2010 is almost done!

I can't complain about 2010.  I've had better years, but it was a creative year though I spend more time writing than making art.  Very cerebral, not colorful and hands-on, though the fingers fly nimbly across the keyboard.  Had a creative spurt lately in the winter gloom.  It has been too cold to do anything but hunker down in my studio and create.  Also, knitting is a cold weather hobby so I made another knitted and felted purse, more like a tote bag really.  I found some great frames to embellish with my polymer clay mosaic tiles, so here they are, among other things. 

 

Making polymer clay tiles is addictive.  You roll out the clay, stamp, bake, and paint.  A colorful meditation when things are going well.  Sometimes the pieces come together really fast on the frame, and sometimes I really have to dig deep for the perfect pieces to fit together.  Always a happy ending, though... :)

One of those boxes that you've seen many examples of.  I made a bunch of new ones.

Just want to wish you HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

'Tis the season as they say!  I wish you peace, joy, and a stress free Christmas and a great new year. 

Let some music into your life!  :)

Where have I been??

That's a good question... I got away from blogging and blog cruising for a while.  I miss it!  I've been making some things, but mostly polymer clay mosaics, so those types you have already seen.  Though, I have a couple of things that are a bit different, a large star box, and a mirror that promotes PEACE!  I thought that was a worthy thing to be reminded of while looking into a mirror.  Peace begins within, with us.  When there's peace within, there will be peace all across the world! 

I've been selling some art pieces and there's a demand on the polymer clay mosaics, so here is the "how to" for the star box I made.  It'll appear in my etsy shop pretty soon.  I'm mostly selling locally, but you never know...

 

The stamped and painted tiles for the star box.

 

I painted the lid black to conceal any cracks showing between the tiles, and also to seal the wood.

 

Trial and error.  The star shape is a challenge!

Voila!  Laid out and glued down.  Yay!  Where there's no space for tiles, I glue down glass beads.

I decided to paint the box itself red.  It was spray painted gold inside and on the bottom.  The inside of the lid is a bright turquoise.

Angel wishes...  BELIEVE they can come true!

I like loud color combinations!  Finished. 

The Peace mirror!  Available in my etsy shop now.  It's difficult to take pictures of mirrors without the camera showing, hands, or inside ceilings.  Did you ever encounter that?  Those trees are some live oaks in my yard.

Giving Thanks and Black Friday...

Somehow those two words don't really go together, Thanks and Black, but that may just be a personal opinion . . .  I have so many things to be thankful for, one, living in a peaceful place, a great roof over my head, lovely neighbors, sweet animals, friends . . . food on my table every day, and plenty of it.  No turkey though as I'm a vegetarian.  My friends usually wish me Happy Tofurky Day, but to be honest, I've never had tofurky.  I am grateful for family but they don't celebrate Thanksgiving as they live overseas. 

Black Friday sounds like something dire out of history, like the Black Plague, and for some, this particular friday could be considered a hazard to your health . . . throngs, traffic, rabid shoppers, sleep deprived shoppers as the stores open at 3 am.  How nuts is that?  Anyway, I won't be joining the throngs.  I might just go for the handmade gifts.  So, if you're into handmade and you like my things at etsy or artfire, I'm offering 25% off on everything in both shops, starting Black Friday and ending at midnight on Cyber Monday.  The etsy shop takes the 25% right off the price at checkout with code blackfri51, but you'll have to convo me on artfire.

Click on the links in the sidebar to get to my shops.

HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY THANKSGIVING dear blog family!

The theme is RED!

If you check out June's blog, A Creative Dream you'll find a creative prompt for November and it's RED.  She has all the rules on her site and it looks like fun!  Here's something red for you. :)  A trip down memory lane for me...  We're not supposed to post this until Monday, but I might not have the time then.

 

This is an old painting of mine RED HOT! that I sold on ebay some years back.  My, has my style changed!  I used some really heavy texture in this piece.

Very cosmic, and undoubtably some red though you can count all the primary colors in this one. The ole Black Hole.

