doings of doone

The Sacred Art of Blogging Continues Elsewhere

2011-05-16T09:54:00.001+01:00

this blog is no more, this is the Final Post

try this one instead, (ha ha as if I'd really shut up) ( if you get here by my blogger profile clickonthe blue link to get to the new blog.

You can leave comments on the new (linked) blog, and there are on line prompts for those that wish to follow at the bottom of the blog posting, if you link to this discontinued blog from yours please replace the URL in your blogger feed with this one:

http://www.adonnathing.com/

see you in my new home,

Why am I moving?

I have two wonderful and demanding salaried jobs and a home and family that I love spending time on, but the thing I do for me is My Art,

back in January 2010, when I set up the blog, I also set up my website, I decided one site is enough for me. So which one to keep?

I want to find my Art Voice,

I want my art soul to sing.

so I will still be spending my time making and selling art in the spare moments that I get. I love you blog world guys and so on my Art Website there will be free infotorials that show my craft work so you can still do the doings of doone with me, and there will be a blog page so you can comment and I can bore you with my words, also you can see my other art and may be you will feel encouraged to start your own journey of discovery....

I shall randomly be generous donating bits of work to people who leave comments/follow...because I like the art of bribery as well as bloggery. If you want a piece for a charity auction let me know...(with good notice please). Twiglet has already won a prize for finding me before I'd hardly arrived in my new blog!!!!!

I'm not sure how long blogger leaves inactive blogs open for but I will leave this blog here for it's history and this link until they close me down......

Blogger is a magnificent free gift to people who like to network, long may it prosper..

Third Week of Featured Art Technique (cutting/collage) FAT

2011-05-15T09:45:00.000+01:00

here's more

in week 1 we chose and cut our base (12inches x12inches) and our preliminary layered items, we introduced the base contrasts and textures and selected our colour pallette.

in week 2 we lino cut a design and printed our second third and fourth layers, we used tissue paper, silk paper, thick hand made paper and wall paper, and learnt about how we can use image and colour to integrate the seperate pieces bringing them together as a whole (if you don't want to lino cut and monoprint this is the point at which you use your favorite stamp instead)

next week (3) Thurs 19th we deckle edge and learn about focal points and overall compostion and stick down our third layer (shown)

in the last week (4) Thurs 26th we sculpt final layers add the foreground detail and embellishments, and finish the piece so the work is preserved and protected, and ready to hang....

links to the tutorials are above.

52 pages with Darcy

2011-05-14T11:15:00.002+01:00

http://www.adonnathing.com/52-pages-with-darcy/52-pages-with-darcy/

above is the link for todays, blog,

please bear with me during the move,

still working on RSS/follwers for the new site that performs10 gazillion times better than blogger...

Instructions to follow my new blog can be found at:

http://www.adonnathing.com/doings-of-doone-blog/2011/5/14/to-follow-this-blog.html

i had hoped to head west and see Jozart at her craft shindig..never mind...

Dx

Good bye blogger

2011-05-13T18:35:00.000+01:00

I lost about two hours of work in the last blogger fiasco,

if you still want to play with me you can find me at

www.adonnathing.com - click on blog when you get there,

Darcy - I haven't transferred my 52 pages yet but I will...

I'll leave this site open a while

dx

Thursday FAT 2: Cutting lino and Monoprints

2011-05-11T23:19:00.000+01:00

Okay I have tried to sensibly divide things up into approx 15 minutes slots, and they are in sequence

the last video being the alternative linocut example (African Elephant) you will struggle if your watch these out of sequence - but you are all grown ups so its up to you...

there is reference to last weeks collage cutting and base painting and you see me use the stuff we already did last week, so don't start here unless you watched last week. If you do start here you will get confused and I did warn you .... to make it easy here are the first vids:

FAT week 1:
1. ,Just a fun intro
2. A more sensible intro
3. Base and Collage starting layers
4. Excellent mother (prostitution and brothels)

Fat week 2: Cutting lino, mono prints, base layer collage, African elephants

Video ONE: About lino and cutting,

the thing to note here is that I TOTALLY OMITTED to explain to you why I transfer the image.... so bear this in mind and call me names as you watch video1 - if you are not at all bothered about the image being of a particular orientation then you can draw and cut straight to your lino, if you know exactly what you want the PRINT to look like, then draw it out on paper first (as I do here) and then transfer your drawing to the lino ( as I do here) then when you cut and print you will get the reproduction of the 'original' drawn image.

most people cannot draw straight onto lino and have it come out mirror image...

FAT 2: Collage: Linocut base layer from donna louise rodgers on Vimeo.

Video two: Cut

2b cut the lino from donna louise rodgers on Vimeo.

Video 3 : Ink

you can get okayish images from ranger distress inkpads as they are slow drying, but only for small pieces and the ink doesn't transfer evenly and I'd still use a brayed not direct from pad or you will probably get lines on your prints. A huge tube of printer block inks will only cost you the same as one ranger pad ( or maybe two)

2c Ink and Print from donna louise rodgers on Vimeo.

Video 4: stick

fat 2d stick it to the base from donna louise rodgers on Vimeo.

Video 5: Elephants
( I bet Amy watches this one first)

african elephant lino print from donna louise rodgers on Vimeo.

pictures of the ellie prints in the altered Africa Book are on yesterdays post

your feedback in the comments would be appreciated,
questions will be responded to in the comments so all can see...

now i have to go catch up with Darcy's pages, for I must indulge and define...

have fun...

woyww - too much

2011-05-11T08:19:00.004+01:00

do not ask me why I have ultrasound gel on my desk - I hope to God I didn't put a squeezy container of acrylic paint in the scanner bag ready for the next person to use the equipment ...

If I did I think I shall pretend I don't now how that happened...

ages ago I was asked what is in my treasure chest - pretty much the same stuff as I have out on my table but I kid myself it's a sewing box....leaning against the box is my focal point of the Thursday FAT class - which is a Japanese themed collage - if you want to see more tune in tomorrow when I post the lino print background, and then Japanese lady will be video featured (how I drew her) the week after (18th) when we do deckle edges, she will also be finished off as the full collage piece in week four when we do sculpting of the final collage...

lino print elephant - I show you how to lino print in tomorrows FAT video... this is my African Elephant lino monoprints that i have done as a four pager in an altered book I am working in for a round robin

Lastly this really is a naff photo of a truely gorgeous Voodoo Vixen* gift (the altered gravy container remade as a giant cotton reel, and a fabric roll on a most gorgeous wooden spool) I received as a thank you for the doll I made for *Annette,

Niall said - ARGHHHHH don't do that it will burn - HA

Annette, I owe you one, it's not often I scare him these days...

Collage 101 ( see I can do american cultural references too)

2011-05-08T11:57:00.000+01:00

Message for Ruth M: I can't leave comments on your blog or find a contact for you, thanks for your WOYWW comment,

Next vid for those of you doing the Cutting Edge FAT this month,

this coming Thursday I will list all the vids to far so they are easy to locate & follow, this here is for my blog followers who might like a daily bite,

If you do not wish to learn about Prostitution and Brothels as well as collage it might be best to skip this video...

if you want to see more detail expand the video box rather than watching it in it's embedded state...

Fat 1B: excellent mother from donna louise rodgers on Vimeo.

Indulge (with Darcy) a gift (from Carmen) & More about Collage

2011-05-06T19:34:00.000+01:00

Hmmm, I have indulged myself by letting my ego run riot and spent a stupid amount of time on videos this week, not helped by my Unable Assistant's Inability to get the Right track for the backing music...hence I have yet to complete my Darcy page for this week,

but...

Did I mention I was 46 a week last Sunday? and yesterday I got a belated gift from Carmen - I have been Ninja'd - check out Carmen's (whoopidoings) blog for the link to get yourself one...any blog with doings in it is a good place to go...

Today's informatorial thing about collage:

this is my Edgy Cute Mermaid collage look at the composition and the close up detail - as we do our FAT class this is what we are aiming for - a finished piece where collage cannot be distinguished from the painting, because the cutting edges are so well integrated you can't see the joins...

FAT 1: Base Collage

2011-05-05T08:10:00.000+01:00

List of Things:

A piece of wood (3ply) 12x12inch or use cardboard/board/canvas - just a substantial base that can cope with glue and paint, or use a journal page, or gesso over a double altered book page let it dry for 24 hours and use that as your base.
A stamp
Solvent based ink pad & stamp
Scissors/craft knife
Piece of patterned paper 4x4 inches
tissue (white the kind you blow your nose on)
mulberry silk paper (white) or just normal printer paper if you have no silk papers)
Hand made paper (Amy already showed you how to do this)
Piece of coordinating fabric 12 x 12 inch

FAT description

Step 1 of 4 : creating a cutting edge collage.

make your base, make your first cut outs, using a pre existing colour pallette, incorporating fabric. If you are not a Pro at collage please think about watching yesterdays video where I show examples of what collage is about so you have an idea what I am trying to achieve.

I also explain about lino cutting in advance of next weeks FAT - also as I know Amy may already have suggested using foam I will talk about that and show you the different results you get by cutting into different surfaces, have fun folks, and really don't spend money till you have seen what can be achieved I promise you its the paint and technique you use not so much the surface used to produce the print that makes the biggest difference as you will see next week....this week lets focus on prepping our first layer of collage....

Untitled from donna louise rodgers on Vimeo.

People from outside Amy's group also may follow this thing so please could we interact using the comments facility on the blog so that if I answer one person everyone can see that answer.

Many thanks, enjoy

Dx

Thursday FAT 1

2011-05-05T00:18:00.000+01:00

Argghhhh

I cannot

cannot

get back to a sensible time frame...

right

FAT - Featured Art Technique,

for Amy's Yahoo Art Group - go to her blog - join the group

If you already have,

here's your FAT intro (2)

now

this is an intro so you hang loose and enjoy actually DOING stuff with me tomorrow,

in fact don't watch this video the only useful tip in it is:
you need: scissors a craft knife a piece of your favourite paper and a favourite stamp a coordinating muslin or fine fabric eg. silk tie, old polyester scarf.

What to expect tomorrow from donna louise rodgers on Vimeo.

that is it

you ALL have those

ALSO

these videos are loaded via vimeo -

you can see below the video there is a link to my vimeo page - from there you get the option to download the vids. Click on download and follow the prompts.

So if you find it hard to keep coming back to my blog just download the vids from vimeo to your pc/mac ...

if you are struggling tell me

I have Rhino Skin and Runny Mascara - but rather lovely Hair - so I can take any comment you wish to throw at me....

But bear in mind if the FAT women rolls over it's you that might get crushed....

this video is just me showing off = BORING

woyww (late tuesday); a stack of cards an empty glass of wine...

2011-05-03T23:17:00.000+01:00

and this FAT ( Featured Art Technique) video : this is what I made last night, I promise I shall be sober and in control of the sharp things when I do tutorial one tomorrow...

FAT: Intro to Cutting Edges from donna louise rodgers on Vimeo.

ah we do larf we do....

lush tea tuesday

2011-05-03T13:44:00.001+01:00

Lord Nelson Green tea with Vanilla in a bone china cup of V&A design, and a cup of coffee - I shall choose to drink from the appropriate container according to how the afternoon progresses

that's to get me calmly/madly through the first day back at work in a longggg time (see below),

later I shall pick up a bottle and a glass and get lush and blog again with a tutorial schedule (FREE I say FREEE) ... because I missed Lush Monday and it is imperative to be a lush at least once a week if like me, your work usually expects a better standard of sobriety...the tutorial is because I am a show off, and you UK nationalists need a pick you up for the post wedding blues, at least the couple have the good sense to live in Wales...

also a random cow (explanation below)

the Tea links are with Kimmie

cow and chicken (5)2 weeks

2011-05-02T21:37:00.001+01:00

it's just a jump to the left...

and two weeks in an laternative universe, (that is a Latin alternative if you wondered...)

I had forgotten how truly irritating and time consuming the www is...

during my two weeks annual leave I have barely done a thing except spend quality time with partners, children, friends and family, now I have returned to the mac, and it has not been an entirely joyous reunion...

but I confess that I have missed the blog and You Guys,

sooo, here's the low down,

I have set up my shop,

click

and I did Art for the shop, and the rest of the time I did nothing.

actually that is a falsehood - here are the things (not in the shop) I made too..

first: a gift for the people that hosted my holiday birthday break - a tribute to their piano playing small holding three chicken home...

a lino print with special meaning to those that were there at the time...

there were no mobile phone signals and the views were stunning, and the food and company incomparable, relaxation was the only option, and I genuinely forgot about everything,

we shall be going back at the earliest opportunity,

the city seems so dirty and noisy and busy by comparison,

next the papier mache Darcy challenge, I forgot to photo him and put him in the shop, so he will have to wait for the next batch... so time consuming to load up the pages... not sure which is his best angle so here they all are...

and finally the last two weeks of the 52 pages,

my 'nearby' and my 'purpose':

I think I could take out fifty two weeks not two weeks and I might just then feel rested...

roll on next holiday...

also I fogot I haven't blogged about stuff I wanted to share

check out this offer (very reasonably priced)
http://youtu.be/04L5IckLosU

Puddle

2011-04-15T07:20:00.002+01:00

ink paint WATER

yeehah

SPLASH

Puddles

Jump in big splash, deeper the better, wellies or not...

I have two weeks leave from my job(s) and am going to be launching my etsy/folksy shop on the May Day bank holiday

previously I have only sold from my own website, so if you want a DonnaLouiseRodgers thing watch for the link on this blog,

I am going to have to spend a bit of time setting things up and sorting out stock and doing some 'proper' photography so I may be an absent blogger for a while, please know that I remember I have things to do for:

Amy - vids & box of binned items
Darcy - lazertran & surprise
Liverpool Lou (Anne) - derriere prize
Pidders - Surprise
The cursed book group - mail it
the uncursed book group(?) - May mailing???
Joyce- 4x atc swap

Celtic House (knots) if she wants them I'm darned if I can remember your name, it is not that I do not love you VIRGINIA - I do - it is that I just remember your blog purple and Celtic House Header, then my brain stops and I cannot think celtic and virgin(ia) in the same brain wave - not that Celts are Tarts - but I do Like Tarts so even if I was calling Celts tarts ( and I am not) it would not be an insult coming from me (even though some may misinterpret it as such) - i'm a gonna put the spade down now and stop digggin

Listen - people - best not hold your breath you may go Celtic house purple before I notice I am running behind

Now I am off for a drunken debauched weekend, see you on hangover Monday...

