Artful Adventures

Sharing some new necklaces

Ok, this will be the third attempt at making this post today.  If I can get the photos up, there may be few words rather than tempt fate again!  Sure wish typepad would get this new format figured out!

This is totally whacked out tonight, the last 2 photos didn't size right, so click on them to see them as intended-geez, can't win tonight!  The first necklace is made of stick pearls, yellow freshwater & white coin freshwater pearls, citrine, chinese charoite, and an antique trade bead.  The second necklace was made with the intention of being able to wear it with the first one shown, using coral, lava stone, antique trade beads, a couple of Lake Michigan stones, and a wonderful hammered sterling chain.  Last but not least, this one is made using a reconstructed vintage necklace, the most gorgeous labradorite that I've ever seen, prehinite, and white pearls.  Wish you could see this one in person!  So far so good, the computer hasn't come crashing down yet, so I'll post tomorow-hope you all had a lovely week end! 

A "Must-Have" Book

A couple of weeks ago, armed with a couple of Amazon gift certificates and having made the decision to join Northlight Book Club (seems most of the books I want are published by them anyway) I painstakingly chose 8 books-4 from each place.  As I looked them through (or sometimes I just sort of skim through, looking at the pictures) I'll let you know how I like them.  But one that jumped out at me, that I did actually sit down and start reading, was The New Creative Artist written by Nita Leland .  Not only did I start to read it, I hauled out a notebook just to jot things down as I read.  She's teaching this summer at Peninsula Art School(scroll down on the page that this link takes you, to see the class description) which is about an hour drive from here, literally in my back yard.  I had pretty much made up my mind that I had signed up for enough classes this summer, but after getting this book, I may have to rethink that decision!  There are loads of things of try, ideas to keep you motivated, enough quotes & invaluable verbiage to convince all of us, even on our worst days when we question why we do what we do, that YES, we are creative, it's all worth it, and how to get over that hump.  But there was a statement in particular that hooked me, reeled me in and has made me a fan of hers forever, it's this sentence from her book "Your work should be your own.  When you copy, you deny your uniqueness.  Copying isn't creativity; it's just the business of making a picture."  Making it your own is a phrase that's been tossed around for awhile, but obviously everyone hasn't bought into it by everyone.  It's something that I firmly believe in, so was more than pleased to see it addressed in a book.  And that's one of the big reasons we all need this book, we need to make art & create, but we need to make it our own as we go along.  You won't regret buying this book, no matter what medium you work in!  And on that note, I leave you with a photo of a necklace I did a couple of weeks ago, like the rest, it too is for sale at The Flying Pig. 

The Girls

Here she is, Miz Bobbie, the third and final in this series of 3 paintings.  As I was working on these, a story kept building in my mind, as always happens whenever I'm working on something new.  The 3 girls are sisters, with the first being Betty, you can

click here to see Betty.  She's the shy one of the crowd and basically stays at home rather than face the world, being more comfortable with familar well worn surroundings, where she doesn't have to go out and take a chance on showing the world any of what she perceives as her faults.  She blushes easily and no matter how hard she tries, she can't get her make up on right, so she stays home a lot, but always peering out the wndow wondering if she should take that chance.  The second sister, Barbara (say her name with attitude, shoulders straight, and head held high!) you

can click here to see Barbara if you'd like.  She has an attitude, and wants so bad to get out of the house and see the world, has her head in the clouds dreaming of dancing & singing, being well read, and playing in high society.  But she's torn between that, and the reality of keeping up a house and all that it entails, running errands, arranging home repairs, etc, but she'll never stop dreaming and trying to be something that she's not, making it difficult to ever be truly happy.  This brings us to Miz Bobbie, who has made her first public appearance today on my blog:)  She's the sister that would much rather be outside than cooped up in the house, she loves exploring the world around her, taking great pleasure in something so simple as a leaf fluttering on a branch.  She's not afraid to take a chance, is her own person and very comfortable in her own skin.  She's the kind of person that people want to be around, always a smile on her face and something positive to say, but most importantly, never afraid to take a chance.  She's at peace with herself & the world around her.  But is this the real story of Betty, Barbara & Bobbie?  Or do each of them, when put together, make a whole person?  Don't we all have things in our life that we fear and would sometimes take the easy way out & stay home rather than take a chance, much like Betty, we could call her our inner critic.  Barbara could easily personify "the grass is greener on the other side" feeling, we all want things at one time or another that we simply can't have, but we must keep dreaming and have goals, striving to always do better.  And then there's Miz Bobbie, could she be the part of us that represents our own comfort zone and the importance of keeping that inner child in us alive & well?  I don't know yet which story is true about the girls, what do you think?

Saint Urho/Saint Pat's

Have you ever heard of St Urho?  In honor of both St Patrick's Day & St. Urho's Day, which was yesterday, I made this long, fun, green & purple necklace.  I'll have more photos and have it listed on my Etsy shop as soon as I'm done with this post.  So, back to St. Urho for now, who is the Patron Saint of the Finnish vineyard workers.  Apparently, there was a grasshopper plague which threatened the grape crop, but St. Urho banished them, saving the day.  After that, the folks dressed in purple & green on the 16th of March to celebrate.  But there are those that say the whole thing is a joke, cooked up by someone in Minnesota that wanted the Finnish to have their own holiday, like the Irish do.  Who knows, but it makes for a fun story:) 

In the meantime, we'll still have our shamrocks to celebrate with-----

-------and even a pot full of Irish Moss.  Love this plant, it's one that you can't walk past without touching it, petting it almost, it's so soft.  St. Patrick's Day is always a bittersweet day for me, it was my little sister's birthday.  She would have been 45 years old today, but sadly, isn't here to celebrate it.  Last year on this date, I wrote about her, so won't repeat myself again now, but Happy Birthday Gina, I know you're watching over me! 

