Art Blog | Julie Dawn Designs

May 4, 2024

Where has the time gone?

I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure where March and April went. How did it get to be May already? Time seems to be flying by and I completely failed to post lately and for that I apologize .

I have been busy getting ready for the Spring Show and Sale at the Craft Guild of Dallas. It starts on Thursday and ends on Sunday. I just hope the weather cooperates because it is outside and we have had a lot of rain lately, especially on the weekends.

I made some true junk journals that are for sale on the Craft Guild’s Online Gallery. They are so much fun to make and it gives me a chance to use up all those fabric and paper scraps I seem to have so many of. Here are some photos of the four that I have made so far.

This first one is called Soar and was inspired by the orange butterfly that I cut out from a tapestry that my daughter was getting rid of. That was a great find for me and there are a lot of beautiful butterflies I was able to salvage from it.

Here is a picture of some of the pages inside. They are truly a random mix of papers. The thing I like most about these journals is that the pages aren’t bound at all. They are folded and then tied into the journal with either string or elastic. This way, pages can be slipped in or out and you can keep the cover for as long as you want.

This next one is called Bunny Rides and I just love the images for this one, not to mention the gorgeous color scheme.

Here is a picture of the inside.

The third one is called Frenchie and I just love how dapper he is.

Here is a sample of a the inside.

Here is the last one and it’s called Soar and features another butterfly from the tapestry.

Here are some of the pages.

That’s all for now. I hope to post again next month with more journals to share and maybe a textile collage or two.

April 17, 2023

My First Art Doll

I recently purchased an online class called Southern Sass by Kecia Deveney. She is an amazing artist and her art dolls are incredible so I couldn’t wait to start this class.

I have to admit that I am the worst at buying classes and either never taking them at all, never finishing them or finishing them and never applying anything that I learned in class. I shudder to think of the amount of money I’ve spent on online art classes over the years, but I wouldn’t have learned any of what I know now without some of them, so some of the money was well spent.

Anyway, back to that art dolls. I watched some of the videos and then procrastinated and finally got started last week. It is so fun learning something new and getting out of my comfort zone, not to mention it’s a great way to use the fabric paint I bought years ago and put a dent in my stash of fabric as well.

Here are a few pictures of my progress so far:

After I made a pattern I liked and transferred it onto muslin, I started creating the eyes, ears, mouth and nose. This was harder than I expected and took a while, especially when it came to the hand stitching part. I spent quite a while getting those pieces the way I wanted them, but I’m really pleased how they turned out.

I then painted the face with colors that coordinated with some of the fabrics I had picked out for the body beforehand. I have pinned the facial features in place, but haven’t sewn them down yet.

Here I have laid out all of the fabric pieces I plan on using over the pattern. You can’t seen the shape of the body yet because this is how you do it at first. I haven’t gotten far enough to know what happens next, but I’m excited to see what she looks like after all the fabric is sewed in place and trimmed down. I also chose the saying I wanted to have and stamped the words out and then sewed them onto felt. I don’t like the stamps I have so I ordered some different ones that hopefully work better with paint than these did. I think these would be great with ink, but they weren’t the best with paint.

Well I’m going to get back to it and hope this all turns out how I hope it will.

Till next time.

December 3, 2021December 3, 2021

Work in Progress and Other Things

I’ve been struggling with making more journals lately. I’m working on them, but I kind of hit a wall for a bit. I guess life got in the way with Thanksgiving and kids and all that entails.

There was a lunar eclipse that I really wanted to see, but it turns out it happened at 3 am, so I didn’t want to see it bad enough to wake up that early. I might have caught it if the cat had woken me up at that time, but this was one of those times he chose not to. I did get a couple of shots of the full moon the next morning.

These aren’t the best pictures, but they are better than what I usually get with my phone. It’s really hard to get good pictures of the moon for some reason and I have an iPhone 11 Pro, so I thought that would make a difference, but it really hasn’t.

