My New ARThaven–Completed Work

The second of two posts today.

Finally today, the work was completed on my ARTHaven and office. Chris put up the two shelves in the office section. The one on the left is mainly for my ring binders and lever arch files. I have some cardboard units for these – without them, they are hard to store on a shelf.

The second shelf is similar, on the opposite wall.

Unfortunately these shelves are not proving strong enough for everything I want to put on them. I had planned on storing all my store of packs of A4 paper and card, and my large zip-bags of DVDs on them, but they are bowing under the weight so I have removed everything for now. I will either have to have a rethink about office storage, or I am going to have to consult with Andy on his return from holiday and see if a better solution can be found.

I spent some time this afternoon bringing more things into both sections, but concentrated primarily on the office.

Today Chris brought his daughter, and she and I had such a lovely time – I gave her the guided tour, and then showed her some of my art work (the small amount that I could find!) including the beginning of the album I am making about Dad’s life – it was really lovely opening that particular box up and seeing it all again after so long!

My work from now on is to complete the emptying of the the boxes (still quite a lot more stuff to bring in!) and then the ongoing work of organising it all. Today I made a happy discovery – that the space to the right of the fireplace is exactly the same measurement as my metal pegboards, so I am going to install one here, and the other one will most probably go above the sink. We also have some large sheets of normal pegboard (not metal) and I propose putting up several small areas of pegboard for extra storage of small items within easy reach of the relevant work station.

Village Craft Fair

Last Saturday there was a craft fair in our village church to celebrate the creativity of the local people and as a local fund-raiser. I was offered a table and readily agreed, and offered to do demonstrations throughout the day.

Some of the work on display was of a very high standard; for instance, the lady who had the table next to mine had only been painting for about a year, and was producing work such as this:

There was also someone who was exhibiting a wide range of items including miniature embroidered rugs for dolls’ houses, taken from original rug designs:

seen here with some of her exquisite silver spoons. She also worked with enamel on copper, and made silver and bead jewellery. I was particularly taken with her marine life jewellery.

Further acrylic paintings:

This artist also created fairies from hand-made felt, which you can see on the display on the left of her table.

A great display of beautiful quilts.

There are more photos of the show in my Photobucket album.

Here I am at my table, ready to start.

This is my display board. I am so grateful to my hubby for finding some pegboard panels for me – this turned out to be ideal for hanging my mirrors and prints, and it took the rest really well with Blue Tack.

As you can see, I tried to display as much variety as I could – my mixed media mirrors (for further details, click on “Mirrors” in the RH sidebar of my blog – there are several posts), ATCs (likewise), pages from my ongoing mixed media Fine Art Album project, some experimental pieces, small paintings, and prints of my zentangle art – I printed these on semi-gloss photographic paper and am very pleased with the quality, and the intensity of the colour.

As I worked on my demo pieces, lots of people came up to watch and to chat, and ask me about my work. On the far left of my table, beside the zentangle print, are the cards and coasters. As well as offering these black and white zentangle cards for sale, I also managed to make up nearly 2 dozen coloured ones. I shall be doing a separate post about these in due course.

Of all that I had on offer, I only managed to sell nine cards, unfortunately, but at least my work got some exposure, and I had great fun being creative all day, so it was worth it!

Now for some photos of the work I did during the day. Most of these were small in size so that I could demonstrate several different techniques, and as usual I worked on ATC-sized card much of the time, as any successful samples can then be used for actual ATCs, and anything not successful won’t break the bank because hardly anything has been used!

I started with a plain white ATC which I stamped with versamark, and heat-embossed with clear embossing powder. I then inked this with Walnut Stain Distress Ink, using my Inkylicious Ink Dusters, and finished it off with a bit more distressing round the edges with Vintage Photo DI. The stamp was Calligraphic Mat #4 from The Artistic Stamper. The embossing acts as a resist, showing the white card beneath the ink. On the second sample, I inked it first using Weathered Wood DI, then embossed with clear embossing powder, and inked again, this time with Bundled Sage, and finally a touch of Vintage Photo around the edges to distress it. This resulted in the resist showing the initial inking colour, in this case blue. This stamp is the Music background stamp, again from The Artistic Stamper.

You can see how through many layers of stamping and inking, many different and interesting effects can be created.

