Faux-Batik

Here is a project that can be done with kids in the style of African Batik. It is so easy to do!.

Step1. Draw a picture with pencil on any cotton fabric

Step2. Go over the lines they drew with Elmer Blue Gel Blue, let dry.

Step3. Paint over the design with Watered down acrylic paint, let dry.

Step4. Soak fabric in warm water for 15 minutes and then scrub the glue out!

Voila you have a design that mimics authentic batik and is durable. They key to making it beautiful is to use dark saturated colors and to have at least one neutral color ( I used the blue gray for this)

Check out my fine art website- https://anneviggianofineart.wordpress.com/ and send me a message-   I can give you other auction project ideas!

Eiffel Tower through the gates. Paris

Whoever does not visit Paris regularly will never really be elegant. -Honore' de Balzac
This picture is telling me something.  I need to pass through this gate in 2010.
-R

Peppermint Ping-Pong Paddles

The Saturday after Thanksgiving is when my family gathers with good friends for the annual "Chez Zinn Ping-Pong Tournament." The competition is fierce. Seriously, some of these guys could play for the Chinese National Team. This year Charlie, the guy pictured on the right and one hell of a Ping-Pong player, decided to bake Peppermint Ping-Pong Paddle Cookies (note the mold he designed and built in the lower right corner) as a pre-tourney snack. They were delicious and, btw, he and his partner won the tourney--now I'm wondering what was in those cookies, hmmm. 

Great presentation. Check-out the homemade mold. 

Michael and Charlie enjoy the paddle cookies. 

Mom's bookshelves

Ya know how bookcases become a sloppy holding place for old books and dust? Not at Mom's house-she organizes hers by color and interweaves plants, sculptures and art- what a pleasing view-

Well Done Bookcase, Mom!

Oh Halloween, how you make me laugh!

Walter is Everywhere

Jack O'Lantern and Stingy Jack, The Story

Origins of Jack O'Lantern  

An Irish tale tells us where the origins of the name Jack o'lantern came from. There once was a man named Jack who liked to play tricks on people. He lived a long, mischievous life.

One day he tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved the image of a Holy Cross in the trunk of the tree. This trapped the Devil up the tree.
Jack made a deal with the Devil that: he would let the Devil down the tree, if the Devil promised to never tempt him again.

After Jack died, he was not permitted into Heaven because of his evil ways. He was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the Devil. The devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the freezing blackness. This flame was put inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing.

As Jack walked his neverending journey as punishment for his trickery, he carried a burning coal inside a turnip to help him see along the roads everywhere he traveled. Soon he was known as "Jack of the lantern" or Jack O'Lantern.

In Ireland, turnips were used as their Jack's lanterns originally. However, immigrants to America, found pumpkins more plentiful than turnips. The Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.

Excerpted from jackolanterns.net

Wicked

Out for my daily walk and…lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

 

Ghoulish Graveyards

Pumpkin Shopping at Trader Joe's

So many great choices.

Cocktails for Two

We LOVE Halloween and promise to bring you the best in local decor and costumes for the next week and a half.