6 posts tagged “photography”

 Shameless of me I know, but I was really happy with how these turned out so I decided to share them with you all.  I designed these from photographs I've taken of the letters of the alphabet.  And from these I've uploaded the images and had a line of t-shirts, etc made on cafepress.com

Obama plain

Obama 2008

Check this out: http://www.cafepress.com/carmenrose

That's where you can view the clothing options with the above designs on them.  Here are two examples I liked:

Obama shirt

Organic cotten obama tee

JoY framed

ooOOOpppsy!  I've been FRAMING... silly me! 

CAT framed

I am hoping to have my alphabet photography juried into a local gallery and so I’ve framed up some words to give them a feel for how they look so they can pass judgment.

DOG framed

It really is fun to see this sort of thing come together.  So take a look and let me know what you think. 

Hope 2

It would have been easiest to make all the letters available unframed and people can find their own frames at Target or Michael’s or wherever, then they don’t have to worry about transporting glass (or shipping glass which can be a real nightmare) and such. 

LOVE framed

But it’s also great for people to see how nicely they frame up and how the word really begins to show up rather than just a few quirky photographs stuck together.  I must be easy to please, but this really has been fun!  

Peace 2

I’m working on fund raising events for April, May and June here in Virginia.  There will be one in July in Indiana as well.  We chose to do three because I love planning events, we think bringing home our kids is a really big deal, (LOL!) and it gives people options for their calendar and interests.

Plans for the “Art & Chocolate” event are coming along. 

We’ll be serving chocolate, fruits and vegetables and Colombian coffee at the event so come prepared to enjoy an array of flavors.  I’ve been working on some formulas for truffles and chocolates.  I stumbled across some “dulce de leche” which is a South American milk based caramel.  I’ll pair that with cashews and chocolate.  Another is a vanilla truffle that starts with steeping a vanilla bean in heavy cream for a while until the flavor develops.  The cream is used in a ganache that becomes the filling of a decadent truffle.  While imitation vanilla can be overbearing and overly sweet, the real thing is delicate and earthy and I love it!  Earl Grey is my favorite tea and I’ve been exploring a way to make an Earl Grey truffle that I think will be quite good.  I’m going to try a blueberry truffle idea later on today if I get the time.  And the marzipan that a friend made is divine!  I tried a bit of the marzipan with some of the chocolate that it will be dipped in and I nearly melted on the spot.  It was sooo good.  I’m also in love with the chocolate cinnamon, nutmeg and cayenne pepper truffle that I made.  I haven’t found anyone else that likes the idea yet, so I may be the only one eating those.  I guess I’d better make a big batch then.  LOL!  I’ve been enjoying the creative process of exploring flavor, texture and color combinations.  It’s outside my usual media but I love it.  And since I got pretty good at making chocolate years ago in the family business, I have the skills.  Chocolate and art are a few of our favorite things and this April 19^th event is our opportunity to share them with you.

I’m also working at putting together a collection of artwork that will be for sale at the event.  I’m planning to share a variety of media and proceeds from all purchases will benefit our adoption fund. 

• First and foremost there will be jewelry.  Lots of jewelry.  Mostly pearls, natural stones, Swarovski crystals, sterling silver and seed beads.  There will also be some hand made polymer clay beads in the collection.  This is all hand made artisan one-of-a-kind jewelry.
• I’d designed a line of cards from my watercolor and mixed media work.  These cards double as a display for a pair of matching earrings.  The combination of a pretty card, a fragment of poetry and a pair of earrings in an envelope make a beautiful gift for a friend.
• I’ll bring a collection of soaps.  Again, it is outside my usual media but it has been fun to toy with the combination of color, texture and fragrance.  And it’s great fun to have an exotic soap in the bath each morning plus they make marvelous little gifts any time you need a small token of appreciation.
• Recently I’ve explored a photography project in Staunton, Virginia.  I’ve taken photographs of local architecture with a specific focus on the letters of the alphabet.  These black and white photographs can then be arranged in words for a creative accent to the home.  I have about 100 photographs in the architectural series as well as a home series that were all taken inside my home, mostly in my kitchen.  I will bring examples of each letter to the event and guests can place orders for the letter combinations they would like. 
• Some of you have seen my line of watercolors with poems that I’ve written over the years and I’ll be offering this collection for sale at the event as well.  They are colorful, vibrant and heart felt.
• And if I get some time, I’ll package up some hand made polymer clay beads I’ve made and offer them for sale as well.

