• Mod Podge + Recycling = Home Decor

    This time of year many people get gifts wrapped in tissue paper, and most of the time it ends up in the trash. Why not recycle into a beautiful piece of home decor or if you are a crafter that vends, booth decor? In a few short hours you can have a rather nice piece of decor that looks far more valuable that what it once was. 🙂

  • So many things so little time!

    As per normal last month, October was busy but I worked hard, had a lot of fun and made a lot of new connections.

    At the beginning of the month I attended the Annual American Indian Celebration at the Antelope Valley Indian Museum. This rare and unique eclectic folk art structure is located in northeastern Los Angeles County. The museum houses objects created by the American Indian cultures of the western Great Basin, California, and the Southwest. The Celebration featured Native American dancers and many Native American artists who work with the museum and staff on a regular basis. The Museum was open to the public during this event. Due to budget cuts in California this state park is on the list to be closed in 2012; the museum is trying to independently raise funds in hopes of keeping it open longer. This is such a jewel of the desert, so please take the time to visit their website.

    Front of the museum. Built in the 1920s among rock formations in the Mojave desert.

  • Decor Christi Craft Fair

    This past Saturday I had the pleasure of being a vendor at the Mt. Carmel in the Desert Decor Christi Craft Fair. This is the first year for this event, and the Sisters at Mt. Carmel hope to have more events like this that encourage the arts in the Antelope Valley while assisting in raising funds for Mount Carmel’s Child Care Center and Retreat Center. They are also raising money for an additional Daycare program for underprivileged families who cannot pay for daycare.

    The event featured painting, sculpture, jewelry, stained glass, needlework, woodworking, greeting cards, sewing, quilting, crochet and knitting. A requirement for this show was all work displayed and for sale shall be handmade. It was a wonderful event with some great networking opportunities and the crowd was friendly. Several of my very talented friends and fellow artists were also vending at the show: Paula De Grace, Jamie Bostjancic, Debra Wilson (of Kittyloaf Designs) and Dee Hodge. The Sisters were are gracious as ever, had some rather tasty lunches for sale and even had a booth with jewelry. The Sisters hope the show will get bigger each year and will get more of the community involved. They are some of the sweetest and kindest women I have ever met and I try to help them as much as I can.

    Setting up my booth before the craft fair opened.

    Some of my jewelry display.

    Paula De Grace and Jamie Bostjancic at their jewelry booth with all of their lovely work.

    Debra and her awesome mother at the Kittyloaf booth. I think you can see on the far right the bracelet I just had to get.

    Sister Benedicta trying the choose beads for a new rosary; she is a very talented jewelry maker. Her specialties are wire wrapped bracelets & rosaries.

    The Sisters talking to a volunteer offering to help, as the weather outside was making a turn for the worse.

    Sister Benedicta showing off her “Cheshire” smile. She is such a great lady, hard working, always laughing and making the best of any situation.

    Jami visiting Brian (Dee’s talented son, who is a musician, substitute teacher and puppeteer) at Dee Hodge’s lovely booth. Jami was asking about commissioning some work.

    The weather made a turn for the worst at the Retreat around 2pm. Heavy rain turned into hail and we got flash flooding.

    More rain…

    Thanks the heavens it was an indoor event. The weather was crazy, with flash flooding, hail the size of quarters, high winds, lighting, thunder and rain. The ever gracious Sisters of Mt. Carmel made sure we made it home when the roads flooded out.

    Trees and the garden got shredded by the hail, the front yard looks like it was put through a wood chipper and the back is a lake. Jami says the wood pile submerged by water makes it look like we have beavers nesting. 😛

    The up side is the parched desert got some much needed water and the night sky always looks so clear after a heavy rain. After the weather calmed down the wildlife was out and about searching the moist ground for food left by the storm.

    Until next time Safe Travels!

  • Websites, Miniatures and Happiness!

    So many new things to talk about and so little time.

    I went on vacation for my birthday with my husband and a group of friends. We decided to go to Vegas to enjoy the Fremont Street Experience, it was a great time. One of my friends suggested the Paris buffet, oh my goodness was it good! Other than a bit of sun sickness from the heat it was a fun and if not a trifle silly time in Vegas.

    After I got back from vacation I decided to get a massive overhaul of my website, I wanted it to be easier to work on, cleaner layout and search engine optimized. The lovely and talented Debra from Kittyloaf Designs did a wonderful job of that! She got everything up in running in less than 2 hours and has walked me through setting up more content on the site. I am still learning and adding things to the site but Debra has been such a wonderful person about it all. Besides being a web designer she also happens to be a very talented seamstress and artist.

    My only issue as of late is that locally we have been having a lot of lighting and rain storms, a rarity in the beautiful high desert that we live in. Which makes working on electrical devices somewhat difficult if there is a fear of power outages. So while be prevented from adding new things to my website I got to working on some polymer clay projects. I was given some wonderful polymer clay books for my birthday, so while watching the flash floods and keeping as many electrical items turned off I made some minis!

    1 inch scale (1 inch equals 1 scale foot) miniature food made out of polymer clay.
    From top left bacon strips, swiss cheese, brie cheese, summer sausage, gouda cheese, toast with butter, baguettes, sourdough loaf, ground beef and a fruit cake in the middle.

    From top left brie with lettuce and tomato. Ground Beef and patties. Summer sausage slices. Swiss cheese and grapes. Knives and oranges. Toast and butter. Cheddar and slices.

    I got quite a few more projects in the works and will be posting about them shortly!
    Safe Travels!

  • Work, wildlife and polymer clay!

    Lately, my art workload has been insane, along with our weather. The week of the 4th of July we had flash flooding, which dramatically changed the placement of dirt on our property but made a lot of the local flora and fauna very happy. I got to stay inside, relax and watch the rain while trying out some new projects (nothing like the sound of rain to sooth the soul!). For the 4th I tried making a flag cane.

    It turned out to be more fun than I expected. The only issue I find is some slight distortion with the stars when you start to reduce the cane. The next time I will chill the cane to prevent that.

    Taking time to let the clay rest, as well as having a very clean and sharp blade, prevents any smearing. The slices can be easily made into lapel pins.

    After the rains we had an invasion of dragonflies in our house and I had to keep shepherding them outside.

    Bit of a blurry photo but they move like mad. 🙂

    Then in the process of cleaning the yard we found a rather dazed Yellow-backed Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus uniformis) attached to the side of my truck tires. We gave it some water and tried to let it go but it seemed to want to stay.

    I tried to nudge it off and it just hugged me tighter.

    Carefully I peeled her off and she just sat there staring at us. You can tell it is female because it had no blue underbelly marking and the head was a faint orange.

    Finally she slowly walked off and went right under the parked truck. She stayed there most of the day eating ants. 🙂

    After seeing and getting a chance to work with all of these and many more creatures I felt inspired to try some new textures and themes. I always say nature and its wonders are the best of inspiration.

    Here is some of my gold/green polymer clay mixes with reptile, fossils and texture themes with their final gloss coat.

    Here are some of my cane slices and jewelry pieces after their final gloss coat. The flag slices will have clay flowers and ribbons added to them. Stringing and designing the layout for the other beads and pendents will be the fun part.

    What wonderful interactions with nature might you have that can inspire you? 🙂

    Until next time safe travels!