MaryHardingJewelry Bead Blog: January 2013

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Week 4 Make Art

This is week 4 in Sally Russick's 52 weeks of Focusing on Life

Our prompt this week was to make art.

I consider my bead and jewelry making my art. This week I fired my stoneware ceramic beads in some new colors . I was a bit disappointed at first as my kiln did not fire right, perhaps due to the extra draw on the electric grid due to our very cold weather.

After some minor remediation, I have grown to like them very much and have plans to use them in a free form peyote necklace. I was so happy to discover that my copper clay pieces go beautifully with them and that these seed beads will be the perfect backdrop.

You can check out the art that all the others made this week HERE.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Week 3 Focus On Life: Take Time

This week our photo prompt was to take time, time for ourselves. I thought about all the things I do every day and that many times during the day I am involved in activities that are "taking time just for me." And often they do "recharge" me. But I wanted to come up with something that is recharging but not part of my daily routine and I thought about listening to one of my favorite operas. It is by Philip Glass and I was so privileged to see it live from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City in HD at a local movie theater on Nov. 11, 2011. This opera Satyagraha, is about Gandhi's concept of non violent resistance to injustice. The third act is about Martin Luther King ( so appropriate for this Martin Luther King Day weekend.)

This is a picture my CD of the opera

I hardly own any opera CDs but I had to have this after I attended the performance. I love Philip Glass' music. It is full of repetitions and beautiful melodies which I find so soothing, "recharging" and inspiring.

You can listen to an excerpt from Satyagraha here It is a lovely solo piece called Protest.

This picture gives you a sense of the amazing visuals in this performance of 2011

I have been fortunate to attend a number of opera performances here at a local theater and this afternoon I will be seeing the Met Live Performance of Donizetti"s Maria Stuarda with friends and happily taking more time for myself and recharging.

Lets see what others do to recharge here.

A special thank you to all who visited my post last week and wrote such wonderful comments. I really appreciate hearing from you. I hope to get around to many of your "taking time" posts this weekend.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Ice Jam

We have been having a January thaw for the last week. I was so surprised to see this gigantic ice jam this week when we drove to town On the way back home I stopped and took pictures of all of this ice thrown up on the shores of the Grasse River. What an incredible sight.

Very extensive ice jam

Wonderful geometric shapes of ice

A panoramic view of the extent of this ice jam

More ice shapes

the jam must have pushed all these pieces up on the shore of the river

Such a beautiful day too

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Focus on Life Week 2 Your Word

Dig Deeper

This week we were prompted to take a photo that expressed the word we picked to guide us for 2013. This year I am choosing the phrase DIG DEEPER. It is actually a line from the popular TV show Bones but it popped into my mind the minute I thought about a word for 2013. For me it has so many nice, encouraging suggestions for getting more into anything that I am doing,. I wrote about this briefly in my New Year's Day post. At that time, and still, I am very interested in making clay beads. I kind of set a rule for myself as I make them, following the dig deeper idea-- that I would make a bead and then make 10 of them to see where the design idea would lead to. It was fun to see an idea evolve and a bead shape change as I went along. I think that creativity needs time and a loosening of inhibitions. I often engage in a similar activity when I am hand painting my ceramic work. I will start with some colors and do a number of little pieces that are a warm up before I really get going. Dig Deeper is also going to mean for me that I do some in depth seed beading pieces and let new shapes and forms come to life. How will it apply to my daily life. Easy! I need to dig deeper into getting my living and work spaces better organized and less cluttered.

You can see what all the other participants have come up with here.

Saturday, January 05, 2013

Focusing on Life 52 Photos

I am participating in Sally Russick's Focusing on Life one photo a week for 52 weeks project. Each week on Saturday we will post a photo based on a prompt we receive earlier in the week from Sally. This week the prompt is do do a self portrait. I thought that I would interpret this loosely and do a conceptual self portrait. The image is one I made some years ago. Since this is a new year and I am pursuing a deeper look at all I do, I thought this photo would be a fitting self portrait. The figure is looking outward, is optimistic about the future, is moved and inspired by the natural universe and walks in a free flowing garment that allows for an unencumbered journey into her art.

Mary Harding Self Portrait

I hope you will check back to Sally's blog to see what others have come up with.

Friday, January 04, 2013

First Friday Art Walk Beads of Clay Professional Artists Team

Heart Charms in bright yellow and red.

available in my Etsy Shop

Today begins the First Friday Art Walk on Etsy for the Beads of Clay Professional Artists Team.

I have added some bright new pieces. I am thinking of warmer climes since we were 14 degrees below yesterday. Today is better. This must be working. LOL

If you use the coupon code BOCFFAW15 at check out in my Etsy shop you will receive a 15% discount on your entire purchase all weekend through Sunday Jan 6, 2013.