Painting Pots

March 26, 2013 ~ Kitty ~ Leave a comment

I don’t think of myself as much of an artist, my main form of creativity is writing followed closely by music. I am visually impaired (almost completely blind in my left eye, and need glasses for the right eye). I can’t draw because I can’t make a straight line. I see in 2-D so my perspective is not the same as most people’s. This is the way I have always been, so it does not get in the way of my life at all. Well, I should not drive at night, but I don’t like driving anyway so that is not a big deal.

Because of being unable to draw I never let myself get into painting even thought I really wanted to, until last year when I took one of those byob painting classes (I went to dip n’ dab in atlanta). I figured since it was going to be mostly tipsy people who were just doing it for a laugh and since all the supplies were provided there was no harm in it, and minimal cost. I had fun. Now I am painting from time to time and I enjoy it. I like the way my paintings look, and I don’t judge them nearly as much as I thought I would. I paint some on canvas but the last few weeks I have been painting on terra cotta pots. I had done that before, but more like paint then a single pretty color or use a stencil. The few I did try to paint more on I was to nervous and they did not come out well.

The pots appeal to my rather practical nature about these sorts of things. They are useful, I might have bought them anyway, the paint is very cheap, so aside for a little time I am not ‘wasting’ anything. Fun and practical.

I spray the pots with Thompson’s water-sealer first, give them at least a day to dry and then paint with the acrylic paints in the little bottle that you get from any arts and crafts store. I wait for a sale to buy new ones, as cheap as $.77 a bottle.

This weekend there is going to be an art hunt put on by Atlanta Fringe Festival. It is a free event in Grant park. You look around for art and anything you find you keep. The nice people at Fringe are doing all the hiding and planning, but for the art they need donations. While I would not sell my art, I think a free pot regardless of what is painted on it should make someone happy, so I submitted it (and a short story, printed out). I painted a bunny for spring/easter/ostara.

SAM_1725

I think it is cute. It makes me happy that someone, a stranger, will find this and that it might bring them happiness. Or even just usefulness.

I made this one a few days earlier for myself. It is based on a Hawaiian print I like, but in the colors of the cyclamen I put in it. I am not happy with how the turtles look, but I can’t exactly tell you why. They just don’t look right. But over all I think it is lovely and the colors match well, so yay!

I plan to make a few more for the garden. They will add a little extra color and art, making the garden a bit more fun. They also make great gifts.

Carrot Pot

March 5, 2013 ~ Kitty ~ 1 Comment

Carrots are in the top five of my favorite vegetables to eat and my number one favorite to grow. There is something so satisfying about harvesting them, sort of the same feeling as opening a birthday present. I never know the size, flavor or even color of the carrot when I start to pull, so it is always a surprise. I’ve been growing them in garden beds for six years now. The first year they were horrible, only about an inch long, furry and with a strong bitter flavor. Each year they have been getting a little better as the garden’s soil quality has improved, but I will never have smooth, long store bought looking carrots in garden beds at this house, because there is just too much clay.
Here are a few of 2012’s best carrots.

They were a respectable size and the flavor was phenomenal, very sweet and more carroty than you get at the store. Some are a little furry and some were oddly shaped as you can see. Over all these made me happy and I plan to grow more in the garden beds hoping for similar results.

This year I am also going to try growing some in a pot and I figured if I am going to have containers in the garden, they might as well be pretty. It is now rather obvious what should be growing in this one.

Painting pots is harder in my opinion than canvas (not that I am an expert on either), the top is bigger than the bottom and the whole thing is round of course, not to mention that the smooth surface of the terra cotta does not want to hold onto the paint. I sealed this pot and did two base coats of white acrylic before I started the painting itself. I started on it yesterday afternoon and it took about 3 hours or so of active work start to finish.

Having a little art in my garden will certainly brighten things up and make it more fun.

Now I have to sift some compost and mix it with peat moss, sand and potash to fill up the and then add the carrot seeds. I have 4 varieties and a mix this year. Since the rabbit is sort of anime I think I will put Asian varieties in the pot, Shin Kuroda and a long thin Japanese Imperial type disappointingly called tendersweet.

I will let you know how the carrots turn out in a few months.

Here is an informative site Carrot Museum if you want to learn everything there is to know about carrots.

Rainbow Skirt

October 17, 2012 ~ Kitty ~ Leave a comment

Look! A post that is not about writing. I do sometimes get up to other things.

I like to sew but I have not made much so far so I am still mostly keeping to simple things. Especially things that don’t require me to cut out a pattern. This skirt was technically easy to make, but it did take a long time. The general idea is just to cut out lots of squares, sew them together into strips, gather the strips and sew those together to make the skirt. The time consuming part is that this has almost 200 squares and the bottom layer was 25 feet long.

I got the idea from this site: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=226380.0

Collecting the fabric was fun, I bought about half of it and the other half was gifted to me by my friend Danielle. I said I needed fabric and she drove over to my house and gave me a huge amount of beautiful fabric. I have enought left to make a few more things. I think this the the number of squares I used and they were all about 5 x 5 inches. Ninja is helping me put them in order.

Pink/Red: 13 squares
Yellow/Orange: 21 squares
Green: 32 squares
Blue: 48 squares
Purple: 62 squares

Once cut, I would lay them out to make a nice pattern and then sew them together. This took a very long time, a few weeks since I was only working on this a little each day. But then finally I had all the strips done. I took this picture of them on the stairs so you could get an idea of how big this skirt really is.

The hardest part for me was the gathering. I did it all by hand and I have not done much gathering before now, so it was a challenge. I gathered each layer and then sewed it to the one above it. The gathering and sewing only took a few days, be they frustrating days.After is was all sew together I finished it with bais tape and elastic at the top, and just bais tape at the bottom.

This skirt was a lot of fun to make, and also a lot of fun to wear. I have only worn it a few times, each time getting tons of compliments, everyone loves it. I also find the weight and puffyiness of it very pleasing. I think it would be even nicer worn with a crinoline if I could get one of the right length – all of mine are either to short or two long. I wore it for the first time to Euphoria (a regional burn) which is where the next picture is from. I might take a new picture of it today and switch them out, because I am not super happy with this picture. I actually don’t know who the guy is, I was just walking along and saw him wearing the same shirt as me (a dreaming nyan cat) so we took a picture together.