Friday, May 30, 2014

Treasure Time

6th annual Buried Treasure - A Call for Collaborative Participants!

So many blogs...so little time. With so many wonderful art blogs to follow, it is difficult to always find the time to keep up with every new post -- let alone have the time to visit the posts that were put up before you discovered each blog.

So...five years ago I started an annual treasure hunt. Buried Treasure is about digging deep to uncover some hidden gems. The premise is simple. On Thursday, June 12th all participating bloggers will re-post one (or more) of their favorite posts that ever appeared on their blog. As you might already know, I don't like too many rules when it comes to art. So anything goes.

Please leave a comment on this post if you would like to participate. On the 12th, when the project goes live, I will post a list of all participating artists on my blog so that you can be sure to find all the Buried Treasure. Feel free to let your own readers know about this project by spotlighting it in a post on or prior to reveal day. Please (and this is important) email me your link when your post goes up. It will be the only way I will know to add you to the posted list on my blog.

And if you cannot wait until next week, you can click here and here to be taken to the links from 2009, here for the posts from 2010, here for the links to the posts from 2011, here for those from 2012 and here for the links from 2013. These are also always available on my sidebar.

Happy hunting!

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Medallion Madness

Watch Over

I admit that I have become a bit obsessed with making Medallions using the A Gilded Life collection from Spellbinders. So far I have primarily used the pendants and bezels from the line but waiting in the wings are the texture plates, relics, and dies that are also part of the collection. Soon!

Today's artwork started with a 4 x 4 inch cradled wood panel which I painted with gesso and acrylic paint.


The gold highlights on the surface were made using a rubber stamp and another obsession of mine: Golden Glitz Delicata Pigment Ink from Imagine Crafts. This is hands down the best metallic ink pad I have ever used.


Once the background was complete, I sorted through my stash and chose a bezel and a pendant from Spellbinders, both in bronze tones. I clipped the ring off the pendant using tin snips.


While the bezel and pendant would form the core of the medallion, I knew that I needed additional elements to anchor the medallion to the surface and add dimension. Out came my sets of Standard Circle dies (small and large) from Spellbinders. These dies nest within each other, thereby allowing you to create loops. 


 I created three loops using both metallic foil and decorative paper, which I altered with solvent and pigment ink


Adhering three of these pieces together gave me the following edged loop.


I then used one of the circle dies to cut one more piece of decorative paper, which was again altered with ink.


I admit to a third obsession and that is found and vintage metal objects. I went through my collection and found a watch face and two watch parts to use to create the medallion.


Experience told me that this series of paneled medallions look better with more design elements, so I chose Spellbinders Labels Twenty-Seven die set and cut another piece of metallic foil.


I always want to take commercial supplies and make them my own by adding my own twist. In this case, I cut off four corners from the Labels die cut and knew that they would make perfect additions to the corners of the wood panel.


Finally, to tie the piece together and connect the elements, I cut inked decorative paper into four arrows using the new Shoot! die set from Spellbinders. As you can see by the arrow on the left, I trimmed the feather end off the arrows.


At this point, the fun part really began as I took all these individual elements and put them together on the panel. Once I had cut all the pieces I had a design plan in mind, so I was able to easily adhere all the pieces.








Sold. Thank you!
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Supply List

Spellbinders Paper Art Supplies:

MMM-001 Spellbinders® Artisan X-plorer
GLSB-005 Spellbinders® A Gilded Life Iron Cross Bezel
GL2-005 Spellbinders® A Gilded Life Rose Medallion 
S4-114 Spellbinders® NestabilitiesTM Standard Circles Large
S4-116 Spellbinders® NestabilitiesTM Standard Circles Small
S4-376 Spellbinders® NestabilitiesTM Labels Twenty-Seven 
IN-015 Spellbinders® ShapeabilitiesTM Shoot! 
F-012 Spellbinders® Precious Metals Premium Craft Foils Assortment 

Preferred Promotional Partners: Imagine Crafts Golden Glitz Delicata Pigment Ink, Imagine Crafts Midnight Blue StazOn Solvent Ink

Cross Promotional Partners: Golden Artists Colors, Inc. Fluid Acrylic Paint

Other: cradled wood panel, gesso, paint brush, decorative paper, vintage watch parts, rubber stamp, adhesive, scissor, tin snips

Friday, May 23, 2014

Instagram Telegram

So many social media sites...so little time. Some recent posts on my Instagram page...








Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Workshop Weekend

I spent this past weekend teaching at The Queen's Ink in Savage, Maryland. This shop is run by Patti Euler and I am treated like a king when I am there.


The shop is part of historic Savage Mill, which functioned as a textile mill from 1822 to 1947 and was more recently converted into a complex of shops and artist studios.


The shop itself is filled to the rafters with an incredible selection of art and craft supplies.


On Friday night, I taught a workshop called Majestic Medallions. This class combined painting and assemblage techniques. The basis for the medallions were a series of pendants and bezels from the Spellbinders A Gilded Life collection. Here are just a few close-up shots of some of the incredible creations from the crew.



The shot of the class is blurry, but maybe that is because it was already about 9:30pm when we took the picture!


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On Saturday, I taught a full-day workshop called Cover to Cover. We all created books with pages made from book covers, each of which was layered with texture and color.

Here is the class building their layers.


And here are some of their layers in progress.



In the end, we took some time for show and tell...


...and of course the must-have group shot!


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On Sunday, my last day at The Queen's Ink, I taught 52 Card Pickup -- one of my favorites.

Here are some of the incredible creations in progress.


And the happy class at workshop's end.


Thanks to Patti, the crew at the shop, and all the students. Cannot wait till I head back there in February 2015 to teach again.

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Book Shelf: 10 New Books


As much as I love the computer, nothing beats an honest-to-goodness, made-from-paper, actual book when it comes to art. I am guessing that many others share this feeling as the stock of new and soon-to-be-released books is bursting at the seams. Here are just a few of the books I am looking forward to...

 Paint Mojo by Tracy Verdugo

Art Journal Art Journey by Nicole Rae

Gelli Plate Printing by Joan Bess

Alternative Art Surfaces by Darlene Olivia-McElroy & Sandra Duran Wilson

Encaustic Revelation by Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch


Creative Image Transfer  by Lesley Riley

The Art of Mistakes by Melaine Rothschild