The next thing I demonstrated was rubbing the ink pad on my non-stick craft sheet, spritzing it with water and smooshing the card in this ink. For the first sample, I used a mixture of Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, Walnut Stain and Vintage Photo DIs. The quality of the card wasn’t that good for this technique, but I didn’t mind in the end that the initial smooshing came out quite blotchy; with the added stamping and extra ink, it just added to the general grunginess of the effect. To get a smoother effect, watercolour paper would be better as it stands up well to a soaking.

I stamped with gold embossing powder onto the background of the first piece, and in the second, used the stamp as a resist, as before. The stamp in the first sample is a flower head stamp from The Stamp Barn, and that in the second is from the Tim Holtz Ultimate Grunge Collection by Stampers Anonymous. This sample was first inked all over with Spiced Marmalade DI, stamped with clear embossing powder and then smooshed into Walnut Stain and Vintage Photo. To finish each of these samples, I spritzed them with a DIY glimmer mist made from Wild Honey Distress Re-inker, water and Perfect Pearls (Perfect Pearl colour), which has given an iridescent finish, and some nice blotches of a more intense effect.

The next sample was somewhat similar, but smooshed, stamped and inked repeatedly, building up the layers until I got the effect I wanted. In this case I used the Personal Impressions Pebbles background stamp with Versamark and clear embossing powder, and the Crafty Individuals large swirl stamp, also with Versamark and clear embossing powder, and finally with gold. This one was then sprinkled with water and blotted with some kitchen paper.

I did a quickie demo showing the effect of sanding Core’dinations paper – I had prepared a piece of Whitewash Core’dinations at home, embossing it with the Tim Holtz Texture Fades embossing folder “Cracked.” After sanding, I inked it with Dusty Concord DI, showing how the ink is intensified by the roughness of the sanded surface. To finish this one off, I rubbed on a little Treasure Gold in the central part, but it doesn’t show up too well on the photo.

I did a few examples with one of the stamps from the Stamp Attack JoZart Design fans collection, using Versamark onto black card and then adding dry Perfect Pearls in various colours with a soft brush. Once I had brushed off the excess I spritzed them lightly with water to activate the binding agent in the mica powder. These will be cut out and used as small tags, with the addition of some ribbon and a bit of bling.

My final sample was done with acrylics and stencils. I had intended to do several of these, but time was marching on, and I had other things to do as well.

For this, I laid my Increasing Circles stencil onto some heavy watercolour paper and painted on some gesso with a foam brush. After drying this with my heat gun, I proceeded to paint the surface roughly with alizarin crimson acrylic paint, placed the stencil back and rubbed with a baby wipe. This removed quite a bit of the paint from the gesso which acted as a resist, giving some interesting overlapping partial circles. I repeated the process with some ultramarine blue, and then stamped with scraps of extra large and extra small bubble wrap, using gesso. The effect was altogether too bright at this stage, so I made my favourite dulling-down acrylic glaze from a touch of Payne’s grey acrylic paint mixed with acrylic polymer, and after drying this, stamped with archival black ink using the ink-spatter stamp from the Tim Holtz Ultimate Grunge collection from Stampers Anonymous, and finally stamped with copper metallic acrylic paint using the circles stamp from the Bitty Grunge collection also from Stampers Anonymous. As always, using gesso and acrylics, I had to try and remember to clean the stencil, brushes and stamps immediately or it dries on very quickly and becomes impossible to remove. This is a bit of a bore, especially when one is on a creative roll and is desperate to get on to the next stage! (How nice it would be to have a flunky to do it for me, like the artists of old, who had apprentices to grind their paint for them!!)

This is a technique that you can just go on adding to, layer by layer, colour by colour, shape by shape, whatever you want, until you like it! The possibilities are endless. Here’s a detail shot.

I really like how the texture of the watercolour paper works with this background.

My second demonstration was making some paper flowers with Penny Duncan’s rose design cut file, somewhat adapted to give a more frilly edge to the petals. I deliberately made these quite large so that people could see what was going on. Here are the materials I used.

