Mary Jo's Inspiration Plaques

After a few days of work, 40 of these little 5"X7" canvas plaques went off to the gallery. They get snapped up so fast! People love inspiration and COLOR, in our experience.

Here's how I do them:
I buy 5" X 7" canvas board. Good quality so that it doesn't warp.
They're gessoed (one less step), so I begin applying layers of acrylic paint. This can go on for a while until I'm satisfied with the combination of color and texture. (Depends on my mood, too!) I also have to remind myself to WAIT for each layer to dry. (I get way too impatient.) I now realize I can use up a lot of "weaker" color paints (especially whites) as the richer colors take over and I've lost the effect I wanted that color for. If I wait a bit, the blend works much better.
When I'm satisfied and the paint has dried, I pick my sayings, blessings and quotes and hand tear the edges (I like that look.) I pick the art papers I want to use on each one, tear those and begin gluing. I keep trying different methods so the papers don't pucker, etc. Golden Mediums do a great job. And so does ModPodge. Finishing touches - I often use sparkly Golden gold acrylic, in a sharp tip plastic bottle, to add definition and kick. At this point, my section of the studio is a wild mess!
Then comes the many final details: finish the whole thing with a finisher (ModPodge Hard Coat, of late.) On the back I put a blank tag, sign it, add bump-ons and a stick-on plastic hanger. This way people have a blank space to leave a message if its a gift, and with the hanger it can go right on a wall. (Hopefully they'll be popped into a nice frame eventually.)
And, finally, I add identity/price stickers to the clear sleeves, sleeve 'em and send them off. See why it takes days?
PS Clean up time before the next project... :)

Mary Jo's Inspiration Stones

I've been doing Inspiration Stones for years. They seem to snag the heart of many, including myself. Beautiful, smooth, rounded beach stones - rolled smooth that way from glacial action (Whidbey Island is in essence a glacial dump... :) and the waves and tides of the Salish Sea (or, another name, Puget Sound.) Now we offer my stones in the gallery for a small price.

The secret for writing: Micron Pigma Pens, #1 or #2. I use these pens for so much - my Fantasy Houses, for instance. Archival and permanent ink. I've had one stone outside in the weather for years and it still looks the same (except for a bit of moss.)

Raven Rocks Studio Greeting Cards

What goes into the Raven Rocks Studio greeting cards we sell in our gallery? Let me tell you!

--We purchase Strathmore Deckle Edge, acid-free, card stock & envelopes. These are beautiful and elegant looking. They’re also 5” X 7” so any cards can be easily popped into a standard frame.

--First step is to print the back of the cards with our info.

--Art work images by Mary Jo Oxrieder & Windwalker Taibi are then printed using a Canon Printer with archival inks (in other words, they last a long long time!) and are printed on Ilford fine art paper.

--The little prints are then cut to size and mounted on the card stock using YES! glue.

--Then they’re titled (handwritten) and signed (Mary Jo on the back, Windwalker on the front); Mary Jo adds a gold heart by her name.

--Next they’re folded, envelope added, sleeved and sent to the gallery. Voila!

Dragon Falls

Somewhere in the wilds of British Columbia, on the edges of the land where the white Spirit Bears live, is beautiful Dragon Falls Provincial Park. Little is said about this spot in literature or the web. People who find it do so “accidentally” and later hold their experiences close to their hearts. If they share their stories, they do so only with special people. In this way the area has maintained its magical qualities. The air, the light, the colors, the smells, the sounds, all have the vividness and mystery of what some say is the Faery Realm. There can be no way to properly express the surprise and leap of the heart, the thrill when one first sees the true gift of the park: the shimmering dragons diving joyfully and with wild abandon through the roaring waters of Dragon Falls.
Watercolor & Ink Original

Rainy July

As more often than not this year, I woke to rain - cool, drippy, drizzly wetness. The temptation for feeling bum was strong, to put the pillow over my head and go back to the dream. Instead I counted on that hot shower to drain off the angst and allowed thoughts of my studio projects to intervene instead. It helped that I caught a whiff of the coffee my CuteGuy had made for me (as he does each morning.) Seeing his sweet face was a lift. Tagging the Scrumbles so that they could go to the gallery today made me smile. Now I'm allowing myself to play on new designs for this blog, to visit my favorites and to dither. After lunch, a few more Scrumbles to finish. Then I'll put away the fabric, thread and yarns and move on to my next plans.
Wishing you a joyous day wherever you are - and whatever the weather!

Busy year...

Surprising its been so long since I made a post. We found our dream house! Atop an Island hilltop, five fairy-wooded acres. The house sits in a lovely sunny clearing. We've watched twin fawns grow, all kinds of birds, a coyote or two, bunnies galore. The house is gorgeous and comes with an amazing art studio. Plenty big enough for all our supplies with room to move and create. Its been inspiring! Many new creations have made their way to the gallery and on to new homes around the world.
Whatever weather your summer brings (its rain for us, this year), may you be glorying in it!

New Year Offerings

Thank goodness for my art, especially this time of year. The dark (often rainy) gray days tend to weigh me down and want to pull me under. There's always something mindless I can get myself into - put cards together, sleeving prints if I can't manage "creative." But if I can somehow get going on a creative endeavor, with great relief I'm out of my head.

Then yesterday we notice the Shift... flowering plum, new mushrooms, rhodies ready to burst open, crocuses coming up. The birds have been singing their mating songs all month now. And so it is in the Pacific Northwest, spring comes in in January no matter what the weather people say... :)

September Scrumbles

I'm feeling a bit exhausted from a rockin' and rollin' summer making little things to sell as fast as my fingers could work. I'm saying right now that I need a bout of Fantasy Houses, etc - drawing and painting. Yes! New focus. Some NEW art work... All good...

