Inspiration Revealed

When I can, I will try to create a piece inspired by some of the themes discussed here and of course I will share it with you. Here is a new ACEO I created with texture as a large part of the inspiration. The texture is created with the circles as well as the distressing and even the raised hills and trees create a relief texture. I really enjoy creating things that you can feel as well as see. I need a name for this piece too. A name usually comes to me by the time I finish a piece, but this one is stumping me. The word "layers" repeats in my mind whenever I look at it, but I'm curious to hear some suggestions from my readers.

Leave Nothing Behind...Again

It was time to clean the old palette out again and of course I had to do something with the dried paint that I peeled from it. I still just couldn't throw it away. Last year I made some wall art and took some fun pictures of the paint blobs. Then earlier this year I made some earrings, and an ACEO and I'm still working on my palette sculpture. This year I trimmed the domes and will be adding magnets for my favorite 5 year old magnet collector. I took some photos of the scraps and the domes and played with them a bit. I like the random nature of this type of art. You never know which colors will end up together or how they will interact.

I upped the saturation in this one to add some fun and interest. I like how it brought out some of the shapes that you didn't really see in the original.








This one has great color and texture. It reminds me of a planet or another world. I love the cracks and the circles created by bubbles in the paint.

When I was done with the domes, I had to take some pictures of the pieces that I cut away. I just randomly piled them up and looked for interesting compositions. It was like a tiny sculpture. One day I will try putting them in some resin. I think they would create an interesting piece of jewelery or just a small piece of art like an ACEO. Another project to add to the "to do" list.


























So keep an open mind and experiment with your leftovers.

See You at Crafty Bastards!

Here are some sneak peaks of some new things I will have at my booth (#53)at Crafty Bastards this Saturday:


























































Hope to see you there. Mention my blog and get 10% off your purchase!

You Were Inspired by What? - Experimenting with an Unconventional Art Medium

If you have been following a long with my blog, you will see that I keep my eyes open for inspiring things no matter where I am or what I am doing. This may be one of the most interesting yet. I was in the kitchen and I sprinkled cornstarch on my work surface to keep the clay from sticking. As I shook it onto my work surface, I found it made the coolest "crater" patterns. I called Kyle (my 5 year old) because he loves the moon (and my strange art ideas) and showed him the texture. He thought it was cool. Of course I took a picture to have the texture for future reference. I wanted to see what else we could do with the powder, so I got a black sheet of cardstock to use as a background. Here is what we came up with and all it took was some imagination and some cornstarch:

Space (just sprinkled on the paper):


















Moon Craters (Sprinkled from a distance on top of a thick surface of cornstarch):


















Droplets (Shake the paper back and forth until the cornstarch forms little circles):














Snow capped Mountain (Shaking the paper a bit more vigorously in one direction):


















Here several ones that looked like shots of clouds taken from space (same technique as the mountain):
























Then we decided to get fancy with a skewer:
























And a comb ( I think we had the most fun with this one):




































And finally here are a few we made by scraping the powder across with an index card. Check out the spooky face that appeared in the first one.

























We could have probably gone on for hours creating with this stuff. Lots of fun. I would recommend wearing a mask as it can get a bit dusty and never use talc powder as it is not good to inhale. I think my favorite thing was creating something cool and beautiful randomly and spontaneously with little thought. Each time you shook the paper you would get something new. I think artists (me included) think too much about what they want to create, so sometimes it is fun to create something without thought or a plan. Take some time this week to create some spontaneous, random art. Mix polymer clay colors together and create cool marbled or striped effects. Roll it up into a spontaneous "mudd" canes, slice pieces and cover something with them just to see the patterns and colors that randomly appear. Mix paints in a haphazard fashion and splatter paint them onto a canvas. Grab a handful of mixed beads and create something from the random mix. Let go and just create for the joy of creating. You may find that you get lots of new ideas from the results.

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!

Let's Inspire each other with a Collaborative Project!!

With all my recent posts about collaborations and collectives, I have decided it would be fun to do a collaborative/collective project with my blog friends/readers. I recently posted a blank tree design on my flickr and asked for color combination suggestions and I got some great ideas. I am now planning on a small ACEO series and I will be incorporating some of the suggestions. So.... I thought it would be fun to create something with suggestions and inspiration from my blog friends. I will ask your opinion for each step of the process and together we will create something cool. I may include polls or I may just ask you to post your ideas in the comments. In the end, anyone who participates will be put into a drawing for the finished piece! I also think it would be fun to have other artists follow along and use the suggestions to create something as well. Then you can send in your pictures of your items and we can create a collective mosaic of all the finished pieces. Maybe I am being a bit ambitious, but I think it would be fun even if only a few people participate.

I think the easiest project would be an ACEO. The size is not overly ambitious, but there is a bit more to work with than a pendant, and not everyone wears jewelry, so I won't have to worry about if the winner will be able to use it. The finished piece can be added to any Art Card Collection or framed as wall art if you are not a collector.

The first decision that must be made is the subject matter. The sky is the limit here, so give me your ideas and your inspiration. Just post a comment with your suggestions and what inspired your idea. Depending on how many suggestions we have I will pick the top 3 that I like and then we will have a poll on which one we all like. I will then sketch a couple of ideas and let you pick which one we will use. This process will go on like that until the ACEO is finished. I would also love it if you created something along with me in the medium of your choice using the decisions we all make. Then we can all compare our finished projects at the end!

I look forward to hearing your ideas!

Be Inspired to Collaborate

If you are feeling less than inspired, a great way to get the creative juices flowing is to collaborate with another person. The process of sharing ideas, techniques and and the process of compromising on the finished product can really improve you as both an artist and a person. Now don't get me wrong, not every collaboration will end in a masterpiece, but sometimes it's just the process we need to go through to get to a new place artistically. I tend to be a bit of a control freak about my art, so it is good for me to allow someone else's perspective in and to give up a bit of that control. I think the process of collaboration is as important as the finished piece. I find that I am able to see things a little differently, as if I took on some of their perspective by collaborating with them.

Here are some fantastic collaborations I found on Etsy. Just click on each picture to be taken directly to the items listing to learn more about the artists and their work ( or just in case you get the urge to make a purchase!):














































Take a little time this week and collaborate with someone else. Think about what you would like to get out of the experience before you decide who to collaborate with. Are you looking to improve a technique or learn a new one? stretch your creative muscles or to mentor a young artist? Do you want it to be easy or a challenge? Also think about how you work creatively, the type of medium you use and the time you have available before starting a collaboration. And finally, remember that the process can teach you as much as the finished piece.


Here's a little collaboration I did with Kyle today. I gave up creative control and he painted and I outlined after he was finished. A fun and inspiring collaboration for us both! Here's a great flickr group to see more collaborations and to show off you own: Art Cooperation.



Artist credits:
Handspun Yarn (Someone Said Party) - jessprkle.etsy.com & terrabellaspun.etsy.com
Dad Zine - anongrrl.etsy.com & various artists
Fish Photo Album - bibliostyle.etsy.com & jodiehurt.etsy.com
Gust an original wood cut print- AzureGrackle.etsy.com & Procyonidae.etsy.com
Collaboration Necklace - IgnisDesigns.etsy.com & MandalaJewels.etsy.com