Work Shop & Tools I Love

I wanted to make a post of what I am doing in my newly set up work-Art shop-studio. I need a name for it don't you think?
Here is a leaf that I cut out of tin then put some solder on it.  After that I put on some alcohol ink.  I punched holes in this leaf. I might use this leaf as a wall decoration or put it where a candle can shine through.
Do you see that ballpeen hammer?  It was my Richard's hammer. Richard is my one and only hubby who died of cancer. Here is another photo of this much used hammer.

I love that I can see where his hands held this tool. In the background you can see my handtool. It is similar to a dremel but this is what dental technicians use. I am a dental tech. So I like the feel of this in my hands. It is not too heavy. I can change burs, or mandrels at ease. You can see part of my collection of burs on that pink magnetic thingie.

Here is my Sweetie Richard's vise. It has been used a lot.  I brought it from my old house when  moved.  I have it right next to me on my work table. It's probably more heavy duty than I need but that was Richard. If a little was good then more was better.

See that box?  It has a reostat on it and an electrical cord coming out?  My sweetie Richard made that for me when I got into making stained glass windows.
I use it for my soldering iron. I can regulate the heat. I put a tiny night light on it so I can see that it is on.
Other accessories in the photo are a sketchbook which I covered in soft leather and put a shell button.
Also is a model of teeth.  It is a plaster model where I designed a set of teeth with gums in wax.  Each tooth is pinned and could be removed individually, that is if I cut the wax gums. But I didn't.  I like to practice my tooth carving on models.

So here is my work table from a distance.  I was lucky to find the lamp with a double light. It has both incandescent and florescent. It gives good light for detail work. This is the kind of lamp we use in the lab.
That tall think you see on the left, black with a cloth bag & draw string is my magnifying glass. It has a flexible goose neck. I take off it's hat and bend it over.  When I do dental work I am always looking through this.  It has so many scratches it's crazy but loved.

When I was working in my garage studio I took a walk outside to check the weather. Here are the looming snow clouds.

I am looking north towards Big Bear.
They were darker in person. But they were so big and cold looking.

Here I am looking east towards Yucaipa, my old stomping grounds. My family lives there now.

And here I am looking west towards Redlands. This is taken at 5 pm. We have the best sunsets.

Here is a close up of some of my tools. I have a love affair with paint brushes. These are watercolor brushes. My oil painting brushes are in a cabinet. Watercolor brushes are softer and finer.  I have some that you don't even want to know the price of.  I love them.

A couple favorite brushes are on this wall.  My wall is messy. I will work on it later.
That is a real genuine indian ax head made of stone on my wall.  My step-dad Walter made the handle and wrapped it in leather. He also made my arrows. I have 2 branding irons hanging there. And you can see half of a painting I did in 1973.

This was my first college oil painting. Richard had to take a class at the college so I tagged along and took painting.  It was fun.  This painting is ok. I love the deer. I hate the bushes. They look so arrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.............  I have no word.

So there is a peek into my studio-work space. I need a name for my area.
To end this I will leave you with an image of Peanuts area. She had a little accident. Gotta love her creativity!!!

WIP of my Paintings

I can't believe I let 2 weeks + go by without blogging.  Well I have been organizing my art area in the garage and going through a lot of old sketchbooks.
I also have begun a new sketchbook.  Here is a finished sketch/watercolor even though it's not framed, it's done.
This painting is the emotion I had all last week...............

I've been sad because a friend died last week of a stroke. He was only 47 yrs. The same age as my late husband.


This is a WIP (work in progress). I haven't touched it in the last 4 years.  I need to finish it.


So back when I was in dental tech classes we had to take a class called: Anatomy of the Head & Neck and Oral Facial Structures. Phewwwww that is a mouthful.
But I became interested in the muscles of the face and the structure. I found a photo of a medical model showing all the muscles and that is what I was drawing. I should finish it. I kinda like it.


Here is my new sketchbook.  It is Moleskine.  I like it a lot. The watercolors on the yellowed paper seem to glow. I decided to paint a palette and put some of my watercolor pigments to look like the paint wells as my inside cover illustration.
 I bought the Sketch Moleskine but the paper is buckling from the water. I read that there is a Watercolor Moleskine. Cool but my Barns & Noble doesn't carry it.

