Pages 06/20/09

A strange digital collage ATC. All put together in Photoshop.

Pages 06/16/09

I spotted an image of mine in the Somerset Studios, Creative Impulse Newsletter. It's one of the twinchies I made for an ArtChix swap which is now in an ArtChix collage sheet. Here's a link to the how to, and the video. Enjoy!

Pages 05/25/09

These are photos of my journal I made at the workshop I took with Teesha and Tracy Moore a A Work of Heart in San Jose. It was a great workshop. Teesha is a great teacher willing to share all her techniques an journaling secrets. She is extremely passionate about journaling. I found myself really overwhelmed with emotion as she spoke abut how important it is to her to teach journaling. She also encouraged students to take what they've learned in her class, and teach it themselves. Pretty cool.
Teesha brought a stack of her journals for us to look through. It was amazing to see them up close and personal. I honestly thought they would be BIGGER. *lol* Sounds goofy, I know. The journals were an 8X10 size. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't disappointed in the least. I just expected the journals to be larger. ;-)
Here are a few of the new techniques and tools I learned about. 1. Sharpie Poster Paint Pens in different sizes in funky fluorescent colors. These pens will write on anything! I wrote over pastels and thick collage. Get them soon, as they are being discontinued! 2. Portfolio Series Pastels. An inexpensive water soluble pastel which is awesome for creating dreamy, smooth backgrounds. I like to use colored pencil for this type of thing, but fell in love with this technique. 3. Copic Markers with airbrush attached. Tracy taught us how to airbrush with these pens with a simple attachment with wonderful results. He provided dozens of stencils to try, and was very generous with letting us play with all the pens.
Overall, this was an awesome experience and I learned a lot. It was great to meet the Moore's.

See all my workshop photos here.

Pages 05/15/09

I am still on a bit of a pottery kick. This is the latest kiln fire from this Wednesday. The trivets, skulls, mugs and ornaments are all on the final glaze fire. Last things to do are add some cork backing to the trivets and do some nice copper wiring on the ornaments. I am really pleased how the hand made skulls came out. I might do some in color next time, but it's alot of work!
The cardboard box of pendants, two boxes and the frames need to be glaze fired now. I am not 100% sure how I will finish the pendants and frames yet.
I'm off this afternoon and tomorrow to take a workshop at A Work of Heart in Willow Glen with Teesha and Tracy Moore. I am really excited to learn some of their techniques. I'm hoping I can take some pictures to share with you.

Pages 04/15/09

I got to open a freshly fired kiln load this morning. It's like Christmas! There is still one shelf load left, but have to leave hubby to upload it because I am far too short to reach the bottom. ;-) This was a mix of glazed pieces and bisque pieces. So if some look shinier than others you can tell which are glazed and which aren't. I was really pleased with pretty much everything. I was even able to recue the ornament I fired upsidedown. Oy. I was amazed it made it! (You can see it in the first photo. It's in the bottom left - the white ornament.)
Tonight I'll start with more glazing and see if I can get another kiln load ready for next week. I'll also be busy adding corks to the wine toppers. I was really pleased at how well the colors came out on the toppers.

Pages 04/11/09

Last night when I got home, I had a nice little surprise waiting for me. Last month some of my art was licenced by a company in Texas to be included in a line of domino jewelry. The company is called Phenomenoes. I was delighted to receive some samples of the jewelry and am very pleased at the clarity of the printing and quality of the product. Overall I am really stoked to be a part of the collection. Check out all the designs I have in the catalog here.

Pages 04/05/09

These are some pages I made for a swap I am in. The theme is 'Odd Girls'. The bases were made in Photoshop and then printed on a laser printer. Then I altered them by painting in the hair, adding collage pieces, stamping and drawing and adding some fibers. I find it's a good way to save alot of time when there are alot of pieces to make. By making the bases in Photoshop, I saved alot of time and I was able to make the 23 pages fairly quickly while still making each page unique with stamping and painting..

Pages 03/30/09

I bought these bisque pendants for another project. My original idea did not work out. I'd planned to collage on the surface and it just was not working. Sooooo, after having them hang around my studio for over 2 years, I decided to paint them with ceramic glaze and make painted pendants. (What they were actually intended to be! lol.) I am on a kick right now to use up and finish projects I started, or bought and never did. This is one of them. These will be fired in the kiln and then color will be added to them, baked again and then a clear glaze added over them. Although, I am kind of liking the stark black and white. Maybe I will leave them with no color. What do you guys think?