Do you create art? Do you sell art? Are you a painter, musician, craftsperson, web designer, actor, dancer, writer, macaroni sculptor, sequined t-shirt maker? Do you have work online that you can show us?

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000

Answers

I started making my own soaps - is that artistic?

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000

Hell, yeah, that's artistic. Especially soaps of the quality you're busting out, Nicole.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000

Thanks, Gwen. Did your kids like the dinosaur soap?

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000

I do needlework (cross-stitch, embroidery, crochet, crewel), but I'm not sure it counts because I don't design my own patterns. Oh, sometimes I incorporate a bunch of elements of various patterns into something different (like the pansies I cross-stitched onto a runner), but I don't know how "artistic" that really is. Whatever it is, it's all over the house, though.

Also, I can make roses out of radishes to put in a salad. :-)

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000

I paint with oil, acrylic and watercolour. I draw with graphite, pastel, coloured pencil and chalk, and I have exhibited and sold my work but I mostly do it for enjoyment. I sculpt with whatever materials happen to be lying around. I hand-bead my clothes. I make gothic/bohemian-style jewellery. I act. The one thing I really wish I could do, though, is sew. I can't sew to save my life, which is a shame because I love the feeling of wearing a garment that was created just for me. I don't like buying off-the-rack, knowing that there are 500 girls out there wearing the same thing. Oh, and I design costumes and clothes. I have to get my mother to make them for me, though.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000

I have a novel out there -- it's called Nerve and I just checked for the first time in ages, and yup, Amazon's still sellin' it. Oh, and my name is Barbra Leslie. I can't believe I'm typing that on the Internet.

(Got a website on its way too. Tinkerin'.)

Well -- you asked!

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000

Recently I've been a lazy ass. No, really. I spend more time being creative with words (writing short blurbs, poetry, etc.) and not much time getting into the art supplies. TOo bad for me. :(

But, in the past, I have painted (acrylics mostly, though I own oils, watercolors, tempera (hee) and a type of colored pencil that turns into a watercolor). I've done cartoons and illustrations for magazines and 'zines, including covers. I sketch (Prismapencils and Prismacolors are the best, but I like Rapidograph pens, stipple pens with dip ink, etc.) and have sold paintings (one, after college, paid my rent for two months) and done artwork for companies like Dollar Rent-A-Car. I play with the colorful bake-em-in-the-oven clays like Sculpey and FIMO, but haven't gotten serious about it. I've hand-sewn doll costumes that I designed from patterns I adjusted to suit my tastes but I can't use a sewing machine to save my life. I have one, I just never warmed up to it. I do beadwork and have, in the past, done embroidery. I've made purses, though not lately (costs less and is quicker to just buy one at Steinmart for $10 than to buy, sew, bead, fringe, etc. a custom one). I've made feathered headgear and Halloween costumes. I've painted clothing and shoes. I design web pages and logos.

I make jewelry (usually earrings, though I have made necklaces and pins). I've cut out silhouettes (my great aunt made a good living doing this and she taught me some tricks of the trade). I used to play around with origami and make things out of paper. I get compliments on holiday and birthday presents when I can wrap them ornately.

I took ikebana, or Japanese flower arranging. I don't usually use that style, preferring just to plonk stuff in a vase, but I CAN if I'm asked. I've been asked to "do people's faces" with paints and with cosmetics.

I take (bad) photographs and used to model, briefly (tit for tat), but don't think that means anything. (The biggest 'client' I ever modelled for was Hanes hosiery for a convention presentation.) I'm getting better at taking photos that I like, though, and want a digital camera one day.

I made pot pourri as gifts two Christmasses ago, plus some clay/fabric/acrylic ball/feather ornaments. Those went over well. I've also painted teeshirts and sold teeshirts with screenprinted designs, but I haven't done that in a while. I have two friends nagging me to do some custom clothing designs (painted) for them, but neither have said the magic word "reimbursement" yet and it definitely takes some time and money!

Like Lilipili, I'd LOVE to have the skill to use a sewing machine. I don't design clothes in my size, but I think that's the coolest, and I'm starting to get frustrated as my personal style veers more and more away from that of the general population. I'd love to make some capes, Edwardian and Victorian jackets and bustiers and waists. I also like a lot of tailored 60's suits and dresses. Alas, I'm clueless in that regard. The most ever I've done in that regard is change out buttons (ugly store for nicer custom ones) and tack up a hem. I also have no aptitude for pottery. I'm too impatient. I took woodworking as an adult and wasn't bad--I made a curly maple display cabinet--but I also wasn't a prodigy and I got so nervous around the equipment (my woodworking teacher had only 9 fingers, y'all) that I didn't enjoy it much.

One day I'd like to learn glass etching, stained glass making, jewelry (metal) casting.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000

Nicole, ditto what Gwen said. You are a genuine artista. I love the dinosaur.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000

Nicole, they haven't seen it yet. I squirrelled away all my soaps and I introduce them one at a time. I'm saving the dinosaur... it's next in line. I know they'll love it, though. They'll be extra-clean that week.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000

I make web pages and stuff. My main site is http://www.fluffco.com There's lots of stuff there to tinker about with... and I do a site about plants called http://www.yougrowgirl.com and another site that never changes called http://www.lowresolution.com

A new site is on the way that is all about donuts. I make stuff off the computer too. Some of it I sell on Fluffco. Other stuff I give away. I make my living making images and producing stuff. I suppose that makes me an artist eh? Maybe even an artist-type.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2000

I paint my toenails, but I'm not very accomplished. I always glop the polish all over my cuticles.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2000

Yes I do art. Have a look www.nondog.com

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2000

OK, I am not trying to brag here. It's more like I dabble in a lot of things: serial hobbyist. I thank my Dad for getting me in to Junior High Shop so I feel comfortable working with my hands.

I did some glass blowing last year. That was fun, incredibly hot, and very hard (those old guys make it look easy on TV.) I took a Wrought Iron class and made a surround for my fireplace that I'm very proud of. I also got a nasty 3rd degree burn while sandblasting some stuff to weld (it was so gnarly that the Doc brought in all the other Doc's so they could see..."we don't get too many industrial accidents here at Doc in the Box") Man, pounding on an anvil kills your hands! Other various and sundry things around the house...One of the funnest things to try and make is a fountain. You can get those little inexpensive pumps and put them in anything that holds water. But the funnest part is sticking weird things in them to make the water cascade down...I'm sure all of you can think of fun things to use.

I'll try to take some pics and put them on my web page...If I'm successful, I blast the addy.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2000

I'm a lame, ex-artist who has barely done any art outside of art school. But I now write and do silly stuff with my digi camera and photoshop.

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2000

I'm a poet.

I hate saying that. Why don't I just say, "I'm a pretntious snot with literary leanings"? Whatever. It's really what I do so I'm trying to get used to it.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2000

Lisa D.--as my grandmother used to say, "Babygirl, it isn't bragging if you can DO it." She'd follow that up with the usual cliches about not finding lights under bushels and so on.

IMHO, it's when you think it somehow makes you a better person or when you want someone else to feel badly that they can't do or aren't doing what you do that it becomes bragging. So you're in the clear by a longshot. :)

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2000

Thanks Milla!

I would get the Big Head, but I still have metal bits pop out of my arm from the sandblasting accident. Wait, is that a Super Power?

Can't get too chuffed about that eh? (I hope that's proper usage...I love that word!)

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2000