the weekly palette, 10/13

weekly palette #4, anatomical drawing

as a reminder, the winner will be announced on the last sunday of every month.

this month’s prize is a stack of 4×6 papers… some vintage and antique book pages and sheet music, handmade papers, printed papers, etc.

 

here are the “rules” if you missed the first posts:

• create something using some or all of the colors in the weekly palette (at least three is preferred).
• “something” = anything.  if you make it, it counts. an assemblage, something altered, a painting, a collage, an art journal page, a book/book cover, a dress, a pair of mittens, jewelry, digital art, a newly refinished piece of furniture, a craft item — anything.  any medium. i just want to see people get creative.
• email a photo (or two) of your piece with the email subject “weekly palette” to hi (at) altered bits (dot) com but in proper email format with no spaces.  include your name, blog or website address and whatever else you want.
• IF YOU’RE SUBMITTING SOMETHING PERSONAL, SUCH AS AN ART JOURNAL PAGE THAT YOU DON’T WANT POSTED, PLEASE INDICATE SO.  i’m kind of a mind-reader, but not always spot-on.
• check back on the last sunday of the month to see if you’ve won as i’ll post the winner’s name, blog or web address, and submission photo (unless they’ve requested it not be posted).
• feel free to enter every week for additional chances to win at the end of the month.  one submission = one entry.
• have fun creating!

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french victorian anatomy: bleeding heart

i’ve never been very creative in my naming of things, but there is typically a story behind all that i create.  there is emotion.  passion.  every single piece i make is a reflection of what i’m feeling at that particular moment in time…  i’m moody — and i think it shows.

i started this piece several weeks ago and kinda fell in love.  i wanted to hold onto it for awhile before posting it up for sale.  do you ever do that?  feel a connection with your art and along with it the need to hold onto it for a wee bit?  it’s the heart — i am a deep lover of all things anatomy, particularly hearts, and this one is pretty fantastic in my opinion.

here is a detail shot of the heart:

i typically work fairly small, but this piece measures 16″x20″ — i’ve been doing larger things lately and i’m liking it!

a really wonder what an art therapist would say.  i was looking at some photos of my most recently completed pieces and they all seem to have some line(s) of separation.  divided color and texture.  two totally different halves/portions.

and some up-close details of the texture/patterns:

this piece is currently available here (along with additional photos): http://alteredbits.com/alicia-caudle-art.php

next up: some movable, light-up pieces i’ve been working on the past couple of years.  or that’s the plan.  i always get distracted or discouraged with the “whoops, got the wrong kind of LED” and whatnot then put it off again for another few months.  we shall see how it goes.

an anatomical book and a vintage paper bundle giveaway

i’ve been having so much fun making these “two story books” of mine.  i’m a huge dork and love plays on words… which i suppose is obvious.  i have several in the making, but this one is finally complete.

my newest two story book is just in time for valentine’s day, though anatomical hearts are a year-round adoration to me.

the pages off the bottom book are blood red, and the top book’s pages are black.  i love writing in white gel pen on dark pages.

available for purchase on my website, here: http://alteredbits.com/alicia-caudle-art.php

— also, i would like to have a give-away —

this week the fam and i went on some huge adventures, having a hike in an area i used to frequent, tromping past mini-waterfalls and gazing below at the willamette river.  it was pretty, and fun (though quite cold).  afterwards we went to one of my favorite volunteer-run used book stores and i got heaps of vintage foreign language books.  lucky me!  but lucky you as well!  i’ve put together a bundle of over 40 pages of foreign language text and image sheets for you: french, sanskrit, japanese, scandinavian, german, russian… i’m guessing on some of these.  all of these date from 1920 to 1960 and could be yours for collage or other art projects.

i will be adding a few more paper bits once the random generator picks the winner — something custom that i think he or she may like, such as vintage scrap, collage sheet bits, vintage ephemera, or stamps, etc.  all you have to do to enter is leave a comment.  the winner will be announced next saturday, the 21st.

good luck!!

xx

a day late

happy love, a day late.  we’re not huge valentine celebrators around here, but we’ll typically make each other something.

