3/30/15

Gallery Show

So yeah guess who's gonna be in a fancy exhibit? So much for my fear of galleries. Though it helps that I was invited and didn't have to approach them all, "You don't know me but you should totes work to get me money!"
So five of my necklaces will be featured, as far as I know, the only jewelry in the thing which is such an honor omg. Here's some more info:

Artist Reception

April 3rd 6:pm to 9:pm

The Gallery On Main Street
114 Main Street, Putnam, CT 06260


The Pulse Project will take place at The Empty Spaces Project / Gallery On Main Street in Putnam, Connecticut during the entire month of April 2015. Run by Paul Toussaint and Ann Monteiro, this was the space that recently hosted the 5 x 5 Small Works exhibition, also based on The Pulse.
29 artists that were featured in the books (The Pulse of Mixed Media and The Mixed Media Artist) are exhibiting their work at the show. The exhibited pieces reflect the full range of mixed media and include assemblage, encaustic, collage, acrylic, oil, pastel, photography, digital, fabric, jewelry and more. A number of the works were featured in the books although the majority are new.
For those of you in the area, the opening reception is being held on Friday, April 3 from 6-9pm at the gallery located on 114 Main Street in Putnam, Connecticut. There will be a number of artists from the show attending. The show officially closes on April 30.

All 100+ works will also be exhibited on and available for purchase through my blog during the run of the show. For a taste of what is to come, here are the participating artists and one example each of the work they have submitted.
Art Jason Twiggy Lott Deborah Gregg

3/23/15

Quite a bit to say for myself this time.


Basically I just let a ton of stuff pile up to be photoed so now I have a mighty big batch to share.
Jugaad . Bright blue rustic assemblage bracelet with iridescent beach glass, turquoise druzy, lapis lazuli, vintage pieces.
Jugaad.
Like these bracelets using beach glass from a bottle so the curve would lay against the wrist.
The glass for these was gifted to me by darliciousrejuvenations, isn't she lovely?
Weltgeist. Chunky assemblage bracelet with iridescent beach glass and chunky antique African glass in bright cobalt blue.
Weltgeist.
Above a chunky version with super old African beads from Patroness.
And I'm working on this one next, though I got sick of making the wound wire bits so lets see when I get my ass to finish it.
Ubuntu . Rustic assemblage bracelet in shades of purple violet with kuchi and druzy agate slice.
Ubuntu.
Speaking of assemblage bracelets, I'm in love with this one- isn't it cute?

I took out the ugly plastic kuchi cabs and added my own enamel gunk mix.
Abditive. Rustic assemblage necklace in shades of pink with vintage glass opal and seashell.
Abditive.
Necklace in pink!

That hook was actually a broken finding of basically a big ring soldered on to a little one. I twisted the big ring a bit, little hammering, voi-la.
Pareidolia. Rustic assemblage victorian tribal cluster choker necklace.
Pareidolia.
Really enjoying little clusters of thing. They take on their own semblance of meaning, which is what the title means.

Yes, I'm also quite happy with this bunch of titles, go to the shop if you're curious.
Cyaneous. Bright blue white rustic assemblage necklace with long rough kyanite pendant, beach pottery, art beads.
Cyaneous.
You can see I bailed a lot of rough stones in my Cosmic Rocks technique, they're popping up all over.

Here's some beads I shared on Instagram.  I made these polies with teeny nail decals!

I have more to try out but you know how it is- too busy making shit to have time to make shit.
Gigil. Thick and chunky rustic assemblage choker with textured art beads.
Gigil.
Some of my polies appear in this chunky chunk as well.

I'm counting and there are FIVE gifts in this piece as well. Wait. SIX!!!!! Oh shit no SEVEN. OMG.
linda = teapots and telephones
kathy = FrenchSentiments
triballis = I misspelled it here. tribalis
emmanuelle = (misspelled, the shame)  CreationsAsh, on vacay mode right now.
Claudia = she'll soon have a shop up.
omg I forgot = please forgive me! people send me things under their real names, they chat under etsy pseudonyms, a gal gets easily confused.
But the links above, if you haven't visited, I can't recommend enough. Not to mention shipwreckdandy for all the help and inspiration in my poly creation.A Tiger in Me. Rustic assemblage necklace with watermelon tourmaline, druzy amethyst, coin.
A Tiger in Me.
 A gorgeous ten peso coin from Uruguay with a touch of solder top and bottom for connections. This isn't even vintage, I just ox'ed it and it looks friggin' awesome.

The druzy culster was also from Uruguay, I oxed the electroplated rim.
A Candle. Rustic choker with antique medal.
A Candle.
And guess where this baby's from? That's right! Uganda! Oh wait no...

