Fun art projects

It's always amazing to see how others interpret your work. Students often do art projects to accompany books they are reading. Since Miles to Go is made with mixed media, the library in my town came up with a way for students to experiment with different materials. They were given a cut out of Miles to embellish with printed papers, pencils, markers, fabrics, buttons and lots more. Check out the Ninja Miles.


Miss Loven's kindergarten class from Woodinville, WA, created this project to go with Miss Mingo and the Fire Drill. I love the pipe cleaner neck and movable legs.

No one came on halloween...

I wonder why.

Studio tour

Visiting an artist's studio is a special treat. I love to see the materials and tools artists use, where they sit to create their art, and the views from their studio windows. But, best of all are the treasures, keepsakes, and inspirations that decorate their work spaces. This past summer, I got to go to the studios of painter Billie Spillie, children's book illustrator, Clare Beaton, and folk artist, Julie Arkell.


Billie Spillie is an American painter who now lives and works in the Dordogne countryside in South West France. Her home and studio are tucked away, on a hidden lane.


Her work is playful and contemporary. It fills the walls of the home she shares with her husband.



Her studio space is in a loft overlooking the home's main living space.






Clare Beaton lives in Islington in London. She publishes children's books mostly for Barefoot Books, using felt and a range of vintage buttons, braid and fabrics. The pictures are all hand-stitched. Clare says, "I am always looking for more items to recycle and give a new lease of life in my work."


Her studio is on the top floor of her home. It's full of light and color and lots of things you want to touch.



There's a bookcase filled with the books she's published to date.


Almost one entire wall stores her fabrics...


and she has plenty of thread.


I wanted to take this pin cushion home with me.



Julie Arkell is a contemporary folk artist working in papier-mache and mixed media. She lives and works out of her home in Islington, London, not far from Clare Beaton. I've followed her work for several years and had a fabulous time at her workshop this past summer at Les Soeurs Anglaises in France.


The steps leading up to her studio are decorated with vintage toys and shoes.




Her studio looks like one giant shadow box that has a gazillion different-sized compartments. Each one is filled with treasure. I wanted to look into every "window" but that would have taken all day.






Here are some papier-mache doll figures she's working on.




Below are some of my favorite pieces.




The knitting store, Loop, down the road has a wonderful collection of her work.

Finally done

I've just finished the images I started making at the beginning of the summer for my workshop with Julie Arkell. I painted a very simple background and then pasted the "paper dolls" down on top.

Paper dolls continued...

I'm almost done with my block-printed "paper dolls" project.


Before I went to Julie Arkell's workshop in France, I drew an illustration of two toddlers making snow angels. From that illustration, I made some "block-printed paper dolls" of the children. My goal was to experiment...to make stitches into the paper and add more media to them.

This is what I brought with me to the workshop. At this point, I had only carved a block print (outlines of children) and then printed them on top of collaged paper and acrylic paint.


At the workshop I added fabric to some of the girls' hats and made suffolk puffs (little fabric flowers) for the hats, stitched yarn into the girls' coat collars, made pom-poms for the top of the baby's snowsuit, and glued ribbon onto some of the coats.


Here's the lot of paper dolls as of today. They are cut out and are fulyl clothed. Now all they need is a background. I knit mittens for most of the baby dolls, stitched seed beads into the girls's jackets, added more of the same things I added during the workshop, and lastly, painted their faces with watercolors.

Handmade gifts

There's nothing quite as special as receiving a gift that was made from a friend. I met Diane Foster at the Julie Arkell workshop in France. She lives in Manchester, England. Diane knows how to make just about everything. She takes workshops of all kinds whenever she gets a chance.

She calls the little glass and silver bobbles "dobbers". She even made one for Mabel but I've decided to keep if for myself. The pictures behind the glass are hard to see in my photograph but they are really crystal clear. There's one of Mabel and a suffolk puff I made in the workshop. There are even surprises on the backsides. I asked her how she made it and she said she soldered two flower arrangement glass drops together with lead free solder (with silver content).

The necklace has a great weight to it. I think I might never take it off...

A fairy in my studio

I noticed Samantha Bryan's mixed media sculpture when I was looking at an exhibit that included Julie's Arkell paper mache figures. Samantha also lives in West Yorkshire, England. I immediately fell in love with her fairies. My family got this fairy for me for my birthday. This piece is titled, "Brain's Pre-flight stretch fairy" and on the base it reads "Participating in pre-flight stretching procedures."

Mabel's birthday

Mabel celebrated her first birthday in style on Monday. She had her very own cake which she ate too quickly...