what does time and superman have in common?

answer : they both fly :)

another year older but not necessarily wiser ;) ... this year my birthday was spent quietly at home with my 2 girls, altho i did manage to steal about 2 hours away from home and spent the time with Llara having kentucky fried chicken, ice cream and browsing thru magazines at borders. quality mommy-Llara time :)

didn't know when Llara managed to sneak up to my desk and took some of my stuff there, but she made this for me :)

and this ...

Llara: Hey mommy ... i made this for you for your birthday!

Mommy: Wow!! thank you! it's very pretty!

Llara: You see... i'm an artist too! just like you

Mommy: You certainly are!

Llara: I know you like rusty stuff ... (thinks for a bit) and shiny stuff ... so i made all this shiny stuff for you! (pointing at everything on the cover and the orange jewel)

Mommy: So where's the rusty bit?

Llara: (pointing at some obscure bit on the little star stickers) there!

of course, there are no rusty bits to be seen ... in fact she's the one who likes shiny things :) but my heart melted all the same ... rusty or shiny :) moments like these are enough to last me a lifetime :) perhaps next year we would be able to celebrate a bit more when Maia is older and stronger ... and when Jason don't have to work out of town. but today was all about mommy and Llara.

wokie dokie ... it's time to announce the winners to my giveaway :)

"Bloom" metal bookmark won by Laura of Artfully Musing

"Lamia" polymer clay pendant won by Cinner of Things about Who, What, When, Where & Why

"Curiously, it's Autumn" mixed media earrings won by Kim of Kim Schoenberger

"RustART" cards won by Mary of What If I ...

congratulations ladies!! and to all who have played, thank you so much for joining in the fun!! please take some time to visit these ladies :

Laura is an altered and mixed media artist who creates beautiful vintage inspired collages and ATCs. she also generously shares her techniques, tips and products with anyone who has a willing heart :)

Cinner, who paints and started blogging to create awareness to Cataplexy. she lives life to the full and embraces every moment of it!

Kim is not only an accomplished ceramic artist, she also makes beautiful assemblages with found objects ... and guess what, she loves rust too :)

Mary, an artist, photographer and a lover of life ... her photographs are like abstract art, and her art which combines beautiful textures, motifs and colors are a joy to behold.

please email your address to me at happypimping@gmail.com

have a wonderful and creative week!!

immortal, eternal, eclipse

*p/s ... a penny to anyone who can guess where the inspiration of my latest RustART pieces came from :) Lisa? Stephanie?

i don't have a lot of chance to go on outings nowadays becos i don't really want to leave baby Maia with mil in the house alone. it will be too taxing on the dear old lady, and baby Maia is not exactly a very, well ... demure preemie :) and of course she needs her mommy's milk every 3 hours or so. but when i do get a chance to go out, it's either to the craftstore or the hardware store, two of my most "favouritest" places!

a couple of weeks ago i managed to sneak a visit to the hardware store to have a looksy. i was looking for real huge nuts (not the ones you eat) and i found something called a flange nut. it's a really interesting nut (never thought i'll say that!) becos the nut sits on a platform kinda thingy ... anyway, i bought a few. didn't know what i wanted to do with them, only i knew i wanted to rust them. as it turns out, they actually make very nice bezels :)

these flange nuts were huge, so i wanted to make something with a stronger and darker connotation. i also rusted some washers together with the flanges and gave them a harder rust.

and with that ...

was born.

my idea of Immortal was to give it a heavy main necklace, gothic in nature, but i also wanted to add a kind of sexy "neckline" to it ... something that rest close to the jugular ... a lure ... for Edward ;)

doesn't it screams "Bite Me!"?

like i said i had a few flanges so i made another gothic-ie necklace in the same theme.

what is Immortal is also ...

normally i would use a 2 part resin to coat these but resin give out such a bad stench, it is not very advisable to use it around a baby. so i used a Ranger product called Glossy Accents and it works just as well minus the smell.

