It was a good thing to do though.   It will likely make a big difference for untold numbers of artists as it has for me.  Or at least that is my intention.  It wouldn’t be right not to share something that has helped me so tremendously.

But to be honest,  I will think long and hard (that always makes my mind go elsewhere when I say that) before doing such a thing again.  I know it wouldn’t have been so difficult except for the numerous other things that all worked to compound the complexity of each other.  Makes for such a daunting task.  Anyway, the first find is “time”.

Actually the plan was to write about some wondrous things I’ve found recently so on to that.  I just needed to get some writing therapy out about the latter obviously so thanks for indulging me.

When my beloved mother in law had taken ill I was not able to be with her in the final hours.  While the rest of the family was by her side I was at my grandmother in law’s place.  Grandma was mentally ill and when faced with events such as this she might do something, well, crazy.  So I was the one who watched over her to assure we didn’t have two tragic events to deal with.  After hours of wailing and screaming and moaning (yes it was nearly unbearable)  she finally settled.

Exhausted myself, I curled up on the sofa and cried myself to sleep.  I awoke so suddenly I sat upright as the fluttering of dozens of birds taking flight was so loud I reached to cover my ears.  At the same time I realized I was in the living room and no birds were to be seen.  I knew then she was gone and moments later the phone call confirmed Estelle had flown away.

This wallpaper captures exactly that experience and so has great meaning.  I’m not much into wallpaper but this I could (must?) do.

A while back I came across the most amazing store I’ve ever seen, Obsolete.

I’ve spent hours pouring over the details of the fabulous items they have.

Ron Pippin’s creations really make the place and equal time has been spent stalking him online.  Amazing work!!!

The perfect book to take on an expedition wouldn’t you say!

I haven’t been able to get to the actual store yet so finding more images of this magical establishment is a dream come true.  Not only does 1st Dibs have more images of Obsolete but it is an inspiring source for interior designers.  I’m officially telling you now you can spend serious time looking around this site.  BIG LOVE!

hint:  go to the Shop Talk section on the 1st Dibs front page for a virtual tour of some fabulous shops.

another fav is Viola

I haven’t even come close to exploring all the nooks and crannies so if you do find any treasures I overlooked I’d love to hear from you!

This is the first piece that caught my eye

And of course I had to find out more.  The process involves felting onto silk.  So amazing isn’t it!!!  This piece is by instructor artists Sally & Susan of Spirit Hand Studio

And then I found this!!!!  From Lois at Navajo Lake Felt Studio

And this!  I’m “allergic” to pink shades but the style of this is so amazing from Juliet Hone

And finally here is a great tutorial from Ray Reynolds.  I love everything I saw of hers.  And know I know how to do this so I’ll be trying it as soon as I can swing it.

Finally here is more info from the artist credited with developing this technique, Polly Stirling.

Jen Delacruz of Know How Moms

Just Jingle

Sophie of Miss Kool Aid

And I was a winner also!  Here is the cool necklace I won from Jen Worden.  Not only did I get the necklace, but it was so fun and interesting because she started off with a sketch of what she was going to make and then over the course of the One World One Heart event put it together and blogged about the work in progress.  Thanks again, Jen!!!

I’m taking it easy since I’ve been finishing up a kazillion little details to get the rest of the projects sent in for my mixed media art book.  To say I’m crispy fried is an understatement.   Thankfully all that’s left for the book is flying to Cincinnati to do the photo shoot and finish writing the instructions.  More about *that* later.

So this isn’t about THAT ~ it’s about Susan Lenart Kazmer’s ICE Resin.  And specifically some pieces I’ve made using it.  By the way I am so gleefully happy to be taking my second class with Susan at Artfest next month.  It is using enamel so I’m even more excited since I’ve been wanting to learn this for so long.   Hooray!!

Even though I made these a while ago I’m sharing these with you now because – wait for it! – this week starts a blog hop party with art pieces using ICE Resin.  There is a full list on the Objects and Elements blog of all the artists you can hop to as well as at the end of this post.  It will be so fun to see what everyone came up with since it can be any kind of art – not just jewelry.

Mine are jewelry but I used what might be considered rather different techniques so for the first time I’ll share the details on how I made them.

Room 422

First a little background on what these are.  The front of Room 422 is has a little doll looking out a window of resin.  The metal piece is a meat grinder gear.   The doll head wouldn’t have fit (it would have been too wide) except when I found it at an antique store the back of her head was broken and there was only the head.  So sad.   The doll appeared to be from the same era as the Frozen Charlottes but wasn’t one.

The back  has part of a claim tag this one being #422 covered in domed resin.  Because the this reminded me of a little room with a doll looking out the window, that’s where the name Room 422 came from.

Room 422  used three different techniques with resin.  The front was made by burnishing  a piece of clear packing tape over the opening.  The metal gear was then laid face down and a small amount of resin was poured into the “window”.  When that had cured, I then placed the doll face down and poured more freshly mixed resin around it.  The second pour of resin filled in the spaces around the sides and in front of the doll face.  When that cured the tape was removed and a small coating of clear acrylic medium was brushed on over the resin to turn it from a matte finish to a gloss finish thereby making it translucent rather than opaque.

The final resin technique was pouring some of the already mixed resin into a domed mold.  When this was cured it was placed with the dome side out.  In the middle of this resin “sandwich” was a single earring that was held in place with epoxy resin clay (this is the clay that I’m using for all project in the mixed media art book).  The earring was used as a decorative element and also to attach the necklace to as well as the chain with charms on the bottom.