New Etsy shop & catching up--again

Tooling arund on ebay the other day and found this box of little bottles with watch parts, and actually was lucky enough to win the auction at a great price!  Not sure what I had planned on doing with them, but now that they're here, they're so darn cute sitting in their little box, I may just leave them alone for awhile.  Do you ever do that?  Find something that screams "buy me", and you do, and then just look at it?  LOL-it's a sickness:)

Well, I finally did it, one of the scariest things I've done in awhile, opened my very own Etsy Shop.  I've got a few things in there, with more to load up this afternnon.  It'll be fun to explore another venue, another baby step, actually a big step now that I think about it.  Hard to believe how much Etsy has grown in the last year or so, shopping on there could be another addiction, very easily!   

Last weekend, while having coffee at The Flying Pig, Taped Harley came strolling in:)  Well, ok, he was carried in, but it was the first time I had actually seen him, after seeing photos of him and hearing of many Taped Harley sightings, we finally got to see him in person!  Turns out that the occasion for the visit was that it was National Pig Day which I've never heard of, but sure enough.  So after a visit to the Piggly Wiggly to buy (what else!) pork, of course, he had to stop for coffee, sporting his pig tie and carrying a stuffed pink pig.  Remember folks, it's WI-in March-it's still below zero temps-by this time of the year we're easily entertained:)   

But----it's almost spring, the calendar says so, the birds are chirping, and I spotted a robin yesterday, cabin fever time is almost over!  Even this photoshopped image of an Artemesia looks all springy.  It's a good thing, too.  For tbe last month or so, I've felt myself becoming more withdrawn, avoiding the computer,  just wanting to get outside and haul the art supplies with me & just get messy.  For the first time in my life, I'm actually planning, planning messy new arty things to do outside, wanting to experiment with fabric dye, wander around the yard & pick fern fronds & leaves & sticks to incorporate somehow/somewhere.  Making lists of what I'll need, wanting to be prepared for that first warm day, so I can be prepared and get outside-quick, because here that may still mean snow the next day:)

There's been numerous critter sightings around here lately, love that!  This rooster pheasant patrols around the yard, all day long, checking all the bird feeders to see what's been dropped for him to find.  The other night, I spotted a raccoon swinging off a feeder, trying to raid it, but he gave up pretty easily.  Last week end, when we came home from seeing an opening for an art show, sponsored by Green Bay Arts Unlimited at The Art Garage (had to see our friend Coolies assemblages-wonderful!!!) a possum came running around the corner of the garage just as the door was opening, and ran inside!  Now that's a dilemna, not knowing when or if it came out, because we couldn't find the damn thing.  But the next night I saw him outside, trying to get back inside-he must've enjoyed that cat food he got when he dumped the bag of it in the garage.  See, we need spring, all the critters are hungry!  Ok, time to get going & get something done around here, seems like we've been running around a lot lately, so nothing's getting accomplished here-it ends today:) 

You'd think I'd know better----

---than to actually believe I could do a project quickly!  I get these ideas, and in my head it seems like a simple little thing to do, a "quick" project.  There is no such thing as a quick project with me, overthinking, wanting it perfect, general putzing, screwing something up, always slows me down-that's just the way it is!  A few weeks ago, I found a stash of lotto cards, more than I'll ever use in a collage, but thought they'd work well as book boards.  Plus, I'd finally have an excuse to use that coil binding contraption that I 'had to have" a few years, that's been sitting on the shelf, covered with dust.  Couldn't wait to finally use it, so quick punched holes in all the cards-worked great!  It was all downhill from there-lol!  Without having you suffer through all the boring details, once again, I found the longest way possible from the beginning to the end.  These were all made with 140# watercolor paper that I tore down to size.  For the books bound on the side, I stained the sheets of paper with walnut ink first-a fun outdoor project.  I wanted them to be fat little books, so after I had them ready to assemble, decided they needed more pages, so more tearing down & more walnut ink, making them a tad bit too fat for the coil to go in easily.  But I won that battle & got it done, dug into the bag of ragballs that I picked up at a flea market recently, and dressed them up a bit.  So there you have it, another episode of a "quick" project taking a few detours along the way:) 

It's Official----

-----As of yesterday morning, my art is being represented by

The Flying Pig Art Gallery in Algoma, WI.  When they first opened 4 years ago, I was blown away with what I saw, and could only hope that someday my art would be considered good enough to hang there.  And it happened-it actually happened!!  Yesterday morning, Susan & Robyn chose 10 collages and 5 books to display, and had them up on the wall by the time we went back in the afternoon for my iced coffee addiction-now how cool is that??  This Saturday, I'll be there all day doing demos and will have more art to show.  The set up is perfect-a huge deck in the gardens, with a pond behind it, and the weather looks like it'll be perfect.  So stop on by and say "Hi" if you're in the area.  A road trip up here this time of year is a treat, seriously.  In the Kewaunee area, on the Southern Door Peninsula, there's 165 acres of sunflowers planted, that are in full bloom right now.  It's an amazing sight to see, with a projection of 1000 visitors coming to see it, among them will be Plein air painters from Wisconsin, greater Chicago and greater
Minneapolis along with photographers, bicyclists and Northern Door Peninsula visitors. And while you're here, stop in at 

Barnsite Art Gallery  to see the Fifth Annual Barns & Farms National Juried
Fine Art Exhibition.  A few days ago, we went to see the sunflowers and got a few photos of the fields, but it's just nothing compared to seeing it in person, so I'll keep going back until they're done blooming:)  It's just so cool, I love it!