Saturday, April 30, 2011

Workshop at Tinsel Trading Company



BOHEMIAN ROMANCE - AN ILLUMINATED JOURNEY

Have you heard? Tinsel Trading is starting up workshops again and I've been asked to teach a class there. I'm very excited to offer my class, "Bohemian Romance- an illuminated journey" as we spend the afternoon doing some mixed media magic and a touch of soldering for good measure, as we transform metal lampshades into our own personal chandeliers.




















I've made many of these little beauties and each one is prettier than the next! I've personalized them for my house and as gifts. (this one is a birthday gift as well. I wonder if she'll be able to figure it out....) For the class sample (pictures above), I used a combination of personal items, items donated by Tinsel Trading for me to incorporate into my sample and also a few goodies I purchased from that store that I fell in love and knew would be perfect for my project.

So come join me on June 25th from 12:30 to 4:30. you can find more details on The Tinsel Trading website. If you know anyone who will be in NYC at that time, let them know about the class!

Friday, April 29, 2011

Kerin Gale's book blog hop tour



Mixed media artist Kerin Gale has published a wonderful book; Inspired Remnants, Curious Dreams; Mixed Media Projects in Epoxy Clay by North Light Books. A collaborative artist at heart, Kerin has put together a blog hop book tour with a variety of mixed media artists participating on their blogs. Everyday you can visit a new blog and read their posts relating to the book and how they’ve used epoxy clay in their art. The Inspired Remnants, Curious Dreams tour begins May 1st and concludes May 22nd. Every blog will have prizes (see list below) in addition to their own giveaway (if they choose). All you have to do is leave comments in the blogs you hop too to be eligible to win a prize.

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Kerin teaches online workshops on how to work with epoxy clay, so here is some info for you in case you want to give it a try. Book & Online Workshop Bundles - special pricing of $5 off. All you need to do is put in the name of my blog when checking out through Paypal and you will receive the $5 back.

A) Resin Clay Pendants Workshop + Book = $35 + shipping (only $30 for blog hoppers)

B) Vintage Gentleman Workshop + Book = $40 + shipping (only $35 for blog hoppers)

C) Both Workshops + Book = $70 + shipping (only $65 for blog hoppers)


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here's a list of the prizes:

1) One Aves Power Pack (selection of their most popular formulas) from http://AvesStudio.com


2) Fluid Chalks Online Workshop by Lesley Venable on her The Art Of Altering site which features many other awesome online workshops http://theartofaltering.ning.com/group/fluidchalksbackgroundsbeyond


3) Two Digital Collage Sheets by Alicia Caudle of Altered Bits. You can see her very unique and cool collection here.

4) Sample pack of Silputty 40 silicone putty mold mix from Silpak.

5) 1 OZ ICE Resin and a mixed metal bezel from ICE Resin


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6) Grand Prizes For Book Reviews*



Any reader that writes a review ~ however short or long~ of Inspired Remnants, Curious Dreams on amazon.com before July 31, 2011 and sends an email with the title “Inspired Remnants Review” to remnants.art@gmail.com will be entered in a drawing to win one of these prizes. Please note that your honest opinion is wanted on this review.



1) The art piece featured on the cover of the book, “Sacred Totem”

2) Power Pack plus extra Fixit Sculpt clay from Aves Studio

3) Frozen Charlotte Doll with digital tutorial “How To Crackle Charlottes” from Alicia Caudle

4) Resin Clay Pendants online workshop by Kerin Gale

5) Vintage Gentleman online workshop by Kerin Gale

6) Choice of any one workshop being taught by Kerin and Charley at Art Is You retreat in Petaluma, CA. The registration fee and workshop cost are both waived.


7) One copy each of Jen Cushman's book, Explore, Create, Resinate and Susan Lenart-Kazmer's book, Making Connections plus ICE Resin and a selection of bezels


* Please note prizes include shipping to U.S. addresses only.

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have fun on the book tour! here's a list of the participating artists:

May 1
Kerin Gale
Remnants of Olde: http://RemnantsOfOlde.com/posts


May 2
Alicia Caudle
Altered Bits: http://alteredbits.wordpress.com/


May 3
Lesley Venable
Flatwoods Folk Art: http://www.flatwoodsfolkart.typepad.com/


May 4
Christine Lehto
Lilly Bug Studio: http://lillybugstudio.com/blog/



May 5
Seth Apter
The Altered Page: http://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/



May 6
Nancy Perennec
Little Bit Wired: http://littlebitwired.blogspot.com/


May 7
Jen Cushman
ICE Queen Zine: http://www.iceresin.com/category/inspired-remnants-blog-tour/


May 8
Happy Mother’s Day!

