Friendly Reminder.... and a Giveaway Winner.....

by MaryAnn Carroll

Happy Monday morning.....

You can scroll to the end of this post to see if you are the winner of Jennifer Heynen's book from last Sunday's giveaway located to the left.

Just a little reminder about helping us get our NEW CHALLENGE IDEA
"Art Spark" off the ground.  For a little encouragement, a nudge of sorts, I am going to show you what you can win this month.....  if your piece is chosen....

Why not take the PLUNGE?  Try something DIFFERENTI!!!

We will display weekly winners (may be more than one) for weeks two and three of each month.

The ArtSpark Challenge winner for June will win the fabulous donations shown below.  In addtion to these great prizes, the winner's creation (with links to your shop) will be included on our website (which does come up in jewelry searches) for one year.  Here is a link to one of our recent winners Lu Behrman:

http://www.lovemyartjewelry.com/april_ctc_winner.html

...and the winning design will also be shown off on the sidebar of our blog for one month.....

So, why not join us?  Create your design (based on the monthly theme) and share a little about

your thought process while creating (story form, poem, song, maybe a picture of what inspired you, etc.).  It's as simple as uploading to your own flickr account, writing a description under your picture and then add that to our flickr pool.

Fab polymer clay beads by Barbara....  Check out sidebar for more creations by Barbara.

Adorable wood-fired turquoise lidded container (1 3/4" x 2 1/2").  Check out the sidebar for more work created by Bill.

And this great book for those of you who are interested in learning more about soldering.  This book is sure to take any fears away about learning metal soldering techniques!!!!  This was generously donated by Mary Jand Dodd.  Click the button to the right to see  some of the techniques that Mary Jane uses in her beautiful jewelry.

And now.....

the winner of the book by Jennifer Heynen located on the left sidebar is.....

CYNTHIA from Cynth's Blog!!!

Please contact Kelli with your address.

mcpeanuts@aol.com

Thanks for supporting those who create with handmade.

A Little Light Housekeeping and then.... Spice Up Your Sunday....

by MaryAnn Carroll

A little bit of housekeeping before getting to our bi-weekly designer interview.  First, please enter in our ArtSpark challenge. To be taken right to the post, click the ArtSpark June button to the left.  We would love to be able to feature your piece in our weekly designer selection (the first designer selection will be tomorrow).  Not to mention, you will be entered to win the fabulous donations that are shown in the post as well as on our right sidebar.  Please share your creations along with your connections to that creation.

Also….. the Sunday giveaway has been postponed until tomorrow, Monday, June 13th, which means you have one more day to enter.... The link is to the left of this post.

Thanks for creating with us!  You can find links to learn more about Nat at the end of this interview.  Please take some time to visit her various sites.



Natalie
Etsy Shop: Grubbi



So, here is what Nat had to say when asked to share a little about herself personally.  Being from the U.S., I was a little concerned when Nat shared that she lost 5 stones!  Ouch!!!

I had to look up what a "stone" was since I only know about passing those and that is not pretty....

Unless, of course, if we are talking about passing stone beads...... that can be a pleasant experience ;o)

In the UK, however, it would be delightful to lose a stone since one of those equals 14 pounds in the US.  Congrats to you, Nat for losing 70 pounds in U.S. lingo.  Oh boy, before I confuse anyone more, I will just get onto what Nat had to say....

When I’m not at my desk kneading clay and hammering metal I’m training part time to become a counsellor/therapist. I live in Liverpool in the UK with and am mum to my beautiful 14 year old daughter who could generate enough dirty clothing to sink a ship! 

I have a love for animals and have three cats, one of whom was a feral stray that we took in and over time she’s become a lot tamer and part of the family. I’ve been a vegetarian for 25 years and animal welfare is a cause very close to my heart.

I’m also on a fitness/healthy living kick, having given up smoking 3 years ago, I’m now counting calories and introducing exercise into my life and have lost 5 stone in the last 6 months, which is a big change but is a wonderful feeling to be taking positive steps towards a new me.

I must start off by asking.... How did you come up with the name Grubbi?

Well, I was originally going to use my regular nickname but as I’m known in other online communities by that name I wanted a new name that would be connected with my jewellery only. Grubbi resonated from the word “Grubby” which is English slang meaning “a bit dirty” or “worn looking”. As I love aged, distressed and antiqued jewellery and beads I thought it apt.