Eternal also spots a lethal-looking 2 inch vintage spike (O_O), brass gear and an AA quality ocean jasper set inside the flange bezel.

and finally, i thought it would be sort of cool to round these two up with an ...

Eclipse

i burnt bits from an old storybook and added it to the washer to make it look like thru time some bits of paper got caught on the rusty washer. (tho this bit's got glossy accents on it :) i also composed the gear off center and the flange in the center to symbolize an eclipse. embedded in the bezel is another beautiful ocean jasper.

overall, i'm quite happy with how these babes turned out ... i just wonder how many people have the same taste as i do ...


**pp/s ... dun forget i have a giveaway ending 27th feb ... to get to the link just look for it on my sidebar :)

200 stories from a faraway land..

and more than 300 beautiful people love me !
"O_O"

maybe it's time for an ...


WOOHOO!!!

this blog was born "pimp and paint" because it began as a place where i would jot down all my nonsensical DIY projects i do around the house ... like "pimp" the study room table, or "pimp" the lampshades and stuff like that. in 3 years (less actually), it grew up and decided to turn into an artblog (without me realizing it), where my "pimping" projects turned into ... well, art pieces, if i may call them that. and when i was expecting baby Maia, there was a little voice inside of me (perhaps it was Maia's :) that urged me to rename "pimp and paint" to something more serious, something more grown up, but most of all, something that reflected her mommy now ... hence Altered Alchemy emerged like a phoenix from the ashes.

now, let's take a ride down memory lane, shall we?

waaaaay back to my first post : decorative art mirrors it was titled. i remember being really stoked with folkart at that time, and roses, yes ... it appears that i once had really feminine tastes :) i painted roses, lots of them! and an occasional sunflower ;)

that was my first post dated 10 October 2008.

ahhh ... here it is! i found the "pimp that worktop" post ... you see i wasn't lying when i said i "pimped" stuff around my house?

it's still there, only it's been taken over by Llara the princess conqueror now :)


now let's see what happened a year later, in October 2009 ... oh yes, the post on inspiration avenue's weekly challenge "shimmer". this was around the time when i got hooked on polymer clay. some of my earlier creations were for the house ... and these were napkin rings :)

of course, polymer clay napkin rings soon turned into polymer-clay-elven-inspired-middle-earth-jewelry ;)

i also remember at about the same time, i started making books. and of course there HAS to be one made on ... who else? Edward Cullen of course! ^_^

with the swoon-worthy line "... i promise to love you every moment of forever ... would you do me the extraordinary honor of marrying me ..." *plop* i just fainted ...


OH! ... let's move on before i start telling you how much i'm in love with Edward Cullen and go all teenage on you! let's see what we had on October 2010 ...

ooooo... now i remember. i didn't get to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of Altered Alchemy because i went into early labour with baby Maia. after having many bleeding spells between 24 and 28 weeks of gestation, baby Maia was finally born at 29 weeks on the 6th October. and i remember only sharing my story a couple of weeks later when i've somewhat recovered a little from the traumatic experience. here it is, if you wanna read it.

hmm... seems to me i haven't been at this for very long. it's only been 2 years 4 months since i began this blog and since i started making art ... that's queer ... it feels like ages ... feels like maybe 5, 6 years or more! gosh!!


anyhow, whether it be 2 years or 6 years, i think 200 posts and 300+ sweet friends definitely call for a celebration! furthermore, i didn't get to celebrate my 2nd anniversary right? so let's do it altogether here and now with 4 giveaways!! WOOHOO!!! just for all my sweet friends who have stuck with me thru thick and thin, elves and vampires, Middle Earth and Narnia, Edward Cullens, Paul Bettanys, Benecio del Toros, Viggo Mortensens and Mr Spocks ;)

these are what i'm giving away :)

a metal bookmark from my pimp & paint days

a polymer clay pendant from my ithilien days

a pair of earrings from Altered Alchemy

and a set of 4 blank cards from my RustART Series :)

just leave me a comment and tell me what inspires you, whether it be in your work or in your everyday life :) and i will announce the results on my birthday, 27th February :)

thank you so much for everything!! i love you guys soooooo much!!

the drawing is now closed :) thank you for playing!!

