Category Archives: Inspiration

Dyeing to Show and Tell

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New painting by Lesta Frank, from Sunday’s Show and Tell

From dyeing on Saturday to Show and Tell on Sunday, this weekend rocked. It started with an afternoon of small-space dyeing with Rosemary Uchniat and ended with a Show and Tell with the usual suspects and some new ones, as well. Part of Show and Tell is always sharing upcoming shows, so here are two to pass along:

Small-Space Dyeing has become one of the fastest sold-out workshops at the Studio. Rosemary’s unique formula for fabric dyeing success produces fun, no fail results every time, even for novices. Take a look at the video from Saturday.

Sunday’s Show and Tell photo gallery gives you a clue to the diversity and talent of the participants – everything from Acrylics to Zentangle – I am grateful to the generous and highly creative people who share their ideas with all of us at  these get-togethers.

milagroLast but not least, the winner of the Friday Freebie heart milagro is lucky SHARDS subscriber #134, Arwen Lynch Poe, a friend who has just moved from Texas to New Mexico. Arwen, send me your new address and I’ll send you this little gift to remind you of how much we miss you!

I had lots of requests for info about this piece, and I plan to have some for sale at the Black Saturday Studio sale on November 28th with Lesta Frank and Alison Schockner! Happy Monday, everyone, and thanks, as always, for reading SHARDS.

Beeswax collage workshop – personal and inspired

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The beautiful visual stories seemed almost to create themselves in Sunday’s Beeswax Collage workshop at the Studio. Participants were given a limited choice of vintage images, some basic collage and texture materials, and some beeswax, walnut ink, and gold leaf. Then, as one person said, “The magic is happening!”

Sunday’s workshop was a delightful combination of the perfect medium paired with the perfect group – everyone had a chance to take risks, make decisions, and turn “mistakes” into assets in their work. And they did it! Take a look at some photos from the workshop.

Congratulations to all of the artist and bravo for the great work – and now, for a commercial break. If you want to see how this beeswax collage process works, I have written an e-book called Behind the Veil that explains this process step-by-step, including where to find free vintage images. It can be yours to download for a mere $5.99 – heck, a fancy latte costs more than that!

But wait, there’s more – no, actually, that’s all for now. It was a great workshop and I thank everyone who participated! Have a lovely  Monday, everyone.

You can do it, Kid . . .

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Have you ever wanted to get your work out there in public – and help people at the same time? Yeah? So why not apply to become an Artist in Residence at Imagine Crafts? There’s an open call right now and they are looking for DIYers, Card Makers, Memory Keepers, Mixed Media and more.

You can go here to see all of the requirements and benefits, but basically, they send you their crafting supplies for free and you come up with three small projects a month to show creative ways to use them

These guys are near and dear to my heart because they represent Tsukineko, the Walnut Ink makers.And it’s a friendly group, too – I’m not affiliated with them other than that I buy my weight in Walnut Ink from them every month or so, but when I need advice about orders or products, they are right there.

Here are some of the kinds of projects that the Artists in Residence come up with:

Classy Halloween Art Journal Page by Jowilna Nolte

Must Have My Creative Medium! by Renee Zarate

You guys can do this, and it would be fun!! Think of the mixed media things you’ve done in Studio workshops or tried on your own, and then come up with a catchy project and name. OK, here are some goofy ideas to get you started – I’ll make up the names and you can make the projects for your application –

  • Catchy Cactus Coasters
  • Mini-billboard Pet Portraits
  • Rocks that Rock
  • Starry Night Sleep Tee
  • Jazz-Score Journal

See? That took me about five seconds to think of a few ideas – you can do better, Kid – get out there and be famous, and you can thank me when you have your own international design line. Here’s where to apply. (And tell ’em Lyn sent you 🙂

 

A two-day encounter of the art-full kind

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wsWhat was I thinking? Two full-day workshops at the Studio back-to-back? A weekend of hanging out, creating, eating and talking with eight other like-minded souls?  How would all of that look? It looked FANTASTIC!