What was it that got you first interested in creating jewelery?

I’ve always had a passion for art and creating things…in the past it was pieces of art, portraits and sometimes 3D meshes and graphics.

I first became interested in jewellery making when I was looking for a piece of jewellery for my Mum's birthday. I found some beautiful earrings but they were extremely expensive and so I decided to buy some beads in similar colours and try to make something similar myself.

Once I had purchased beads and made my first pair of badly made earrings, I was hooked! Not just to creating jewellery but to buying beads. I must have spent a small fortune over the last couple of years. There are beads everywhere!

You mentioned that you have been creating jewellery for some time now and have been experimenting with different mediums. Would you tell us a little bit about that?

I get bored very easily and even though I loved buying beads, I found that I wanted a more hands on approach, buying beads and stringing them didn’t satisfy the Gemini in me and so I moved on to polymer clay and making my own beads.  I discovered polymer clay by accident. I was looking for beads to buy and discovered the polymer clay and lampwork artist Emma Ralph. I fell in love with a set of her polymer beads and so bought a load of clay and set about learning how to use it.

After that I discovered Etsy and art beads! That’s where I really found my niche…art and beads combined…just perfect!!

I discovered MissFickleMedia on Etsy and my love for metal work and patinas emerged. From that I discovered stamping and just more recently, etching. I would totally love to try lampwork but I don’t have a studio or the funds for the expensive equipment. I would also love to try ceramics and enamelling but I’m trying to become more adapt with the tools I do have and not concentrate on what I don’t have.

Do you create beads with jewellery styles in mind or do you make the jewellery work for the beads that were created? Please tell us a little about that.

Some days I fancy playing with clay so I’ll get out my stash and try a new technique or make a cane, other days I’ll just make some components such as ear wires or clasps from wire so that I have some for the future should I need them. Other days I’ll actually force myself to sit down and finish unfinished projects and occasionally I’ll have the right beads and the right components at the same time and I’ll actually get to finish a piece of jewellery!

I do like doing some of the challenges from the online community or if I have a custom order…I seem to work better when I have a theme or colour scheme or a commission…I like a little spark to kick of the creative process.

How did you get started selling on Etsy and what have you enjoyed the most about selling online? And the least?

Friends and family kept telling me that I should start selling my stuff.  I had spent a couple of years stocking up on beads, findings, tools and learning how to use them but never really had the confidence to think that anyone would actually pay for something I had made.

I made things for family mostly; my Mum is a huge fan of jewellery so she was my tester. I had looked at starting a website but found it quite difficult to get the look I wanted and worried about how I would drive traffic to it.

Even though I had been shopping on Etsy for over a year, it didn’t occur to me to open my own shop because it was a predominantly US site and I was over in the UK.  Then it occurred to me that if I was happy to shop in the US, others may me happy to shop in the UK. 

I joined in with some online communities and started adding my stuff to Flickr and had some good feedback and so less than 2 months ago, decided I had nothing to lose by opening an Etsy store and seeing how I got on.

So far I love it!  It’s great to see my things out there for everyone to see. Having such positive feedback from peers has given my confidence a much needed boost and every time someone adds something of mine to their favourites I feel very flattered!  My first sale was to a lady in New Mexico…blew my mind that my beads would be made into jewellery in New Mexico, the other side of the world. Very exciting!

Have you set any goals for your future in terms of creating and selling?

No, not really. I don’t think it will ever be a full time job unfortunately. I just don’t have the time to devote to creating on a full time basis. I think if it “had” to do it then I would fear it becoming a chore rather than a passion. So I’m happy to keep it more as a part time job/hobby for the foreseeable.  Unless of course I’m discovered in a big way and offered millions, hehe.

While purusing Nat's shop, I also noticed that she not only created wonderful beads and jewelry, but also offers some fabulous portraits.

I have drawn portraits for over 20 years and art has always been a huge passion of mine. I used to draw portraits with good old pencil and paper but moved on to Photoshop and a graphics tablet a few years ago. Your portrait will be delivered via email for your approval and then sent to you on a CD with an A4 print in a hard backed envelope. If you prefer you can just receive the email delivery and I will refund your postage costs. I will include different versions of the finished piece in many finishes including faded, black and white, high contrast etc... From the CD you can print out as many copies of your portrait for family and friends.

