Through My Eyes - The Color Green

With Spring in full swing, green is everywhere, so it's a perfect time to be inspired by this wonderful color. Whether it's olive, mint, lime or any other shade, green is always a great color to incorporate into your work. Here are some green pictures I took recently. Hopefully they will inspire you to use a little green this week.






































Here are some words associated with the color green:












Here's some green art and handmade items I found on Etsy:








































































Artist credits:
1. Green Tea Cookies by Carnival.etsy.com
2. Organic Lily Silhouette Notecard by BellaBella.etsy.com
3. Falling Leaves Earrings by dcdesigns.etsy.com
4. Chain Reaction Recycled Army Bag by katrinakaye.etsy.com
5. Exfoliating Lime Soap bar (with a dash of coconut) (VEGAN Friendly) by dennisanderson.etsy.com
6. Silk Cushion Green by pamelatang.etsy.com
7. Hasselblad, womens grass boat neck T by vital.etsy.com
8. Visor Beanie - olive, celery by pdxbeanies.etsy.com
9. Shades of Green Magnet Set by blockpartypress.etsy.com

900 Sales!!

I am sooo excited that I am just 1 sale shy of 900 sales! I never thought I would hit this number. It took almost a year to hit 500 (back in September 07'), so it is exciting that it has only taken me 7 months to hit 399 more. To sweeten the pot and hopefully get me my 900th sale, I will offer a free set of magnets (of your choice) to whoever purchases my 900th item. You have to be #900 to win and I am currently at 899 so run don't walk and go shopping. I am only posting this offer here on my blog and there is no need to enter any code. I will contact #900 with the details!

Thanks so much to everyone who brought me my first 899 sales!! And thanks in advance to #900 for helping me reach a milestone!

Update: I hit 900!! Thanks to Holli for taking advantage of my giveaway!!!

Artist feature with Carol Dean of SandFibers.etsy.com

I thought it was about time to do an artist feature. I haven't done one in a while, and I am sure you are all getting a bit tired of just my perspective on inspiration. I chose Carol Dean from Sandfibers.etsy.com because I am totally in awe of her artistry as well as her patience. I cannot imagine sitting down with those teeny tiny beads and making anything. I am a clutz, so after a while I am sure I would spill the beads and after about 10 min my lack of artistic patience would kick in, along with my lack of love for numbers, geometry and precision. I am sure I would give up before I finished anything. Thankfully there is someone out there who has the passion, patience, artistry and skill to create some amazing beaded jewelry.

Here's what Carol had to say about the inspiration for this beautiful bracelet:





















What inspired this piece? This particular piece was inspired by a front page on etsy that was created by heather91. I've actually included a photo of that page in my etsy listing. It wasn't the first time I've seen this color combination or the first time I thought I should do something with that color combination, but it was the time that finally pushed me into doing more than just thinking.

Can you detail how you translated your inspiration into your work of art? The inspiration came from the color combination of orange/purple (tangerine/grape), so that was rather easily translated into bead selection. I wanted each color featured equally in the design, which is why I chose the simple positive/negative image pattern using the two colors. Since I only used one shade of each color, the piece is really simple. There's nothing subtle about it. I'd like to do something more complex with an expanded palette, something softer, less geometric. (Like I need a reason to buy more beads!)

Where do you tend to find inspiration for your art pieces? My inspiration comes from striking color combinations, fabric patterns, symbols (especially spirals), simple geometry. When I'm not up to designing an actual pattern, I'll take my beads out and create "mixes" that appeal to me. Then the random "order" in which I pick up beads becomes the pattern-maker.

Any advice for someone feeling uninspired? Relax. Open your eyes to the world around you. Doodle. Work in a different medium.

You can see more of Carol Dean's fantastic work on her blog at http://sandfibers.blogspot.com . Her flickr is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandfibers/ and of course her Etsy shops at http://Sandfibers.etsy.com.

Her work was also featured in the Jan/Feb AND Mar/Apr 2008 issues of Step by Step Beads!

Inspired by Art Waste - Leave Nothing Behind

I wouldn't say that polymer clay is the most "green" craft form, so when it comes to my leftover waste from creating my pendants and such, I try to use it up rather then throw it away. I have detailed some ideas on the blog before about reusing my leftovers. Check these posts:
Through My Eyes Anything Can be Art
You Were Inspired by What - Leftovers
I was doing some Spring cleaning the other day, peeling paint off of my palettes and off of my paint bottles and was brainstorming on what I could do with the pieces of dried paint. I have made ACEO's from my dried paint before, but I wanted to do something else. I had stacked the paint from the palettes on top of each other and I really loved the look of the colors and layers so I decided that I would put a whole through the middle o the stack, insert a dowel and create a cool sculpture. The great thing is that I won't have to throw them in the trash and will end up with a unique piece that has sentimental value since it kind of represents all my hard work. Another cool feature is that when I use recycled plastic butter lids as palettes, so some of the paint actually has the recycling symbol imprinted into it. Perfect for recycled art. I posted about this idea on Flickr and got another idea from a comment made by Lisa Peters from Lisa Peters Art. She suggested "You could take one of those scrap book paper punches and make squares and do a funky mosaic?" Her idea along with a posting about jewelry gave me another idea. I could punch circles (my favorite shape) out of the layered paint and stack them on a head pin to create some fun funky earrings. With that idea in mind, I went to work and found that it is fairly easy to punch through the paint. Here's what I came up with:

































The paint is pretty rubbery and extremely lightweight so it's perfect for earrings. I can see a necklace too, but I don't have that much leftover paint available yet. I don' t think that I will sell these, but I will definitely wear them.

