The Peculiar Palette

Gratitude

To the person who broke into my car Monday night and stole my cell phone: Thank you for the warm welcome to the neighborhood! It gave me the motivation I needed to make room in the garage so I can park my car in there, and to stop procrastinating about getting the locks to the house rekeyed. I sure don't want the squatters or the previous owners to come back. Plus I was able to make friends with a nice deputy from the sheriff's department and get to know my insurance agent a little better. And you should see how clean my car is now that the glass replacement guy vacuumed it out! He even cleaned all the other windows of the car besides the one you smashed into a billion little pieces. That giant blob of tree sap that has been in my line of vision on my windshield for the last 2 months is finally gone! I really enjoyed finding out about the calls you made on my phone and then suspending my service so you can't use it anymore. What can I say? I'm a little spiteful. I can't wait for you to try and activate it somewhere else and have it come up on the lost and stolen list. I feel bad that you went through all that trouble to take something that is now virtually useless to you! I hope to see you around the neighborhood again. I'll introduce you to George, my 90 pound pit bull. I think he'll really like you!

Sincerely,
Laura

Tossed Salad and Scrambled Eggs

I love Frasier. It's probably my all time favorite show, and I still jump at the chance to watch any rerun I can find on TV (which are becoming very hard to find, BTW). When Frasier was in his hayday, I went on a vacation to Seattle to see what all the hype was about and I loved it. It was durinig the last week of August and the sun was shining bright the whole time.  Everything was green. Coffee was everywhere you looked. Fresh flowers, fish and vegetables were practically at your fingertips. Craft beer was flowing freely. What's not to love?

I was excited to find out that I was required to return to my favorite place for work, since the NCECA conference (see my previous post) was there. I couldn't wait to go back! I knew there'd be much more rain this time since I was going in March, and that I wouldn't have time to check out much of the town because I'd be mostly working, but I don't care. It was fun anyway! Plus after living in Phoenix for about 15 years, I was looking forward to the rain. I think I have seen enough sunshine to last me a lifetime.

I was able to wander around town for a little while one afternoon and took some pics. These are some of my favorites...

 

The famous Pikes Place Market...

The sign looks even more interesting from the back.

 

 

a look at the water...

 

view from above...

 

security guard...

 

entertainment...

 

Lunchtime...

 

Bathtime...

 

I love these pictures because they're so gray. They really capture the weather that day.

 

Interesting street lights...

 

 

Embedded in the sidewalk...

 

My next post will be all about the things I saw at Pike's Market, so stay tuned!

 

 

We worked AND banged on the drum all day.

Not one of my favorite songs, I admit, but it now has special meaning to me.

There is a yearly event called NCECA, which stands for the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. It's a three day long event that offers workshops, demonstrations, lectures, gallery exhibits, guest artists, shopping...if it has to do with pottery, you will find it here.  Ever since I started taking pottery class 10 years ago, I've been hearing about this magical conference which brings together everything cool about ceramics. I always wanted to go but it is costly, and I could never get time off of work to do it. Well, guess what? This year I was REQUIRED to go for my cool new job at iLoveToCreate® (aw, man!...do I have to?)! I got to spend 5 fabulous days in Seattle surrounded by pottery. Yay!

Considering this was a work related trip, afterall, I was required to 'work' the vendor exhibit at the Duncan® booth and pass my newly acquired plethora of knowlege about the Duncan® brand on to potential customers. I use the term 'work' loosely, because it was so much fun that I feel guilty calling it that. Our booth was set up like a concert stage and we were sounded by instruments the whole time. We had a mosaicked drum set made by artist Michele Zulim, fantastic chickens and flowers made by Sara Hall, and a collection of percussion instruments made by John Martin III.

John is not only a ceramic artist, he is also a percussionist who plays with a Flemenco band in Fresno called Cerro Negro. How lucky were we that he agreed to come with us to the show and play his handmade instruments for the whole three days? It was AWESOME! We were the highlight of the show. I even have a video of one of our competitors (who will remain anonymous) saying that our booth was the best in show!

Our booth was completely interactive, and the attendees were able to come in and play along with John. We (my co-workers Madi and Ken and I) were also allowed to play, but we didn't really do that until John left the booth. He was so good at it that we were (at least I was, I can't really speak for them) kind of embarassed to play in front of him. The second he left, though, we were rockin' out!

