More Ornaments

Last week I told you that I was working on circle ornaments, and I actually finished them this week. Different from the painted angels, but they were fun to make as well.

Winter scene

For this year I am done with Christmas ornaments. I'm currently working on journals and hope I can list a few in my Etsy store soon. I also hope to continue my big painting and get back to my art journal.

Snowman

This is for Paint Party Friday - short and sweet today. Happy PPF everyone!!!

A Visit to Coppola Winery

Francis Ford Coppola, director of movies like "The Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now", is also a wine maker, and may I say so, a darn good one. Two of our friends work at the winery, and yesterday, when Kaefer was staying with a friend, the Geek and I went to spend a few hours "in the vineyards". I love wine, especially red wine, and an excuse for a little wine tasting always works for me.

 The winery, formerly called "Rosso e Bianco", is situated in lovely Alexander Valley, near Geyserville.

The driveway

The winery turned out to be a photographer's paradise. After we had a wonderful wine tasting with our friends, we walked around the grounds of the winery, enjoying the good mood. It was crowded, but both the Geek and I were completely "in the zone" taking pictures that we couldn't bother less.

The former small winery was completely remodeled and turned into a family-friendly facility in 2010. The architecture is quite fascinating with those two pyramid towers (this is one of them). There is a huge pool and bocce courts - good summer entertainment.

Inside is a restaurant which is supposed to be VERY good, the tasting room and showrooms where you can stroll through. It is pure eye-candy. See for yourself.

The wine on the left - the Director's Cut Zinfandel - is my favorite wine from this winery. But every wine I tasted here is excellent. I couldn't find a single one that I didn't like.

Coppola collaborates with production designer Dean Tavoularis, whom he first met during the production of "The Godfather". They have worked creatively together ever since - Tavoularis worked on the interior and exterior design of this winery -, and he also designed some of the bottle labels of the Francis Coppola Reserve wines - like this one, the Syrah. This is my favorite wine label (and the wine is delicious as well):

Isn't this some great inspiration? Guess what will be in my art journal pretty soon?

And talking of the "The Godfather", this is the desk and the chair you can see in the movie:

Coppola's Oscars and the Berlinale Camera are also displayed in this winery.

Another display we really liked was Coppola's Tucker - one of the very few that were built. Coppola actually owns two of them. A fascinating car, especially the cyclops eye headlight.

At the end of our stay we even saw Coppola and George Lucas (you know, "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones") - they just mingled with the crowd and I really liked that no one bothered them.

Here's a last view from the winery over Alexander Valley in beautiful Sonoma County.

Painted Angels

After I had nothing to show for either Paint Party Friday nor Studio JRU last week, I am glad that I worked on some angel ornaments this week.

Blue angel

They're paper mache stars that you can get in almost every craft supply store like Michaels. There are also other shapes available like circles and hearts. I simply gessoed them, attached some sheet music or book pages, painted them with acrylic paints and then painted the angels, also with acrylic paints. I did something similar last year, and when I compare those ornaments with these I can see big differences. It's nice to see how my paintings developed, but that I also have my own style, or at least a style I feel comfortable with.

Light blue angel

Since I had so much fun with my angels I created three of them. I had made a rough template of an angel which I used in each of these and then did all the individual detail work like faces and hair. They're available in my Etsy store.

Dark blue angel

I'm currently working on circle ornaments, and I hope I can show them to you next week.

Are you working on Christmas "stuff"?

Cards for the Holidays

 

"Bethlehem", set of 7

Those of you who look at "My Shop" icon on my sidebar may have noticed that I've started listing handmade Christmas cards in my Etsy shop.

Actually, they're Christmas card sets. Some have six cards, some eight, there is even a set of 12 cards.

"Glitter Trees", set of  10

Some come with matching gift tags, like these polar bears...

"Polar Bears", set of 6

...and this snowman set

"Snowman", set of 8

I have to admit that I am not a big Christmas card writer. Usually I send a card and a "letter of the year" to family in Germany, and that's about it.

However, that doesn't mean that I don't like Christmas cards. I do. I love the tradition of sending a card for this special holiday and let loved ones know that they are in our thoughts and hearts. I simply love that we think of other people.

There are cards for bird lovers - and how can you not love these red cardinals!

"Red Cardinals", set of 6

Or perhaps you prefer a little Christmas cat.

"Santa Cat", set of 8

It's always good to remember WHY we celebrate Christmas.

"Nativity", set of 6

Remember that I once showed you the altered photo of three candles and asked you whether I should turn that into a Christmas card? Well, I did!

Photo Christmas cards, set of 10

Tell me - do you send cards for the holidays?

An Ocean, Not a Mermaid

For the longest time Kaefer had no idea what to be for Halloween. Then finally, on the Saturday before Halloween, with only four more days to go, she decided to be the ocean.

So off we went to the fabric and craft store to buy fabric, a fisherman's net and a bag of shells. On to Home Depot to get some serious rope.

After that she was busy until the morning of Halloween, hot gluing the shells to the net and the rope, making earrings and the hair accessory. She found an old skirt that we bought when she was around ten years old (and it still fits - sort of) and effectively draped the shimmering fabric around her. It needed some safety pins and I had to knot her into the net, but in the end, it all came together beautifully and she turned into a pretty merm... uh, ocean.

She used some ribbon out of my stash for making the hair clip and then hot glued the seastar on top of it.

She loves to make earrings, and these seastars (again from my stash) were created quickly.

A close-up of the fisherman's net with all the shells she glued on.

I think she did a really good job!

Texture Tuesday

It's Tuesday and that means it's time for Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday. It's the free and easy edition, that means our photo should have at least one of Kim's textures. During the fall festival I wrote about here I saw this overturned boat - it has been there for years, and every time I take a photo of it.

Here's the recipe:

- turned the photo into black and white with the gradient map
- brushed back the color onto the boat in the layer mask
- some hue/saturation adjustment
- added Kim's texture "shadesofnovember" in blending mode color burn at 100%
- added a layer mask and brushed away most of the texture except on the boat and the rocks in the foreground

The BIG Painting

When we moved into our new house we had to renovate the downstairs bathroom since it had some dry rot. We replaced the shower, got new tiles throughout and painted it in a rather neutral, "shy" color. It definitely needed some bold color, especially since there is a big blank wall over the bathtub. We almost never shower down here and do not use the bath tub, so we thought I could paint a really big canvas and hang it over the bath tub.

Deep breath. I had never worked on a big blank canvas. My biggest size so far had been 9x12. Suddenly I was confronted with a 30x40 inches big canvas - and it was frighteningly blank.

So I thought instead of staring at this huge area of white I just start by splashing some color on it and see where it takes me from there. I started out with some yellow.

From there on I added more color, pretty randomly at first and then with some more thought behind it. I used different tools to apply the paint - this stipple brush, brayer, credit card, bristle brush, paper towel, my fingers (no, I am not left handed; I paint with my left hand here because I am holding my camera in my right hand).

Finally, the entire canvas was covered in color.

Some parts I like a lot, like this green area where I created a pattern with the edge of the credit card.

I also like the yummy texture on some parts.

This is how far I got in my first "sitting". I had hoped to get back to it today, but totally failed to do that. By posting about it here I hope I have the motivation to continue working on it and show you the progress.

This little guy was my companion while I painted (I painted outside because I needed a lot of space):