finished projects from Vegas

this is my completed project from one of Stephanie Lee's class in Vegas. i made the birdhouse in class and then finished the rest of it at home.
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and this is what i made in one of Jane Wynn's classes. i had a bit of time getting the plexi glass into my bezel, which was a bit wonky - but i think it turned out ok, after jane worked some magic with her vise!

the rest of Vegas

here's a pretty picture of Z overlooking Bellagio's water fountain with Paris behind her.

Pam, Z and i went to see "Love" one evening at The Mirage. what an amazing show! (the dark pics are my illegal camera use before the show. it didn't take long before i was told to stop!)

random photo shots around the event. Z and i bought souvenier Eiffel towers that held 64 oz of margarita's. yikes! they were heavy and it wasn't long before my hand was freezing from holding it like a baby!

More pics of Bellagio's garden area and fountain show when Z and i stopped by after seeing Love. (if you look closely, there is a rare photo of me wearing my glasses)

one evening, Pam and her husband, Ben, took Z and i to dinner at Bolero inside the Wynn hotel. what an incredible meal! it was such a lovely evening and then got better when we were handed free tickets to see La Reve (the dream). i had no clue what we were going to see and sort of thought we were walking into some comedy club scene (which i despise!). however, i was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was a show very similar to "O". it was a beautiful show and i loved the whole aspect of their use of water. what a lucky night!

So i Gathered.....

(enameled tintype by Stepanie Rubanio)

My talented art girlfriend, Stephanie Rubanio, is having a blog giveaway. Run over to her blog, So I Gathered, to enter for a chance to win a prototype of her new enameled tintype. I'm quite lucky in that i get to see Stephanie real soon in Vegas at Artnsoul. can't wait!

Also, if you don't mind, please send thoughts out to my art friend, JoAnna. her husband Ron is quite ill again and having a shunt put in on Monday. they've been thru so much. i hope this shunt puts an end to all these unresolved health issues he has had. Joanna was the art friend that i sent the angel, "Acceptance" to over the holidays.

prototype for spoon class @ Artnsoul art retreat oct. 2009

I leave on Tuesday for Portland, Oregon where i am teaching at Artnsoul for 2 days. One of the classes that i am teaching is using old spoons and how to transform them into jewelry. since i am very visual and my other prototype is in California at Gilding the Lily (where i am teaching in February), i made another necklace to have on hand during the demos and discussions. and yes, this will be for sale after i return home.

day three

well today was an ok day. sales were quite slow (i'd say today equalled (sp?) what a typical NJ show would be like for me; lots of lookers, but not many takers). the weather held out til about 1:00 ish and then it started to drizzle. it wasn't bad and it's not like it drove the crowd out; but by 4:00, the place was dead. we got packed up really quick, thankfully as it started sprinkling again. between the 4 of us, we bought goodies to go home with, so the truck is a might fuller than we started!

i met many wonderful vendors and made new friends. loved my neighbors, William and Jan, and of course, "The Summerhouse Girls + Miss A" who were so good about booth sitting while i ran to the potty, grabbed food, etc. It was really a great experience. can't wait to show off all my pictures.

and i wanted to thank everyone that i met who raved about my art and especially to those who bought their special purchases from me. i know that $ is tight these days, so for you to spend your hard earned money on my art is a real compliment. very much appreciated. headed home tomorrow!

for those of you keeping up on my blog, you know that i am entering my "whirlwind tour of chaos" (t-shirts are on order....) in the next week. i'm feeling a bit stressed about all i have to do, but i will manage. next week i fly out to teach in Portland. Then i'll be home a week and leave to teach in Connecticut. After that i am off to Seattle to attend Journalfest!

i look forward to early November when i can relax and begin more jewelry projects since i am almost out of product.

fun news to share!

I will be teaching 2 classes at Artnsoul, Portland 2009. Another jewelry artist had to withdraw from teaching, so i'm pitching in to fill the need. it will be a quick turn and burn since i am teaching the following weekend at Art-is-You, but i am excited and really looking forward to it.

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the first class is called "Memory Evoking Spoons". you can find all the information about the class by clicking the link.

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my second class is called "My heart beats for thee".

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Pif's

a few months ago, i put a note on my blog for 3 people who were interested in participating in a PIF with me. Basically you "pay it forward" to 3 people by giving them a piece of handmade art. the time frame was a year. the other night when i was busy making some mini snippet journals (pocket snippets!) to sell at Artnsoul in Hampton, i thought these would be perfect PIF's. these are the 3 i made special for my particpants. now upon receiving their PIF's they will pay it forward to 3 more people. "Snippets" are little fabric collages i make and will be teaching for the first time at Art is, in October.