Darcy check this out

Tuesdays Child has an absent face

2011-04-14T08:19:00.000+01:00

from Tuesdays life class

this week the lesson is cropping,

see how my contours , gesture and form is improving, in between classes I have been doing the three dimensional sculpting (sock creatures & mache cow). That has helped me 'get' the cross contour 3d perspective, the contours that would be there if the model is viewed form a different angle, the dips and troughs .....

ah I felt like I was flying, never does 2 hours pass so quickly and Alex is an Excellent teacher don't you think? this is after just 5 weeks (10 hours) of tuition....A0 paper, graphite, and charcoal

creature feature on my workdesk

2011-04-13T08:58:00.002+01:00

...it started with a semi drunken conversation with a bit of dangerous standing on swivel chairs thrown in...

...it ended with a (please don't dare me) challenge to construct a non doll creature from papier mache....

So here is how the story goes: I made three sock creatures just to get a feel for creaturedom, and then drew the creature I wanted to make using papier mache: The last time I did this I was 7 and me and my Dad got Into Alot of Trouble With My Mum For Making an Unholy Mess: So deep and abiding is the memory that I decided to work outdoors....

I believe in 'real' papier mache (flour and macerated paper with time allowed for the water to evaporate totally) nothing else has the same strength, or mess making capability...

To construct and get the shape the wet mush has to be set upon a frame (usually chicken wire - fine gauge). Back in the Day, Dad and I raided the rabbit hutch...

I do not stock fine gauge chicken wire, I don't have a rabbit hutch to raid,

so I made a (massive gauge) copper wire shape with copper wire too unweildy to be useful in salt dough doll makings.

Now picture this (and take pity upon the poor fellow - but bear in mind he did Choose me and he has Stayed)

It is Saturday, the sun is shining, there are no clouds, it is an unfettered 22 degrees and Yes it is England in April (I know this is a strange tale and should not be about global warming but one wonders...) I am in the kitchen with flour and water and mixing bowls, I call to Mr D - 'did we get a weekend news paper?'

"yes Darlink"(oddly very much pronounced like Darlek) comes the reply

- 'Okay I'm heading out into the garden in a minute' I call back to himself.

Mr D (I know after all these years: is thinking 'croissants coffee papers and comfy garden chairs in the sun' breakfast al fresco) and because he is a good soul, whilst I beaver away with my flour, he does a load of washing to contribute to my kindness in making us a lovely fresh breakfast. (croissants actually take about three days to make). He is hanging washing as I join him in the garden bearing a tray...

On said tray is a falling apart wire contraption sitting next to a bowl of paper mush (not a touch of breakfast to be seen), I think I caught a flicker of disappointment in his eye, but then they lit up with a knowing - 'I can offer manly advice here'.

Edit and Cut to next scene.

Mr D: in a manly fashion, grabs solder and iron and welds all my copper joints (not easy as copper is a humongous conductor of heat) then goes off and makes bacon butties, whilst I slap on the mush and.... Creature emerges.... TAH DAH....

For creature to last forever it is imperative that all water be gone from the mache before paint and stuff is applied,

so hence on my outdoor desk (still) is first layer creature drying...it is slightly browned because i got impatient and baked it....

the second creature is a living creature type - my elephant sized Bob Dog who loves the smell of drying flour and paper....and the taste of cow

Also: For Theresa (and JoZart):

I am a big fan of Fascinating Aida (Sweet FA) and this was mailed to me by a very close and good friend as an "i saw this and thought of you" thing - Mr D laughs as much at English people trying to do an Irish accent as he does the comedy content....but it is true we do spend a lot of money to get a bargain....

WINNER

2011-04-12T09:00:00.000+01:00

Liverpool Lou was In Like Flynn,

a freebie (I am so tempted to say and make it a frisbee) is winging it's way to you (probably will be next week as I am a slave to work this week and away at the weekend,

it was of course Kylie's prefectly sculpted derriere,

I did ask Mr Doone if I have a perfect tush and he dutifully and immediately responded, 'in my opinion yes' he is soooo well trained.

I am half way through some time consuming constructions at the moment...so will give you this image of a trompe l'oeil to ponder...

Hot Pants

2011-04-11T10:45:00.000+01:00

Does gold count as yellow?

a Doone freebie prize to first one who gets the owner of the bottom correct...offer holds for the rest of Lush Monday

Every man loves hot weather when the chicks wear their hot pants and tiny vests,

Please bear in mind I do not wear my gold lame hot pants in the garden,

nor my plastic art pants,

I have a lovely pair of knee length cotton things that float in the breeze...

must go jump in a few puddles and get some work done...

Dx

Glorious (weather)

2011-04-09T10:48:00.000+01:00

just a quick post of the face - I think I got her how I want her and have to call her finished, no more fiddling, then I am out in the garden starting work on my Personal Challenge because Darcy threw me down a gauntlet last night, and the combination of a beautiful cloudless sunny day and a messy art project just begs for me to get the outside table set up and set to with a totally new medium (to me)..

I may even wear shorts (cotton)

Okay no more updates Merde deserves a post of its own

2011-04-08T16:15:00.003+01:00

It is still today, and I went to see what Darcy has done today and she is having a merde (french shit) time with her art even though she got the best box of goodies an Artist could ask for,

whilst I was visiting Darcy I bumped into a new friend Sarah, whom I immediately stalked because she is intimate with the Bristol Shit Scale (seven shades of shit).

So here is the Artist guide to how merde your art really is (you will find none of that 'silence the inner critic here' - OH NO - YOU - take a good long hard look and tell it how it is... it's the only way you get better at your art...) Being a self critique is vital to improvement and that is where this scale can help you rate your work...

oh and in doing the merde assessment on last nights face (see post below) I see that her nose if wrong not her eyes - I am going to correct that and re post so you can see the difference between a number 5 and a number 6 on the merde scale.... and under the poo there is a graffiti stencil - (Amy's featured technique for the month of April)

this is a photo enlarged, cut out as stencil then spray paint stenciled larger than life onto a drawing board as practice for Carmen's stu stu studio wall...I am slowly building up a stock of Montana spray acrylic paints for some specific uses....not sure she will want a huge Almighty??? was thinking more Alice Cooper....

Third edit Today (plus page update) and a later posting preview tease

2011-04-08T00:24:00.004+01:00

it is today already for the third time, and I have done my Darcy page - you can see it in the corner of the bottom photo it is a sun rise in series with a clock and an old sign, and it needed a bit more work, but I had to draw this face,

(in this third edit I am linking to madness (see if you can find the right link) later after I finish my work I am going to do another post - for my new friend who will also be linked to...the Bristol Merde Scale for Artists)

First post:

no two ways about it,

it had to be done Today (only for Morti never for anyone else)

Right now
before I did anything else. the eyes are not perfect but I am happy....

Now I can sleep, when I wake up it will still be today. But I will have another face in my art journal

for those of you interested she is graphite, charcoal and wax and the technique for achieving the volume is massive grey scale value range

Second Post:

if colour is what you need here is my Darcy 52 page for today,

the word is today. This is Tim Holtz distress ink used like a water colour wash over fabriano cold press so you get texturised ripples, the 'sun set/rise' was achieved by using a home made stencil/mask, the clock face sign and woman were stamped in black archival ink, the sign then embossed with thick embossing powered, the clock face was also over embossed with distress embossing powder in an attempt to show a weather worn time passing effect, the woman is not embossed which helps place her 'behind' the clock, the clock surround and bas is drawn in free hand with a fine line nib & India ink, then the mother of pearl chain was attached with a stitch through the paper so the fixing is invisible, the 'birds' were inked in, the sentiment strip stuck on, on the back - wax application crosshatch blue sanguine and yellow, hand written reflections on the word, K&Co alphabet squares (I use the pictures on the back because they are FAB) and two more sentiments/quotes applied.

Enjoy your day and be open to the serendipitous surprises...

woyww

2011-04-06T08:07:00.001+01:00

for theresa:

on my desk(s) and easel this week,

I am so impressed by the comments (since I forgot to link up) - ha,

linked in now though...

First up - a bunch of paper samples from the Madness Land of El Darcy, I love the dimensional paint and the 'not the windolene it was floor polish' ones, and my 'today' 52 pages thing that I am working on,

other table, flowers (ha see you would never have worked out what they were if I had not told you) altered books, salt dough skeletons,

on my easel a 20 minute colour sketch of Victoria from last nights class that I am going to carry on working on...

see you after work,

dx

I Love Germany

2011-04-05T17:39:00.000+01:00

for many reasons, I love Germany

mostly because it is beautiful and also the language makes me laugh (puerile I know)

at the Bahnhoff Rolandseck (Rolandseck railway station) you have lunch so that you can visit the most erotic toilet in the world,

and whilst I looked out my Germany Photo memories (for Carola) I also found this one

which is how I always feel in Airports....

and today I feel like I look in the picture as I missed Lush Monday and Tea Tuesday, and I know Darcy says this week we do Today but now I don't know what day it is....

so my excuse is I am totally disorientated and just posting as best I can....

oooh I also want you to see the death page I did in Amy's uncursed altered book

Anti(dote) Mothers Day - an alternative and conflicting review

2011-04-03T11:35:00.000+01:00

I was chatting to Amy - she is right

every day is a mothers day for we are the proud possessers of fertile uteri (apologies if nature robbed you and you had to work harder than us lazy swines to get your family),

as such we need to be celebrated, adored, and generally waited upon daily not annually.

However my family don't think they agree, and mark the day once a year,

I awoke to a homemade card (commercial crap is verboten), from my youngest (BEST SON IF YOU ARE READING THIS LUKE), flowers champagne a funky bird pen and new chopsticks (I snapped my favorite pair - must learn to cook soft food) and later I will have brunch made for me...

today, after the ironing, it is a dedicated Art Day

I am working on Amy's death book that will also have a gusset ( typo should be Guest) page from Darcy (ohhh rare treat), and in talking to Darcy who has the coolest PIF plan for WOYWW, she made me rethink my own plans, and so I changed my mind a zillion times, but finally I have made my (secret) pif, only it is sooooo Cooooolio that I have to sneak peek you a bit.

What I like about talking to Amy and Darcy (one day we will sort out the three way ooh err mississ), is that the minute I say - I am one thing. I go off and be another,

for instance Darcy & I were talking about being far too sensible to buy TH priced items, and I find my self on video with his (not his, he keeps his own and sells copies) hammer and a little box of his goodies (oops)

I also told her - 'Oh I never join in challenges except 52 pages', then I submit to the altered artist thingio, it's because I really really love the Altered Artist Team -they all do fab work and if I happen to have, just that moment done, and so fresh in my muddled Brain, a piece that fits the challenge: I like to let them know that I do stalk them albeit mainly in stealth mode...(very poor sentence construction there)

Overall, Darcy, I think I am forgetful and flexible, alternative and conflicted rather than an out and out liar, (and add to that in need of grammar lessons)

still best not trust me with anything important,

like motherhood,

anyone got a chastity belt?

then again I'd probably only alter it...and end up in a pickle

13th of 52 pages with Darcy (Fooled)

2011-04-02T01:13:00.000+01:00

I thought it was time for a video - so here is how I made this weeks page, the Word is Fooled, ( I say it FEYWELED - who taught me to speak FFS? I have more problems with how I sound than how I look on video - hahah - says a lot that does!!!!)

a (hundred) couple of things I need you to bear in mind as you watch the video:

A) Note to SELF: it's called a Sharpie you fool (I am trying to think of the word for Sharpie Pens and go on and on about 'permanent marker' for ages)
B) the pink muslin paper, the pink ribbon and the pink flower were all gifts from Amy in her gift box (we swap cool stuff in a box when we rotate our round robin books) but I didn't ooze thanks and rave about the impressiveness of these items in the video,
C) there are a couple of swear words but if you cough you will miss them.
D) The video tape snapped (pre digital video) so the section on wax watercolour wood block stamping is missing - you see me load up the stamp and dry the page but miss the good bit - if you want that good bit leave a request & I'll do a 5 minute tutorial another day...

the tape is fixed with sellotape so I managed to rescure (rescue + cure= rescure) the rest of the video minus a central section, and Niall pointed out that I can capture direct to the Mac so that won't happen again...why does he always have a knack of making me feel foolish????

enjoy,

oh also:

it is long - so get a drink and some food or you could dehydrate/starve, it is best opened up to full screen i think - unless it goes blurry on your PC ( macs don't go blurry so it's hard to tell what the best resolution needs to be on a PC)
if you don't want the doings - the page is shown finished in the last 2 minutes: I will never know if you skipped the makings and went straight to the product....

Fooled : The 13th of 52 Pages with Darcy from donna louise rodgers on Vimeo.

Altered Book (Margie's) what a difference freedom makes......

2011-03-31T21:59:00.001+01:00

This is the cover of Margie's Altered Book. Margie belongs to the sensible round robin - that means we all enjoy the group and the work that we do within it,

the group is run by a hostess who is strict in terms of updating the group but not overloading everyone with emails, and very un strict in terms of the ART. She give regular tips and support and works hard to keep her little group producing excellent Art. You can join this fab group by using the link that Amy gives.

this is the second book I have worked in.

when it arrived I joyously noted the complete lack of rules, the care with which ALL the artists have a prepared set of pages; the sign in is simple and grown up; and all I had to think about was the theme - Vintage...

see - how lovely?
how pleasant?

so of course I had a ball and did vintage sewing in a sample theme.. just click on the images and explore,

imagine the textures,

and because I have beeswaxed elements it smells good too, a feast for the eyes nose and fingers, and because I promised it, there is a you tube song link at the bottom, that you could open in another window and have playing whilst you explore,

it is strange how extremely different it has been to work for two such different people and groups within the same week.

