Another Duo-Challenge and other artsy stuff

Duo-Challenge
Throwback Joey #5: "Mountains"
It's a String Thing #253

My start on Monday morning

Joey's prompt was "Mountains". I guess my interpretation is more like "Hills" ;-) I created a string that was reminiscent of a Facebook group I used to belong to called something like "Stacked and Tangled" where strings were laid out so the patterns stacked on top or side by side each other. I used to use this  horizontal wavy line string all the time.

Shortly after I drew the string, a "Zentwining" (conceived by Lynn Mead) tile by Eni Oken appeared on my Pinterest feed. I was fascinated by it.
I was able to adapt Adele's M string into this quite nicely. It was really tricky trying to meld the two sides stylistically though. All in all I enjoyed this one.

If you stopped by last week you may have noticed my purchase of a ridiculously discounted official "Zendala" kit from my neighborhood art store's going out of business sale. Here's my first official Zendala:

Zendala #1

I'm not quite sure what to make of these yet as it's completely out of my comfort zone. I don't do symmetry. Really. I did have fun with it, but it took forever. I'm going to try share one each week as the kit included some pre-strungs in addition to the blanks. I went back and bought 2 more sets so I've got 17 more of these babies to noodle around with;-)

On the Travelling Tangles front: 

my finish...

...to this gorgeous start by Spring Taylor

This was one of those I had to have a serious stare-down with before I could lay pen to paper. I loved how delicate and precise Springs line-work was (the anti-thesis of mine). It reminded me a bit of Lily Moon's work, so I went onto Pinterest looking for piece of  Lily's with patterns I wanted to try to replicate. My agenda with my Travelling Tangles finishes is to move my skills forward and advance my pattern repertoire, so I can use these pieces as references and studies for future work. 

Here's a page from my TTMMJJ

The bookmark on the left was sent to me finished as a bonus ages ago. I don't even remember who sent it. The bookmark on the right was from a recent swap with Heidi Whitney. She'd started it with the little cluster of flowers on the bottom. I'm really into floral motifs these days.

I am the worst at remembering the names of patterns and I don't worry about it. Margaret Blank sent me several colored tiles, ATC's and twinchies with various painted backgrounds. As with all of the others who sent such bonus's, I'm trying to use them to add additional pattern references to my journal rather than aim for more complex tiles. I really liked this pattern and I have no idea what it's called.

Jules Mack sent me this rainbow scratcher a while back

Jules started with a small cluster of 4 "Flux" in the bottom left corner. It took me a long time to put toothpick to paper on this one. I've never done one of these before and let me tell ya, it was so much fun!

Here's a work in progress of one of my TTMMJJ spreads:

The envelopes, notecards and tiles are all mixed up, so tiles sit on cards or envelopes not from the sender.



Thanks so much for stopping by. Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me!

My Weekly Duo-Challenge and Another Artsy Rabbit Hole

Duo-Challenge

Throwback Diva #5: Orbs

It's a String Thing Challenge #252

My random pick for this week's IAST companion was the Diva's prompt of "Orbs". This was not meant to be an orb overload, but it took on a life of its own because I love drawing orbs.

My start

It's so funny that I still wait until Monday to pick my companion.

Adele's challenge was to use the pattern Deeday as a string within  4 box string. This one got a little tedious I have to say and it wasn't until I posted the photo that I noticed how off balance the whole thing looks, but that's ok because I really love the orb side and the negative space😉

I managed to score this nifty mini-haul today from my neighborhood Aaron Brothers going out of business sale for all of $8.66. There we're about 30 of these Zentangle kits going for $6.57. I had to laugh because it sort of proves my suspicion that San Francisco is not a hotbed of Zentangle enthusiasts.

These are the Travelling Tangles I completed this week:

My finish...

...to Heidi Whitney's start

 A few days ago I had a very delightful read over at Margaret Blank's blog. She and I have exchanged many swaps over the years as we belong to some of the same groups. In this particular post she was lamenting, with her hilarious wit and cynicism, the angst she experiences when she attempts to start her incoming Travelling Tangles. She was currently lamenting over one of mine;-) I had to laugh because she brilliantly expresses the fears and uncertainties that all of us TT swappers feel at one time or another.

I had one of those experiences with Heidi's tile. I made such a mess of it at first. I picked up the wrong pen when I started with the Inapod. Not only was it black ink (Heidi used Sepia), it was also a large nib Uniball, quite bold and juicy. I spent the entire drawing in problem solving mode, a roller coaster of frustration and triumph.

