The empty altar

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Last week, I received this really nice letter from a group that I admire tremendously – Celebration Circle.

Dear Lyn: At the recommendation of many mutual friends, we are writing to invite you to create a hand-made altar for the Celebration Circle’s annual art exhibit, One People, Many Paths: The Sacred Art of Altars and our tenth year of presenting this exhibit and silent auction at the Bijou Theater September 1 – 30. You will be one of 50 artists to receive a handcrafted wooden box to use as the basis for creating a small “altar” focused on whatever matters to you – personally, artistically and/or spiritually – employing whatever media and/or embellishments your vision requires. The completed piece is due no later than Sunday, August 11th. 

the empty altar box

the empty altar box

What could I say, but “of course!” Now comes the challenge. I looked at the empty altar box for a while and remembered that I had some sheets of weathered moss that came off a wall planter.

. . . .lined with moss

. . . .lined with moss

On they went to line the altar – glue, glue. So far, so good – then I thought “Aha, a Spirit Doll! – I love making those” So I popped one in from the last workshop. Oops – the whole thing instantly turned into a moss lined coffin. Not good. Back to the drawing board – will keep you updated :). All suggestions gracefully accepted!

. . .oh, no! She looks dead! Oops. Bad idea.

. . .oh, no! She looks dead! Oops. Bad idea.

Arts, letters & amber – a studio visit

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Carolyn Eastman Cazares is a Woman of Letters – Hebrew letters. She fell in love with the letterforms over a decade ago and paints them in layered compositions that transcend translation. I visited Carolyn at her Studio on the edge of the Texas Hill Country north of San Antonio, and I was astounded with the diversity and passion in her work. When she falls in love with something – Hebrew letters, chunks of amber, faces that compel her, she is prolific in her explorations. Her amber and copper wire jewelry is lyrical – she says that amber is a combination of “liquid sunshine and ancient wisdom.”

She also makes a great chocolate gluten-free cake (and gave me the recipe). We talked for over an hour about creativity, relationships and art, and what inspires us, and we found a lot of common ground. If you’ve visited my house and my studio, you can see from the photos that Carolyn and I share a lot of the same kinds of “artists’ stuff”! Thanks for the visit, Carolyn – I will be back!

Cheap tricks – tags and labels

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I’m getting some new work ready for my Art Show on July 20th with Lesta, Jan and Alison (hint hint, see invitation at the end) and I made some really cool earthenware beads, if i do say so myself. They are finished with walnut ink and gilder’s paste. They looked pretty good on the string, but when I added a descriptive tag, they looked great! I’d buy ’em for me if I didn’t get ’em free :).

runeshot

Here’s how:

  • Think of a catchy name – I used Rune & Relic because I already had that name on some things in my Etsy shop)
  • Write a very short description or use a quotation or poem line that is applicable – search for stuff like “Everything you can imagine is real.” ― Pablo Picasso
  • Add a photo, or if you don’t know how to do that, find a great stamp and use it on all of your tags – I use a moon face stamp and add a raven stamp on top as my signature on my handmade books.
  • stampwithmoonandraven
  • Design your tags to the dimensions of a business-card (2″x3.5″) Open up a business card printing program – MS Word has one – follow the set-up directions,and just put in plain cardstock instead of business card paper – it’s cheaper by far.  Print and cut apart, punch holes and add string or raffia. Voila!! (which means, “damn, that looks good” in French)

So now you are asking yourself, “Where can I find some of those fantastic Rune and Relic Beads?? Well, here’s your personal invitation for the Christmas in July Art Show and Sale at Lyn Belisle Studio featuring Four Amazing Artists! You’ll shout “Voila!!”

invitation

 

Bonus post!! Thanks to Delta, we present Samurai!

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So I got one of those dreaded notices early this morning that my 9:00 Delta Airlines flight from Boston to San Antonio had changed to 11:30 for no apparent reason, which messed up connections, etc – but now that I’ve re-booked everything, there’s time to post some pics from the amazing, stupendous Samurai Exhibit at the Boston Museum of Art which I visited yesterday. Here’s the info for you to read regarding the special exhibit, and here are the pics – weird to think of battle garb as extraordinarily beautiful, but there it is.

