The garden is in and the weeding has begun. How come I don't get as much attention as The Hun gives to those vegetables? Can't complain about the eating though.

We have only heard in cryptic fashion from our Phantom Subscriber. She is apparently on some kind of secret mission and could not tell us where she was - something about finding Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussain. Her work in Iraq, helping the soldiers relax from the horrors of war with stamping and scraping booking classes, gained the notice of Central Command and we understand a commendation is in the works. The First Marine Expeditionary Force has made her an honorary member and the pictures of her wearing a flack jacket over her mumu are precious.

shows and classes tra la!

The Artful Journey moved this year from Daytona Beach to Jacksonville, about an hour north. The venue was the Osborn Conference Center, which was the former Jacksonville train station, built in 1911 and recently renovated. It is a magnificent building with high vaulted ceilings and great natural light. Unfortunately the move, about two hours north, took its toll on the attendance from Southern Florida, a hot bed of stamping. It should fill in next year with a greater attendance from Georgia and possibly the Carolina’s.

We stopped in St. Mary’s to see Paula Amari at Old Town Crafts. The unqualified success of The Creative Palette in February has encouraged Paula to expand the 2004 edition. Added vendors and teachers should make this one of the best shows in the South East. And Paula is adamant about NOT charging a vendor or attendee fee. You can't do better than this – a great show, in a magnificent setting, and for free. Contact Paula at 877-313-6745 for more information.

Again I held classes for a great group of dedicated crafters in Ft. Lauderdale. Three classes over two days. Luc hosted the group and was a gracious hostess. I would be happy to provide private classes in your area if you can get enough of a group together. Call me to discuss the details at 530-344-9322.

For those of you in the mid west I will be at Stampaway XI in Cincinnati on August 15th and 16th. This is my first year at Stampaway and I look forward to finally meeting those of you in Ohio and environs to whom I have spoken and corresponded over the years.

I will be teaching at a new stamp/craft camp, ART Unraveled, produced by Linda Young in Phoenix on August 22nd through the 24th. She has booked some of the best craft teachers in the US and I am pleased to be included. This is pretty much a classes/workshops deal with only four hours of vendor selling on Friday evening. Linda has set-up a terrific web site for info – www.ArtUnraveled.com. I will be teaching three classes there including one in faux fused glass with my good friend and super talent, Malana Watt-Corn.

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will the winner please stand…

1. Use them to wrap clay around, mold into a vase, person, art doll, animal, whatever, stamp into the clay, paint the clay. Leave the little glass vase open somewhere to place little picked flowers into. This could be made so that the flower is the hair of the animal or doll.

2. Surround the little glass vases with stamped dominoes that are glued together to make a little flower vase.

3. Attach a wire around the rim, add beads and make a pendant of the little vase to hold little treasures and wear it. You could even stamp on the vase itself with little tiny stamps.

sky blue and xina, too!

journal journey

This beautiful, boxed journal includes my calligraphy and images and is filled with warm thoughts and attached envelopes for storing the precious mementos that accompany your words and thoughts. It is spiral bound so that it lies flat when you write and wonderful fibers attached to act as a bookmark. A gift for a friend or yourself, and at $32 a bargain as well.

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the so sad powder story

sources

Pigments of Our Imagination

Exploring the Web, I found four sites related to color and pigments that are well worth your time; two directly concerning pigments, two about color and its uses. In addition, I have provided a list of books about colors and their histories, which are fascinating. Information about color can also be found on the Web sites of companies who produce paints and dyes.

Pigments Through the Ages
webexhibits.org/pigments/

The information here on pigments is bountiful, if some times hard to find. The site's navigation is not always obvious. Notice the basic color names across the top, and click one of them to reach an introduction to that color family. "Intro to the yellows", for instance. On that intro page will be 2 navigation features: 1) a list of the next articles about this color family, over on the left; and 2) a dropdown list with the names of all the colors that are discussed on the site. I chose "Cobalt Green" and came to a page with a color sample, a brief description, names for Cobalt Green in English, French, Italian, and German, and a list on the left with more pages about the color. [FYI, Cobalt Green was discovered in 1780 and is still in use.] At the bottom is a list of "other greens."

Quite a lot of work and information has gone into this Web site, but they definitely need someone to unify all their divers navigation schemes. The content is excellent once you find it.