Margie - this was pure joy to make, I hope it pleases you....

double spread flaps closed

left flap opens
reveals fabric button and silks samples, a peek of the original book page (plants) and vintage dress pattern styles detail of right flap

left flap - tag samples, vintage photos, pinned fabric samples, middle wallet revealed

inside the wallet are instructions as to how to make a pair of mens trousers from beer towels/mats

see I wasn't kidding - the stuff I have that I am willing to give away ....

tag (made by scanning and printing onto handmade papers) and inside right flap details

top inside left flap details

beeswaxed pattern, stamp, lace, beads,

detail

i love this spread

Deception (not WOYWW that is below this post)

2011-03-30T15:45:00.000+01:00

I totally forgot to post my deception page (52 pages with Darcy - link over there on the right)

I ended up withte Goethe quote and did my own quote on the back,

before you go thinking deception is something to do with other people

have a second thought,

I bet my bottom dollar you tell yourself sweet little lies all day long and dream them all night

Of course Art wise Deception has to be Esher......

WOYWW

2011-03-30T09:47:00.000+01:00

strange angle - took this falling over the dogs' beds, what you see is Clare H's octopode postcard (gorgeous) Amy's box of goodies screetchingly good) - which included Sean Connery practically naked, and a smelly pencil and a really beautiful flower, and my 3/4 hour study of a reclining nude drawing from class last night.

I like my one hour study of this nude very much but can't get time to get her out onto my desk... but I will be displaying all my class work on my website later on tonight with my notes and reflections,

I have finished all my freebies and can now restock my sales supplies and do some things I have had on hold for a while, I feel so chilled....

See you later desk hoppers...

mushed Lunday

2011-03-29T00:32:00.000+01:00

oohh out drinking this week, no home drinking for me - oh no - Lush in Public...

The WINE is a rioja, the photos are not rioja

nor are they yoga pictures,

because instead of yoga we went out to eat (and drink) AND to see a Scouse Comedien, John Bishop, you may have seen him on TV, if you liv ein Britain, I don;t think he has gone outside the UK yet...

he was extremely funny especially in the second half,

the pictures ( not of wine) is of the last free Doone dollie ( Kim Ward - yes Kim I have FINALLY mailed you),

they are not pictures of the Clare H doone moggie cat -

me and that moggie have been fighting for two days and she won - I have the scratches to prove it - no photo of that cat -

I hope Clare likes her 'cos I just shoved her in that box and sent her on her way as I was fed up of redoing the face over and over, Clare H snet me a gorgeous octopode postcard she made (will be on my woyww) and a book on slat dough stuff that is quite frankly terrifying....think children of the corn raised on saltdough...

also today I got my Amy box ( pictured) - that will be special featured on Wednesday oh yeah gifts all over my desk...

g'nite lushites,

oh also the last layer of the ecstatic angel which is drying in the shed because I now believe that the book is cursed,

I already feel much more relaxed now it is no longer in my art space... or maybe that is the rioja and the laughter...

Darcy? - my deception is still undone...but my quotes are ready and I so love that I misquoted Shakespeare and you knew the correct author...you need to teach mississ....

gnite lushites

dx

understanding others - ADULT content

2011-03-24T20:12:00.001Z

I use profanity frequently today as i am snarky moody mare

so go away now if you are sensitive to swear words.

I am in a couple of round robin altered book groups and I am seriously thinking I should examine peoples themes before I commit myself next time...

What floats the boat of the owner of this altered book (down at the bottom) are the lyrics to walking in the air...hence those lyrics are her theme,

also she helped us to give her want she wanted by listed instructions - mostly do's and don'ts.

I struggle with such lists Because I am an anarchist communist atheistic hedonist sometimes epicurean (I do believe it is just too difficult to explain so I use more culturally familiar labels for myself so that other people can misjudge me knowingly rather than unwittingly)...

But Out of respect I diligently observe peoples stated Laws and Rules

but Fuck Me do they want my art or not?

anyway, additional guidelines were

"Angels" "Butterflies"- as in- they are allowed - if not then please stick to the lyrics...

so its lyrics, angels or butterflies - I Can Do This

not the lyrics because all I can 'see' is the snowman animation...vomit retch

but I do have loads of sketches of angels so I gather them up...

couldn't use a single one because

another one of the Rules was

no Nudity.

And no profanity,

Hence the

FUCK me

Now, book owner will be twice shocked by my blog, because yesterday I had my lifestudy class drawing of not just a nude, but a nude man, and Fuck me double right royal - I drew his PEnis.

I just have to tell her (and you)

THAT IS ART

The human form is beautiful - what goes on in some peoples heads is the twisted bit, and the things people do with/to their own and others bodies are the immoral unethical bits, ART is beautiful and life drawing is too,

in the context of the life drawing nudity is about learning skeleton, muscles, skin, contours, light shade form volume mass

I do hope this girl never looks at any Klimt she will die of shock

So do I have to put clothes on the butterflys? No? so why do I have to cover up the angels?

I will accept that my profanity (another rule - no profanity) is just gratuitous... but I like profanity, it clears me immediately of any anger because I know it sounds foul so I consciously calm myself having expelled the foulness...,

anyway,

I have done the first few layers of my two spreads and I am waiting for them to dry sufficiently for the next layers to be applied, and I need to know - actually I think I already know - Book Owner is going to be horribly disappointed because

I might have followed the rules but I can't see the links to those fucking lyrics.

I was thinking moon lit sky the whole time and usually my thoughts do come through in my art, hmm.

I am also a bit worried that my angel looks like she is in a state of ecstasy - and not the religious kind...and that might be a problem if the owner can't cope with nudity...because we can't see where the angels hands are or what they are doing ...

my point? Art does not require nudity to imply sexuality, so if you send me a book to alter and certain things offend you - you will need to be very specific with your rule list because the way I work I will obey but I might still get it 'wrong'....

then I did a really boring one which I bet she will love...

I bet she will never realise the brown girl dreams of being the blue girl and we all know what the C really stands for....

must try to finish them.....

WOYWW - hard to tell

2011-03-23T00:01:00.000Z

I don't have a system or any sense of order, on my art/craft desk

it is a case of

Chaos Panic Disorder, my work here is done

I have robert (bob) naked on my easel from yesterday - a two hour study where we were working on volume and form

and a pile of stuff that I threw about looking for something else that landed in a paper bag (handmade) or the basket (shameful plastic variety) there too is my fat max saw (very dangerous) and my gigantic tub of gesso waiting for decanting - Amy had the most amazing tip - decant into a condiment squeezy bottle (ketchup/mayo) for easy rapid dispensing, but we don't eat any kind of squeezy bottle foods, but I bought one of those 1970's squeeze tomatoes so at the weekend I am going to Do It.... of course the kids are bound to put gesso on their next meal....note to slef - label the 'tomato' 'gesso', see it is chaos

I thought - oh this is for sure going to be my most boring work-desk viewing Ever.

then I noticed what had been happening whilst I was out,

Liberty (Amy's doll) and Kruger (Voodoo's doll) has been up to no good, one of them had kissed the princess I made for Kim and turned her into a frog(ess)

when I asked who was responsible Liberty stuck her tongue out and Kruger hid in her hoodie.

that is it

they are going in their boxes now until they are mailed Friday/Saturday

so Amy/Voodoo I warn you in advance they are Not Cute they are Trouble with a capital Trub...

Lush Monday ( From the sublime ot the ridiculous)

2011-03-21T22:46:00.000Z

Hedonism is a school of thought which argues that pleasure is the only intrinsic good.^[1] This is often used as a justification for evaluating actions in terms of how much pleasure and how little pain (i.e. suffering) they produce. In very simple terms, a hedonist strives to maximize this net pleasure (pleasure minus pain).

Epicureanism

Epicureanism is a system of philosophy based upon the teachings of Epicurus (c. 341–c. 270 BC), founded around 307 BC. Epicurus was an atomic materialist, following in the steps of Democritus. His materialism led him to a general stance against superstition or the idea of divine intervention. Following Aristippus—about whom very little is known—Epicurus believed that the greatest good was to seek modest pleasures in order to attain a state of tranquility and freedom from fear (ataraxia) as well as absence of bodily pain (aponia) through knowledge of the workings of the world and the limits of our desires. The combination of these two states is supposed to constitute happiness in its highest form. Although Epicureanism is a form of hedonism, insofar as it declares pleasure as the sole intrinsic good, its conception of absence of pain as the greatest pleasure and its advocacy of a simple life make it different from "hedonism" as it is commonly understood.

Hmm I think I'm more hedonist less epicurean when it comes to wine,

for lushness requires over indulgence,

and a hedonistic wine must be fully drunk so to speak....

mine is a luminescent Rioja.... and it sent my hair long and blonde (too much sun that year - good for the wine bad for the hair)

Great Women and Alice Cooper and Charity

2011-03-20T14:49:00.000Z

winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 1979
Mother Teresa

Biography

Mother Teresa was born on August 26(?), 1910. Her family was of Albanian descent. At the age of twelve, she felt strongly the call of God. She knew she had to be a missionary to spread the love of Christ. At the age of eighteen she left her parental home in Skopje and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India. After a few months' training in Dublin she was sent to India, where on May 24, 1931, she took her initial vows as a nun. From 1931 to 1948 Mother Teresa taught at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta, but the suffering and poverty she glimpsed outside the convent walls made such a deep impression on her that in 1948 she received permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. Although she had no funds, she depended on Divine Providence, and started an open-air school for slum children. Soon she was joined by voluntary helpers, and financial support was also forthcoming. This made it possible for her to extend the scope of her work.

On October 7, 1950, Mother Teresa received permission from the Holy See to start her own order, "The Missionaries of Charity", whose primary task was to love and care for those persons nobody was prepared to look after. In 1965 the Society became an International Religious Family by a decree of Pope Paul VI.

(1965 is the year I was born)

The Society of Missionaries has spread all over the world, including the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. They provide effective help to the poorest of the poor in a number of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and they undertake relief work in the wake of natural catastrophes such as floods, epidemics, and famine, and for refugees. The order also has houses in North America, Europe and Australia, where they take care of the shut-ins, alcoholics, homeless, and AIDS sufferers.

From Nobel Lectures, Peace 1971-1980, Editor-in-Charge Tore Frängsmyr, Editor Irwin Abrams, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1997. This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.

Now Carmen is going to donate another five pounds to comic relief because I have done an Alice Cooper impression....

For Comic relief: Doone Cooper from donna louise rodgers on Vimeo.

Mother Theresa (oft misquoted) said "we cannot do great things without others, but we can all do small things with Great Love"

I am not a Christian, a Nun (haha an atheist nun?) or a Nobel Prize winner, but I am a decent human being who can understand five pounds is worth more to a person in abject poverty than it is to me...

Hey You - give a tenner - save ONE life - (only 50% of African malaria region children will gain protection from malaria by the use of a £5 sleeping net - one person will still die), of course if you give £20 you save two babies, give a bit more and you save the life of someone who is already sick by paying for travel to a center, and medications when they get there. Give Enough and You might even save a family.

If you gave £50 it would still be less than it costs us to take my family of 5 to the cinema on a Friday night, to watch a film that was financed with more money than was raised on Friday night BY COMIC RELIEF. Your 50 pounds could pay for a UK child carer to go out and relax for the first time in a whole year.

Tis truly obscene don't you think? and it is Only Money

Not a difficult choice eh?

NOW GIVE AGAIN

.....please

www.comicrelief.com

for some real AC click here

let's get heavy

2011-03-19T11:34:00.003Z

Comic Relief works tirelessly to support some of the poorest and most disadvantaged people in the UK and around the world as we strive towards a just world free from poverty.

Our aim is to bring about real and lasting change by tackling the root causes of poverty and social injustice, rather than simply treating the symptoms. After all these years, the one thing we know is that when you give people the chance to live their lives with dignity, they invariably grab it with both hands.
So, to drive this change, we award grants to incredible projects on the ground that work to give people a leg up, not a hand out. We also go beyond giving grants and use our brand and influence to do all sorts of other work that moves us closer to our ambition.

DID YOU GIVE YESTERDAY?

Actually even if you did

Give again today.

You will literally be saving someone's life.

YOU CAN AFFORD TO THIS

they cannot survive if you do not give.

really do not ignore this

GIVE
NOW
KEEP
ON
GIVING

And then tell me you gave so we all know who the slackers are (Big Shame On Them)

Mask failure

2011-03-18T11:51:00.000Z

A little light entertainment to kick start the weekend...(Kim I am keeping your doll hidden and will be mailing next friday - I want to send it signed for which makes it expensive...)

For Voodoo Vixen (Annette) from donna louise rodgers on Vimeo.
as in voodoo vixen as in scrap happen here as in Annette,

the video will make sense to her and true Doone Followers.

I did do the mask gel transfer and it is awesome, but when I hung the mask from the dolls hand it looked like she was carrying a decapitated head, and a black head carried by a white woman at that...

Just Felt All Wrong,

i made the posting yesterday but scheduled this post for Friday Lunch (GMT) hope that's how it happens... so enjoy you weekend, see you for Lush Monday if not before,

52 Pages with Darcy - My turn to be a day early

2011-03-17T08:43:00.002Z

button to your right for the link. I am doing 52 pages with Darcy (She of the witches brew that first revealed that the madcatlady is pregasaurus again) of Art and Sole. Hahaha those two did Not Sleep last Night.

this week the WORD is 'replicate',

Darcy's hints related to how, as daughters, we are possibly little replica's of our mothers....

I thought I would use the strathmore journaling video instead of just thinking of a technique myself...and got mightily irritated after ten minutes of the womans voice and pace, she didn't sing or prattle on or anything, I didn't even learn about making dreadlocks - what a naff video...

and the concept of scanning and reusing your images is hardy ground breaking innovation ....but... It did remind me that I used my suzi blu homework to journal a triptych for my mum, so I photochopped a whole load of real mummy photos with my portrait of how I remember her done in the Suzi class.

Cheat street - so quick and easy

see Glenys Ann (my mum) rode a motorcycle side saddle in stiletto red heels and a thirties green polka dot skirt. This may have had something to do with why she died young.

