Fiberart for a Cause Preview

Collage Mania 2009 previewing is now open & you will be able to purchase original one-of-a-kind collages beginning May 5th with 100% of the proceeds going directly to the American Cancer Society.

Some fellow artist friends have donated collages & I thought I'd share some of the pages that they're featured on since there are over 39 pages to view & 383 collages to see.

Michelle's beautiful Fleur collage is on page 31. On page 8, you can see Virginia's colorful collages along with Fannie's fabulous"watercoloresque" art. On page 11, Sherry has 2 wonderful collages available. (And of course, I'm on page 17) :)

There are so many wonderful pieces, I know I'm going to have trouble picking just one, ok, maybe two.

If you get the chance, please go & take a look & on May 5th, not only will you have the opportunity to own a beautiful piece of art but in doing so, you're donating to what I feel, is a very important cause, The American Cancer Society.

Aqualicious etsyNJ

LOVE all of the colors that I'm seeing in Etsy lately!! Deb from debkaplandesigns chose my Peacock Colored Journal for her Aqualicious etsyNJ Treasury.

Please check out Deb's Etsy shop, she's offering some beautiful art for sale. Thanks for including me in your Treasury, Deb!! :)

p.s. Please forgive me if I don't post much in the upcoming couple of weeks, our Rome/Croatia trip is right around the corner so I'm not sure I'll have much time to create any new work until after we get home from our trip. (I can hardly wait!!)

EtsyRAIN Springtime in Seattle

One of the groups that I belong to in Etsy is called teamEtsyRain. It consists of artists that live in the Puget Sound (Seattle, Washington) area. It's a great way to get to know other local artists in the area & it gives one (should you live locally) the opportunity to support & buy from local artists.

Jenny of Flandersfield Photography chose my Lemon Lime Squiggles ACEO for her EtsyRAIN Springtime in Seattle Treasury.

Aren't the colors YUMMY!! :)

(sorry guys, the photograph of the flowers in the top left corner has been sold to ME) but then I'm sure some of you aren't surprised! :)

Thanks, Jenny for adding me to your Treasury!!

Completing my ABC's

(thanks for help with the title Michelle)

ABC's stand for Anything But Cotton. I'm in a Surface Design swap & we were to create a postcard from anything but cotton. When I first signed up for the swap, I thought this was going to be an easy task, but it proved to be wrong.

I first thought of rubber stamping organza, stitching it down to a base fabric that had been painted & foiled & then hitting the organza with a heat gun. The base fabric.........what could I use that wouldn't melt right along with the organza? Every possible fabric I came up with had some sort of cotton in it.

Ok, how about melting some Tyvek instead? Had the same problem with coming up with a non-cotton base.

I then remembered my Texture Class with Lynda & Carol. In one of the samples I created in their class, I used Peltex, couched yarns & paint (no cotton whatsoever). My first two trials turned out just horribly. They were SO heavy & so bulky, I told Michelle that I'd send one of them to her to use as a door stop for her studio door. The yarn I used for these were just too bulky for what I was trying to achieve.

I abandoned the idea entirely & went back to trying to find a non-cotton base for the melted organza or Tyvek pieces. After a week of stalling & coming up with no ideas, the couched painted threads idea resurfaced. I was really happy with the sample in my class, why had it failed so badly the second time around?

Some lighter weight yarn, this time & more patience & here's what happened............

© 2009 Tracy Borders

© 2009 Tracy Borders

I couched eyelash yarn & thicker (bumpy) yarn right onto the Peltex. I then painted the entire surface with white latex house paint. Because of the thickness of the bumpy yarn, I had to wait for the latex paint to dry & applied a second coat to achieve total coverage.

© 2009 Tracy Borders

I then applied different colors of Golden Fluid Acrylics over the entire pc (it's a good thing it washes so easily off your hands,) a brush couldn't get into all of the recessed areas so I ditched the brush & used my fingers.

© 2009 Tracy Borders

After the Golden Acrylics dried, I applied Treasure Gold Wax to the raised surfaces (yes, by fingers) :) It really brought out the texture of the eyelash yarn.

(closeup)

They're quite different from what I normally create & I hope the ladies that these are going to won't be too disappointed, worse case, they'll make pretty door stops. :)

Seattle Mariners' Opening Day!!

Finally, Opening Day for the Seattle Mariners!!! (baseball for those that don't know what I'm talking about) Adriana went to her first baseball game, although she was heart broken to discover they didn't have a Mariners jersey in her size, she still had a blast!!

Making my art wearable?

I came across Sandy's Etsy shop, The Gilded Lily, in an Etsy Treasury. She creates beautiful pendants from Scrabble tiles. If you get the chance, check out her shop, she has TONS of really fun pendants!!

After viewing some of her pendants, I had the idea, "I wonder if she'd create some custom pendants with my work featured on them?" Sandy was awesome to work with!! I sent her digital photos of some of my pieces & look what she came back with.........................

Aren't they wonderful?!! Of course, I had to have them all & some others that I didn't get photographed for this post :) I think it's kind of nice to be able to carry around a small piece of your work with you all the time & what better way, in a pendant!!

Sandy created & got these pendants out to me in about three days, which I thought was VERY quick!! She was absolutely fabulous to work with & knows I'll be back bringing her more business!! Thanks, Sandy!!

(See it does pay to have your work seen in a Treasury!!)

Dharma Trading Featured Artist

Woohoo!! I'm one of the Featured Artists, for April, on Dharma Trading's website!!

A couple of months ago, while reading Dharma's emailed newsletter, I read at the bottom, in tiny print, "if you use any of our products that we sell in your art, please feel free to email us a picture of your finished piece & it might get posted onto our site."

I order all of my dyeing supplies from Dharma & I just love, love, love their bamboo poplin, so I sent them a photo of Green Apple Martini. Shortly after the email was sent, I received a response stating that they would like to have me as a Featured Artist on their home page for April & would I be interested? ARE YOU KIDDING?! Of course, I would!! A few more photos of my work & a write up about me (which I've never been comfortable doing) & here it is!! :)

Sailing the high seas............

..................well not quite yet. I cannot believe our trip to Rome/Croatia is only a month away & I cannot say there's so much to get done before the trip because, we're READY!! :)

We went sailing last weekend on the Sound to dust off the cobwebs & go over some sailing maneuvers. We thought we should take Adriana along so she could get her feet wet (so to speak), we don't need her getting seasick while in Croatia :)

This is your Captain speaking!

She had a great time..........

Guys, there's nothing

magnetic on this boat, I'm

having to hold on for dear life.

.....although, she wasn't very happy to find there wasn't anything magnetic on the boat to attach herself too!!

I can see for miles!!

Look, I can fit in this winch

handle storage thingy!

Hoist the main sail!!

Look!! I'm steering the boat.

So Cool it's Hot, Electric Turquoise Etsy Treasury

Jessica at livefunky chose my Turquoise Eyelash ACEO for her Electric Turquoise Etsy Treasury. There are some really nice pieces featured.

LOVE the colors in this Treasury!!! Thanks Jessica for including me in your Treasury!!