Artfest change

I swapped my Saturday class, which was Funky Wallpaper People, with someone who had Creative Characters with Karen O'Brien. I think in my pre-registration frenzy, I messed up my preferred order of classes. Creative Characters is really what I need. Anahata class would have been wonderful, too, but I just don't have the space to work that big. I want to work more on painting in collage, so Karen's class will be perfect. My trading partner and I are both thrilled.

I'm in the throes of getting ready for Art and Soul. I have three jewelry classes and three collage classes. I'm only staying in Portland for two nights, because it's just too hard on my son when I'm gone too long. And, Wednesday is his birthday. I can't be gone for that evening. I'll post photos when I get back.

Artfest!

I came home after a horrible Monday to find my Artfest registration packet waiting for me! It made the rest of the day fade away into nothing. Okay, maybe not *that* much, but it was good.

I got into the following classes:
Thursday - Stephanie Rubiano's Perching Pixies
Friday - Catherine Witherell's PMC Bird Pendants
Saturday - Anahata Katkin's Funky Wallpaper People

Yes, I'm pretty much all over the board this time. I'll be working in really different mediums each day. It should be great fun. I hope my head doesn't explode by the end of the retreat!

Meanwhile, I'm getting ready for Art and Soul in Portland. It's only a couple of weeks away now. I guess I should get my supplies together. I've been working on altering my paper mache house.

I'm also working on ArtsyMama's Sweet and Sinister Swap. If I could figure out how to put the button on this blog, I would. Yes, I'm pathetic! I'm just lucky Blogger has a handy little button for links.

If there is anyone reading this that's going to Artfest or Art and Soul, I'd love to hear from you!

What happened to summer?

Where did my summer go? My son starts 6th grade on Tuesday. I can't believe it. It's his last year of elementary school. I'm not sure I'm ready for middle school next year. I've found that these transitions are harder on Mom than on him!

Here are some pics of my projects from this summer:This is a fused silver bracelet I made. I love how it moves. The beads include lemon jade and freshwater pearls.

Another fused silve bracelet. I made this in a class with Kriss Silva at the Puget Sound Bead Festival. She's a wonderful teacher.

I also took an enameling class. I love it. The two bigger green pieces are going to be a toggle. Now I just need a kiln so that I can continue to play...

I've been published! I participated in a charm swap hosted by Diane Downs. She submitted it to Belle Armoire for the charm necklace call for entries. It's on page 20 of the Sep/Oct 2007 issue. My charm is the round soldered one. Here's a photo of it that I shared a few months ago: Obviously, I need to work on my jewelry photography skills. It's one thing to make jewelry and art. It's a whole 'nother thing to photograph it well!

I LOVE taking classes!

I arrived home last night after spending 4 days in Tacoma and Seattle. Whew! It was fun, but I'm exhausted.

I took several classes at the Puget Sound Bead Festival in Tacoma. I had great teachers and made really fun projects. I'll have some photos of my creations to share soon. It was my first bead show, so the vendor booths were a bit overwhelming. Too many things to choose from.

I also stayed in Seattle with my friend Stacie for one night. We had a house full of women artists. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. What an amazing group of women! We made art, laughed, made more art, laughed, ate, laughed...you get the picture.

I also learned how to pump gas this weekend. Self-serve gas is illegal here in Oregon. I love Washington, but I was really happy to get back to the land of no sales tax and no self-serve gas.

Right now, we are getting ready to go camping at the coast for a few days. I enjoyed my solo trip, but I missed my men. It will be good to have some family time now.

CindyB

She lives!

Okay, I didn't get much "stuff" done on my week off at Memorial Day. But I did get some much-needed naps completed. I needed it.

I have today off, too. And I actually MADE something last weekend!

I looked in my closet and noticed that this year, I've been wearing more green and blue than anything. So, I made this fused fine silver bracelet. The danglies are freshwater pearls, serpentine and lemon jade. I'm making another bracelet in blues and purples. I love dangly bracelets that move. And fusing silver is a blast. If I over-melt a ring, Nicholas gets to heat it into a ball. He loves that.

I'm taking some jewelry making classes in Tacoma next week. I'll have more to share after that.

Cindy

VACATION!

Today I'm starting my first week of vacation this year. In fact, it's my first time off SINCE OCTOBER!! Even when my son had a snow day, I worked from home. I have taken a few sick days, but no ME time. I don't recommend this to anyone. (The non-stop work, not the time off.) The work I do is project-based and I had several back-to-back priority projects. Some days, I was up at 5:00 am working on the computer before I got my son up for school. Those projects are successfully done, so I can now use vacation time! I have at least a week off each month until September.

On Friday of this week, I'm taking three colored pencil technique classes. Woo hoo! There's nothing I like doing more than learning new art techniques.

The rest of the week, I'm going to hang out at home and play with my art supplies. I have some new fine silver to fuse and some sterling silver to make into jump rings for chain maille, my newest obsession.

