Imagine This

Happy Lord's Day

An Icon of blessing created by M.S. Carcin of Mexico

 

 

Icon of blessing (detail)

 

M. S. Garcin is a patient of the eye surgeons my mom goes to in Houston. She made this metal and paint icon and gave it as a gift to the doctors. I was thrilled to get to see it. It is gorgeous.

Have a Blessed week!

Excuses, Excuses

So. Where in the world have I been?

I've been right here at home.

And why haven't I been posting?

Lots of excuses but only two really big reasons . . .

1.   

I've finally recovered fully (I think) from a month-long alergy/asthma bout with my body. No breathe, so no energy, and no stamina. All I wanted to do was stay in bed. So that's pretty much all I've done except for one week when I broke out with a red rash on my face and had to go to Houston for a dermatologist appt. (It's almost all gone now. Thank the good Lord!)

2.

AND the other reason I haven't been posting . . .

Remember back in February when my computer cratered and would only boot half way? Well, In September it CRASHED, BURNED, and went to HEAVEN!!! Consequently, I had to buy a new one. Bad news was it was ony 4 years old - I keep them much longer than that. In fact the one before that is still working - decrepitly but still working. Good news? Well, now I have the very newest iMac with a 24" screen!! Woohoo!!)

Anyway, from there, you know the drill . . .  It's re-find and reinstall everything. OOPS! My printer is NINE, count them, NINE years old!! YIKES... they not only don't have print drivers for it anymore but they don't even make ink for it anymore. LOL. So-o-o-o, new printer! (Bad news? Another learning curve! Good news? I now have a brand new wide format HP printer Yippee!! Hope I learn how to make it print.

Next, the saga of the scanner. It was a top of the line large bed scanner from HP and still working GREAT! Only thing is that since I have the very newest iMac -- with the latest system version: Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard --- well, HP won't getaround to developing the scanner drivers for that until some of the newer scanners have drivers for Snow Leopard -- so I can get a driver for my OLD scanner in DECEMBER!!! Yuk!

I'm barely moving along in the "learn-new-hardware" department and managing to do things I don't need a scanner for -- &$*@#!  But I can print -- some things -- LOL.

Meanwhile, good things happened, too. The skeleton piece above was used by Angela Cartwright and Sarah Fishburne in their publication Pasticcio, Issue Seven.

I was honored to get the frontice piece for Palais du Art.

See:

Photo of my skeleton piece in Pasticcio Issue 7

Beyond all that, I'm frantically trying to stay afloat putting this major art exhibit together at church... AND make art for it... gasp, gasp. A couple of pictures of the making of one piece about Deborah and Jael (the show's theme is "Art inspired by the Book of Judges") and then tah tah for tonight --

1                                                            2

       
3                                                             4

5

Okey dokey --that's it so far... hopethis piece gets better soon!

Third Day Gift

My sweet friend, Lou McCulloch, was responsible for the third day's gift for the ornament swap. She was so thoughtful to include me, too. I was thrilled to find this little gift wrapped in crow paper with adornments of ribbon, sticker words, and a cutout of the word faith. And look at the darling handmade card she sent along with the gift. How lucky am I to have such a generous friend?

Inside the package was a delightful ornament of contasting bling and earthy components. The glitzy snowflake base holds a glittered circle featuring one of Lou's signature images. A beautiful glass bead in my favorite seafoam green color is wrapped with silver wire spirals and dangles from the bottom of the ornament on a mesh ribbon. Perfectly wonderful pieces of raveled silk ribbon serve as a hanger for the ornament. Isn't Lou just the cleverest artist? I am truly blessed to have her as a friend. Thanks so much, Lou. Your gift was just the surprise to shore me up on a "down" day during my recovery. You're the best.

The next ornament I have is to be opened on Saturday, Dec. 6th. Check back then and we'll see what goody is in store for that day!! Isn't this exciting? I just can't get over the thoughtfulness and generosity of some folks.

Happy, Happy, Happy Dance!!!

It's Finally Here!
A Charming Exchange is finally here!