This was just too cool. I now have another goal to add to my list.....to make a collection of ceramic instruments for my backyard. Once accomplished, I'll be inviting my peeps over for jam sessions. With any luck my neighbors won't petition to have me removed from the neighborhood.

Check out pics from the show!

 

 

 

Samples of Concepts® Glazes Really Red that we were giving out.

 

Stage left.

 

Stage right.

 

Mosaicked drum set by Michele Zulim.

 

Close up.

 

Andy Warhol-esque.

 

Tubes of different sizes which all had a different pitch when you hit the opening with the palm of your hand. These are painted with our Concepts® Glazes.

 

Udu drum...this I think was John's favorite instrument to play. He had it hooked up to an amplifier and it made some really cool sounds.  It was hooked up wirelessly so he was able to walk around while playing it and lure people into our booth.

 

These are small shakers. Each was filled with different small bead like materials. These were the easiest to play and were my instrument of choice. This set was painted with Renaissance Glazes™.

 

Another set of shakers painted with Crystals Glazes™ .

 

This John called his Tooba. Since each one is a different length, they each made different pitched sounds when you hit the opening with a foam mallet. These are painted with Renaissance Glazes™.

 

Chimes decorated with Courtyard Art Glazes™.

 

Bells of different sizes, each having a different tone. John played these using a stick with a rubber ball at the end of it. These also are Renaissance Glazes™.

 

Future musician in training.

 

His name is Duncan, who wanted his picture taken by the Duncan® sign.

 

Here's a video of John in action:

It's always nice to meet an idol.

When I first moved to the Fresno area a few months ago, I decided to Google 'Fresno pottery' to see what came up. At that point I was convinced that there wasn't much art here, which would have been one of the things I missed the most about living in Phoenix. Imagine my surprise when my search returned a place called Clay Mix, where you can rent out studio space and make pottery. Even more surprising was that they were going to have a demonstration and lecture by one of my favorite ceramic artists....Kevin Snipes! I couldn't believe my eyes. He was coming to FRESNO of all places. I didn't waste a second before I purchased a ticket to the event.

I am drawn to Kevin's work for several reasons. He's not afraid to use color, which I love. He combines printmaking with clay, which is something I've been trying to do for years. And I can totally relate to his drawings because I've been known to draw unrealistic looking people myself (just a few). His work is completely different from anything I've ever seen, and is so totally recognizable. I love the fact that he gets his inspiration mostly from art forms other than ceramics, because that's what I do too! It's kind of like mixed media ceramics, which are my two favorite things combined.

Here are some pics of the demonstration. He taught us some great techniques! If you ever get a chance to see him live I highly recommend it.

 

Building with slabs....

 

Preliminary drawings...

Adding color....

 

First side finished...

 

Opposite side finished.

 

A finished piece that was for sale at Clay Mix.

 

More finished work...

 

I love his characters!

 

This day was also exciting for me because I got to use my brand new SMASH book for the very first time. I took notes during the workshop and glued in the flyer that advertised the workshop. Because I am a totally dorky art groupie, I asked Kevin to sign his autograph on the flyer. I'm sure he thinks I'm crazy now, but I'm okay with that!

 

 

Magically Delicious Mixed Media Beads at Art Unraveled!

If you've ever read my blog you would know that I am a HUGE fan of Art Unraveled...a blissful 8 day art retreat held every August in Phoenix. It is by far my favorite week of the year! This year I have the  honor of teaching one of my workshops - Magically Delicious Mixed Media Beads - at this amazing event. If you've never heard of or been to Art Unraveled and you are a fan of all things artsy, I highly recommend that you check it out! As an added bonus, this year is AU's 10th Anniversary and to celebrate, Linda is offering a 10% discount on all classes if you get your registration in by March 15th. That's not too far away, but you still have time to take advantage of the discount if you hurry! I hope to see you there!

Here is a description of my class....

Magically Delicious Mixed Media Beads

No you can’t eat them, but they’ll look as good as candy! Turn your favorite mixed media art supplies into jewelry that’s truly a work of art. In this class you’ll learn how to incorporate fibers, fabric, wire, seed beads, collage papers, crystals, glitter and more into basic polymer clay beads. You’ll leave with a diverse assortment of beads to add to your stash. Basic bead stringing techniques will also be demonstrated so you’ll be armed and ready to go home and make some fabulous mixed media jewelry!

