Creative Finds: Uppercase Magazine

One of my current favorite things is the magazine Uppercase. It's a visual feast for the "creative and curious." Janine Vanpool explores everything creative. She creates themes and creative people submit articles and photos around that theme. I've submitted a short article around the theme of rustic for the next issue. Waiting to see if it gets selected... first magazine submission ever!

I love this magazine because it allows me to explore creativity and find artists across all mediums and genre. This is a highly recommended read for anyone creative.

Do you have a favorite indie magazine?

Creative Finds: Alyssa Hall, Mincy Branch, Barbra Mosby, and Linda Borek

My mom hosted a small mixed media show for our friends in mid-March featuring six artists who sell their work. I asked permission to share their work. It's so much fun having friends who are all talented artists. 

Alyssa Hall

Alyssa Hall is a talented and prolific multi-media artist. She paints, collages, and and creates jewelry out of her artwork. 

Alyssa Hall's online gallery 

Mincy Branch

A very talented photographer - she's holding up some of her favorite works (and my favorites) - a water lily and a Monet's Garden type photo.

Barbra Mosby

Barbra brought handmade crepe roses to the event and taught session on how to make these. She's also very creative with her approach to paintings - for example, she bought a $5 painting at Good Will, but didn't like the color of the girls dress. So. She repainted the dress in a color she preferred. How clever is that?

Linda Borek

And finally, my mom, who hosted the event. My mom is a huge fan of paper. She creates one-of-kind cards, wall art, and is also a talented photographer. She also enjoy creating steam punk inspired art (demo-ed below).

And there you have the remaining round-up of artists!

Creative Finds: Rosanne Points

My mom hosted a small mixed media show for our friends in mid-March featuring six artists who sell their work. I asked permission to share their work and links to their online presence.

This week I'm featuring Rose Ann Points, a multi-busy artist. Not only is she a new and talented quilter, she is also a yacht broker, which is perfect for our Florida location. 

Rose Points @ Atlas Yacht Sales

Instagram @ rosepoints
Website: Delightful Little Things

Rose Ann started quilting only recently (in the last two years) to connect and help her mom with some of her hobbies. As she started helping her mom, she discovered her own talent for quilting and dove in head first deep into the quilting world. As a fabric designer, we've been talking about collaborations - I want her to design a quilt for my bedroom featuring my fabrics and she wants to learn how to create her own designs. I think I see many a future collaboration between us! 

Rose Ann created a range of price points for this art show and demonstrated the embroidery patterns her very cool machine can do. 

The Amazing Quilts

So, these are the amazing quilts Rose Ann makes. She made these gorgeous quilts with nearly 450 individually cut out hearts, appliquéd in many different square blocks. I've been assembling a guest room specifically for my nieces to feel comfortable staying in when they come over and I think these quilts just put the room over the top. My past two guests have raved about the quilts.

Follow Rose Ann on her website as she creates these delightful little quilts and gifts.

Creative Finds: Mixed Media Event - Brenda @ Art by Brenda Liz

My mom hosted a small mixed media show for our friends last weekend featuring six artists who sell their work. I asked permission to share their work and links to their online presence.

This week I'm featuring Brenda atArt by Brenda Liz. She is a local, St. Augustine, Florida artist who is working in acrylic and oils.  

Brenda @ Art by Brenda Liz

Instagram @ BrendaLiz.Art

Brenda has been working smart by creating a range of items. These small 4"x4" burlap panels are simple painted beach themed items perfect for the Florida beach market. I snagged these four pieces for my home.

Oil Palette Knife Painting

I like the bright cheery nature of poppies. Well, I like all flowers. In this painting she has started experimenting with palette knife painting. It's really rich and interesting! I'm really looking forward to her explorations in palette knife painting and oils.

Custom Pet Painting

Last, I just had to highlight an acrylic painting Brenda did for my parents. This is my dad's sweet little doggie, Madison, that passed last year at only 11 1/2 years old. We expected to have her with us for a few more years. She was just a snuggle bunny who loved her belly rubs. She was extremely devoted to my dad. While people who meet us think all of our Maltese look alike, anyone who has multiple dogs of the same breed, knows each one has their own unique little personality. Brenda perfectly captured Maddie's expression.