 

Here is what was waiting for me when I got home from nursing Mom through her cataract surgery. Oh,I'm so excited. This book is soo-o--o exciting! [So, I'm taking a little break from my summer Camp Turlington reviews to bring you this special book review!]

Kelly Snelling and Ruth Rae worked passionately (and long -- they started talking to contributors before January 2007 and the work had to be in their hands by May 5, 2007!) getting this fabulous jewelry gallery and special how-to book, A Charming Exchange, ready for publication. They invited some really wonderful artists, not necessarily jewelry makers, to collaborate with them making found object elements for the jewelry pieces for this book. There are 25 how-to projects and many more pieces of jewelry for your visual pleasure. Most of these are collaborative pieces where one artist starts the bracelet, necklace, or earrings and then the piece is passed to other artists to add to or to finish. Here are some pages from the book with a few of the grand collaborative pieces.

Collaborative Round Robin Jewelry

 
Found object necklace, History Lesson, by Crystal Neubauer with Ruth Rae,
Catherine Witherell, Deryn Mentock, and Jessica Moreau-Berry, p.19.

 

Catherine Witherall's Gothic Romance with Ruth Rae, Deryn Mentock,
Jessica Moreau-Berry, and Crystal Newbauer, p.12.

Sweet Refuge by Joanna Pierotti, Judy Scott, Ruth Rae, and Kelly Snelling, p. 104.

As you can tell, this is a unique, creative collection of collaborative jewelry. Created by various combinations of the the contributing artists, these pieces incorporate found objects, metal, wire, beads, fabric, fiber, and all manner of other amazing things. The book is not only one of a kind, but also has gorgeous pictures and fantastic step-by-step instructions for most of the projects.

I was extremely fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to be invited to participate in this collaborative endeavor. A few of my contributions were selected to be published. I'll give you a peek here.

Talisman Necklace Swap

A Charming Exchange, p. 40.

 
This is my Healing Mandala for the Talisman Necklace swap.

In the photo album titled Healing Mandala in the left side bar of this blog, are a few more picture and my description including a list of the herbs used and their medicinal qualities. Check it out.

My dear friend, Deryn, also had published several pieces of her specialty art jewelry elements in collaborative pieces as well as her one-of-a-kind solo pieces. One of those is her incredible talisman necklace:

The Shepherd's Amulet, a talisman necklace by Deryn Mentock, p. 30.

I noticed that Deryn has also posted about Kelly and Ruth's book and has offered some closer looks at her pieces. So be sure to check out her blog, Something Sublime.

Collaborative Earrings

Meanwhile, I'd like to show you how we went about our collaborative earrings.

A Charming Exchange, p. 67.

To make the collaborative earrings, one artist started the earrings and sent them along to the next artist who added an element to them and passed them along to the third artist for finishing. We thought this was one of the most unique assignements we had. It was hard to stop when you were the "starter"and definitely challenging when you were the "finisher." These resulted in some of the most exciting pieces of jewelry in the collaborative. Below, the picture on the left is the way the first artist started the earrings, the middle picture shows what the second artist added. Finally, the  picture on the right shows how the third artist finished the earrings:

1. Sally Turlington started.     2. Cece Grimes added.     3. Debra Cooper finished.



1. Debra Cooper started.     2. Sally Turlington added.     3. Cece Grimes finished.

 
1. Cece Grimes started.     2. Debra Cooper added.     Sally Turlington finished.


Asymmetrical Earring Swap

For the asymmetrical earring swap, we were paired with another artist. Each of us make ONE earring and sent it to the other artist. We we received the other artist's earring, we were to fashion a mate to it - not identical, of course, but "rhyming" with it and send the pair back to the originator. This was another clever, challenging assignment and resulted in lots of thrilling pairs of earrings.

A Charming Exchange, p. 71.

   
1. Marci Glenn sent this.    2. I made a mate.         3. This is the pair!

                             (Marci's photo)

A Charming Exchange, p. 73.

  
             1. I made this earring.         2. Ruth created a mate for it & this is the pair!
                                         (Ruth's photo.)

