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!

You Were Inspired by What?

I had a memory pop up recently when I was teaching my son a skill all artists must learn... the M birds. You know the birds shaped like the letter M that you put in the sky whenever you make a land or seascape drawing. It brought me back to memories of my Dad teaching me the same thing. I always thought it was the coolest thing in the world and I felt like I knew a big secret. I mean how simple & brilliant was it to make a bird by making a letter M. I think I added those birds to all my pictures for years. I had totally forgotten about them until we were painting a house recently and I thought it was missing something. It was the birds. His turned out to look more like S's, but I think he thought it was as cool as I did when I was 5. In honor of my fond memories of the M birds (If anyone knows a cooler name, please let me know) I created this little pendant with a flock of M birds. Who knows where they're going or where they've been, but they will always remind me of my early art years. For those of you who don't have a past filled with M birds, this pendant could also represent or commemorate a journey (literal, emotional, creative, etc...) For me it represents the journey from making M birds to making a living with my art!












Here are some great flocks I found on Etsy:































































Artist Credits:
1. Flock Smock by Hende.etsy.com
2. Birds in Flight Print by CuriousZoo.etsy.com
3. Birds in Flight Wall Graphic by oneupdesigns.etsy.com
4. Going Up - Together in Chaos - set of 3 prints FRAMED in 11x5 Silver Vintage Frame by flywithme.etsy.com
5. The Birds- gocco screenprinted flatnote stationery set by heatherjeany.etsy.com

M birds & M birds Pendant- blockpartypress.etsy.com
SBirds - Kyle

Finished ACEO & We Have a Winner

The collaborative ACEO is done! I personally love the way that it turned out and I really love that we created it together. Thanks so much to everyone that participated! I had a lot of fun and I am sure I would not have created this exact piece without your input. Well, enough with the pleasantries, I'm sure you all are waiting for the winner! I did the old folded pieces of paper random drawing and the winner is:

















In case you can't read my handwriting, Aurora won the finished ACEO! Thanks again to everyone that participated. If you also created something that was inspired by this project, please don't forget to contact me and I will post it here along with a description and links to your blog or shop! We'll have to do this again soon, so make sure to check back!

ACEO Collaboration - Color + The Last day to comment and be entered to win the finished ACEO

Houston, we have color. I will post the finished piece tomorrow and announce the winner! If you haven't already done so, leave a comment to be entered to win the finished original ACEO. If you haven't been following along, read this post to get the background of this project. Thanks so much to everyone that participated!

Quick Sneak Peak ACEO Collaboration

Here's a little sneak peek to hold you over until the finished piece is unveiled and the winner is announced. It's cooking away as I type. If you haven't already done so, leave a comment to be entered to win the finished original ACEO. If you haven't been following along, read this post to get the background of this project.

Turquoise, Orange & White!!!!!

The votes have been tallied and there was a last minute upset. This morning I began a post and the winner was the monochromatic green, but when I came back to finish, the lead changed and Orange, Turquoise and White were the victors, so since I didn't set a specific end time, I gotta go with the winner at the time of my post. Now voting is officially closed and aside from my completing the ACEO, the project is almost done! Here is a sneak of the carving I did. I hope to have the finished piece up by Friday and announce the winner, but I will continue to post sneak peaks all week. If you haven't been following along, read this post to get the background of this project. You can still leave a comment (if you haven't already during the project) so that you can be entered into the drawing for the finished ACEO! Here are some cool orange, turquoise and white items I found on Etsy:













Monkey See Monkey Do Shirt by brittainroad.etsy.com


















Grecia Earrings by Odds.etsy.com















Golden Fans, Celtic Weave Sewing Journal by KupoKiley.etsy.com