Blog is Moving - Come on along!!

I wanted to move my blog to a domain that reflected the content, so it now lives here at earthshards.com.
All former posts are intact and I look forward to sharing many new ones!!!

The Trinity Alumni Artisan Show

This is always an enjoyable event - it's not a particularly good "buying" group, but seeing former grads at the lovely Holt Center gardens is fun. Here's a short video of the show. It lasted just two hours and was held in conjunction with the Alumni Picnic. Some of my favorites from other artisans were Tina Barajas' clay Whistkulls and Cathy Geib's giant cow done in pastels.

New Ornamental Shard Pin Collages

It's been a while since I've done these little shard pin collages- I love working in this format. Here are ten new ones from the studio. They will go with me tomorrow to the Trinity Alumni Artisan Show. If you haven't seen these before, they are clipped to the frame interior matboard with a strong bar magnet so they can be taken off and worn as a pin. There is also a clear straw "channel" on the back that a cord can go through so the construction can be worn as a pendant. They also look cool on a hat - or a lampshade :) I'll have more of these at my December 1st Open House/Open Studio event. Invitations will go out next week and everyone is invited!

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Beautiful Afternoon at the Workshop

The studio positively glowed with creative energy today - six art teachers and artisans from south of San Antonio drove in for the Collage on Canvas workshop. I had met Becky and Sharon at Sandy Oaks Olive Orchard when I taught a journal workshop there earlier in the year, and they brought their friends and colleagues today to play. What a fun, talented group! Every workshop is limited to six people and that seems to be the perfect number to collaborate and share ideas. We definitely borrowed and developed tips and techniques from each other. Everyone was so generous sharing their materials - I received some wonderful tablecloth remnants and some old keys and feathers and cactus-pad skeletons - cool. When you see their work, you'll be as impressed as I was - thanks for a great afternoon, everyone!

Look Quick!

It's a clean studio (in relative studio terms). It took a few hours, but I'm ready for tomorrow's workshop. Among the things I found were my lost bee stamp, my lost favorite face mold, a bunch of assorted beads, chopsticks, and a plastic elephant. And tons of clay dust and paper scraps. Switching from collage to clay really is a challenge! But I'm ready for my Collage on Canvas class tomorrow - yay! Here's the unvarnished photographic record of spotlessness . . . well, maybe not "spotlessness" -  but improvement, nevertheless.

Thrill of the Kiln?

It's always a little scary to open the kiln when it's fired during the night - once it over-fired, once things were way too wet and there was breakage, but most of the time, it's a thrill to see all of the pieces intact and transformed. I loaded the latest edition of shards yesterday afternoon late (1st photo) and this morning at 5:00, the kiln sitter had tripped off, and while the pieces were still hot, they looked fine. I never can wait until daylight, always have to get out the flashlight and check on them. They are still too hot to handle but I can unload the kiln in a hour or so. These pieces fired at Cone 05 (about 1800+F), as do most of the earthenware pieces I make. Thanks to the kiln gods!

Transfer Rescue

During Sunday's Image Transfer workshop, I made a disappointingly mediocre transfer of a woman on watercolor paper that I am rescuing (I hope) - I added a rice paper indirect transfer on the right and then went back into the face with watercolor. I added some iridescent acrylic on the "window" part to give it some drama. It's not Great Art, but if it were developed a bit more, it could be a nice illustration.

Image Transfer Workshop

I loved this workshop group - we experimented a lot and got crazy results, sometimes really good ones, sometimes really weird ones. One of the things that *didn't* seems to work was the ITS solution on the tiles - I tried it afterwards, and by baking the tile instead of using the heat gun, it seemed to transfer a lot better. I still think I rushed it a bit (and next time will let it soak several hours) but here were the steps I followed:

Cut the thermal (laser) design to fit the unglazed tile

Rub a fairly generous amount of the ITS solution on the front of the thermal (laser) photo

 Pllace face down on unglazed tile and rub until well-adhered, then bake in a 325F oven for 30 minutes

 The paper will be firmly stuck to the tile after baking

 Cool the tile, then soak it in cold water for at least an hour (this is where I rushed it a bit)

 Gently rub the paper off, leaving the ink design - you can see that it came off around the edges, but I think if I had torn the edges to make them softer, this might not have happened.

Coat with a clear acrylic spray to protect the tile

30 Shades of Twilight

Note to Self

The banner is up at the gallery - that means get back in the studio and start painting! 10 down, 20 to go - yikes.