Brenda posts her work and her progress over on Instagram Instagram @ BrendaLiz.Art. I recommend following her work!

Creative Finds: A Mixed Media Event - Dara Dodson

My mom hosted a small mixed media show for our friends last weekend featuring six artists who sell their work. I asked permission to share their work and links to their online presence. 

Dara Dodson

Instagram @ daradodyahoocom

Website: coming soon!

Highlights from her artist bio: Dara is currently working on a series of "Scenes of St. Augustine" of local architecture and historic sites. She says, "I realized I wanted to be an artist when I 'painted' my first mural in crayons on my bedroom wall at the age of 5. It took hours to clean it off and I cried the entire time, thinking I was destroying a 'masterpiece.'" She continues to study under two well-known artists and has taken several workshops under one of them. She is a member of the St. Augustine Art Association because she loves art and hopes to continue for an eternity!

I am also now a collector of her art! These two Florida scenes capture exactly some of the things I've come to love about Florida. 

#1 thing I love about Florida: the clouds. Oh, the clouds here. The land is flat, but the vaporscape is magnificent! Florida is called the sunshine state. I would think southwestern states like Arizona or New Mexico could claim that being desert states. But, after living here nearly two years, I've learned that we usually have sunshine every day. And we can have rain every day. The winter is the dryer season, the summer is the rainy season. But, even with rain and storms every day, there is also sunshine every day. There are breaks of sunshine in between the storm clouds. It's being able to see that breathtaking slice of clouds up to tens of thousands of feet up into the air that make the heavenly tableau so stunning.

When an artist can capture what how I see the clouds in a painting, I'm very drawn to their work, as I'm drawn to Dara's work. 

#2 thing I love about Florida - the light. This is often tightly wrapped up with the clouds. There is something special about the light, usually as a result of rain or sunsets, sometimes both. Dara pinned this aspect of Florida down in the perfect picture of a lonely mangrove in the keys at sunset. 

She just started her Instagram account and is working on her website. Please follow her Instagram to watch her work progress.

Kanna Inspire: Amy Cavaness and another giveaway

I have more goodies for you today! Stay tuned to the end of this post.

First, I wanted to spotlight one of the first issue's contributors, Amy Cavaness. She makes gorgeous art quilts and you can find out more about her at her website, Amy Cavaness Designs. 

How did you get started in your art?

I got started sewing in Home Ec in 8th grade, though my mother and grandmother sewed dresses for me. I came from very creative stock!

How long have you been creating?

I've been creating since I learned to sew--I've pretty much always had a sewing project going. I've subscribed to sewing magazines since my early 20's and have made extensive use of the internet to keep up on new products and techniques related to sewing and quality arts.

Tell me three things about you:

• In addition to my four sons and four dogs, I've "adopted" about 10 people over the years, living with me from periods of weeks to years. Making up for being an only child, I guess!
• I have a Master's Degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Northwestern University. And I don't own a piano. (Oh, the things we do for our mothers!)
• Favorite hobbies are dancing and trail riding. LOVE working with my horse using Natural Horsemanship techniques (horse whisperer stuff). Some people call me a dog whisperer, too.

What appealed to you about participating in Inspiration Adventures?

I wanted to participate in Inspiration Adventures because I love color and I love challenges. I really want to do another one and do a new piece of art!

Now for this week's giveaway:

Please start sharing the love and letting other people know about Inspiration Adventures! 

An idea for a quick link to share: 

New art e-zine featuring 8 artists and one theme. Free trial issue! http://bit.ly/1d1jMTG

• Share on your social media outlets (PInterest, Facebook, Twitter, blog, etc.)
• Leave a comment below with the links to your shares.

For each social media share, you will be entered into a drawing. For example: if you Tweet, blog, and Pin the word about Inspiration Adventures, you will be entered 3 times.

What is the prize you ask? A print copy of Inspiration Adventures AND a $25 gift certificate to work with Amy on designing an art quilt for you!

Creative Finds: Polymer Artist - Rebecca at Arty Becca

Ah, the generous artists who don't mind stopping to peer over my virtual shoulder and offer a word of encouragement or advice! When it was glass, Ms. Laura Sparling of Beads by Laura would stop by to help me with encasing. Oy...still not consistently successful with the technique, but becoming much less mysterious as a result of her suggestions and her online tutorials.

