Day 6 Inspired Remnants Curious DReams Blog Tour

May 6, 2011 at 10:58 am (Interesting Thingies)
Tags: blog hop, epoxy clay, giveaways, Jean Bernard, Nancy Perennec, new art, online workshops, prizes, tutorials

I’m still here! And today is Nancy Perennec’s day to host the tour. Nancy has been posting all along the tour on her Little Bit Wired blog and featuring many fantastic artists who use epoxy clay.

Nancy was also featured in my book I’m happy to say! Here is the amazing piece I just fell in love with . . . The Reluctant Prince. Is that not the sweetest EVER!!!

And now on her “host” day she is showing a lot of her own work and you can really see what an amazing artist she is. Plus she is sharing tips on using Apoxie Sculpt clay. I mostly use a different formula in the book so this is the place to go to find out more about using Apoxie. : )

Nancy is also offering an extra giveaway of super cool buttons you can win in addition to the sponsored prizes. The great thing about the buttons is she shows exactly how she made them. Brilliant idea Nancy!

FEATURED EPOXY ART

It is especially satisfying to share art from those that I think my readers aren’t familiar with. Jean Bernard is a fabulous artist who works with many mediums as you’ll see when you visit her site. I really wanted her in my book but the images were just not high enough resolution required by the publisher. So at long last I’m finally able to showcase some of her art!

Now as I’ve said so many times you can do anything with epoxy clay. Here are two perfect examples. How would you like to fill your home with custom fantasy furniture?!?!? Just look at the details of this chair. See all the little faces and such?!?!? You can click twice on the image for the largest view. Now won’t you look at grungy garage sale and thrift store furniture differently?!?

And how about this absolutely fabulous cake topper!!! Little known fact is this was for Erin’s wedding cake. That would be Erin my technical adviser extraordinaire from Aves Studios. One day I was going on and on about Jean’s cake topper and Erin told me that she knew all about it and why. : )

And here is a detail shot.

I can’t possibly begin to share everything that Jean does. She has wonderful online classes and such– some using epoxy clay and many other fabulous materials. So go there already!

Hope you have the grandest of days!!

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Day 5 Inspired Remnants Curious Dreams Blog Tour

May 5, 2011 at 1:56 pm (Interesting Thingies)
Tags: altered page, assemblage, blog hop, blog tour, book tour, collage, epoxy clay, giveaways, liz mcgrath, new book, prizes, sculpture, seth apter

Today I’m most honored to have The Altered Page as the host site.

Seth Apter’s Altered Page has become a much anticipated destination in the artful blogging community. He continually engages his readers with exciting challenges, brilliant art and interesting features. Seth is known to scratch beneath the surface and so reading his blog is full of insightful happy surprises. His collaborations are legendary and his art sells so quickly I rarely get to his etsy shop to even see it before it’s sold.

He paints, assembles wonderful assemblages (yes I’m very silly!), does mind blowing collage and as you might guess creates altered books extraordinaire! He even has his own zine, The Pulse!

I’m sure you’ll agree that the coolness of his upcoming book can at this point only be imagined. And as if all THAT wasn’t enough he is also featured on the Create Mixed Media site in the “Your Blog, Your Way” series of which you can see part 1 here. Of all the artists I know in blog land, I think Seth is most perfect for writing about this subject because he comes up with the most amazing ideas and events. When I’m visiting The Altered Page I’m usually wondering to myself (mostly with my mouth gaping open no doubt) how the heck he comes up with these wonderful inspirations! Wow I’m even making my own head spin ala Exorcist so I can imagine how you are feeling taking this all in. This is one talented guy!!!

If for some crazy reason you haven’t happened to visit Seth’s blog yet then I can guarantee that you will be very glad you visit there today!

FEATURED ART OF THE EPOXY PERSUASION

I love love love love love Liz McGrath! And she is in my book two!!! I mean twice. Yay! Perhaps you can tell like so many other artists in the book that she is a big inspiration to me.

That the heck is this creature? I have no idea but like many of her things once I see I want it most severely. I’d be most happy pulling this along with me on walks near and far.

Happy Cisco de Mayo and pass the Two Equis brewskis please occifer. I mean officer (hic!). Enjoy your day and please drive safe. ; )

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Inspired Remnants, Curious Dreams Online Book Tour!!!

