First Friday and Friday Freebie

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Yep, it’s all about Fridays! Please mark your calendars for the upcoming First Friday, December 6th,  at La Vida Gallery in Southtown. I’ve been invited back again (December tradition!) to show with the amazing Oaxacan folk artists, Jacobo and Maria Angeles. I’ll be showing some new folk-art-like constructions based on the Guardian series. Here’s the info – hope to see you thpromesasflatere:
And in the spirit of the season, here’s a Friday Freebie for one subscriber to SHARDS, this very blog. It’s another beautiful tapestry from my collection of Threads of Blessings embroideries. I love sharing the work of these women from Uganda. This hand-embroidered scene of daily life is by Magret Biwaga, and it depicts a small house with two figures. I think the smaller one may be going off to school. There’s a giant bird flying overhead who looks as if he might get stuck in the tree! It’s really charming. Be a subscriber before Sunday night and I’ll put your name in the drawing. Thanks, and have a wonderful weekend!
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Art Show report and poetry gig

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Here’s a short video from the Art Show and Sale at the Studio yesterday – it was one of those soft, gray fall afternoons that makes ya feel all cozy inside. Lots of people came by (and shopped – yay). As usual, I was delighted to see what goodies Alison and Jan and Lesta brought with them. Take a look – so much talent and diversity!

twigYou want more? Well, check this out – Tuesday night at The Twig Book Shop, there will be a gaggle of poets and wannabees (including me) reading poems and short fiction and  words of all kinds to an assembled audience of brave folks. Jo LeCoer, who read at my first Studio poetry event is the amazingly-talended guest host/poet for the evening. Jo sez, “Readers include artists, poetry performers, song lyricists, fiction writers (one has a new book just out), journalists, current and former UIW faculty/students/alumni, and a couple of reluctant guitarist/extortionists holding out for bigger bribes.” Sounds like a literati fun fest. See you there?

Finally, Twigs remind me of Shrubs, and that reminds me of my friend Kathy Tarasovic and her new foodie venture, Well Seasoned Cuisine. They make Shrubs, an artisan beverage syrup blend of mellow vinegars and fruits. I saw her and her partners at the Quarry Farmer’s Market today – you should have a look at their web site – they have perfect foodie gifts for hard-to-shop-for people. Their business is a partnership with Good Samaritan Community Services, a highly respected community-based outreach organization – what’s not to love? Try a Shrub! It’s good in protein shakes, too.shrubs

 

 

Countdown to Saturday sale with da girlz

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I love being in shows at the Studio with Lesta, Alison, and Jan – they are such inspiring artists. Here’s your personal invitation – If you click on it, you can get a printable version to share with everybody! Sharing is GOOD!nov9

Remember Scent Shards? I found a wonderful 1930’s carved face of a woman to use as a press mold,  and have made a series of new “B Beautiful” Scent Shards for the Saturday show. There are only ten of these, and I think they are the best ever. Any suggestions for essential oils to go with them? I’m thinking lavender and tangerine.scentshards

Last but not least, congrats to Karen Jensen, wonderful writer and all-around creative person, for winning the Shard Adornment kit – it’ll be in the mail today, Karen! Thanks (to everyone) for subscribing to SHARDS.

DYI Friday Freebie . . . Shard Adornment Kit!

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Howdy, and happy All Saints Day. I always think of old San Fernando Cemetery  on Nov 1. Lots of families will be there this weekend having picnics on the graves of loved ones and generally hanging out with them, which I think is pretty cool. Most of my earthenware faces come from San Fernando, so today’s Friday Freebie is a Shard Adornment Kit with everything you need to create a magnetic art-to-wear pin like this one:

pinfreebie2For the kit, I’ve put together a small shard face, some feathers and mat board, beads and cord, interesting paper pieces, and a strong bar magnet for you to use to create an adornment for yourself or a friend. You can see lots more examples at this YouTube link, and I’ll have some new Shard Adornments at the stupendous Studio Art Sale next Saturday, NOV 9. Please come!

pinfreebiekit_edited-1To be eligible win this kit, be a SHARDS subscriber by Sunday at midnight – yay for shameless self-promotion! A random drawing will take place Monday morning. Oh, yeah – I’ll even include directions! And if you’d like to come to a workshop and make them with me and several other creative people, sign up here for the Nov. 24th workshop at the Studio. It’s your Place of Creative Belonging – mine, too :). OK, go forth and doing something small and saintly for someone to celebrate All Saints Day.