I am using the Moleskine sketchbook for location and outdoor drawings. I worked on one today.  The drawings will be quick in the moment drawings. Nothing precise. Just a quick sketch to capture the moment. Then go back and put in some color. I'm rusty so this is not so good. Practice, practice, practice........


I wanted to share my new laptop cover. It looks like an old book.  I love it. Oh and those are my reading glasses on top.  LOL

Checkout my wallpaper.  It looks like the program Photoshop or Photo Studio. But it is real. It is made out of real items, cardboard  boxes, pencils, paintbrushes, etc.  It's so cute!!

Lastly is a photo of Peanut.  This is how she looked on Halloween. She was a leopard.

She is my cutie pie.  I just love her to death.

Goodnight Peeps and Happy Painting....

My Homemade Travel Paint Kit

So what do you think of my Travel Paint kit I made?  I took an online watercolor class last spring from Laure Ferlita. She showed how to make a travel watercolor pallet with watercolor pencils. I tried that but my pencils were not so good so I decided to use my watercolor paint. Click on the link to see how Laure made hers.
 Laure Ferlita's video
Here are a couple more photos of it.



 Here it is with a watercolor journal. I like this journal because it is made with watercolor paper that is heavy. I hate when paper buckles as you paint.



Here is my kit opened up.  You can see that I use Daniel Smith liquid watercolors. They come in a tube so I made a dot for each color.  I numbered each color and then listed the color names next to it's number. I also put the number of light fastness by it's name.
Also in my kit is several water brushes. These are good for travel.  You fill the barrel with water and they don't leak. Yeah!!  They will drip if you squeeze them as you paint.  But if you don't squeeze them they do let out a little water as you paint to move the paint around.
In my kit I added a pencil, and 2 waterproof ink pens, one black and one brown.
I also have a nice paper towel for wiping the brush.  If you are out hiking and in your jeans you can wipe your brushes on your jeans. Yep.

To see the photo larger you can click on the photo and enlarge it.


This is my first try at painting with my new kit.  I have never painted from dots with nowhere to mix my paints.  I was parked at the elementary school waiting for Peanut. I parked so that I had a view of the orange grove across the street of the school.  I took artistic liberty and added a lake and a couple pine trees.  Although there is the brown sandy area there.  It is a dry river.  If we have a lot of rain then there are massive flash floods there. I lost a friend there who got swept away by the water. So sad.


I took this with the painting in the sun.

After I got Peanut we went home and we painted in the new garage studio.  I need to think of a name for our art/craft/painting area (studio).  Any suggestions?



I tried to capture Peanut.  She only stayed in that position for a minute or two.  I couldn't get her hands since she is always in motion so I just blurred them. LOL
She was painting  also.  She loves to paint like me.



Here you can see the watercolor painting kit with my Peanut painting.

My verdict?  I love the Travel Kit.  It is easy to use. It isn't messy. It all fits into that little ziplock bag.  I could put it in my purse easily with my journal and go out walking or visiting a museum.  It is very versatile.
I love it.

Well go give it a try.  Happy Painting!!

Paintings from the Past-#1

I want to start showing some of my paintings that I did in the past. So now and then I will put up an old one and tell you something about it.

Here is a painting I did when I was taking painting in college.  

This is a cactus flower. I don't now what type it is. I was inspired by my grandfather. Grandpa chickens.  We called him that because he had chickens. He had a farm in the San Fernando Valley, Ca. back during the depression. It was there until the Northridge earthquake which was a huge story in the news. It took down freeways and the new Olive View hospital where my Grandma Jane worked.

So we would go visit my grandpa a lot. He always had us eat outside at the picnic table. There was a big umbrella tree. I don't know if that is a real name or just the name he gave it.  He also had a grove of olive trees.  I can remember that he was always raking up olives so that we would not step on them, then track them into the house.

Well next to the picnic table he had this big pot with a cactus. The branches were flat like a christmas cactus and the flowers were similar. But his flowers were about the size of a large rose. My grandpa was so proud of his cactus flowers.

So here is my painting. I was working on shadows. Also I was trying to make the color of the flower pop.  I did this by mixing the complementary color of the orange, which is blue into the background color. The background was started with blue then I added burnt umber and black till I achieved the color I wanted.

A blackish color is so much more interesting to look at if you make it with other colors. Also one doesn't really know why the flower sings unless they understand the concept of color placement.

I will write about color in another post. 

I worked on fading the green branch into the distance. 

