Tag Archives: celebration circle

Assemblage assembly tricks – and a place to get inspired

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Stick with me, Kid – I’m been furiously creating assemblages for the last month for Marta Stafford’s First Friday opening in Marble Falls – be there!

“Assemblages” by definition mean you have to stick stuff together, and I’ve learned more about attaching stuff to other stuff than I ever thought possible. Here’s a quick look at some adhesives and glues and how I use them.

GLUE STICKS:

I use these to tack layers of lightweight material to each other before attaching them to more permanent surfaces. In this photo, you can see that the layers of amate paper are stuck together to keep them from shifting. I’ll go over the surface with beeswax soon, but right now a glue stick is perfect to keep them from shifting. I like Scotch Permanent glue sticks, BTW.

E6000:

If you have two different materials, such as clay and wood (below) and can weight the pieces for several hours, E6000 is a great solution. The self-leveling formula forms a powerful bond with most any material and will remain flexible once cured. You just have to be patient (which sometimes doesn’t work for me).

HOT GLUE GUN:

This is the method I most often use in my workshops because you get an instant bond. You can work quickly and It is the most versatile adhesive you will find. I have had some pieces come loose after a few years, so I discovered a trick that I’ll share.

When you are ready to hot glue two objects together, such as a clay face to a piece of archival matboard, put a small dab of E6000 on the substrate and then hot glue the objects together right over the E6000. The hot glue will bond immediately, and the E6000 will cure gradually and provide a stronger bond. And you get instant gratification.

2P10:

I have to thank my contractor for this tip – he told me about this stuff. Man, 2P10 is scary strong and scary fast! The piece below got its designed changed because I made a crooked bond, but it turned out great – happy accident.

You have to be absolutely ready to make the attachment and work quickly. I would advise you to practice with some scrap pieces before using the two-part system. Follow the cautions. But if you want to glue a Volkswagen to a tree, this is the stuff for you!

This piece has metal glued to paper glued to clay glued to wood glued to canvas – etc – but 2P10 works on almost all surfaces. Use with care.

Hope some of this helps you with your own assemblages.

BUT WAIT!! If you want to see some of the most beautiful assemblages in the universe, go to the Bijou Theater tonight at 6:00 for Celebration Circle’s Altar show!!

ONE PEOPLE, MANY PATHS: The Sacred Art of Altars 14th Annual Exhibit & Silent Auction is a must-see!

Tickets are just $15 and are available at this link.

Here’s a list of participating artists, and you can bet you’ll be inspired to get out there and glue stuff to other stuff after you’ve seen this spiritual altar assemblage exhibit!

Maria Alvarado, Zet Baer, Lyn Belisle, CeeJay Black, Bill Bonham, Pam Bryant, Susan Calkins, Sofia Dabalsa, Susan Damon, Steve Daniel, Lynn Denzer, Sandy Dunn, Jane Dunnewold, Dani Ferguson, Sarah Ford, Betty Franklin, Karl Franklin, Joan Frederick, David Anthony Garcia, Skip Gerson, Suzy Gonzalez, Martha Grant, Rudi Harst, James Hendricks, Jon Hinojosa, Dawn Horten, Jagwired Art, Julie Jarvis, Joy Jimenez, Stefani Job Spears, Amy Jones, Deborah Keller-Rihn, Mark Kohnitz, Kevin Lewis, Fontaine Maverick, Marcia Rae McCulley, Jeff McDaniel, Beverly Meyer, Kathy Miner, Jose Mojica, Susie Monday, Alexandra Nelipa, Ray Palmer, Cindy Palmer, Junanne Peck, Cynthia Phelps, Kathleen Pittman, Theresa Powers, Tomas Ramirez, Thom Ricks, Patsy Sasek, Ron Schumacher, Bill Simons, Chuck Squier, Jodi Stauffer, Melanie Strybos, Pamela Taylor, Dean Valibhai.

 

 

 

 

 

It takes a few eggs to hatch an altar

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altar14 copy

My altar from last year titled “Illumination”

Celebration Circle’s annual invitational event, One People, Many Paths: The Sacred Art of Altars, is a personal favorite. It’s a challenge to take one of 50 plain wooden boxes and transform it into a personal artistic statement with meaning, maybe some humor, and a visual appeal that will encourage people to bid on it to benefit this very cool group of spiritual creatives. Last year’s altars show the amazing variety of artful offerings.

My altar for this year started with some eggs from the next-door neighbor’s chickens. I loved their shape and texture, plus there’s always the notion of what will hatch. When my friend Zippy found a nest that seemed made for the altar box, it started to come together. Want to see? Here’s how I made my altar titled “Brood, Hatch, Fly.”

Lyn Belisle "Brood, Hatch, Fly - wood, earthenware, plexiglass, found objects

Lyn Belisle “Brood, Hatch, Fly – wood, earthenware, plexiglass, found objects

Here is the quote that inspired “Brood, Hatch, Fly”:

“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.” C.S. Lewis

You can see all of the Celebration Circle altars (and bid on them) at the Santikos Bijou Theater in Wonderland Mall from September 1 – 30, 2015. Now go hatch and fly.