April 16, 2011 at 11:01 am (Interesting Thingies)
Tags: assemblage, blog hop, book tour, epoxy clay, found object, giveaway, home decor, inspired remnants curious dreams, prizes, terrarium

History has been made and literally a revolution has begun. The FIRST EVER book to feature all art projects made of epoxy clay is already having a huge impact on the art world. I just spoke to the manufacturer of the clay I recommend in my book, Aves Studios, and they are blown away by the orders coming in. They know it’s the book because new customers can fill in how they heard about the clay. Guess what the answer is!!!

AND even though the book has only been out for about 2 months, I’m getting two or three people every day telling me what a huge impact this is making for them. OMG my vision and all my hope and intentions for this book are coming true already.

Check out this video review by the seriously talented and spunky and adorable Ricë Freeman-Zachery. Does this not say it ALL?!?!? And the wonderful crazy amazing thing is when she says you can make *anything* with it, she is right!!! It’s almost scary when you think about it. That is why, my artful friends, this is so huge. Remember when polymer came out? Metal clay? Yeah it’s huge like that!!! I really do think so by all the signs I am seeing so soon after the release of the book. It’s like something that should have been discovered long ago is *finally* and literally bursting onto the art scene.

Aves Studios is not just getting new orders but they are coming from all kinds of artists– so that just shows how literally nearly every artist can hugely benefit from having a stash of this clay in their studio.

I’m so excited to share with you that the book tour is really shaping up to be a huge clay-ful celebration. You will see many of your favorite blog destinations in this event and tons of prizes and so SO much fun. Oh yeah that’s because it’s a blog hop book tour so glad I mentioned that!

If only I weren’t moving I’d share much more about this now but here is the important thing to know is that . . .

it starts Sunday May 1 right here at Remnants Of Olde!

The good news about moving out of our little Crab Shack (silly name I have for our tiny cottage near the sea) is we are gaining an astounding studio space that is 1200 square feet so Yay!!! That means so many things will now be possible that I am practically bursting with excitement. Plus the house is a lovely Craftsman with the requisite built ins and gorgeous woodwork not to mention a big claw foot tub to practice my back crawl strokes in. : )

Oh speaking of the new place here is sneak peek at a little vignette I threw together the other day. I will be giving nickel tours of the new place when it’s all together (OK that will never actually happen so it will be when it’s more together).

There is so much going on and I do need to pack. So for now I will share this one piece made of epoxy clay.

Oh and I really want to share this one last thing because it may be the only chance I have before the tour starts. I know I should be saying you can order the book and blah blah blah. But I am saying the exact opposite! If you haven’t ordered the book yet and you can wait the two weeks until the tour starts it may be worth it because there will be some fantastic killer deals that won’t be offered any where else. So don’t say I didn’t tell ya!

This is in the book but it’s really too tiny to get a good look at it.

Herb Terrarium

The ;arge swing down door lets me easily access cuttings right from my kitchen window. The entire terrarium was “clayed” together with Fixit Sculpt epoxy clay (from Aves Studios) rather than soldered so that it is waterproof and non-toxic. : ) Stands 27 inches.

27 Comments

News and such

May 19, 2010 at 11:12 am (Interesting Thingies)
Tags: ArtFest, new workshops, work in progress, seth apter, the altered page, north light books, blog hop, Susan Lenart Kazmer, vintage bella studio, new art book, epoxy clay, True Colors, Somerset, Linn Jacobs, Teesha Moore

UPDATE ~ If you are looking for the Vintage Bella Blog Party post it is here.

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News about my book “Inspired Remnants, Curious Dreams” . . . The final gallery selections are being made this week and it’s going fairly well. There were 16 spaces available but I didn’t know there would be that many until just recently. At first I was told there wasn’t going to be a gallery at all. Then that there were only a few spaces. So I really had to scramble to fill those slots.

The funny thing about epoxy clay is that so many artists are using it but hardly anyone mentions anything about it. So after some extensive online sleuthing I was able to uncover the “secret” material that many very well known and incredibly talented artists are using! Consequently I’m pretty sure (OK really sure) the gallery pieces are going to blow people away as well as the realization of exactly WHO is using this stuff!!!

