How About a Little Art Diary ...

I affixed background paper and lined
diary paper to an 8 1/2" x 11"
canvas board.

... on this Fee-Fi(ber)-F.O. Friday? The subject is fiber-based, promise!

Hello everyone - and here we are, in the beginning of April. As I wrote here last September, I created some content for an e-zine that never made it to print (the content, not the e-zine!). Now that I have possession once again of the content, I thought I'd share it with everyone. It's timely as well, since the focus of the original art diaries (there are four of them) was one of the major LYS tours here in the Puget Sound (and if you look at the photos from my September blog entry, you'll see most of the fiber I picked up along the way, some of which I'm using now in various projects).

So, to get people primed for this year's 10th anniversary LYS tour, over the next four weeks I thought I'd not only share with you my four days' worth of art blogging from last year, but also a little sneaky peek at my particular art process on these pieces. I really had a great time creating all of this - I did a lot of the background prep work prior to the tour, but the writing and the finishing touches I did in real time, during and immediately after the blog tour. 

Here I've painted the outer edges with acrylic paint,
then used a dry brush dipped in iridescent bronze
powder to make it shimmer. Markers add highlight
and sponges dipped in acrylic act as stamps. As
you'll see on the left, I've also started to use some
ephemera from the LYS tour (the map). 

Here's the final art diary piece for day 1. Since I floated the diary text electronically
over my handwriting and then used my snipping tool to create a jpeg, the diary
entry is a little hard to read, so you can see the entry below. The tablet cover is
the project that went with this content and was published at ILikeCrochet.com

DAY 1:

Today is all about driving. I get a slightly later start than I plan (you know, the coffee and bagel run),  but I am thrilled to be on the road and heading to the northern-most stop on the tour – Blaine. Weather? Perfect. Music? Pharrell William’s Happy + the latest Nikki Yanofsky as I get closer to Canada and pick up a local British Columbia radio station. I score the main color for the tablet cover in the Blaine sunshine with views of the water right across the street – Berroco Comfort’s saturated color and silky feel win me over. In Bellingham (just south of Blaine), I snag some of the new Harrisville Designs’ Shetland in a gorgeous deep blue. Psst: it’s only being carried by 10 retailers; this is New England in a yarn hank. I fall for Frabjous Fibers’ Peace Silk, don’t take a lunch break till 4:00 pm, and end the day getting lost (my one and only time of the day) on the way to my 9th LYS. It stays open past 8:00 pm to accommodate my lame navigational skills, for which I’m super grateful. Get home more than 12 hours from the start of my day. Exhausted … but, you guessed it … happy.