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!
Recycled mixed media artwork….
I love doing mixed media artwork. I often feel confined if stuck using one form of media. Art like nature, in my mind, should be flowing, entrancing, organic in thought and in form. The inclusion of recycled elements in art not only helps the environment but gives a second life to pieces once forgotten. In my travels I am constantly looking for things to use in my artwork, such as dried plants, sticks, metal, stones, anything that might catch my fancy.
One of my favorite ancient Egyptian myths was how those long past and forgotten would live again if people would repeat their name and talk of their life. When I make recycled art I try to pick ancient ideas and stories to replay with modern recycled goods. I feel I am giving people glimpses of stories and worlds long forgotten, whispering ideas of times past using the tools of unwanted items of today.
The Recycled Princess:
In her former life this was a rather badly damaged Barbie doll. The toy had a major amount of gouges, scratches and was apparently chewed on. While I know many other people have done mummy dolls before I often find them grotesque and not well made. I wanted this one to be as realistic as possible, just in miniature format. Her wrappings are muslin scraps dyed with used tea leaves. Her jewelry is made from old earrings and all her pendants and amulets are made from polymer clay. All of the acrylic pant is from old paint bottles I found at a yard sale; they were somewhat on the “chunky” side but when layered on the plastic of the Barbie it looked like mummified skin. Her hair was also dyed with the old acrylic paints. To bend the arms into new positions I put them in a boiling water bath to re-shape.
Now this once forgotten toy tells a story of a ancient princess, carefully mummified, silently resting throughout eternity.
Beautiful Crone Maiden:
Found poplar tree sticks laying on the ground in a circular pattern was my inspiration for this piece. I collected those sticks and tried to arrange them as I had found them, using old hemp twine. The addition of beads and shells from broken old necklaces, dried weeds and found raven feathers all helped to give meaning. It took me tinkering around with polymer scrap clay to create the center piece. I gave her a headdress of rabbit fur salvaged from a rotting fur coat. I only use old recycled leather and fur in my pieces.
A story of a medicine woman, ever seeing but sightless, dreaming of visions of the future build on the past.
What wonderful stories might you create out of found objects and scraps?
Until next time, safe travels!
Texture and shape…
Texture and shape in the natural world has always amazed and entranced me. The flux of colors over a bumpy surface, the shadows, tactile variables all add to the experience. I have always felt any good artist looks to nature for inspiration and by watching it in action, might catch a amazing moment not normally noticed.
Taking photos, doing quick sketches or even a pencil rubbing of a texture of an element in nature is a great way to capture it for future use in artwork. I had the lovely chance to go to San Diego for a short trip and was able to run away to the ocean side for a day. Here are just a few of the lovely textures, shapes and moments I was able to capture, but sadly photos do these no justice.
I love Bougainvillea, anywhere I find it growing I just have to take a picture.
The twists and bends to the limbs give it such a surreal quality.
I didn’t even realize I took this photo, I was trying to get a photo of the rocks. LOL
A tiny crab hopes you don’t see him.
The rocks worn by water reminded me of a Martian landscape.
Happened to see a California sea lion begging the local fishermen at one of the docks.
“Aww come on just one?”
“Fine then I will find another boat!”
All kidding aside it was good that they did not feed it since they can become too accustomed to people and handouts. California sea lions are very smart, fast and can be very quiet, lovely creatures to watch, from a distance.
Until next time Safe Travels!
Busy times and a family of Artists…
I have been madcap busy these past few weeks with several art projects and clients; sadly, when that happens my blog posting drops off the deep end. I promise to rectify that. 🙂
Due to one of my current projects, I have been searching through photos and memorabilia. As a result I found some amazing photos of my parents at work. For some this might seem mundane but for me it give me a closer look at the people they were and how they changed over the years.
My parents were rather artistic people. My father was an aerospace engineer and my mother was a graphic illustrator. Â Being the hard working folk they have always been, they did not have time to take many pictures of their work or themselves in the process of working. I was told many stories and sometimes shown airplanes my father worked on or cartoons my mother inked but never got the chance to see them at work. They always encouraged my brother and I to do an interest in wildlife, artwork, study science and history. There’s no surprise that my brother is now a Ph.D in biochemistry, an artist in his own right, and I have worked as a exotic animal researcher, handler and full time artist.
My father passed away from prostate cancer in 2009 and I regret not talking to him more about his life. Â He was a quiet man but would share stories if certain people asked. I am beyond grateful that my mother is still with us and in good health for a woman in her 70s. I try to spend as much time as possible with her these days; often she surprises me with things I never knew about or pulls out a photo I thought was long gone.
These are some of the wonderful stories and photos my mother surprised me with the other day; while these will not be used in my projects I thought they were too wonderful not to share. 🙂
In the 1960s my mother worked as a animation cell inker for the
legendary Hanna-Barbera Productions; she worked on The Flintstones,
Jonny Quest, Yogi Bear, The Jetsons and many cartoon advertisements.
This is her in the animation cell workroom.
Here my mother is working on practice animation cells of Jonny Quest at home.
Both of my mother’s coworkers and friends, at Hanna-Barbera Productions, this is the animation cell workroom. Of interest the hills in the back are the old Universal backlot, they would see them filming them The Virginian TV series all times of the day and night.
My father starting his career as an aerospace engineer, this was his first aerospace job after he served in the US Army as a MP and engineer.
My grandfather on my father’s side, circa 1910s. I found his pocket watch carefully stashed away by my father many years ago. From what I can gather it is the same pocket watch shown attached to his lapel on his left side of his jacket in this photo.
Here is a close up of the inside of my grandfather’s pocket watch, the engraving is just stunning.
I am grateful for these snippets into my family’s past and encourage you to do the same! You never know what wonderful stories and treasures you might find.
Until next time, Safe Travels…..
Ancient and Contemporary Inspired Artistry