Materials fee of $10 payable to Instructor at class time includes:

• Toothpicks
• Colored wire
• Use of polymer clay oven
• Fibers and yarn
• Rubber stamps
• Glitter
• Adhesives
• Seed beads
• Small plastic cups and trays
• Acrylic paint

Students should bring:

• Set of Clay Bead Making Tools, available in the polymer clay section in craft stores
• 2 packages of black polymer clay (Fimo soft or Sculpey 3)
• Polymer clay scraps, any color (if you have them and want to recycle)
• Clay conditioning (pasta) machine, if desired
• Squeeze bottle with fine tips (available at dickblick.com)
• 2 inexpensive round paintbrushes (size 2 and 4)
• 1 inexpensive size 4 flat paintbrush
• Glass beads (the tiny ones that don’t have holes)
• Seed beads, fibers, funky yarns, flatback crystals or rhinestones, glitter, ribbon…bring what you already have on hand
• Collage, scrapbook paper, and fabric scraps

 

Questions? Email Laura at atclaura@yahoo.com
Website: www.thepeculiarpalette.com

 

Fantasy Film and Fiber Fish Art Quilt

I had so much fun with my last project for the Art Glitter Institute (Fantasy Film Art Quilt....No Sewing Required) that I decided to make another one and add Fantasy Fibers this time! This is getting addicting...

 

 

Supplies I used:

Tulip® Brand Fabric Spray Paint™, Beads in a Bottle™, Slick Dimensional Paint, cotton broadcloth (approx. 18" x 24"), cotton muslin, parchment paper,  Art Glitter Institute's Fantasy Film and Fantasy Fibers, Pellon's Wonder Under®, Fabric Dries Clear Adhesive

I started with a piece of muslin that I sprayed with various colors of Tulip® spray fabric paint for my background. I used a fish that I made in a workshop I took with Pattie Wilkinson where she taught how to use Tulip® Fabric Markers with a paintbrush and water to create a watercolor effect. I ironed Pellon's Wonder Under® onto the back of the fish (remember to always cover your project with parchment paper when ironing so you don't get your iron gooey), cut him out, peeled off the backing sheet and ironed him onto the background. I took a few pinches of each color Fantasy Fibers and arranged them randomly around the fish, put parchment paper over them and ironed for a few seconds. To hold it in place I brushed some Fabric Dries Clear Adhesive behind the fibers with a paintbrush.

I then cut three same size pieces of yellow Fantasy Film, layered them on top of one another, sandwiched them between two sheets of parchment paper and ironed for a few seconds. I repeated this process for the pink and blue Fantasy Film. Next I applied the Wonder Under to the ironed Fantasy Film pieces according to package directions.  I cut out random long wavy triangle shapes to represent seaweed with the pink and yellow film, and different size circles of blue for the bubbles. I peeled off the backing paper from the Wonder Under, arranged the shapes I cut out onto my quilt, covered it with parchment paper and ironed them on. Again, so easy! I applied a few more layers of the different colors of fibers to make the piece look more dimensional.

I finished off the project by applying Beads in a Bottle™ to areas of the fish and outlined the shapes in Slick Dimensional Paint.

 

 

 

 

I'm sad to say that this is my last of 6 projects I made as Guest Designer for the Art Glitter Institute and I will miss doing them. I hope you enjoyed my posts! I will continue to come up with new ideas and techniques for using their products, so make sure to visit my blog to see what I come up with.

Creatively Yours,

Laura

Groceries from the East

Happy Sunday! Today is an extra special Sunday because I have off from work tomorrow for President's Day, which is a luxury I've never had before (have I mentioned that I love my new job?). I think I am going to spend the rest of the long weekend artsing and crafting, as long as I don't get caught up in another Gossip Girl marathon. We'll see how it goes.

This blog post is also special because it is the first one I am posting that is written on my new computer, a present I recently bought myself for my 40th birthday! It is so fantastic. I had a good laptop until it broke, and I couldn't find anyone who could fix it. So I had been using my 10 year old PC which was so slow and pathetic that I would click on something and it wouldn't come up for at least 2 minutes. It was very frustrating and I was becoming very unproductive with computer work. I am so glad that problem has been solved! And I ended up splurging on a Mac since most of the computer work I do is on Photoshop or Dreamweaver. I must say, it's da bomb!

