The Peculiar Palette

Art Journaling that Shines - Part 2

 

Hello again! Welcome to the second part of Journal Pages that Shine. This time we're going to use some of my favorite products in the whole world...Fantasy Film and Fantasy Fiber from the Art Glitter Institute. These products are so versitile that you can use them on all your mixed media projects. All you need is an iron and some parchment paper and you're ready to go! I always thought it was more complicated than that, but was pleasantly surprised the first time I used them. It's so quick and easy!

Again I started my pages by using watercolors, markers to doodle with, spray inks, collage elements, and craft punches to make little windows. For the left side, I used Fantasy Fibers for hair. I mixed together a pinch of purple and yellow, spread them out into my desired shape, then sandwiched them between two sheets of parchment paper and ironed briefly. It doesn't take much heat or pressure to get the fibers to fuse together. I recycled a white circular shape that I cut out of one of the pages below for the face. I used collage medium (Collage Pauge) and a foam brush to adhere the hair and the face to my page.

To make the small squares down the left side of the page, I used a craft punch. Then I cut 1/2" strips of different colors of Fantasy film. I arranged and overlapped them randomly on one sheet of parchment, then covered them with another and ironed briefly. It came out having a nice striped effect. I cut the fused film into squares slightly larger than the punched out squares and glued them onto the back of the page. I covered them with a strip of white paper so they can't be seen from the page behind.

 

 

 

 

For the left page, I used the same technique for the earth as I did for the face above. For the sun on the right page, I fused together 2 layers of Fantasy Film and added a pinch of pink Fantasy Fiber on the top. I glued it onto the back of the page but left it translucent instead of gluing white paper over it like I did for the above squares. I wanted to let the design from the page behind it in my journal peek through.

This is what was on the page behind the sun.

 

The colors of the paint were so similar to the colors of fibers I used that they just gave it a subtle luster.

 

You can see the design behind the film better here.

Next on my to do list is to use these products to make a small art quilt!

Art Journaling that Shines...Part 1

I have never been one to keep journals or diaries. I had a diary when I was a kid and I think I wrote in it twice, probably about a boy I had a crush on when I was about 8 years old. I tried to keep one when I was in college, and that ended up being a glorified day planner. I've tried several other times in the past and spent a few hours writing down my deepest thoughts, just to read them again months or years later and tear them up because I thought they sounded so stupid. I hated the things I wrote about and I hated my handwriting. So I gave up.

Being the huge mixed media fan that I am, I started to see this art journaling craze materialize in magazines and online. I was definitely intrigued, but not completely sold on the idea because I knew my journaling history and figured I would never commit to it. Over the next year or two it became harder and harder to resist. How could anyone look at the beautiful and colorful journals of Teesha Moore, Ingrid Dijkers, and Pam Carriker and not want to do it themselves?

I tried art journaling a little bit but was frustrated because my pages weren't even close to as cool as theirs were. It wasn't until I took a journaling class with the Journal Fodder Junkies last year at Art Unraveled that I finally gave in to the temptation and started keeping an art journal. The biggest things I learned from the workshop were pretty obvious facts, but I never thought about it before then. Every journal page doesn't have to be a masterpiece, nor does if have to be about anything particularly important. What IS important is that you continue working in it. No page ever has to be completely finished. You can start 10 pages in one sitting and take 6 months to get back to them. Have nothing to say today? That's okay. Start slapping some paint on the pages. Collage receipts, magazine clippings that you like, junk mail, postage stamps, or anything else you can find that would otherwise be destined for your trash can onto your pages. Make some random doodles on a page and see what transpires. I can't say I journal everyday, but I've been regularly keeping up with it since that class. Some pages I like so much that I actually finish them!

I started creating my pages by randomly painting watercolors on some blank journal pages. After they dried, I took a fine tipped black marker (Micron Pigmas work well) and started doodling and drawing. Most of the time I didn't have anything specific in mind. I journaled words in the empty spaces around my doodles. I enhanced my drawings by using Copic markers to color in some areas. I used craft punches on some of the pages to cut out 'windows' that look onto the page behind it. I also collaged some papers I had in my stash to some of them. To add the sparkle and shine, I used Designer Dries Clear adhesive by the Art Glitter Institue to add various colors and varieties of glitter (also by the Art Glitter Institute).  It was no exact science, I just used coordinating colors to enhance certain areas.

 

 

 

 

 

Stay tuned for my next post which will be about using Fantasy Fibers and Fantasy Film to enhance your art jounal. See you in a couple of weeks!