After the slump I had, I did start working on some new journals. But first I needed to replenish my dyed paper stash. I used the dipped and sewn dyeing method because it’s faster than the dyed and gone to heaven method, but it’s still a process. Fortunately we have warm, sunny weather this week, so I decided to take advantage of that to dry the papers.

These papers are going to be used in three travelers journals I’m working on. I recently was asked if I wanted to sell some of my journals on consignment at the gorgeous Sky Pony Gallery in Willow Bend Mall. I gladly accepted, but now I need to make even more journals than I had anticipated so that I have enough for the gallery and for the Craft Guild’s Spring Show. So I guess it’s back to work for me!

On a final note, the geese are back. Yay!

They are funny to watch because they have no fear of the golfers whatsoever. They just go where to want to no matter who is in their way!

Bye for now!

November 18, 2021

Around Here – The Week Before Thanksgiving

Sometimes I realize that my website has a blog, but then I tend to forget all about it. I’m not great at blogging, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t have to be. This space can be whatever I want it to be and it can be just for me. It’s absolutely okay if no one else ever reads this. Maybe one day, when I’m no longer on this earth, my kids will read it and I hope it makes them smile.

That being said, I’m going to post more often. The older I get, the more aware I am of how fleeting life is and also how precious it is. Not just the big things, but the little daily things as well.

There is a chill in the air today that we haven’t felt in a while. We were blessed with two 80 degree days, but today is in the 50’s and quite windy. The ducks were enjoying it though.

They seem to be enjoying themselves, despite the stiff breeze and colder temperatures. The geese were nowhere to be seen though. Perhaps they were at another pond.

One of my favorite birds are hawks, especially red hawks. We have quite a few of them in our area. The other day I was sitting at my desk and when I looked out the window, I saw a red hawk land in the tree right behind our back yard. It was really gorgeous.

I watched as the hawk moved up the tree and seemed to make itself comfortable.

To my surprise a second hawk came along and landed on the same branch quite near the first hawk.

What occurred next was somewhat shocking – they started fighting and flew away. I wanted to get a picture of this, but it all happened too fast. It was quite surprising, but also very interesting to watch. Sadly, I haven’t had either one of them visit since.

I really do enjoy my view so much more now that we moved. It’s nice to be able to see something besides the alley and our neighbors fence!

I recently finished the Craft Guild’s spring show and it went really well. I ended up selling 40 journals, which is amazing, but I think I could have sold even more if I hadn’t procrastinated so much over the summer and then had to rush to make things before the show date. That really wasn’t smart.

I also had someone who liked to “help” me with my work, but wasn’t all that helpful.

He is cute sometimes though!

Till next time!

September 16, 2020

My Obsession

I recently was given the opportunity to take a class online that has previously only been taught in person. I was never able to take the in person workshop before because it was in Auckland, and unfortunately, that was just a bit too far for me to go. Then the pandemic hit and lockdowns ensued. I haven’t found too many positive things that have come from this nightmare we are all currently living in, but Liz Constable of Book Art Studios decided to teach her classes online for the first time ever, so I guess that was my silver lining.

Needless to say, I jumped at the chance to sign up for anything and everything she has made available. Her Dyed and Gone to Heaven class has led to my current obsession – hand dyeing papers.

I’ve always coffee and tea dyed a good portion of my papers, but her technique took me in a direction I never knew was even possible. I can’t divulge the process, it’s a highly guarded secret and you can only learn it by taking her class, but I can tell you it’s amazing and has taken my paper dyeing to a whole new level.

Here are a few examples:

Finding dyes has been more of a challenge than I expected. Apparently, tie dyeing has been very popular during this pandemic, so the supply of Rit and Tulip dyes at local craft stores is quite low. I have experimented with food coloring, both powdered and gel, as well as India inks and other inks as well.

I really love the results and I’m also super excited that Liz is teaching the second class, Dyed Again, online as well. I signed up for that one and I can’t wait to learn even more amazing techniques for turning ordinary paper into something extraordinary.