I actually ended up gesso-ing this piece.  It's all white now, with very heavy texture.  Looks like something from the 60s, don't you think.  What was I thinking...?  I don't know what to do with it.

 

This was a mixed media.  The flowers and the fence are cut from paper that I painstakingly glued onto the canvas.  I wonder where it is now.  Sold thru ebay years ago.

And yes, the reddish purse...  I use it all the time when I'm not using the blue one.  As you can see it was for sale at a local store, but nobody bought it, so I brought it home and put it into my purse stable. ;)

I'm more of a BLUE Green person, but red is one of those colors that makes you get up and GO!

10 great things about (my) life right now...

I can only see my life from my perspective, but I know we can all relate to the same ideas. This morning I was petting my cat, Bailey, and I had an idea for a blog post.  Why not focus on the positive?  :)  It gives me a lot more joy than being down in the dumps. Joy lasts through the day if we let it...

1)  It makes me happy to slowly pull my hand down Bailey's incredibly soft, newly grown winter fur.  (Yes, they grow winter fur in FL too.)

2)  After six weeks of drought, it rained for two days!  All of nature is smiling around me, and the fresh scent is so intoxicating.

3)  I got a set of almost new Maytag washer and dryer for FREE!

4)  My computer geek friend fixed an ongoing online problem in an hour for FREE and speeded up my computer!

5)  A horse and two goats next door remind me to be grounded every time I walk by (often with slices of bread, which they love.)

6)  I have fabulous friends.  A friend of mine had a scary mammagram result, and she said "I'm amazed at how many friends I have."  I said, "That's because you're such a good friend to others."  (I think she'll be okay.)

7)  Learning new things...

8)  Amazingly beautiful Morning Glories growing on the old wood pile (they are late this year.)

9)  My Vitamix blender that makes great green smoothies, and just about everything else.

10)  People stopping me at the grocery store and asking when the next collage class is happening. :)

Bold and Beautiful...

I created a Treasury on etsy, and tried to post a link here.  It doesn't work.  Blogger is giving me more and more grievances, can't link, can't comment on friends' posts.  Aargh!  But you can check out the treasury on Morna Crites Moore's fantastic  blog, or go to etsy directly.  Bold and Beautiful...

Mermaid at Home, mixed media collage... how to...

A friend of mine, Marla, asked me to do a commission for her.  She makes beautiful dolls and other kinds of art, a truly creative soul.  She sent me a box of things I might put into it, but I only ended up using some of the background papers.  I knew she likes mermaids, so I thought I couldn't go wrong with that!  :)  So I made a how to post with this project.

This collage is smaller than the usual sizes I work with, about 9x8" so the design got a bit more challenging since the elements have to fit the format.  I tore pieces of decorative papers and glued them on good with medium. Make sure the edges are glued down. The shells are from wallpaper border remnants, the butterfly from wrapping paper, and the others are decorative papers from the craft store.  I have gazillion in every color you can imagine...

When it's really dry, I like to smear on acrylic paints with a paper towel.  I like soft blended edges.  If you want bolder lines, use an old credit card.  Torn paper edges lend themselves well to smeared paint. 

When the paint was dry, I added on elements and blended them into the background with more layers of paint.

I added on more elements and some stamped images with permanent ink, and I outlined the mermaid and painted her tail with paint pens, also permanent.

More detail, and I worked on her hair.  Wasn't all that thrilled, but I kept on going.

 

I ended up adding more details with some inspirational words and two women who are friends at the bottom, symbolizing our friendship that has lasted for many years.   I fiddled a lot with her hair and face, and painted some fish, plus added some fish pictures I found, which were tiny!  Then I let it all dry before I varnished it.  The acrylic varnish really deepens the colors and the details. 

I took the last picture outside, and also captured a picture of my "rioting" mum on the front step.

Art reception at the City Hall...

Had a great time at the art reception, and my art was very well received.  I even heard some people talking about it without knowing that I was the artist.  At least you know they meant it!  :)  As the weather is cooling I'm having more inspiration to work, and my cat is getting friskier.  He ran around like a "mad person" this morning.  My neighbor's cat came in and ate Bailey's food, and then left...  A cat's life. :) 
Here are some pictures from the reception, most of them of local friends, artists mostly. 

