Angels from an old swap and a sneak peek

Way back in 2004, before I'd ever heard the word "blog," I was in an angel swap. The hostess provided the pattern, which included two pieces: the body with wings, and the head and arms. The pattern fit on an 8.5 X 11 sheet of paper. Now I know you gals and guys overseas have an "A" name for that size, but it's simply the size of a sheet of printer paper.

The hostess also stipulated that each angel must use a different and new technique, something each of us had never done or tried before. This was quite a challenge for me, because when I finally decide on a design for a swap, I like to make them all the same. That way, everyone gets the same design, and I don't have to wrack my rack brain trying to come up with many designs. But those were her rules and I wanted to play. I'm working on several things at the moment, so I decided since these had never been shown on my blog before, you might like to see what I was making six years ago and the five new-to-me (in 2004) techniques I used to make them. Sorry, but for some reason, I cannot get them to enlarge.

I named this one the Sewing Angel. Materials included vintage lace, a hook and eye for the bodice, buttons for the halo, and buttons and snaps on the skirt on a blue cardstock background. The technique for this one was combining lace with paper.

I called this one Film Angel. Film strips were woven with green lace. The film holder was attached using green wire and everything was glued to a cream cardstock background. The technique was weaving the two very different materials together.

This one reminds me of one of my Project 2010 dresses. I called this one Flower Angel. I used various petals from carnations for the dress and wings, a petunia for the halo, a wooden flower in her hand, and a 3-d butterfly all on a red cardstock background. The technique for this was turning flower petals into a dress.

Although this is a lousy photo, this is the most difficult of all the angels I made. I called her the Pasta Angel. I started by embossing all the pasta with turquoise and gold embossing powder (EP). I then added each piece of pasta to the skirt, then added the word angel in alphabet pasta. The wings and halo were made using alphabet pasta that I laid down randomly and EPd onto the turquoise cardstock. I used four coats of UTEE on the head and hands, which I left unadorned. The technique I used for this one was embossing pasta, well actually, using pasta in a mixed media piece. I also blended the UTEE and EP to get the gold and turquoise colors to cover the pasta. I know it looks like I burned the wings, but it was just a bad photo and no pasta or cardstock was harmed burned during production.

I called this one my Music Angel. This view shows the bodice closed. Materials for this angel included sheet music and punched music notes that were embossed, then assembled on blue cardstock.

More punched musical notes were used to make the halo. The tiny doors in the bodice open to reveal vintage sheet music. A sheet of vintage music was aged with artist's linseed oil, the technique for this angel. Although I wasn't sure it would work, the linseed oil soaked into the sheet music and gave it a lovely aged appearance without making it greasy.

Each angel was named and signed using my handmade paper. The saying at the top was torn from wallpaper samples.

And just to let you know I really am working in the studio, albeit only a short time each day, here is a sneak peek of something I'm playing with.

And something else I'm playing with. Have an awesome day everyone. I'll be checking all my favorite blogs a bit later this morning, I promise.

Today's pick is Ione Citrin, a mixed media artist who goes by one name: Ione. She is a sculptor, mixed media artist, and what her site calls an "avant garde artist whose artistic expression takes fantastic shape through her diverse oil and watercolor paintings, bronze sculptures, found object collages and mixed media assemblages. Her contemporary paintings and sculptures range from abstract to realistic to impressionistic." There should be something for everyone at Art by Ione.