Celebration Giveaway

I am celebrating my excitement over being on the cover of Stringing Magazine with a Giveaway.  That beautiful necklace by Suzette Bentley has my Daisy Pendant as its focal.  This is a first for me.  And I had no idea it was going to be on the cover.  What a thrill!!  Thank you Suzette Bentley for making such a wonderful piece and to Stringing for putting it on the cover.
Here is the Giveaway--2 Daisy Pendants .

All you have to do to enter to win is to leave a comment and a way to contact you by email.  If you want to be counted additional times to increase your chances of winning, you can leave a  separate comment that you joined my blog or posted about this  Giveaway on Facebook or Twitter.  I will use the Random Number generator to pick the winner which will be announced on my blog on March 6.
 Thanks so much for stopping by.

A Herd Of Wild Horses in the City

This weekend we were stir crazy from being at home so much due to all the ice so we took off for Ottawa, Ontario, Canada to our favorite museum The National Gallery.  As we drove in to park our car in the underground lot, we were stopped and had to wait while a vehicle that was too high got unstuck from the underground entrance.  I got out of the car to wait or go in and suddenly saw a herd of wild horses.  I was immediately enchanted and got out my phone to take pictures.

I love the way they fly by reflecting the light broken by the traffic on  Sussex Drive.  They seem three dimensional.  But mostly they are just such beautiful wild horses.

We left the museum after a wonderful afternoon of art without knowing who created these gorgeous sculptures but I was pretty sure a quick search on Google would let me know.  So this morning I did just that and I have included information below about the artist Joe Fafard.  I hope you enjoy finding out more about him as I did.

A herd of prairie horses – created in steel by Saskatchewan artist Joe Fafard – is now running past the National Gallery of Canada (NGC). The newly installed work, Running Horses (2007), was purchased by the NGC in 2008 with the support of the Gallery Foundation.
With manes and tails streaming out behind them, the herd of horses in shades from rusty red to yellow to black appear to gallop along Sussex Drive towards downtown. An elegant mare leads the herd, followed by other mares and colts, while a muscular black stallion brings up the rear. Made from laser-cut steel, each horse is a less-than life size silhouette-like form with various cut out patterns in its body. These negative spaces enable the viewer to see through each horse, creating a layered effect. Viewed head on, each horse is a narrow sculptural form made from ¼”-thick steel and supported by a solid bronze cast base that has been sculpted and painted to look like wind-blown prairie grass.
Among the eleven horses, no two are identical: there are six different variations of cut out patterns and each horse is painted in a unique manner. While the laser-cut patterns are suggestive of dappled or certain types of pinto markings, they come from the artist’s imagination.

“I love the idea of Fafard’s wild horses running along with the traffic on Sussex Drive,” noted NGC director Marc Mayer. “We haven’t had a sculpture in front of the Gallery’s main drive way in many years. This work is a wonderful evocation of Western Canada by one of our most beloved artists.”

There are five other works by Fafard in the NGC collection: Bull (1970), E II R (1978), and Cézanne (1981) are three early works in ceramic; Silvers (1999) and Western Dancer (2003) are two later works in bronze.
About artist Joe Fafard
Joe Fafard, a twelfth generation Canadian, is a sculptor best known for creating objects which reference community and farm life. His career has boldly blazed a path for the reinvigoration of sculpture in the contemporary Canadian art scene. Born into a farming family in the French-speaking community of Sainte-Marthe, Saskatchewan, Fafard showed a keen interest in art from a young age. He completed a bachelor’s degree in fine art at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg in 1966, and a master’s degree at Pennsylvania State University in 1968.
He returned to Canada to teach sculpture and pottery at the University of Saskatchewan in Regina. In 1974 he left teaching, and settled in Pense (SK) to sculpt full time. Fafard’s career took a major shift in the early 1980s when he won a commission from the Toronto Dominion Bank to create a new public art installation. The commission propelled Fafard into a new phase of creation with a new medium: bronze. In 1985 Fafard opened his own foundry, Julienne Atelier Inc., in Pense.
Fafard was awarded the Order of Canada in 1981, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Allied Arts Award in 1987, an honorary doctorate from the University of Regina in 1988, and the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in 2002.

Kristi's Copper Component Blog Hop The Reveal

Welcome to the Kristi Bowman Copper Component Blog Hop

I am a great admirer of Kristi's work in Copper metal clay and when I read about this blog hop on her blog I thought it would be a good chance for me to own one of her pieces and make a new necklace for myself.  I love to make long dangly necklaces to wear in the winter with Turtle Neck shirts and sweaters. 