Now that I'm sprouting feathers in polymer clay, Ms. Rebecca of ArtyBecca has kindly dropped by to offer some words of advice on finishing my polymer clay pieces. It's often those tiny little things that make the most difference in the actual practice. Sure...you can buy the books and tutorials and follow them carefully. (Which, as you may have realized, I usually don't follow the project...I'm more about following the technique.) But, it's those perfectly refined points that make the world of difference and move your work up the notch you've been laboring so hard over. Which is what Rebecca did to help me with finishing...getting fingerprints out, shaping, and buffing for a shine. Thank you so much, Rebecca!

Check out her work in ArtyBecca's Etsy store. With Rebecca's permission, I'm posting photos of her current listings in her Etsy store. The photos in this post are two of my favorites. Click the photos to take you directly to the listings. Her beads are hand-formed...so beautiful...

2010 (C) http://www.artybecca.com/

2010 (C) http://www.artybecca.com/

Artfully Meandering: Polymer Progressions

More books I love...I'm wending my way through the color progressions in this book. I'm learning a ton about color in any form, but obviously particularly in polymer clay. The color scales are brilliant. A little technical at first, but once you get the hang of it, quite useful and handy. (If anyone wants help, let me know. I could do a follow-up on some little tricks I found to simplify it to start.) I still haven't found the type of bead I want to make just yet in polymer, though. I might have to break down and get something like a bead roller 'cuz it's making me crazy not to be able to make nicely round beads. Or nicely formed beads. But, I made some beads and pendants I like due to the color practice. They need LOTS of sanding. I don't know if they'll be good enough when sanded, but I can see some progress. This batch had half a bar of white mixed in with the original primary color Fimo clay.

Yellow - Orange Set
I'm actually quite pleased with one of the ideas that came out of this play session: the folded disk which formed kind of a floral and the balled headpins. I'd love the bead roller to make the headpins actually nice and round. (I miss glass. Gravity makes glass round.)




Blue-Purple Set

Green - Blue Set

I don't think the pendant is fixable. Too smooshy and bubbled.


We'll see if I can save any of the others. Might be too far gone, but we'll see if we can resuscitate them.

Also, I’m morphing the Business Bite articles into a series of challenges about the mechanics of my creative business. I'll be drawing in things I've learned from being a girl geek project manager and find ways to apply it in the small business setting. My main goal is to find ways to make the business part less annoying and maybe even enjoyable or inspiring. Creative Self, meet Analytical Self. Play nice.

Creative Finds: Beaded Colorways Book Review

As I've mentioned before, I'm not a huge fan of seed beading. Until I started following Beverly Ash Gilbert's blog. Free-form beading? I can wrap my head around that concept. Following a pattern? Nope. I still really don't. Or can't. Not sure as I did try out two projects in the book, but ended up tearing them both out. The first because I used regular sewing thread (and intended it to be practice...sewing thread is too fragile) and the second because the project I started was laying out funny. Not to say that I won't try the projects in the future. They are spectacular and dreamy. I read the book for a few months before I got the courage to really try it out and just recently received all the correct materials to actually work on it. The projects in this book have provided a lot of eye candy for my creative mind to play with as I dabble in new mediums. Beverly teaches the peyote stitch and 3-bead netting stitch.

As I mentioned, I started projects, but tore them out. I recreated the projects into my own version, which is an update on my Classic Lariat, re-invented as the Beaded Lariat. (I love lariats. Must be from living in Texas for nine years.) I used some Sarah Hornik lampwork beads as the tassles of the first Autumn Leaves Lariat. The bead colorways are from Beverly's collection of Bead Soups and Medleys. I mixed in some additonal gems such as the tiny garnets and green, organically shaped cultured pearls. The free-form beading was wrapped around leather cord, a red hemp cord, and a yellow waxed linen cord.


This Southwestern Beaded Lariat is half finished. I still need to create a new clasp and add the lariat tassles. It's designed differently from the above lariat. The lariat above can be worn doubled around the neck or tied in a single long rope. The one below is designed to be worn as a long lariat and has the hook enclosure as part of the decoractive element on the front. I sprinkled in generous helpings of undyed turquoise roundels, my lampwork beads, and dyed red coral. I also included one of my own light turquoise with red lampwork heart as the focal bead. There will be dangling ropes behind it when I finish it...(not sure when). Again, wrapping the freeform seed ropes around leather cord, red hemp, and light blue waxed linen. I love this color combo (even though it's getting overplayed, I can't help it...it's still so southwest-y, I must still play with it).