Although I am excited to use the new computer for photo editing, I have been obsessed with editing with apps for my iPhone lately. There are some cool things out there! As I mentioned, Instagram was my original favorite, but then I found Pic Grunger and Camera+ which are giving my first love a run for it's money. The photos I am about to share with you I edited while laying in bed last night about about 1 am. How cool are they? Quick and easy, that's just my style!

My friend Malyna brought me to an Asian Market here in Fresno on Friday because I wanted to find food like the kind I ate at the Hmong New Year's Celebration (read that post here). I find it so interesting to see what people from other parts of the world eat on a regular basis. I can't say I want to try much of it, but it definitely looks interesting. I whipped out my iPhone and took some pictures of some of the most unique things I found:

 

Sugar cane. You are supposed to cut it up and chew on it to get the sweetness out. I thought it was bamboo stalks at first. They're huge!

 

More sugar cane. This looks so cool that I think I'm going to print it out and use it in a collage one of these days.

 

This was some kind of root that had hair...

 

Another unidentified root type thing...

 

Large selection of energy shots. I guess America isn't the only place where they are popular!

 

Grass jelly? Wonder what that tastes like.

 

These cute little bottles of extracts and essences were picture worthy.

 

They had an extensive selection of meatballs. You name it and they had balls made out of it.

 

These sacks of rice put my little box of Minute Rice that usually lasts me a year to shame!

 

If you ever get sick of the usual canned fruit at the local grocery store (pineapple, oranges, peaches and fruit cocktail), try some of this! I never even heard of any of these fruits except for coconut.

 

Mmm, quail eggs in brine...

 

Not sure what Cassia is, but it sure does look cool!

 

Black fungus. I'm sure they could have found a better name for this.

 

Lotus Stalks. I hear they are super bitter. I'll take Malyna's word for it!

I ended up coming home with a broiled chicken, some egg rolls, sticky rice, sweet sauce and a few other goodies. I've been eating it all weekend and everything is delicious. None of it is very daring, but I'm okay with that!

Instagram = Insta-gratification

I admit it. Most of the time when I see a new artsy technique that I think is cool, I become somewhat obsessed. This can be proven by looking at my extensive array of beads, polymer clays, paper, acrylic paints, rubber stamps...(or by seeing my debit card statements that are plastered with charges made at art and craft supply stores). The iPhone app Instagram is no exception to my obsessive tendencies. It is just fantastic. I love taking pictures, but since I don't have the greatest camera in the world I would always take them, download them to my computer, edit the begeezus out of them in Photoshop,  figure out where I want to share them, then wait for them to upload on my website of choice. All of these steps add up to a nice big chunk of time! Then one of my Facebook friends recommended downloading Instagram when I asked about 'must have apps' for my new iPhone. I had never heard of it but I trusted her recommendation and downloaded it.

O.M.G.

You can make your pictures look SO cool just by using the few options they offer. It is so simple! Here are the steps (there may be more options than I am aware of but this is how I do it):

1. Take a picture with your iPhone or choose one from your gallery
2. Crop it
3. Decide whether you want a frame or not (press the square icon)
4. Decide whether you want to blur some of it or not (press the drop icon)
5. Choose one of 12 or so filters that makes your photo look vintage and cool
6. Write a caption
7. Upload it to Facebook or save it on your phone.

It literally takes about 30 seconds and you will be shocked that you have such great looking photos. And you don't have to wait until you're home to download your photos to your computer and spend hours Photoshopping them all. Instant gratification! Here are some of the ones I've taken so far.

 

This is what the morning sunshine looks like on my bedroom blinds.

 

The wall o' glasses at my eye doctor's office

 

My dusty keyboard at work...

 

Awesome button made by Alexa Westerfield.

 

My friend Pattie Wilkenson's Zentangle inspired couch!

 

Tie Dyes in the making...

 

Sparkly birthday presents from my friends Kathy Cano-Murillo and Alexa Westerfield.

 

One of my mosaic skulls

 

The crazy resident cat in my cat Poopie's cardiologist's office

 

Dora being very happy because she was playing in the woods.

 

Dora being very sad because I woke her up to take her picture.