The painting is 18" X 24"

The paint is gouache and watercolor. I used the gouache where I needed it to be opaque. I used the watercolor for the rest. 

So that is the painting from the past. Grandpa's cactus flower. 

The Garage Studio

Woo Hoo!!!  I finally have my own garage Studio.  It seems odd because this is my house and I should have done this a long time ago.  I don't have a husband (bless his heart in heaven) to compete for with space.
I have had 2 son's dominate my garage for a long time with building a motorcycle from the frame up. The project is in Idaho now.  It took a long time to get all of their stuff out of my garage.  It also took a lot of motivation on my part to tackle this job.  Let me show you....


Peanut the little artist.  But look beyond her and all that clutter.

And clutter here....my garage is shaped like the letter "d" if it were squared off. Yes a small "d".  So this part in the photo is a storage area with my late husbands roll-top desk. Great place for Peanut to do her homework when I am crafting. Notice all the file cabinets.  They are the best for storing things and keeping dust out. Two are dedicated just to art supplies. One is for the garden and automotive. One is for camping and sport stuff like bowling balls, mitts & balls.  The last one has photo albums with photos all the way back to 1973 when I first got married. Also in that cabinet is a lot of sheets of glass for stain glass making.


I started by turning the workbench sideways.  I need to feel air and the breeze from the doors.  My son made this work table. He welded it and sprayed it silver, then put wood on top.  I really love it.

I bought a really nice Kennedy 7 drawer roller Cabinet .  I am putting on the wheels in this photo.  It was so hot in the garage but I wanted to get the work done.

Peanut got a smile out of me. How could you not smile at that little girl?  Can you see the boxes behind me?  They have to go.

So the boxes and stuff is moved and the old old oak table is moved there.  Also I did some decorating by putting my old horse collar on the wall. Also a branding iron and some other cowboy stuff and indian stuff.  I put a clock there so I will not be late to pick up Peanut from school....mercy me.

See my tool chest?  I LOVEEEEEEEE it.  Today I put in it a lot of my tools for stain glass, dental tech tools and some painting materials. On the corner of the table is bolted down a heavy duty vise and near the wall is my grinder.  You never know when you will need it. Yeah?  Do you see under the table I have my compressor and my shop-vac.  I want to do all kinds of crafts and jewelry.
Your get a better look at my homemade work table too.

If you look at the very top of this photo you can see a very old saw that I got from Walter, my step dad. He also made the arrowheads and put them on the arrows with feathers. He was very crafty too. He built fireplaces for a living. On the wall is an oil painting of a deer  getting a drink in a stream after dark.  It was my very first college painting class painting.
And do you see my hay hooks hanging from my garage door opening thing on the ceiling?

Here is the view I will get when I am sitting at my table. If it wasn't so bright you would see the neighbors houses across the street. Ugh. I wish it were the mountains.  Anyway, see the side door?  Well when you open that you get a very nice cross breeze.  Now the question to be asked is, why didn't the builders put one, at least one window on that side of my house?  I would not have to use the AC on warm days.  But builders don't care about where breezes come from do they? I was wishing I had a window on that wall too. Well the circuit box is on the other side so maybe it can't happen?

Remember this side?  It was where Peanut was painting.  I tried to elimate most of the boxes but I just don't have a place to put them.  I did put a lot of boxes in the area where the roll-top desk is, up on top of the file cabinets.  I made it look neat.
My thinking is,  I will not ever, never get a storage unit.  I think that if I need one then I just have too much junk.  It's time to purge and give to someone who needs it. I don't need that much junk.  Now if you are moving and don't have your new place yet, I understand having to use a storage facility.  But I am in my house and what I did was take about 11 boxes of dishes, books, toys, shoes, clothing and junk to charity.  It felt good because I know that there was some good junk in those boxes.  There were shoes I had never used, there was a whole set of Wilton cake decorating tips and bags. There were never used candle holders.  So it felt good.

