Clovers To Celebrate March

Despite the huge snow storm blanketing the east coast, I am thinking about Spring. Luckily I live too far north and west to be even getting much snow today. But my heart goes out to anyone who has to cope with a foot of snow.

Art Bead Scene Submission for February

The Art Bead Scene theme for this month is The Kiss by Gustav Klimt. I have had the good fortune to see this painting in the original when it came to the National Gallery in Ottawa, Canada. I have always, it seems, loved Klimt's work. For this submission, I made a ceramic pendant stamped from a Klimt syle stamp and then I hand painted the glaze in colors from the painting. I used a wonderful brass chain I got from Etsy (JemsGems) and wire wrapped black ABS and orange Swarovski crystals. I used some puff yellow agate beads which I also wire wrapped. I was so excited when I discovered that I could lay a link from the chain across the top of the pendant so that it blended in better with the necklace. I guess you can tell that I loved making this one.

Fab Fibers gave me The Love Blog's Award

Fab Fibers surprised me today ( really yesterday) with a very friendly visit to my blog and this award. Thank you so much. Now I will pass it on.

She tells me the award goes

" to people-like anyone of my bloggy
friends out there-who take the time to
leave a comment, or a word of encouragement.
Or the one I love the most, a compliment on
something that I created and shared with my
friends. You all make me feel so special. "

And I agree--comments on my Blog make my day. Thank you all for writing in.
There are some rules that go along
with this award:
1. The winner may put the logo on their blog.
2. Put a link to the person who sent you the award.

3. Nominate 5 blogs.

4. Put links to their blogs.

5. Leave a message for your nominees.

Here is my list:
LLYYNN Expedition D

EveryHeartCrafts

LampworkDiva

Lucid Moon Studio

Jennifer Stumpf

How Perfectly Imperfect

New Mini Toggles

Here is a photo of the finished toggles that were cooling in the kiln a week ago. (They are about 3/4 of an inch square.) I can't believe the week has gone by so fast. I think they came out great but I am not happy with the toggle stick. I would love suggestions for a shape or size. I am going to make some more today.

I have been busy making some necklaces and beading. It has been nice being in the house and not having to struggle with the cold in my studio. This weekend promises to be relatively mild. I have some new ideas to try out and want to tackle those toggle sticks.

The Kiln is cooling

Here is a photo of some new small toggle clasps in the greenware stage. Now they are glazed and the big kiln is cooling. I will open it later today. The thermocouple in my smaller kiln AIM 88 needs to be replaced so my firing this week has been delayed until I could get enough together to use the bigger kiln. I feel lucky to have this backup. Since Aim is closed temporarily for "restructuring" I am working with Bailey on which is the right thermocoupler. I am also going to put the question out there to the Beads-of-Clay Group. Wish me luck.

One World One Heart Giveaway Winners

Today at Noon I used the Random Number generator to choose the winners in my Giveaway. I had thought originally I would use a hat because I had no idea I would have over 200 comments and requests to participate. I have been so pleased with the response and everyone's generous and kind comments about my work. Thank You one and all.





The winners picked by the random number generator are:





for the Thistle Pendant Vintage Crafters





and for the Toggle Clasp Kathy





I have emailed the winners of their good fortune.





But I want you all to know how much I have enjoyed this event. I will continue to travel to the sites of people who participated as I believe the list will be up awhile.

I Am So Excited

I am so excited. I just made these fused glass links last night and took them out of the kiln this morning. I got the idea from Deryn Mentock's blog tutorial on wrapped beaded links. I have some time this morning so I am going to make some more. I will also try some variations.
Thank you Deryn.

One World One Heart Giveaway

One World One Heart Giveaway

The Entries for this Giveaway are closed. The drawing for the Giveaways was held at 12N00n on Feb. 12, 2009. Thank you all for participating.

I heard about this Giveaway from Gaea and decided to join in. It is the dream and creation of Lisa Swifka. There are over 700 artists participating and each one has a giveaway. When you go to Lisa's site you can see all the names and visit those artists. The purpose of this Giveaway is for bloggers to get to know each other all over the world. Great idea Lisa!

Here are my 2 giveaways:

My first One World One Heart Giveaway is a Handmade Ceramic Thistle Pendant. It is made from earthenware ceramic clay. It measures 2 inches high by 1 1/2 inches wide. It depicts a wild thistle blooming in July in the pastures of Northern New York.




My Second Giveaway is a Handmade Ceramic Toggle Clasp. It measures about one inch. The Toggle Clasp depicts wild flowers that grow in the pastures of Northern New York. There is a high temperature stringing loop on both parts of the clasp. These loops have been fused into the clay during the firings.



Each giveaway includes a few handmade ceramic beads in a coordinating color.


All you have to do to enter my One World One Heart Giveaway is to leave a comment here on this post before February 12. Please include your contact information so you can be notified if you win. If you have a preference for either one of the two giveaway pieces, please specify in your comment.
I will be putting names into two hats and the drawing will be on February 12.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

New Hearts on my Website

Here is a picture of some of the hearts I have made lately. Some are now on my website store and some are on Etsy and some of them went to the Beads-of-Clay bead swap. And some didn't make it into the picture.
When I look at this picture it helps me remember that Spring is not that far away, despite the big snow storm we had two days ago. Soon I will be ordering seeds for our vegetable garden. Just yesterday it felt almost warm out and I didn't freeze walking to my studio. Hurry up Spring we are waiting for you.

