new work

I have been playing with the new Open Acrylics by Golden, and thought it was about time I shared some of my attempts. The Open acrylics are lovely to work with - they are designed to allow more fluid working, and feel more like oil paints. I have been trying to work more impasto, although it is hard to let go and nto strive for realism. The first is a generic 'zoi image I found on the web. I apologise to the owner who took the gorgeous original that I found so inspiring - I forgot to record whose dog it was.

This one is of Tiara. Both paintings are small (8x10 on canvas).

I have also been playing with encaustics again, and finished this landscape (8x10 on 2" cradled wood).
 

Thansk for looking!

How cool is this!

I finally tried to fuse some glass this weekend. It was so simple to do. I used a schedule I found online, and it took 14 hours! Rio Grande says I can shorten it significantly, so I will try the easier way next time. There are just so many fun possibilities with fused glass!

Although I haven't posted in a while, I have been doing a variety of different creative ventures. I finally signed up for the introduction to silversmithing through Bedrock, and absolutely LOVED the course. We learned how to solder, make rings, two kinds of settings (bezel and tube), and pierced metal. It was so great and so inspiring. I signed up for an on-line newsletter called Jewelry Making Daily, and won this book!

http://www.interweavestore.com/Jewelry/Books/Silversmithing-for-Jewelry-Makers.html

This is an absolutely fabulous book. Before I took the course, it would have all seemed quite daunting and mysterious, but now that I understand some of the terms, I can see that this book has such a wealth of information that it will become one of my main references from now on. Each technique has a section providing details about what it is and what it does, and then there are little projects to follow along and try the technique. It seemed small (190 pages in soft binding), but it has an encyclopedia worth of information packed into the pages.

Definitely worth the investment at twice the price.

Fox

This little fox was in our back yard the other day. Robert looked out the back door, and there she was, lying in the sun looking perfectly content. By the time he got the camera out, she was headed off to look for food, but stopped and posed in this perfectly stacked position, so he could get a nice shot of her structure. Such a beautiful little creature!

encaustics

Now that my drawing course is done, I finally feel like I can play again, so I dug out my encaustics and painted a couple of pictures of trees. The one above is small - about 8 inches square, and the one below is about 12 inches square. Both are done on claybord.

update

I have been taking a drawing class lately, so my artwork hasn't really been anything worth sharing. I did this quick sketch of Rhaynie before the class started, because I was thinking it would be a good image for a business card. The whole thing doesn't work too well, because it isn't really the right shape, but a cropped close up of her head might work.

The pictures below are some sketches done in class. They are quite big, and didn't photograph well, but they give you an idea about what has been keeping me busy. I am glad to be done with the course, though, because now I cna get back to the many half-finished projects waiting for my attention.

Thanks for taking a look!

Silver Clay Zoi

I mentioned to someone the other day that I had purchased a silver clay kiln, and that I wanted to try a 'zoi pin. She asked if I had enough skill to do a decent job, and I must admit I did hesitate before answering. I had to try it immediately, and I think it came out OK. What do you think? It was quite a bit larger before I fired it, but this is a nice petite size. I'm not sure it is worth the $60 in materials, though. And so far it is just a flat image of a 'zoi - I still don't know how to do silver solder, so it doesn't have a pin back yet. Next lesson, silver solder!