One last look of my work space.  I want to get a nice chair that is high since my table is high. The stool gets tiresome.
I went to Jo-Anne's and got a nice desk light that lets you see the colors true to life. Also a package arrived today...my steamer.  I love using a steamer. We had one in the dental Lab and I use to clean my jewelry or anything that was gunked up.  The steamer in the lab was like a $1,500 one and my budget now I could only afford a $40 one but it is cool. I can use it to clean windows too.
I was also able to unpack my handheld grinder. It is a handpiece like the drill that the dentist uses but somewhat bigger. It's for technicians.  I bought it about 2 years ago but didn't have a place to use it.  You have to be outside or have a vaccume suction to take away the dust from it.  Always wear a mask when you grind.  I do. And I have my bi-focal safety glasses that I wear too.
I am going to practice my dental lab techniques and then go ask my friend who has a lab if he has cases for me to do at my home.  In the past he has needed me to wax up and carve teeth for patients who want a new grill. Then after I carve the teeth I take the plaster model with wax teeth back to my friend's lab and he casts it in porcelain.  I could work from home and be here for Peanut.  We will see if I can get up to speed.  Right now I want to make some jewelry and paint in watercolors.  Oh who am I kidding?  I want to do it all.


While I was outside Peanut asked if she could photograph the kitties.  Sure I said.  So here  is what she took. (edited down to 4 because she took 13).
This is Coraline. She is having a good nap. Look at those curled up paws. Ahhhh how sweet.

Look at that little face.  (everyone together) Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Shhhhhh Peanut, don't wake her. She is tired.

OLIVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't a girl get a catnap around here?

I'll update ya'll when I get more of my garage studio finished.

Happy Knitting, painting and cuddling your kitties!!!!

P.S. Oliver's boo boo is still red. It is not oozing like before but he won't stop licking. I covered the neck area so he started to lick like an inch below that where there was no problem. Now he is making the hair come out there. My son was telling me not to use the neosporin because it has triple anti bacteria stuff in it and can cause a rash. So I am using something milder.  I think it is getting better. Maybe I need a lampshade around his waist? He feels good enough to bug Coraline. Yeah?

Bugga Sweater, a Scarf and Whatnot

Hahahaha  Whatnot.  That is a funny word. Well I have been busy knitting lately. I had finished up some projects which means I cast on for a couple new projects. Gotta keep that balance going.
Here is my favorite right now. It is a sweater called Sprössling . I am knitting it with Bugga yarn in the color Northern Purple Gold Beetle.


I put a lot of stitch markers for every lace repeat. It works for me.

The other project that I am doing is a Farrow Rib Scarf. It is really a common pattern.
Here's Farrow Rib:
Multiple of 3 sts +1.
Row 1: *k2, p1* repeat across ending k1
Row 2: p1 *k2, p1* repeat across
I put it here because it has been put out there by many people even my local yarn store.
My scarf is being done in Malabrigo Silky Merino which is 51% Silk and 49% Merino wool. The color is natural.


The cute knitting bag in both photos above was from my sister Susan. I hope that she doesn't regret giving it to me because it makes a great project bag.

Here is a finished project.  This is yarn from my own handspun fiber. The fiber is Targhee and the color is called Lord of the Mountains.  It is from the Fiber Club at Crown Mountain .  I think that the club is closed for this year but the Exotic Club is still open for some of the months.  The fiber is excellent. We get TOP which is very soft and well prepared.

The hat is my own pattern.  I did a large cable around and then I picked up stitches at the top and knit till it closed up.  The hat was too small for me so Peanut will have it.


It's hard to see the cable because my flash was too bright I guess.


So now the WHATNOT.  I wanted to share some photos of my garden.  This was taken about a month ago.  After that bounty the garden took a nap.



I think the weather affected my garden. We had very very hot temps and then the weather went to foggy and cool.  So I may be ripping out the garden and planning a winter garden.
I have to wait because we always get an Indian summer where it will be very hot in Oct.

Here I made some chicken pita's with my homegrown tomatoes.  Oh how I LOVE homegrown tomatoes.


Here are my lettuce Taco Boats.  The white stuff is sour cream. There is chicken, cilantro, tomatoes and the lettuce. YUM


I've lost some weight with my healthier eating.  I will make a separate post on that subject.

Right now I am worried about Oli.  Aka Oliver Cat.  He went outside last week. I don't know if a bug bit him or if he is just allergic to a plant outside. He had a little spot under his chin where it looked like a scab. But lately he has been scratching it. Now it is a big boo boo. I cut his back feet toe nails.  I can't put a lampshade on him because it would ride on the boo boo.  I put neosproin on it too.  Poor baby.  No more outside for Oli.


So that is all I have for now.  Have a great weekend and HAPPY KNITTING & GARDENING.
LUV YA