Creative Finds: Moon Katty Studios Interview

I'm very excited I was able to finally post the interview with Moon Katty Studios over here on my Artfire Studio Blog. Please enjoy!

Creative Finds: Enchanted Adornments

I have been silent lately...my artistic rhythm is all out of whack as I learn new skills and have to put glass on hold. The learning curve has been steeper than I expected...but when I go back to how long it took me to learn glass, it's not surprising. Lori Anderson of Pretty Things is doing a year-long blog project called An Artist's Year Off to challenge herself and grow creatively. I think I've been forced to grow by circumstances. It's more challenging than I expected. I want to have objects to the level of quality I was just starting to reach with my glass. I've still been creating...but I'm back to stringing and wire work for now.

In the meantime, I've been getting new books to try out some new mediums. Which leads me to one of my book reviews...Cynthia Thornton's Enchanted Adornments. I have to say, I was thoroughly and pleasantly surprised at the breadth of techniques covered in this book. It has removed some of the intimidation I was having with clay (polymer or silver). I was expecting jewelry ideas, but she totally exceeded my expectations by covering the techniques way back to the fabrication of the components with silver clay, polymer clay, and creating molds for creating repeat pieces (I've been needing this!). I've skimmed the book twice already and can't wait to read it in depth.

Millie at AMMJewelry has already posted some of her results with one of Cynthia's projects. I'm excited to see what other people are trying.

As for me, I did manage to snaggle up a whole bunch of clay at a going out of business sale. I have been playing with blending. I have no clay conditioning machine, so everything is being done by hand. I'm learning quite a bit. I had some beads and buttons I was starting to like. But. I have no oven. I was considering getting a small oven or at least a toaster oven, but I'm waiting to see if I'm going to stay here in Hong Kong. (May be moving back to the States due to constant migraines here.) So. I thought I'd settled on brilliant solution to use my kiln. It might have worked if I had remembered to do the Fahrenheit to Celsius conversion. Them clay things were burnt to a crisp. And it was a toxic burnt mess...open windows, fans blowing (at least I have my squirrel fan from my lampworking to help vent). So. Learn from my mistake! Make sure you pay attention to the temperature!!! I'll try to play with some more blends to show you what I'm coming up with. I don't know if I should even try using my kiln again or just play. If anyone has any feedback on whether I can use my kiln (as long as it's set to the right temp), I'd appreciate the feedback. I really miss being able to use components created completely by me and wanted to use some of the buttons in my jewelry.

Creative Finds: Stringing Style 2

I seem to be running low on steam these days...I'm kind of trapped between styles and jewelry mediums, so as I'm wending my way into the art clay, I thought I'd experiment with some styles inspired by the new books I bought. This is going to be the first in a series of book reviews I plan on doing over the next few months.

When I was back in the US, I loaded up on visual eye candy. One of them was this book. Now. I probably wouldn't have purchased this book if I didn't have the opportunity to pick it up and peruse through it's pretty pages. After all, I started with stringing and moved on to other techniques pretty quickly. However, I went ahead and purchased this book because it had loads of fabulous ideas that included stringing and then some. I've learned stringing, wire-wrapping, and chain maille and this book gave me some ideas about combining all of those techniques in a single piece.

The result? Beautiful autumnal shades in coppers, greens, and carnelians. This piece combines barrel weave chain maille, copper chain, irregular sizes of copper loops using some ideas from chain maille, wooden rounds, carnelian roundels, citrine roundels, dyed cultured pearls, some of the first lampwork beads I ever bought from Grace Ma, and one of my own floral disks dangling in front of small sterling silver ropes for a splash of interest (as if it wasn't already interesting enough). The Grace beads are the ones I re-worked from one of my early pieces. This was is a keeper. As in...I think I'm keeping it for myself! (I couldn't resist wearing it today to give it a try...it was winking at me this morning...)