My line work is never steady on a good day

In the end, it was a triumph. High contrast is always good, but I prefer to ease into it😉

 Another finish...

...to this Bijou from Heidi

My finish...
with a Lily Moon floral sun

...to this delightful start from Spring Taylor

My finish...

...to Jules Mack's delightful note card

It free- styled into a leaf sampler 😉

Yet, another new rabbit hole:

As I was YouTube surfing journal inspiration for my TTMMJJ, I discovered the Facebook group Trashy Junk Journals and its sub-set, Flow-ish Journals.

This is a Flow-ish Journal I'm making to send off to a swap partner.

I dove head first into this one. Within a day of my discovery and acceptance into the group, they posted the monthly swap. The theme was Grocery. You may or may not know that I'm a Cheesemonger in a small specialty market in San Francisco...so how could I not, right? 70% of what ended up in this book, I already had at home and the rest came from the recycling bins at work and my own grocery packaging from my kitchen. I had so much fun making this.

A Flow-ish Journal is a paper collection of inspiring recycling and assorted arted bits that are then meant to be removed and used in the creation of your own or your swap partners junk journal. It's a way to contain all of your junk so it's easier to use.
I'm just sharing a few bits as this pretty much took up my week in art but I don't want to give too much away in case my swap partner comes by. I already alerted her that I'd be sharing this here.

The cover is made from a shopping bag from the market where I work. I stitched one of my paint blotting napkins  (from the long defunct Trader Vic's restaurant), to the bag to complete the cover. I hoard these super thick napkins from a Holiday Inn sports bar near Blicks Art Supply.

The signatures are not bound but just tied around the spine with a ribbon so the pages can easily slip out. I attached several of my cheese pins to the ends of the ties. Many of the pages came out of some beautiful specialty food catalogs I got from the Fancy Food Show and my local Edible magazine.

Envelopes and pockets made from mailer postcards and weekly mailer flyers hold loose, arted tags and stickers that get scattered throughout. The butterflies are color copies of my original art. I also used painted junk mail windowed envelopes and deli bags with strips of assorted washi tape that can be removed and re-used. I have tons of really cool cheese stickers. Some I painted (there are two on the front cover, but most I left alone.

 I love the little food illustrations on this page from Edible. I decorated large paper clips with bits cut off a Racer 5 beer carrier. There are bits of my original art scattered throughout. The black and white sharpie doodles are done on scraps of card stock from the recycling bin at work.
This is quite a little beast, but it fits in a Flat Rate USPS envelope;-)


Thanks so much for stopping by. Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me😍

A Duo-Challenge and Other Artsy Stuff...

Duo-Challenge

Throwback Diva #3: A Blind String

It's a String Thing #251: Simple Stuff

featuring: Stiks and Munchin

This week I'm using Diva #3 as my Throwback companion to Adele's IAST challenge. I always seem to do some kind of figure 8 string no matter how hard I try to avoid it. I did a quick Pinterest search to find a new-to-me, floral-ish pattern and found these two. Love them! Fortunately Adele's string was an easy fit and though I wasn't all that inspired by looking at Stiks initially, once I started drawing it, I loved it and then Munchin was a super zen addition as well. I added a little bit of "Morse" too. This took forever and I truly enjoyed it.

I've been loving the loads of Happy Mail I'm receiving from my Travelling Tangles peeps. Each envelope is a treasure trove of inspiration. Check this out...

Seriously! who would not LOVE getting this in the mail, notice that awesome envelope that Heidi Whitney sent. Amazing;-)

Another pile of delights from Spring Taylor

In addition to the lovely starts, my swap mates send extra backgrounds, colorful trimmings, note cards and other miscellaneous bits that speak to my multi media junk journaling muse. I had accumulated quite a stockpile, so I thought I'd have a little fun with them.

Some Travelling Tangles completed this past week:

My finish...

...to this gorgeous start by Heidi Whitney

Another finish...

..to another of Heidi's starts

This weeks post was a little later than I usually like. I was out of town on Wednesday (my blog day) for a work related farm trip. 

More Cheese Adventures

This is Haley.

She's a 10 day old water buffalo.