I do hope I am a replica of my Mum, because I find it hard to think of anyone more unique....and I won't be dying as young as she did, I have way out lived her already, so I'm not worried about replicating the death bit, although that was an odd year - the year I got older than my mum ever was...

the back for this page is different to all the others (that have up to now been the same design but in different colours), because there are things a daughter only talks to her mum about

so for this weeks page the portrait is stuck over the definition and my words...

finished front collage layers gesso , matte medium, writing, bit of outlining, wire beads a TH piece of plastic (stupidly expensive - shall not be buying those again) paint, ink etc

here is the collage placed with the original that is in my moleskine art journal.

original words, in the journal

now I look at the two of us side by side I see that yes I am a replica of my Mom

woyww

2011-03-16T00:22:00.010Z

last night I went to my first in a series of eight life classes (Niall's birthday present to me)

and I spent two hours drawing a man from various angles and in different positions,

there were nine of us in class with only the sound of graphite on paper.

my desk today bears my two contour drawings (you draw by looking at the model only - not at your paper or pencil, and you do not take the pencil off the paper at all and you do not erase lines).

and the third is a contour and the start of some shading.

I am happy with my first lesson.

also on/near my desk is my next doone dolly, which will be mailed out to it's owner on the 27th,

I also have a skeleton doll that needs dressing for Voodoo, I am so wanting to make her a mask....

and I have a final version of an unmentionable in a corner
that I cannot show you or you might get ideas about fixing the linkys at some point in the relatively near future...

mwah ha ha ha,

Edit: I read the rules, she can't be my Pif for two reasons - there is no WOYWW included,

and she has been seen,
however I have an unseen handmade thing that will be suitable...

mawahhahaha mwahahaha

Amy's Lush Monday and downward dogs done three ways

2011-03-14T21:49:00.006Z

it is not Amy's fault because I always did, and still do have,
a bit of a problem with Mondays,

it started with being a teenager when Bob Geldoff told a whole generation that psychos hate Mondays and it makes them "wanna shoo, hoo hoo hoo hoo, hoot the whole day down", I know I am a psycho because after the first hour in Monday rush hour traffic whether i am on foot, bike, tube, train, car or bus, I could cheerfully shoot myself in the foot to avoid work, and therefore rush hour (three hours more like),

In my late teens and early twenties? The Monday Hatefest Rot bedded in, set up home, and didn't even require a mortgage: My Soul was fully born again as a 'where did my weekend go' convert, my life was being leeched from me on a weekly basis starting every Monday....( what ever day my work week started it felt like a Monday)

I used to travel to my student placement in a car full of fellow fledgling baby nurses to our local psychy hospital to the sound of the Bangles 'Manic Monday'.

You had to work in a 'mental health hospital of the 80's' to really understand the term manic...we were all diagnosed alcoholics by the end of the placement - it was that or go insane...so glad I didn't actually do Mental Health Nursing as a Career - I'm not the right shape for it, for a start as you can see, my backside is definitely far too big...

So I am a psychotic, damaged, recovering alcoholic, not good on a Monday , nutjob,

but

I did not waste my money on my CB therapist, because as a high functioning nut job I also know it really is just the way we choose to think about things that makes behaviours better or worse (HAH I am cured in ten sessions)

soo

On Mondays I do Yoga - really

and I set myself up for the week by getting through the first day, going to my evening class, deeply relaxing - and really emptying that head of Mine and Boy does it need emptying,

Mondays for me are about finding peace in relaxation, mediation and full body exercise - If you want to know your heart soul and body and how to get them to work for you sweet harmony? Do yoga...and CBT

the images are three types of downward dog.

Sorry Amy it's as lush as I could get in my totally relaxed state..... I shall do a yoga pose in three variations each Monday

it is all in the Mind you know....(perception)

a woyww pay it forward?

2011-03-13T01:15:00.003Z

this will be my 104 prize to the person who links before or after me on the Day, she isn't finished yet but she will be by then, she is called 'pink and blue' and she wants her Mum.

do you remember?

2011-03-12T12:18:00.003Z

I said this year I wanted to paint one or two really 'good' paintings and improve my drawing skills. I will be starting an eight week in person life drawing course on Tuesday

I am so excited I can't sleep any more....

It is MID March my arty pals - what have you done to progress your art journey so far this year?

Are you really satisfied with where you at? or do you have an itch to scratch?

does your inspiration race ahead of your skills?

think about it - we are one quarter through the year and none of us live forever...

cozy 52 pages

2011-03-11T08:58:00.007Z

with Darcy:

take sheets of vellum

print images,

embellish and punch, stitch and fiddle,

add words,

realise that to feel cozy you need arms wrapped around you - actually or figuratively

realise how cozy it feels to have someone slip their hand into yours, to be caught in a full eye contact gaze of connect-
edness,

to feel deeply safe and secure

to know what it means to share; to have the energy and idealism of youth wrapped in the wisdom and experience of the elders

so,

you are not just holding my hand,

you are holding me,

you hug my soul

and cradle my heart

my cozy family....

it is from this coziness my life spills out into the world ready to deal with whatever is out there waiting for me....
however big,
glance back at that ocean - it's not a touch the size of the love our family have for each other....

life death shoes (and a giraffe)

2011-03-10T21:58:00.004Z

I am wearing pink and I have no hair - i must have been post traumatic...

some things are important (life) and some things we tend to avoid (death) and some things happen in between (shoes)

bear with me - this is one of the philosophical ones.

there is a very straight forward reason for shoes being on my desk yesterday, and a very convoluted one -

I am indulging myself and taking you to the answer the long way...

Niall is my soul mate I hope i die first but the important thing is that we have really lived together, really lived.

On some people's bucket list (things to do before you die) you will Often find Visit Table Mountain...well I have been there and done it and 'they' are right you should too, I even manage the vertiginous trip up the cable car without throwing up or falling over ( and I had been flying (long hauls by fabulous Quatar Airline) for 3 days by the time we got to Cape Town....

Niall's Mum died of cancer within the first 18 months of Niall and I choosing to live together, I have never seen him so bereft before or since.

Afterwards his father met Mary (she is in the middle of 'us' in the top photo,

when Mary finished teaching and retired Good old Blighty wouldn't let her renew her Visa and stay in the UK so Niall's dad and Mary went to China for a bit and taught English as a foreign language to test out just how much they liked each other, well, on their return they Both decided to leave Blighty and go live in Mary's native SA.

we went for Christmas,

I never seen or heard anything so beautiful as the Zulus sing over the thousand hill valley and dance their love dance,

I have never seen such contrasts of brutality and beauty, rich and poor, have and have nots,

Niall had to drag me crying off Durban beach because I thought i was already home and did not want to leave,

You don't see giraffes in the wild till you take a photo, and one appears over the shoulder of your beloved....

Giraffes bring me to the point,

Apart from Amy, Darcy is the person who inspires Art in me if not daily than at least weekly, by either a chance remark or something they do that sets me thinking....

Darcy is a giver, go see her happy dance news at http://art-and-sole.blogspot.com/2011/03/52-pages-wk-10.html, well the post before that particular one, but look at this one too because it would be fun to join her 52 pages, and she references Amy too and we seem to be becoming some sort of an art menage a trois...you can all watch we don't mind...

and she likes shoes and she likes giraffes -

sometimes what appears to the casual follower to be a certain type of Doone madness, is in fact homage to Darcy.

and if I can slip in a bit of insanity I will....she will make all kinds of noise when she see my table top of shoes a table top mountatin of shoes and i shall be glad that she has many happy things to dance for....

see another thing on my bucket list would be to buy so many shoes I could change then three times a days and not wear the same pair in the whole year - No not Imelda Marcos - I Wear My Shoes.....they are never out of use long enough to be stored, I wear them all on and off, they are on my desk so I could photo them...I promised Darcy I would show her my new ones - the black sling back 5 inchers

Darcy if you missed yesterday - the shoes are on yesterdays post this here is just a giraffe, and blimmin eck you posted tomorrows today and I haven't started my Cozy yet....

woyww? (Spam alot of shoes and some artwork and a doll)

2011-03-09T08:51:00.006Z

first up the spam, which was supposed to be speed dating Kim Dellows's sardines, but couldn't get moving quick enough - more like a sloth date, so has probably missed any chances of making spamdines of the future, then we have shoes - a small selection of my favorite ones,

and then we have the latest Mother Hoodie Doone Doll introducing....RaggaaMomma, with legs like noodles and biker boots she moves in mysterious ways,

and also I tweaked the mac girls face a bit more and clear gesso'd the face we made together (on video) this last Sunday - wonder if I get to see yours today?

Go link up to Julia (Mrs D) and show us what you got....

Do you want to draw a face?

2011-03-06T17:33:00.006Z

Do you want to copy this? you can, by doing what I do in the video below the photo. Also download the image and print it out to help...

Just do it,

don't think about it.

draw this face from donna louise rodgers on Vimeo.

couple of things:

STROKE your pencil on the paper, no heavy handed scrubbing or stabbing - DO NOT hold your pencil how you do to write - hold it like you do to draw - watch me......make lurve to that papier, like a french man would his mistress...all gentle caresses and soft stuff.. . andante.... andante, no mad bonking in the back seat ....

Give yourself a quiet calm undisturbed Hour. Listen to your most lovely music whilst you draw - and do NOT listen to any thoughts in your own head - for this one hour You Are Mine, and you will enjoy your love affair with Art .... I Say Do IT.....Do It Now - you can always curse me for the wasted hour later....

watch carefully, copy exactly. I had to do a tiny video size to load it up for free and keep it less than 500 megabytes, so open it up to full screen see how you go, also I think my video tape heads need cleaning so I had to ditch a chunk - but that was only me preaching at you - so no great loss....

Get sketching people,
it ain't hard girls...

Art is not the preserve of the 'talented'

please help me gather the proof that claim. If you then want to do more I strongly recommend that you go join up with Tam or Suzi and invest in some 'proper' hard work......

Gonna watch it myself now - to check it is okay at this size - if not Yipes it means Paying For Vimeo so you can see it bigger - Bummer....You Guys will bankrupt me.....

A dragon (feeding the love monster)

2011-03-05T22:07:00.007Z

This thing is hanging on my door, it started with a nylon blind that i bought in the Ikea bargain basement for 50p, and an idea I had whilst watching Tams last lessons video in the M3 class (she is still running her freebie class - link is over on the right near the bottom - art heart and healing)

I sketched onto the nylon with a 5b pencil, Brain Froud inspired creatures crossed with Seuss ears and feet and one of my own oddity faces, then I thought - ah - how will my media behave on nylon????

only one way to find out....

so I applied (liberally and not too carefully) wax water colours, acrylics and inks and got some Truly Amazing Resist effects, it was really interesting to work with the way the pigments behave as they pass through the nylon and leave a stain.

then I thought - so what next?

and I spent the whole of today (except to eat with the family) turning it into a fabric collage.

I LOVE IT ( so do Luke nad Adam who are now fighting over who is going to have it to hang on Their Door)

It is called feeding the love monster...
here are a few details:

52 pages ( and weeks) with Darcy

2011-03-04T08:26:00.005Z

With Darcy:

this week is another pencil and watercolour page

to follow.

We had a playstation when they first came out, and we played Abe's oddyssee, he rescues the Mukodons and avoids the Sligs,

by saying 'follow me' he leads his people out of slavery and into the 'light'

I like the analogy.

Like Abe, I am nothing special, but the way I speak to people, the way I behave when I am with them - I can be liberating or enslaving.

If you follow me - I hope it is into the liberated land of Your Art...

Dx

woyww - a video

2011-03-02T20:16:00.005Z

as promised:

woyww - Kim;s Bracelet from doings of doone on Vimeo.

also

I know nothing of Black Swans except in regard to probability theory,

I looked up the film and soddenly (I can't bear to correct that typo) I remembered i promised to go with someone.... and that I did not go, Mr D will one day be very cross about the number of times I have flaked on our dates.

I did this face WAYYYY before the film, probably when I was supposed to be neglecting my creative time watching the film...being normal and sociable,

but no one is gonna believe that are they> ( that I can be normal and sociable)

I think I may also have missed woyww - such is life...

faeries (goblins) gypsies tramps and theives

2011-03-01T19:11:00.004Z

Now I don't know if you ever noticed, I rarely do cute,

I actually find a lot of things other people find cute quite repulsive.

I Love - cruel and edgy, sharp and nasty, and I know Amy does too, so I did this page for her in her altered book - this is my True Style.

but the poetry is deeply sweet,

zoom in and you will see what I mean,

My Life has been a balance of beauty and wonder, acquisition and loss, sheer hard work and drudgery, then, a breeze and a joy, so my art is kind of like that too,

reality is Not Cute

Reality stuff has zero appeal to the masses and I don't want to be a total freak. I can indulge in fantasy...

So this is as cute as I can get...
Brian Froud

look him up.

Tam (last week) course nearly done, learned loads and i shall be incorporating far more symbolism in my work. These are my first sketches in my journal pages embelished with water colour and jottings of the things to think as I do the final piece...

Also Flipping Heck

my Kimberley ward ATCs arrived today - I cried - really I did

just like I did when I swapped with Natalie Hamade,

they are so beautiful, and I had to quickly check mine were up to standard before I mail them tomorrow - I so hope she loves mine as much as I love hers,

and I am VERY glad I did not mail them this morning with all my other packages...

because she sent me a bracelet - that I shall video and show you tomorrow after my 12 hour day at work and as a late WOYWW posting, you will be so Envious, so I have to quickly make an extra something to send with her ATCs

And I am so going to steal her idea and use it too...

Links to both Kim and Nat are on my sidebar - they are both very generous artists and you would be a bit foolish not to go over there and find stuff out from them....

Lastly I had the best email ever today - another person i link to - Joyce - she and her whole family survived the Christchurch quake -I feel rotten that anyone got hurt, and deeply sad about the deaths, but there is joy too for those that survive, and I am Sure Joyce will use some of her experience in her art, which will be a fitting memorial to those lost. here are some snippets of Kims ATCs:

Ouch _ a bump and more madness

2011-02-27T18:22:00.009Z

I am behind because I decided to hammer my wood onto a backing before I mounted and framed it, and I had the things on the floor and was hammering away and a HUGE printers tray fell on my head,

so I did not wrap and post my Tilda, my pay it forwards, my gift for Darcy (happy very late birthday) my annual professional registration statement (arggh taxed by my own governing body) my altered book (early; as I am the only UKer and did not want to disadvantage the USAers in any way),

but today:

Tilda is bagged secured, bound and tagged.