We had a choice of the sea urchin or ammonite component.  I chose the piece pictured above and when it arrived I was so pleased with the way that it looks and feels.  Has a weight to it and it is thick enough to hold up to a lot.

From the very beginning, it was a SUN to me.  Maybe because at that time and since I have been making some sun charms and connectors beads in my ceramic studio.

So I set to work to make this necklace as long as possible and  for it to shine with COPPER SUN.  All of the beads I used were handmade by me either in ceramic clay, fused glass, copper (the sun shaped flower)  felt, or seed beads.  A few of the copper rings are from Tierra Cast, the others are copper washers that I stamped.  The smaller copper chain is from Ornamentea and the larger one is an Industrial Chic Chain by Susan Lenart Kazmer from Michaels.

( the pictures of my piece start at the very bottom and go upward with a full shot at the end.)

Thank you Kristi for making this fun blog hop possible!!! 

Necklace as it looks being worn

 

Please visit the others who created with Kristi's beautiful copper components here

 

Kristi Bowman Design
Jean Wells
Melinda Orr
Sue Kennedy
Shannon Chomanczuk
Melissa Cable
Cindy Wimmer
Mary Harding YOU ARE HERE
Karen Totten
Jan Molten Mayhem
Linda Landig
Kristi Harrison
Kimberly Sturrup
Sally Russick

BOC First Friday Art Walk

New in my Etsy Shop  Sea Keep Pendant

First Friday Art Walk Weekend begins today.  I will be offering 10% off everything in my Etsy Shop as well as free shipping ( by refund.)  Please use coupon code BOCFFAW at checkout.  You can see the other artists participating on the Beads-of-Clay blog.  The pictures that follow are a sample of some new listings in my Etsy Shop.

Wild Garden Pendant

Rose Hip Ceramic Pendant

Tangerine handmade earthenware ceramic beads

New Wetland Bloom two sided image bead and connector

Hand carved ceramic bead

Porcelain Beads

Fir Bough Toggle Clasp

Leaves of the Vine Toggle Clasp

Copper Component Blog Hop This Saturday

Kristi Bowman Copper Component  Blog Hop

Saturday February 4th

We are all using a copper component made by Kristi Bowman.  I am using the one pictured above
                                           If you'd like to see who is participating here is a list!
                                                 Please come back and join us on Saturday!

Kristi Bowman Design

Jean Wells 

Melinda Orr

Sue Kennedy 

Shannon Chomanczuk

Pam Brisse 

Melissa Cable 

Cindy Wimmer 

Mary HardingYOU ARE HERE

Karen Totten 

Jan Molten Mayhem

Linda Landig 

Kristi Harrison 

Kimberly Sturrup 

Sally Russick 

Lana Kinney (will share on Kristi's blog)

Bead Soup Arrives!!!

I feel so lucky to have been one of the people who was picked by the Random Generator to participate in Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Hop--especially so since I did not participate last summer.  But my luck does not stop there.  I then had the fabulous good fortune to be paired up with the one and only MissFicklemedia.  How great is that!!!

I am featuring a photo show today of what Shannon sent me.  When I opened the package I was thrilled.  Poetic and beautiful came to mind.  Here is what I saw.  My photo ode to bead soup Shannon.  Thank You So Much!!!

It didn't take a minute for me to see the beauty of these.  I was taken by the colors and the delicacy of all of what she sent.  A bit of a stretch for this chunky beader.

I opened up the bead package first and out came these little beauties.  I am not sure the delicate colors come true on your monitor but believe me they are spectacular.

The focal.  I just love the two tiered bead cap in dark blue and raw copper on top of this teal bead.  All wire wrapped in the most perfect circles of copper.

An ancient rustic round loop chain. Love this style of circles and the larger size.

An exquisite set of findings.  I can't get over how tiny and exquisite the eye pins are.  They are making a creation in front of my eyes.

An ensemble I put together of what Shannon sent so you can see the range of colors and how well they go together.

Thank you so much Shannon.  I am going to have such a wonderful time beading!!!

BEAD!!!

Porcelain Beads

I have been thinking about a word for 2012 and have come up with BEAD!!!  as a daily challenge to myself.

I like that it is very open ended and have been trying it out since late Dec.  Seems to work for me most days.  I may have missed 1 or 2.  So far I have glazed and fired the Porcelain beads above and made most of the beads in the following pictures.