My 'Strategic Break' featured on createmixedmedia.com!

A few months ago, I posted a status update on Facebook that referred to the 'strategic break' in my career that I took for the last couple of years. I received a comment from a friend of mine on Facebook, the wonderfully talented Jen Cushman, wanting to know more about it. That prompted me to write an entire blog post about my quest to live the creative life and sent her the link. She liked my story so much that she featured it in her monthly column on www.CreateMixedMedia.com! I am so honored that she chose my story to feature, and thrilled that she thought it could be an inspiration to others. Thanks, Jen!

Check out the article here.

Learn more about Jen on her website.

Read Jen's blog, My Story To Tell, here.

Eye Candy for the New Year

Last weekend I was invited by my new friend and co-worker to go to the Hmong New Year's celebration at the Fresno County Fairgrounds. I am embarassed to admit that prior to moving here, I had never heard of the Hmong culture so I had a lot to learn! The Hmong  are an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand (thank you, Wikipedia). Apparently the Fresno area has the second largest concentration of Hmong people in the US, with Saint Paul MN being the largest.

Every year the Hmong people here in Fresno have a huge New Year's celebration at the fairgrounds. Below I will take you through my first experience at the event. I was lucky enough to go with someone who is Hmong, so she was able to explain everything to me, and translate when I needed it.

The Shopping

There were booths as far as the eye could see of people selling ethnic items such as medicines, costumes, jewelry, koi fish, herbs, fabric, fruit and vegetables, and musical instruments, just to name a few...

I think this is lip balm. They also sold virginity soap...hmmm.

 

You could buy some fish for your pond...

 

Or a beautiful new dress.

 

Tell me this isn't the coolest hat you've ever seen. These are the hats that are worn by the clan that my friend belongs to.

Beautiful, colorful fabric to brighten up a cloudy day.

 

Some herbs, each of which has a different healing property. I bought one of these because they say you can stick it in the ground and it will start growing again. We'll see if my (un)green thumb can handle it.

 

More herbs...

 

The People

There are 18 different clans in the Hmong culture, and each clan wears a different costume, or dress, for special occasions. This was my favorite part of the whole celebration. All of them were so beautiful and colorful! Total eye candy...I couldn't decide which one I liked the best.

 

These guys were the winners of the Mr. Hmong contest.

 

 

 

The Ball Game

One of the most interesting traditions the Hmong people have is the ball game, which is their courting ritual. Basically boys and girls stand in lines facing each other and throw a ball back and forth, while chatting with their potential new love interest. There was a lot of that going on. Read more about the tradition here.

 

 

 

Looks like someone forgot to catch this one....

 

The Food

If I didn't have a tour guide, I wouldn't have had a clue on what to get for lunch. For some reason there were lots of stands selling corn dogs, meatballs on a stick and churros. I saw a ton of people walking around eating meatballs, so I thought they were the thing to try...so I did. Although they were quite tasty, I found out later that they were the most American dish there, so I wasn't being very daring. Luckily they were just a little snack so I was able to try again for my main meal. 

 

The most popular Hmong food apparently is barbecued meats and purple sticky rice. We tried two kinds of sausage, chicken and pork, all of which were delicious. The purple rice was good too, and it was so sticky that you could pick up a chunk of it and eat it with your hands. Actually, that's what you were supposed to do. The rice starts off mostly white with a few darker grains mixed in, and when it cooks in the water the darker grains give off a purple color which dyes the white rice.

 

Here is a variety of fried foods, including fried bananas which we had for dessert. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the banana is marinated in something, then dipped in a sweet batter that contains sesame seeds. It was really good!

 

Also very popular are brightly colored drinks containing strands and balls of tapioca. They were everywhere! I had one with dinner and liked it...although I have never had a chewy drink before. They serve it with a really wide straw so the tapioca can get through it.

The last thing I tried (that I don't have a picture of) is papaya salad, which is also really popular. Essentially it is shredded papaya with fish sauce and peanuts. It was the strangest tasting food I've ever eaten. Apparently it's an aquired taste. It was cold, spicy, sweet, sour, fishy, salty...I never had so many tastes going on at once.  I could only handle one small mouthful, but people who have aquired the taste really love it.

 

The Candids

I managed to get a few candid shots of random people that I like....thought I'd post those too!

 

 

This is my favorite. The looks on these kids' faces are priceless.

 

Wish I knew what she was thinking...