 Rhonda Hancock and I.  Rhonda is the director of the City Hall art gallery.   She's also a great watercolor artist.

 Brian Brjibag, photographer.  These pictures were from a mission to Equador.

Jana, Larry, and Diane, and a fantastic quilt.  There's is an ongoing quilt exhibit at the City Hall.

!

The spread!  OMG!  Supplied by the Brooksville Junior Service League and the drinks and service ware by Hernando Fine Arts Council.

Angles of the mezzanine.  I like angles.  :)  One of my pictures at the very end of the corridor.
 

"Balance." 
 

Mermaid.  Mixed media collage with polymer clay tiles on the tail.
 

Karen and Joey.  Karen is a fine watercolorist.
 

 "Moon Goddess."

 I'm wondering what Lynne was saying. :)  Pastel artist extraordinaire!

"Rainbow Rose." 
 

"Before the oil spill..."

A great time was had by all, and I'd do it again for sure.  Some of these are going up on etsy for sale.  

 Sitting down....

Mosaics galore!

There are many ways to skin a cat as they say (what a nasty saying anyway...)  There are many ways to put together a mosaic.  I'm a "controlled" addict of mosaics. :)  Some will mosaic anything as long as it doesn't move.  Christmas is coming so I've been making boxes after a long hiatus, and also some mosaic mirrors.  Some are with stained glass, some with broken china.  The boxes are going to a local shop, and the mirrors are going up on etsy.  Not easy to ship mirrors since they are both heavy and fragile, but maybe?  I need to make more boxes to put on etsy and artfire, but I have to say I've been lazy keeping new things in the shops, due to the writing frenzy that I went through lately.  Well, rewrites are A LOT easier, so I'm on the home stretch with those, and I'm really happy with the story. 
The weather finally "broke" here in Florida and the evenings are cool.  Yay!  It's weird to wear pants again.  It was so nice today that I washed my car and detailed it, yessiree.  I deserve a medal or something. :)  It's something that doesn't happen often enough--car washing.  Never ever received a medal, but I remember a few gold stars.
It was a gold star kind of a day today, no procrastination, no excuses, no whining or swearing, a "just do it" attitude.  Aren't those days great?  They should happen a lot more often.  By the way, my car looks like new!

What a deal!  The small boxes are only $32.  Can be personalized.

Smoky blue....

Live from the heart!

Follow your heart!  The only way to live...

Wedding and Mom...

I had a great time at my niece's wedding in Sweden.  Isabella and her sweetheart Luciano tied the knot and we all danced the night away!  She's studying to become an Opera singer and a bunch of her friends and teachers offered some GREAT music during the night.  That was really one of the highlights.  I didn't score any Opera wear, but a little black dress and an embroiders scarf.  But I got some good pictures of those who did dress up for the event.
And the cakes ... OMG!  Not one cake, but ten of them!  I gained a lot of pounds during the trip.

It rained, but they say it's lucky...

 

The vows... 

Cute, cute, cute...

 Opera theme, and some dressed like this!

And some like this!

 

Mother of the bride and one of Isabella's buddies from her music program

An entire family of Carmens!

Mother of the groom, his son, and myself..Some of us are tall....

First dance--not such a great picture, but the expression is great!

 

And some like this.  My other niece, Karin, her hubby, my two nephews.  She's expecting a baby at the end of December...

Obi One ...  There's actually a caftan worn in some opera.  My brother checked it out online.

 The picture says it all...
Weddings are such happy events.  I still have a few nephews to "give away." 

I spent lots of time with my mom during my two weeks away.  We had some quality time together.  She was like the Energizer bunny, and I'm pleased that she's better health-wise than she was last year.  Isn't she sweet?

Today I'm jetlagged and tired.  It's raining here in Florida, and fall is definitely coming.  The heat hasn't "broken" yet,  but it will, very soon.  The nights are cooler.  Sweden was in the sixties during the day and about 45-50 at night.  Brrr.  Back to some creativity soon!  I'm raring to go...