Sunshine Charms

Doublewrap peyote stitch bracelets

Book Beads

Herringbone Beads

Made up the pattern and stitched quite a few of these Herringbone beads.  They are quite versatile.  I have put them in necklaces, earrings and bracelets. 

The best part about a daily challenge is that it keeps the ideas flowing.  I don't have a minimum requirement for what BEAD!!! means so if I am short on time just a few minutes will qualify. When I am not beading, I notice that I am thinking up projects or ideas for beads.  So far it is stimulating and fun.  Hope it lasts.

Icy Wonderland

We had quite an ice storm here last week.  The sun finally came out and I took these spectacular pics of the ice on the trees.  It had been 15 degrees below 0 the night before.  Went from rain to below zero in a day.  Hence the ice stayed around.  Today it will be 40 degrees above 0. I can hear the ice falling onto the roof. I am glad I got out with the camera in time to catch these beauties.

My raspberry plants iced and then snow covered

I love close up shots of ice.   Quite a build up here

We finally ventured out and this is what the road looked like.  Trees bent over and branches touching the ground.  Many folks were without power.  We were very lucky to have not lost it at all.

Winter blues have to be some of my favorite colors!!

I hope everyone is warm!!  Some never have to worry about this kind of weather.

I grew up in a warm climate and am still missing it at times.  But this kind of scenery helps make up for being cold!!

What would You Do?

Melissa of Chinook Jewelry is offering us a blog challenge called What Would You Do?  She would like to know what I and you would use for components and stringing for this gorgeous pendant.
I thought I would take the challenge and here is what I would do:

I would use one of my very rustic toggle clasps with a hand stamped pattern that vaguely echoes her pendant

Then I would use some of my porcelain beads to string with it.  These are greener than they look in the picture.  Toggle clasp and beads are available in my Etsy shop.

And finally I would use this beautiful silk to string the necklace together, perhaps with some chain or leather cord added in---not sure about that yet.

What do you think?

Melissa, this is a fun challenge and good for me to exercise my designing brain!!  I look forward to the next one.  You can see what the other participants are doing here

First Friday Art Walk. Today and all Weekend

This is First Friday Art Walk Weekend.  I will be offering 10% off everything in my Etsy Shop and free shipping ( via refund) for the weekend.  Use BOCFFAW during check out to get the discount.  This is a Beads-of-Clay/Etsy venture.  You can visit  other Beads-of-Clay participants by going to our blog and clicking on any of the pics in the lovely Treasury there.  Happy Shopping!!

Enjoyment!! Happy New Year All

I am enjoying my Holiday time !!  Had the wonderful pleasure of seeing the new TinTin movie with my grandsons, their parents and aunt.  All seven of us in those plastic 3-D glasses in a MultiPlex theater.  My first 3-D.   The movie was such a heart warming experience.  My sons grew up on TinTin and now my grandsons are having the experience too!!

A fun beading project I mostly finished before we left.  A herringbone stitch necklace as a Christmas gift for my daughter-in-law.  I amused myself in the car putting on the last touches.  She was so pleased with it.

Our first salad with the wonderful seasoned olive oils and vinegars we received for Christmas from them.
We tried the Cranberry Pear White Balsamic vinegar for this salad.  Yummy!!

I was so impressed by these buttons my daughter-in-law made here last summer in my studio.  And since she isn't a knitter, she bought a sweater and sewed them onto it.  They look so perfect there.

One of my grandsons goofing around in the silly optical glasses we got for him.  He is into being a rock star at age 10!!

Our Tree of Life.   This is a rubber tree that I have had for many years.  It grew so large that it was circling our dining area ceiling and was held up by many props.   Finally this summer we had to take it down.  I was so sad to see it go but it was getting to be too much of a cleaning challenge.  Gradually I pruned back the branches and was finally left with a three foot high stump with just one tiny branch that had a couple of leaves on it.  I decided to re pot it, put it outside and see what would happen.  By the end of September there were tiny buds all over the trunk.  They kept getting bigger.  When it got too cold for it to be outside anymore, we brought it in and put it back in its old spot.  Before long the leaves began to sprout.  Once it was cold  enough for us to begin heating the house, it grew even more leaves.   This is a very recent picture of how wonderfully it is doing.  Our Tree of Life  Full of New Growth.  What a joy!!  What an affirmation of the spirit to stay alive!!

A recent photo of me with a hat that is supposed to cover my ears but slips up and bunches out my hair.  My husband says it looks cute and reminds him that I am a Lion, so he took this pic.

Happy New Year to all!!

 May your days be filled with new growth,

enjoyment and the spirit to be alive and seize life in the present.