Creative Life 2016- week 16

Monday of this week was spent in Nashville at the Frist, enjoying selections from the impressive Alba family collection (500 years of an art collecting family!!) and an exhibit of Soviet photographers from the time period surrounding the rise of communism. It was the cap on the celebrations for the 12th anniversary for my husband and me. :)

I started working on rearranging and updating the shop side of BMB Designs last night- i'm trying to add more space for displays and keep things fresh and fun. I have some new display pieces that i want to incorporate, but, as usual with a gemini with artistic ADD, i'm finding the flow to be a little difficult. My shop is filled with eclectic and re-purposed items as displays, and i love that, but i need something to tie it all together- and that's proving difficult.. sigh.. the trials of an artist.

The bottom 2 photos are from the East Buntyn Art walk that took place last Saturday (4/16). My displays looked great - nice flow- and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. It was a great day and i had lots of people comment on the work and the displays in a positive manner and it was a great sales day as well!

Creative Life 2016- week 15 part 2

Spring is in the air and i've had monkey brain most nights, leaving me groggy in the morning and grumpy in the early afternoon.

However, since the night time is my-time, i have been getting some work made and i have a slew of sketches that i can't wait to get started on. I'm trying to make work in cohesive 'collections' now, for a few reasons-- 1- it makes my work easier to display as things go together and make sense instead of being a visual testament for my artistic ADD and 2- it makes it easier for me to enter into competitions, scholarship opportunities, etc because my work makes sens to a juror, judge, etc.

I'm still focused on my fold formed pieces, but i've branched out into enameled fold formed pieces over the past year and now i'm adding enameled beads to my fold formed focals. this lets me pull my enamel only work seamlessly into my current offerings also.

I'm really wanting to get back to my enamel 'sketch' work- where i actually draw on the enamel with a graphite pencil and fire it all together to create a permanent 'doodle' on jewelry. i have a giant focal i did almost 2 years ago that i love, along with my smaller pendant pieces, and i think there's some great possibilities for me there- both in the finished work and in the artistic process.

The other 'line' i'm working on is a narrative set of pendants inspired by words from http://other-wordly.tumblr.com/. The first in the series is Werifesteria (to wander longingly through the forest in search of mystery) and has a dendrite stone as its focal.

Here's what i finished last night- it's the only one i have right now in silver. While i love copper and i love working in copper, i love silver too, and sometimes something a little fancier is needed. :) the chain is random lengths of this lovely twisted figure 8 link connected by hand wrapped links with tiny labradorite. The focal is dauphine and harvest blue enameled pieces with organic wrapped sterling bits and a big chalcedony tear drop (i've had these in my stash for *years*- they were one of my first big splurges- i paid more for the strand than i was normally spending on a whole order of other beads. I've slowly been adding them to special pieces and this was a match made in heaven!)

Don't forget to come by and see me at the East Buntyn art walk this Saturday from 1pm-6pm! The commemorative glass this year is a pretty red and once you buy the glass at headquarters, you can get pours from all the artists around the neighborhood as you browse and buy one-of-a-kind art!

Creative life 2016 -week 15

New work!! I will be have new additions to my fold formed line at the East Buntyn Art Walk this Saturday, as well as whatever else awesome I can get finished this week. ;)

Creative Life 2016 - Week 14 part 2

I went to the 1st Whet Thursday of 2016 yesterday down at the Metal Museum, and the weather was just amazing.  The sunset gave us a great show too, with the clouds turning this luscious shade of purple right before the sun slipped below the horizon. With the giant oaks and the deep history, combined with my obvious passion about metal, the Metal Museum grounds are one of my 'grounding places'. While there, i browsed the Inches from the Earth exhibit and got some encouragement to keep on with the direction i'm going, and i fell in love with a David Huang small vessel. 

In that vein, i have some new work for the Art Walk on the 16th!  :) If i sell enough, i'm going to go and get that vessel. I just have to decide where to put it. The bottom picture has a couple of designs i'm revisiting- the bar necklace is a chunkier version of one i've been making. The two fold formed pieces are variations on a theme and are a bit smaller than some of my previous (non circle) pieces. the bracelet is a vintage copper blank enameled in the torch and swirled with a rake while hot. i'm super pleased with the colors and the swirls and am looking forward to making more of these. I just have to suck it up and get over the idea that i *will* use up the focal pieces i have and that's ok. :) I also made several pairs of the torch enameled beaded earrings and did those up in silver and copper. 

 

Creative Life 2016- Week 14

So.. i lost a couple of weeks there. I can't even blame this on travel for work. I'm trying to get back into being creative, but my energy levels are still low and by the time i am done with work, i'm a pseudo-zombie some nights.

while my step-kids were here for spring break, i did get some extended studio time while the boys played Axis and Allies- i got a ton of copper and sterling earrings finished (they've been 'in progress' for about 4 months) for my next show- East buntyn's annual art walk- on April 16th. My location has changed due to some unforeseen circumstances with my host's home, but i'll still be there. (514 S. Reese, if you're planning on stopping by! (: )

There's a peek at what all i got made/finished 2 weeks ago...

And here's the little visitor we had this past sunday.. he was so tiny!!!!