Happy Holidays to All!

Just a simple, short wish during these hectic, hustle and bustle days. Happy Holidays to all! Try to take just a little time for yourselves and enjoy the season, I know I am this year.  I just sat down to write this and am enjoying a cup of hot chocolate with a yummy, homemade marshmallow, a gift from a  friend. Her instructions were: take time during the hustle and bustle, sit, enjoy the cocoa and relax. I'm listening to Christmas carols on the radio and smiling to myself. What a wonderful and blessed life I have and many great friends!  Happy Holidays to you all!

 

Let the Shopping Begin

One of my promises to myself after the holiday show I was in,  was to start posting more to my Etsy site. I'm happy to say that I'm getting much better and have posted a few things. Now, to get the same commitment with my blog! Those of you who have blogs and post regularly, any tips for trying to post once a week or better? I'd love to hear from you!

This was a bracelet that I had a lot of fun creating. I purchased sterling silver wire a year or so ago and decided it was time to use some of it! Am I the only one who buys things and thinks "I have to have this!", then my "have to have" item sits quietly on a shelf or in a drawer somewhere while I get distracted by another project. Oh well, it sure is fun to "find" it later. I had  never created my own wire wraps/loops and had a lot of fun with this bracelet. I also love the new toggle that I found. It fits small to large size wrists.

I've been loving my stuff from a Vintaj Brass order and created this necklace using their chain, leaf charm, and a vintage aqua bead, swarovski crystal and snakeskin jasper pendant that I had in my bead stash. Well, off to take a few more photos for posting on Etsy.

Creative Gallery Holiday Show

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted to my blog. Actually, way too long. I hope to get better with this as I go. I just finished doing a two day holiday show in Hudson, OH where I sold my jewelry creations. It's been several years since I've done a show (other than my home show that I usually do once a year). It was a great experience for me. There were 20 + artists at the show and every single artist had unique and beautiful things for sale (also some yummy food too). Many of the artists were found on Etsy and I learned a lot about selling my things on my own Etsy shop and blogging too. The picture of me at my booth were taken by a wonderful photographer that sat next to me and had beautiful photography. We kept each other company during the slow times and had a lot of fun. Now that the show is over and of course I didn't sell everything - ha ha, I'll be posting things daily on my Etsy shop - so be sure to stop by. I'm also going to offer free shipping to my blog readers for the entire month of December, just put BLOG Free Shipping in the note to me! Happy shopping to all and thanks for taking the time to read my blog!

  Just a six foot table, but I managed to get quite a bit on my table!

The little guy under the tree was my Lucky Elf! 

Great class with Linda and Opie

Last weekend I took an all day class with Linda and Opie of Burnt Offerings in their studio in North Perry, Ohio. What a great day. They offered a few of these wonderful workshops this summer in their home for up to 4 students and my neighbor and art friend Lorel and I rode together and met Kim and Glenda - who were the other students taking the class. Everyone was great and we all shared bits and pieces that we brought  with us that day to make our art. I took the class on Simple Metal Jewelry. We learned to rivet, hammer, cut and etch metal and also learned to make our own bezels. The picture I took shows what I did that day. The piece at the top left is a sheet of nickel plate and was etched. After it was etched I cut it into smaller pieces - one is my necklace and the two smaller pieces were then riveted to a piece of copper and aged them in Liver of Sulfur solution. The copper mesh, we painted with a torch to get the cool coloring, not sure what I'll use that for yet, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. Linda and Opie were awesome teachers and hosts in their home/studio. They served us a wonderful home cooked lunch and (Linda also loves to cook) and shared great stories of their travels and projects they're working on. What really amazed me though, was seeing their art in person. You see their art in so many books and publications, but in person it was even better. I left at the end of the day feeling like I'd made new friends and hope to take more classes!

Learning to Art Journal

I'm so excited! Dianne, a friend from my AGO (Art Gang Ohio)  showed a group of us how she works in her art journal. I had been thinking about trying it, but was a little nervous at first. I know a lot of people worry that their handwriting isn't good enough to use in an art journal - of course I compare myself to all the artists that I admire and think I'm not as good as they are, but we all have to start somewhere - right? Well, it turned out better than I thought, so I'm posting it for all to see and hope that I'll be inspired to get started in one of the MANY blank journals I have sitting around, just waiting to be used. Thanks so much for inspiring me Dianne!