the little man woke me up with breakfast in bed that he made all by himself (cereal) and the most gorgeous card.  the husb actually made me art!  real, true life, visual art (i’ll photograph soon).  his art is music and he doesn’t typically enjoy making things, but recently we had a spur of the moment “altered man” workshoppy art fest here with some friends.  we all started in on altering some anatomical guy dolls.  well, he finished his in secret for me  and wrote me the most delightfully sweet love song (kinda sounded like an angry horror film narrator in a sexy nerdy way talking circuitry and electronics and love).  needless to say, the dude he made me was packed full of electronic bits, circuits, an LED crown, wires, etc., standing on a heart shaped circuit board.  i guess he’s sweet after all, eh?

i made him “us” last weekend, while so on top of things, but ran out of time making him the part two piece of “us as animals”.  sounds worse than it will be, hah.  anyway, us…

our hearts are all tangled and lovey.  guess i can be sweet every once in awhile too.  pfff.

xxox

another book, a butterfly and gorgeous goodies

i’m book obsessed.  i think i’ve made about 30 in the past two months, but this one i made for my shop since it’s been so barren over there that i could practically hear crickets.  the others were for art fairs and gifts, but this one is for you.  😉  my camera is weird and tries to make things look more pristine than they are.

i like to fool around with different weird binding techniques that i dream up but this time i was going to just cover the spine with fabric.  however, when i was done, i liked the rough and rustic look of it so i altered my original plan.

oooh, alicia-style crackle!  you can click to enlarge, if you’re interested.

and… a classic back pocket.  gotta have a place for those secrets, i always say!

i also spent some time working on my butterfly for the butterfly project.  if you haven’t heard of it, here is the short version: the holocaust museum in houston, texas, which is dedicated to educating people about the holocaust, remembering the 6 million jews and other innocent victims and honoring the survivors’ legacy.  fast forward to their project, the butterfly project is  to remember the 1,500,000 innocent children who perished as a result of the holocaust  by collecting 1.5 million handmade butterflies.  i’ve started mine and will be finishing it this weekend with my family.  both the husby and the son wish to make one because we think this is such a beautiful tribute to a horribly tragic historical event.  many of the husb’s ancestors were lithuanian jews.  two dresses studio has graciously offered to forward the butterflies to the museum and we’ll be sending ours off soon.

this is the start to mine (lace, embroidery, recycled sari silk, salvaged fabric from a once-gorgeous dress from the 50s, etc… and i think i will cover the black stitching ’cause i may now hate it):

now, i have to plug my sweet friend lisa jurist because i adore her and her gorgeous products have facilitated my whole book-making extravaganza lately.  without her, my binding would be ever so bland!  if you do not know her, you must visit her blog and etsy shop and i assure you, you will adore her too.  i have a mudhound shopping fetish so a couple of weeks ago when i realized i was low on her amazing recycled silks, i popped over to get more.  see how amazingly lovely this silk is!!

and in the package, that super sweet, ever-so-generous girl sent me this amazing miniature vintage printer’s drawer (she sells these in her etsy shop too!).  i’m in love and can’t wait to get some of my wonderful little victorian babies and poison bottles into it.  thanks so much, lisa!!

 

One World One Heart 2011

it’s time again for one world one heart!  actually it was time about a week ago but i was a bit slow… what else is new, at least for those who know me.  for those who don’t, hello!  i’m alicia of altered bits, a little online shop with mixed media and altered art goodies — and i have some goodies to share.  i’m also a mixed media artist with an affinity for dolls/doll parts, anatomical “things”, rust and anything that’s old, tattered and interesting to look at.

this year i’ll be giving away three things.  first up, a small frozen charlotte doll with a little bundle of gorgeous recycled sari silk ribbon in earthy hues:

next up, the whole “collaged bits” collection from altered bits in digital format (i’ll upload it to my server so you can download it).  i created these sheets and images so you won’t find them anywhere else (if you do, tell me though ’cause they’re mine, ha!):

last but not least, i’ve pulled one of my anatomical collages to give to YOU.  it’s entitled “still” and is mounted on black mat board.  i am not as much of a collage person as i used to be as i prefer to create creepy little assemblages but i almost miss the feel and smell of paper when i leave it for too long.

you know the drill — just leave a comment and you could win one of these three items.  winners will be announced on february 17th (the day before my birthday).

