RedBarn Studios

here’s a sneak peek at a new journal i just finished.

some background
a friend helped me out recently and i wanted to pay her for her kindness.    she told me that in lieu of a monetary payment she wanted instead payment in kind, deciding that she’d like me to make her one of my journals.

i loved this idea! a little bartering of art and each person goes away smiling.

so after i got back from the Nancy Crow workshop a couple weeks ago i started creating, keeping my friend in mind.

she has no idea what it looks like and i get to surprise her with it soon.   now you know why the sneak peek.   i’ll reveal a pic of the completed journal after i present it to her.

Tags: journals, mixed media, paper art by k grace howes
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slowly but surely my need to create is returning and about darn time i say!  as i sat a my table this morning i glimpsed out of the corner of my eye a drawing that had been on my wall seems like ages.  it always mocked me every time i looked at it…“hey Grace…what ya waiting for girly girl…miz arteest….seems really you cannot finish me…nananananana“.

i heard the relentless taunting and, for the most part, chose to ignore it every time.  just couldn’t put my finger on what the sketch needed and why it wasn’t working.  but today i tamed the mish-mosh beast.

any thoughts?

what i think is that i was trying to include too many different designs in the one piece…ugg!…..simplify girl,  so i took it down…put it back on my light box to redraw the base, reworked the design and came away with 2 new drawings. nice! and of course they are circles…you can always find them in my work.

next step is to recolour both new drawings in PSE8 altho patience will not be with me as i try this.  i’m on a Mac now and have  a much older version of CorelDraw that i got for my old PC,  but didn’t want to purchase another copy of the software…funds are tight.

I asked around on one of the lists i belong to and someone suggested these incredibly inexpensive vector based programs, Intaglio and EasyDraw, both made for Macs. mmmh….(if anyone has used either of these, let me now how you like it).  sometimes a girl just wants to colour the point and click way.

before I got my mOjo back today (oh yeh) i forced myself to go into the studio, not to do anything mind you…just spend 10 or so minutes reacquainting myself with being there.  before long, i couldn’t help myself (she says with a giggle)…..i created….i started another grunge journal.  here’s the first one I made.

inside cover….stitched from front then painted in and grunged..the best part

love this new-for-me way of attaching the spine.  as always—-filled with lots of wonderful paper to write/draw on, some really cool bits and, of course inspirational thoughts & ideas throughout to get the muse juices flowing.

i’m calling her lillibird…..my first painted photgraph

i still have some more stuff” to add and will sew in the signatures and put the finishing touches on it tonight.  as soon it’s completed i will be making a video clip showcasing both journals so you can get an up close view my step into the grunge…dun…dun…dun!

Tags: fiber art, journals, mixed media by k grace howes
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The next issue of the iNNer EyE Zine is percolating away in my brain. The theme has been picked and little tidbits of inspiration and creativity are making their way to the surface.

For those of you who don’t know, a zine (pronounced “zeen”) is a self-published book of whatever your heart needs to express. It can be full of images, poetry, art…almost anything is game.

The cool thing about them is a that it’s a little bit of creativity that is instinctual and personal to the creator that YOU get to share in.

iNNer EyE Zine, Issue 1

In addition to ideas for the new zine, I’ve also been putting together a new list of artists to inner-view for this 2nd issue.

Here’s a call to you….if you can think of a fiber or mixed media artist you’d like me to inner-view, by all means, drop me a line and let me know. It’s so much fun getting to know a little more about our favorite artists or someone whose artwork or personality intrigues us.

On another note, Alma Stoller has a blog all about zines which is how I got started making them. She’s got a new zine swap that just got started. If you wanted to try your hand at it, this is a great place to jump right in.

Creating my first zine was loads of fun and a great challenge to myself. I didn’t even mind the hard work! Challenge yourself….sign up for the zine swap and consider making your own bundle of creativity.

Stay tuned….

Tags: Inner-views, mixed media, paper art, working small, zine by k grace howes
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Okay, so I finally figured out how to shoot movies (I’m still perfecting that craft), I know I can edit out all the bloopers and messed up bits (lots of those buggers) and I now know how to add audio to my video (love that part). Play time is over…right?

Heck no I say because I’ve just added a new video to my YouTube site!

Remember the “Journey Girl” I painted  on the front of a cereal box I cut apart a few months back? The one I used in my zine? Well I’ve posted a video of what I did to create her. It were fun!

(Mummy, if you’re reading this….I know that that last bit was bad grammar but in blogland, sometimes that’s allowed).

I got such a kick out of going green with the cereal boxes that I thought a short vid was needed. Okay, okay….that had nothing to do with it, I really wanted to play with iMovie again.

So……on with the shoew!

(if you are having trouble with the video, click here to go directly to my YouTube site and view other videos as well).

Tags: mixed media by k grace howes
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