  

We went to Double 8 Dairy in Sonoma. They are audaciously and relentlessly working toward a retail market for fresh buffalo milk mozzarella and ricotta...in California.  This is crazy- rare...and oh, so heavenly:-) We use their buffalo milk base for the soft-serve in our creamery.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me.

  

A New Journey

Duo-Challenge

Joey Throwback Challenge#1
and 
It's a String Thing Challenge #250

Greetings my tangling friends joining me here for what will be a new, and hopefully inspiring new road in my art journey.
I started Coffee & Creativity 3 1/2 years ago as a way to share my responses to the weekly Zentangle challenges and other artsy endeavors. The challenges seem to have run their course, but It's a String Thing still endures as does my Zentangle practice. 

So,  my idea for the next couple of weeks is to continue on with my Duo-Challenges partnering the IAST weekly challenge with a grab bag of throwback Diva and Joey Challenges and Square One: Purely Zentangle weekly patterns. I made a list of 5 challenges from each. I put them in a jar and will draw one every Monday. I will loosely interpret them, if necessary, to fit the purposes of my page which is to have a useful and interesting pattern reference.
This one was challenging to say the least. I had difficulty integrating the two sides and Adele's string went totally out the window.
I was watching a Southern Gal Designs video as I was trying to slog through and at one point she says "sometimes ya gotta just work through the ugly". That's my new favorite quote 😉

The Travelling Tangles Project:

My finishes...

...to this pile of fun

from Elaine Sampson

Travelling all the way from the UK

My finishes...

...to these gorgeous starters by Sue Olsen

My finishes...

...to these starters by Cathy Cusson

I posted a few pictures on the Travelling Tangles FB page of the new journal I started and got a lot of comments and questions about my process so I'm sharing a few process pics.

A little background...I've been involved with the TT Project for close to 2 years now and filled up two very lovely, traditional, and large scrapbooks with my results. They live in my hall closet and I rarely look at them;-( I needed a new format.
Recently, I discovered the whole mixed media rabbit hole (from my addiction to YouTube) as I pondered a way to use up years of collected papers, paints, cards, maps, brochures and postcards from my travels, not to mention all of the research and inspiration I had archived over my years as a student in pursuit of degrees in Theatrical Costume Design and as a working Costume Designer for over 20 years. My own rule is only to purchase mediums and tools I can re-use like stamps and stencils.
I've included links to some of my favorite YouTube channels at the end of this post.

Here's a look at a few TTMMJJ pages in progress:

not sure if this is a finished page or not...

The bare bones

starts with 8 1/2" x 11" papers

some are dyed with coffee and stained with coffee rings

some of the larger envelopes with the  flaps still in tact

 are glued to the edge of the cardstock pages

and made to flip out

maps and brochures cut down to 8 1/2" x 11"

miscellaneous bits of card stock, 
note cards and envelopes
are stenciled and/or stamped,

the envelopes are colored with art tissue
Once I get a good amount of  "Arting" done then
I'll go through and start deciding which tiles will go where


I created 4 signatures consisting 
of about 4-6 pages 

with a couple of happy mail note cards and smaller bits in between. 

Each signature is sewn using heavy duty carpet/buttonhole thread into 3 holes.

Re-using art tissue

This is still wet and will be lifted off

I love the muted colors I get from each use

Finally when I've coaxed out every last bit of color, I'll glue the pieces down to another piece of something or other to get some texture going

decorating the envelopes

stencils, stamps (a couple of handmades)
 and drawing on top of the colored envelopes

I hope this was helpful to those who had inquired and of interest to those who didn't. Please leave me any questions or comments. Here are the links to some of my favorite channels. Welcome to my addiction.

Junk Journals:

ArtyMaze: this is the start of her junk journal. She has 7 subsequent tutorials on how she's filling it.
LorrieMarie: she does some amazing journals and altered books. This video shows how she does the pamphet books which is sort of the technique I'm using. I don't do all of the machine stitching she does but I like how she assembles these.

Backgrounds:

MaremiSmallArt: this is where it all began for me. She's delightful!
SouthernGalsDesigns: she cracks me up!
MimiBondi: I love her abstracts and her colors are so much fun.

Bookbinding:

Nik the Booksmith: this video is the first in her series of making a junk journal
SeaLemon: This video is how I make all of my DIY journals and how I'll probably end up binding this one together. She has several videos on different ways to bind books.

I had a little visit with Aimee yesterday 🐾😻❤

Thanks so much for stopping by! Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me.