Hot Summer Color

The recent heat wave was unexpected here in the cool Northeast. For most of us, "air conditioning" means opening the windows. How to deal with these awful temps? Someone I once worked with put it this way: "Do as the Europeans do-- walk slowly and smile a lot!" With a garden that is finally deciding to put out some edible produce and 30+ chickens to keep hydrated and pecking on clean grass, that's a tall order.

So we garden and do animal chores in the cool(er) early mornings and hide behind shades with our fans going in the scorching late afternoons. A perfect time to clay (if you're not doing canes and processes requiring lots of clay-handling) and think about hot colors.

I decided to make a couple of pairs of earrings that I could wear with my recent Solstice necklace. I re-visited my stringing method after wearing it, adding another strand of beads to counteract the tendency of the beads to flip around to the opposite side. I had originally put two holes in the clay pad on the back of the bead to accommodate two strands but the trick was to string the top strand first and THEN the bottom one. I use a necklace bust when I'm doing this, so I get the drape correct. I've found you just can't get it right by laying the necklace flat.

Here are the shots of the earrings before I added the earwires. You may be able to see the texture in the wire, which is the new, fabulous Whim-Z Wire from Garlan Chain Company, which comes in bronze or copper and several textures. You can see the product and buy it in bulk spools at Rio Grande. The product's distributor says it will be available in smaller quantities at retail prices soon. Check here for updates. Here I've used "Nick" in brass -- my go-to wire lately for everything from my twisty-wire embellishments to earwires. It patinates very nicely with proprietary patinas or with heat. It's very pliable but has enough oomph to hold a single loop for components or charms. And it takes gilders paste beautifully. What's not to like??

After watching a great Good Eats episode on curry, I decided to name the red ones "Masala", which means "mixture" in the Tamil language. The Kashmiri earrings have dangles ending in my new favorite stone, pyrite chips. I love that the color's a cross between gold and silver and has a nice glint to it without overwhelming the polymer.

Masala earrings

Kashmiri earrings

Jeanette Blix from ArtBliss just told me I have a new registration for my class there in September. We'll be making earrings like these and exploring many other interesting coloring techniques as well. And be sure to check out the entire lineup of fabulous instructors. For mixed media fans, ArtBliss definitely has something for everyone!

I Get By With a Little Help from My Friends

Doing a collaborative project with other polymer artists is always an exercise close to my heart. Blending styles and ideas produces some amazing surprises-- the sum of the parts is always better than the individual elements.

You may recall that Rebecca Watkins, Claire Maunsell and I worked on a necklace together last October.

KatManDo necklace

We enjoyed it so much we vowed to do another, passing the stringing/designing work to Rebecca for the next round. Well, as we all know, life intervenes and the best laid plans, etc. etc. I must confess that I was definitely the sloth on this one but lest you judge me too harshly, I will soon have some interesting news to reveal about why I was M.I.A. for so long!

That said, I want to acknowledge my two incredibly patient co-artists and thank them for their forebearance with the delay of my contribution to the piece!

A planetary theme had been decided upon, which would give us a broad scope for color and offer an infinite number of interpretations for bead design. Here's what I'm sending to Rebecca today.

Little Planetary beads

The second photo shows what they might look like in a starry firmament. I took these shots with my new Nikon Coolpix, a point-and-shoot digital camera (not really as easy as they make it sound but without the advanced degree necessary to use a digital SLR). If you haven't checked these out, this new generation of cameras have all the memory necessary to shoot high resolution images that magazine submissions require. I'm doing an article for Handcrafted Jewelry this week and they told me the images I submitted were well within the standards for publication. Hooray for that! My Nikon has a large screen for use in framing the shot-- I hated the my Pentax's teensy viewfinder-- and all kinds of adjustments for low light/poor light/color correction so post-shot enhancement in a Photoshop program is minimized. In fact, it even has a “skin softening” feature for portraits, a real boon for those pesky headshots that publications always seem to want.

Watch my blog for the results-- and thanks again to Rebecca and Claire. Their Etsy shops are chock-full of delicious beads-- check out some of my favs below!