OWOH doorgifts ...

OOO... i had SO much fun touring around the world! thank you all who came to visit me and thank you to you guys who added me to your favorite list! i so appreciate it!!

wokie ... my winners for the doorgifts are :

Elaine of ChatElaine who won the Athelia :)

Cheryl of Artsy Fartsy who won the set of 6 Altered Alchemy Cards :)

and becos there were so many of you ... i decided to add another set of 4 RustART cards i newly created only days ago :)

and this one goes to Tootsie of PaperBagley

WOOHOO!!!!!!

what the Imagination seizes as Beauty ...

must be Truth
*John Keats*

being an accounting and economics major was not really something that i was crazy about. but it was something practical to study, according to the elders. needless to say, i constantly had to drag myself to classes, especially when it comes to double accounting or double economics. thank goodness, i chose to do an altogether different subject, English Literature ... doesn't matter if it was an extra subject that i didn't have to take to qualify for 3 'A' levels, having already taken accounting, economics and law ... it was a subject i wanted to take ... my choice.

our english literature lecturer, ms Davina, was a joy. she was passionate, full of energy sometimes verging on dramatic (which i totally stoked), but most of all, she was inspiring! she made it alright to sit thru double economics knowing that english lit was next. she made it just fine to fall in love with Heathcliff, she made it cool to think "Odes" are really well ... cool, she informed us that "iambic pentameters" were NOT related to the Pentagon, she even made sense of Chaucer! but most of all, she introduced me to this quote :

"what the Imagination seizes as Beauty, must be Truth"

which has become the inspiration to my art ... actually to whatever i do.

this week's challenge at the three muses requires us to come up with an artwork with a favorite quote. i have not any specific artwork that has this quote in it, because this whole art blog is built on the basis of it.

however, i can show you what my Imagination seize as Beauty, at this point in time ...

yes ... RUST.

these are new additions to my RustART Series :) for those of you who have not been introduced to my RustART yet, here's a description of it :

The RustART Series is an assemblage of the normal and the curious. Every piece in this series begins with a rusted washer. An assemblage of different objects, some pretty, some not so (or rather not normally perceived as pretty), are put together to allow the process of alchemy to occur, thus creating the perfect concoction of beauty ... in the artist's eyes.

*RustART* - A washer is organically rusted over several days and several layers under the watchful eye, in order to get the best rust formation in every piece. When the perfect rust formation is achieved, it is immediately sealed in with several layers of fixatives and sealers to preserve the beauty of the rust. The sealers also act as a protective layer to skin that might be in contact with the washer.

do you see the Beauty in RUST like i do?

**more RustART pieces here

the beginnings of my RustART Series

wearable rust... who would have thought rust was wearable. but i truly believe in their beauty and their worth. remember my post about the washers i rusted under a controlled environment ? well, i created some neckwear with them :)

here's to the beginnings of my RustART Series ...

Reserved for Vampires

I Am Yours

Fleur

Broken Wings

The RustART Series is an assemblage of the normal and the curious. Every piece in this series begins with a rusted washer. An assemblage of different objects, some pretty, some not so (or rather not normally perceived as pretty), are put together to allow the process of alchemy to occur, thus creating the perfect concoction of beauty ... to the artist's eye.

*RustART : A washer is organically rusted over several days and several layers under my watchful eye, in order to get the best rust formation in every piece. When the perfect rust formation is achieved, it is immediately sealed in with several layers of fixatives and sealers to preserve the beauty of the rust. The sealers also act as a protective layer to skin that might be in contact with the washer.

do tell me your thoughts on wearable rust ...