Saturday was Belisle’s Collage Extravaganza and Composition Challenge. We worked on two major pieces – a collage on canvas with extreme emphasis on composition (the AB3s) and a collage on cradle board with image transfers and encaustic wax. The intrepid participants gave it their all, and we were very tired but happy at the end of the day. Here’s the video – see if you can detect the AB3s of composition at work in the finished pieces.

But wait – there’s more! On Sunday, Lesta Frank and I team-taught a very non-traditional mixed media journaling class. Everyone designed their own pages and created a loose-leaf portfolio to collect and show their experimental surface finishes, including one really interesting Profile Page. This was Lesta’s idea and consisted of an actual dimensional profile cutout with descriptions of a personal profile as part of the composition. Very nice! Watch for it in the video, below.

In the critiques and discussions, all agreed that the two-day experience was great, both for those who came both days and those who came on one day of choice. We had eight participants each day, half of whom were there for both days. Nicely balanced! I will plan another weekend experience in the early part of 2016. I should be recovered by then!

Bonnie, Akim & me, the (ahem) calligrapher

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Lefties like me are challenged in many ways, but especially in the fine art of calligraphy. I’d always envied people who could take a simple work like “bread” and elevate it to super-star status with illuminated swashes. But thanks to my friend Bonnie Houser, I can now write like a calligrapher! And I’m getting better at it – AND it’s fun!

Some of you may know Bonnie as the owner of Dry Comal Creek Vineyards and Winery and some of you may know her through her art work, She’s a great friend and teacher to a lot of people. Lesta Frank and I asked Bonnie to give us a quick calligraphy lesson on an alphabet called AKIM. It was “invented” by German artist, sculptor and musician Hans-Joachim Burgert, who said, “The 10spiritual material is the simple line. . .the line is a medium of free graphic discipline.”  Because this is a monolinear alphabet (no chiseled shading), anyone, even left-handed people, can do it well.

It was amazing how quickly we picked it up with Bonnie’s help. And the great thing is that there are as many personal variations of the Akim hand as their are writers. If you do a web search, you will see this for yourself. Take a look at some of the work we did with Bonnie, then give it a try!

 

I can’t show you photos from the art-filled week, but I did do my homework. . .

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It’s a foggy morning here in Boston, and I am still processing all of the incredible art I’ve seen this past week, here, and in New York. You are temporarily off the hook for having to see my zillions of photos of art, though, because of some “saving errors” on my little Mac. But I will definitely post them when I get home later this week.

The most spectacular art museum I saw was the Whitney Museum of American Art – I hope you get to visit sometime. Their new location is breathtaking, and the exhibit, America is Hard to See, is like walking in person through the most exciting decades of American art. What an experience!!

The IMG_7381best new-to-me artist I discovered was Arlene Shechet. Here’s a photo from a video of her working on one of her large clay sculptures. If you visit her site, you can see the work I saw at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art. I was especially fond of the indigo and white mandalas that she did between 2002-2005. She is amazingly versatile, eclectic and visionary.

I did do my homework for Jane Davies‘ class while I’ve been here in Boston – Jane is an amazing teacher and painter – hope she doesn’t mind my sharing this approach to composing a painting study. It’s very worthwhile – it involves concentrating on two separate areas at a time within a randomly executed beginning. Take a look – I didn’t produce a “finished” painting, but I learned a lot and had fun doing it. And I did it on the dining room table with limited supplies – shows that you can do your art anywhere.

Home soon!! Can’t wait to be back to the Studio.

Monday morning roundup

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fabricGoddesses were out in force at the Goddess Banner workshop yesterday. It was a gorgeous afternoon for drying colorful, glittery fabric on the rack outside the Studio. Among the participants were Monika Astara (my favorite fashion designer) and Lisa Stamper Meyer from Roadhouse Arts, as well as several talented FASA members who specialize in surface design. So, even though we used the some of the same images, the results were totally diverse and eclectically spectacular. Take a look at the video, and then I’ll tell you about some of the techniques.

Aren’t those wonderful? We did a combination of Small Space Dyeing that Rosemary Uchniat teaches in her workshop and digital image transfer that’s done with hand sanitizer (yep!). I learned about this technique from an artist in Rehoboth, Delaware, and it works great on fabric. Basically, you print your image on an inkjet overhead transparency, spread a layer of hand sanitizer gel on your fabric, place the image face down, pat gently and leave for 15 minutes. You’ll get different results based on how much gel is on the fabric, but it works great. We protected the digital transfer by taping freezer paper on the back.