Creative Finds: Artful Blogging

The first time I saw Artful Blogging, I thought, "What? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?" I ended up buying it because I loved the photos of the featured blogs. It was such a pretty journal. Now that I'm here in Hong Kong, it's the only journal I decided to spend the money and shelf space on. Why? First, it features articles from a selection of the best blogs out there. The eye-candy alone is worth the money. Second, it gives great ideas from experienced bloggers on things you can do to improve your own blog. Third, it gives me broad exposure to blogs I might never have found otherwise. It has become a staple in my art library.

Creative Finds: Noisy Plume Blogfest

Nancy McKay initiated a Noisy Plume blogfest to support Jillian at her Missoula Made fair this weekend. So, I'm going to repeat one of the previous posts I did regarding why The Noisy Plume is one of my favorite blogs to read......


There are many many things that have melded together into my brain and help me form my creativity. Last September, I wanted to refine my blog. I've been wandering around various blogs, trying get some creative juices going to help me figure "who I want to grow up to be" as Kanna Glass Studios.

For inspiration about how to write a blog, one of my "must-reads" is by Jillian at The Noisy Plume. She writes prose and poetry to the tune of her daily life as she swings her hammer and forms delectable silver jewelry. Go check out her work! Gorgeous! It's a must read and her sought-after jewelry is a must-purchase...if you can get your hands on any of it...it has a tendency to fly off the shelves.

When I try to think of where I want to go as me (Kanna Glass Studios) and I start getting off track, her blog is one of the touchstones I come back to for helping me stay focused on the goal of inspire-inform-entertain. Things I've learned from reading her blog: 1) she writes in her own, unique creative voice, 2) she lives her life creatively, 3) she takes photos of her life and draws that into inspiration for her jewelry 4) she maintains a positive, creative focus. If you have time to read her blog from the start, you'll find this consistency throughout.

Creative Finds: Taking Flight by Kelly Rae Roberts

One of my favorite books of late is the book Taking Flight~Inspiration & Techniques to Give Your Creative Spirit Wings, by Kelly Rae Roberts. The book is deceptive: it looks sweet and easy to read. Well, it is sweet...but, I found it very thought-provoking. While I usually skim books looking for bits and pieces of tutorials I can use in my art, this book actually took me two weeks to read. Two of the chapters, "Unearthing Buried Dreams," and "Facing Your Fears" contained some thought processes that helped me overcome some of the "inner chatter" that was holding me back. Very cool stuff.

© 2008 by Kelly Rae Roberts

Book photo printed with permission of the artist

Of course, you can just purchase this book straight from Amazon, but there are two ways you can support us artists. If you wanted a signed copy from the artist with a limited edition print: click here. If you are buying this book because of my recommendation (I get a referral commission and you still pay the Amazon price) click here.

Creative Finds: Coal Miner's Daughter

As I listen to my neighbor's daughter practice the piano, my mind returns to music and the correlation between musical art and tangible art.

MoonKatty studios has had a few posts on music that have made me think: like the post on how Georgia O'Keefe created some of her works to music or that, like a violin's bow, we need tension in our lives to express our art.

I'll be coming back to music from time to time. But, this post was prompted by watching the movie, Coal Miner's Daughter, a bio-pic about Loretta Lynn, one of the influential women in country music. I watched it for the first time in the early 90's when I was just starting to listen to country music. I watched it again last week with some different impressions as I embark on a creative business.

One thing that struck me when Loretta started out, she and her husband 'went confidently in the direction of their dreams.' Her husband had incredible confidence in her ability. He learned bits and pieces about the music industry as they went and learned to do a lot himself...take the artist picture, recorded her first record, sent out copies and letters to the radio stations, drove around in person to the radio stations. The learning process was quite interesting. It reminds me a lot of what needs to be done as the artists are launching their own creative and the fact that you do a lot yourself.

Regarding the above quote, I couldn't remember who said it, so I looked it up. The full quotation is even more interesting. The full quote is by Henry David Thoreau, from Walden, "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

An additional thought in the context of this paragraph, "In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex." I like this thought because it fits with some of the ideas I had around the upcoming article for the May Kanna Spark! newsletter, "Creating Your Mission Statement."

I'm going to start having bead giveways soon. I'm only doing spacers right now, to refresh my skills, but they are in juicy, bead berry colors. Stay tuned!

