Recycled Table - finished!

I finally got around to taking pictures of the giant rolling "island" I built for my studio that started with the top of my parents' kitchen table. It has shelves on three sides for storage. The short end has shelves that hold metal flower pots from IKEA. In the pots are all sorts of art supplies that I like to keep at hand. Things like colored pencils, palette knives, hand-carved stamps, stamp pads, acrylic paints, tubes of watercolors, etc.

One long side has storage cubbies for stretched canvases (for mixed media work), printing supplies like bench hooks, rollers, brayers and acrylic plates, and a shipping center. The big space in the middle allows me to pull up a drafting chair and work at this table. Which is always a bonus when flat surfaces are at a premium.

The other long side has canvas bins for current projects, plastic Artbins for more supplies and class samples, and great storage for my Dremel, block-printing press and Gocco printer (sadly still unopened!) I love that this table is on wheels and I can move it anywhere in the room, or even out of the room if need be. Have work table, will travel!

Finished with the Media Cart

The media cart is done. You saw one side of it here. Now, finally - here's the other side. I had a piece of 1/4" thick acrylic custom cut and had the holes drilled and countersunk for wood screws. I pre-drilled holes in the wood and then hand-screwed the acrylic to the cart. I still managed to crack very slightly the acrylic when I overtightened one screw, but otherwise I'm pleased with the way it came out. Note the oh-so-subtle marketing ploy of my book in one of the pockets (big grin). I'll be using these pockets to hold new books that I'm currently reading or using as reference for works in progress. There's a neat technique with acrylic glazes in the new Cloth Paper Scissors, by the way.

In the background is another piece of furniture that I built, it's one from a few years ago. I made it to hold some white metal bins from Pottery Barn. I do love the design principle of repetition. There are small bins and large bins and they hold things like yarn and trims, art glitter, pearl ex powders, stamp making supplies, adhesives and mediums, angelina, foil and other surface design materials.

Workshop News

Come join me (and Elin) for four days of fun at the Country Quilter for a workshop called Materials at Play. Learn about and try out sixteen different materials and techniques to incorporate into your art quilts.

There are still a few spaces available. Fridays, October 5, 12, 19 & 26.

White work

The International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction is organizing an exhibition of White-on-White works. It's really interesting to work in the absence of every other color - every minor variation in tone becomes more important. Take a look at the work collected so far. I just finished mine and will send it off tomorrow. What a challenge to work with such a limited palette!


Carmina Figurata, 2007, 12" x 9"
mixed media mounted on stretched canvas - papers, fabric, found object, acrylic paint, printing, embossing

There will be a full-color (if it's an all white exhibit is that an oxymoron?) catalog of the exhibit.

It is not quantity which counts [with colors], but choice and organization. - Henri Matisse

Lost and Found

Okay, this is a pretty cool story. In 1965 my husband Carlos was one of three artists to represent Peru at the Paris Biennale at the Musée d'Art Moderne. His two paintings were shipped back to Peru at the conclusion of the show and due to military unrest in the country at the time and his immigration to New York they were never collected at the port when they arrived.

The other day a man in Texas emailed him to ask about a painting he had inherited from his father. It was one of the lost paintings from the Biennale. How exciting to have a photo of something I'd never seen and he'd never thought to see again.



Even though it's an abstract I see both a mask and a bird in it. We're so delighted this man tracked him down and that we have a record of at least one of the paintings.

I did work on the big table in my studio over the weekend and should have new pictures up in a couple of days. I had to wait for the table saw a few times (there was a line! since Carlos was working on frames and stretchers) which slowed me down, so I kept busy while I waited. I really don't sit still well. I baked four loaves of banana bread and two batches of chocolate chip cookies. I'm surprised that the earth didn't wobble slightly on it's axis - I *never* bake or cook. Wait, I'm sensing an evil plot here... The joke is that the only reason we have an oven is because otherwise there'd be a hole in the cabinet.


Here's a quick organizational idea: I bought some of those tins with magnetic bottoms and mounted two metal strips to the wall in my studio. I think the tins are meant for spices or some such, but mine have unmounted rubber stamps, some cool colorful stones from Peru, some cool buddha stones from Thailand and other little doodads in them.

Recycle, reuse, repurpose

This is a picture of the table that was in my parents' kitchen for most of my childhood. It's a solid, sturdy table with a maple butcher-block top and it's lived in my studio for the last five years or so. I'm recycling the top into the top of my new storage/work station. Imagine a "kitchen island" on wheels with storage on three sides and you'll have a fair idea of where I'm going. I removed the legs and flipped the top face down on the floor of my studio. I only want to drill holes into the underside, so it's easier to construct the base completely upside down.

This is one side with its dividers in place. There will be shelves but they aren't cut yet.

This is the opposite long side, also waiting for shelves.

And this is one short side with its shelves in place. Once the wheels are attached I'll need to find a football team to help me turn it right side up. This magilla is heavy!! My husband was mumbling something about adding a support beam in the basement under my studio, which might not be a bad idea. I'd hate to find out the hard way that the floor couldn't support the weight of this fully loaded.

Shut the door!

Who else remembers Señor Wences? His "shut the door" routine was one of my favorites. Anyway... the doors are now on the window seat. The two cabinets in my studio that form the ends of my worktable each have double doors (not shown). I must have sweet-talked my husband into adding them when I built those cabinets, because I haven't done doors before. That was not as easy as it looks (wait, did it look easy??) They appear to be a little crooked in the picture, but they're much straighter in person. The foam for the cushion is sitting on top, awaiting it's cover. And even though you can't see her, the dog was sitting on my lap while I took pictures because she was convinced that I wanted to take a picture of her and wouldn't get out of the way otherwise. Then when I was done and wanted to take her picture, she ran away. Contrary puppy.

Here's a view with the media cart in front of the window seat, acting like an artsy coffee table (but I don't drink coffee, so buckets of art supplies are much better.) I plan to start one more big (really big) piece of furniture tomorrow and then I might be good for a while. Although I sketched a taboret-like creature to hold buttons and little doodads - tall and skinny with lots of shallow drawers with dividers. Hmm...