Rusty bits rediscovered

When Susan posted about her discovery of some lovely rusty bits on Wednesday, I admit to experiencing a bad case of rusty bit envy and to salivating just the teensiest bit. Well, let's be honest...I salivated a lot viewing the photos of her find. Oh! The possibilities those beauties offer!

My husband was working on something last evening and needed a few nails which he knew I was likely to have. It took a bit of searching in the studio before we managed to locate them though. While moving everything about and looking in every container, I happened to open an old tool box and discovered a mother load of rusty bits that had been long forgotten.

All were collected during the building of our last house in Virginia...oh...nearly 10 years ago. The carpenters thought me quite mad when I asked if it was okay to pick them up. After all, who'd want rusted washers, nails and pipes?

Cooking - studio style, part 2

Barry, he of the Rustnstuff blog - and Fiona's husband in case you didn't know - left a comment on yesterday's post that gave me quite a chuckle just now.

J-it is unbelievable what you paper and textile lot get up to

Oh Barry! You have no idea. Then again, yes you do. You're married to a member of the lot after all.

My mind immediately goes to my week at Pam's, knowing what the two of us got up to...and knowing that this whole studio cooking experiment came out of Pam's what if about the crock pot. Now, just imagine throwing Fiona into the mix...and Susan of Tracemarks. Ooooh! What delightful mischief we could get up to. 

Speaking of cooking in the studio, care to see a few photos of my favorites from yesterday's experiment?

The red is from eucalyptus rather than the roses and there's a lovely yellow in some that I've yet to figure out what caused it. The black from the rusty bits gives great contrast to the more muted colors.

I used 140 lb cold pressed and 300 lb hot pressed watercolor paper. Above is 300 lb. The thickness of it was perfect for creating [accidentally since I had no idea what I was doing] separate patterns on both sides. The photo above is the front, below is the back.

And then there are those little sections:

Not bad for a first try, huh? I want to play with eucalyptus, fresh roses and rusty bits on white paper as well as some that has green tea on it. Then again, there's a stained white t-shirt patiently waiting in the studio for a new life that may just find its way into the cauldron this week.

On a personal note - I owe several of you emails. Bear with me please. Life is exceedingly hectic at the moment with the little urchins graduating preschool, relatives visiting, birthday parties, the trip to London, etc. I will write back. Promise!

3rd Annual Artist Retreat - Monday part 2

What to say about our Monday? It was a blast! As mentioned in part 1, the previous first day of our retreats have been total disasters. Truly. Whatever Pam and I tried just didn't work and didn't work on a huge scale. At some point late in each day, we'd stop, think, discuss and light upon a plan that, in the end, was the right one.

This year, my plan was to figure out what to do with my rusty fabrics and to go home, not just with ideas, but with the bones of pieces that can be completed later. 

 After a show and tell

 of the rusty sort

we each set to work. Pam in the annex and me at the display board.

Inspired by the way two of the fabrics were laid on the floor [see second photo], I started with the rectangular grid piece. It went through several iterations before arriving at this one. Pieces are pinned and a bit of hand stitching may be needed, but the bones are there. So...here's #1.

#2 went through two or three versions before keep it simple starting playing in my mind. So, I did.

Meanwhile, in the annex, Pam was painting on a lovely translucent cloth that is scrumptious...

and has me wondering how it would rust, truth be told.

In between, in those moments of rest or just times when it was necessary to step away, we played with...what else?...rusty bits. And paper. And tea.

And talked of Fiona and Susan, wondering what they would think of our experiments.

At the end of the day, we were tired yet thrilled with the progress we'd each made.

#3 was pinned and hanging, waiting for a final decision to be made while

water and words danced in the annex.