 

The Celebrities

Last but not least, a very famous Hmong actress had a booth there and was autographing copies of her most recent movie and letting fans take pictures with her. Below is my friend alongside of Nou Lee...

 

All in all it was a very fun day. I got to learn first hand about a culture I knew nothing about. I tried new foods, bought some herbs, shopped for ugly fruits (darn I just realized they are actually called Ugli fruits but I like calling them ugly waaay better. Although they are really kind of pretty. Like a limon, what 7up used to claim to make their sodas from), and saw tons of colorful clothing and decor.

Thanks again to my friend Malyna for introducing me to it all!

I went to Ceramics College...and graduated!

One of my first assignments for my fabulous new job as Account Manager for the Ceramic Arts division of iLoveToCreate® was to attend Duncan® University. Basically that means that I got to spend 3 glorious days with long-time Duncan® Ambassador David Hoff in his home studio learning about the Duncan® line of products and how to use them. This job is torture. They forced me to make ceramics for 3 days and paid me for it (that's dripping with gallons of  sarcasm, btw). I've never even come close to having that much fun at work before!

I have been making ceramics at Glendale Community College for the last 10 years or so. I mostly handbuilt my pieces out of clay or threw them on the wheel. That was the most labor intensive part of making ceramics. Once I finished that part, I'd go throw some glaze on it (some of which I mixed myself) and hope it didn't come out looking like baby poop. Many times it did.

The type of firing we did at school was mostly cone 10, which means it fires to the hottest temperature possible (2380 degrees F). It's okay, but there is a very limited glaze colors you can work with, mostly blues, greens and browns, and it's difficult to get much detail with them. For most of the time I was taking class there, I had a teacher that frowned upon doing using anything other than cone 10 clays and glazes, and truthfully I got bored after awhile.

About 2 years ago, that teacher retired and Esmeralda DeLaney came on bored as our instructor. Her work is much more colorful and whimsical, which was right up my alley. She inspired most of what I do today. She was much more open minded and experimental when it came to decorating our pieces. She introduced us to a few of the Duncan® products, specifically EZ Strokes® and Concepts®, and would let us fire them to cone 6 (a cooler temperature which is considered mid-range). We still constructed our own pieces by throwing and handbuilding clay, but finally there could be some color on them. If you've seen my work, you know my motto is 'brighter is better'. I started having fun making ceramics again! Plus, the fact that she let me use these Duncan products is partially responsible for getting me my cool new job, so thanks Es!

The ceramics that I learned at Duncan University is different than what I'm used to doing. They have a whole line of Oh Four® bisque ware, which is an already fired form that is ready to be decorated (the piece will still need to be fired again when you're done). I wasn't sure if I was really going to like doing it this way, but I found it to be fabulous! It's the equivalent of a painter buying a pre-stretched canvas instead of making one from scratch. Although I like making things out of clay, sometimes I just don't feel like getting involved because it's sooooo messy. And it takes so long to make and then to dry. Here, all you have to do is pick a shape and start painting it! You can fire it the same night and it will be ready the next day. Instant gratification! That's something I never was able to get in pottery class. And the great thing about the Duncan products I used is that they are consistent and reliable. If I paint on a glaze that is supposed to be blue, it will NOT come out looking like baby poop. It's like a dream come true.

Today the pieces that I made went on a photoshoot to the iLoveToCreate® photography studio (how fancy!). That's why the pictures below look so beautiful and professional. I was going to pretend that I took them, then realized that no one would believe me anyway. These pieces were fired to cone 06, which is considered low fire, but most of these products will work on pieces that are fired to mid-range as well. I followed the cirriculum for the first day of class or so, but as time went on I got rebellious and wanted to try doing things my way (funky, bold and loud), which is the exact opposite from my instructor's traditional style. To his bewilderment (and my delight), they came out pretty cool! I doubt if we'll be seeing my projects any time soon being offered at Duncan U, but hey, you never know...

This is the piece I started with. It was glazed with a Courtyard Art Glaze™ 
with a Crystals Glaze™  on top. There's a little bit of blue EZ Strokes® mixed in with the Crystals Glaze™. I can't wait to use more of these...they are so much fun!

 

This one was done with Concepts® on the bottom and a few colors of EZ Strokes® sponged in layers on top, with Pure Brilliance® Clear Glaze over it.

