I am fascinated by the lotus flower, and I find myself time and again reinventing jewelry around my thoughts of them. This is how these were born. The subtle swirl in these handmade local artisan lampwork beads reminds me of water and the flower itself, cragly brown wood beads of roots and mud, white of pureness, and hill tribe stamen charms of reproduction and rebirth. The red lotus was introduced to Egypt from Persia.
My sweet sweet wonderful friend Cindy of Sweet Bead Studio has teamed up with her good friend Jeanette Ryan and together they have created a venue that YOU MUST see! Clicke here, or on the badge to get the full scoop of ART BLISS, a unique and spectacular art retreat being offered on the east coast this fall. You'll be amazed at the intsructors and classes . But I am not going to give you all the details....you will have to go visit the site yourself!
(click on the pic for a better look!)
Tarnished Peach
I am taking Mary Green's online Vintage Gluebook class. Mary's great, and what attracted me to this class are the beautiful images that Mary supplies (and of course you can use your own too), and the idea that you only need to work with paper and glue. It is basic in concept but teaches you so much about composition, color, and design. I am really enjoying it. These are the pieces I have done so far, the first starting at the top to the most recent at the bottom. The bottom one was today's lesson of challenging yourself to only work with 3 different pieces of paper. I found it very hard, but very useful.
I'm still in etch mode, and still loving it. This time I made earwires out of Barbara Lewis's lovely enameled headpins. The lavender color is really different for me, but I liked the color with the flower design, I thought it looked serene. I have been drawn to purples lately, and hope to incorporate it into some more pieces. We will see if I can break through the neutral barrier!
I wanted to use this post to share with you what I think is a great new blog and a fabulous idea. It is called The Barter Circle, and it is a wonderful concept come to life by the direction of Debrina, of Debrina's Altered Art Diary. Debrina is a great artist and a genius I think ! I have just stumbled upon her great blogs, looking as always for more wonderful artists to connect with and inspire each other. The Barter Circle is designed that by visiting the blog, and contacting Debrina if you are interested in bartering, that everyone that wants to barter will be put on the list. So when you are looking for something, you can visit the list and visit barterers and hopefully start bartering. I think this is a great idea because I for one and sick of spending, spending, spending, especially on art supplies. Things are so expensive these days, and so much is wasted, so why not. I think Debrina has the same idea...and it seems that we are slowly growing in numbers. So hopefully when I get my act together a bit more, maybe by the weekend , I would like to make a list on my sidebar of things I have that I would trade, and things I am looking for. Debrina and I have already found things we want from each other, and I am sure I can find others. So that's it, maybe check it out, and help someone else out, and I think this is definitely a green thing too.