 

Simple altars and luminous objects

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The completed piece

“The Guardian of the Golden Bough” – Altar Assemblage, Lyn Belisie, 2013

Celebration Circle’s “One People, Many Paths: Sacred Art of Altars” exhibit opens on September 1st, and I am ready! Last year, when I was invited to participate in this wonderful event, I struggled with several ideas, including putting a Spirit Doll inside the box, which, unfortunately, made it look like a coffin. Yikes. My (finally) finished altar from last year was called The Guardian of the Golden Bough (left). It was a good solution and popular with the silent auction bidders.

This year’s altar, “Luminosity,” came together almost all by itself – I found a small branch in the driveway as I was bringing in the bare altar box and propped it against the side. Perfect – and after that, everything just came together, including the quote mounted on plexiglass which says, “It is when the ordinary becomes luminous that we are transformed.” The altar is white, simple and luminous, made from ordinary objects.  Simple is good. I am happy!

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“Luminosity” – Altar Assemblage, Lyn Belisle 2014

But I often wonder why some pieces, such as last year’s altar, are such a struggle to make, and others, like this year’s, seem to fly into your hands as if they knew they were supposed to be there. It’s a mystery. Let me know if you have the answer.

DSCN3240PS – No Friday Freebie this week, but if you are around, don’t miss tomorrow’s Show and Tell at the Studio from 2-4 – it’s definitely free, and you’ll get all kinds of free tips and techniques from the participating artists. The resident chef will be there, too, to show you a cool culinary trick. Hope to see you at Show and Tell!

Tapestry and Roses

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Goomaxtapestryd morning! The winner of the Threads of Blessing tapestry, as drawn by random number, is Peggy Mahan. Peggy is a wonderful artisan who will give this beautiful story-embroidery a happy home – if I can get Max off of it. He thinks it’s his.

And now for something new and very cool (and a little scary for yours truly) – Roses on my Table is the new home of my virtual classroom. I mentioned inmakingfaces an earlier post that I’d be creating some video lessons online, and the first one debuts tomorrow. It’s a 30+ minute art lab on creating shard faces and small decorative objects without a kiln using air-dry clay.  It includes materials lists and such and a gallery that I’ll create for student work. I’m giving an in-person workshop on the same subject at the Studio on Oct. 13th, but if you can’t make that one, join me in cyberspace!

It would be great to have a familiar face or two in my online lab. What you won’t see is an outtake of me trying to unscrew a stuck top on a bottle of paint and saying a bad word – LOL.

The finished altar: Guardian of the golden Bough

The finished altar: Guardian of the golden Bough

One last quick note: Celebration Circle’s Altar event closes tonight at the Bijou Theater with a great fund-raising auction and  gala – hope to see you there! My altar has quite a few bids on it – and it could be yours! Come and bid on one of these beautiful, spiritual creations.

Altar Update: The Guardian of the Golden Bough

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Done and delivered to Celebration Circle! Here is the finished altar for their silent auction during the month of September, and now I know why I needed to use the moss. The figure represents The King of the Wood from Sir James Frazer’s book, The Golden Bough (pub. 1890), which seeks to explain the roots of human religion, science and magic. Being an eccentric spiritual eclectic, it made sense to me to reflect my own private musings through this guy, The Guardian of the Golden Bough.

The completed piece

The completed piece

I had fun constructing him, and when I took him down to the collection place in Blue Star Art Complex, I got to see some of the other altars. They’ll all be photographed soon, so you can see them, too. Hope you can come to the fundraising event on Sept. 30th! Here are some other photos of Mr. Guardian (or maybe it’s Ms. Guardian?) And here’s a tip – if you have a Kindle and want to read The Golden Bough, it’s on Amazon for a free download!

 

Meanwhile, back at the altar . . .

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When last we saw our altar box for Celebration Circle’s Silent Auction, it had a not-too-happy Spirit Doll lying in it, and it looked pretty creepy. Sigh. But I *knew* the moss was the right thing – so I kept thinking and working, and then I remembered a graduation gift I made for my grandson. It was a wall sculpture of the Celtic god, Cernunnos. I liked him because he was kind of a mystery, open to possibilities (actually, that goes for my grandson, too :)). Using Cernunnos as an inspiration, I am working on my Altar gift to Celebration Circle. It’s not quite finished, but here he is – The Guardian of the Sacred Grove with his little bird buddy, still a work in progress.

grove

If you want to see it finished, come to the Bijou Theatre Gallery between Sept.1 and Sept 30th and view all 50 of these wonderful Altars. The closing reception and Silent Auction is on September 30th at 6:00. With any luck, you can take home the Guardian of the Sacred Grove or another cool altar to grace your own place of creative belonging!

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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.