Special Requests?

Do you accept special requests for your art?  Time, equipment and experience permitting, I always try to.  Since I am not bogged down with constant orders, I usually have free time in which I can fit a request or 2 in.
Also, being as versatile as possible, I consider some requests to be a real challenge and helps my art develop into realms which I never thought I would go.  There are even several designs for new pendants and beads which came out of requests from family and friends and are now some of my best sellers.

Ideas can also just come from "suggestions" from customers or just chatting in general.  If something sounds interesting enough to me, I will give it a try.

Just recently, I came up with a new design by just chatting with my hubby.  I called him Jeremy, a big toothy grin with a baseball cap.  I am thinking now of doing a whole set, calling them the "J Team", naming them all with "J" names - - should be cute.  My mother also saw this bead and now I have the "challenge" of making one wearing a Cubbies cap for my Dad.  Being a life-long Chicagoan until his retirement to Arizona, he's always been a fan of the Cubs.  I now have to study their logo and figure out how to transfer that image into glass.  I hope all comes out well with it and I will post a picture of it when it's done.

What stone is that anyway?

I’ll give you a hint. They have incredible bands and patterns, come in a wide variety of beautiful colors, found all over the world, and each one is completely unique. Give up? The answer is Agate. Agates are semi-precious gemstones that form layer-by-layer within a hollow cavity of a host rock. Although any old host rock will do, most agates are formed inside lava rocks. The colors and patterns of Agate are directly influenced by environmental changes (i.e. temperature or pressure). Agates can be found in every color of the rainbow; however blues and greens are rare to find.

For thousands of years people have touted Agate for having a wide range of metaphysical properties. Some of the reported capabilities include stabilization and cleansing of the aura, prevention of insomnia, promotes positive dreams, improves concentration, memory and stamina, relieves allergies, enhances creativity, makes you more persuasive, and protects against danger. Because Agate is the birth stone for Gemini, it is said to have the most positive effect of those born into this zodiac sign.

In ancient times, Agate was used as weapons, tools, mortars and pestles, as well as carved into bowls because of its hardness. We may not use Agate to create weapons and tools these days, but they do create beautiful pins, marbles, beads, brooches, and more.

-By Guest Blogger: Bead Girl Jewelry http://www.beadgirljewelry.com/

Earth Laughs in Flowers

My dear friend and long time coworker, Sara, is marrying to her love Josh later this year and I am working on their wedding invitations (yay!).  They are planning a beautiful wedding in their garden so, I thought a good place to start would be with, well, their garden! Lucky for me Sara has shared loads of flower pictures from their yard on their blog so, that's where I went for inspiration. 

Above are Sara's pictures and below are my first round of digital illustrations.

These flowers were truly a joy to draw! I have a few favorites for sure. It has been so nice to have a reason to illustrate. They have lots of orange trees and rose bushes which should be in bloom for the wedding so, we have decided to focus on those two plants in particular. Stay tuned for round two of sketches. I love weddings and flowers so this project is a win-win as Sara & I would say ;)

 Earth laughs in flowers.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Hamatreya"

Guest blogger Kristen Fagan of Creative Stash. Graphic Designer by day. Mother, wife, painter, jewelry artist, bookworm, cook and all around crafty gal by night. Contact her at krisfagan [at] cox [dot] com.

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Expanding our Horizons

   My hubby was watching the Sharks show the other day.  If you don't know the show, it's about ordinary people who have small businesses or patents and they try to sell their idea to 4 or 5 rich business people to gain investments and/or partners.  It could be pretty brutal!
   I am not sure of the product in this case, but one of the "sharks" said, "Don't you know that people are not buying jewelry these days?"  (I am assuming it was a jewelry-type item).
   That got me thinking that maybe it's time to expand my horizons.  I have been mostly sticking to beads as my main venue, but now it's probably time to incorporate some other items besides "jewelry".
   In these hard economic times, we cannot have "all our eggs in one basket", so they say.  It's time to expand, innovate, and think of new ideas to boost our businesses as well as our artistic talent.
   In my case, being a lampworker, I have decided to make murrini (little chips of glass with designs or pictures in them) as a item to sell to other glass workers who use them.  On top of that, I would also like to place more focus on creating little figurines (animals, faeries, dragons, etc.) that are stand-alone art pieces (not beads), as well as paperweights (mini ones) and/or marbles.
   To kick off my "new outlook", I am working on the eye murrini which I made to make little glass doll eyes.  I will probably still try and make those (they are pretty tough, being so small - some as little as 2mm round!), but also, they could be cut into murrini to sell to anyone who wants some cool eyes in their beads or glass art pieces.
 
 

Ahoy Painting

 

I just shipped this sweet little sailboat to Colorado. This was a commissioned 8x10 painting made for a baby boy's nursery based on this Ahoy Mate NoJo bedding set.

 

Here is the progress from start to finish.

At first I was thinking about a border and using the words ahoy! but quickly decided I would simply paint the sweet little sailboat without cluttering it up.

I love to take commissions. Working together to produce something you will love and that will have personal meaning to you is very fulfilling!  

Want to commission me to create a special painting for you?Please feel free to email me to discuss your project and receive an estimate.

Guest blogger Kristen Fagan of Creative Stash. Graphic Designer by day. Mother, wife, painter, jewelry artist, bookworm, cook and all around crafty gal by night. Contact her at krisfagan [at] cox [dot] com.

website | blog | facebook | twitter | etsy shop

What a GREAT Week!

Been a really good week for me so far (except for that little Copyright Infringement issue). My alien head bead went up in space on the shuttle Endeavor and I am back up and running with my new studio. It's not totally completed yet, still have ventilation issues, but at least it's workable (for me, anyway).

So since Sunday, I got my purple bubble heart beads done for a Beads of Courage order and I started making some doll eyes (which I hope may be a little niche of good sales - wish me luck!)

I am excited to get back to melting glass and am hoping to do some experimenting and "playing" to see if I come up with any new designs.

All the best!

Love your Art Journal- Tongue Twisters

I just started an art journal and I am already loving it. It is a great way for me to spend just a couple of minutes doodling, painting or revisiting the day. I am not a huge writer, just a few words works for me. So this journal is the perfect thing for me to just scratch down a few words.

Today my kids were working on their tongue twisters. We had a great laugh, one of those moments you want to store in your memory bank. So, I took a few moments to create an entry.

Yolanda Nussdorfer is a mixed media artist and member of East Valley Artisans.