May 9
Beth Robinson
Strange Dolls: http://strangedolls.wordpress.com/


May 10
Brenda Schweder
Brenda Schweder Jewelry: http://www.brendaschweder.com/


May 11
Esther Verschoor
Vanessie Art Dolls: http://vanessies.blogspot.com


May 12
Kecia Deveny
Lemoncholy’s Flight of Fancy: http://www.lemoncholys.blogspot.com/


May 13
Rachel Whetzel
A Year In The Life Of An Art Journal: http://oneyearartjournal.blogspot.com/


May 14
Shannon LeVart
MissFickleMedia.com: http://missficklemediacom.blogspot.com/


May 15
Marlaine Verhelst
Marlaine Verhelst Art Dolls: http://marlaineverhelst.com/blog/


May 16
Lisa Jurist
Mud Hound Studio: http://mudhoundprimitives.blogspot.com/


May 17
Michelle Bernard
Yesterday’s Trash: http://michellereneebernard.blogspot.com/

May 18
Kerin Gale
Remnants of Olde – Alan Rogerson feature: http://RemnantsOfOlde.com/posts


May 19
Facebook Party!
Apoxie Clay & Epoxy Clays Page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/home.php?sk=group_158159677562761

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On my featured day, May 12th, I will be posting my giveaway for my blog only. Just a little something i made using AVES expoxy clay.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

blogging series by Seth Apter

My buddy, Seth of The Altered Page, is doing a series on blogging tips over at Create Mix Media. Looks to be a good one, so pop on over there.

here some of the great questions he posed to himself:

"Since discovering art blogs, I have asked myself many different questions at different points along my journey. What makes a blog ‘successful’ and how is success even defined? Why do some blogs seem to get all the attention, visitors, and comments while others don’t? Should an artist’s blog be devoted to art, to personal issues, or perhaps a combination of both? Can a post have too many words or not enough pictures (like this one)? How can I get a bigger audience and should I even care about that? Should I pay attention to the number of hits I get and all those other stats? Will my readers come back if I take a break or change the style of my art? Is anybody even reading what I write?"

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The dynamics of a popular blog are complex because it all depends on what others are looking for. Some people absolutely HATE music on other blogs and I've even have people say they absolutely will not read a blog with music on it. I don't agree with that (that's what my mute button is for!), but that's their opinion and they are part of that invisible viewership out there that make up the world of blog stats. Personally, I like blogs with lots of visual imagery in their posts. I like a combination of personal and art infused into blogs (like mine). I like blogs where the writer has a quirky sense of humor. I don't like blogs that are too political, negative or mean spirited. I know some people worry about comments and why they don't get many. I think people are just too busy to leave comments. They want to read and move on, because their time is limited. If a blog post really hits home with them, they will leave a comment. I don't get caught up in stats as i think that takes the fun out of what my blog is for me, fun and a cyber diary of sorts. I do think the more you blog, the better. (meaning don't wait too long between postings, as you will lose your readers) But again, remember, these are just how i like things. others have their likes and dislikes and there we come to the beginning again of what appeals to others!

I will be participating in Seth's series because I am always willing and eager to learn something new.

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P.S.

I am excited to announce that I will be teaching a class at Tinsel Trading in NYC on June 25th. Details coming soon!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

iphone fun

Have i ever told you that i LoVe my iphone? well i do! Dillon says i have a problem.... (guess he noticed it while we were traveling) i can't help myself. i love gadgets, i love photography and i love my iphone!

I found an app that allows you to doodle on your photographs. It's called DrawCast. I enjoy it because it gives me a chance to practice painting in faces. I can keep doodling til i feel like it is right and don't have to worry about paint, mess or ruining it!






the first photo (above) was of some street graffiti that i took while walking around downtown Seattle. Then i did some sketching/painting in DrawCast for the second picture.

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in the next group i used a photo that i took outside a store in Seattle. It's a pretty, patina'd angel statuary. It was fun to draw on this photo because the face was already set up for me.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Easter, we are home!


Well, Dillon and I have returned from our whirlwind drive to and back from Florida to go check out his college, Full Sail University. We did a tour, checked out the campus, the surroundings area and then went to see his apartment complex. I can't speak for Dillon, but I enjoyed every second of this quality time spent with him. It reaffirmed what I knew all along, that Dillon is an amazing young man and he will do just fine when he goes off to school. (course i'll be popping in occasionally to visit and we are getting a 2 bedroom apartment (no roommates) so that jeff and i can come and go as we please. I'm working on getting some classes set up while i am in the area as well; so that will be fun.

