Grrrr!

Grrr! I've been so busy working a new job that I haven't had time for anything! Working overtime. Even now I am at work (on break, of course). Then, when I came here to post, I discover that my blog has been hacked!! I guess that's what I get for not posting for so long. :( I have to confess that I'm not sure how "they" manage to do the spam posts. This happened one time before when I wasn't even neglecting posting! At that time I thought I had taken appropriate steps to prevent it again. *sigh. But enough of that.

Check out these gorgeous earrings that "fancifuldevices" made!

And these! She made them with some of Claire Maunsell's lovely pods and potterygirl's ceramic beads. She has other beautiful items in her shop as well. I say "she", but in reality, I don't know who fancifuldevices is, so "she" could actually be a "he". But I recommend checking out her shop.

That's all for now, back to work!

St. James Court Art Show

Ahhhh . . . October. October is my favorite month of the year, so many good things about it. For me it's a month that's jam packed full of events. The first of which is the St. James Court Art Show.

This annual show is held the first weekend in October. That's this weekend! St. James Court Art Show is in Louisville, KY in a very picturesque neighborhood that's full of huge old, Victorian era houses. It is a large show, this year there were 750 artists, and it is consistently ranked among the best art shows in the U.S. I usually attend two or all three days, it's that big!

Here are a few pictures from the show. These are artists whose work struck a chord with me. The first is Linda Chamberlain of Simple Works:

The texture of her work is amazing.

Then there are these wonderful journals by Teresa Merriman of Moind's Eye Journals:

I really loved these journals. Each one is different and unique with luscious, deckle-edged pages.

Then there are the lovely little faerie houses by Bell and Frank Barr. They are ceramic with copper roofs and "vines":

They even decorated the step-up to their booth!

That's all for today. Tomorrow I'll have more from the art show!

More Little Houses

I think it would be fun to have a whole village of these little houses. Maybe I should keep a few for myself. Hmmm . . .

Here are the backs. Additional views may be seen at my Flickr page.

Coming soon: The Goblin King

Oops! I Forgot . . .

. . . to schedule this post! This was supposed to go up yesterday for Bead Table Wednesday. :(

Our family has been on trips for a couple weeks, and then I started training on Monday for a new job. Whew! What a busy two weeks. Whenever I travel I always take some sort of art supplies with me. I don't always use them, but I can't stand to not have them. I have figured out that as sure as I as don't bring them, that's when I'll want them. I debated taking along my "clay stuff" this time and ultimately decided not to, thinking I wouldn't have time anyway/ or want to. Of course I was sorry in the end. Oh well. I did take some of my finished pieces with me since they were listed on my Etsy site and I didn't want to shut down while I was gone figuring they wouldn't take much room, I could ship from anywhere, and I could show them to friends and family. As a result I came home with fewer pieces than I left with!

Once we were home from our trip I really wanted to get to work on more pieces. As a result I finished the hollow beads I had started and made smaller beads to go with them.

And the other side.

Tomorrow I'll post other new stuff (hopefully my brain is working right now!).

Yet Another Bead Table Wednesday

This past week I actually did get around to making some beads. Yay! Claire Maunsell posted a great tutorial over on her blog, the next bend, on making her hollow strata beads. I have had fun trying her technique the past few days. Here's the first one I made. Top view:

Here's a side view showing the layers:

I used phthalo blue to stain/highlight the bead, but don't think I'm too crazy about how it turned out. Way too intense. I had to sand quite a bit to remove as much colour as I wanted with the result that my bead became more smooth and shiny than I planned, especially after polishing. You may need to click on the pictures to see the shininess. Here's the other side:

I have others that aren't quite camera ready yet. I'll post those here or on my Flickr account as soon as I'm able. Bye for now.

Holding On to Inspiration

I find that I'm still thinking about the subject of inspiration. But this time it's not finding it, rather, it's about keeping it. As I said in an earlier post, it's relatively easy for me to find inspiration. My problem seems to be sorting through it and holding on to it. Sometimes I have so very many ideas that I can't possibly use them all. Sometimes I have great ideas and then . . . I forget them. So, a little (big?) confession here. I have ADHD and short-tern memory issues. I've had to find ways to cope. My way of doing this when it comes to ideas and inspiration is to write it down. But I can't just write it down on any old sheet of paper or in a plain notebook, oh no, I'd lose those. My solution is an art ideas journal.

I love to do art journalling, but I'm not very dedicated and I often seem to lose focus at some point. But if I give myself permission to just do a journal and let it be "whatever", I can do it. It's not an art journal, it's not a writing journal, it's an Art Ideas Journal. In this (these) journal(s), I write down ideas for projects, I write poems, my own and others that have inspired me, song lyrics, my musings, my to-do lists, etc. I do some art journalling, practice techniques, and so on.

I used to buy small sketchbooks or blank journals to use, but now I make my own. I use recycled cardboard from food or other boxes, watercolour paper, and cardstock weight paper. I bind them with a Zutter so they lay flat while I work in them and they will also have room to expand (since they always seem to get fatter).

I find that writing down my ideas helps refine the good ones and weed out the bad ones. Sketches of varying quality may or may not accompany the notes. I also keep a separate, larger sketchbook that is just for sketches and drawings.

 

I also have a couple of back-up plans when I don't have a journal with me, my iPhone and my iPad. I can just type a note into either, snap a picture, make a voice recording, or make a digital drawing (iPad). Then I try to remember later make a journal entry from that, but if I don't, I still have my ideas :)

 

If you're interested in seeing more of this particular journal, click here to go to my Flickr page. There are more pages as well as more construction notes.

If it's Wednesday . . .

. . . then it must be time to show what's on my bead table. I'm afraid the pickings are rather slim today. I've been trying obtain a certain elusive shade of turquoise/aqua. And I have to say that I'm ever so grateful that Cynthia Tinapple tweeted this colour mixing chart for Kato clay back in May. I printed it out on glossy paper and it's been very helpful. Thanks Cynthia : ) However, I didn't get the turquoise beads finished.

Here are a couple of funky long beads that I'm making into earrings. They're actually made from scrap.

Then I got tired of working on beads and worked on these instead. Fred and Ethel Mae. There's one more, Lola, but she's not done yet. Fred's not quite 2 1/2" tall, Ethel Mae about 2". Hopefully Lola will be done tomorrow.

Toodles.