But the chain I put together from bits of old broken kuchi bracelets. And I made that ring out of unneeded keyring and lots of solder. In fact, it was one of you lovely ladies that commented to say the key to getting good solder globs was to use tons of flux. I can't thank you enough!
Djenné. Ancient beads in rustic ring.
Djenné.
I made one like this before.
Y'all, texting has spoiled me, I'm finding keyboard typing awkward and fraught with misspellings.
Bildung. Labradorite beads in rustic ring.
Bildung.
As I was torching this for patina, I ended up annealing the metal and idk... is it too mushy? I don't mean mushy looking, I like that. I mean actually mushy...
Halcyon. Rustic assemblage asymmetrical earrings with sea urchin spines and Baltic amber bits.
Halcyon.
I've been having fun with my sea urchin spines and some of the stuff linda sent that I shared earlier. I really liked how the flip flop asymmetry worked on these.
Abessive. Rustic assemblage asymmetrical earrings in grays and orange.
Abessive.
Another asymmetry- a rough colorless amethyst mismatched with a poly drop of my own. I actually had two of these poly drops but I just really liked this pairing.
He'll Make You Shine. Amethyst slab and cotton cord with gold leafed tin earrings.
He'll Make You Shine.
Look at these! More Uruguayan amethyst set in salvaged tin with composite gold leaf and this awesome cording!!! Which I still have to wax actually if I don't want a fuzzy mess. I did something here a bit different- I didn't ox the wires. Not even noticeable, idk. Me and my ox obsession.
Lovat Moons. Rustic victorian tribal vintage baroque pearl cage earrings.
Lovat Moons.
I made some more baroque pearl caged guys cuz they're so popular.
Even made this second pair I haven't listed yet.
Underwater Tribute. Tribal gypsy bangle stack in blues and greens.
Underwater Tribute.
Speaking of popular, another bangle stack. Linda has copper filler bangles in her shop that are really cool and textured, as seen here.
Even made this second stack which I haven't yet listed.
Phew that's a lot of stuff!!!! I'm all:
Plus last week was all about doctor's visits and getting that damn root canal, which had me like:Though I'm still not sure which cat I am.

3/12/15

What do you have to show for yourself?

A Thousand Hearts. Rough raw RUBIES salvaged tin ring, vertical.
A Thousand Hearts, vertical.
I don't have a ton to show for myself during the time since last post. I've been working on a lot of components so that means less finished pieces. Oh and also not working. A lot of that.
A Thousand Hearts. Rough raw RUBIES salvaged tin ring, horizontal.
A Thousand Hearts, horizontal.
Here, real rubies in crusty tin box bezel rings, revisiting an old design I meant to try variations on ages ago...
Spinning. Rustic assemblage earrings with urchin spines.
Spinning.
These are way cooler in real life as the danglies hang like some kinda fancy spinning chandelier carousels.
Where You Fear to Live. Chunky rustic assemblage cluster pendant necklace.
Where You Fear to Live.
That central piece of hardware is called a gas key. The giant seal tooth and quartz crystal are from Uruguay.
Stories. Rustic salvaged tin earrings.
Stories.
Tin babies.
Prize Inside. Rustic assemblage earrings with king cake figurine trinket toys.
Prize Inside.
These sold already, sorry.
Djenné. Ancient beads in caged earrings with cultured pearls.
Djenné.
Made a couple more of these guys.
Djenné. Ancient beads in caged earrings with labradorite.
Djenné.
Cuz they're popular yeah...
What else do I have to say for myself? Do you need to be told I need a root canal or that I spent the weekend with niece/nephew in Wisconsin? That my new fitness meant I could play with them without running out of breath? Ooo I know, how about random piles from my messy work table?
 Earring bits
 Oh which one of you lovely ladies sent me the sea glass bottle sections? As you can see above I've started forming them into bracelet sections. First I had to cut them into reasonable shapes with my awesome flex shaft but I put that off forever so you proly forgot you even sent these to me...
Oh, crappy news! Michael's has stopped carrying the cheap mosaic sea glass that I basically based my whole Starry Shards tute around! So do I stop offering it? It still works with regular found glass or whatever you can get for not that much on ebay, its just that it references that damned kind you could get in Michael's. And I can't edit the tute cuz my computer is now officially too old for Drop Box to acknowledge its existence. It's a Mac so it still works fine... But you know you're getting old when you're like, "But I just got it nine years ago!"
 Bailed rough crystals, etc from Uruguay.
 Middle Eastern theengs.
 BEEEEEEEEEEEEADS!
 I got the craziest heat patinas on these rings. Like, that's not brass or gold, it just turned matte yellow under the torch.
 More random crap.
Moving on to my mom's favorite part of my blog...
Stop and look at what these crows are doing. No really.

Sneezing cat:

Itching-for-a-fight hedgehog:

Teamwork:

Oh also I got a long comment from Jessica Wooten a few posts back. I will tell you and anyone any and all my "secrets," just etsy convo me since I don't want to dedicate posts to stuff I've already explained. But I love when people ask how I do stuff it makes me feel important.