StudioMara - Pigment History
lilinks.com/mara/history.html

Mara F. Szalajda, an artist, maintains this site with an interesting essay on the history of various pigments called "Artists' Pigments 1780-1880: History And Uses"

Color Matters
www.colormatters.com/entercolormatters.html

This site by J.L. Morton, a professor of color in Hawaii, is more about how color is used and perceived, the social side of color. Some of the topics covered are Color & Vision, Color & Science, and Color & Design. There is a monthly newsletter about color. She also has written some e-books about color that are available at her other site:

Color Voodoo
www.colorvoodoo.com

Nita Leland's Exploring Color and Creativity
www.nitaleland.com

Nita Leland is an artist who has written a book about color with a companion coloring book, as well as two other wonderful books about creativity and collage. Her Web site has a lot if interesting information and links.

Nita's books:

* Exploring Color, Revised Edition: How to Use and Control Color in Your Painting

* Exploring Color Coloring Book

* The Creative Artist: A Fine Artist's Guide to Expanding Your Creativity

* Creative Collage Techniques: A Step-by-Step Guide

Books on Colors:

Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color
Philip Ball

Color: A Natural History of the Palette
Victoria Finlay
In England, published as "Colour: Travels through the Paintbox"

Blue: The History of a Color
Michel Pastoureau

Madder Red: A History of Luxury and Trade
Robert Chenciner

Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World
Simon Garfield

Indigo in the Arab World
Jenny Balfour-Paul

The Red Dyes
Gosta Sandberg

I hope you enjoyed this colorful excursion around the Web!

cheers,
Xina

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brickbats and kudos

Hi:
I am a clay/glass artist. I am interested in using your stamps as part of my works in clay. Each piece would be hand stamped. Then the image has glaze rubbed into it and it is raku fired. Is this an acceptable use of your stamps/images?
Zoe Johnson

Yes, yes yes, a thousand times yes! Anything hand stamped is cool with me – even your cat.

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Vicki gets some fan mail also.

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Thanks again!!
Su W

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Patty in IN

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fabulous work!
lynn d

Okay these are all about me, some unabashed bragging.

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Thank you so much,
Cate P.

Yes I hold the copyright to all the images in my catalog. Gonzage University in Washington State is a private institution and wanted to use several images on posters, flyers and other media for a special summer program. I was going to charge them $100 for multiple usage but The Hun says they produce great basketball players so I charged them $50. (More an honorarium than a license fee.)

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Fingers crossed - Elsa Lockhart Murphy

A lovely thought but I am at a loss – can anyone help Elsa. Send the names and addresses of any organizations you know of to me.

Also Elsa’s e-mail was relayed to me and it did not have an address attached. Elsa please phone home. If Elsa does not get in touch I will publish all answers in the next newsletter.

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Help!
I have been searching for the faces that you have featured in "The Empowerment of Art" article in the March/April 2003 issue of Expression magazine ......FOREVER! Can you tell me where I can purchase the face cabochons or the polymer clay push molds to make these beautifully serene faces? I have seen faces similar to these made of bone and carved in Indonesia that have been incorporated into high end jewelry. I have searched and searched online and found nothing. I would greatly appreciate your guidance.

Thanks a million! Your designs are fabulous!
Allyson

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Great newsletter. Thank you.
Sophia Cardella

Face Sources

• Carol Strand-Siebers (aka Mamarox) www.sassyartgoddess.com

  Carol writes, “When I started creating art dolls I began a year-long quest to find cool faces for my dolls. Not finding many available that I really liked, I started to make my own and today I am happy to say I have over a dozen face molds available.”

• Claire has a range of faces available in the $14 to $16 range. Contact her at (702) 228-7933, or 1982 North Rainbow Blvd., suite 122, Las Vegas, NV 89108, or Claire5@ixnetcom.com.

• As mentioned in the previous newsletter, check out Diane Briegleb, 1662 Strand Way, Oceano, CA 93445 or idianne@charter.net or her web site: members.tripod.com/idiane/theface.htm She has a high minimum but this may be workable if you buy with several friends.

• Krafty Lady in Australia at www.kraftylady.com.au. Kristine offers dozens of molds of faces and other images. Her categories include; African, Asian, cameos, Egyptian, masks, and more. There is some really neat stuff here.

• Rhonda Kivett offers two faces from what seems like a push mold. They are not very pretty but who knows what kind of doll you are planning. There are some beaded dolls shown and she has patterns you can use by printing the page and cutting them out of cloth. www.kivett-studio.com/patterns.html.

