ad libitum

I'VE BEEN MAKING BOTTLE CAP BEADS

Inspired by the latest Clote Paper Scissors, I decided to make some bottle cap beads.

Now to decide what to do with them (and maybe make some more).

ARTUNRAVELED REVISITED

When I was at AU, I took a class on fused glass inclusions with Peggy Krzyzewski. There was a kiln issue and she had to take our pieces home with her to fire. I just got my pieces back in the mail. I'm rather pleased with them.

As it happens, yesterday, I started a fingerweaving necklace project (which I learned from the C R Radding class I took at AU). Here is a photo of it in progress:

So, as you can see, I'm happily reliving parts of my AU adventure.

KATHY'S NECKLACE

It's my turn to work on Kathy's neckace. She asked for neutral colors and a vintage look. Kathy and Sue and Beth had all made beautiful pieces for this necklace. It has a wonderful vintage feel and a certain elegance. I hope my addition (circled in white in the photo below) pleases Kathy. I used some old beads, my precious rhinestone chain, a piece from one of my favorite bracelets, and a vintage earing. I will pass this on to Brittney and then she will send it home to Kathy.

MY PMC CLASS IS OVER...BUT NOT MY LOVE FOR PMC

Last week was the end of my pmc class. There's talk of forming a local pmc guild and I'm very interested. I love this very  incredibly expensive, but worth it, silver.

Here is some of the work I've done these past 12 weeks.

I made some hearts

We made some of our own texture plates. I love using texture with my pmc and made these disks.

...and textured pendants.

I learned how to make box beads...

I made a batch of pmc/faux bone (out of polymer) tube beads.

And, I made an assortment of "godess" pendants

And the, I decided I wanted to make a pmc doll. Her name is Lilleth and she's almost 7 inches long. (She's also the most expensive doll I've ever made.) Her head is from a face mold and has ribboned pmc strips in the back. Her shoulder is made from one of my pmc/faux bone tube beads. Her torso is a heart shaped box bead. Her hips are a silver tube bead. Her arms and legs are textured silver ribbons that I twisted around a straw before I put them in the kiln. Lilleth is almost 7 inches tall.

I loved making Lilleth so much, I have started another doll. So far, all I've made is the head (a spere pin made out of textured silver ribbons) and the torso (a box bead made from one of my favorite texture pates).

SOME OF MY PMC SILVER WORK

I am taking a 12 week pmc class at the Kalamazoo Institute of Art. It's proving to be very interesting. I'm learning some new techniques (made my first hinge and a box bead this week). It's also proving to be somewhat humbling. The other students all seem to know each other and be on the same wave length; they make very nicely finished, tidy pieces. Some sell their jewelry and use class time to make things for customers. They walk around during class and admire each others' work. Frankly, when they look at my pieces, they smile encouragingly (they are nice people) and walk on. No one seems to know what to say. My pieces are definitely different (I don't do tidy and I like rough finishes). I sort of feel like I'm swimming upstream while everyone else is swimming downstream. It's disconcerting (sometimes discouraging). But, I like the things I'm making. I write this, not to air my insecurities (I have a long list and no one has that much tolerance for that long a blog entry), but because I think there are a lot of us who feel the same way about our art. We're not in the mainstream, but we keep going in our own direction because it's who we are.

I brought my pieces home to finish them up and then made a few extra pieces this week-end (I have the luxary of having my own kiln). I'm both rather pleased about them AND needing a little external affirmation about them. I plan on making some jewelry with these and using the rest as embellishments on collages and dolls.

CROWNS AND FRIENDS AND VENDING AT ARTUNRAVELED

ArtUnraveled was a delightful event. Kudos to Linda and Chuck for their great organizational skills; I'm in awe. The good news is that I got together with a lot of friends; the bad news is that I was so busy enjoying people, I forgot to take many pictures. Jennifer and Martha and Maija made large deposits in my Memory Bank, but, sadly, not on my photo card.

Here is a photo of me and Lorri Scott. I am wearing the incredible duster she created for me (I had to provide the basic negligee for her to work from because she couldn't find one in my size). I told her to make something beautiful for me. She did more than that; she made me something that makes me feel beautiful. (In case you're wondering why I'm wearing a crown; I wore one almost every day to advertise my crown class.  And, yes, I painted those shoes).

 

Here's a photo of Angie Platten at lunch at the Phoenix Art Museum (great Cezanne exhibit; and, just as important; great restaurant).

 

I include a photo of me because it looks like I have only two chins in this shot.

 

Friday night, Fran Saperstein helped me set up for the Shopping Extravaganza (Saturday from 10 to 4 - crowded enough that we forgot to take photos during it).

 

The very nice news is that I made more than my booth fee; so I'm in the black from my first big vending experience. Michael bought one of my crowns ("I wonder What the King Is Doing Tonight?") and I just had to take a photo of him in it.

