Karla's Cottage

Playing with ceramic underglazes

I was lucky enough to have not one but THREE craft days in one week!  My friend, the stained glass artist has us over on Thursdays to do mosaics in her studio.

Then I had some Peeps over for Easter crafting.  And my ceramic artist buddy invited a group to her studio to make ceramic mosaic tiles and paint them in underglazes.  Can a week get any more crafty-riffic?!

Melissa had slabs rolled for each of us and provided all of the materials.  She will then fire them, and glaze the bisque to fire again.  She is being quite generous with her time, I can tell that all the little, tiny pieces will be a lot of work.

Not everyone finished, so I offered my place to use up the leftovers and then got the painted shapes to Melissa later.  I ended up doing my own, plus a few for a couple other friends, and one person came by to work on hers.

I found the process addicting and sat at my table painting for six solid hours, only quitting when there wasn’t any paint left.

At Melissa’s studio, we all had puddles of paint on takeout lids as pallets and the remnants couldn’t go back into the jars, so I thought I might as well pack up the ones everyone left behind and paint to the last drop.  I discovered that my friends really like orange.
 Almost every pallet had orange on it.  A lot had purple.  So as I got to the dregs, I ended up making pumpkins and fall leaves. 

There was an abundance of orange in the flowers and butterflies too.

I have no idea how they will turn out.  The clay is charcoal, but fires white, so everything that looks gray will not be later on.  I haven’t worked with this kind of paint, so who knows if I did it correctly.  The seasoned ceramic artist told us to use the paint more like royal icing on a cookie, but I kept going back to my own style of painting, even though I tried really hard to remember how opaque the paint was.  So, we will see after they are fired.

Whether they turn out as desired or not, I sure had a great time!  Thank you Melissa!  And thank you, Shanna for the mosaic days in your studio where we will be using these on future projects.

 

 

Repainted roses

I recently repainted the flowers on the shutters by my kitchen door.

The “shutters” are actually parts of a byfold door, found at a garage sale that I took apart and painted to look old.

Years ago, I added roses to them and they were fine.

But I decided the flowers were too simple and I wanted more.

So, here they are, touched up.

And I like them soooooooo much better!

It was a quick project, since it was sort of an overlay on top of a previous design.  I just added to what was already there.

Now, I can’t wait to tackle the matching shutters on my studio doors.

A craft from the past

Years ago, I supplemented our income by selling hand painted tee and sweat shirts.  I remember lots of angels, fairies, heart shaped wreaths with ribbon, and my fave at the time- iris.

Last week, I got a new cabinet and that set off a domino effect of cleaning out drawers and closets to move things around.  I saw this decades old sweatshirt and slipped it on.  It still fits and I thought I might want to wear it, but I’m kinda bothered by necklines that high. my saggy throat prefers scoop or ve necks.

(I’ll show more about the cabinet later on).  You can see the shirt in the mirror.

So for now, it went right back in the drawer.  I should donate it, or find someone who’d wear it.  

Or possibly turn it into a pillow?  Would that be weird?

 

 

Happy birthday, Mom

In a recent post, I reminisced about my mom’s pie dough goodies.  The same day that I was writing it, I cleaned out a closet and came across this dress that mom had made for me.  She has been on my mind a lot lately, after finding this.

Well, she is often on my mind, just like Ryan. Sometimes the worst part about losing a person is not being able to let them about something that you know would’ve brought them a smile.  And she really would’ve enjoyed hearing about me trying this on after years of it being tucked away.

Today would’ve been her birthday.


The dress was a collaboration.  I hand painted some fabric with peachy irises and she stitched a full skirted dress from it.

The best part is this gorgeous, hand crafted belt.  She even covered a buckle in the fabric.  Seeing how pretty this is, really makes me miss having a waistline!

The dress itself has an elastic waist and still fits.  But it isn’t the same without this lovely belt, which would need another a few more holes punched in it to fit.

Oooh, the buttons!  All are vintage glass.  Green like emeralds, my birthstone.

She could sew anything for me with just a description, no pattern. As a child, I used to point to outfits in a magazine and she’d whip them up, with Barbie clothes to match.

Sadly, I went through a snobbery stage as a teen and would not wear home sewn clothes.  What a jerk!

But as I got older, I appreciated all of the sundresses, lined jackets, winter coats, and shorts she would make for me all through the 80s.  Not to mention the clothes she made for my kids, and the quilts covering all of our beds.  And the perfectly tailored slipcovers for my couch.

Her ability to create something beautiful and functional from rolls of fabric by designing her own patterns was quite a skill.  The math that went into that, along with the vision is impressive.

Plus, I always knew that as she made a piece, she thought of the person it was for.  I keep that in mind now myself, as I craft my own projects for people I care about. They are in my heart as I create for them.

As I know that I was in hers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In praise of gallery walls

As an artist, I seem to have a proliferation of stuff to go on my walls. As a person who enjoys taking pictures, and has very cute grandfairies, I also want their photos up there too.  

So, groupings are how I usually handle that.  The trouble is, I hate to get rid of old pictures that I love, but new ones keep coming along.   On this wall, I added a few of our family fairy pictures to the existing  collection.

We are in the process of redoing Rich’s office.  My talented son put this floor in over the holiday, and it has been a huge improvement over the old carpet.  
Previously, Rich had a gallery wall of barn wood framed family photos that he wants back up again.  While they are down, I’m sprucing them up and switching a few out.  (Photos to come when the room is done.)

Then, he had another request.

He wants our parents and grandparents on display too.