August Scrumbles

I'm having a blast with Scrumbles - though they continue to go as fast as I make them... a fun dilemma! But my mind is busy with new ideas for Fall. Stay tuned!

New Scrumbles...

Scrumbles ... another fun time seeing what Scrumbles would come out of the sewing room. I get so distracted in there with all the fabrics and buttons and stuff. If I don't hold myself steady, I start 20 projects and finish none. This time I had a goal of getting at lease one Scrumble to the gallery for the evening Art Walk yesterday. Two made it outta here...

August Lucky Fish Go to the Gallery

I love making these fish! Though sometimes I feel crazy over the little details that take so long. I begin to doubt my sanity - the question pops into my mind, "is it worth it?" and I start listing time VS money VS practicality in list form. Then I shake my head and keep going. The giggles in the fish corner of the gallery are pure joy!

I think the batik fabrics look great on fish.

Lucky Fish are 12+ inches long and go for $20 each.

Windwalker's Newest: The Portal of Morning

Windwalker is in the process of painting a series of watercolors of sacred places. This first piece is title, The Portal of Morning. Enjoy!

New Scrumbles...

Scrumbles go to the gallery and leave the gallery pretty rapidly. In other words, its tough to keep any on the shelves. They seem to make others smile as much as they make me smile!

The Zephyr Voyager

"We’d been admiring boats, exploring the notion of Inside Passage adventures. It would satisfy any number of dreams we’d treasured all our lives. One sunny Saturday found us in a small harbor town scoping out sells at the local marina. That’s when we found her with a “For Sale” sign and a low low price. “Bruce’s Folly” - an ugly name for an odd but pretty little boat. It was quite different from any boat style we’d ever seen. Strange, too, that we felt so moved to call the owners and arrange a meeting. What was up that the price was so low? Shortly after we found ourselves listening to the rantings of a most unhappy couple, chronicling all the reasons the boat didn’t work for them. Behind them the little thing began to float into the air! Our eyes must have popped and our mouths dropped open, but the couple never noticed. We felt an overwhelming desire to have this treasure, to protect it. You can guess the rest – we bought her as the people smirked thinking they’d pulled one over on us. We changed her name, took classes in water and air navigation, found ourselves falling madly in love with our new family member. You won’t be surprised to hear that we discovered delightful cubbyholes that we hadn’t noticed on our first inspection. Spaces seemed to shift in size with our needs. Magic as well as a sense of safety flowed over us each time we set foot on her deck. We literally stepped into a life we could never have imagined."

5" X 6" Watercolor, Ink & Acrylic Original, framed

Treasure Trove Cove

I did it! At long last I sat myself down and finished painting one of my favorite drawings. I realized I'd set it aside (for over a year!) because I was afraid I'd wreck it when I painted it. GEEZ. Every time I'd run across it, it begged me to see the light of day. So... DONE DONE DONE. And I'm most pleased.

New Handspun, Handwoven Purses!

Windwalker has done it again. He's spinning his own yarns having fallen into a new love: wool and plying commercial yarns. Imagine how he feels to be weaving a new line of (gorgeous!) purses of his own spun yarns. Enjoy!

Birds are calling

I'm getting a nudge to paint birds again! Not surprising as they've been pure entertainment outside our windows for the last month or so. The trick is to sit down and BEGIN. After that its easy enough to get into 'the zone" and thoroughly enjoy the process. Here's the first result... MJ

Spring flowering

We declared ourselves the Show artists in our Gallery for May. Then we promised new "out of the box" work in our newspaper press releases. Call it throwing our hats over the wall Big Time and having to follow. I've thoroughly enjoyed the "urgency" that has pushed me into focusing and producing a variety of new work. One piece in particular - my "Meadow Magic: for the Love of Wild Meadows" - a large acrylic - was a stretch for me. Its one of those magic pieces that just turns out. I look at it and think, "who did that?" The other pieces are sweet and I'm pleased. However... (did you feel the however coming?) other than that piece I wouldn't call anything else 'out of the box.' The whole month is ours with promises of new work weekly, so there's still time. What will the out of the box look like? Stay tuned...

May Show

Glorious May to all of you!

We feel like a couple of kids playing as we rise to the challenge of the theme we created for our May Show. As much as we love making art, over time we find ourselves doing too much of what (now) comes easily. At that point there’s a persistent yearning for something different, fresh, new. And the only way we’ve found to access that place where the new happens is to allow ourselves time to play, to mess up, to not watch the clock, to not worry that we’re “wasting time.” So there’s been much chuckling (and cursing) behind closed doors with flourishes of, “Look at THIS!” excitement. You’ll see the results at the Gallery this month. Hope you get a kick out of it!

Grinning,
Mary Jo & Windwalker
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Spinning...

This weekend is The Spin-In in Oak Harbor, the largest city here, located at the north end of our beautiful isle. Yesterday was my day to attend, sit with friends, hear about what makes a good sock and to soak up yarn sights. Today Windwalker is going to spend the day and he'll be spinning with the dozens and dozens of other spinners. All these folks in one spot turning wads of sheep, alpaca, goat, etc., fibers into the most gorgeous yarns you've ever seen. THIS is the way fiber has been made for we humans for thousands of years. Its impressive. And the colors of hand-dyed/hand-painted yarns - oh, my! It took a good hour for me to catch my breath and settle in. I suspect it will be the same for Windwalker. Many thanks to Katie, for feeding me at lunch time and wrapping me up so that I felt at home. Of course a quick visit to the ice cream shop in Coupeville on the way home finished the day nicely.