Shard Necklace - why do I procrastinate?

I'm sure Haley's ADD runs in the family - it's so hard for me to sit down and bead shard necklaces. I love the way they look and feel, and I have a bunch of request for them, but stringing beads is like pulling teeth for me. Some people might find it relaxing - not me. I did complete one last night for a friend, Barbara. Here it is, and I do love it. But, dang, that's a lot of beads!

Haley speaks out for kids with ADD

Grandson Haley was featured on last night's local news with an inspiring message for other kids with learning disabilities: "You can do it!". Hopefully, his encouragement will keep teens with learning difficulties channeling their talents in creative directions and away from the "other" kind of nightly news. I am so proud of him and predict his career as an author will be just as successful and meaningful as his father's.

OPEN STUDIO EVENT

This last-minute idea was wonderful - it was practically a sell-out and I had the best time visiting with friends and talking about art. It's something I plan to do again on a regular basis every few months.
Many thanks to everyone who came (and purchased).

Hyatt Show and Display

Yesterday's show was an interesting one, and I did sell a number of Shards and two shard collage pins. It was primarily a children's event, however, held in conjunction with a tree lighting and a visit with Santa, complete with real reindeer on the lawn of the Hyatt Resort. Most vendors seemed disappointed that the art show was not the featured event, but more of a walk-through on the way to Santa's place. But it was fun.

I got an idea for display table pieces that I'll use when I do another craft show - it's a folding book, the same model as the Kindle covers, but larger, and with one simple image on it. The image is a photo by Julia Cameron, the 19th century photographer whose work I'm so fond of. The "book" stands up and a rectangular black vase fits inside to hole dried flowers. There's a small Velcro'd box at the bottom edge for business cards. I can put a magnetic pin on the front. Here's the idea, and here's a photo from the show set-up.

Magnetic Adornments

Tonight I finished a dozen new Art-To-Wear shard "magnetic adornments." A friend saw these yesterday and said,"They are a combination of your collages and your shards!" Yep. I like the idea of the bar magnet on the back that keeps them secure on clothing without making holes. I'm taking them to the Hyatt Resort Art Faire on Friday - we'll see how they are received. Now, back to the kitchen to cook!

Thanksgiving Dessert

Here's a wonderful dessert for turkey day - I used Cajeta instead of melted caramels when I made it this morning for tomorrow's dinner. It's essentially the same thing, and easier than unwrapping caramels. Local apples make it even better!

Warm Caramel Apple Bread Pudding

1 qt cream

6 eggs

4 oz. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 small loaf of French bread

2-3 Granny Smith apples

1 lb. caramels, melted

Cut bread into cubes and toast. 

Place bread into buttered Pyrex dish, and

alternate layers of caramel and sliced

apples until full.  Mix cream, eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Pour over bread and

apples.  Bake at 325 degrees in a

water bath for an hour, until set. 

Studio Visit

Yesterday, I drove out to the Hill Country to visit a new friend, an artist I had met at last weekend's Olmos Park Art Faire. She and I hit it off immediately, and I promised to help set up her website. It was a pleasure because her work is varied and complex. She described her studio to me, but nothing prepared me for the place itself. Designed by the Houston architect Cameron Armstrong, the home and workspace is an amazing fusion of metal and organic material. It's essentially a small compound of three buildings, all of which integrate progressively with the surrounding stone-and-cedar terrain. I can't wait to go back!

A Little Family History

I like this interview because that's the way it really happened.

Magnetic Shard Adornment

Something new! I got this idea the night before the craft fair and made one to wear:

 It's a pin, but not really, because it's a small collage with a shard face that attaches to a jacket or sweater with a very strong magnet meant for name tags. I got so many comments on it (and offers to buy it) that I decided to make a few more. Check them out - I think I'll make some for Etsy or my own webpage and sell them for $22 or so. Apparently, wearing the one I have is the best advertising! Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

Belisle Sells Out

Yep - today was a sellout at my first "real" neighborhood craft fair. I gave my last Shard face to my hostess as a thank-you for letting me participate. I met so many great people and learned to use my Square software on the iPad to make transactions reliably.
One thing I learned is that set-up and sales in that venue is hard work. There are lots of times one just sits, and then a customer or two come and then more, and the wind picks that moment to blow over your umbrella and scatter your cards. It's a crazy way to make a living! But it definitely has appeal - and the feedback is priceless.
Here are some photos of my low-tech treeside set-up.

