Blue Sky, Green Grass

So here is a little project that I worked on at the beginning of August...

(Please pardon the mess.  Seriously, the studio did not get cleaned that week!  Too big of a project to finish!!!)

A very large (72 inches by 22 inches) painting of sorts.  This was for the Loyalhanna Watershed Associations Ground Saving project.  They are updating an dilapidated but absolutely beautiful farm and this will eventually hang in their new barn.  Susan Huba, the director is a dear friend and I am so proud of all of her accomplishments with the organization.  I was very happy to be able to pull this off!!! 

 People often ask me how I get all this art stuff done...

Well, the truth is, I couldn't do any of it without my helpful hound dog.

Pitter Pattern!

Yahoo!!!!  I did it!!!!!  This is so exciting!!!!  And also, makes me totally nervous!!!

So, I have wanted to write a felt stitching pattern for ages.  Finally, this year I put it at the top of my new year's resolution list and wouldn't you know it...I did it!!!  This has been my secret little project for what seems like a really long time but it is now finished and I just posted it in my etsy shop here.  I hope and hope and hope that people like it and buy it and make their own little set of cheery veggies!

 

Whooo.  I think I can take the rest of the night off...

Oh Happy Day!

This is so exciting.  This is so exciting that I almost don't know how to put it into words.  Just a few years ago, this little gal was pouring over magazines, blogs, show guides, books, you name it.  Completely DUMB FOUNDED as to how anyone gets to be in there.  Or gets their work in a magazine or gets accepted to a show or gets to make a go at being an artist full time.  It was my one and only dream for my career.  I just had no idea how to do it.  But while I searched and learned and dreamed and hoped soaked in all that I could, I kept making and making and making.  And making more.  So I could write about 15 posts about this but I will just say that something happened recently that means the world to me.  If someone would have told me from a few years ago that my work would be featured in Niche magazine, I would have giggled.  And then passed out.

Thank you to everyone that thought my work would fit in to this feature.  And especially to Hope Daniels.  Please hop on over to www.nichemagazine.com for more info!

Happy, Happy, Happy Day....

Pretty Beads, All in a Row...

 

So...For those of you that have read my old blog many moons ago, jewelry making is something that I absolutely LOVE but every time I bust out the beads - everything that comes out is...Well...Not going to win any awards.  I always think that I just have to make things that I would love to wear and I just haven't been able to accomplish that.  I almost always prefer someone else's jewerly over my own.  BUT!  Hold the phone!!!!  I LOVE THESE!!!  And I MADE THEM!!!!!  Happy, happy girl.  I want to keep all three and wear them proudly.  I am only hoping that it is like working a muscle, the more that I make, the better that I will become and the more the jewelry will develope into what I have in my brain.  These will be for sale at the Ligonier Country Market this Saturday.  If you are local - please come on down and say hi!

 

PS!  If anyone sees these and wants to purchase, send me an email!  We can arrange that to happen and they are quite affordable in my opinion!

Mr. Big Stuff

 

There is always a little part of me that wants to try to take the tiny things that I normally make and make them BIGGER!  Even 8 inches tall, rather than 4 or 5 inches tall would make the creations the giants of the studio.  A few years ago, I pulled off a set of bigger figures.  I don't think I have ever shared this before and the reason that it is coming up is because I am revisiting the idea currently.  I made a series of children playing.  They are made to be hung on a wall.  They are about 16 inches tall (GIANTS!)   I absolutely love them and have kept them in order to someday get them displayed properly in my home.   My apologies for the terrible pics.  They are in storage now and so I am just using the hastily taken pics from when they were made. 

 

 Last year I made the Woodland Santa figure (about 8 inches tall.) I sold them wholesale but they were an incredible amount of work for batch work so I am no longer carrying them in my holiday line but I like the idea of one of a kind creations that I can fuss and fiddle and put in lots of details and sell in my Etsy shop or at the Country Market. Right now I am working on a little witch that will (hopefully) be riding a broom. It is my hope that I can figure out how to display her so that she hangs and looks like she is zooming around on her broom. We shall see. No pics of that yet as she is just a nudey wire body and a big funny looking bald head!

Heavy Metals

This past weekend, I did something that I have wanted to do for years and years!  I took a class at Touchstone Center for Craft in Farmington PA.  If you have never been, please check out their website.  It is really incredible.  I don't even know where to begin!  The facility itself is really like a summer camp for creative folks - in the woods, cabin-like studio with tiny sleeping cabins.  Really beautiful and I can't wait to go back!  The class that I took was entitled "Imagery in Jewelry"  Totally out of my comfort zone!  (Hence the hilarious and totally TRUE map that a friend sent me.)

We learned etching, decals on enamel, using epoxy and various other ways to finish and add color to metals.  For someone who LOVES metalwork and jewelry but no absolutely NOTHING about making or working with metal.  I was in heaven.  I was so jazzed (like over the top jazzed) to be learning how to cut and drill and manipulate materials that are very very different than the ones that I just everyday (felt, thread to be exact!)  Now I just have to take photos of what I made to show and tell here.

Now I just have to figure out what course I want to take next!!!!

Carved Blooms

Every so often, I try my hand at stamping.  From afar, I love everything about it.  I love the look, I love the endless handmade design possibilities, I love the simple materials needed to do it, I love the idea of having a cache of beautiful stamps to make other things with, specifically pendants.  So, I gave it another shot recently.  It's been a long time since I tried my hand at this, I was amazed that I even found my supplies so quickly!  So the first stamp that I tried was this one.  I ruined one eraser on my first go around but this one, the second one, I like!  It wasn't easy!  All those tiny branches and the centers of the circular flowers???  Yikes.  But I love it and I am so proud of my first stamp.  I hope to do more soon!  Now off to try to make a pendant for myself out of these...