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS: i had a winner last year who left no email address or blog address so i was bummed.

books, collages and quiet times

november is always a quiet time of year for me.  hectic, but still and calm-feeling at the same time for some reason.  it’s getting cold now which makes me want to go out even less than i typically would and i get so very busy creating holiday gifts for fam and friends, winter-time art show goodies, stuff my shops, etc. that i feel like a quiet little machine.   as crazy as november and december always are to me, i feel like i’m going in slow motion in this hushed little space of my own.

i’ve made a few more handmade books.  that makes 18 so far (they are tiny though).  three of these are gifts for sure (the two above = gifts to me – are the only non-blank ones), and some may soon be in my shop as i may have created too many to fit in my wee space at the 12/5 art fair (do you think 3 assemblages, 15 mini-books, 25 cards, 25 prints, eight collages, a large handmade book, five wristcuffs, three necklaces and six journals will fit on a 3×5′ table??).

i also did a series of anatomical collages a couple weeks back, or so.  four of which can be found on my site — just posted them.

first, i created a woman…

then i created four men.  here are three of them…

one more pulp book completed

i am thrilled to share that i have totally completed lisa sarsfield’s book for the pulp redux collaboration and have started in on lisa jurist’s.  wohooo!  BUT because lisa s. posted her contributions to kim’s book yesterday, i’m going to wait to share what i’ve done in her book.  i don’t want to steal her thunder, ya know.

for now, i shall offer up just a wee peek to hold you over until a later post.

okay, i lie.  i’ll give three peeks.

peek one.  see seth apter’s magnificent brass X?  all five of my contributions have/will have one of these (we pulpy girls love seth and i wanted to put a piece of him in our books):

peek two.  this is a peek of page two, just inside the top page with the book i previously showed.  had to add a classic red “alicia thing” and this is that:

and peek three. this is the back page.  can you tell what that is?  i know you can’t tell what’s inside.

check back in a few days for the rest of the photos AND lots of fantastic pulpy news.

i’ve also been working on several new assemblages over the past couple of weeks (five, to be exact).  i’m not sharing any of the completed ones yet (yes, i may finally reveal some of my motorized and light up stuff that i don’t typically show online), but i’ll share this cute little start to a costume girl i’m doing for now (check out her little skull mask and ribcage outfit).  a little more cutesy than anything i would typically do but halloween is coming and… yeah.  i made this little girl from apoxie clay and such (thanks again, kerin e. ninny!).  i hope to have her finished within the next week or so and will post it here (may have to make a wee video of her since it will be mildly interactive).

for magnificent eye candy, check our pulp redux blog and lucky dip lisa’s blog.  new pulpy goodness was posted late last night!

missing paper and paint

i have been working on SO many books lately, heaps of assemblages and lots of fabric pieces that i’ve been finding myself missing paper and paint.  the sound of the brush on paper, the glide of its bristles… the smell of super old paper.  yummy!  so while i had no computer, i started in on some new collages just for fun.  i’ve also used several of my totally natural hand made inks and dyes (black, brown, beige, yellowish and red).  more about that another day.

this hasn’t a title but i like it none the less.  i seem to have a “thing” for three circles — noticed that even old works from a few years ago has them (and even older works have two circles).  i wonder what this subconsciously symbolizes to me.  my three family members?  the third decade of my life?  who knows… but circles are fun.  do you have a symbol or shape that appears and reappears in your art?

these two are entitled “nesting” and “heart song”.  i’m sure you can figure out which is which, huh?  😉

currently they are hanging in my new, almost complete living room, but i started them with the intention of either having them in my next arty exhibit or saving them and actually signing up for ICE this year.  the husby wants to keep them, but that’s pretty typical and i always remind him that he can’t keep everything i make.  his response?  well, it’s not like i want to wear your cuffs and i don’t really need a journal so no problem. he’s cute.

happy friday!

death of the apothecary

i’ve just finished a new little assemblage today that is part of a several piece series of doll assemblages.  it’s called “death of the apothecary”.

i’ll probably end up adding some subtle text and numbers to the orange wooden disks at the top, but i’ll have to think about that one for a moment.  the nails on top left little rusty remnants around the holes on the top — love that part.

here is a detail of the charlotte, complete with a little humanesque heart and red thread.

the little bottles inside the assemblage are topped with waxy goodness, and one a skull i fashioned from a bead and apoxy clay (that’s how i adhered everything — thank you kerin for turning me in on to this magnificent stuff!!).

can you tell what is in the bottles?  i LOVE mixing mineral oil with colored water (the first bottle) — it’s kind of like a mini lava lamp when you shake it up.  woohooo!