By the skin of its finny-fin-fin

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One of the “Aha!” artsy discoveries I made in Boston was Fish Leather. Now maybe you knew all about it, but I didn’t. And it’s beautiful! It looks like suede on one side and has a glossy.scale-like pattern on the other side. Here’s a piece that I purchased from Bead+Fiber.

fl1_edited-1 There’s a shop called The Fish Leather Co in the UK that’s specializing in this material, and you can find out from their site how it’s made. It’s apparently a long process and different species of fish have different kinds of leathers. Definitely interesting to read about! Fish Leather is eco-friendly and taken from non-endangered fish (unless you’re the fish that gets turned into leather, I guess).fl2

I found a shop on Etsy that has hand-crafted Fish Leather jewelry – it’s called ModernNaturals19 and the artisan does nice work – see the cuff bracelet below. You’d have to sew a bunch of these together to make a garment of any kind, but the material itself is beautiful and I can see it being used for small adornments and decorative objects. Dang. Fish leather. Who woulda thought?

 

 

 

Boston’s SoWa Sunday Market

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OK, I confess to playing hooky from Trinity on Thursday to take a quick trip to Boston – and one of the highlights was today’s South End Market, particularly a shop called Bead + Fiber. Today was the last Market of the season (and also the Market of the Living Dead, sorta a Yankee version of Dia de los Muertos.) Besides produce, there is a vintage market and a fleet of food trucks. The place was rife with hot dogs, real dogs in Zombie costumes, Zombies eating burgers, Zombies in drag – sometimes it was hard to tell what was a costume and what was not, and one surely didn’t want to ask. Here are some pictures from the SoWa Market. Home tomorrow to dear ol’ San Antonio where the only good Zombie is a dead Zombie – hmmmm. Wait, aren’t Zombies already dead? So all Zombies are good? Oh, never mind – enjoy the pics.

 

A free class? Taught by me? Yep!

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craftartI just got an email from CraftArtEdu saying my Online Composition Classes are up, including the FREE one that I made about Orientation. Just click here to access my page and scroll down to the bottom to see the free video. It’s a useful class, I think, because it can apply to any medium. Anyway, I’d love feedback – it’s only about 15 minutes long. Email me if you watch it and tell me what you think – all suggestions appreciated. The sound is kind of crummy at the end but I’m working on that.

Sunday was the Friends of the Library Arts and Letters Awards, and I am delighted that my dear friend, fiber artist Susan Oaks, was one the the three honorees. Her work with coiled vessels spans decades, and her vision and artistry never wavers. I shot a quick video interview with her at the ceremony. I am so proud to know her! She’ll never read this because she doesn’t have a computer, but if you see her, tell her hooray!14susan 15susanoaksvessel

 

Stamps R OK – sometimes

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   stamp4I’ve always been slightly rubber-stamp-phobic about using them as a “fine art” tool, and still get a bit twitchy about it. But after seeing some of the beautiful repeat pattern fiber art in the FASA show, I’m coming to realize that stamping can be a great way to explore the kinds of designs found in traditional batik and shibori-like kimono patterns. Therefore, I’ve resurrected those little cat stamps and calligraphy stamps and pattern stamps and am making a little surface design sampler of stamp fragment patterns on paper. It’s simple – just stamp2mask off areas of 5×7″ paper with blue tape (stick it on your jeans first to lint it up for easy removal).

Then stamp portions of a design repeatedly, alternating images. You can do a couple in five minutes and then collect them in a folder with notes on the back about what stamps and inks you used. I’m going to do a series of small paper kimonos soon and will use my favorite pattern for those. Stamping is not rocket science but it’s a lot of fun if you view it as pattern exploration and surface design. Click on the images below to see the detail – it’s pretty interesting and dead-easy.

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Herb’s just a face in the crowd . .