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About Seth’s True Colors series of posts . . . this was yet another truly inspired idea (how does he do it!) to discuss the legendary book project with reflections and insights from the fabulous artists that participated. After he announced that he would be doing a True Colors series I happened to be playing around with an experiment that Charley started– a vial filled with shiny copper nails and sealed with (of course!) epoxy clay.

The epoxy clay is perfect for this since it will not leak. It has held a tight seal very well ever since October so I’m going to make more of these. Anyway back to the True Colors story.

I had some pretty green netted lace laying near the vial and thought that looked nice together so away I went. It was wrapped in darker green silk along with the lighter netting. As I was working I began to realize the True Colors book was very much on my mind. It was shaping up fairly well but I set it aside because I wasn’t exactly happy with it and nothing as coming to me.

That was the day I visited Seth’s blog and saw I had missed SEVENTEEN posts in my RSS reader. If that doesn’t speak to how busy I’ve been nothing does. I usually pounce on his posts right away. : )

Anyway, the most recent post was about Linn Jacobs who selected Yellow Green and Copper as her journal colors. I didn’t know any of the True Colors artists personally and had no idea she had since died.

Anyway, as fate would have it I had been doing some spring cleaning in my closet. I tried on a silk shirt that I hadn’t really worn and it was (of course!) a light spring yellow green. It didn’t exactly fit right which explains why it was shoved way in the back. I didn’t donate it with the majority of the other clothes (can you believe 3 huge black garbage bags were full of cast offs) because I always recycle silk clothing to use in my art and in workshops I teach. I had tossed it on a pile of other silk clothes and as I walked back by that shirt the color grabbed me and I right then knew I’d be able to finish the piece.

As I worked on the finishing touches I felt led to add a small tribute to Linn. I carefully embroidered “To Honor” on the Yellow Green silk to a woman I never knew but who after all these years of seeing her art time and time again as I’d pour over the well worn dog-eared pages has inspired me in ways I’m sure I don’t fully realize.

The image above it the closest to the true colors. No pun intended it’s just that in most of the pics the color is washed out and doesn’t look like it does in person.

Consider these excerpts that Linn’s friends wrote about her on Seth’s blog

From Lynne Perrella ” . . . Always with graceful strands of silky threads and fibers to hold them in place…..Very Linn.”

From Marylinn Kelly ” . . . Looking today at the pages she created for Sunset, I find in her circle/spiral motifs an expression of wholeness, completeness, overlaid by bright tendrils, rays of the sun that eventually reach every corner.”

This piece is called “to honor” and is still not completely finished. When I hang it up it looks too squarish so I’ll be rounding out the corners by adding just a bit more rusty organza and singing it (I don’t mean like the glee club I mean with some fire ~ are those really spelled the same way?!?!?), a little more green netted lace . . . and (of course!) some yellow green beads. : ) And since it actually is suppossed to be worn I think it would be quite practical if I should affix some findings for a closure.

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Workshops I’m Teaching (maybe)

I’m trying for the third year in a row to teach a workshop or two at Artfest, my absko-lootly favorite art retreat. This year I was able to go after missing many years in a row. I forgot how much I really do love it there.

Artfest is a very happy place so I don’t want you to be scared of this pic I took on the way back to my room (all alone in the dark!). I do have lots of pics from the retreat and *some* day soon I will share them. really.

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Here is another blog hop that will be this Friday, May 21. I *LOVE* these!!! Just go to her site and leave a comment that you’ll be participating. The last one I did was sharing pieces made from Susan Lenart Kazmer’s ICE Resin. If you haven’t seen all the pieces made from this go here.

I think it would be just grand to do some blog hop parties on Mixed Media Art. Wooo hoooooo! So I’ll put that in with the list of BIG PLANS for that site.

Bye for now!

6 Comments

ICE, ICE Baby!

February 15, 2010 at 12:04 am (Interesting Thingies, mixed media art, jewelry)
Tags: mixed media art, ArtFest, north light books, ICE Resin, blog hop, Susan Lenart Kazmer, SLK, enamel, new book, resin jewelry techniques and secrets

Are you hearing that Vanilla Ice song in your head now? Sorry about that!

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/