The pieces were drawn in Inkscape and cut out using Sheba, my Black Cat Cougar cutting machine. Distress Stains are the best method of colouring the petals and leaves, in my opinion. They are easy to apply, and you can build up the layers of colour to the intensity you desire. Once coloured and dried with the heat gun, each petal and leaf is hand-embossed onto a piece of fun foam, and then assembled using the hot glue gun. I ran a nib across the surface of a distress ink pad and drew the veins on the leaves. Here is the final result.

My final demo was intended to be zentangle drawing, and although I did do a bit, it was not enough to photograph – I will upload the finished drawing when I have done it. By the time I got started on that, the numbers of visitors to the show had thinned out considerably, and then people started clearing up, so I had to call it a day, as it took a very long time taking down my display and packing it all up ready to take home.

Tour of my ARTHaven

A while back, I said I would do a video about the video rig that my hubby’s friend made for me. When I set up my ARTHaven, I wanted to find a satisfactory way to arrange my video camera to record the work I do on my table, and discovered that although many people record their work, they do not tell us how they support the camera! Eventually I found a video on Youtube by Linda Israel which told me exactly what I wanted to know. She has got a marvellous rig over her table which also supports two lamps which shine down on the work.

I knew this was exactly what I wanted, so I made a drawing based on her video, and asked a friend of my hubby’s whether he would make it for me, and he did. I’ve got my two lamps, and I’ve also attached a 4-gang extension socket to one end, which has cleared a lot of the cable clutter off my table and made the work run more efficiently too.

As I was between projects, I decided to reorganise and tidy my ARTHaven as it was starting to get very untidy again, and when it was done I thought it was a good chance to video not only the video rig, but my whole ARTHaven.

The video is a bit shaky, I’m afraid, as I had to hold the camera in my hand as I went round the room. I used my normal digital camera in video mode as the video camera is set up on the rig, and the sound isn’t quite as good, unfortunately, but you can get an impression of the room, and all the space I’ve got for all my equipment and materials.

I feel very blessed to have such a lovely space for my ARTHaven. It really is my special place, and when I go in there I have a lovely upbeat feeling, and so enjoy being creative in such an atmosphere. When I look out of the window I can see our garden, and with the window open I can hear the birds singing. I’m so grateful to my hubby and Wonderwoman for helping me rearrange the room where I can feel so fulfilled and happy.

ARTHaven – Pegboard Accessories

My pegboard accessories arrived today – great excitement! I have put them up, but of course I shall have to live and work with them for a bit to see if they are how I want them. The joy of pegboard is that you can change things around so easily, so it’s no problem.

Here’s a general view of the work corner of my ARTHaven, showing the new Ikea rails and the pegboard complete with accessories.

A couple of different views:

These are some screw-top plastic jars. The lids remain clipped onto the pegboard, and you unscrew the jar from underneath. They will be useful for paper flowers and other small things. Alongside them are some open-topped plastic bins which I am keeping my stickles and alcohol inks and one or two other things in. Below the jars is one of two tool racks that I bought – I am not using the second tool rack at the moment but may have need of it in the future. I would like to find a way of inserting tubes into some of the holders so that I could use it for pens – perhaps a metal cigar tube would do? Something to explore… I have also put up a couple of ordinary pegboard hooks on which I have hung my Stanley knife and my brayer. (On the subject of craft knives, I have tried a few, and find the Stanley knife to be by far the best – it’s a lot more substantial than a lot of smaller craft knives, and seems to cut through without as much pressure. The blades are also readily available in any DIY store.)

Here are the plastic bins with some things in them – as you can see they are not yet all filled. I am sure they soon will be! I also bought 3 of the towel rails, and have put my kitchen roll on one. The others will be used for ribbons – I have got a large pack of ribbons due to arrive in the next day or two, more than will fit on the remaining 2 towel rails, but I can always get more of these if I need to.

Finally, I got a couple of wire baskets, which I am using at the moment for my small stamp pads and peel-offs, and for my heat-embossing stuff, and my flowersoft pots. Underneath I have put a hook to hang my heat gun on. Across the top there are 2 small wooden shelves which my hubby made for me, supported on long pegboard hooks. The small cardboard boxes on top contain card scraps, my stash of cards that I’ve made, and other bits and pieces. I have quite a large collection of these small, strong boxes with hinged lids, from a mail-order company where I get supplements and beauty products, and eventually I want to cover them with decorative paper and put pretty labels on the fronts.