Herbs and Shards

The Herb Market was a trip! I had never done a show like that before with tables and lots of vendor rules and big crowds. The emphasis was on herbs (naturally), so I took some Scent Shards, the new little Sprig Shards, and the small dishes with bees on them.
Well! The Sprig Shards *sold out* in an hour - one woman bought 23 of them. I hope she has a lot of friends (or sprigs). Almost all of the Scent Shards and little dishes sold as well. It was amazing.
I absolutely couldn't have done it without the help of my dear friend Maria Luhrman, who manned the cash box, talked to everyone and kept them interested, and even gave me the best homemade granola bar I've ever eaten. Thank you, Maria!! Here are some photos (thanks to Mike for taking these)

 Maria and I set up the stuff - shard city!

 Lookin' good . . .

 I have some new and different finishes on the little faces

  

The people start to arrive - the guy on the right says, "Hey, there are some Scent Shards!" OK, not really.

But there was a feeding frenzy for quite a while - wow. And almost everything was sold. What an afternoon. I'm so grateful to the Herb Market committee for inviting me.

Meanwhile, back in the Twilight Studio . . .

Work is going well on the Shades of Twilight series - I read part of The Prophet today while I was working in the studio and there are some lines that fit exactly what I'm working toward. I've finished ten of the small paintings, 20 more to go. Here's a preview (although they may change a bit) ---

 From Top to Bottom:

20 Ginko

29 Copperine

8 Chassange

More Spirited Creations

I received these photos tonight from Rue, a talented creator and online friend - just look at her new Samhain Altar Doll: "Season of my Soul:"

 It makes me feel like dancing in the forest! Lovely work, Rue - as always, you elevate my little shard faces and give them a whole new life of their own.

Blessings from Joanna!

After Joanna posted her spirit doll instructions, I was swamped with orders for face shards - it was great! These five packages went out just yesterday afternoon. And the loveliest part is that I receive photos from artisans all over the country showing how they use the faces in their constructions - here's one from Karen - it's fanciful and celebratory.

Spirit Dolls Abound! Thanks, Joanna!

Joanna Powell Colbert is an artist and inspriation. She sent me a note today via Facebook:

Hi Lyn! I started my tutorial on making Spirit Dolls on my blog today. Just wanted you to know -- hoping to send lots of folks your way.
Blessings!
Joanna
http://www.gaiansoul.com/2012/10/how-to-make-a-spirit-doll-step-1/

These amazing creations really do give new life and spirit to the little shard faces. It's exciting to be a part of it in a small way. Joanna's work is incredible. I hope you have a chance to look at her beautiful Gaian Tarot Cards. I ordered a deck when I first "met" her on Etsy and each one is a wonderful work of art and human-ness. I'm going to follow her tutorial and see where it takes me - surely to some new ideas for Spirit Boxes and collages. Here's Joanna's photograph from her blog, Gaian Soul:

New Books, Both Fantastic

I received two new books this afternoon - the perfect cheer-up from the bout of flu that hit this morning - arg. Both of them make me want to head to the studio right away, but that will have to wait till tomorrow. Here's the first one:

Titled Wax and Paper Workshop, it's filled with encaustic and papermaking techniques that are fascinating and inspirational. Michelle is a friend of my former studio partner, Carol Mylar, and we will get to see her in action at a workshop later this month. I highly recommend this brand-new book - it's not a "crafty" kind of how-to but instead takes the traditional encaustic method to fine arts heights in one and two dimensions.

The second book is Digital Image Transfer: Creating Art with Your Photography. I can see already that there are some techniques we'll be trying in my Image Transfer workshop on October 28th.

 

To quote from the publisher, "Ellen G. Horovitz, an inspiring artist and teacher, guides readers through imaginative photo projects that transform cherished analog and digital images into works of art. Horovitz expands on traditional photo transfer, taking it to an entirely new level using digital software techniques and a wide array of innovative materials and methods, including cocoa powder, Citrasolve, copper, and packing tape. Starting with traditional photos, digital files, and instant photo emulsions, Horovitz fashions 2D and 3D art pieces, showing readers how to use conventional processes and new exploratory techniques-even left-over materials-in the creation of meaningful photo art."

Stay tuned for reviews.