 

This piece isn't really my style, but the technique I used to do it was awesome! Duncan® makes a product called Mask 'n Peel™, which is just like the masking fluid you would use in watercolor painting. You just draw your design, paint the Mask 'n Peel™ over it and let dry. Then paint the background with the Cover Coats® of your choice. The Mask 'n Peel™ repels what you paint on top of it and you get a nice clean line once you remove it. There's no need to stay inside the lines, which is right up my alley! When it's dry, peel the Mask 'n Peel™ off (it feels like a deflated balloon) and add color to your design with EZ Strokes®. Finish with a few coats of Pure Brilliance® and Voila!

 

This piece is what started me to veer off course. The project was supposed to have a soft, more realistic watercolor look to it. I asked David for permission to go nuts with it and started painting the petals different colors of Cover Coats®. He looked at me like I was crazy, especially because I used green for some petals and not for leaves. I sponged some EZ Strokes® in coordinating colors over the top for some texture, and did some doodling with black and white French Dimensions™. David told me that this was his favorite piece of mine, which is quite a compliment considering how it all started!

 

This is the piece that got me seeing ceramics in a whole new light. The beach scene is one of David's signature designs and he taught me how to paint it using EZ Strokes®. You can use them exactly like you would watercolor paint. He showed me how to combine colors, mix them with water for more subtle effects, and double load the brush to create shading. This is far different than anything I've ever done on clay, and I was ecstatic to learn about the possibilities. I have a ton of ideas in my head that I want to try using the same products and techniques. Luckily David sent me home with some extra platters and a set of brushes that I can use to do that. I used a clear Satin glaze® over the top for a matte finish.

 

This piece is part of the Duncan® University 'World of Creativity' Series. There are 7 projects that are all animal themed, one for each continent. This is the one for Asia that I absolutely fell in love with when I saw the brochure. I requested that it be one of the projects I did during my time in David's studio. Apparently it's an advanced course, so I earned an extra credit! These pieces were done using yet another new technique...cutting patterns out of contact paper and sticking them on the piece to block off areas that you don't want to paint. It was similar to the Mask 'n Peel™ 
technique I used for the flower vase. The background was done by sponging on different colors of Designer Glazes®. When dry I peeled off the contact paper revealing the seaweed areas. I painted them with Concepts and highlighted them with EZ Strokes®. Next, I peeled the contact paper off of the fish areas and painted them with Concepts®. Lastly, I outlined them with white French Dimensions™
. I mixed a little bit of everything on these...I guess you could call it 'mixed-media ceramics'! Needless to say, I loved making these.

 

This is a David/Laura collaboration...It started off with a base of white Satin Glaze® and then I painted the design over it with EZ Strokes® and Cover Coats®. This technique is called Majolica, which means you apply an underglaze (non-moving, meaning it stays put when fired) on top of a glaze (moving, meaning it melts when fired). The underglaze takes on the sheen of the glaze underneath it so there's no need to apply a clear glaze on top of it. Pretty cool! David cut some heart shapes out of a compressed sponge and showed me how to use EZ Strokes® to sponge on the shapes. He suggested the stems and leaves, an idea which I really liked. Then I finished it off by drawing bold lines and a goofy face on it by using black Concepts® in a squirt bottle with a fine tip.

As you may have guessed, this one was all me. I painted the design using Cover Coats®, did the drawing with Concepts® in a squirt bottle, and finished it with Pure Brilliance®. You'll probably be seeing a lot more like this coming out of my kiln in the near future!

If you are interested in trying your hand at ceramics, you can get all the supplies you need at your local Duncan® distributor. You can find yours here.

If you are interested in attending Duncan® University, find out more about it here.

If you want to take classes with the amazing David Hoff....visit his website at www.davidhoff.com.

It's like winning the lottery, only better.

In August 2009, when I got laid off from my job as account manager for a large corporation, I felt relieved. Maybe I should have been upset or scared, but all I could think about was that this was the one chance I was going to get to do something amazing with my life instead of working in a mundane industry that was sucking the life out of me. The job wasn't horrible, it just wasn't very fulfilling. Fortunately they gave me a small severance package and some money to go back to school with. I took that opportunity to take all the art classes I could find in order to spend every penny that they were offering me (which equated to 54 credits in one year between 3 local community colleges). Why not? No one could understand how I could possibly take that many credits at a time and still do well, but most of them were just going to a 4 hour studio class and making art the whole time. I was quite happy!

A year went by and I ran out of school money , so logically the next step would be for me to find a new job. I looked a little, but there wasn't anything good out there. I didn't want just any job, I wanted a job that I truly loved. While I waited for that to come along, I spent my time developing my blog and website, working on art projects, submitting to contests and magazines, and trying to make a name for myself somewhere out there in the art and craft world.

