There are swirls, stripes, bullseyes, and lots of other ways to fold. Here’s a spiral. We just love that chartreuse green, and it goes well with the oxblood red, raspberry, golden yellow and all the other colors too, for that matter.  Take a look at all the shirts that got dyed this year and also a slide show of  dyed fabrics from previous years here.

Shirts are available for purchase from the Creative Connections shop at etsy.com

I’ve talked before about my dear friend, known these days as Madame Bette, and her sisters (BonBon) Bertie and BonnieBelle. They run a Boarding House for Ladies, all of whom are, and have been, performers and entertainers in more than a few ways in their times. They add to their community in many ways, by fixing up the old house where they now live, and contributing to education and charitable concerns. They also hold great parties! Lots of great parties. As you might imagine, Valentine’s Day is such a hit with these softhearted, romance  minded mammas that they celebrate it all month long. They celebrate every holiday they want to without regard to whether it started out as theirs or not. Boy, do they do up the birthdays!

Shown here is a Valentine made using a photo of BonBon Bertie and other images in Adobe Photoshop, plus a lovely quote that is a favorite of ours, from a song by Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins. (listen to their CD “Rabbit Fur Coat” for a real treat!)

You can visit Chez Madame’s and read more about them and their stories, and see lots of pictures of Madame’s House and the Shady Lady  dolls. They do tend to wear lingerie, and they sometimes show a lot of cleavage and the occasional bare-bubbies, so don’t go looking if you’re going to be shocked, unless of course you want to be. Bob Grieser photographed them in 1992 and such is the beauty of plaesthetics that they don’t look any older now. And no surgery or weird pharmaceuticals required–just like yer old Aunt Acid, who will remain lovely with only good hygiene and a little paint required. Plus a great wardrobe!

Here’s a peek at the logo, rendered using Adobe Illustrator.

soup can

Originally uploaded by sarajane helm

Some things simply don’t come canned and condensed, and Aunt Acid’s one of them–so’s her 3 Mother’s chicken soup, made using a blend of recipes from Chinese, Jewish and Hippy Earth Mothers. But it DOES make for a nice graphic and this one was for my 3d assignment in Adobe PhotoshopII.

The real thing is well worth making–freeze some and have it handy when somebody has a cold–this one burns out all the germs and even cuts through the dreaded rubber-cement mucus.

With peppers, onions, garlic, mustard, horseradish, ginger, lemon and more in this delicious soup, you’ll find you can breath again. Its practically an Auntie-biotic!

While the toes sport a lovely fire red nailpolish, (made using acrylic paint and varathane as people-type polish doestnt do well on polymer clay in the long run) the nails on the hand are left unpainted, the better to show of this translucent pc manicure. Now if I ever need a hand, I’ve got an extra. Thanks bunches, Chris!!

What’s cooking with Aunt Acid!

Originally uploaded by sarajane helm

I’m serving up a look at another assignment in my Photoshop II class. This one was to design a book cover using the various masks and modes that we’ve been studying. I also used three photos (good thing I’m also taking a digital photography class) and a food image that I created in Illustrator last semester–I LOVE Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop! (and I love using my homework more than once….thats Creative Leftovers which can be lovely reheated or served cold!

So here’s a look at what’s been cooking here at my house. Someday I’ll put the insides of this book together—I’m saving up some great recipes. But only the cover was this week’s project!

aunt acid baby book

Originally uploaded by sarajane helm

What’s “real” when it comes to art and Adobe Photoshop, or the life of a puppet? That’s not a question that comes down to black and white, or even sepia tone!

If there was a book about Aunt Acid’s turn as a child star in Vaudeville, this would be it. It’s also my homework….

Here’s the “final product” in the Mask Layer and Vanishing Point Filter assignment for my Adobe Photoshop II homework. I love this class!

Originally uploaded by sarajane helm

Here’s Aunt Acid in a Nouveau Arts sort of way!
This was a fun assignment for part of my Adobe Illustrator class final project. It started with a photo for reference, but then I drew/created this image using the tools in Illustrator.  I love doing jewelry parts with the 3d tools and graphic styles and more…the pen tool was tough at first but now I know that its a wonderful thing!! What a great program!!

This one is a calendar pic for March 2010, part of a fictitious (but possible!) calendar featuring Aunt Acid in the homage to the styles of many artists.

Here you have a kinda-Mucha….sorta!

If Aunt Acid were to write a tell-all book about her life as a modern muse and spokesmodel, this might be it. Of course, she’d NEVER do that—there are some things a body just keeps to themselves, if they are honorable.  And then there’s the stories you tell at private parties but never in print.  Although the most fascinating details might never hit print, there’s always something of interest going in THIS spokesmodel’s career, and its not just hitting the runways, or hitting the help like SOME supermodels. We pick up after ourselves around here, ladies and gents,  in the belief that no one is so special they can’t put their own undies in the hamper.

A calender of artistic spoofs is in the works for some future year, and here you see a print of Aunty in the style of Andy.