It is sweet of him to want this, so I have been working on a display that complements the other family wall but doesn’t match it.

I’d had big plans for painting some large landscapes to hang up there (we are out of room everywhere else) but like I said, this is sweet of him to want.  He also wants to hang work mementos that I thought would be leaving, so I guess I won’t be painting landscapes for the room.

Looks like I’ll be sticking to roses to hang elsewhere.  He deserves a space that is just as he wants it, since he deals with my stuff running rampant through the rest of the house.

And I have learned that he has some good ideas, too.  I hated the thought of getting this dining table, to replace my all white one, and now am happy to have it.

Rich had a favorite tree fall down, and wanted to keep a piece of it forever, so we had this made.

See what I mean?  He is very sweet.

A Forever Gingerbread House

One of our favorite holiday traditions is making gingerbread houses.

This started way back, when Sugarwings was even younger than in this photo.  She would have a house that was a work in progress for a month or so, adding to it as a craft project for the whole holiday season.

We never ate any of the candy, and were adamant about calling the goodies “decorations” never candy.  We saved them up and used them year to year, those candy pieces that come with the packaged houses do not rot.  And I even wonder if they are edible anyway?

When Dewdrop came along, she joined in too with her own house. But learning about not eating the decorations was hard for her.  We were constantly hollering, “That is older than you are!”

In the last few years with the addition of new grand fairies joining the group, we have turned Ginger Bread Night into a family event and I started stocking up on clearance priced kits at the end of the year.    We still call out,

“Those decorations are older than Mayara!” 

Because some of those gumdrops are honestly from ten years ago. No one is seriously tempted to eat them we just enjoy saying it.

When Ryan finally switched to a job where he could be around in the evenings, I discovered that he had an obsession with holiday baking shows and the Gingerbread wars were his favorite.  We watched them together and would plan our own super structures. (They still turned out like badly done kits, which is what they were, but we loved dreaming that we could accomplish artistry.)

Sugarwings and I decided to build a gingerbread village from wooden birdhouses in honor of her uncle, who loved the creations so much.

I used some metal pieces painted white and buttons on mine.

The icing is puffy paint and glitter.

While mine is still not equal to the mastery of the shows Ryan and I watched together, I think that I do much better with paint than with royal icing.

And it had been awhile since I shared studio space with this kid.  She is now a teen who doesn’t appreciate being photographed while trying to concentrate, so don’t judge the grumpy face pictured here.  We had a great day together and look forward to making the rest of our village.

 

 

 

Baby Books for the Butterballs

I have almost finished the first litter’s baby books.  The finishing touches will be a photo on the front, and notes about the puppy on the inside.

As well as a 30 day free trial of insurance tucked into the back pocket of the book.

Now that the pups are older, I am telling them apart easier.  But that first week?  My head was spinning just trying to see who was who to get their weight charts started.

So, I had sketches and notes for each one.  Someone suggested that they would make good gifts for the new owners, and I agreed.  Since I needed to keep track of info about each pup, I decided to make the paintings into books.

I’ll have the weights and worming/shots schedule in there too.  

The paper features honey bees for the puppies’ mom, Honey.

I bought supplies to make them for The Sugarbabies too.  Hers has black and white hearts.

The books can be displayed with the painting showing like this.  And there is space for the new family to add photos too.  

A New Look for Sugarwings’ Room on her 14th Birthday- Mermaids in the River Through the Forrest

Our birthday girl decided she would like to move back into the larger upstairs bedroom.  But it had a lot of pink going on and she preferred aqua.

While she was on a vacation with her moms, I surprised her by un-pinking her room.  At least the parts that were not hand painted, like the murals and roses.

Here is a before.  It was a bit baby-ish.  
I repainted the bottom part of the walls, that had been a pale blush, took down the fairies and butterflies.  Then moved some of her own artwork into the space.

She also got a grown up, beauty care corner with fluffy pillows to relax on.

Along with make up and skin care products in pretty containers.

The desk was from her other room, but the curtains are new.

They are sheers with green vines, topped with a pair of blue, ombré panels.

A lot of the room stayed the same, like the clouds on the ceiling. 
I hope she doesn’t outgrow that part, because I know I won’t.

And another redone mural

While I was redoing a canvas for the Guncles, I thought I would touch this one up too.  I don’t have a before, because I hadn’t planned on painting it, I just kinda started in on it while working on the other one (previous post).

It didn’t get a big overhaul.   I changed the sign to my blog name, brightened and sharpened up some details.

Added a rosemary plant and some roses.

This hangs over the fuse box in my garage, because, well, what else do you do with giant 6’ paintings?

Updates to repurpose a canvas

Years ago, I had painted a canvas with a French market scene to use as a backdrop/divider for a booth at a show.  It was a quickie, and not meant to be too detailed.

Here is the original.  I have had it hanging in my garage, but have never really liked it.  When Guncle Randy needed a French themed mural, I offered to give it to him.

But of course, that meant that I wouldn’t like it any better when I saw it at his house.

So, I spent an afternoon brightening it and adding details.

Including his Bichon, Bella, peeking out of the window.

And his address in French, on the wall.

(the sign isn’t really crooked, the canvas has a few billows, here and there that throw off the perspective in photos)

I like it better now.  I think he will use it in his patio tent for a French themed dinner party  or maybe to hang on the garden fence?  

It is canvas and acrylic, so would be fine outdoors.  But over time, could cause moisture to be trapped behind it and the fence would rot, so that couldn’t be permanent.