Uptown Art Stroll this Weekend

I haven't done much of this, but will be participating in a large arts fair called Uptown Art Stroll in the Olmos Park Terrace neighborhood. My friend, knitter and weaver Kathleen Messina, has invited me to share her space. I'll be taking Scent Shards and cover examples. Here's a map that shows how extensive a "stroll" it will be. Fortunately for art lovers, there's going to be a trolley, food booths and music to make strolling more fun.

West Texas

Just returned from a trip to the Davis Mountains near Big Bend where my band played for a 50th high school reunion. The music was fun, but the landscape was harsh. Places have their own beauty - the light here was very different and made photography difficult because there seemed to be no mid-tones. If a landscape can be bi-polar, this was it! Here are some photos from the Davis Mountains near Ft. Davis State Park. The last two show two shops in the town of Ft. Davis. I really liked the shop called Possibilities, and found some interesting essential oils there, as well as a very interesting shop owner.

It's a scan!

I needed some batik print accents for a journal cover I created recently, so I turned to my trusty scanner and laid my 35-year-old Indonesian batik sarong on the flatbed of my scanner.

After the image was scanned, I opened it in Photoshop Elements, my graphic design studio's best friend.

I kept the original version, but also made a version in blue by adjusting the hue settings. I saved them as separate files, but combined them into one sheet to print. I printed them out on a strong but semi-transparent rice paper meant for InkJet printers. The result is amazing- it even has the satin gloss and soft feel of the original fabric. I can't wait to use it on my next project. As they say, the possibilities are endless.

Wow.

The India ink caper

Aargh! My little cat, Pharaoh, was looking out the window in the studio while I was working. When he jumped down, his front paw landed in a bowl of India Ink and he ran across my work table, the dhurrie rug, the tile floor and on and on. I finally caught him and gave him a footbath in the sink, which he did not care for one bit. Unfortunately, since India ink is permanent, I may have a new pattern on the studio rug.
Pharaoh, the art cat -

Spicepaper from the kitchen

I was experimenting with paper towels when I saw some great stain patterns that were left after cleanup yesterday. A blog post on Cloth Paper Scissors prompted me to try some kitchen ingredients for mixed media surface enhancement, so I got some curry powder and some Chinese Five-Spice Powder and sprinkled them on very damp paper towels (white with fiber). It looked good - after it dried a bit, I brushed off the small clumps and painted some gloss acrylic medium over the surface.

Once the paper dried, I adhered the spicepaper to a journal cover frame that I had constructed and covered with Kraft paper. A little gold leaf added to the texture. The results were fun, a cross between aged canvas and distressed leather. And it smells like a spice bazaar!See what you think--too bad you can't smell it:

Font fever

Design mode has kicked  in and I went on a font hunt for some letters with a craftsman look. I found some beauties - here's a sample board with just a few. Fonts are so expressive all by themselves no matter what the words might be.

Prest-o Change-o Studi-o

Behind in my work as usual, I had to do a quick change from a collage and drawing studio to a clay studio in about half an hour today. Actually, I've organized my tools so that it's fairly easy. I keep all of my clay tools, clay press molds and carving tools, and rolling boards stacked in one area behind a kitchen butcher block shelf. And I have baskets for the collage material - here are some pictures which show the transformation. Pretty slick re-purposing in a small space!

Judging book by cover?

I agonized over how to present my work to the Cloth Paper Scissors editors before I packed it to mail it off. I ended up "re-imagining" some of those brown kraft expanding office folders. I put a strip of mat board in the bottom of the two smaller ones to hold them open, then scored and trimmed the flaps to make fold-overs with punched holes and ties. The larger one was done the same basic way, but the iPad cover was too large for flaps, so I skewered it with some bamboo toothpicks.
If *I* were the judge, I'd choose *me* based on the creative packages alone - - too bad I'm not!

Cloth Paper Scissors Finalist

Yesterday I received an email from Jenn Mason, editor of the popular national art/crafting magazine, Cloth Paper Scissors published by Interweave Press. I am a finalist for Artisan of the Year 2012!
In this post, I described working for this in the studio - and I'm happy that they liked the work!
Here is another piece from that set of three submissions:

I am pretty amazed, but happy that I seem to be on the right track - good to be validated by a community of incredibly talented people.Stay tuned!

Canyon Series Shard Firing

These are for the Nueva Street Gallery - I did a small edition, only eight pieces, but I like them all. Seven pieces sold last week - I'm hoping these do as well, although there are some in this series that I hate to let go of.

Studio Work

Been working on some new journals in an attempt to send some ideas to a national magazine Here's one I really like - it's an iPad cover called <groan> Eye Dear. I lined the inside with some very textural recyclable packing paper - wonder where I can get more of this stuff? It's great!