• We found a new one since the last newsletter: Backyard Cards & Gifts has a variety of molds: www.backyardcards-gifts.com/Molds.htm

Debbie
Art is too much fun to be restricted to those who are good at it I have my own little world. But it's OK. They know me here.

Debbie:

I love the little coda after your name.

I use the Peyote stitch to create a bezel around the faces. No plans to publish the instructions but I have designed a two-day Amulet bag workshop where I tell you all my secrets.

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Pam T.

The Hun says he knows all about begging and pleading, however, into each life a bit of rain must fall.

The Hun’s favorite Vietnamese restaurant in the entire country has lost its luster. The early success must have gone to their heads as they have opened two additional locations in Savannah. This would be okay if they kept up the quality, but alas (yeah - I always wanted to use this word) they have spread themselves too thin and devolved into just an ordinary strip mall Asian eatery. When we mentioned the reduction in menu items and quality of the food on our recent visit, the hostess actually said that it “costs too much to cook that way.”

This comment stands with another of our famous restaurant retorts. When, in a super expensive and celebrated Los Angeles eatery, I sent a fish entrée back because it was so over cooked you could have driven nails with it. The waiter returned to say that the chef told him “this was the best he could do.”

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bistro hun

William Sonoma has a set of knives from Japan that are the sharpest ever. I keep them in the box, and away from my husband as he has no respect for them. That way when I need to use them, they are always sharp, and haven't been damaged by being in the drawer with all the other kitchen "stuff". Great newsletter! Thank you

floozieartgirl
judy

I have a feeling that Judy is talking about the Global knives from Japan. One of the reasons they are so sharp is that they have a 15 degree grind instead of the usual 22 degrees found on western knives. The major drawback is that the edge is more brittle and is thus prone to chipping. I wanted to love the Global’s but hated the shape and feel of the one piece handle. They are also too light for me. Someone up there heard me and recently Messermeister has brought out a traditionally shaped knife with a 15 degree grind called Meridian Elite. I have bought two so far and am hoping to sneak another past ERA soon.

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I am the friend in FL, not old, (well all right, I am the same age as Roberta), and the proud owner of Henckel knives. I thought I was finally old enough to have the right pots and knives after turning 58 and moving to a new home in FL from NY. The Hun is right, you need the right tools if you want to do the job quickly and efficiently. BUT I DO USE MY KNIVES AND YES THEY ARE STILL SHARP BECAUSE I TAKE CARE OF THEM. NEVER IN THE DISHWASHER AND THEY ARE PROFESSIONALLY SHARPENED ONCE A YEAR. A Major Fan - Diane from Coral Springs, FL

I was referring to another old friend in Florida.

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cheers,
Christina

Yes but the discourse is a bit much for this newsletter since it is about ERA and for stampers and crafters. I have written a short discourse and will send it along to anyone who asks for it. Just send me an e-mail.

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The following is a pastry recipe I found in Regaqn Daley’s terrific cookbook, "In The Sweet Kitchen." I love it for several reasons:

• You can make it ahead and keep it in a sealed plastic container in the fridge. You can then make a crust for a pie or tart at a moments notice. Just press some of it into a pie or tart tin with your fingers (no need to grease anything) and blind bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Even if you make a conventional dough in advance and freeze some, you have to wait for it to defrost before using.

• The nut crust is made in the food processor and is ready to go, no need to rest it for an hour as with conventional pie dough, but you can.

Rich Nut Tart Pastry

1/4 cup nuts toasted*
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk (cold)

* You can use virtually any nut but if you choose macadamia nuts do not toast them.

Combine the nuts and sugar in a food processor and pulse until nuts are finely ground (do not over process or you will end up with nut butter). Add the flour and pulse once or twice to blend. Add the butter and pulse for 10 to 20 seconds until largest pieces are about the size of fat peas. Add the egg yolk and process 5 to 7 seconds until mixture comes together. Turn it into a bowl and kneed very lightly.

You can refrigerate the dough at this time, or press it into a tart tin and then refrigerate it for several hours. The shells can be frozen for up to one month. Do not thaw but proceed directly to blind bake.

Regan recommends 10 minutes of baking with parchment or foil and pie weights then 15 to 18 minutes with the parchment removed. I find you can skip the parchment step and go directly to bake as the dough does not puff up like conventional pastry.

Next month three more great kitchen tips, plus…

That's all for now!
Roberta