Check out Nat's shop http://grubbi.etsy.com/

and some more artwork on flickr......

   www.flickr.com/photos/grubbi_/

 and then learn more about Nat by following her blog:

 http://www.grubbi.co.uk/

Thanks so much, Nat, for sharing with us.

nascent

mary jane dodd

january 1, 2010 - that was my word of the year... it has taken almost 18 months of gestation... but i am in the birthing canal - it is dark and scary... but at the end is light and life... i know this as surely as the seasons change, the tides ebb and flow... 

chapters end, doors open... doors close, new chapters are written... 

and in this transition, there has been no time to work - to do what feeds me... what if the muse decides she likes the vacation and never returns? but she will... when i am open and breathing new life - the space will envelope her as it never has before... 

for now, while i work at the other aspects of moving, i carefully set up my future work place... 

slowly it evolves... my dearly adored tools awaiting me patiently... offering me hope and a promise of something wonderful... 

the shelves filling... 

when i tire of working in other rooms, i just come downstairs to look... in that transitional place, of living in one place and moving into another... the transference of leaving one life behind and moving into another... there is a palpable tension in this moment... but it is just for now... 

childhood memories abound here - and i hope i get a chance to do the artspark justice this month... 

'your life shrinks or expands in direct proportion to your courage.'

one step at a time and lots of deep breaths can take you far... 

Childhood memory........

by Kelli Pope

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm LOVING the monthly Art Spark!!! It gets my head spinning with ideas! I just love it. While I did not come up with an accomplishment from my childhood I was proud of, it did get me thinking about special times when I was a child. Every Sunday after church, Mom, Daddy me and my 2 older sisters went to my grandmother and grandfather's house for lunch. My aunt and uncle always joined us, and WHAT a spread my grandmother put out. (..........oh and let me correct myself. It wasn't "lunch". It was "supper".

If you're from the country, or have family from the country as I do, you'll understand the difference. Lunch is a sandwich. "Supper" is a full blown meal! ) There was always lots of joking around, teasing, laughing, and sitting around and relaxing. My dad always had to take a spoon to Mamaw's chocolate pie while it was still hot, BEFORE supper, and got swatted. I always got to help my aunt make the mashed potatoes. ........sigh............. Those were innocent, special days and I truly miss my grandparents and my aunt and uncle. It was just those four on my Dad's side, and they are sorely missed. I am truly blessed to have had such wonderful people in my life.

Occasionally, we would go to my mom's parents, who lived out in the country. I remember this HUGE tree in the front yard that my cousins and I always tried to climb. ........ Tree... Family................ hmmmm... what do you know.. it's an ART SPARK!!!!!! It may not quite fit the monthly challenge -my proudest accomplishment, but I can think of nothing I'm more proud of than my wonderful family.

Wire formed tree with silver HipChick bird and leaf. The cross at the bottom is for my roots. :)

How is your "Art Spark" coming along?????

It's all About Presentation : How to Make a Paper Box

Today I'm going to show you how to make a simple handmade box. It's the box that inspired last month's Art Spark challenge. I first encountered this box pattern when I received a beautiful piece of jewelry from the lovely and talented Lorelei Eurto which was packaged lovingly in a box just like this.

For my boxes I purchased a couple of packages of scrapbooking card stock.

It is perfect because it is both beautiful and square.
Square is where we start with this project. You need two pieces of paper the same size, and perfectly square. The size of the paper determines the size of the box. I am illustrating with 12 x12 inch paper but if you quarter it, you end up with four boxes of petite size. (my favorite)


This is all you need. Scissors and paper. Make sure the paper is stiff like card stock. It makes your box strong and your folds crisp.



Choose two pieces of complementing paper. One will be the top and one will be the bottom of the box. Begin by removing any extra tabs that have been attached to the paper by the manufacturer.

**Please note -I have chosen two pieces of paper that are identical as one side of them is decorated and the other printed red.

Choose the paper/color that you'd like to be the bottom.
If you are using 12 x12" size paper, trim 1/2" from two perpendicular sides.