The Salt Dough Tarts?

well here's the thing:

This is the batch of a Sisterhood of Six Pay It Forward Doone Dollies, they all come wrapped and boxed with a certificate of authenticity,

Klitty is the first born and goes to JoZarty -
Erhmelia belongs to Carmen,
Phillipa is for Liverpool Lou (Anne)
Tarlewlar will find a home with Tuire
Freyered is for Kay,

Send me your Addies Ladies - I do not keep them so even if you have given me your address before I will need it again please.

I delete the addresses as soon as I mail out so I don't fall foul of data protection....

Now then,

The sixth in the sisterhood will spawn the second SisterHoodie:

a series of three Hooded Tarts:

One for Voodoo Vixen

One for Amy

and
a third for.......

a lucky randomly drawn follower,

I will be launching the offspring of the Sisterhoods - the Salt Dough Tartlets in April 2011 where for a modest fee TARTS CAN BE BOUGHT

52 Pages (one a week with Darcy)

2011-02-25T10:18:00.003Z

this weeks book page is a photo montage of tears, taps, water, crocodiles, toilets and pipes, the link?

Waterworks:

Cats, walls and crocheted hearts ( Woyww follow up)

2011-02-23T23:06:00.002Z

Sasa has caught the crochet bug, here is a five minute way to make a heart:

but you have to watch my cat and demolition work first, and to be truthful the best example of the crochet is the last five minutes, I will never know if you choose to fast forward...

Cat Wall Heart Crochet from donna louise rodgers on Vimeo.

Mr D's fingers are better, he has been good and looked after the dressings properly, and it never happened whilst I was getting in the way - I was right over on other side of the room

enjoy...

Dx

WOYWW? (Dolls watch out Clare H)

2011-02-22T21:57:00.006Z

Posting late Tuesday - so I can do a quick link in the morning,
clickonthe link to Join Julia,

On my desk this week, altered books, ATCs , salt dough dollies using my own face design because I DO Not Like The MOlds Anymore, and I have become a little accomplished at the joints now I am using copper wire and long nose pliers, and I am sticking with the stripey long socks/tights,

The rest of my room is an absolute tip....

I managed to stay on schedule with my Tam class, and my Altered book round Robin, and my ATC swap with Kim Ward (4x ATCs) and I even did the follower ATC request that is outstanding. mostly because in the end I did not have to demolish a chimney breast with Niall at the weekend cos in the first hour he managed to wallooppp his hand and significantly injured his HAND, Oh I do love it when he does the Daft Thing,

Also Amy has joined the Suzi Blu Brigade so she is making faces and has no Time To Skype - I think she may even be off the wine - Good Lord....

so I had art time instead....

Having got my template of my muse - of favorite style salt dough dolly I made a very Large batch of salt dough and made All my Pass it Forward gift dolls (x5) and had enough to do the extra Voodoo's girl, I stood back and looked, thinking:

Each one of these girls reveals her character as she gets dressed, I do the face last of all when I 'have got to know them'

they have been a complete joy to make,

as I did each one I learned new things about getting character into them, and I was Highly Amused when Mr Doone said _ "why is that one wearing your cardigan?" bless - it was about a hundred years old, and only when I have cut it up for a doll does he tell me it's the one he most liked to see me in...

Plonker....

anyhow now the work is done I will get it sent off to you, I will email you the bar code so you can track delivery...

I will need a suitcase to get all my packages to the post office.

I sit back Relax and think, I am all ready to help do demolition work t the weekend , I sip my wine and I am looking at the girls
and there is this quiet sound of mewling,

And then HOOdie HOOrah HenRIHEtta said she wanted to stay 'Please', she was hanging out under my light; generally being a little hoodie hooligan, swinging her legs and batting her eyes,

she pays no attention to the fact I cannot spend the rest of my Art Life making dolls, there are books that need attention not to mention paintings and ATCs,

anyhow - Could you say No to this girl?

It would appear that I have to make MORE salt dough dollies because 3H is staying with me....

Her hoodie can be undone where it is buttoned up (so the hood can fit around her hanging string), and the hood undone then converts to a cape,

she is just so so adorable, and her legs hang backwards, then as they swing they turn inwards, and she droops her head and looks up at you in the most endearing way,

She reminds me of every two year old cutie that manages to get just whatever they want and leaving
you with a warm fuzzy feeling

hahaha

She might go for sale on my website when I can harden my heart....

Aw, look she might cry, I am quite sure anyone would give her a good home, except maybe Clare H (who by now will be needing valium - the number of doll images she had had to wade through today)...

But she is simply irresistible don't cha' think?

Eh?

Hat Hair.....

This is THE ONE

2011-02-20T10:08:00.008Z

This is the third prototype and from here onwards this is the template, all the dolls shall follow these proportions and style...

I like my faces better than the molds and I like the painted tights,

Doone's Dolly:

She is a vulnerable pretty tart...
So I have a requirement to make another seven of these as gifts, then I shall make a batch to sell....

Oh thank you Sandy Poppins for the Stylish Blog award, I am asked to share something about me...

I am a self taught Artist,

Tin Mal in particular and Morocco in general

2011-02-19T13:40:00.003Z

now some images are jolly fuzzy - that is because - mountain goat like - I am hanging from cliff and mountain edges with no tripod, and I suffer from vertigo...., Luke stole the camera and so there are a few of me in there (most unusual)

this is for the benefit of Carola - who would LOVE Tin Mal (half way up the Tizi 'n' Test)

morocco 2007 from donna louise rodgers on Vimeo.

I had the BEST omlette ever at the top of the mountain pass - chickens must like altitude as well as attitude,

Dx

52 Weeks (7) Mileage

2011-02-18T08:40:00.008Z

With Darcy :

SO what Is the Age of your Miles?????

Are you a young ten thousand miles or an aged 15 kilometers? (See the Donna Louise (DL) 400?) clever eh?

Is your bodywork a bit dented or have you been well looked after

Where have your journeys taken you

I would not swap my mileage or change my life map, it has been and continues to be an amazing and less traveled path....

I have traveled alone and with others, i have had easy rides and long walks, I have run my share of marathons

sometimes I have been over burdened and could carry no more,

sometimes I was naked and unencumbered and flying,

ah life's rich tapestry

who would choose to be anything less than Human?

Not me for sure,

this is a paint collage page

a little after the teesha moore style I fear, her style is distinctive and well known any time I do a bright coloured piece of collage it look like 'a teesha moore'!

I was doign them before I heard of her - so I know I am not directly copying, just enjoying the style...

if you like this style she does rather excellent tutorials on youttube and her website is inspiring but don't look if you have the start or end of a migraine... it is a little hard on the eyes colour wise!!!!

WINNER

2011-02-17T19:10:00.004Z

the video battery is dead and I am wearing my mustache and everything,

the winner of Tilda is:

http://shariyahgarner.blogspot.com

Amy you were uncannily close to my own reasonings, therefore you were not disqualified

Thank you all for your comments and to those who have chosen to follow - fear not my lovely friends you followers invariably get a little something from me from time to time.....

One World

2011-02-17T00:03:00.001Z

Watch this space - video draw will be published later today.....

Who has won Tilda?

WOYWW: A painting I Love and Will Keep

2011-02-16T09:33:00.005Z

Now Carmen and Lizzie know this painting has been hanging around for ages (last September), unfinished and neglected, she has been in the back of the car, dragged around all over, in the hope I would work out how to finish her, and if inspiration struck I could do more work on the piece, wherever I happened to be...

The main composition is taken from Adam and Eve, an unfinished Klimt piece, but with a Suzi Blu girl face, and a realistic male face (klimt) and a mermaid tail (me) and I loved it but it needed more but I could not decide how I wanted to finish it,

Now Tam's mermaid week is introducing us, or reintroducing us, to Chagall, who (up until now) I have been fairly dismissive of.

However, reading his life and history helped me Understand His Symbols,

And one of the reasons I did Tam's course was to re -explore if I had the capacity to do symbolism/modernism and if it was at all 'my thing' and it has been a bit of a struggle but I am making progress. Now I want to experiment in simplified symbolism as a kind of minimalist element in my works.

This painting is called She is Adored (this one I shall keep) the brackets are my sentiment not part of the title, because if it were part of the title it would be ridiculously long ( the title). I shall get her mounted and framed. She is paper on wood in wax and acrylics. FINISHED phew...

oh and it is the grand draw tomorrow - which I shall be recording on video live in the studio, wearing my moustache...Amy do not cry - odds are you won't win but there can be compensation in your loss - if i see you are totally distraught I will find a mermaid to send to you...but not this one, this one is mine

oh and the workstation? - covered in Kimberley Ward's ATCs that must remain secret

Mermaids and modernism

2011-02-15T17:43:00.002Z

modernism

mermaid

a Medley of Love Makings

2011-02-13T12:23:00.012Z

A quick overview of the doings of doone....

when it comes to Love,
rene gruau is my Art Mentor - this valentine card is inspired by the poster 'Tango", I created the image in black marker pen and a permanent red marker,

See the Line and Form? - beauty is simplicity,

her eyes and mouth are all you need to see to know what passion is, the skirt tassels and her knee give all the movement, him holding her right tight close - ah it is Perfect Love, the pain the passion, the total oblivion to all else....

I cut them out and layered them over black card mounted on red, with a venetian punt, dancing lessons stamp, and Love stamp, all cut out and layered up, to create the impression of dancing against a graffiti backstreet wall. And stole the classic Cohen line - Dance me to the End of Love...

.

Next

Wedding anniversary card, this is just half a tonne of stamping, layering and waxing,

then my valentine to Niall - which is a very private joke...

and the first of the five pay it forward salt dough dollies (I still have to make her a couple of little tokens to hang from her hands), then I can make the sixth one for voodoo vixen. And the seventh as a thank you to my work friend who gave me a load of fab fabric

in between which i need to finish my four ATCs for Kim,

an ATC thankyou to a follower, and keep up with the Tam course, and Darcy's 52 weeks

yep it is busy busy busy

but i Do Love Making

52 Weeks with Darcy - Crush

2011-02-11T00:51:00.003Z

it is week six and our word is Crush.

when I was 16 and at sixth form (UK 'A levels' - higher level exams before university) I was in a group of people that wrote the school magazine, we did some amazing work and laughed a lot and i fell head over heels for Andy Bott a fellow pen smith, I could sit and listen to him all day and stare into his eyes and lose all sense of time, we talked about everything and I think we Were Very Good Friends, but I had no idea he did not fancy me like I fancied him, and was fully expecting one day for him to 'ask me out'

he didn't

but he did, one bleak day, joyfully proclaimed to me his love for another and that he had successfully secured a Hot Date - NEVER Have I EVER felt so crushed........Lizzie - tell them what my face looked like....

I thought I would DIE

Unrequited love eh?

angel faces finished, background nearly there

2011-02-07T23:11:00.006Z

This is my homage to Mucha - or Fonzi as Tam calls him - or mucous if you are struggling - girls if you love making faces you will be in seventh heaven doing a Tam course...

Niall was doing his bedtime critique and before he could jump in (to his critique not bed - i don't paint in bed)- - I said - "I KNOW my circles are crap - but we have no huge saucepans for me to draw around ( the paper is 28x21inches) - and I do not have a giant protractor."

He looks at me - one of his "I didn't think you could be more stupid but you just excelled yourself" looks

he picks up a pad of paper - he picks up a pencil,
he ties string to the pencil, holds the string in position
stretches it tights and
draws lots of
perfect ever decreasing circles.

you really can go off men ...

BUT, he can't draw a face for toffee and so long as it stays that way I can cope.

Two things my family will not do with me on holiday (ever)

2011-02-04T22:38:00.007Z

1. Let me drive without a Brutal Armed Navigator Who Is Licensed to Kill if I Deviate from a Straight Line - I tend to take them on grand tours that are deeply traumatic - for instance we recently drove for two days AROUND the bottom and up the atlantic coast of France to see a friend who was then out, to get back in the car to drive for another day cos this dilbert had purchased a return euro tunnel ticket instead of a Euro tunnel for going to Canal du Midi and then a Brittany ferry as we returned from Pontivy, for scale it's like driving round the English Welsh and Scottish coast twice and then some, and you have to pay for the privilege, and it was Aout ( august - Froggie holiday time like rush hour gone mad) It is Hot and Smelly to be in a Car for three days.

2. Go anywhere I go with my camera (the story is in the comment section on Julia's blog.) If I pack the tripod Niall develops a Tic and the Kids feign diseases that require immediate hospitalisation preventing all foreign travel.

They say they love me but i have my Doubts.

Five of Fifty two weeks

2011-02-04T09:22:00.004Z

with Darcy:

this week the word is Encouragment. I used Darcy's prop but want to add that I also thought of the word in other ways too, as in to give courage where it may be lacking - I started to think about what it means to enourage - that I have to be brave enough to give away a part of myself to be encouraging of others, and sometimes people bloom and sometimes they rip you off, but if you give freely and encourage often we build a better world, and those that take and never give - well Shame on You.

Of course all my 5inch by 5 inch square are my favorate fabriano - but I used cold press for texture, I only use Hot Press for faces, Graphite sketch (Gregorian monk letter embellishing inspired), derwent Block Watercolours paints, border stamped

the back as per previous pages:

Tam's M3 class - this week we are making Mucha Angels,

Salt Dough Redux

2011-02-03T18:24:00.005Z

to save you going through the back issues
Full Salt Dollies tutorial click on these words.

this weekend I'll catalogue my videos and set them up on my web site and link from the blog so they are easier for you to use.

Points raised not covered in the videos are addressed here:

1. Salt dough (in moderate dry conditions) will air dry in 3 - 4 days and dry light creamy white

2. In temperate or humid or tropical conditions reduce water and Bake (do not air dry) - the lower the oven temperature = longer time, higher temps = shorter times, highest heats will produce browner shades (Asian) , if you want very dark walnut brown (Californian Raisin Woman with shrunken tits from starving herself most of her life, not that I am judgmental or anything) high temp long time, if you want ebony blue black (like a Nigerian Tone of a tall beautiful Naturally Slim woman with perfect tits) - I use paint. I have not yet tried Asian Chinese/malaysian/taiwan/singapore skin tones but would like to try as I find the facial features are much more elegant than caucasian faces - I know nothing of these kind of tits either though.