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the first day we left, we had a little bit of excitement. Occasionally I was updating my status on facebook by "checking in", which will put your current location of where you are at on your wall. Then i got a message on my wall from an old high school buddy, Sherri, who told me that I might want to keep an ear out on weather updates, as tornado warnings had been issued in North Carolina, the direction we were heading. She promised to keep updating my wall, so we sort of knew what was going on as we drove through the rain. Finally the rain got pretty bad and we pulled over at a rest stop. We noticed many travelers inside gathered around the tv, so i figured, uh-oh; we'd better find out what's going on. A phone call to my husband told us that it was time to get off the road and that tornados were touching down on I-95. So we pulled over at the first hotel we could find. The lobby was packed with weary travels, crying babies, whiney children, scared pets and young kids running around with their camera phones. As we were walking into the hotel, the wind got really "swirly" and roof bits starting coming off. We got soaked in a matter of seconds. We checked into our room, but had zero communication as satellites were down.




pouring rain at our hotel and a pretty rainbow peeks out as the storm begins to pass

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We lost a lot of time by pulling over early (plus a 3 hour delay around the DC area)- that we decided to leave around 5am to make up our time. Stopping for coffee, we learned that I-95 south had been closed down last night when a tracker trailer rig was knocked over and that a tornado had touched down not 30 miles from us in Fayetteville, North Carolina. We drove thru the town and were speechless and the debris and damage we were seeing. One house out in a large field was surrounded by about 30 trees. every one of those trees had been sheared in half. it was very sad to see.



we took a potty break at this huge tourist trap in Dillon, SC. We were grateful for a sunny driving day!


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2 hours from Orlando, we made a pit stop at this art store in Jacksonville, Florida called Reddi-Arts.


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the next morning we are up and ready to see the school, check out the area and look at his apartment complex. Full Sail University is a media school (art, music and film). Dillon is getting into the video gaming aspect of the school. It is an accelerated program, meaning he will go there full time and leave in 3 years with his Masters.










the school has its own back lot movie backdrop. The school also bought up an aging strip mall next to their campus and are utilizing those buildings as well. Many restaurants for the kids to eat at surround the campus. the kids tend to be on campus 40 hours a week, so they are busy busy!


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next we headed over to tour the apartment complex that we are going with. We really liked it. It was very established with trees (not stripped to the bare bones like some housing areas are). there is a pretty lake surrounding the apartments. Dillon got a really good feeling there.









the lake is stocked with fish for fishing and we saw lots of turtles and ducks. the shot i took below is fun - it's a duck's hiney with a gold colored dragon fly sitting on the duck's feathers.



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the next day we hit Cocoa Beach and lounged about for a few hours. it felt good to soak up the sun.





i thought these 2 little ballerinas on the beach were adorable!

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back at the hotel, I dropped Dillon off and I headed out to make a run to Hobby Lobby. We don't have them in NJ, so I was excited to find one. on the way back to the hotel, a sudden rainstorm came in hard. As i inched my way back to the hotel, I saw a double rainbow and snapped this pic from my car window. Not 3 miles away and Dillon didn't get any of that same storm.





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our last day in town, we decided to go on an airboat road. I am so glad we did, as it was a blast! we got to see lots of gators (ewww) and many herons (yay!)










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after the boat ride, we decided to stop at the Orlando Wetlands Park. Not knowing what to expect, we started walking around. then i saw this sign..........




he blends into the water, but not 15 feet away, dillon is staring at a gator (yuck)







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Later in the evening, we meet up with new friend, Cami and her husband in downtown, Winter Park for some drinks. We went to a cool place called The Wine Room. Downtown Winter Park is really pretty. We enjoyed walking around, seeing the gardens, the stores, there are museums and Cami says there are 2 big street art shows that are a lot of fun.





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Time to head back home. I decided last minute to reroute us to go by my old alma mater, Elon College (now a university) in Elon, NC. In my opinion, Elon has one of the most beautiful campuses and still 15 years later after last seeing it in 1995 when we moved to NJ, it has gotten even prettier. It was fun to walk around the campus and point things out to dillon about the 4 years i spent there.





my first dorm






love this fountain! spent many a moment sitting there waiting for friends or my boyfriend, Ken. many wishes were made here!





so thanks for tagging along! i've got much to do now that i am back and then head out the door in a few weeks to go to Nags Head with friends, Tom and Lesley! I'm teaching a class at Tinsel Trading June 25th, so need to get my project online and also prepare to submit next year's classes to Artfest (2012).

slide show!