The bottom of the box needs to be a bit smaller to fit inside the top when folded. I usually eyeball this but if you are making smaller boxes, trim a smaller amount proportionally.

Next, with your chosen color for the bottom facing the table, fold the square into a triangle meeting opposite corners. Open the paper flat and fold the two other corners together. Make soft creases when you do this. You are making a guideline for the next step. Open your paper flat once more.

Above you will see the next step illustrated. Bring your four corners together into the middle using the nice 'X' you made in the center of the square.

Once every one is in, turn each one out to look like this:

Beautiful. You're doing great!


Now the edges of the square get folded to the center 'X' point. Fold them in and flatten them back out again.

My finger is pointing to the crease you will make.

Showing two sides up. All four sides will come in to meet the center point, get creased and then fold out again.

Once you have folded all sides in and then back out you will see a small crease-square in each corner of the arrangement.

What you will do now is carefully cut two places on parallel sides of the work. You know when to stop cutting when you reach the crease-square's point. The point of the scissors above are in just the right place to stop.

Now after four beautifully precise cuts, you have made this (above)

Open out the "short" sides like the unfolding wings of a bird ( I know, but it's late and it's a good visual)

With the open wings flat on the table, lift the two "long" sides up and have their corners meet and overlap. (How do-you-do corner? Just fine, corner.)

Uh oh!

The outside corner is too long and too pointy.

So we trim it. Just a bit, to make it even.


You can see both parts of the next steps above.

#1. while holding the newly acquainted corners together, let that bird wing that we opened up earlier reach up and wrap around and over them to hold them together.

( hey, this metaphor's not too bad).

When you lay the corner in the box bottom, it will hold with friction. If you wanted a more permanent bond try a bit of glue or double sticky tape.

#2. Do the same with the other side.

TA DA!

You have just completed the bottom of the box.

Nice one.

Now for the top.

The pattern I would like on the top is now facing the table as I start folding. Repeat all steps the same as with the bottom.

Your top half will be a tiny bit bigger and should be able to slide down easily but with some resistance. If you think it's too loose or too tight, don't fret.

That ill-fitted box bottom is a great drawer organizer and you can make a new one by adjusting the width of the 1/2" strips that we trimmed from two sides of the bottom paper in the beginning.

The top taking shape. Here we go again with the bird wings...


They enfold the two sides and..... BAM! A boxtop.

Pefecto.

Texture

First, let me introduce myself.  My name is Izzy and I’m the newest member of the LMAJ team.  I’ve been doing the happy dance ever since I was asked to come on board.  Seriously, I’m so delighted to join such an amazing group of gifted women.  If you want to know a little more about me you are welcome to click on my bio link located over there on the left side.  Now, let’s get on with it...  Let’s talk about texture.

There are so many different types of texture.  You find it in music, photography, painting, sculpture, drawing, nature – just about everything around us.  Texture stimulates the sense of touch and its visual imagery inspires emotion and thought.  Patterns send messages of imagination to the brain or perhaps bring in memories of something wonderful.  Personally texture is what I love most about mixed media jewelry.  Not only can you incorporate mixed metals, but also throw in a bit of glass, fabric and/or clay, whatever your heart desires.  And the end result will be more than awesome.

So when I first noticed textured copper a few months back at my favorite copper store, to be honest, I was torn as to whether or not to buy.  A part of me felt a bit as though I was cheating because I didn't “create” that texture.  But my eyes were shouting “buy, buy, buy”.  Yeah, I could buy a rolling mill, and whew, throw down some serious cash, or just purchase this copper already textured.  It was a no brainer.

These lovely sheets have sat on a shelf for a while now and each time I sat down at my work bench I’d look over and say “maybe I’ll use you tomorrow”.  A few weeks ago these guys screamed out to me and demanded that I make them into something beautiful.  So I did.  Now I realize my reluctance was completely unfounded and I wish had picked them up sooner.  Love, love, love this copper!!  Each sheet is 24 gauge and once annealed it’s like working with paper.  Never again will I question my first instinct.  Especially when it’s something textured and I can create something this stunning.

“Texture is the most enduring and ubiquitous underpinning of form... certainly a calming, meditative and appealing world for both the eye and mind.”  ~Lynda Lehmann