And speaking of Rosemary Uchniat, guess who won the Friday Freebie Mermaid Shard? Yep, Rosemary – congrats – it was totally random. Now she’ll have to make a mermaid!

Have a great Monday, y’all – I’m headed to NYC and Boston for a few days to see the family. Will send art reports along the way!

 

Mermaids, fiber arts and Friday freebie

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1First things first – the Friday Freebie – I was amazed at the response to the Mermaid Shard Faces that I posted on Etsy this past week. They flew (or swam?) out of the shop and are now sold out, but I’ll be making more of them as a regular item in my EarthShards gallery.

Did I forget to save you one for the Friday Freebie? No! Here’s your chance to get a Mermaid Shard Face of your own to tie to a branch and add mermaid-like elements (See mermaidkaren copymy friend Karen’s wonderful example, left). These faces come from press molds I make from old cemeteries and sculpture gardens, so they have good mojo. Be a SHARDS subscriber by Sunday at midnight and you’ll be in the drawing.

Now, onto the fascinating subject of fiber arts – if you work in paper or mixed media or fabric or felt or anything string-like or woven – listen up! The Call for Entries from the Fiber Artists of San Antonio for their Juried 41st Exhibition at the swanky Plaza Club in November opens next week. If you’re accepted, your work will be seen by zillions of Plaza Club members and guests who appreciate – and purchase – art. So here are your instructions:

  1. Read the info poster (below) to see three great reasons to enter this show with any of your fiber-related work
  2. Then, if you need inspiration, watch the video at the end of this SHARDS post. You’ll see six fiber artists demonstrating easy, eclectic techniques from the FASA Artists Buffet meeting last Monday.
  3. Enter the FASA juried show – the deadline’s not till October, but time flashes by like a mermaid’s tail!16exhibitflyer

And here’s your Inspiration Video! Good luck with the FASA entries AND the Friday Freebie!

Monika Astara – a visit to her studio

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When I first met Monika Astara at a FASA Runway Show several years ago, I was almost tongue-tied by the beauty and originality of her designer clothing. She was swamped with customers, but I managed to ask her rather tentatively if she ever did trunk shows – she said that she did! Six months later, she brought her wearable art to my Studio, and it was a huge success. We became fast friends and she’s had several more fantastic shows with me – her clothes are comfortable, casually elegant, yet very distinctive. If you are a Monika fan, you know what I mean.

Hoverer, I had never been to HER studio until this weekend, and what a treat it was to see where all of the Monika Magic originates. I got to see her long cutting table where she paints and constructs her garments, the stacks of patterns, and most of all, the fabrics! Her signature fabrics are chosen for their unusual textures and colors and for their practicality – not an easy task.

I took some photos during my visit to share with you, and I hope you will be at her next show and sale at Lyn Belisle Studio in October, date coming soon!

Circles of connection

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Saturday’s Show & Tell was the best kind of connected circle – it seemed as if everyone had a story or an idea that made the collective group smile and even applaud. When you begin with Vicki Siptak’s beautiful necklaces made from socks (1) and end with thoughts from a poet about imagery, words, and art, what’s not to love? Join us for the next one if you can on Saturday, August 29th (2-4 pm), and connect with this creative circle at my Studio. Here’s a video from Saturday.

kimAnother connected circle is getting really huge, as in International – that’s the Spirit Doll connection. It started for me with Joanna Powell Colbert in 2012 and her order for faces from my Etsy site. She and I both started teaching Spirit Doll classes, and the word spread. I’ve sent shard faces to many countries and  just got these photos from Jo Rockendorfer, who recently taught a Spirit Doll class in Sydney, Australia – here’s here description: “The red doll is Hummingbird Medicine, the green/blue was for a friend after she did a healing ritual and the last and most recent is Sophia Goddess of Wisdom”

I love the fact that Texas clay enhances Jo’s beautiful work from Australia – and if you’re reading this, you’re connected, too, in our circle – lucky me! Circles unify, art connects –  life is good. Have a great week.