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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Sun Connector Bead

available in my Etsy Shop

1850's Barn Wood Toggle Clasp

available in my Etsy Shop

Rustic Heart Charms in Blue and Yellow

available in my Etsy Shop

Sweet Woodruff Pendant

available in my Etsy Shop

More Rustic Heart Charms.  I love the 3 dimensional look and the raw and rustic background

available in my Etsy Shop

These hearts are blue and yellow and also quite rustic

available in my Etsy Shop

Hope you enjoy your Art Walk today and check the Beads of Clay Blog and see who else is participating.

Happy New Year!!!

beads of clay still wet  just made them this morning

It is time to wish all of you Happy New Year!!  

Here are some pics of what I have been doing lately.  

New double wrap bracelet I made for a Christmas present but the BIG SNOW interfered with out travel our plans.  Hope to be able to give it soon!!

Fun flea market find and the mold I made from it.  Also I cleaned it up first.  Didn't look this good.

The snow is still very deep on our deck.  That is all that shows of the railing.

I thought this year my word for the year would be "dig deeper."  That is actually a line from the TV show Bones.  I am choosing it because it has so many possibilities:  like take an idea and explore it further--make some beads and keep making them so see what new shapes and forms I can come up with.  Make a double wrap bracelet and then make another to see how I can expand on the idea.  And so on...

Another view of the bracelet showing off the the copper button clasp I made for it.

More stoneware beads.  Not yet fired or sponged off

And some more--digging deeper into ideas for shape and form.

Our mighty Spruce  looking very seasonal

HAPPY  NEW YEAR !!!!

may it be full of creative ideas for living, being and making

Studio Tour 2012

                           Make and Take project:  Fire Patina copper earrings 

These earrings were made by guests in my studio on one of the 3 days of this weekend long event.

Every year our local Arts Council sponsors a Studio Tour.  As due paying members of the Arts Council, we can participate for an additional fee.  I have participated in this event for many years and way back when-- was helpful in getting it on its feet again after our Arts Council went out of business for a few years.  Now it is a flourishing event and has been for some time.

peyote stitch double wrap bracelet

The Artists Studio Tour is a time when I sell my handmade jewelry.  This year bracelets were the most popular item. Second was earrings

                                                          ceramic heart earrings

and after that my peyote stitch necklaces

                                                           freeform peyote stitch necklace
And equally popular, my nature inspired pendants

                                                         ceramic Marguerite  daisy pendant

                                                            from a French Garden ceramic pendant

Guiding my guests through the make and take earrings project was my  favorite part of the weekend.  Here is how we did it:  A tutorial

Overview of the wooden oak desk that we used for a work table.--a bit low but it worked out

Before the Studio Tour I prepared the materials.

First I cut out the copper circles with my handy disc cutter













Then I drilled holes in them with my drill press

Then it was time for the making

To decorate the copper discs, we used image stamps (see Beaducation for a free stamping video techniques class)

                           

                              and Texture Hammers

And when they were happy with how their earrings looked, we colored them in with permanent black Sharpie markers so that the stampings and marks would show up better.

                                           Textured copper disc partially colored in with a Sharpie marker

                                    Then we let the fully inked discs dry  for about 10-15 min

                                        And rubbed off the extra ink with 0000 Steel Wool

                                                      Guests working on their earrings

                                                      THE FLAME PATINA

Small Lenk 500 Butane Torch and Quench bowl with metal sheet in background--hold you piece beyond that blue tip of the flame so it doesn't get too hot too fast

and then we did the FLAME PATINA    that was the most exciting part for everyone.  It is like magic.

                                            Disc being held by pliers during the heat patina process

Disc colored with a Flame patina

One of the secrets to creating a great colored patina is to realize that the color comes after the heat.  So it is important to heat, quench and look and then go back for more if the color is not intense enough.  If you heat up your piece too long and it goes dark, it is just a matter of going back to the the steel wool and rubbing off the patina and starting over.

Here are some of the beautiful earrings my guests made

Thanks so much for stopping by and viewing my Studio Tour happenings.