Category Archives: art

Boxing Day Challenge

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Today, December 26th, is Boxing Day in England where I spent part of my childhood (our father was stationed at Ruislip Base in London for five years). There are all kinds of reasons why it’s called that – giving boxes of Christmas goodies to service workers is one – but I’m going to give you a challenge instead. I decided I wanted to learn how to make a new kind of paper box, and this little mulberry-paper container the result. Simple, right? Not. Even with the video, it’s tricky. See if you can do it. It took me a couple of tries to figure out that x#@% last part.

Origami paper box

Origami paper box

PS The person’s hands in the video are impossibly smooth – I think it’s a plastic robot, personally 🙂

Link address to copy if you want to save it – http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-box-with-paper/

Thinking About Workshops . . . .

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etsyIt’s a new year (almost) and I have a new studio space (almost). More about that soon, but I’ll have room to teach workshops on art and the Internet, among other topics. One thing I thought about was offering a workshop on setting up an Etsy shop. It would include opening a shop or gallery of your own, uploading pictures of your work, making a shop banner, taking payments – all of that. It’s so much easier than you might expect. And honestly, even if you don’t sell one thing, the experience of getting your work out there for the world arts community to see is worth the effort!  Let me know if you’re interested.

spiritThe other topics that I personally want to explore is making Spirit Dolls. Joanna Powell Colbert gave my Etsy Earthshards Shop a real boost when she ordered my little faces for her spirit doll workshop and retreat in Washington last year. I hear from people all over the country who send me pictures of their Spirit Doll creations. They are really exquisite soft sculptures, and if we did a workshop in the new studio space, we could also bring in herbs and essential oils to the magical mix!

Both of these would be later in the spring, after the clay and bead workshops that are already scheduled. I’d love your feedback. Oh, and this evening, I’m doing a Sprig Shard drawing – three subscribers will get a Sprig Shard face for their thank-you-for-signing-up prize! I started to give all three to one person, but I think it would be more fun to spread them out. Stay tuned.

 

Nueva Street Gallery

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I went down to La Villita yesterday to visit with Susan Carlin, one of the owners of Nueva Street Gallery. It always does my heart good to walk into that beautiful light-filled space. It’s the gallery where I showed my work back in the 80’s an 90’s when Richard Conn owned it – it was lovely then, but it seems to  have a whole new persona since Susan and Uger made it their own. Susan has given me the whole table in the middle of the gallery for my work display. Yay! There are some Shard Faces there, some little Earthshard dishes, and some of my small collage-on-canvas work.

When I got to the gallery, Susan had just received a new piece by Reggie Troilo that I loved! I think it’s called “the Gathering” – but it is fantastic. Brian St. John also shows there – he’s the San Antonio Art League’s Artist of the Year. Here’s the gallery – I’ve always been a huge fan of the place, and not just because my work is there. It’s a wonderful space to stop by, hang out – and a perfect starting place for exploring historic La Villita during the holiday season. I just love San Antonio!

Nueva Street Galllery

I ♥ hardware stores

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I went to Harbor Freight yesterday to see if they had gotten in more of their canvas drop cloths – what a find. My friends Chip and Jane told me about these – beautiful heavy canvas for stretching on stretchers (or just using loose) to use as a painting surface. The price is right, too – a 4 by 12’ heavy canvas panel for less than ten dollars or 9×12′ for $15.

While I was there, the aluminum tape caught my eye – probably a lot of people know about that stuff, but I had a great time playing around with it. You can crumple it, paint over it, scratch it – great possibilities. In these examples I used black marker, transparent acrylic, and acrylic ink and rubbed it over the surface, then buffed it off. Next time will check out my neighborhood hardware store and see if they have it there. I’ll definitely be using it on some book covers for Nueva Street Gallery – yay for hardware stores! They even smell good.

foilPS The Baby Bee dish is there just cause it looked nice propping up the examples – no foil used in clay – it would vaporize!

 

 

Sunday thoughts

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Sometimes events are just too incomprehensible to feel anything but sad – but also so very grateful for friends and family and human goodness.

child

 

San Antonio Art Educators Workshop

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Thanks to the SAAE for inviting me to teach a workshop to art teachers! We met at the North East School of the Arts where I did a session on collage using three of my favorite art materials, walnut ink, gold leaf and rice paper. I printed some of my own collage images on rice paper for the teachers to experiment with, but despite this, the collages they created were all different. Here’s a video I made of the process as I was planning the workshop – it’s really pretty easy and the results can be surprising.

And here are some of the great collages that were done during the enjoyable workshop this afternoon.

ws5 ws6 ws4 ws3 ws2 ws1

 

A little gift for you

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Thanks to everyone who subscribes to my blog, Shards – I designed some holiday gift tags for you. You can print them out and cut them apart and fold them – they make even a brown bag look pretty. These are some of the same images I use on my own tags – thanks to my friend Maria for many of them.

Access you gift tags here – print them on card stock if you can. There are three different designs, six cards on each sheet. I hope you like them, and happy holidays!

 

 

Quick post – new paper source

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I  always like to share new sources, especially for artisan paper. Here’s the latest one I’ve found, and the prices and selection look great. I’ll do a small order and report back. Their clearance section is amazing.

Creative Papers Online

Examples from Creative Papers Online

Also, any time anyone wants to order with me for a quantity discount on art suppllies, let me know and we’ll see what we can put together!

Winning Workshop (and Scent Shard Winner)

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I never imagined that the space in La Vida Gallery could be so perfect for a workshop, but it was. We were surrounded by art and inspiration this afternoon at the gallery with light coming in from the large windows looking out onto the Southtown neighborhood. Carole Weissler, gallery owner, was a host and participant – she’s a talented artist in her own right. This group was motivated and creative –  the finished products really glowed with colors and textures. One particular participant complained about the quality of the glue sticks, but I noticed that it didn’t keep her from making two lovely votive cards. She also showed me a much better way to make the center cut. Sigh, live and learn. The whole afternoon was fun – see the video.

But wait – before the video starts, the winner of the Scent Shard (name drawn by Carol Mylar from Colorado Springs) is  . . . . . . .Sherry Palmer, who signed up for the mailing list during the last open studio and then subscribed to the Shards blog. Congratulations, Sherry – let me know how you’d like to claim your prize. I’ll be glad to mail it to you or you are more than welcome to come pick it up. I’d love to see you.

Now, back to the video:

Create a Candle, Win a Shard

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Special workshop this Sunday at La Vida Gallery in lovely Southown from 3-5! I’ll be showing you how to make these unique votive candle cards, which are gifts in themselves. When you open one, it becomes a glowing screen for a votive candle, but it folds up to fit in an envelope. These cards were featured in an article I wrote for the current issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. You’ll take home several of these cards and can personalize them in any way you want. To save a spot (limit ten, there are five spaces left), click on this PayPal link – tuition is $39 and proceeds go to the San Antonio Food Bank. All materials are provided.

But wait – there’s more (as usual). Workshop participants and SHARDS blog subscribers will be entered in a drawing to win this Scent Shard with Ylang-Ylang/Bitter Orange essential oil and a brochure and gift bag. My dear friend and former studio partner Carol Mylar is visiting me from Colorado and she will do the drawing Sunday night. If you can’t come play with us on Sunday, subscribe to the Shard blog.

Scent Shard prize for winning workshop participant/blog subscriber

And finally, 30 Shades of Twilight opens at La Vida tonight at 7:00 but I’m too nervous to talk about that, so bye for now.:)