 

No adequate words for these cool fireworks . .

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Fireworks in Boston on the 4th of July? Too amazing to describe – too bad they weren’t broadcast nationally for the first time in a zillion years,. Here’s a short video shot from a rooftop above the Charles River. At about the two-and-a-half minute mark, some of the bursts turn in to actual stars. It really was an astonishing kinetic art show in lights and sound. Wow. OK, time to go back home to the Studio, all inspired 🙂

A brief Boston blessing?

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I’m back in Boston for a short visit to celebrate Independence Day, and security is very high in the Beacon Hill neighborhood. Streets are closed, police are very evident, and no one is allowed onto the Esplanade without a search. There is still an air of celebration everywhere, but it is tinged with the recent memory of the Marathon bombings. I was a little nervous walking across the park this afternoon, wishing we could all feel a bit safer, when I looked down on the path at a smallish metal strip that caught my eye. I picked it up and turned it over. It was a winged St. Christopher medal that said, “Behold St. Christopher, medaland go your way in safety.” Even someone like me who lists her religious preference as “eclectic” can smile at such a find – here’s a photo of the medal – so I’m wishing all of you a happy and SAFE 4th of July!!:

 

Transfer and acrylic workshop report

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Workshop Report Card Grade is A+++! New workshops are tricky, and this one especially so because we were using a heat transfer on paper and then working with acrylics, which were unfamiliar to some of the participants – but should I have worried? Nah! Great results, great times, lots of learning and laughing. If you’d like to see the process itself, I demonstrate it here on YouTube, and if you’d like to see the participants’ spectacular results, just look at the photos (which, taken on my phone cause I forgot my cool new camera, don’t begin to justify the work). I also did a tutorial on another process we tried using Golden Fluid Acrylic Medium for transfers, here.

 

Friday Freebie – Pocket Pendant pattern

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Last night I hosted a group of long-time Herb Society friends at the Studio. I wanted to have a project for them that was easy, fun and useful, and not too labor intensive, so I chose Pocket Pendants. These are pretty little folded paper adornments to wear or hang from a twig or give as a small gift. Soooooo – your Friday Freebie is a pattern to make a Pocket Pendant for yourself. You can find it at this link on my website – cut it out, add stuff, and voila! Functional art! The pictures, below, will give you ideas – my friends did a fantastic job on their projects. They are good cooks, too – they brought food for a pre-workshop potluck supper. Yum. The plantains with brown sugar were particularly yummy. Thanks, Y’All!

Surface treatment

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So I joined the Fiber Artists of San Antonio in March under false pretenses – the only fiber I knew anything about came in my granola. But I am learning so much from this talented group – it started when I met Sherrill Kahn at the first meeting I attended.

Today I took the plunge and worked a bit with surface design on fabric. It was amazing! And fun! After about four hours steady work in the Studio, I completed three pieces (well, the surface part, anyway). I even had time to do some sewing on one piece. The materials I used were Gesso, acrylic paint, India ink (that may have been a mistake – it’s very intense and unforgiving – live and learn), pattern stamps, and gold leaf sealed with acrylic medium. I also tried a digital heat transfer on one of the pieces. Here are the results. i don’t know where I’m going from here, but I do know that I’m hooked on working with fabric and fiber. Look out, FASA 🙂.

And the fortunate Friday Freebie winner is . . .

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Time for the drawing. . . . (drum roll)  OK, first I gotta download my subscriber list – – now I go to the Random Number Generator – – now I match the number – – – Hey, it’s me!

That reallythreads2 did happen this time, so I randomized another number (fair is fair, after all) and the winner is my Etsy friend Denise Milledge! Congrats, Denise, and I have your address from Etsy, so this wonderful little tapestry from Uganda will be on its way to you today. Thanks for subscribing to SHARDS.

And thanks to everybody else, too – more Friday freebies coming up. Sound of applause! PS – Free Tip: Did you know that you can find and play sounds of applause and just about everything else on the site below for free? Think of the possibilities! My theory is that some people will search for the “pig, fart” sounds, and others will go the “robin, harp” route. Or maybe “robin fart” – geez, it’s been a long day 🙂 Have fun searching and listening: http://www.findsounds.com/ISAPI/search.dll