- if You Do then let me know...I can then get my dollies more anatomically correct (I find tmine can be a bit bloaty on the titty front - modeled on my humongous bassoommers).

3. In all climates paint your dough as you wish and then seal ( I do it with a polyurethane based glue/sealer - you can use Proper PVA - not the cheap watered down kiddie glue) use a wood sealer varnish if you want (but keep the layer thin and hang it to dry and keep checking you have no drips or runs)- you are just preventing water damping the dough. The salt is the preservative so the dough will not rot, the sealant is to prevent the dough rehydrating after it has been dessicated. In Ancient Egypt this wasn't needed because of the climate, but anywhere with significant humidity will need to seal....

4. BE creative - add gesso - add paper add anything - but when you are finished seal your work so it will last forever. I seal my dough before I apply cloth then I apply matte medium over the fabric as well as stitching it because, if I have spent time on it, I want it to last as long as it can...If you add Gesso you are adding a chalk layer that will provide a 'key' or 'grab'. anything applied over the top that has a pigment well Honey- the chalk will 'grab' that pigment and make it appear more visually vibrant,

- get a piece of watercolur paper - do three broad vertical strips of gesso,

dry

using different pigments ( acrylic/ wax/ watercolour/inks/ pencils) do horizontal stripes

Look at the difference on the paper and then the part of the paper with gesso, the same kind of difference in pigment intensity would be evident on your salt dough dolly - so use it where you want boldness and not where you want subtle...I often do not use gesso on wood because I like to use the grain and colour of the wood in my work, alot of artists prime wood with gesso to get a white surface that shows the true pigment of their chosen medium, it really is personal taste and you should not feel bound by others opinions. Gesso is indispensable in covering/sealing graphite.

use what you know/find out to get interesting variations in your work.

5. Please let me see your dollies...

6. Do not waste money on clays and special ovens unless you are silly rich or are Opposed to Salt Dough for Personal Religious or Political Reasons. Amy doesn't like the feel of the salt but manages to overcome this minor drawback.

- thanks so much for asking it makes the time doing the vids worthwhile, because I know you guys are having a go - or at least thinking about having a go

WOYWW (a world to visit)

2011-02-02T01:10:00.003Z

Hi Folks - my desk is a mess full of glory - I'm doing a Mucha Angel and babe...

I am trying to get to the One World posts too - but there are SOOO Many

I intend to employ a combo approach and visit WOYWWers that are also OWOHers

Lizzie - you shout me if you feel down the minute you do....I wish I was there

One World

2011-01-30T23:59:00.002Z

Please do not comment the draw is now closed ( it is 17/02/2011 GMT)

I joined in because I believe in One World. I think Art is an essential communication tool to enable us to be actively different and tolerant, to challenge, change and progress.

My door prize (I prefer to call it a gift) is one of my portrait paintings, of Tilda Swinton, a performance artist and A Woman I Admire:

It is large ( 20inchesx17inches) and mounted on wood - artist quality products - so will last long time - if you put it behind glass it will last forever - no Direct Sunlight or heat sources please... - I will obviously ship worldwide and you will need to be in to sign for it when it is delivered.

Leave a comment on THIS blog post and you will go into the draw - Be Aware. The rule is that you are a pre existing Blogger, I WILL CHECK.

It would be nice if you were also a participant in the event and that you too are giving a gift, but that is not essential.

My blog is about the things I do in terms of making, all sorts of makings. Check it Out.

I have also provided a link to my video tutorials which sit on my website so you can see I Do Do the Doings (I keep my workspace separate from my blog). Blog work is copyright, web site is creative commons so keep in touch and we might end up doing Art together...

Be Aware I am not keen on Commercialism or Capitalism when it comes to ART. So most of my work recycles, reuses or makes products from things you already have in your house. For every Item I Sell I give a piece Away to someone I have met that has fallen in love with a bit of my makings ( ask Hannah's Tea Party). You will not find me showing you how to use the latest product being flogged this season. You will not find me giving Something for Nothing. I have an Ego - tell me how you love me or my work and I will be greatly impressed and become generous towards you...

I sometimes may make you think twice, and you might not like what I say or do - but we will both learn stuff....

Doone

Salt Dough Dollies In Three Parts ( Video Tutorials)

2011-01-29T14:49:00.004Z

Part 3 will be up tomorrow evening with the one world post.

Shoes will be on display on Monday

Enjoy...

Part 1: Dough and Doll from doings of doone on Vimeo.

part 2 of 3: Salt Dough Dolly: Assemblage dressing and diversions from doings of doone on Vimeo.

part 3 of 3 - finish your work

PArt 3 of 3 Salt Dough Dolly Finsihings from donna louise rodgers on Vimeo.

4 OF 52: Build

2011-01-28T10:35:00.006Z

with Darcy:

A map from Botanicus (prague) paper map wrapping paper, dyed and inked, silk paper, paper artsy stamps artsy, vellum, eyelash ribbon

the back as per previous pages:
Salt (I so want to type Slut) dough dolly vids up later....

( ps. I felt really down with not being my normal self so I bought a pair of killer shoes Darcy)

wHoyww (Look Amy You Know You Want to)

2011-01-26T07:25:00.014Z

today is for me about defining refining and making voodoo dolls made from salt dough and boxes made of 3 ply

wHoyww?
The H is for hanging

for normality move
Onwards woywwers back to the safety of Julia's more sane clan.

continue here if you are a bit of a self confessed

nutter
(nutters plural )If you refer to someone as a nutter, you mean that they are mad or that their behaviour is very strange. (BRIT) INFORMAL n-count
(disapproval) (=nut, nutcase) He was a bit of a nutter.

see I was raised that to call someone a nutter was a bit offensive (possibly not quite as bad as saying retard in a disparaging way). But not nice -

The polite way to insult you would be to say you are Barking (Mad), it's a posh version and less offensive,

I do enjoy that it is possible to trade insults with people almost like a tennis game if you have an extensive vocabulary and a pond between each other. I still like calling people Harpies - mostly they don't get it.

Thankfully, and mostly,
It is quite possible to love a nutter and embrace the Barking Ones and live happily ever after. A good game of insultation is good for the creative soul - ask the donkey bottom biters (look the quote up on Web)

Hanging from my desk:

Niall's birthday Voodoo Doll that I made so I can always be with him, he laughed and instantly fell in love and called me a Nutter (see he didn't say Darling you are Barking -he said - hmm you do know you are a nutter don't you). Also on my desk his birthday love box (i made it totally from 3ply and some little 3ply hearts Lizzie gave me at Christmas) - the photos are waxed on - it is derived from Minxies matchbox on legs with a book in it).

I am off work and resting so I should be able to visit you this week, thank you those who left lovely messages last week and over the week even knowing no return visits were forthcoming - Jacqui _ I absolutely promise the first place I shall go as soon as I have some energy will be to the post office to mail your ATCs ( and Shirley P's ATC and Amy's box and Dar's book and something for Soggy Elizabeth if she send me her addie)

Lastly

you lucky five pay it forwards - Do you want a voodoo doll styleee thing as your hand made gift?
also:

the doll is made from salt dough:

2 cups flour (plain you fools - or it will rise and be misshapen)
1 cup table salt
1 cup water

mix to a dough, kneed (by hand you lazy Artists) for 10 mins - don't do it in the bread maker Amy or it will start cooking before you want it to...

To dress the doll. Use felted wool clothing made form your laundry mistakes or shrink the wool jumpers you now hate - shrink and felt them and they Will Not fray when cut - glue them to the body shape made of salt dough and then stitch the clothes in situ and embellish as you wish - I use matte medium as the glue because it drys Totally Clear and Dry. Don't use modge podge it will stay sticky Forever.

the limb attachments are jointed and fiddly - and you can't see them - hmmmm - I shall do a video...

Let's do the time warp again

2011-01-24T18:53:00.004Z

Okay - so for once in my life I am being obedient and doing as my Doctor tells me - strong analgesia and rest (ribcage & intercostal muscles are the problems no pleurisy thank goodness), but the pain killers make me float - and I still cannot sleep, so all things become distorted,

So I stared at Klimt's Water Serpent 1 and then did a bit more on my Klimt Goddess, so she now has the first layer of a back ground.

Will I forever associate this painting with sleep deprivation and pain?

This I can say - it was nice to talk to Amy when I could not sleep - it made being awake, when all I want to do is sleep, bearable.

Cheers Hun...

3/52 with Darcy

2011-01-21T17:24:00.004Z

Acknowledge

thank you for asking: feeling artificially better:

In Fact

Am feeling Marvelous : analgesia + wine = bliss

sod the breathing pains it's Friday.

I shall rest tomorrow...

WOYWWWWR ( that extra bit is for Warning Will Robinson )

2011-01-19T19:23:00.004Z

WOYWW: argggh I HAD TWO days off as annual leave - unscheduled, back to work toady - stupid busy - now brain not working At all - can't do my words, or much thought, radiologist suggested I might have pleurisy - so now I Must Go Back to GP - arghh why can I not just get well like a normal person. I so want it just to be muscle/rib pain...

please don't comment I cannot necessarily return - i Warn You, if you do comment I may not 'see you till next week' Warning Will Robinson Danger Will Robinson, she won't be hopping anywhere tonight...

the reason I gave in and posted? too many to mention but in particular Morti - this is for you>

Strange Days

2011-01-18T16:13:00.007Z

Eve: Goddess of Knowledge, Klimt Style, sketched, first layer painted some doodad addedI have just had two unplanned annual leave days to sort out my car. Mr Doone looked sagely at me having, in the past year, Hassled Me to Death, and twice delivered the "it's time you got a new car that one is getting old now, it will start to have problems" lecture, all I get now is The Look. I am not keen on scrapping old things - you see I'm heading that way myself....

I can also deal with the Look (even though it is a very Impressive Look) because:

a) My ribs feels so much better for two days proper rest
b) I cannot walk and carry anything ('cos of the ribs) so all I have walked is the dogs (Adam came shopping with me and carried the bags)it is lovely to just walk unencumbered and at a leisurely pace and Adam told me no end of teenage angst stuff...we discussed our drug of choice and the ideal age to lose your virginity ( I explained it was more about the who than the when really, and that no matter how many sexual partners he has that rule kinda holds true...)
c) I started Tams course and I am in seventh heaven creating my Klimt style Goddess, the link is just over there to your right and it is not too late to join the party - come on, go for it....

So I ask you:

Do you think a Look will bring me down or indeed to my senses?

All I can say is that these last two days unexpected rest has helped me realise I am not cut out for work or driving, and I need a model or two to hang around the house naked so I can do life drawing all day.

I also realise I am going to be so busy catching up at work tomorrow that I shall miss WOYWW and not pick up a brush until Friday...but for now I have a few hours still to dream

ATC update, convenient memory loss and a new course

2011-01-17T12:04:00.004Z

Three new ATCs up in my website gallery

Offer stands - any follower who wants to claim a thank you for following ATC ( no swap/return necessary) just email from my website contact page so far I have only had 23 claimants....

Jacqui gets a scrap pack too for being so very patient.

My car MOT is due today - but I forgot (!) so have taken a last minute annual leave day to get it sorted - which also means I can do my website and blog housekeeping and join in on the first day of the M3 Tam (willowing) course ( linky on the right up there as you look) I am sooo looking forward to doing the unicorn....

Having sorted out my (euphemistically named) art gallery (shed) - (but it is brick built with stained glass windows) I have kind of planned out my pay it forward five gifts - so please email me your addresses so that I can get your gifts to you as soon as they are finished, I will not blog these gifts so you can all go - Oh My! when they arrive...

remember I do not keep your mail addresses so even if you have received a gift in the past I will still need your address so that I can mail out your pressie. My email is through my website contact page - you can use the link above is you haven't explored my website (www.adonnathing.com) before..

Pay it forward

2011-01-16T10:49:00.004Z

I promise something handmade to the FIRST 5 people who leave a comment here. However, to be eligible, you must repost this status, offering something handmade to 5 other people. The rules are that it must be handmade (or homemade) by you and it must be sent to your 5 people some time in 2011. Ready, set, GO!
first five get a hand made gift - like Carmen - no promises when, but soon, remember you have to do it too - so I shall check before I make and if you have not paid it forward I shall move to the next person in the list that has commented,

Off you go - pay it forward...

Dx

She Really Is Finished Now or Women I Admire

2011-01-15T11:42:00.008Z

I am avoiding tidying my Shed/art gallery, help me feel justified by telling me you could not have got through the weekend without seeing this blog...

remember that eye problem i showed you in my video?

well this is how it turned out in the end:

So when you next fluff up your work DO NOT bin it - work over it - use those layers ladies...

This year I definitely want to focus on my painting - I feel so happy when I finish a piece that I have worked on for months and I can Honestly truly say - yes I love that, and I need to recognise that I might only get two or three big pieces done each year, and that is okay.

She will be missed in our home - all the visitors think i am mad to give her away and then mad at me for not giving her to them, ha ha, I say - start a blog and join in the one world hop then you can perhaps one day own her,
I have retouched her face so the lines are less harsh her face is soft now, so it means my painting is now less like Tilda Swinton (here is the photo I used for inspiration), if you want to understand more about this remarkable woman check out the Wikipedia entry on her and watch the 'a life in pictures interview' ( you need to scroll through the other people under the embedded vid image - she is the last interview)

she is a very good example of what a good education can do for an intelligent lady....and she is a rare example of someone who had not wasted or squandered her talent, but you can still see that they are her eyes,

I finished the legend, applied flowers to the frame, dyed and inked the frame,

all I have to do is wait to see who wins it so that I can finish off the back

I decided to post a sneak peek so you who follow me even without a one world event Absolutely Have been given Every Chance to win her, just remember to leave comment on my one world post between the 30 Jan - Feb 17th

she is 17x14 inches and weighs a Tonne

FILTER

2011-01-14T17:20:00.004Z

Darcy's word of the week expressed on a 5x5 '' with a one inch allowance so I can make it into a book at the end of the year.

how did I make my filter?

wax watercolours and ink - black top third fading to grey, blue bottom 2/3rds , yellow filter blocks, red filtrate droplets,

ink drawings when dry

yellow mulberry paper with nick bantock deep turqouise stamped image ( b line designs BA614G) cut out and matte medium collaged over bottom third,

application and colouring of text ( put your paint brush in the matte medium and the ink pad and you will apply the colour as you collage,

draw the heart tree - embellish with hearts and anita's tiny blings

and script to top and bottom,

the back is the same method as last week

2/52

forwarned is forearmed (doing long lengths on a cuttlebug)

2011-01-13T20:27:00.007Z

it is good to know where you stand.