I also have a collection of dried paint that I peeled off of my paint bottles . They come in great colors and shapes, and I hate to through them away. They are bit more fragile than the paint from the palettes, so I thought maybe I could embed them in resin and create a pendant or ACEO? Maybe just make resin blocks that can then be turned into a wall piece? Here is a picture of the little leftovers. Let me know if you have a good idea of how I could use them.

I just put in a pitch for an Etsy Storque article about reusing/recycling the waste from your art. If anyone has done something similar and would like to be included, let me know.

Check my "Leave Nothing Behind" Flickr Set to see all my "leftover" creations.

Take some time this week to look at your waste and what you leave behind once you have created your art of choice. Is there anything you can make with the scraps? How could you incorporate them into another art piece? Stretch your imagination and help the environment at the same time! if you come up with a cool idea, let me know. I would love to feature it here on the blog!

Through My Eyes - Inspired by Planting a Little Garden

Spring has sprung, so it is time to it's time to start the backyard garden. My boys love growing vegetables (even if they don't like eating them). Here are some pictures I took while we planted. As always try I to look at things differently. On the surface, planting a small garden isn't all that exciting or inspiring before the plants start to sprout, but if you look at things a little closer or further away or just look that their characteristics, patterns, colors and textures and not just what their purpose it, you may find some unexpected inspiration. I found inspiration in everything from the seed packets to the soil.














The seed packets have great bright colors and images of vegetables.













I love the modified circle in a square pattern of the prepackaged soil flats. The modified square is a nice shape too. The textures of the soil pods after adding water is really cool. The seem to come alive (another great theme a garden can inspire).






















Look carefully at your seeds for unique shapes, textures and colors. Mix some of your leftover seeds together to inspire color and texture combinations. You may even want to create something with the seeds. I know I was ready to get out my glue and make a seed mosaic. The seeds also brought to mind the following words and themes: Dormant, beginning, waiting, possibilities and potential.













So take some time this week to plant a garden, play with seeds, dig in the dirt and get inspired. I will continue to share inspiring pics of our little garden as it progresses. If any of these pics inspire you to create something, let me know in the comments, or share your own inspiration that you got from planting your garden.

Inspired by the Incredible Edible Egg & Rescued by an Incredible Not So Edible Plastic Egg

It's PCAGOE Challenge time again. This month’s challenge was a technique that is fairly common and unique to polymer clay. Each member had to create a piece (functional or decorative) by covering an egg with polymer clay. I had only tried to cover an egg one other time and let me say it was not so successful, so I was a bit apprehensive about giving it another try, but since I run the challenge, I kinda feel I have to create something each month as an example. So I decided to brave the egg again. I got an idea immediately. My stepmother had some eggs that she had run ribbon through and hung from a basket ornaments and I always wanted to make one of my own. I had also been sketching some damask patterns in my sketchbook recently and decided I would put the two together and make a damask egg ornament.

First I made the blown egg and then I drew the basic design onto it to get an idea of scale for the stamp carving.












Next I sketched the design on a piece of paper and tried my best to make it symmetrical. I tend to just draw freehand on my stamps, so trying to do the symmetrical thing didn't really work out, so I ended up just drawing it out on the stamp. It wasn't perfectly symmetrical, but close enough and I figured the curves of the egg would help me disguise the tiny differences.













Here is where it got a bit tricky. I needed to put a base coat of clay on the egg and as I did, I cracked and destroyed the egg. Of course I hadn't blown out any more in anticipation of the inevitable. Some other PCAGOE Members had success with plastic eggs, so since I still had a ton of plastic eggs all over my house from Easter. I thought that would be the best way to go. I used my craft blade to carve a hole at each end for the ribbon to go through and then I glued it together and covered it with the clay. So much easier and a lot more successful than the real egg.













Next I had to stamp the clay, cut out each little piece and put them all on the egg. I also made 3 beads to use as accents.













Then it was time for paint. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to use light pink. I just really like the black and pink damask look. I wasn't thrilled with the way the color turned out (I wish it had been more pink), but I didn't really have time to paint it again.













Finally I distressed the egg, glazed it and put it all together with the ribbon.













And now it is entered in the challenge and hanging in my studio. It was a little gift to myself, so it won't be in the shop. I think I will make some more at Christmas and maybe Easter next year. It actually was a lot of fun ( but I will definitely be sticking with the plastic eggs)! You can have some fun too by going to PCAGOE.com and voting for your favorite egg. There are 27 to choose from and once you vote you are automatically entered to win one of 2 great prizes (see below).




Here are the prizes:


or



So get out there this week and create with an egg or just try something that you weren't so successful with in the past. You may find that it's better the 2nd time around. I did!