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I love these little Sprig Shards! I’ve made 100 of them for the San Antonio Herb Market this Saturday, October 19th. Each one of these kiln-fired earthenware herb pots has its own personality. Designed to hold sprigs of herbs, they hang on the wall in the kitchen or by the door. Did you know that a spring of rosemary by your front door means “Welcome?” And that a sprig of poison ivy means “Go Away?” I made that last one up – it doesn’t really. These Sprig Shards can also hold a key or an emergency chocolate kiss – all kinds of possibilities. And – tadah – they are only $7 each, which in my humble potterly opinion, is a bargain for a one-of-a-kind useful art object handcrafted by moi. So come to the 22nd annual Herb Market at the Pearl and check out my simple but sensational Sprig Shard table as well as all of the wonderful herbal plants and food. The San Antonio Herb Society will be there with its new cookbook, too. Find the thyme to go on Saturday. 🙂

TOP TEN STUDIO ESSENTIALS

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Lyn Belisle Studio: TOP TEN NON-ART Studio Essentials That I Can’t Live Without

Here’s my list – what’s yours? Share these with a friend 🙂 Next week I’ll have a list of the 10 ART PRODUCTS that I can’t live without.

1. Baby powder

babypowderI use this to dust the inside of air-dry clay molds to keep them from sticking, to “de-stick” my hands temporarily when I’ve been using spray adhesive, to dull down a shiny gel acrylic surface, among other things – Johnson’s smells the best to me – makes me all nostalgic

2. Blue Painter’s tape

blueMasks the edges of watercolor paper, makes irregular stencils for stamping and painting, use to tape around unfolder paperclip to make a handle for a quick cutting tool, put strips sticky-side-up on work table to keep cat from stepping on work in progress (sorta works as a distraction when they try to shake it off their feet) – and so much more – available in bulk from Uline

3. Canvas clay cloth

clothI can turn my painting worktable into an earthenware clay workspace in an instant with this – it unrolls and has a great canvas non-stick surface for rolling out clay slabs. It also makes an instant “clean” surface for projects of any kind of you keep the back side un-clay-y – available at ClayWorld

4. Cheap white washcloths

wahclothsI really could not do without these – clean-up, texturing, wiping walnut ink off clay – it goes on and on. I wash them and use them over and over, and they are cheaper than paper towels and more ecologically responsible – $4 buys a bundle of 18 at Walmart

5. Drinking straws

strawsLet me count the ways I use these – hmm, ok, to poke holes in clay face shards and adornments, to cut into 2” sections and use as channels for cord backing on pendants, as cores for paper beads, drinking Diet Dr. Pepper – and so on. Get both sizes, the standard ones for big holes and the little coffee ones for smaller holes. Available at delis and coffee shops everywhere. If you happen to need 900 of them, get ‘em at Uline for less than $4.

6. E6000 adhesive

e600A sculptor in Colorado Springs told me about this, and the stuff can stick metal to glass and glass to rock, paper and scissors – you get the idea. It’s good stuff, kinda looks like silicone gel. Most artists and jewelers know about it, but just in case you didn’t, you can get it many places, including Michaels.

7. Heavy-duty hole punch

holepunchThis is the only semi-specialty item on the list. I use it for punching holes for stringing beads, for book binding thread, for tags – it’s great. It will punch through thin metal and heavy mat board easily. Mine is from EK Tools. Worth the $15 price tag over and over, and you can get it in two different hole sizes. I have both.

8. Lavender Essential Oil

lavYou guys know that I’ve studied aromatherapy since the 80’s – and lavender oil is great for balancing your frantic mood when things aren’t going well in the studio – just a sniff will calm and refocus. But it’s also the best thing for burns, and I keep a bottle right next to my hot-glue gun. It’s saved me from having more than a few blisters. It works for mosquito bites, too, and can take off gummy residue better than goo-gone. You should have lavender essential oil just as a general principle in your life – great stuff! I recommend Aura Cacia, and you can read about it here.

9. Nashua Clear Duct Tape

nashuaThe perfect tape for book-binding, labelling, tape transfer – it tears cleanly and is super strong. I must go through a roll a week at the Studio. I used it to attach the covers for my custom e-reader covers and have been using it and recommending it ever since. It’s made by Nashua and is available at Home Depot.

10. Quart Mason jars

masonI hear my ancestors might have drunk whiskey out of these – now *that* would be an instant tranquilizer and work-stopper – but I use these for water jars, bead storage, feather storage (the cats paw at the sides trying to get to the feathers), brush storage, clay slip, glazes, spools of thread – chances are I don’t have to tell you how useful these big jars are – and they are recyclable and reusable and work as a nice vase for just-picked bunches of herbs and flowers for the Studio table. I have a friend who uses a meditation jar – she cuts strips of paper with favorite quotes and thoughts on them and keeps them in a clear Mason jar to pull out when she needs inspiration.  Better even than whiskey? I imagine so.