Do you not think?

And, be it below a new chimney or walking round in left hand circles because you cannot drive round in right hand ones (listen to the video) I decided not to edit it out because it made me laugh so I thought it might make you laugh too....

it lets you and other people know that you are a together kind of person.

I think this is my most sane and instructional video so far?

Do you really need long plates? from doings of doone on Vimeo.

It is for Dolores in the hope it means she can spend her money on something more interesting than long plates for her cuttlebug...I forgot to do the vimeo instructional thing so will do that another day.

In the photo blogged yesterday I was 26 and pregnant. Honest injun. I like to think I am ageing well because of the pickling properties of alcohol.

in the one above I was 45 and drunk ( it often happens when I stay at Karen's House).

I am now 104 hence the slight tubby tummy.

WOYWW and a story for Clare H

2011-01-12T07:49:00.000Z

On my desk, ATC from Amy, my one world painting as a lazertran atc, my 52 weeks with Darcy page base done, and my Klimt book ( oh you can't see that it is just to the right as you look) ready for my class with Tam that starts on the 17th Jan.

that's it off you go WOWWering ,

the rest is for dedicated followers and stalkers....it really won't make much sense unless you follow us all - it's a bit like a blog hop conversation.....shared madness thing....

Elizabeth - I have not slept all night - not because I was worried that you had frozen into a human shaped iceberg, I just know in my bones you are resilient and eminently resourceful and capable (it shows in your book work), no , I didn't sleep for the excitement that you may have that thing on your desk.... and if you are still without power and cannot post I just don't know what I will do....

Amy - thanks, and yes if I die you can have the cuttle bug because everyone else i know has one already - I will even try to find you one before I die, because I am nicer than you are, but I must admit you have sent me loads of stuff and you are the only person I know that i haven't mailed Anything To Yet ( that's because you are getting a Box Full of Stuff, that might even have a cuttle bug in....or is it a cuttle fish I bought?...)

Clare H asked me to expand on my intimate disclosures (and as a self confessed story teller you might find this hard to believe of me but I tell you it is absolutely true)

Back in the 80's I was married and my husbands brother also had a wife ( my Sister in Law by marriage (SILBM). She is just The Nicest Person on Earth. See you can see my wedding ring. I am the one without the very attractive glasses and no sausage - I had progressed to contacts and vegetarianism...

When I was in my twenties We used to go and wind surf every weekend I wasn't working, you have to wear a life jacket or they won't let you on the water. When you come off of a wind surf if you are unlucky and have not pushed the boom away the sail will come down over you, so you put your hands over your head so the boom can't knock you out, it becomes a natural thing to put your arm over your head as you fall, it looks a bit like you are waving. Once you are in the water and the sail is over your head you just raise your arm a bit more and you get an air pocket under the sail. At this point someone usually comes over to give you a hand cos it is a faff to sort yourself out alone. Most Important thing is to Stay Calm and wait for help. Mostly you are supposed to get good enough that you just don't fall off.

I do not know if you do water sports, I do not know if you have ever been in the water in a life jacket. Oddly a life jacket will NOt Let You go UNder the water, this is not Always A Good Thing.. but it does lead to hilarious scenes of people trying to manoeuver and failing horribly. Think ducks with feet tied together.

Sometimes you need to go underwater to get out from under things (obviously I am no longer talking about ducks, I am referring to people in life jackets)

If you are under a boom or a sail unless some one (or you) lifts the object you cannot get out from under, you have to release your jacket and shrug it off - which is fairly easy to do if you are calm, then you can just do a little dive and free yourself - or you keep the jacket on raise your arm for an air pocket whilst you work to the edge of the sail or you just await a rescue.

soo

we are surfing and

SILBM comes off her board - sail goes over her head ( i see this but I am a way away) I see no raised arm as she goes off - and no raised lump under sail to say she is okay and waiting for help/summoning strength to lift the sail/ working her way to the edge of the sail.....and she does not emerge jacketless

Without the aid of flashing blue lights I zoom over to her and jump into the water next to her board - shit it is so cold in the UK waterways it takes your breath away the moment you go in - she has been under less than a minute,

it is immediately apparent that her ankle is wrapped in the rope you use to pull up your sail so her leg is trapped up on the board to hip height and her life jacket is holding her head under the water upside down because it is stronger than she is. She cannot free her leg or raise her head, and she is panicking - as would any sane person-- she forgot to release her jacket so she could turn and raise her head. I had to lift her head and free her leg and turn her board whilst she held me under in her need to get her head out of the water. Fortunately as soon as her leg was free she stopped trying to use me as something to crawl on top of and I surfaced too, let me tell you - a drowning person will stand on top of your head if you let them - all they want is their head out of the water. So - her life saved x1

Seeing this as a freak incident I then went on a canal boat as a couples holiday on the Norfolk Broads with SILBM and the respective husbands hence above photo - don't we look happy?

There were floods - ha - we were on a boat - floods mean you either stay on the boat or you stay off the boat - you can no longer get on and off. We decided the pub did better food than the boat and so we got off. Half way through dinner we noticed:

the boat was in trouble where we had moored it and so we decided to secure the ropes better, me and SILBM went down to the moorings

SILBM was in front of me, I tied the back rope she went to tie the aft rope - and disappeared - I looked down and saw her going way down and immediately in a very strong current with the boat coming back at us (which would in ten seconds time crush her on the moorings), I stepped towards where she had been and one of my legs went off the end of the gangway - in that split second as I fell downwards I grabbed the mooring post with one hand and her hair with the other at full body stretch down in to the water upside down and only one hand holding both of us , I know not how, but I pulled her vertically out of the water (and me too for that matter) and stood her down next to and behind me, and she did not even lose her glasses. life saved x2. I think she lost a clump of hair.

At this point I said I did not wish to test the three times lucky rule and I no longer go any where that there is a combination of SILBM - now a Sister out lawed as I am divorced (SILOBMAIAD) and water.

Actually it isn't at all funny, just lucky I guess.

The dressing up?

that's for another blog...

Finishing the One World Lazertran ATCs

2011-01-11T11:05:00.002Z

Don't forget to seal your work after the Turps has sunk into the wood:

see how to finish off (Lazertran video two - if you missed it video one is back on Sunday)

Finishing a lazertran transfer (important info) from donna louise rodgers on Vimeo.

Thanks Carmen - now I have to chose just four - what a blessing

2011-01-11T00:20:00.006Z

I've been called many things but never stylish. I too must bore you all with 8 facts you might not know about me and then pass the award on to 4 deserving (?) bloggers (I do not know any undeserving bloggers)

Here goes:

1: I enjoy making up stories but do not consider myself to be a liar

2: I have been known to do strange things whilst dressed up in outfits unrelated to the activity being undertaken

3: I have saved my sister in law ( i was married once a long time ago) from drowning twice ( tow separate occasions), and will no longer go any where near water with her, on one of the occasions she was wearing a life jacket - go figure - beg me and I'll tell the details it is funny because we did not die. I did not make that up.

4: I cannot remember dates At All Even When I Write them Down, not even my kids birthdays this too is painfully true

5: I have stupidly expensive very high heeled gorgeous shoes, so expensive they could have also paid for food for a family of four for a month and I Do Not Feel Guilty, Just Beautiful, also true

6: I do not use one word if I can use one hundred ( oh you probably already know that)

7: One word I cannot say or usually write - Cunt and Amy ( my personal therapist) is trying to get me past this only weakness I have....only partially true

8: I have now been blogging for one year, my name is Donna and I am a Blog addict. make your own mind up how true that is

The blogs I nominate are:
Ann(i)e
Jozart
Darcy
Amy
Because if I have to choose only four, these are them, and I hope they choose four more each that I wanted to choose too if I could have chosen 16 I'd have found it easier....
B&E
pidders,
spyder,
mRs D
clare H
morti
womble
cathincyprus
peepop
shirley pumpkin
lizzie (even though she is a crap blogger) and Stiff Cramper had arrived today BTW
.....
oh I don't like to have to choose, .

Dxxxxxx

Now Shut Up Amy

2011-01-09T17:19:00.002Z

How I use lazertran

how i use lazertran from donna louise rodgers on Vimeo.

I'll post the finished ATCs another time, I am recovering from the six hour drive of Mothers Mercy Mission to return offspring to Uni.

52 weeks: and a sob story

2011-01-07T20:28:00.008Z

so here's what I did in pictures:

cut to 5x5 with a one inch left hand allowance for binding at the end of the year, stamp and emboss
cover image in masking fluid
paint ( water colour shimmers)
oh an out of sequence one - punch little flowers
brayer ontrast colour over gold background ( masking fluid I love you)

rub off the masking fluid with an eraser then water colour paint the image

the back next

finish the front (punched flowers and beads and last touches)

and with the light on it
jozart sent me a swamp (collective noun) of gifts: in it was my hanger and TWO of her stamps that she designed for www.stampattack.co.uk (one of which is used on my week one Darcy Stalking Event above) and some of the most gorgeous beads and bits that will be used very soon and I cannot describe to you both and all my other email and blog sisters - how grateful I am.

it wasn't until I was done and I sat here and a song came on and I was still semi thinking about Darcy's word regenerate and Jozart's kindness after her own recent fearsome journey and a few thing hit me really really hard and I found myself in floods of tears, you see Darcy, Carmen, Amy Lizzie and Jo have been in touch with me by email over the festive period, and I know that we have all had a pretty horrid time and we just seemed to talk and for me it gave me a perspective that helped me just about Get Through a Very Sad time ( having a lousy bug didn't help) I have lost a sister

Sarah died in September - She Wasn't Here this Christmas - she should still be alive and kicking and in my kitchen with her family - I know that I am not the only one to mourne a life not properly completed, but Ah my soul feels so so sad...I will be rid of that sharp belly aching sadness one day but really I do feel like my happiness has been stolen from me....I do need regenerating

so here goes Gals - Happy New Year......

Dxxxxxxxx

Hammers and tongs and seven shades of doodad

2011-01-07T08:41:00.002Z

fourth and last ( till the 30th) look at Tilda

the reversi tutorial of bad techniques from donna louise rodgers on Vimeo.

will be posting the Darcy Challenge later ( much later)

Finishing Tilda?

2011-01-06T17:51:00.000Z

Part three

flowers frame and tattoo from doings of doone on Vimeo.

last installment tomorrow

WoYWW - Still Kicking

2011-01-05T08:34:00.003Z

this is what is happening on my desk/room- I have totally lost my marbles - the virus has eaten every last brain cell I possess and left in their place tunes that must be sung and dances that must be danced. I didn't skype as I look horrendous and could have caused a vomiting epidemic, Lizzie gets second dibs at my room after Luke & Adam - so sos Amy you come in fourth and by the time you fly over the room will have been picked clean - there will be no pause for posterity I'm sure....

I managed to sleep a bit last night so feel much better today and at least during the holidays I feel well enough to do a bit of painting which I videoed and have broken up into bit lets leading up to one world day, and being back at work gives me a new audience to whinge at and terrify with my swollen face and mucoid excretions....so it's looking up,

Part two - tilda's eyes and doodaddy from doings of doone on Vimeo.

Pardon Me Boy IS that the Consumption Chattanooga Choo Choo?

2011-01-03T20:35:00.006Z

First video of 2011

have you ever tried to sing when you have a cough?

ha ha

no wonder I can't get the eyes right.....

What Happened to Christmas?

2011-01-02T13:39:00.007Z

I am still rougher than a badgers backside that has been ground on a lathe then covered with hot tar and dipped in ground glass and then rubbed all over my delicate lungs leaving me feeling totally like someone with consumption from the Bronte era. And So Sorry Amy - I have an ample chest and all of it is currently heaving in TB like cough styleee

I do not do sickness elegantly and beautifully like a book character of the last century. Nor do I seem to be rapidly losing weight which is very annoying as every cloud is supposed to have a thin silver lining.

I am planning on quitting whilst I am behind generally speaking and will be going to the GP as soon as I can get a slot and beg for antibiotics, since I am post viral and it has to be a bacterial infection by now.

In the meantime I am cheering myself with the music of Paulo Nuttini who is teasing me with the immortal line ' I want a fu£@ing cigarette', as I seem to recall from my mad bad days smoking does in fact sometimes give temporary relief from a hacking cough in a totally bad long term way despite a short term gain - You should Not Smoke - It is Bad Very Bad

As the disease spreads through our household we are not eating (or drinking alcohol) we are sleeping a huge amounts, taking scary quantities of paracetamol and trying to be unsociable so we do not spread the virus.

I am suffering (not in silence) and inconsiderately dragging any one who speaks to me right on down to my sad sorry for myself level.

However, I have a commitment to post a round robin altered book to a 20th Jan deadline and apparently only death is an acceptable reason for delay, so here is evidence that I take my Art seriously, the posted pictures are evidence that I am Ready....

PePop - I am very sorry I found your unposted ATCs that were put with gifts that never got delivered as I was incapacitated and housebound, I only left home to go to work last week between the Day and New Year, and I am terribly behind on all my other gift making things, I shall post out as soon as I can but it may be when I do the book on the 20th as I really have cut back on all activities to try to speed recovery time.

I have had only a tiny morsel of energy and used it to prep my altered book so it will be properly dry before it is mailed on 20th January. see the pictures above - and that is the last you will see of it until next October after it returns to me - at which point I shall share with you mine and all the blogs (where they exist) of the all participants so you will get to see the fabulous work of a group of stunning international Artists....

I missed most of Christmas and New Year, but it's okay because in six months people will be starting that thing all over again....and it means I have to take a trip to Lizzie's to deliver the belated gifts, which must mean a drop in at LB Crafts and Pickleberry en route....