Kelly Snelling and Ruth Rae have to be the most energetic, creative, talented found object art jewelers in creation! They dreamed up all this madness and made sure each and every piece was unique and special. I promise you, this will be your new most favorite jewelry book EVER!! Don't rest until you get your very own copy.

Hopeful

One Word Challenge


(Artsmiths blog banner, photo & artwork by Angela Cartwright)

Have you visited the blog at Artsmiths? Now, that is one web site you don't want to miss. Artsmiths is a cooperative of professional, mixed media artist friends who have bonded together to support one another in promoting their art, help and encourage each other, and generally chat about art and what's up in our worlds.

We are currently having our first challenge that has turned out to be quite fun. It's called "One Word," and we were to choose a word that describes us and do a piece of art in any medium incorporating that word. Then we posted our art pieces on the Artsmiths blog. Almost everyone has posted a piece and the posts are the most interesting part. Each artist has given a little bit of info about why they chose that word and what it has to do with themselves. We're getting to know each other a little bettter through this activity. Here is a little peek at mine:

(Detail from Hopeful, my collage for the Artsmiths current challenge)

You can see the whole piece in my post, One Word - HOPEFUL - by Sally Turlington, on the Artsmiths blog.

You'll want to check back on that blog regularly because there will be all kinds of different projects and posts from thirteen different artists. Some are collaborative projects, some collective and some will be totally independent. There are artist-of-the-month posts with in-depth interviews about those artists, info on publication by the artists, news about events the artists are involved in -- including where they will be teaching, and links to each artist's own personal blog. In addition there are photo albums of each artist's artwork. The Smithies (as we have come to refer to ourselves) are planning to post items of interest to the art community - resources, tutorials, scans of art, posts about interesting web sites, challenges, contests, etc. You won't want to miss a single word of it.

My Smithie friends are a fun, down-to-earth group of exceptionally talented and well known artists who love to share themselves and their art. They are caring and helpful to one another. I appreciate knowing them and participating in their world.

The Smithies include these artists: Angela Cartwright, Sarah Fishburn, Lelainia Lloyd, Denise Lombardozzi, Sylvia Luna, Deryn Mentock, Crystal Neubauer, Pilar Pollock, Kristen Robinson, Mary Beth Shaw, Deb Trotter, Sally Turlington, and Tiffini Elektra X.

Why not hop over right now to the Artsmiths blog and poke round a little? And don't forget to let me know what you think of my collage.

Alrighty Then - Some Mail Art

(Click image for a closer look.)

Hmm-m-m-m, maybe I'm just easing back into doing some art by sending off mail art?? Well, that will work. I had some things to send to art  buddies, winners of prizes, and folks who wanted books and calendars, etc. Whew! I think I've caught up now with the mail.

Do you recognize the image on the envelope above ? I cropped my October page for the Arte Ed Anima 2008 Calendar. Then I opened it in Photoshop to take the color out and modified it to look like a large rubber stamp image. I brayered ink onto the manilla envelope for a background and then did a water/inkjet transfer of the image onto the envelope. Then I finished the whole thing with some collage pieces, markers, pen, pencil, and postage stamps. If I remember correctly, the post office clerk put two big red hand cancels on the stamps. If I get a scan from Sandi, I'll post it so you can see how it looked when she got it. Meanwhile, here is the back of the envelope:

(Click image for a closer look.)

You know what it is like to be working on a piece of art and have it go bad? So you do more to it and sometimes that fixes it. But for me with the envelope below, no matter what I did, it made it worse. I think the way it ended up is way too busy and not well composed. I like the colors ok but I think the background called for a much simpler design. Since I didn't have the time to start over, I just went with it. Hope the recipient wasn't too put off by it. It's the thought that counts, right?

The one below was done at about the same time. It, too, is too busy but the composition had potential. I just should have stopped adding to it long before I did. LOL.

Well, after those fiascoes, I took a break and when I got back to mail art to finish out the mailings, I was in a totally different mood. I got off on a Nick Bantock jag. I wanted to do some of those African women collages. I will post the results tomorrow. They turned out much better. Whew! sometimes I worry that I've lost it and will never be able to get it together again. Ever feel that way?