 

Monday night was my crown class. I had four delightful students. One of them was Fran and she very nicely took some photos of my class.

Here's a shot of me demonstrating how to wrap fabric around the wire base.

 

Our class wan in a hotel suite (perfect size for a small class) and he're a shot Fran took of people working on their crown.

No crowns were finished during the class; but everyone got to the adding embellishments part, which is the last step and and I'm pretty sure they will be finishing (if they have not already finished) their crowns soon and will be making more.

Here's Marion in her crown of many colors.

 

Here's Andrea showing her intricate crown.

 

Louanne (sorry if I have the spelling wrong) made a beautifully multi-layered crown.

 

Here's a photo of Fran, taken on Wednesday, after she complete her crown.

My students were all jewels in my teaching crown and they made the class a delightful experience.

MAKING JEWELRY AND CHAINS AT ARTUNRAVELED

I played with metal clay (2 classes with Donna Lewis), rebar wire (class with Kieth Lo Bue), and polymer resin  clay (class with Sari Haab) at Art Unraveled. I love dabbling with new materials and techniques in a class; it lets me know what I want to do more of and what I don't want to bother with.

Mixing copper and bronze clay was fun and I was glad to use it, but don't think I'll pursue it. It's hard to tell from the photo below, but there is some copper clay embedded in the bronze clay in the pieces below.

 

Then, there was the mixing copper clay and adding silver in a second firing class. You may notice that there isn't any silver in the pieces below. It may not have been a wise decision on the part of the teacher to try a new firing method for the first time. I will add the silver clay later.

 

In Kieth LoBue's "chain gang" class, I learned I am too wimpy to work easily with rebar wire, although I understand it's appeal (I'm not even going to talk about piano wire here; but I have to admit, it makes great mandrels). I may be looking for easier wire for future projects, but I definitely learned some great techniques in this class and look forward to using them in both jewelry and collage pieces.

 

 

I discovered concrete looking polymer resin clay beads in Shari Haab's class. It's hard to explain the allure of this and the photo below doesn't do the medium justice, but I definitely will be working on more pieces and now need to go out and replenish my supply of chrystals to stick into the concrete.

So, interesting techniques and media, some of which I will pursue and some of which I now know is not for me...another great reason to take classes and go to art retreats.

BAUBLES AND BEADS AND TOOLS, OH MY!

I am just back from the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee (about a four and a half hour drive). It was wonderful, overwhelming, but wonderful. I went with my friends Brittney and Catherine.

We arrived in Milwaukee around 2 p.m. on Friday (we left at around 1 p.m. on Sunday). After checking into the hotel, we went across the street (you can go either by walkway or on the street) to register and see the Market Place. This is a giant show.

 

There are classes to be taken (maybe another year for me; this time, I came just to shop). There was an exhibit of incredibly beautiful pieces.

Catherine (left) and Brittney (right) took as many photos as I did.

There were beads to the right of us...

 

...beads to the left of us...

  We stayed for 4 hours and then went back to the hotel for dinner and to rest up to buy more. After a tasty breakfast, we headed out again.

...and, there was even more shopping Sunday morning before we left.

Here are some photos of my purchases.

Now, to organize all this. My immediate problem is that the phrase, "a place for everything and everything in its place" assumes that there is a place for everything - not a given in my house.

FINISHING, STARTING, AND STILL NEEDS WORK

This past week-end, I worked on several projects. I actually finished a necklace a friend of mine had asked for; I made progress with making embellishments out of the fabric paper I had made with my friends Lori and Chris the week-end before; and I made progress on my 2-D canvas piece.

First, the piece I actually finished: a black and white beaded necklace.

Lori Hutchinson and Chris Gould came over to my house the week-end before last. We ate well (at Martini's, one of my favorite restaurants in Kalamazoo), shopped happily (at Stitching Memories, a great yarn shop in Portage) and played happily in my messy studio (we each made 7 sheets of fabric paper, the technique demonstrated by Beryl Taylor in her book, "Mixed Media Explorations").

 

This past week-end, I started making embellishments by cutting some of my fabric papers and sewing around them. Some, I will leave like this; some I will sew more on; and some I willfurther embellish with baubles and/or beads. Right now, I am just making a stash to use later.

 

 And, I worked on a 2-D canvas that I am trying to get ready for a three person show at the Portage Library in late June and July. I'm putting in some pieces I've made in the last year or so, but I want to do an original canvas for the show, too. I want it to be a mixed-media 2-D piece and I have a lot more to do to it, but here it is (paint, mostly Color Mists by Aileen Roberts,  still drying). I have a lot more to do on it.

I also worked on starting class kits for the Crowning Glory class I'm teaching at ArtUnraveled in August (it's a great art retreat and there's still time to register). I'm also working on things to sell there because I'm going to be one of the vendors at the Shopping Extravaganza (I've already posted about the cuffs I made, I'm currently working on some other things, which I will post when they're further along in production).