Available in Rebecca's Etsy shop

Available in Claire's  Etsy shop

Color = Energy

Color is energy, the colors of sunlight, of emanations from the great Star itself, flooding our world with blues and greens and reds and yellows. Don't get me wrong-- I love my black tees but black is the color of sleep, of night, of the absence of light and energy. It's a great background for a starry display. Although it is the combination of all colors together, black subtracts light, and therefore color, from our world. A “black hole” is called exactly that for a very good reason-- it swallows light.


The colors of Vermont's landscape are vibrant now with summer but in a very subtle way. Just as the native American peoples of the far North have a hundred words for snow, there are a hundred colors of green in my backyard. Our flowers are not the riotous palette of the tropics but rather the occasional splash of bright but diminutive blossoms amid the green of grasses and meadow hay. I recall picking tiny native strawberries nestled among orange and bronze Indian Paintbrush in my uncle's field when I first visited Vermont the summer I was seven. They are still my favorite Vermont wildflower.

I usually experiment with earrings or beads when I'm trying out new color ideas. Small shapes, easily completed are just the thing to play with on a lazy summer's day. If there's more potential there, they become elements in a necklace or bracelet. Here are some of my favorites from the last few weeks' work, using colored pencil and some “garbage” cane-- bits and pieces and leftover ends-- made into a mokume gane veneer.

Sands of Mars bead - idea from the work of Rebecca Watkins

Leaves of Grass earrings

We Are the People earrings

We Are the People earrings - detail

Latitude earrings

Latitude earrings - detail

ArtBliss Update: Like Putty in My Hands

In case you were sitting on the fence about signing up for a class at ArtBliss in September, I'm going to be writing a series of blog posts relating to the class I'm teaching there. These aren't tutorials but little snippets about what we'll be doing in my class “Whimsical Blooms” and the journey that my concepts have taken to finally coalesce into a teachable format.

I work a lot with found objects-- I have never called these “junk” as they are in the category of relics for me, the fascinating detritus of our civilization—past and present-- either iconic in their meaning or splendidly weathered and patinated with time and the elements and worthy of inclusion into my artwork. But they don't come in duplicates. So I make molds of them and then I have them forever, at least in shape. The part of me that enters into the mix then is in how I color these copies and antique them and arrange them into wearable art. They are transformed by what I add to their history and their story becomes part of my story.

I don't have to find each and every “found” object. People give them to me sometimes, my husband finds them on our property, a friend actually loaned me an interesting piece that he wants back eventually.

So here's the important tip: you don't have to use the whole image. You can use a mold you've made of an antique button but use a piece of polymer clay that's larger than the impression so you have a “relic”-- an irregular shape that looks like it has disintegrated somewhat in the aging process. You can flatten edges or texture them with a tool or a texture sheet. I like to thin the edges out to create the illusion of disintegration even more. Polymer is very strong so even very thin pieces are quite strong. This allows you to stack a number of layers without creating a lot of weight or depth, just a showcase for color, texture and pattern.

Little layered experiments

Solstice necklace detail

Solstice necklace detail

Solstice necklace detail

Solstice necklace

Finding Your Bliss-- ArtBliss, that is!

As summer approaches-- and yes, we actually do have what passes for summer in Vermont although it's been raining and in the 40s for a week now-- many of us are thinking about vacation. Since we have animals-- like a pony and chickens-- it's not so easy to get away. We have to find someone to feed them who is willing to come over in early evening and wait for the “girls”-- our layers-- to sashay their feathery butts up into their roost so they can be locked safely away from the numerous and hungry predators that prowl our backyard. Everything, it seems, loves chicken!

So we mainly take day trips around our own state and neighboring New Hampshire or short weekend jaunts to 18th c. re-enacting events. I'm one of those “active vacation” people-- the idea of swinging in a hammock while sipping an umbrella-topped drink and gazing out at the ocean seems boring beyond words.

