Is it stuffy in here?

Some artistic endeavors I do because I wonder if I can. Making high-quality, faux-fur, stuffed animals is a perfect example. I found some faux fur in my fabric stash and figured it would be better served in an art piece. These are time consuming, but I'm liking the end results. Many friends say that the crocheted or knitted embellishments add the perfect touch. Still, I try to keep it under two hours of construction. I want to build up a collection of them before I put them out for sale.

Day of the Dead Diaramas

For the Dia de los Muertos show, I submitted a couple of diaramas. The first one, Rest Stop, depicts one of the dead taking time to freshen up from the journeys of the day.
The second piece, called Sam's Saloon, shows the post party 'remains'. I found the saloon at a thrift store and wanted to give it a second life sort of speak.

Octopi Pendants

I tried a combination of materials to come up with some Octopi looking pendants. This first one is Murano glass that was a twisted wine stopper top that broke off. I melted it flat in the kiln and attached two sandblasted fork ends to it. One of them I used a little bit of the handle to curl over as the bail. I added a heavy chain to it and sold it the first night of the show.

That inspired me to create more.

The lighting is not so great in this photo, but the colors in the glass are just what I wanted for this piece.

The Year of the Octopus

I really enjoyed making the paintings I did for this show. I wanted to go with the title of The Year of the Octopus, but not everyone did Octopus pieces. You can see that I stuck to the theme though - at least with the paintings.

"Last Battle for the Red Nebula" - one of my favorite from this show.

"Fetch" - the story is that the little girl mermaid is playing fetch with her pet octopus.

"Cephalopod Menace" - This 28" x 36" canvas looks so much more vibrant in real life. I might add to it though after the show if it doesn't sell.

This is a fun study on three canvases 8x10. It is a mixture of stenciling with spray paint and acrylics. Each one turned out a little different.

This is one of my favorite pieces. The movement created by connecting the three canvases drew the interest of a lot of people at the show.

"Se Calma Mi Pulpo" - "Be calm my octopus" seemed like a good title for this tender piece. It appealed most to a pregnant woman who wanted to put it in her nursery.

I will add more later.

2011 CHAC Show photos

Here are some photos from opening night. Everyone did a great job filling the space. There was a variety of pieces to choose from. Our preview party on Thursday night did really well with our previous patrons coming out and purchasing more work from us.

This is Suzanne and I. The shirt is the rocket silkscreen of mine that I added a little red octopus leaning out the window right before the opening.

Toby and his pieces. Some fantastic automata pieces. He also did etching in metal with the theme of UFOs obducting cows, etc.Steve did a range of flowers in color and size.

Ann and her works. She did a variety of clay pieces but the Octopi sculptures were my favorite.

Voodoo like I do

I had this idea come to me in a dream after eating a lot of spicy food. A few Voodoo dolls in a shadow box with the title "Some People I'm Keeping an Eye On" and a larger showdow box with at least twenty dolls titled "How to Torment a Small Village". Other variations to follow. Here is a photo of the first one.

The eyes are made of buttons. The clothing is scrap cloth or lace edging. The hair is braided yarn. I got a positive response to it at the show.

Prolific like Picasso

I recently took a trip to Virginia to visit my brother, Sam. While there, we planned an adventure to see the Picasso art exhibit at the Richmond Museum of Fine Art. What an amazing show. The huge collection was on loan from the Musée National Picasso in Paris while it was being renovated. It was a variety of the mediums he worked in (which is everything). There were easily over 300 pieces in the show.

There were several photos of Picasso and his studio that I had never seen before. Here is one with him and his cat.

While we were in Richmond, I wanted to see Noah Scalin's outdoor skull piece "United Skull Of America" which has silhouettes of all 50 states arranged to portray a human skull. It was displayed at the Main Art X Gallery (which is outside of the Main Art Supply store at Main and Lombardy). Noah wasn't there, but it is a very artsy neighborhood and has a great Sushi place nearby.

Cracks In Time and Space

This is the latest acrylic painting. I have been thinking about Steampunk so much lately that I am leaning towards that theme in my work for the June show. I want to do about 12 paintings, but we'll see.

Quick Rug from found textile

I found a ball of this strange felt at a thrift store and thought I would crochet something fun out of it. It seems to be the remnants of a large tye-dyed piece. I was trying for an 'organic feel' rug and ended up with this unusual shape. It is thick and soft to stand on, so it works.