On December 11th, 2010, my dad unexpectedly passed away and it hit me pretty hard. I didn't do much for a few months except mope around and sleep. Manuel and I took a road trip back to NJ to help my sister go through my parents' belongings and get the house I grew up in ready to go on the market. That was hardest thing I ever had to deal with in my whole entire life. I don't know how I would have gotten through all of it if I had a job I had to go to everyday. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that I wasn't working at the time.

A few more months went by and I tried to get back into the human race. I took an Intro to Art Therapy class at the local community college and considered becoming an art therapist (until I found out that I would need tons of schooling and would never really make decent money). The good thing was that the exercises we had to do in class really helped me deal with the loss of my father and all the other changes that were going in my life at the time.

Shortly after that class was over, Art Unraveled 2011 came along. I credit this amazingly fun art retreat from pulling me completely out of the funk I had been in for so long. I got together with fellow art lovers and friends for a week long of creativity and got flooded with inspiration. As the days went on, I thought of more and more ideas and projects I wanted to start working on. Even after the week was over, I spent my days challenging myself to get back into doing what I love. I signed up for art and craft fairs where I sold my stuff. I submitted to Sew Somerset and got published. I entered Cloth Paper Scissors' Artisan Search contest and was chosen as a finalist. Things were starting to happen! I had never been so excited or happy about what I was doing.

Around that time, a friend and fellow artist that I met at Art Unraveled, Jane Eileen, invited me to her house to visit her studio and do some art journaling. We were chatting about things when she mentioned that Kathy Cano Murillo, a.k.a. the Crafty Chica and my friend on Facebook, had posted about how the company she works for (iLoveToCreate) was looking for someone that had something to do with ceramics. Jane didn't really know what it was about but knew that I liked ceramics so thought I might be interested to look into it more.

I went home and read Kathy's post and it turns out that they were looking for a Regional Accout Manager for their Duncan® (their ceramics brand) line. My eyes practially popped out of my head! I didn't know a position like this even existed! Imagine being able to do what I was trained to do professionally for a company who makes products for the art form I love the most! Needless to say, I sent my resume right over.

After a series of phone calls, iLoveToCreate invited me to Fresno to meet the team and tour their facility. When I got there, I felt like I was at the Happiest Place on Earth (forget Disney!). Everywhere you turned there were art supplies, completed art and craft projects, and people working on the next big thing. There were production lines pumping out bottle after bottle of glues and paints. There was even a store that sold all the products they manufacture, in addition to clays, glass, kilns and wheels. I was in heaven. It was hard for me to stay calm, cool, and collected (you know, professional) when I was surrounded by all of this. I was like a kid in a candy store.

I had to interview with 6 people that day. Normally I would have been a nervous wreck but for some reason I wasn't. Everyone I spoke to was really friendly and made me feel very comfortable....another good sign! Towards the end of the afternoon, I met with the Senior Vice President and Chief Creative Officer, who has to be one of the most amazing ladies I have ever met. I told her about what I had been doing while I was unemployed for the last two years (or was on sabbatical, as I like to call it), and she referred to it as a 'strategic break'. After two years of people asking me why I didn't have a job yet and accusing me of wasting my time with all of this art stuff, imagine how great it was to talk to someone in her position who understood what I was doing! I fell in love with the company and it's team members that very day. I wanted this job more than anything!

A few weeks later, I got the job offer and was packing up to move to Fresno, CA. On my first day of work, I was asked if I was interested in blogging about ceramics for www. ilovetocreate .com (um, YES!). I got to decorate a cardboard puzzle piece with Tulip® and Scribbles® products. They put my name up on the board in the front lobby welcoming me to the company. They talked about me and my accomplishments over the intercom for everyone to hear on my first day of work. The CEO of the company, Larry Duncan himself, sent me a message on Facebook about how he liked my website and added me as a friend. I felt like a movie star!

I write this on the eve of my 2 week anniversary with the company. My job is everything I had hoped for and more. This week we had 'wear your slippers to work day', free Christmas breakfasts and coffee, magic cookie bars baked by the Senior Vice President and Chief Creative Officer herself, a warm clothing drive for a local shelter, and will have a holiday luncheon and ugly sweater contest Friday afternoon. My job requires me to look through ceramics catalogs, browse distributor websites, and keep in the loop of what's going on in the world of art related blogging. I had lunch AND dinner with the Crafty Chica on Tuesday!  Next week I get to go to Duncan University and make ceramics for 3 days with one of Duncan's most experienced Ambassadors. I am going to get to travel to New York City, Seattle, and England (!!!) in the next few months to visit our distributors and go to trade shows. This is the greatest job I could ever have asked for, for greatest company I could have ever hoped to work for, with the greatest employees I have ever met. I feel luckier than I would if I had won the lottery. And that's a very good feeling.