 

If you've got an iPhone, I recommend you give it a try! You will find yourself taking pictures of everything you can find because this app lets you make even the most mundane subjects look FABULOUS! Have fun! And if you're already using it, let's follow each other! My user name is thepeculiarpalette

 

Holy Mugs, Batman!

One of the many perks of working at iLoveToCreate® is that every month during our sales meeting we get to make a fun project using the supplies we make.  My boss had volunteered to lead the group of 50 or so people in a ceramics related project for January. As it turned out, he also was scheduled to go on a buisness trip the week that the meeting was taking place, so he volunteered me and my counterpart, Ken, to host the project (I still think this was strategically planned so that he didn't have to do it himself...lol). This was the first month I attended one of these meetings (since I am still new to the company) and thought I would be nervous about getting up in front of so many people that I have to work with everyday so early in my career. Surprisingly, I wasn't! I really enjoy showing others how to make art. This was just another confirmation that I am definitely in the right place, because if someone had asked me to do a presentation on salad dressing or reptile sales (other catagories I was responsible for in my life before iLoveToCreate®) I wouldn't have been nearly as comfortable. It ended up being a lot of fun!

We had everyone decorate one of our brand new Duncan® Oh Four® Bisque heart mugs (just released in January!) with a variety of Duncan Concepts® Underglazes. Then the Ceramic Arts team dipped each mug in Pure Brilliance® Clear Glaze and fired them all. They turned out great! Take a look...

 

 

Loading the kiln..

 

Before firing...

 

What we found in the kiln the next morning...

 

It was a little like Christmas..

 

Mugs as far as the eye could see...

 

Mugs stacked to the ceiling...well I might be exaggerating a little. They were stacked high though!

 

See?

 

 

Each one was so different.

 

How's this for eye candy?

 

This little guy is my personal favorite...

 

We got our ducks, er I mean mugs, all in a row...

 

The end...for now.

Fantasy Film Art Quilt....No Sewing Required!

I recently developed a love for art quilts, and even though my sewing is less than stellar I am crazy about making them. I recently moved and have yet to unpack my plethora of art and craft supplies, but I was jonsing to be crafty this past weekend so I put up a folding table, grabbed what paint and supplies I could easily find (miscellaneous fabric paints, Art Glitter Institute's Fantasy Film, some fabric and a few tie dyed papertowels I had in my stash) , and went to town...I didn't feel like unburying my sewing machine so I used the next best thing to put my quilt together with...Pellon's Wonder Under®! This stuff is great. With nothing more than an iron and a sheet of parchment paper, you can turn anything into an iron on transfer. The Fantasy Film was so much fun to work with, and it brought a whole new life to my finished quilt. I'm going to start putting it on everything from now on!

Supplies I used:

Tulip® Brand Fabric Spray Paint™, Beads in a Bottle™, Slick Dimensional Paint, cotton broadcloth (approx. 18" x 24"), paper towels, Art Glitter Institute's Fantasy Film, Pellon's Wonder Under®, acrylic paint.

I started by spraying the broadcloth with various colors of the fabric spray paint.  At this point I didn't know exactly what my finished product was going to be, but I knew Iwanted to make a sunset so I sprayed blue at the top and faded it into the purple and orange. Next, I drew out my picture with a pencil so I knew where to place the pieces I was about to cut out. I then cut three same size pieces of yellow Fantasy Film, layered them on top of one another, sandwiched them between two sheets of parchment paper and ironed for a few seconds. I repeated this process for the pink and blue Fantasy Film. Next I applied the Wonder Under to the ironed Fantasy Film pieces according to package directions.  I cut 7 triangles out of the yellow, 3 cloud shapes out of the blue and 12 petals out of the pink. I did all of this freehand since I'm not exactly a stickler for accuracy.

I arranged the shapes I cut out onto my quilt, covered it with parchment paper and ironed them on. Viola! They were stuck and no sewing was required. I applied the Wonder Under to the tie dyed papertowels in the same fashion, cut out mountain shapes and ironed those on next. A whole landscape was starting to form!

To finish the project, I used acrylic paint to color the faces of the sun and flower, enhanced them by outlining them with black and green dimensional paint, and used Beads in a Bottle™ to create some texture in the sky and in the mountains.

I have yet to decide how I'm going to finish the quilt.  I will probably add complimentary fabrics around the edges and make a wall hanging out of it, that is once I find my sewing machine!