With a more interesting goal in mind, in September my husband and I are trekking down to Washington, DC so I can participate as an instructor in the second year of classes at ArtBliss, an art retreat founded by my friends Cindy Wimmer and Jeanette Blix. I am really excited to be teaching again and so honored to be invited to participate with such esteemed artists as Deryn Mentock, Kerry Bogert, Richard Salley, Diane Cook, Jane Salley and Robert Dancik. Wow, what a lineup!

The class is called “Whimsical Blooms” and will teach my technique of making pendants by layering polymer clay shapes that have been textured and antiqued with various tools, paints, inks and patinas. The resulting element can be used for jewelry-making, scrapbooking or journals or even for home decoration. The possibilities are endless! We will play and create and generally have a blast while repeating my favorite art mantra: “There are no mistakes”. Any and all found objects are fodder for mold-making and texturing the clay or as pieces of the pendants themselves. Frequent readers of this blog have seen this series unfold over the past few months and as I was mulling over topics I might teach, this one just seemed perfect for students of differing levels and abilities. I know personally that I get the most out of a class when interacting with students from diverse artistic backgrounds and interests. This class will have structure and will teach technique but will leave plenty of room for creativity and experimentation and wild flights of imagination. Well, let's hope at least a few flights!

Sunburst pendant - sample for ArtBliss

Dark of a Spring Night - sample for ArtBliss

My class is offered on Sunday, September 25 from 9 am to 4 pm but check out the other class descriptions and instructor bios here at www.artbliss.com. Registration has been open about a week so far but I'm guessing that with this group of instructors the classes will fill quickly. I'm encouraging my husband to take Richard Salley's class called “Lasting Impressions Earrings and Pendants”, stamping silver-bearing solder to make jewelry elements. I love Richard's work and I think he and Douglas would get along very well. Dougie is a blacksmith and does repousse work too so the metalwork focus of the class is appropriate to his interests.

 The festivities begin on Friday, September 23 with day classes taught by Deryn Mentock and Robert Dancik, followed by the evening Meet and Greet Reception and continuing on to Sunday night, September 25. The venue is the snazzy Embassy Suites Dulles-North Loudon with special room pricing for attendees. I read glowing reviews of last year's event and this one promises to be even more fun, instructive and filled with creative activity and inspiring instructors. I would love to meet you all there!

What's Your Inspiration? The Movies!

I love to watch movies—and any HBO series-- set in the medieval era anywhere in the world. As a history buff, I keep an eagle eye on the historical accuracy of everything from knightly armour to peasant dwellings but as a fabric fanatic my true obsession is the clothing. Although I've been going through withdrawal from “The Tudors”, Sunday night I got a new fix-- “The Game of Thrones”. I had to run for my sketchbook right at the opening credits, which swirled together steampunk elements with fantastical maps like those from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Some of my special favorites are Chinese historical epics, with their costumes layered with color and texture, the tapestries, the artifacts, even the fanciful and ornate armour.

Last week my husband and I found a little gem, “The Curse of the Golden Flower”, set in 982 during the Northern Song Dynasty. The story was destined to end in tragedy but the visuals were full of eye-popping color and the costumes rivaled the Tudor era in sheer opulence and complexity. We watch the character of the queen pick through a selection of yellow gold filigree hair ornaments that enhance her gold-embroidered damask gown then the camera follows her down a hallway draped in 40 foot tall silk hangings in rainbow-hued silks as her entourage proceeds to the throne room. I felt drunk with visual sensation!

With this as my background inspiration, this month's Art Bead Scene challenge-- Finches and Bamboo (from the same era as my Chinese epic)-- begged a lavish interpretation. Lately I've been working on a series of necklaces featuring large central focals of layered, textured and antiqued polymer clay. I incorporate wire, vintage metal findings and antique buttons in these. And I've been playing with some unconventional ways to color the clay-- oil pastels, oil paints, colored pencils and gilders paste.