Oh, and in case you didn't know, the last day of January sees the world blog hop - link top right as you look at the screen- I shall be posting a most glorious prize for anyone hopping to my page as part of the festival of giving, so keep an eye on things.... promise not to cough on the gift.....

ooh ohh and my Darling Mr Doone gave me that FAB easel for Christmas that you can see in the back ground of one of the photos I posted, which means I can now apply a light touch to the thing balanced thereon without the whole thing pollycollopsing (my old easel was terribly unstable and a bit of a liability (so like me)

Happy New Year

Mr Doone advises Doone how to layout her card!

2010-12-16T02:16:00.003Z

As Promised -

Give your damask cuttle bug embossing folder a chance...

the hillsa re alive jim, but not as we knew them from doings of doone on Vimeo.

Gauche Alchemy Amy AAAA round robin what will she do tomorrow?

2010-12-15T17:53:00.006Z

For woyww scroll down - or you can stay here it might be more interesting - or hop on the links - as you wish -

Okay folks you may want to join in the gauche thing

and you might like to join

Amy's round robin

after my break from blogging I realised I hadn't posted even half my work,

you will also see I posted the one world gatherthon too - linky on your right- the flying girl thingy- blame my blogging mates they get me into all sorts of trouble

the piccies are from my altered book of life that also contains Art Heart and Healing pages , as well as ones just done as artwork by me - it's my legacy book to my two Sons - in it is my whole, and their early, life history, this one is Luke (19) aged two who stripped himself Nekked, picked up his bag, hat and my glasses, said ' Mummy Me is off to work now" put in his dummy (pacifier) - posed for his photo ( thank Goodness my trusty camera is ALWAYS at hand) and headed for the front door.

So amazing that he did not think his clothes were appropriate for work - just the accessories.

The accoutrements on these altered pages are mostly from my New Gauche Stash - which I Cannot Begin to describe because it is just mindblowingly amazing - So Sorry Lizzie I bought one for you but I have opened it and used a bit so I can't now give it to you... ha ha ha

you will have to manage with the other (inferior) stash stuff I got you...

BAd Friend Rodgers

AND tral la da

because I am a fool and mentioned it to a fellow WOYWWer ,so now I must deliver the goods,

tomorrow you will see what I can do with a cuttle bug and a 'soundofmusic sing a long a dvd' in my very own Video tutorial for taking embossing to the nth degree.....

WOYWW- the one where I decide not to call the whole thing off

2010-12-15T07:59:00.006Z

Men are from a Sensible Place - Women are from Tinsel town

I say Tinsel he says TOO BRIGHT and think of the shedding
I say Trees He says needles in paws and think of the shedding
Let's call the whole thing off

(Go lurk in your ex shed I say)

Or

Plan B

This weekend on return of the Uni Students (one son (state subsidised fees) gets a degree for a third of the price of my younger son - DO NOT START ME ON THIS COALITION GOVERNMENTS and FFS THE LORDS point of view on the approach of the English Government to make absolutely NO contribution to the majority of English Students education of it's populace unless they study medicine or science - so we don't need arts & culture then?) Feed the soul as well as the body you fools...I am gonna march as soon as I can get some time off work- watch the telly I'll be the passive resister with the sign saying - Hey You without the Mandate - Leave those Kids alone - and someone (please tell me the thinking behind this one because No One has answered this question) - how will mature students ever be able to afford their life long education?

any how,

when they get back the Younger Generation will decorate the house whilst I sit on bah humbug Mr Busy Doone and distract him from the chaos of tinseltown and trees, Me and He will get two whole days together at Christmas - as I have seen him hardly at all for two months that is truly the best pressie I could have.

WOMW this W? on the desk a card

- 24 match boxes ( see Darcy's last weeks post) and on my sofa are the bits for a christmas tree mouse thing from the Wipso link last week - I love Alan Darts knitted creations his patterns are extremely accurate -

on my speaker i have a Tilda garden Angel I made for a friend for chrimbo who never engages with the tinterweb so no need to hide it,

and a nod to December - the Delft Christmas Tree from Holland ( ha ha obviously where else is there a Delft pottery?)
and Santa is on the mantle piece, book ending the cards...

As it says on the Card, and in case you are too busy to visit next week -

I wish you Peace and Happiness this Christmas Time, now and always,

dx

ps here is one of my ATC displays and Wipso's adorable bear

Sheepdogs

2010-12-14T21:09:00.002Z

Check This Out: Click Upon Me

Fannies and Fluff Friday

2010-12-10T17:09:00.009Z

peppopscraftyplace (Jaqui) wanted 'eyes' for her thank you ATC, and I couldn't find my lazertran, or the time, to do a copy of the no fear face,

so I did a new face for pep pop, but then could not bring myself to give someone an atc of a single eye - so she gets two eyes and a face over four atcs

not sure now when things might arrive though...

but I will mail them tomorrow J

and Anne gave her beautiful ~(perfect cheeks)~ mermaid away To ME

there once was an artist named ann(i)e
who did as she could cos she can(i)e
she made me a mermaid
totally hand made
because she is kind and a fan(i)e

ooh I called ann(i)e a fann(i)e

ha ha ha
Anne, liverpool lou, somehow got fixed in my brain as annie - with my limerick I shall now remember the correct name - Anne

what i love The Most are the hands and the exquisite beading, and the tail material, and the beautiful painted face , and the hair, squeallllll of joy

I intended to blog these things yesterday but ended up stranded on ice until a very kind fellow dog walker helped me extricate my car from the park ice rink (car park ) using my emergency carpet and rubber rugs - I was prepared - but I did not realise you really need two people to get a car off an ice rink.... at one point he was gunning the car... I was bouncing on the bonnet - we got a grip.... off we shot ...with me hanging on by the window screen whypppers ( said in Allo Allo french accent) ...his dog chasing my car - my dogs hanging out my car windows.... me screaming Oh Yeah!!! ....not had that much fun in ages, when I got home it was late, my dinner had gone cold and Niall was back for the first time in three days so reHeating and reAcquainting took over.

I did find time to look at all my lovely woyww comments - and I am still giggling, so
many many fabulous ideas

my fave was ooh yes sheep skin - that would be wool then - because i too kept forgetting the word for it is wool. although I think at the moment it is still a fleece.

It will first be used to make dreads for my ATC for Amy and then the leftovers will be a felted rug for winter bed/bedroom floor,

I have washed it twice now so it can stand to be in the same room as me- no that should read; I can stand to be in the same room as it - but I still have to watch my Bob Dog as he wants to pee on it and drag it round the room... he runs in terror from the living versions as we trained him as a pup so he would Never Sheep Worry, now he just Worries About Sheep.

any how onwards and upwards must get on with ATC 22

WOYWW?: Who do I think I am and what is an ATC?

2010-12-08T07:35:00.003Z

I think therefore I am? what do I think of me?

I know I rescue far too much and I give away rather than sell, I believe education is important and abused by the elite who can easily afford it, and neglected by those that can't,

I think you can be educated by the street and by the colleges of Oxford Cambridge and the rest, i haven't stopped learning things yet,

I believe Tutu and his clan have it right - we know ourselves in knowing others,

in my free give-away I have received back so many beautiful and valued items - wipso's little teddy is still to be a special feature on my blog - ,

Define me by looking at my friends - Boy I am one blessed Lady.

ATC?

ha ha

i read the rules - sometimes I stick to them sometimes I don't - I know some people keep them 'safe' in binders so would follow rules for a swap; but with my grand giveaways you get an approximation not the real deal....two more are in the post ( Sandy (+frog) & JD - if you want a sneak peek JD scroll down...)

next question (please provide the answers) why is there a sheep on my desk?

Jo Zart I fear the madness is getting a grip - it's because Amy is psychoanalysing me (such fun, I haven't been so honest about myself with another person in years - except Niall who has always accepted me for who I am)

WINNERS!!!: Dunnit's Done, Sandy's sorted, and a sneak peek at Lizzies special chrimbo card

2010-12-06T18:39:00.013Z

Added : Sandy guessed 10 but i missed it so she gets a frog too, and JoZart said 10 but I only just saw and approved her comment so she will have to await a RAK as I have now run out of left over frogs,

I'm no good at these giveaways 'cos I want to give something to everyone -

Snappy little title, don't you think? You just had to come and check it out didn't you?
Is it an ATC? Is it a UCO? What the living daylights is it?

Whilst I didn't blog much last week, I did do a lot of crafting, mostly over the weekend and during the wee small hours of the mornings...the joy of insomnia...

Firstly:
Julia's atc, which as mentioned, is not so much an ATC but rather a mini desk, the desk is on wheels (in so much as: if you tidy up, clear the desk, unhook the basket
you can swing the desk back and under to fold into a flat proper size ATC...) then you can then open the door/window...and woyww is revealed,

I Loved Doing This and I hope Julia is not too disappointed to receive her desk as her thank you atc...I suspect it may never be tidied and folded flat?

Secondly:
no one got the number of frogs (9) right because I cheated and one of the 'frogs' is actually a chameleon who was laying on top of a frog (naughty thing) which made it 10 or rather nine frogs and one chameleon, so the person closest with 10 was Cardarian who will receive a frog sometime soon...sorry to those of you who yelled sevERN, technically you were close and did entertain me . So glad we all Love our dancing, , -Darcy you little minx - I used to watch come dancing (angela rippon & brucie)- I may have seen you perform?, but poor C can't get Strictly so she probably needs some frog love the most...well done

So - Dolores - please could you mail me your addie (again)....

As reward to the others I did a draw for the naughty cheater chameleon all the other froggie comm enters - names in a hat winner picked by Niall at random - the winner of the chameleon is:

WIPSO - again addie please and I'll mail him out..(don't look at the stitching too closely Mrs Seamstress...)

Thirdly

Sandy's ATC - she asked for a little piece of art, and this face appeared (hope you like it Sandy).
and

Lastly:

a sneak peek at Lizzie's Chrimbo Card (when you have a moment call me on my work moby mississ)

ARGHHH Procrastinator Extraordinaire

2010-12-05T21:11:00.007Z

spot the camouflaged Christmas Tree Frogs

if you can correctly guess how many there are, and leave the right number in a comment, then the first person to make a correct guess gets a left over frog mailed out...

I have made these frogs and sold most of them on Saturday when

I did a market which went well

I have made, and sold, Advent Calenders at said market

I have tidied up the forg making mess

Not correcting that typo because I Love It

I have tidied my room - no photo - going to try to keep it tidy until Wednesday,

I made Lizzie's birthday card - which I cannot blog until after the 15th...

I have hosted a weekend of birthday parties *(3) for my youngest son -who is convinced he is hard done (!) by,

but Mum "I NEEEDEDD ALL THREE MUermmmmmm, Murmmmmm, MUM, because various people could Only make it Fri, Sat or Sun" "please mum please mum please mum" and I have to oblige because I always get the day of his birthday wrong because I always remember his due date not his delivery date... well I spent 9 months trying to remember one date and it was too hard to then learn a second one ( those that really really know me also know that I honesty cannot do dates)

So we have accommodated I think nearly 30 people over the three days...one of which I think was his actual birth day
and now that they can, and now that they do,
All (all be it modestly)
imbibe,

the alcohol bill is scary....still if I drink enough I might forget that bit?

I have watched 'strictly' and cried (both days). I shall be glued to the box next weekend, and the boys will hide in the kitchen throughout, hoping my favourite wins, or I shall be foul with everyone - sad but glad the Widdie is Out - but jolly fine innings darling, 'SEVEN' is yelled in response to all requests for comment upon any matters in Our House at the moment,

I have redesigned the blog with the arsistance of Luke (many frigging times Mr blogger - and now I have the humph - darn it it is supposed to be easy) not impressed that we coudln't do what we wanted to...

AND

I have Not yet made any kind of Dent into Christmas for my friends and family.

I have done everything but...(hence the blog title)

so they will be getting the market leftovers..

Oh, and the ATC's on my desk last Wednesday are Not Made by Me - they are from Amy - and yes they are stunning....but I am making a batch as I Type (clever me - the secret to my productivity is my genetic malformations that gave me extra hands and eyes in the back of my head so I can cater to many needs simultaneously and catch offspring misbehaving without any effort on my part), am particularly enjoying the making of my Mrs Dunnit Design...

I am now off to try to comment on a few blogs - have been reading them but not had time to leave words - which I do try to do because I like words (really you would never have known eh?)

Oh and Womble might like this - Niall heard it on 't Radio :

Good things come to him who waits,
Shit happens to him straight away.

Ar' we do like a larf at the weekend

Are you seated comfortably?

2010-12-03T09:29:00.005Z

then I shall begin,

here is my Sketchbook Project, read as it was written, mailed today never to be seen again, unless I happen to take a trip to NYC in the future.

this one for pc mac

Sketchbook Project 2010 a donnalouiserodgersthing from doings of doone on Vimeo.

this one is a new code,

Sketchbook Project 2010 a donnalouiserodgersthing from doings of doone on Vimeo.

should let you watch on iphone and ipad - let me know...

A good six inches (WOYWW)

2010-12-01T16:40:00.000Z

NO no no, I do not have a good six inhces on my desk... No

It's the depth of snow outside - and no gritting or road clearing has taken place, so must allow hours of extra time to get from a to b -hence late post

what Is on my workstation this Wednesday?

ATC's from Amy - which really are impressive, and do not photograph easily, and piles of stuff I am trying to get done for Saturday's market,

advance notice - story video will be up tomorrow,

Dx

a change- but still WOYWW

2010-11-24T08:35:00.000Z

here it is...a woyww movie!... hee hee- i'm practising using the video- still haven't had time to look at the editing suite! done in one take a la Janis Joplin ( if only)

woyww- the movie from doings of doone on Vimeo.

mostly I am working on quilted advent calendars and Tree frogs to go in the pockets, and the little gift book, and ATCs and birthday card for this weekend, and mermaids, ohh and I painted an angel this week too because I got a whole day and an evening to myself....yippeee

if you follow please scroll down and claim your ATC, also be aware that the videos on my website that show how I did Carmen's atc will be taken down 31st Dec.

don't forget to join us, and our host Julia, at www.stamping-ground-blogspot.com

Dx