I got the actual pegboards from Amazon (they are made by a company called Sealey), but the accessories proved quite difficult to find in the UK – the USA is blessed with many suppliers of a superb range of things, including coloured pegboards and clear acrylic shelves, and hooks which do not fall out easily, etc. etc. My new accessories do not seem to suffer from this problem, but the standard hooks can be a real pain. Apparently the best way to secure them is with cable ties, once you have decided the final place you want them.

After a lot of searching online, I came across a UK-based company which appeared to be the only place which sold any decent and interesting accessories. They are called Garage Furniture, and here is the link to the pegboard section of their website:

http://www.garagefurniture.co.uk/pegboard-accessories.shtml

They have been an absolute pleasure to deal with throughout; nothing has been too much trouble and they have been so helpful and friendly. The gentleman I spoke to on the phone was interested to know how I would be using their products, and he expressed an interest in getting into the crafting market, which I agreed would be a good idea; he is thinking of investigating the craft show circuit, and I am sure that if he had a stand, it would attract a lot of interest. I told him that there is a severe shortage of stuff available in the UK, and it might be worth exploring importing some of the US products.

Ed.: It now appears that this firm might have gone out of business. I have tried to access their website and it doesn’t seem to exist any more. What a shame. There doesn’t seem to be anybody else doing the full range of accessories.

Now I have got to spend some time working in my new environment and making sure it works for me! Being so adaptable, I am sure that it will be easy to change things round to suit my needs. If I want to put more accessories on (the most likely thing is more towel rails for my ribbons) I can move the shelves to the top of the pegboard, and make more room. I’ll let you know how I get on!

ARTHaven Revamp – Pegboards and Rails

Some time ago, I bought two metal pegboards off the Internet, and have been waiting for someone to put them up for me. Today my hubby’s twin brother came over, originally to help him in the garden as there’s a lot of winter cutting back and tidying to do, but it was pouring with rain, so he said he’d put my boards up instead.

I was still asleep when he arrived! I’m not good in the mornings and it takes me a while to get going. As soon as I was up, I cleared the work-table corner of the room in readiness, and he put dust sheets down, so there was very little mess.
He did an absolutely marvellous job. He’s a real craftsman where building, landscaping, fitting kitchens and general DIY are concerned, and I knew what he put up would not only stay put, but be nice and straight too! I was not disappointed. He straightened all our droopy kitchen cupboard doors the other day and they look good as new!

I also bought a couple of Ikea rails a while back, to hang things on, and he put those up for me too. He’s drilled two more sets of holes in readiness for the second pair that I’ve now gone ahead and ordered off Ebay. (By the way, I think it’s totally brilliant that people buy lots of small items from Ikea and then sell them on on Ebay – it’s still cheap, and it effectively turns Ikea into mail order!)
Here’s a picture just after the work was done.

You can see that the boards are right over where I work, with the rails to one side, and you can see the holes with their screws, waiting for the other rails to arrive.
After a while, a bit of dust settled, but very little considering, and all I had to do was wipe down the surfaces with a damp cloth. Here is my table with most of the stuff back in place:

Obviously I can’t get it how I want until the accessories I’m ordering for the pegboards arrive, and the second set of rails, but I’ve put my punches on the rail (yes, that’s all the punches I’ve got – so far!!) and the little tubs below have got the small punches in (corner punches etc.) that won’t hang up on their own, and also my disposable gloves and one or two other bits and pieces.

It will be fun putting the accessories on the boards, and changing things round till I’m satisfied with the layout. The whole board is 36 inches wide and slightly less in height, and the holes are 1 inch apart, so there’s lots of scope for versatility. He’s put them 8 inches above the shelf over the table, so I’ve still got room for putting things on there without wasting any precious pegboard holes behind things! Watch this space to see how I get on with it as time goes on.
I’m very excited about my ARTHaven and how it’s coming together. This time last year, I had absolutely no idea I’d be doing any of this, and it’s so thrilling!
Ooh – nearly forgot to mention – I got my Cinch yesterday! This is an awesome binding machine which gives a really professional finish to albums etc. I haven’t tried it yet, but I think it will be a very useful addition to my ARTHaven. It’s very pink, and waiting for a name. I hope Jiminy doesn’t get jealous.