Once this Art & Chocolate event is over, I’ll be working full tilt on the Benefit Concert that we have scheduled for one month later.  I’m hoping that the details can come together in the short amount of time I’ll have to focus on it.  It will be a casual evening of music and entertainment that will be very diverse and interesting.

Our June fund raiser will be a Silent Auction.  This will be my chance to get out a bunch of odds and ends in my collection of artwork.  I’ve pieced many quilt tops over the years and Hubby’s Mom and Grandma’s are working very hard to see that some of these quilts are assembled and hand quilted in time for this auction.  These quilts are each in a variety of wall hanging sizes.  I’m really looking forward to seeing how they turn out.  I’ll also be bringing out oil paintings, pen and ink drawings, pencil drawings as well as leftovers from my season of working in art glass.  And of course there will be more jewelry and possibly some beads.  It is hard to tell what all else will turn up for this auction, but the evening will be very interesting. 

Would you like to help with our Silent Auction?  If you have something of value that you no longer need (no clothing please) please let us know.  I’m really curious to see how this event goes.  I’ve seen these done in the past and they can be very interesting and fun. 

Well, that about does it for my update.  I’ve got some work to do so I’d better get back at it.  It will be a very busy three or four months with these fund raisers, working at the adoption paper work, working and our various commitments.  It’s going to be fun.  Thanks all! 

LAUGH thumb

YUMMY thumb

I’ve been on an alphabet kick for some time now.  And the other day I took out a chop block, put it on the sink in front of the kitchen window and proceeded to photograph everything I could get my hands on in my kitchen.  So now I have a kitchen alphabet and can spell just about anything.  See earlier posts for some examples from my first architectural alphabet photographs.  I have ideas for other alphabets as well.  I don’t know why, but this idea has completely gathered up my imagination and just won’t let go at the moment.  I think these would be marvelous in a kitchen, especially my kitchen since these are my kitchen utensils.  LOL!  I’m going to print out a bunch of these letters and package them up nicely and offer them at our “Art & Chocolate” fundraiser next month to raise money for our adoption.  I hope people will take the time to play with them a bit to spell out names and such and then place their orders.  I think that would be cool anyway.  It is the kind of thing I’d buy for my own house.  I need to learn how to create a website where you can see all the letters and order exactly the configuration you want.  I think that would be cool but I don’t know how to do it yet.  If anyone has ideas on that – especially free web tools for creating dynamic html websites or something like that – please let me know.  Especially the free part!  LOL! 

Carmen

I’m in love with the alphabet!  I have been taking photos of things that look like letters for about a week now.  Since I started this project everything looks like a letter of the alphabet to me.  Hubby drove me through town this afternoon and all I could do was look out the window and wish I had my camera with me.  I kept seeing stuff I wanted photos of.  I have about 100 photos now, maybe more and they are all of architectural alphabet letters.  I have only one U but two Q’s.  I have ten E’s.  I’m looking for a few more options on a couple letters but for the most part I should be able to spell just about anything without repeating the letters.  Here are some samples: 

Joy 2 (2)

LOVE (2)

HOPE (2)

PEACE (2)

I wish I knew someone who lived around here who was a film maker, or at least liked to tinker around with video and the editing process.  (I have a film maker friend in Colorado, but that’s a long way away!)  I’d really like to try some video work but at the moment I don’t know how.

I want to create a video of my hubby and myself telling some of our story with infertility and talking about our adoption plans.  I’d like to be able to play it at church and make it available for other people to use it in venues where we can not attend – like the out of town fund raisers.

I just don’t know the first thing about this stuff though.  (Well, I've run a video camera and have a killer "eye" and tons of creativity.)  My digital camera has a video option, but I’ve never figured out how to download those images and actually be able to see them on my computer, much less be able to edit in music and photographs and such.  I’d really like to give this a whirl.  I can’t go out and purchase a bunch of expensive equipment and editing software.  I just want to be able to make something I could post on youtube, our blog and for use in church one Sunday.  That’s it.  Doesn’t seem like a tall order.  But when you are starting from ground zero – it seems like a big order indeed.

I have a 5.0 mega pixel Kodak Easy Share z730 that has the video option, and I have a tripod.  I can borrow a video camera from any number of someones, but what else?  Um…  can anyone tell me what else I need?