new painting

today was rainy (again), dark and dreary. the only enjoyable part was the LOUD thunder that shook the house. no lightening though. dillon had his first driving lesson today and he had to drive around in that kind of weather. talk about your quick intro to foul weather driving. i decided i wanted to paint today after spending all day yesterday sewing mini little snippet journals to sell at Artnsoul in May. i've been wanting to paint for quite some time, but tend to put it off since it takes me awhile to paint (versus other things like sewing and jewelry that doesn't take as long for me). i was channeling my inner Misty Mawn today. misty does her hands like that and she can draw, but i am here to tell you that i tried to draw a hand today and it went badly! so i opted for this easy techique to save myself from the madness! i haven't decided if this is a keeper or for sale. (that's another problem i have with paintings, i have a hard time parting with them). i will be scanning it and using the image in more work though (like a treasure box for beginners....) i also have a few more things i want to do on it. on the back of the girl, i'm going to be adding a real pair of butterfly wings that Jeff saved for me when he found a butterfly in our garden. and then i wanted to add some sort of text, but need to think about what it will say. i wanted it to be something like a common bond between the girl with her wings and the butterfly. maybe something like "as different as we seem, one common bond brings us together" or something like that.

booth for Artnsoul

pictures of my booth for Artnsoul in May. once i get everything priced, i'll pack it all back up. on top of the booth are these great metal baskets (for sale) that i purchased. they are old locker room pool baskets.

this is my favorite lamp and it used to be in my bedroom. i was sorry when it died. since it is vintage, we had a hard time fixing it. but, i still did not want to throw it away. so the other day when i saw it in my basement, i thought, that might look cute at my booth. i'm glad i can still use it in some way.

Key swap

I'm in a key themed swap with my Charmsters group, hosted by my friend, Laurel. In addition to my key, i chose to pair the key with a tiny little house (aka Monopoly hotel)). i collaged the little houses while i was with Pam in Florida (great rainy day project). i even ran out of houses, so we decided to hit a thrift store for a monopoly game, which we found - so that was cool to be able to finish them. i also added the word sweet, as in "home sweet home" (Pam's suggestion was for me to use the word "foreclosure"!) just need to get them packaged and they'll be ready to go.

i'm almost read to start sorting the ornaments for the Easter swap i am hosting. just waiting on a few more boxes.

my laptop is still down. guess i'll call Dell tomorrow. just haven't had time since getting back home. but i did get our new computer for downstairs ordered (with XP pre installed!). tomorrow i will post some pictures of my booth for Artnsoul, Hampton. i've been designing it over the last few days. since i am driving, i will be able to bring fun stuff to make a really fun and creative booth.

Random pictures from Artnsoul

Melissa Merrill models her soldered tiara

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Michael deMeng and Keith LoBue before their class. i think i have a crush on keith's smile!

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me and Janene, from Paperdoll, discovered we bought the same hat. how cute r we?

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wall mural outside of Scrap- cool recycling store in Portland.

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Dale Wigley passes by with great flair

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kissey time with Pam

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this is how nerdy we are - playing with our phones and ipods during happy hour

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a "Collage" view from the elevators. Maria did such an excellent job on her store.

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Pam takes a pic of me while i take a pic of her and Z

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demo time with Nina

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our cute bartender, Rocky, at the Sheraton (notice his matching bobble head doll)

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busy elevators during Artnsoul

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my book from Judy Wilkenfield's class

cover of my book. there's much more to embellish on the front. i 'm not crazy about the black velvet, but that was the only choice my store had. so i'll just figure out how to jazz it up and make it look old. (i would have prefered a printed velvet)

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inside front cover and the first page i did.

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next 2 pages ( to be worked on)

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middle page - just need to add a photo

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back page and inside of back cover

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more artnsoul pics

the start of my necklace for Stephanie Lee's Junk Drawer Metalsmithing

Leighanna doing some soldering

my finished necklace, "Junk drawer metalsmithing"

Stephanie doing some demo's on soldering with a butane torch - very cool!

me and sally jean after "Girls got gothic" i need to work more on my piece when i get home.

finished soldering, now starting to assemble

my main focal point on "Girls got goth" necklace

Zhulia does show and tell from vendor night

here's Michael deMeng discussing my piece (he does all the students pieces)

listening to Michael deMeng

Christine shows off her piece from Michael's class "transparency and collage"

my piece from Michael de Meng's class

oh poor yo-yo had too much to drink

***So today was the last day of classes for Artnsoul. you could tell that everyone was kind of tired- we were all feeling it! my last class today was Stephanie Lee's "Junk Drawer Metalsmithing". we learned various techniques from her new book, "Semiprecious Salvage: Creating Found Art Jewelry. great class. we made bezels out of metal and did soldering with a butane torch. i was really tired, so i decided to concentrate on making one piece. yesterday's class was with Sally Jean and we worked on a necklace. a few people finished theirs, but a lot of us didn't. i know one girl said she stayed up til 2:00am finishing hers. Not me! i'll work on it at home. i need my rest! the day before that i took "Tranparency and collage" with Michael deMeng. Basially that was a class where we learned his special painting techniques to create layers of paint. It was definitely out of my element, but i enjoyed it alot. he's very interesting and the techniques and colors we used were pretty cool.

I'm taking Zhulia to the airport early and then coming back to load up. Jean and i will head to Pennsylvania, where i will stay the night before heading back to Jersey on wed. while i was gone, Jeff found a nest of 4 baby bunnies. he found them because one of them was screaming and when he went to investigate, a mole was attacking one of the babies. so he removed them since the mom was AWOL. The humane society came and got them today.