Creative Finds: The Noisy Plume

There are many many things that have melded together into my brain and help me form my creativity. Last September, I wanted to refine my blog. I've been wandering around various blogs, trying get some creative juices going to help me figure "who I want to grow up to be" as Kanna Glass Studios.

For inspiration about how to write a blog, one of my "must-reads" is by Jillian at The Noisy Plume. She writes prose and poetry to the tune of her daily life as she swings her hammer and forms delectable silver jewelry. Go check out her work! Gorgeous! It's a must read and her sought-after jewelry is a must-purchase...if you can get your hands on any of it...it has a tendency to fly off the shelves.

When I try to think of where I want to go as me (Kanna Glass Studios) and I start getting off track, her blog is one of the touchstones I come back to for helping me stay focused on the goal of inspire-inform-entertain. Things I've learned from reading her blog: 1) she writes in her own, unique creative voice, 2) she lives her life creatively, 3) she takes photos of her life and draws that into inspiration for her jewelry 4) she maintains a positive, creative focus. If you have time to read her blog from the start, you'll find this consistency throughout.

Creative Finds: Artful Blogging - the Next Installment

More raving about Artful Blogging (Autumn 2008) (Volume 2): After reading Emma's enthusiastic blog about Artful Blogging I started looking through my copy of this journal again. (Yes, I read her blog about my blog...) Then I stopped at the tagline: "Visually Inspiring Online Journals."

Visually Inspiring is the essence of what I want to achieve on this blog.

On to dissecting more reasons I choose printed magazines:

Regional or Local Flair: The majority of my marketing comes from in person contact. I find understanding my chosen home is essential to appealing to my audience. People usually want something that evokes a sense of where they are living or where they are visiting. For example, turquoise and silver are a staple of southwestern jewelry. I think in terms of Southwest-y-ness in colors I pick for my glass beads and also in terms of using turquoise stones in the jewelry. In magazines like Su Casa, SantaFean, Cowboys & Indians, and Texas Highways, I am able to gain additional insight into the textures, shapes, patterns, and colors of the locale. My home will soon be Hong Kong, so you might see a different flair. It might have a splash of the southwest ('cuz I really like the Southwest) along with an Asian twist. Hmm...that is really quite a combo - Texan and Asian. I am interested to see what my brain does with that...How this can help me: appeal to the local audience.

The story: My favorite art pieces in my home come with a story...how it was created, who is the artist, what the artist was thinking when they created it. I have picked up an occasional magazine highlighting artists in different media such as sculpture, painting, and photography. Since art is a highly personal and individual subject, the story is a way to create a connection between the minds. How does this help me: create a compelling story with my art pieces.

Learning Something New: I have been eyeing up the many craft and jewelry magazines out there. I can’t wait to get my hands on them. But…I’m trying to divest myself of the stuffage so I don’t have to lug it across the globe. I’m very into digital media these days. I look forward to when the Kindle: Amazon's Wireless Reading Device will be in color. How this can help me: provide useful information to my blog readers.

Small business gumption: (Gumption = I think I've been living in Texas too long.) I like to ruminate on the stories of small businesses run by creative individuals. How this can help me: Creativity and the business of selling beautiful things provide a catalyst to help me figure out how and where I can grow or not grow my business.


Inspire. Entertain. Inform.


Which magazines do you pick up? Why?



And a final note: Whew! That was a bit of pressure to finish a real article for this week. We’ll see if I can maintain this pace. I have a bunch o’ ideas for later, but need some courage (and time) to execute.



Credits:
First Photo: Su Casa, Spring 2005. Photograph by Jack Parsons. Inspired the use of wooden beads in the jewelry.
Second Photo: Pottery Barn, May 2008 Catalog, Page 57. Inspired the use of Dark Turquoise, Nile Green, and Pale Sky Blue in the jewelry. (This is a Version 2.0 of the necklace from last week's post.)
Third Photo: Pottery Barn, May 2008 Catalog, Page 37
Fourth Photo: Victoria, May/June 2008, Page 7, Laura Ashley advertisement. Inspired the hot pink and light pink dyed cultured pearls color combination.

