michelle ward

Holy Heat Wave!

I think this heat would make me really crabby if it wasn't for our NEW POOL!

Lucky for us it's been installed and filled for a week now and we are floating around ENJOYING the warmth of the sun.

Being around the pool all day and playing lifeguard to my 3 and whatever friends are over leaves little time in the studio but I am making headway on three major projects.  I'm taking a quick trip home to visit my family in MN and then I'll be posting the new rubber sheets.

My very first set of rubber sheets - The HomeWard Collection went online in May 2002.  Is it possible it was THAT long ago?  I started with 4 sheets and now it's at 18.  The new set of sheets comes with a new direction, and new name for the collection.  You may have noticed I'm getting larger with my images - that is because my own interest is working big - on pages, and paper, and on canvas with paint.  As I've said before, the benefit of designing for unmounted sheets is that you can get big.  I was just looking through some sites that carry my mounted stamp designs and I'm still surprised that one 3" x 3" stamp can cost $10 or more.  Maybe people think unmounted is pricey but when you think of what you're getting it works out cheaper.  Imagine what is would cost you to buy a mounted image that is 3" x 10"!

Coming soon.......

Gotcha Covered

Last week I HAD to get the Rolling Stone with Captain Jack on the cover.

IRRESISTIBLE. 

And in the mail, Handcrafted 2, from Stampington.

Those are my hatboxes on the cover! 

Inside are a few cards – gosh, when was the last time I stamped a card?  Also inside I was surprised to see the Pear Trio collage – my first spackled canvas.  Seems like a hundred years ago since I made that but it holds a special place in my heart as I was commissioned to make an identical piece for an art collector (couldn’t part with this one).

I’m not good at parting with my pieces – don’t want to have to price them either.

Get Real

After some digital trials, I had to GET REAL with these images.  You can see I carved some really big elements so I could use them with paint in my journal.  Written around the birds and branches are the words to SONGBIRD, written by Christine McVie.  A beautiful version can also be heard by Eva Cassidy ~ hauntingly sweet, and in the top ten of my all time favorites.

Blackbird Fly

While I'm in the process of learning digital design, I find it's a great resource for trying things out.

Here are two journal pages that only exist on my hard drive.  They began as painted pages and

then I started applying custom PS brushes using some of the new images that will be available in

rubber next month.  Playing with composition and scale digitally saved alot of copy paper - my

former process was to draw the designs, then copy them in several sizes so I could put them to

use and see if they worked as stamps.  The cool thing about designing unmounted rubber is that

you can make the images as large as you want - no restrictions on having to fit a wood mount.

Look for some HUGE stamps from Green Pepper Press soon!

Just Peachy

Everything is coming up roses!

Lots of good news today.

Feeling blessed.

(More digital selections added on left)

Happy 4th!