January ABS Submission

Here is a photo of my ART BEAD SCENE January submission. This month the challenge is to create a piece of jewelry based on the Van Gogh painting Irises. My color palette is a natural for this challenge. This is a freeform peyote beaded bracelet featuring my handmade raku fired ceramic bead focals as seen in the picture. This is a highly detailed bracelet that captures many of the peyote stitches and decorative detail that I love to use.
I am often inspired by paintings. I am especially interested in the colors used by the Canadian Group of Seven and Frida Kahlo.

We Have A Visitor

Flat Stanley arrived in the mail a couple of days ago. He is part of a project at my 7 year old grandson's 2nd grade class. He will stay with us for a week and I will write a Journal about his visit. It is a project based on the book Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. Stanley is flat because a bulletin board fell on him. But luckily he can travel easily in an envelope. He and his cohort Flat Stella have been sent out to many places by the students in the class. When the Journals come back the students will have many interesting educational activities to pursue.

Below is Flat Stanley viewing my studio as I prepare a class for a student to learn glass fusing.

Beads Of Clay/Ceramics Arts Forum Bead Swap

This is a photo of the Hearts in Winter pendants I sent in for the Beads-of-Clay Yahoo Group/Ceramics Arts Forum Bead Exchange/swap/ I also have several new hearts on my Etsy Shop. I enjoyed making these and trying out some new colors and designs. Yeah for swaps!! They always get me trying new things.

The New Year

I am thinking about Blessings as I start the New Year. I am planning on staying positive despite the many changes and difficulties in the world.

I have been working on my expression of Blessings from the bead/charm exchange I participated in recently with:

Lorelei Eurto
Gaea,
Lynn Davis
Erin Siegel
Heather Powers
Cristi Clothier (2ifbysea)
(Lucid Moon Studio). Lisa Harrington

The photo above is the necklace I created with the art work we exchanged. I am choosing to wear them as a group on a necklace so that I can feel the power of these blessings and be more aware of what I am grateful for. It will be an important part of this year 2009. warmer climate.

You can read more about this bead/charm exchange here.

My 100th Blog Post

Fittingly, my 100th blog post is of my favorite art museum which I visited yesterday, The National Gallery of Art in Ottawa, Canada.

It was an incredible exhibit of Bernini's marble sculptures--there were a few bronze ones as well. Hard to imagine how he could get such detail. Apparently he was already an accomplished sculptor while still in his teens.

And as a special treat, I purchased a book of tree paintings by Tom Thomson.

Great way to end the year and get inspired for the next one.

Scenes from Ottawa, Canada

Looking out of the National Gallery of Art in Ottawa at Parliament and the National Library.

Wow!! Such a beautiful city.

Last Christmas Tree for the Year

Happy New Year.

Fun Zoo

Here is a great shot of the zoo we visited over Christmas.

Art at Christmas

While away for Christmas we visited the Burchfield-Penny Art Center which recently openned( Nov. 22, 2008). We have been watching it develop over the last several of years and were so pleased to be inside. It is very beautiful. Wonderful exhibition space. And I love Burchfield's paintings. If I were a painter I would paint like him and Thom Thomson.There was also a nice acoustic effect that somehow muffled the sound of the other visitors and gave me the sense of being one on one with Burchfield. There was also a very interesting exhibit of Western New York artists. And a very intimate view into Burchfield's studio.

Across the street-Elmwood Ave.-- is another wonderful art museum--the Albright-Knox Art Gallery .

Today to finish off our Christmas art visits, we are going to the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa to see the Bernini exhibit.

Happy Holidays

I wish you all Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Year filled with joy, good health, mindfulness and creativity.

A Charming Exchange

A Charming Exchange by Kelly Snelling and Ruth Rae

I first became aware of this wonderful book because I was participating in a charm exchange organized by Lynn Davis ( see December 1, 2008 post). I checked it out on Amazon and now it is in my ever growing library of jewelry making books. The theme of this book is collaboration, a theme that embodies much of my life. I love the energy and creativity that collaboration can ignite. And so it is always with enthusiasm that I join in on collaborative ventures. As the book points out, you don't need to live in an artistic community to have opportunities to collaborate with other artists: the internet has many online art groups for you to join, with many different media to choose from. Ah! And the best part of collaborations is that you find new talents and new ideas inside of yourself that you might have never discovered otherwise. The authors refer to this as "creating fearlessly."
What has really endeared me to this book is the wide range of techniques that have come together in such unusual ways. Although the book is not a step-by-step instruction manual to the projects described, it does highlight some of the unusual techniques the artists have used to combine disparate objects into jewelry. Since I am always looking for ways to make non-jewelry objects into linkable entities for jewelry, this book has been a treasure trove of ideas for me. Some of the unusual links they give detailed instructions for that really intrigued me are : coiled jump rings, capacitator charms ( I had some of these lying around, i.e. the capacitators), making a wire basket, eye of god links ,wrapped stone links, bar loop links, baby swing links, decorative swirl links, wire orb links, and I promise you, many more that I haven't mentioned.

Below is a photo of some of the charms that I created especially for the Blessings Charm exchange that I have been participating in. I had never made hand built ceramic charms before so I am so pleased that I dared to "create fearlessly" and came up with these.

You can purchase A Charming Exchange at Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. You will love it I am sure.