Resources:
Artful Blogging (Summer 2008)Artful Blogging (Winter 2008) Single Issue (Vol. 2)Artful Blogging Subscription

Creative Finds: Artful Blogging - The First Installment

I have been honored to be noticed and tagged by the following bloggers: Laura, Angie, and EVY Designs. I follow your blogs and enjoy your work very much! I have a confession to make...um...I am a "black hole" when it comes to forwards and tags. Forwards and tags fall into my email and never see the light of day again. I have been this way for as long as I have been on the internet--less one year...

Focus on Art

I recently picked up a printed magazine called, Artful Blogging. The main reason I selected it was for the gorgeous eye candy of other artists' work. This led me to think about why I pick up print magazines in general. The majority of my bead and jewelry inspiration come from...home decorating magazines. Weird fact: I do not care to read fashion magazines for inspiration.

So, I was thinking, what is it about home magazines that make me willing to part with my cash? If I can capture those key elements, then maybe I can improve my blog so it worthy of your readership. I started my blog as a "journal of jewelry lessons." Now that I am evolving jewelry from a hobby into a small business, I would like my blog to mature as well. I was reading Lori Greenberg's post on Write a Better Blog Post, which is a link to the in-depth article on Alyson's Art Marketing Action. The morsel I pulled out of Alyson's post: your blog content should Inspire, Entertain, Inform.

Seven Things that Inspire Me from Printed Magazines

1. Luminous photography. My all-time favorite magazine is Victoria. It's all about beautiful things. It went out of print for while and now is back. This magazine inspires prettiness. The main reason I choose certain magazines is for the photography. The element of the photography that sings to my creative conciousness is the lighting. The photography from Victoria in the 1990's was masterful in its use of light. The only way I can describe it is that it "glows." How does this help me? This inspires me to improve my photography and learn more about lighting.


2. Color inspiration from floral arrangements. The floral arrangements in Victoria contain every imaginable color combination. I will purchase any magazine if it has loads of floral arrangements. I love to cut out these photos and paste them into my personal journal to soothe my storm of thoughts and release the creative flow. The color mixes range from subtle to astounding. How does this help me? There are some color combinations that would never occur to me, but seeing them in print gives me courage to try the unexpected.


3. Color and pattern inspiration from home decor catalogs and magazines. I enjoy Pottery Barn for its slight inclination toward rustic. The 2008 catalogs have been capturing the photographic luminosity that seizes my imagination. Restoration Hardware portrays timeless elegance. Cottage Living, House Beautiful, Coastal Living, and Martha Stewart Living are another set of magazines, that, while not on my regular reading list, are part of my set of "treats" I distract myself with during travel. How does this help me? Patterns, styles, complexity, and simplicity stretch my mind toward various design sensibilities and enable me to appreciate and understand differing aesthetics.

As I am transitioning into this new phase of my blog, I will be preparing and writing articles for your inspiration, entertainment, and information. Content worthy of these designations will take longer to prepare. The second installment (and next four magazine inspirations) of Artful Blogging will follow next Saturday.
Question to you: which printed magazines inspire you and why?

New This Week: Peacock Poppy Dots Necklace and Earrings

Creative Finds: Sarah Hornik's Think Pink!

For all your lampworkers out there, Sarah Hornik's Think Pink! IS A MUST HAVE!!! I can't believe she only charged $20 for all that info! It's sooooo good. Jam-packed with information on working in reactives.

The above is my favorite bead of the bunch I tried out. I haven't had much torch time lately, but one of my friends who took the original beginners class with me has been letting me get some torch time. I feel like I'm starting over. (Sort of...I've been re-photographing my original beads to re-post to this blog since the originals were lost...and I really have come a long way since the beginning.) I made more beads, but this is my favorite, paired with some CiM colors. I'd like make a bunch more and make a bracelet out of these colors of beads. It would make a pretty little charm bracelet.

As for working in reactives: Sarah has made learning reactives really easy. I can't believe I did such a cool bead! I've been afraid of reactives - they're more expensive and the stuff I've done so far...eh. It's all right. I just figured I needed more experience. Sarah took care of that. Just work with the glass. A few of my early attempts did get good reviews...but I would feel guilty letting the glass do all that work while all I did was make a round bead with dots. Now I know...that's just the beginning...let the reactives roll!