 We worked on 140 lb watercolor paper and started with a watercolor wash to get rid of the scary white space.

I pasted a few images images I had collected, and colored a bit with my Lyra watercolor crayons, then blended.

The stenciled circles in the top right was done with one of Michael Meador's stencils. I wrote with my favorite black pen - a Pentel EnerGel, it's a .5 mm needle tip and gives a nice smooth line (I found my pen at Staples). Check out Dianne's art journal pages on her blog - linked under Artist's that I Admire as Art Beneath the Cottonwoods. You'll see why she's an artist I admire.

A Lovely Suprise

What a nice surprise I had this weekend when I was doing my least favorite spring chore - weeding. Last May I  planted 2 starts from fragrant lilac bushes that came from my grandmother's farm. One was a white lilac and the other purple. I looked up from my weeding, and there was a beautiful and fragrant lilac bloom. What a surprise. I  smiled thinking about it as I weeded my way through my gardens. 

Fun at Artiscape

Finally getting a post in after my fun trip to Artiscape! I had a wonderful time at Artiscape and saw lots of friends that I had taken classes with before. I took classes with Paula Hardesty (a soldering goddess), Gaye Medbury (made a really fun little book that I'll post when I finish the embellishing), Paula Best (made very cool fabric beads and a funky fabric bracelet too). I took Fun with Stencils and Art Charms made from aluminum cans with Mike Meador who was also a great instructor. He and his wife Chris make such a great team and we all laughed like crazy in both classes - he's a very funny guy! I can't wait to try some of the new techniques I learned in my classes and I promise to post one or two more of my class projects once I get them a little more finished. Hopefully, it won't be so long between posts next time.

 This is the front of my shadow box pendant that I made in Paula Hardesty's class

This is the back side of my Shadow box pendant, I can't wait to make more of these!

One of my trades I made for Artiscape. My Reach for the Stars wand, they didn't last long - glad I saved one for me.

Road trip to Columbus

Well, today I drove to Columbus for Artiscape, a really fun weekend of art, friends and classes. It's a 2 hour drive from my home to Columbus and I have a few favorite places to stop on the way. First stop was Gahana for some bead shopping. I am also a jewelry artist and am always looking for unique beads to add a special touch to a necklace or bracelet that I make for a friend, myself or for sale. The Gahana Bead Studio is a great shop with lots of unique glass beads, vintage brass findings, and more. Of course I found a few things that had to come home with me. I then stopped at CWI Craft wholesalers in Reynoldsburg, only open to the wholesale industry though. They have art supplies, primitive home decorations and cookbooks by Gooseberry Patch.  By then, it was time to check in at the hotel and give a call to my husband to let him know I had arrived safely. I'm looking forward to some creative inspiration for a few days. Hopefully I'll have time to post some more pics as the week goes on. Until then...

These are my treasures from the Gahana Bead Studio shopping, I can't wait to get home and play with them. The C-Koop pendants were great little enamel pendants. 

 

The first photo doesn't do justice to the really great colors that these beads had, beautiful blues, greens and golds! 

An ATC created from the Family Stories set

This is an ATC I created for a trade at Artiscape. I clear embossed the bird on a fence image on glossy paper. I dabbed Ranger Alcohol inks over the whole card and wiped away the ink over the embossed image. I stamped the musical notes with StazOn black and then added a little gold cap to my  singing bird. I attached the glossy card to black card stock. I'm having lots of fun with my new stamps. 

Finally, up and Running!

I'm so excited to be posting my first blog! I have followed all of my friend's blogs for years and never had one of my own. I thought to myself, "I'm  a graphic designer, I can figure this out". I'm sure it will get easier, but I hope you will all forgive my first few attempts and know that I'll get better as I go. My goal is to post something every few days and I'm going to try very hard to do so. I have so many things to share with you... the first and most exciting is my new line of unmounted rubber stamps that I have designed. I would love to hear your comments about them. And if you have purchased them, I'd love to see what you have created. I'll be working to set up my  Etsy shop soon. I'll post the link as soon as it's done.