Yet Another Goat Story...(and you thought there were no more!)

(See illustration above)

Besides the two little boy goats (that just had their first birthday!) we also have two Angora goats. They have long curly hair (wool, actually, I guess) that has to be trimmed twice a year. Someone from the local 4H has to come with the special POWER clippers to shear them, and since the local fair only just ended, they haven't come yet.

The result? Both Rosie and Bill (Roseblossom and Bill Whickers) look like giant dustmops right now.

So earlier this afternoon Katie's down in the studio working on a project and I run down to tell her that there's a phone call for her, and our neighbor says "Hey!" over the fence at me. I turn around, and he says "I think you better go check on that goat in the pasture! She's been laying down for a real long time." (Did I mention that his favorite Christmas present EVER was a pair of super-high-powered binoculars two years ago? ahem.)

So Katie and I go out to the pasture. We can see Rosie lying like a collapsed dust mop in the shade on one side of the barn. Katie says, "Do you think she's dead?" and I say, "Probably, since that's what seems to happen at the Smithey house."

But--hooray!--Rosie's not dead, just tipped over. It's like that commercial from a long time ago--you know, "Help! I've fallen and I caaaaaan't gehhhhhht uhhhhhp."

Apparently she got into a stand of thistles behind the barn, which wound themselves into her fur/hair/wool/whatever, and the thistle seed heads were so big that the pair of legs that weren't on the ground, were sticking straight up in the air (well, almost. See lovely illustration above). She had no leverage.

Neighbor's wife and Katie and Jenny and I end up standing out there in the pasture for an hour and a half, clipping Rosie with scissors. And that's a mighty s-l-o-w way to clip a big goat. I went out today and finished her up. I tried to work on Bill, but his horns are over a foot long, and he didn't want me messing with him. He has other parts that are more than a foot long, and he didn't want me messing with them, either.

Someone big and strong and unafraid of Bill's various assorted large parts will come with the clippers, hopefully tomorrow. If not, Richard and I can always do it ourselves with scissors. Yeah. Right.

Sunday in the Studio

Had fun yesterday making a new journal. Based this on Teesha Moore's directions at her website HERE. Of course, I changed the directions some--didn't have waxed linen thread, so used wire instead, which I like to use for book binding anyways, and didn't have book cloth so I just used a scrap of canvas. I gessoed the (red) canvas when I gessoed the covers, then painted over it. I love how the canvas ended up looking.

Only change I would make in the process is that I would paint the pages with watercolor/acrylics BEFORE binding. It was hard waiting for pages to dry so I could paint other pages. I'll be collaging over them as well as drawing and writing, but painting the pages is kind of the 'first step' and I'd have like to have done it more quickly.

I'll post pictures of the pages as I go so you can watch the fun.

Making Frames for Stretched Canvases

First, let me acknowledge the amazing Claudine Hellmuth--most of this process is taken from her wonderful book, Collage Discovery. I've tweaked it a bit to suit my style, but I owe it all to her... Second, I want to credit Joel with the pictures--he's home sick today and I pressed him into service...

Before any photos were taken, I had purchased strips of wood at Home Depot. The ones I use are plain strips of wood used for lattices. The cost is 73-93 cents a linear foot, which seems steep to me, but obviously it's much less expensive than having a canvas framed, so I just gulp and keep going. I buy it in the total length I need, to minimize waste, cutting the pieces to a total length for each canvas right there in the store. For an 8 x 10 canvas, I would need 2(8 + 10) + 3, or 39 inches of wood (the three inches I added was for waste cutting, and to allow me a bit of a cushion).

I bring the wood home and paint it with a small roller and semi-gloss black paint. It usually takes a couple of coats to cover--don't forget to paint the sides, too, since they'll show as the front of the frame!

In the first two pictures, you can see how I measure the wood, side by side with the canvas. I measure the top and the bottom first, carefully marking with a pencil, since an 8 x 10 canvas is not always perfectly square. Measuring directly like this also accomodates the thickness of the folded canvas cloth on the sides of the stretched canvas.


I cut the wood using a miter saw, but I've also used a simple miter box and hand saw and they work just fine.

I apply Elmer's glue and attach the wood to the canvas using small finishing nails. I didn't take a photo of this part (and it's totally optional), but I usually use my Dremel to drill pilot holes for the nails to prevent splitting the strip of wood.




After I've attached the top and bottom strips, I go back outside to measure the side pieces, once again holding the canvas standing up and marking the length. This will make sure that each side is exactly the right length (and that it includes the thickness of the top and bottom pieces you just attached!). I do the whole process over again for the two sides.

The final step is to paint with my black paint over the raw edges that are showing on the top and bottom of the frame. If necessary, I'll fill gaps with some spackle before painting, but my theory is that this is SUPPOSED to be a very primitive looking frame and generally I don't patch.

I hope this is a clear explanation of my process. If anyone has any questions, fire away and I'll do my best to answer them.

On the Verge of Something

Took Katie and one of her friends shopping at the mall (45 minutes away) on Saturday. While they were shopping at the mall, I hung out at Borders and Michaels and at this WONDERFUL Thrift Store where I scored big time... But I digress.

I ate a Panda Express while I read one of the new books I'd just purchased, but didn't have time to eat my fortune cookie. All the way home, I felt pumped up, like I was on the verge of something new and exciting and (?) big. Before bed, I ate a little bit of my leftovers and cracked open my fortune cookie--And, lo and behold, the fortune cookie agrees that I'm about to start something new and exciting! There's nothing like having a fortune cookie echo your own instincts!

The thrift store is one I've never been to before, and I pulled in completely on impulse--They had all their books marked at a quarter (can you believe it???), so I ended up with 33 books, including a wonderful set of children's books from the 50's, two books published in 1914, a journal of an African safari that was published in 1924, two music books and a poetry book written in Portuguese, and a whole set of instructional books about re-upholstering furniture! All for $8.25--love it, love it, love it!

We also had some excitement last week, as Richard found out he will be the new principal at one of the high schools in town. It'll save him 60 minutes in the car every day, plus 80 gallons of gas a month, and it's a wonderful school with a great staff. We're all excited--it will 'officially' be announced today, when he attends the teachers' meeting at the school. Of course, since this is a relatively small town, the fact that it has not been officially announced means that everyone knows all about it.

Very exciting week last week!

Dumb, dumb, dumb

Okay, this re-working of the website has turned into a MUCH larger job than I had intended. I should have had a PLAN in mind, a method of attack so I didn't just get lost in the mire...

I'll do a post on making frames and a post on HOW NOT TO CHANGE YOUR WEBSITE--all tomorrow. While I'm making frames and fixing the website, and, oh, don't forget, finishing the DOZEN paintings for the upcoming show... Yeah, don't forget that...

Busy Day

Busy day today--I went down to Home Depot first thing this morning to buy wood and paint for the frames--If anyone's interested, I'll write about how I frame canvases tomorrow. Then I worked in the studio, not painting, but updating my website here--still not done with that. Then I went and taught art at school for Jenny's class (second grade). Fun, but exhausting. Some second graders (boys) can't use scissors. Then back home to work on website more. I'm heading back up to the house right now for the evening.

Whew. It made me tired just writing about it!