NPR Interview with Tift Merritt

I blush to admit that I had not even heard of Tift Merritt, but after hearing the interview this morning on my morning walk, I feel as if I know her well - she talked about, among other things, how she fears the complexity and glitz of contemporary society tries to be a seductive distraction from meaningfulness - everything she said resonated with me. Merritt's latest album is called Traveling Alone. The title, she told NPR's David Greene, speaks to the value of being self-sustaining:
"I think, at the end of the day, I have an outsider's heart," Merritt says. "You always hope that you're going to find that place where you belong — you know, you follow the map or the playbook that everyone in the world seems to have, or understand, and you will arrive at the place where things make sense. And I think ... that's a little naive, and that you have to build that place yourself. And that's a lonely thing to realize, but also an exciting one."
Coincidentally, my teaching assistant, Claire Afflerbach, asked me last night to look at some of the photos she took while studying in New Zealand - I think this one is a perfect companion for Tift Merritt's comments. Beautiful work, Claire.

Photo by Claire Afflerbach

Another bridge . . .

Here's a second "Bridges" piece I finished tonight. I had the ideas laid out before we left for the weekend, and of course, they changed as I worked on them. I tried some melted beeswax in places on some of the elements and I like the way it works as an adhesive of sorts and as a texture. Not quite encaustic, but sort of.

Little Bridges

Earlier in the summer took three small constructions on canvas to Nueva Street Gallery. They are on stretched canvas and have clay shard pieces attached with thread and adhesives. I call them the Bridges series because they are a bridge between my collages on canvas pieces and my shard works. Here's one I just finished to replace one that sold last month - it will be available at the Gallery after Tuesday:

Basket o' SprigShards

In the interest of continuity (and "branding") I now have the newly-named SprigShards for the Herb Market on October 20th. They are cute little guys! I posted a pic to the Herb Society page and have already pre-sold ten of them. Not bad - and only five crisp dollar bills each! (or 25 quarters, or a credit card, or a trade, or . . .)

Thought

I heard something that Kenny Rogers said the other day in an interview with Diane Rehm:
"You know, I have a theory that we're all three people. I'm who I think I am, I'm who you think I am and I'm who I really am. And the closer those three are together the longer your career can last."
The more I think about it, the more I agree. It has to do with being as honest as you can about the good and the bad in your life. Facades and masks take so much energy to hold up and maintain that could better be spent on creating and communicating. That idea has stayed with me. Hope it continues to.

What to do with those darn springs of herbs . .

New from the pottery studio - SprigsPockets! These little guys are for the upcoming Herb Market on October 20th. Just hang one in the kitchen or wherever (bath, maybe?) with a few herb sprigs for cooking or just to sniff - at only $5 each, everyone needs a SpringsPocket. Hey, should I have called them PickPockets? Hmm. Anyway, I doubt I will make too many of these but they are kinda cute and useful and should be a nice item for the Herb Market - this kind of vendor table event is new for me. We'll see how it goes. Maybe Chia Shards next?? Nah . . . .

Image Transfer Experiments

In preparation for my upcoming Image Transfer Workshop, I figured I'd better try out a few things - techniques have certainly changed since my undergraduate days when we used magazine pages and lighter fluid. It's a wonder we didn't set the Trinity art studio on fire. These two transfer compositions are done with rice paper and with soft acrylic gel. Both use inkjet images. I'm still working with various combinations and timings. It's tricky, but even the less-than-perfect results are interesting.

Books and Beyond - beyond expectations

What a great workshop this afternoon - it was one of those times when everyone just opened up to their creativity and knew where they were going - it was a beautiful thing to watch! Here's the video - fantastic group dynamics and I felt privileged to be a part of it.

Twas the night before . . .

. . .the Herb Garden Tour! I have weeded and mulched and potted - here's a video of the result - Texas Eclectic is the theme, and that's pretty much what it is! Now all I need are ticket-buying people to show up in the morning and add to our Scholarship Fund while adding to their herbal and gardening inspiration.
Report to follow.

Gardens and Art

Today is Open Studio - I am still working on small Spirit Faces - nothing like last-minute prep. And . . .next weekend is another big event - the scholarship fundraising Herb Garden Tour. Nice article in today's Express-News featuring my backyard:

Soul Dolls from MN

I got a wonderful email today from Rue, who had purchased some of the spirit face - look! She's used them in her beautiful Soul Dolls - I am thrilled to see the places the faces go and how they are transformed. Rue, thanks for a truly wonderful gift of inspiration!