Making Marks

New work

I attended Art and Soul in Portland in early October. Katie Kendrick's Spontaneous Haiku Painting and Carla Sonheim's Imaginary Creatures classes were a huge inspiration for me. The photo is of a piece I made after Katie's class. I've got more in the works!

Sketchbook and Hiatus

After more than 375 posts, I'm ready for a break. In October, my only posts will be short announcements. Don't worry! Nothing is wrong - I just need to be introspective for a while.  

It's a little scary to step away from the blog, and I'll miss your comments. But I'll be back in November!

Bird's Nest Pendant

Several years ago I had my first art show and used bird images for the theme. A couple of the pieces featured wire birds' nests, and since then, I've been thinking of making a pendant. In the spirit of finishing projects, I made a nest. I've worn it a couple of times and love it.

I formed the base with heavy gauge sterling silver wire wrapped around a small bottle (smaller than a film canister. The remaining wires (different gauges of sterling and gold filled wires) were woven through the base. A very small gauge wire was used to attach the pearls and secure them. If you make one, I want to see it!

Fortune Friday

It's time to help a friend in need.

Glass Blast

What an adventure! My parents, my husband and I went to a glass blowing studio and made our own floats. We had a lot of guidance from seasoned staff who worked with us on each step, and they made it a fun experience.

I wanted a mosaic patterned ball (on the right) and it turned out really well. My mom's (the large one up top) created a small bubble inside when it was cooling. Aren't they all beautiful?

I'm hoping we can do this again because I've got lots of ideas floating through my head.

Workspace messes

I would like you to think that this mess is an anomaly, but it's not. I tend to work on several projects at once and pile things on top of things until I can't find what's in plain sight.

On this day I was working on earrings, carving a rubber stamp, and painting substrates. You can see one of my favorite and well-used items here, my water cup for painting (on the right with the polka dots). I went to a you-glaze workshop and had a lot of fun painting this cheerful piece.

Do you want to see more of artists' work spaces?

Fortune Friday

It's time to help a friend in need.

The happy ending to the sad earring story

My friend's favorite earrings were stolen while she was on a trip to Africa to help university faculty improve their teaching. I was so sad for her!

Shouldn't someone who was out doing good things get a little good karma back?

I pulled out a favorite book, Elegant Wire Jewelry, and tried my hand at making a replacement pair. Not too bad! And she likes them, which is what really counts.

Forest Floor

My experiments with Mary Todd Beam's ideas continue with this piece, an exercise called the forest floor.

I applied a very light layer of paint to the paper and then applied contact paper cut in the shape of leaves. Then I painted over the leaves in an attempt to get some seepage under the contact paper for some texture on the leaves. It didn't work, so I went back and applied Masquepen to the leaves to create another resist. Then I applied layers and layers of fluid acrylic washes to get this result.

I've found that I enjoy working with the liquid acrylics in washes, and I also like altering the substrate with gesso texture and/or applied paper. Those two elements will continue in future work.

Fortune Friday

Don't give up. The best is yet to come.