 

 

The board in the lobby welcoming me to the company...

 

The puzzle piece I got to create during my orientation...

 

The front of the iLoveToCreate Building in Fresno, CA...

 

Close up of one of the huge ceramic pieces decorating the front of the building...if it is this fun outside, can you imagine how it is inside?

 

Another close up...

 

And another...

PS to all of those people out there who think my two years of being unemployed, er, I mean being on sabbatical wasn't productive....if I had never taken that time to immerse myself in the world of mixed media art, I would have never known about the Crafty Chica or added her as my friend on Facebook, nor would I have met Jane Eileen who told me about the job in the first place. I knew what I was doing the whole time. So there!

 

Can you guess my favorite color?

I was just looking around my bedroom and realized there is a trend going on...everything I have been buying lately is the same color! First I got a t-shirt on my last visit to NYC based solely on the color. Then I bought a new set of sheets, and then my awesome funky microfiber slippers that not only keep my feet warm, but they pick up dust and dog hair when I walk in them! I used to not even buy slippers because I'd wear them for 5 minutes and I'd get fur all over them and get annoyed. These are supposed to be covered in hair so I don't care! Thank you, Ross Dress for Less.

If you haven't figured it out yet, here's another clue....it's also the color of my car!

 

 

 

Art Unraveled 2011 Day 8 - Creating History and Mystery with Transfers

This is the last day of AU 2011, and it was bittersweet because although I was sad that it was almost over, this was the class I was most looking forward to. I've had Sandra Duran Wilson and Darlene McElroy's book Image Transfer Workshop: Mixed Media Techniques for Successful Transfers for a couple of years and had flipped through it, but I thought it would be too difficult for me to try on my own. That's why I was so excited to see that Sandra was offering a class on how to do transfers this year! What better way to learn a technique than from the artist herself? I am so glad I took this class.

Turns out that these techniques aren't that difficult after a little practice and a little bit of Golden Acrylic Mediums 101. There's about a million mediums in their collection and each one does a little something different than the last. Luckily Sandra gave us handouts which listed the ones we used and how we did it, or else it all would have gotten lost in my mush brain once I got home. Besides the mediums, we also used tape, gesso and citra-solv. Each technique produced a different result, and some worked better than others. Here are the ones that I did which turned out the best:

 

Some kind of polymer medium, can't exactly remember which one.

 

Gesso

 

Tape

After 8 solid days of making art, I was exhausted and I slept for the majority of the next 3 days. I can't believe 3 months have gone by since then! Before I know it, registration for 2012 will be open. I can't wait to see which classes they will be offering next year. I know I'll be signing up for plenty. Will you be joining me?

 

Art Unraveled 2011 Day 7 - Cha Cha Charm Bracelet

Peggy Krzuzweski, mixed media jewelry artist and co-author of Making Mixed Media Art Charms and Jewelry taught this super cool class on how to make a Cha Cha Charm Bracelet. We learned how to make charms out of anything and everything...tiny bottles, game pieces, fibers, polymer clay, bullet cases....you name it. Although she supplied more than enough trinkets to keep us occupied, we were asked to bring some of our own from home. I brought my stash of polymer clay, fiber and wire beads that I had made a few years ago that were begging to be used. I turned them into charms and attached them along with more fibers to a chain to create this piece:

 

 

 

I have yet to put together all of the other beautiful mixed media charms we made that night but will do eventually. Peggy brought some of her work to class to show us the things we can do with everyday objects. It's amazing how she turns the most mundane items into beautiful jewelry! It just goes to show that you should never throw anything out (as if I didn't already know that!).

 

Art Unraveled 2011 Day 6 - Making Collage Papers

I'm glad I only scheduled one class for this day because after yesterday's craziness I needed a break! Last  year I took a class with Sandra Duran Wilson and loved it so much that I signed up for 2 more this year. The first one was making collage papers. We played with all kinds of cool stuff like shaving cream, fibers, handmade stamps, and Golden acrylic media. I could have spent all day making papers but we only had 3 hours to work with. I have yet to incorporate these into any of my art pieces, but it's definitely on the list of things to do. I especially want to do more with the fibers.