OWOH ... YAY!!!

i've been watching this event for a couple of years now ... the first year, i didn't know what it was cos i was still new at blogging ... last year i wanted to join, but i remember reveal date clashed with some festival, Chinese New Year i should think ...

it so happens, this year, OWOH is smack right in the middle of Chinese New Year too, but reveal date will be way pass it ... so i am excited to be able to take part this year ... and since it's gonna be the last year, i really must do this :)


so HI THERE!!!

my name is Luthien ... and you probably would have guessed it, yup ... i'm chinese ... well, malaysian chinese that is, becos i hail from the country of eternal summer, MALAYSIA :) i know it has been snowing everywhere, and ... i so WANT the SNOW!!! ARghhhh....

i am a little silly ... but essentially, i'm a dreamer :) i live in middle earth most of the time (only occasionally returning to Malaysia ;) i have 2 beautiful daughters ... Llara Kaye is 5+ and Maia Fae, my little preemie is reaching 4 months already!! and she's now 4kg :) woohoo!!

i love to make things ... i dream them and then make them ... from handbound books to jewelry to housewares. i dabble in all sorts, polymer clay, acrylics, paper, metal ... but my love for now is mixed media and assemblage. and rust! i am experimenting with (organically) rusting my own objects for my assemblages. and it's such a lot of fun! i am inspired by old world romance, uncharted voyages and adventure stories. i am in love with found objects, distressed surfaces and rusty stuff. i believe in magic, middle earth and elves.

wokie ... that's me in a paragraph :)

and now ... i have here 2 things i wanna give away to 2 people :)


Athelia ...

It is said that when the Age of Man begins, the elves would fade and return to the Ancient West. Athelia is inspired by the Grey Havens, the harbor where the last of the elves of Middle Earth would embark on their final journey home to Valinor.

Essentially a mixed media piece :
- The pendant is made by me, using several different materials namely polymer clay, aluminum wires, color coated artistic wires and acrylics. The clay bead is au-natural, wet-sanded smooth and buffed to a matte-satiny sheen.
- The cord combines ocean jasper beads, non tarnish silver coated wires, fibres, metal caps and spacers.

* tell me if you want it long or short when you win this :)


Altered Alchemy Cards ...

This is a set of 6 blank cards, laser printed on high quality textured cardstock and comes with 6 pieces of A5 envelopes. The images on the cards are images of some of my previous/current work with mixed media and assemblages.

all you have to do is to be an active blogger, leave me a comment and a way to contact you (email works best :) and wait for 17th Feb ...

yup ... that's about it i think. now if you wanna join in the fun, it's not too late. just go here and visit LISA ... she'll tell you everything you want to know about this fun event :)

WOOHOO!!! let the fun began!!

the drawings are now closed :) thank you for playing!!!

the transformation is complete!

... a while ago, i decided that i have grown out of pimp and paint ... for those of you who have no idea what i'm talking about, pimp and paint is the former name of this blog. if you have noticed, my URL (until today) is www.pimpandpaint.com, whilst the title to this blog is Altered Alchemy.

i was slowly making the change from pimpandpaint step by step for some months now, and today, the transformation is finally complete with the purchase of my new domain name www.alteredalchemy.com ... WOOHOO!!!

all my followers and blog posts are being redirected to this new domain as we speak, the transformation will take about 3 days to complete. so some of you might not be able to access my blog these few days.

so ... for those of you who have been kind enough to put my button on your sidebar, please help me by changing the URL to www.alteredalchemy.com ... ... if you still feel like you would want to continue supporting my blog in this way :) i sincerely thank you for your support of my blog thus far and i hope that Altered Alchemy would continue to entertain you guys for many years to come :)

erm ... if you like to use my new button in your blog ... it's on the side bar, just copy and paste ... and I'LL LOVE YOU FOREVER!!!! hehehe :D

wokie ... it's Chinese New Year on thursday ... may the year of the rabbit bring to all of us much hoppityhop luck in the coming year!