" by the talented sculptress Ashely Gustafson. I play a super snooty arty farty gallery owner. I'm scheduled to go and get a super angular hair cut this next week as to better fit the part--Too fun! More details on that as the show approaches!

And as usual, I'm a spider lady: weaving weaving weaving. Actually--this piece is based on the myth of the Spider Woman. This is the beginning of a tapestry project I'm creating for my fibers course. Eventually the circle will become a pallet for a night sky onto which I'll be embroidering stars and a figure. It will be a multimedia piece that will include photographs, fabrics and beads. I'll be sure to post the progress. :)

For now, I'm off to the closet to find an outfit for the Women in Communications Awards show for tomorrow evening! Also--be sure to check in this coming week. I'm hostessing a give away that is inspired by yOU my blogosphere beauties!

And now my dears, what's been shaking in your universe?

Until Next Time--

Much Joy and Merry Making, Friends!~*

In The Studio: Hecate Shroud

I feel quite a bit like a lady spider these days--spinning, winding and pulling thread. My Dream Time piece for Fibers is slowly growing tendril by tendril. Earlier in the week I dyed the cheese cloth I will be using to create a series of fleshy, petal–like additions for the existing coils which will eventually make a bed or nest structure for the entire piece to rest in. The dye was a combination of day old coffee, soy sauce and corn starch. (It smells as good as it sounds.) I wanted to achieve a very mottled, organic gradation of colors and if you can ignore the stink, this soy sauce concoction does the trick!

My initial plan only required a few large tendrils, but decided it was far too clunky and didn’t invoke the sort of movement I was aiming for. So I am creating several other more dimensional root structures to beef it up. I’ve also been sewing on small glass beads so the forms play with light a bit and reference something like dew drops or suggest the fantastical. I’m going to experiment with coating the yarn in gel medium to see if I can get more of a fresh wet sheen and less of wooly surface texture.

Aside from the Wooly Universe, I’ve been working on a paper construction project for printmaking. The theme for the course is personal memoir and I'm planning to do a piece about my mom. She has posed for me in the past, but the pictures were less about her and more about a mood I was attempting to capture. I want this work to speak about her personality and her seemingly supernatural creative skills. I have a photograph that I took of her wearing one of her fabulous costume pieces, but due to my fledgling skills in the darkroom it never really captured what I intended. So, I’m planning to use this photograph as a springboard for the project and will hopefully be able to animate the piece so it speaks properly.

By the way, if you dig this nitty gritty process stuff, you should visit my dear friend and kickin’ artist Rick. He’s been posting some crazy creepy work for his thesis show. It’s such a treat to peek into his studio and see what sort of shenanigans he’s up to!

What are you working on this week?

Until next time—
Merry Making, Friends!~*

Weaving: A Wooly Dream

Amid the slurping sound of melting snow being sucked down sewer drains there has been MUCH tinkering! This gobbildeegook of cord and yarn are the beginnings of what will *hopefully* be a fabulous fibers project! We're using a coiling technique (a type of basket weaving) to create three dimensional forms. My professor keeps assuring us that everyone can weave, since after all it is a survival skill our ancient ancestors developed for building containers, clothing and shelter. I am certainly glad to live in this millennium--I can hardly handle this with paper cording and yarn. I can't imagine trying to do detail work with pointy reeds while mosquitoes the size of birds are trying to take a drink off of you...Yikes.


I decided to use the initial coiling shape to inform my project. I'm gleaning the idea of "The Dream Time" from my aboriginal art history course. While doing the initial doodling for this piece, the phrase "I had the most wonderful dream" floated into my psyche. Oooh, I don't know where that came from, but it's too good to ignore!

I'd like the piece to be about movement, the primal and universal symbol of the spiral as beginning and end, the act of Dreaming something into being, capture a sort of swiRling energy. There will be other elements added to the fiber coiling like photographs, beads and starched cheesecloth. I'll be sure to keep you posted on the slow but steady progress of my Wooly Universe. (It's adorable, my professor can't pronounce the word "wool" with her thick Korean accent. Instead she refers to it as "fur of sheep"--I almost shot milk out of my nose. Love it.) For now, I'm off to work on some ideation for my printmaking class and read chapter six of Secrets of Highly Creative Women!

How are your creative projects coming along, my pretties?

Merry Making, Friends!~*