My original idea was to create a ruffle of lightweight silk around the edge of the base polymer disk but my efforts reminded me of a horse show ribbon. On to Plan B. As I dug through a stack of articles from various magazines, I found one by Hadar Jacobson about using the inside of a sand dollar shell as a texture plate. I've been liking the effect of combining organic and formal textures into one element, so that became the base, colored with Prismacolor pencils and a touch of acrylic paint. Next I created a two-layer base-- again with one organic and one ornate texture-- for the molded bird button in a metal bezel from JemsGems. I've been incorporating twisted wire into my pieces lately so I added a layer of antiqued bronze wire as abstract branches, another nod to the finches of the painting.

I had planned to use some vintage metal findings separated by bronze twisted chain for the stringing on the right side so I drew a base plate design based on the findings' scroll motif. I impressed the clay with a texture plate I made from a piece of dimensional scrapbooking paper I found at Michael's, used my scalpel to handcut the scrolls, cured the clay and then patinated it with gilders paste. Using a bronze-brown clay as the base color made the patination stand out and accentuated the texture.

I made up some accent beads using mokume gane for the polymer veneer, this being a technique borrowed from Japanese metalworking. The pearls were a happy find in my stash-- they were the exact color of the bamboo leaves from the Challenge's silk painting. I finished up with vintage chain from One Piece at a Time and a vintage clasp from Jems Gems and I was done.

The Emperor's Nightengale

Detail of focal

I was pleased and honored to find that editor Heather Powers picked my necklace for the Designer of the Week this past Monday. Thanks, Heather and the rest of the ABS editors!

I will be teaching a class at ArtBliss in September 2011 in this technique of layering textured and antiqued polymer elements with found objects and metals. Cindy Wimmer and Jeanette Blix, the co-founders, tell me that there will be class descriptions and more information about the instructors up on the site in the very near future. Guess I'd better get mine written and submitted! This September's ArtBliss promises to be as exciting, informative and inspired as last year's inaugural event, so it's an occasion not to be missed.

Ingredients

Like most jewelry artists/designers I know, I am addicted to beads and tools. The tool obsession we will address in a subsequent post-- beads, however, are ingredients, just as butter, sugar and chocolate are ingredients for a baker. You need ingredients to make a bracelet just as you would to make a batch of cookies and when inspiration strikes is not the time to go to the store. You need these things in your jewelry “pantry”, just as much as Martha Steward stocks bars of semi-sweet Valhrona.

So shopping—either on the Internet or at a yard sale or an antiques mall-- is a necessary and valid pursuit of your time as an artist, as I frequently tell my spouse. Browsing is mandatory. You may not be planning to buy but you have to see what's out there, add links to your Favorites file or maybe print out some photos for your sketchbook.

I just spent a productive couple of hours perusing the fabrics on Quilthome.com. If you aren't inspired by the colorways of Kaffe Fassett's fabric line, I would suggest holding a small mirror over your lips to see if you are still breathing! And the colors aren't even the best part--I printed out no less than five or six pages on my black-and-white Canon printer as pattern prompts for future design projects.

The ingredients sitting in my studio this week are a real mixed bag-- some beads, some organizing aids, some that would fit into the category of bizarre. Here's a look:

Vintage button card from 110 Main Street, Montpelier, VT

 

Tentaculum rayon threads with a metal core

Polymer clay beads in various stages of antiquing-- stars? chicken feet?

Vintage thread spools from an estate in NY

Experiments with colored pencil and polymer

Japanese-style vintage button from 110 Main Street, Montpelier, VT

Wishbones collected in the wild by Bonesinger

As I constantly play around with new ideas in my polymer work, I'm always doing little experiments and making things which then lay around my studio in various boxes waiting for inspiration to strike. They, too, are ingredients. As my refurbished studio comes together, I just wish I could find a better way to organize them. The 1” high plastic presentation boxes below, from Bellandaria Designs I fit with white nubbly shelf liner so they keep designs in progress from becoming disarranged while the boxes stack neatly on my shelf. They can also be strapped into a trolley that Bellandaria sells if I need to cart them to a gallery or an appointment with a buyer.

Presentation boxes from Notable Notions on Etsy