Painting With Smoke

I bought an art book this week that I've wanted to buy for several years.

It's called "Art from Intuition" by Dean Nimmer.

My daughter and I took a workshop from Dean (& friend and artist, Jane Davies) when he was in the process of writing this book. We had a great time that day and were able to try alot of the exercises that are in this book.

One idea of his is to draw with smoke. Sounded like fun to me -I must have some latent pyromaniac tendencies - and I knew that my 15 year old son, Jamie would like it.

Here is my finished piece

Too bad I didn't think about taking pictures while we were making it.

The basic process though was to light a candle, hold the paper (I used poster board) upside down and touch the tip of the flame to the paper. Depending on how you move the flame, you really can get some cool shades of smoke and shapes on the paper. After you have all the smoke you want. he suggests spritzing it with water, erasing some of the marks, and/or adding some charcoal or ink.

I couldn't find an eraser to remove some of the smoke marks, so I used a piece of polymer clay. (worked great). After removing some of the smoke, we then applied a second layer of smoke in places. We also tried misting some water on the paper to see how the second layer of smoke would work on wet paper.

After all that was done, I used my "polymer clay" eraser to make the circles and the sets of horizontal lines.

This was really fun and I already have more ideas for my next smoke drawings. Not only would it look good in my "black/white art only" entryway, I think these sheets would be great to add to collage pieces.

Here is some more information about painting with smoke (called fumage) and more detailed directions. Take a look at Wikihow

Who Knew You Could Do So Much With Covered Buttons

I was looking at some blogs tonight and saw this post and tutorial on Little Birdie Secrets about making thumbtacks and magnets with fabric covered buttons. I like it!

I've always been a fan of fabric covered buttons and I've used quite a few in my years of sewing. I've even had fun playing with them by embellishing them with beads or some hand embroidery. I have several sweaters in my closet that would probably look incredible with some custom fabric beaded buttons. Hummmmm... (I feel another project coming on)

Until today, the only real crafty thing I've seen done with these are some ponytail holders. So, I did some research and thought I'd share some of the fun things people are doing.

The Etsy Shop, Designs by Christi, has several products with covered buttons. She makes ponytail holders and embellishes flip flops with buttons that have your monogram in thread or crystals. -very cute!

Smashed Peas and Carrots has a great tutorial to make this fabric button ring.

Suzanne's Crazy for Collars has several projects and tutorials using fabric covered buttons.

Here's her feather and button brooch

and here's a tutorial Suzanne has for making this colorful covered button choker.

Your Every Color makes these pendants and earrings from covered buttons

these get me so excited for Spring!

Another jewelry item is this bracelet made by Etsy artist, Button Maniac.

Should you be inspired like me, I also found a couple of Etsy stores that sell supplies for making fabric covered buttons and for making jewelry and household items with them.

Tobys Mom has a wide variety of button sizes, bails and adjustable rings.

Start to Finish Supplies has lots of things you can put buttons on -- including cuff links, bracelets, bobby pins, earrings, tie tacks.

If you know of some other craft projects that people have made with fabric covered buttons, let me know.

(now I'm off to look for some mint colored fabric to go with that sweater).