Largest Sculpture I've Done - Back Patio Update

On June 3, 2010, I posted about the back patio "750 square foot sculpture". Well, it is finally finished - at least the South side of the house. I wanted to post images of the final project. The idea was to create a large Sun and surround it with the planets (including the Dwarf Planets - Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris.)

Sandblasted Stone Gifts

My good friend, Suzanne Sigona, had a housewarming this last Friday. I had helped her last month install a foyer table made of the same granite as her kitchen countertops.





From that, I used the leftover piece to make he a matching cheese cutting slab. I polished the sides and blasted a design in the top (which I cut out using my new Cricut machine).



Suzanne had given me a Port bottle she has saved and asked that I sandblast something into it for her housewarming. I have had it for months and of course waited until the last moment to blast it. But I found a really appropriate quote from Benjamin Franklin "Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.” I think she liked it.

Fused Glass Dishes and Plates

Here are some glass pieces I've been working on this week. Thanks to my friend Janis who has the bigger kiln for fusing the larger platters. After I got the green one back from her, I blasted some detail around the edges. I did the same with a blue platter that had rough edges. The sand blasting does soften the edges of the glass.

I used the new Cricut Personal to cut the angel our of resist. I then adhered the resist to the glass and blasted around it. It looks like the angel is stepping on a cloud. I found a heart-shaped mold in the thrift store for a few bucks. I like how it turned out.

The last two are some experiments with a new clear/black/white spotted glass. It certainly adds flair to the orange. It is a combination of orange and black that doesn't appear to be Halloween-esque.

Skull & Crossbone TicTacToe Set

I saw a similar idea for a fused glass tic-tac-toe set, but I wanted to embellish this a little more. I like how this one turned out. I will make more while perfecting the concept.

First Harvest of Honey

The bees survived the winter! They started coming out of the hive again about two weeks ago. I was noticing that flies were gathering around the entrance, so I cleaned up the hive this last weekend and got it ready for Spring. I provided some fresh sugar water and pollen pattie to help the queen start making new brood. I also was able to harvest some honey - about 20 pounds worth. The bees had built comb going two directions and I wanted to remove that so they could have more efficient rows of comb for the summer. They still have plenty to help them make it through the next couple of months. This is the first chance I've had to try the honey in the comb from our hive. I cannot describe what wonderful is, but you will have to believe that it tasted wonderful! There are nuances of flavors from the lavender, hyssop, cherry, all of the blossoms from the garden. I put the honey-filled comb in containers and then cooked down the empty comb to make really fragrant pure wax. I might make some lip balm next weekend.

The Moon - Up Close

I give credit to my brother Sam who has the same camera that I do - the Sony Alpha A230L Black 10MP Digital SLR Camera. He was able to take a similar photo of the moon way before I could. But it still amazes me that we were able to take this photo while HOLDING the camera. Technology has come a long way. I wonder if we would have been considered "in league with the devil" if we went back in time to show Galileo these images?

Cricut - the mini all-in-one cutter

I'm really liking the Cricut Personal. I bought the Sure Cuts A Lot 2 software and now I'm making lots of resist cuts for the sandblaster. I find images that seem appealing and use Photoshop CS4 to make a stamp version of the image. Then I trace that image with the Sure Cuts A Lot software. It is that easy.

Here are some of the pieces I recently blasted.

Other Fused Glass Platters

I almost smashed some of my larger pieces of glass the other day, so I decided I had better use them. I got some other molds in the last D&L visit, but I wanted to do a set of these square platters for the next book club dinner I host. Here are a few pieces that are in the works.

"Lava Flow" Sushi Dish set

I used COE 96 glass for these (instead of COE 90). I think the colors are more spectacular and there seems to be more interesting patterns available in 96 - at least at D&L Glass where we have been shopping for the glass. What is a little disappointing is that the yellow was supposed to be orange and the red was supposed to be red. The same red that is in the swirling part of the large dish. I guess that is what you get when you buy from the discount bin.

Sweater Sleave Scarves

I found an inovated pattern online for sweater sleave scarves. I bought some similar yarn-type sweaters, cut them up and then resewed them together to make these fun winter gifts.