The second jewelry piece I used ICE resin on was this piece of driftwood.  I wish I had taken a “before” shot so you could see that there was hardly any wood left on the bottom.  It had mostly eroded away and some sea grass was entangled in the remaining wood.

Instead of a small patch of clear packing tape I used quite a bit of the clear tape with masking tape over that to really hold in the resin.  The shape you see is the shape the tape took on when I wrapped it around what was left of the wood on the bottom.  Once the tape was in place and burnished together and to the driftwood piece very well, I injected the resin into the cavities.  It was left upright in a plastic cup to cure.  When it was removed there were some seams and uneven areas showing from the tape.  I sanded those away with a series of  automotive grade (very fine) sandpaper until it was very smooth to the touch and then finished the surface as with Room 422 with a very thin coat of gloss acrylic medium to bring it from a matte to transparent finish.

The leaf bale is electroformed copper over (you guessed it!) epoxy resin clay.

In honor of the ICE Resin Blog Hop, I am offering this unique textured resin online workshop to the public for the first time ever!  The cost is $40 BUT if you mention ICE Resin  when you sign up by Friday, February 19 I will credit back $10 by Paypal so the class will only be $30.  This is a great workshop that has received awesome reviews at art retreats.  There are several techniques that Charley and I developed so you can find these nowhere else!  You can find this workshop on my Mixed Media Art site which is a great place to be with nearly 850 artists and well over 4000 gorgeous pieces of art plus creative challenges and lots of other things creative and inspire.  Oh and did I mention it is completely free to join?!?!?

One of the resin techniques is absolutely mesmerizing because it creates  an amazing play of light on image below.  As interesting as the photo looks, when people see this in person they are blown away!!!

Ready to hop?!?!?  Here are the other sites with ICE resin creations!

Ro Bhrun http://robruhn.blogspot.com/

Karen Burns http://web.me.com/vintagefindings/Vintage_Findings/Blog/Blog.html

Keecia Frazee Deveney http://www.lemoncholys.blogspot.com/

Mary Jane Dodd — Mary Jane http://mairedodd.blogspot.com/

Melanie Earthenwood http://earthenwood-beads.blogspot.com/

Shea Fragoso http://www.whathappensnext.typepad.com/

Vickie Hallmark http://fiberartglass.blogspot.com/

Jill Liles http://livngoodjewelry.blogspot.com/

Jess Italia Lincoln at Vintaj: http://www.vintaj.com/wpblog/

Heather Powers http://www.humblebeads.blogspot.com/ and http://www.artbeadscene.blogspot.com/

Amy Purdes http://www.spritecreations.blogspot.com/

Jenny Barnett Rohrs http://www.crafttestdummies.com/

Stephanie Rubiano http://www.soigathered.typepad.com/

Lisa Sommerville  http://www.lisasomerville.com/

Kim Taylor http://sassycrafter.blogspot.com/

The Objects and Elements Design Team and Susan Lenart Kazmer:

Jen Cushman  http://www.objectsandelements.typepad.com/jencushman/

Deryn Mentock http://somethingsublime.typepad.com/

Kristen Robinson http://kristenrobinson.typepad.com/

Barbe Saint John  http://barbesaintjohn.blogspot.com/

Susan Lenart Kazmer http://susan-lenart-kazmer.blogspot.com/

“The Dreamtime Circus is a troupe of fire fairies, clowns, musicians, and all types of other magical and fantastical creatures who travel far and wide to share the uplifting experience of the circus with the peoples of the world. We seek to use fire and circus arts as mediums for fostering cross-cultural communication and open exchanges of cultural ideas and artistic expressions. As offerings of good will and solidarity, we perform free circus performances for the communities we visit, focusing our efforts on serving those surviving natural disasters, dislocations, or military conflicts.”

More here.

And now that you are awake I beg of you for your own good do NOT miss this Sunday’s post.  This one is likely to be even better than the ones before.  Everyone that comes by his blog on Sunday will be posting an artsy “secret”.   His blog is very well read by some amazing artists so can you imagine what cool things you’ll learn?!?!?

I am thinking of something cool to post that will be a good secret (versus all those really bad secrets I’m hoping you don’t find out about).  See ya there!

Here is another (I think) equally impressive feat which is making clay look like rusty old cars and the like.

Yes, indeed, John Brickels is amazing!!!  I found out about him on one of my favorite destinations, Daily Art Muse.  Susan finds the most wonderful artists of every kind and shares them . . . wait for it. . . daily.

Can you imagine a friend making this and then giving it to you?!?!?   The creator’s name is Eric Linn so if anyone knows of a web site he has I’d love to see it!

Now that you’ve done the Trimpin thing you’re ready to know about the life work of Horse Badorties.

And He Spoketh:

“I’m in my little Horse Badorties pad, man, looking around. It’s the nicest pad lever had, man, and I’m getting another one just like it down the hall. Two pads, man. The rent will be high but it’s not so bad if you don’t pay it. And with two pads, man, I will have room to rehearse the Love Chorus, man, and we will sing our holy music and record it on my battery-powered portable falling-apart Japanese tape recorder with the corroded worn-out batteries, man. How wonder­ful, man.”

You know you want more!!!  And HERE is where you can get it.

I *LOVE* these guys.  Like me, it seems as though they never grew up.  And that’s a good thing!

Perhaps because the first piece I made in ceramic clay was this house

But amazingly it is thread!!!

So is this car!

Which I’d love to see drive across this bridge . . .

love these thread shadows

More at Dorie Millerson