Shadow Boxes: Little Birds & Nests

I'm busy crafting away, making a bunch of soldered 3-D shadowbox pendants for an art event at a local winery happening this weekend.

some soldered, some not yet

I wish I had a crystal ball to know how much effort to put into all my labors...I hate to work myself to a frazzle if not that many folks show up.  And I'd hate to not make enough, in case people come out in droves.

Oh well, what doesn't sell will go into my one-of-these-days-I'm-actually-going-to-start-one-up etsy shop.  Or, they could be a great head-start on inventory for our next big holiday bazaar next November.  Or, maybe I'll sell out this Sunday!

 

I have to say, though, I really do enjoy making these little labors of love. They are so sweet and tiny, and allow me to be persnickety and a wee bit anal retentive.  Weird, but that's how I am.

Update:

The sale at the winery went great, even though the crowds never really came (another big wine event at the coast was stiff competition)!  I sold most of the necklaces and a bunch of other stuff despite the low turnout, so it was worth it :-)

 

Missing Gus

My dad died a month ago, and I'm still reeling from it.  I go for a few days and I'm okay, and then some little memory will open the floodgate of tears.  He was a very special man, extremely charismatic, a real character.  He drove me crazy much of the time, but I adored him nonetheless.  He was both bombastic and humble, defied death until he was 97, but even at that age seemed invincible.  My three sisters and I relied on him for advice and a good laugh until the last week of his life.  While my mom, at 95, suffers from dementia, Dad remained pretty darn sharp (with a steel-trap memory), funny, and wise.  He lived in an apartment on his own, on his computer and facebook daily.  But one last heart attack did him in, even though he lived through other heart episodes, illness, and injuries in the past.  He was an incredible life-force while on this earth.  I miss him so much.

 tootling around wal*mart.  people thought he was 80, even though here he was 96

always a lover: giving mom a smooch at the nursing home where he visited her often

dad, looking like a sweet teddy bear, with me in 1985

me and my daddy, around 1958

Painting Angels

I had this and a few other angel paintings on display in a small gallery/frame shop nearby, and it was recently returned to me.  Several of the others sold, but I was kind of glad this one didn't.  It's hanging next to my computer, and I like looking at all the layers of collaged papers (click on the image--all the details show up beautifully in the enlargement) peeking through the painting (first time I had tried this technique).

I also like to remember actually painting this one:  a good friend let me stay at her magnificent beach house in Seaside, OR a couple months ago, and I spent dreamy hours painting away while the beach was just steps away.

 

I'm so anxious to go back!  I could use a change of scenery and a bit of inspiration.

Collage Challenge for March

With the start of a new month, Mary Green has posted another collage challenge.  I kept my offering pretty simple and a bit silly this time, going with the theme of the nursery rhyme featured in Mary's images.

Guilty

Here are the three images we had to work with:

I'm realizing that all of my entries so far have been very tightly executed.  Next month I'm going to try to go a little looser, not so rigid, a little more free-form.  Maybe.  Stay tuned.  And in the meantime,  go to Mary's blog and check out the other entries.  It's always fun to see how others have interpreted the same challenge.

The Blahs

I can tell already this will be a 'blah' post.  I have the winter blues.  I am so ready for spring, and everything around me just feels grey and blah, and I'm so unmotivated to get anything done.  I've been working on an illustration, and can tell my attitude shows through in it.  It's just blah.  I wasn't feelin' it. Here it is in progress:

It's for a small cell phone pocket purse, made by my same client that does all of the big tote bags. This illustration will go on the hang-tag as well as the display-unit topper.  I was feeling pretty good about the initial pencil and ink drawing, above.  Here it is with color added (the paper is actually white, but I can't seem to take a picture of it without it turning grey):

 

I'm starting to not like it anymore at this stage because I was using a new batch of my illustration board that costs a fortune, but it was faulty.  My watercolors seeped into the paper very blotchy and unevenly, especially on the skin-tones. So frustrating.  I had to overcompensate for the blotchy-ness while shading it, and was just. not. feeling it!

This is the final art, above.  The little purse is left blank, so that any of the designs can be dropped in digitally.  It's going to be enlarged quite a bit for the display unit, so I'm especially worried about the blotchy-ness. All flaws get greatly enlarged when a piece is blown up.

It's overworked and stiff.  It's just blah. Just like how I'm feeling these days.  I need some sunshine and a break from the rut I'm in.  Next post will be more chipper.  I'm getting some fun crafty stuff together for a couple of Spring Boutiques.  Maybe the sun will be shining by then.

Tiny Bird Nests... Spring is in the air!

Spring must be right around the corner.  My desk is covered in tiny little bird nests.

Pearly eggs of all colors, and wiry nests in silver, copper and rust are "spring"ing up everywhere,

all getting ready to go in tiny little shadowboxes:

Soon I'll add copper to these and solder them into necklace pendants.  I'm preparing for a couple of Spring boutiques, and thought these would be a nice offering for the new season just around the corner.

Flour Sack Babies

I've been wanting to do this post for a while, as kind of an experiment to see how many visitors I get.  You see, when I look at the stats for this blog, the post that gets by far the most hits is from way back two years ago, in February of 2010.  You can check it out here.  I wrote about a teen jewelry-making class we were hosting, and mentioned that some of the 8th-graders attending were doing their annual "Flour Sack Baby" project--and, as a requirement of that project, each brought along their little "baby" that they had to lug around and be responsible for all weekend. The girls proudly carried their wee ones: flour sacks wrapped in either blue or pink paper, which were further decked out in blankets, baby clothes and hats:

Well, it must be the season again for this assignment, because lately, their have been SO MANY Google searches for 'Flour Sack Babies' that end up here.  I'm talking hundreds and hundreds!

UPDATE: As of the end of July, this post has now had well over a thousand visits.  That just cracks me up...

Not exactly what I was expecting would entice visitors to my humble artsy-craftsy blog.  Oh well, welcome....nice of you to stop by!

As a bonus, I'm going to show the flour baby that my daughter made a few years ago, when it was time for HER to do this assignment:

 

How weird does this look?!?  She made a life-size copy of a photo of a baby's head, mounted it on foam-core so it would stand up, and attached it to the flour sack.  She shot this photo of the two of them in black& white, which seems to make that baby look more "real"--kinda creepy, huh?!  She carried him in a front-facing baby pack, which also looked creepy and hilarious to boot.

So, hope this helps those of you who are trying to find flour baby reference photos on Google.  Come back and visit again sometime!