My husband asked me if I wanted him to take a day off this week, so we could have time off together. I said "NO!". LOL. He laughed and said he understood. This is why we have been married for 16 years and plan on staying that way! We give each other space.

Hopefully, I'll have some art projects to share later this week.

Cindy

Back again!

Wow. Time *does* fly, whether you're having fun or not!

I can't believe I skipped March all together. It did kind of go by in a blur. I've been working A LOT. Ugh.

I've been cruising my favorite blogs and checking out what everyone made at Artfest this year. I skipped it for some very good reasons, but I really wish I had gone now. I *must* take a class from Anahata Katkin one of these days. I loved what everyone made in her Funky Wallpaper People class!

This month, I signed up for Art and Soul-Portland. Today, I received the confirmation email telling me that I got all my first choice classes! Yahoo! I have a few jewelry classes and several collage classes. I can't wait. This is my "me" time each year. And with Mike going to Egypt for 6 weeks this year and probably deploying next spring, I NEED this!! I have classes with some wonderful teachers. I want it to be October now!

Go Red for Women

I wanted to post this yesterday, but I was busy working and volunteering at my son's school. The message is still the same today: heart disease is not just for older men. I am living proof.

When I was 41, I started having chest pain. It felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. I woke up at night with the pain. I thought it was heartburn. I'd get out of bed and sit in the recliner, thinking the sitting up would help it.

I called my doctor's office repeatedly. Chest pain is your magic, move to the front of the line ticket at the doctor's office. My wonderful doctor is in a practice with several other doctors. As it would happen, I saw all the other doctors in the practice over the next three months. They guessed my pain was heartburn, pericarditis (sp? an infection in the lining around your heart), gall bladder problems, etc. The pain didn't go away. They did so many EKGs that I could have put the electrode-thingies on myself! I also had a heart stress-test, which I passed. This went on for over 3 months. I kept asking if it was my heart, but they dismissed it.

My symptoms worsened. I couldn't ride bikes with my 6 yo son. I went for a walk with my husband on the Fourth of July and I had to sit in a stranger's front yard until the pain lessened before I could walk back to the party we were attending.

The next day, I called my doctor's office again. This time, my doctor was the doc seeing patients that called in that day with immediate issues. He took one look at me and why I was there and said, "No more screwing around here. You are having an angiogram this week."

A few days later, I had an angiogram. My right coronary artery was over 90% blocked. I was a heart attack waiting to happen. I had a stent put in the next day.

What my doctor saw in my chart and the others didn't take note of were these things:
* My cholesterol was high. My doc had tried to get me to take medication for it, but my husband and I were trying (unsuccessfully) to have a second child.
* My family has a horrible heart history: my maternal grandmother had her first of 6 heart attacks in her 40's. A cousin on that side of the family had a heart attack in his early 40's. My father had his first major stroke in his early 50's.

The moral of this long story is that women DO get heart disease. Even women in their early 40's or younger! If you have symptoms, keep bugging your doctor. If your doctor doesn't listen, find a new one.

Women are ten times more likely to die of heart disease than of breast cancer. I'm not saying breast cancer isn't important, but heart disease is far more overlooked. I volunteer for the American Heart Association. At heart fairs, I meet little old ladies who are surprised that *they* can get heart disease. Their husbands have heart disease, but they didn't know they could get it, too. If you have a heart, you can develop heart disease.

In the four years my stent placement, I've had no more angina. I have had heartburn. The other part of my lecture here is that it is impossible to tell the difference between angina and heartburn. I've had a couple more angiograms because of this! I'm happy to say that my arteries look marvelous.

Take care of yourselves and go make art!
Cindy

Snow Day and new art

We woke up this morning to a surprise: freezing rain. Fortunately, it changed to snow after a few hours. School was canceled, so Nicholas was thrilled. He and Dexter (the dog) and a neighbor boy played in the snow for hours. Nicholas and his friend put their excess energy to good use by shoveling the neighbors' walkways.

I've been creating art lately! I was in an art funk for a while, but I'm back on track now. I finished these charms for a swap hosted by the amazing Diane Downs . I sent 37 of these to her last weekend. I can't wait to see the charms I get back. The artists in her swaps always amaze me.


The photo isn't very clear, so I'll describe them. The images are from very old German margarine cards that I bought on Ebay. (My favorite 24-hour art supply store!) Why did companies put cards of bird art in packages of margarine? I have no idea. I scanned them, adjusted the color and printed them on transparencies. I LOVE working with transparencies! They are sandwiched between tiny pieces of glass and soldered. I didn't back them with any paper so that you can see through the charm.

I'll be making more of these in the future. They combine several of my favorite things: bird images, transparencies, circles and soldering! I really need to work on my jewelry photography skills if I want to open an Etsy shop. It looks like our snow and ice aren't going anywhere soon, so maybe I'll have a chance to do that tomorrow.

Praying

As many people, I've been following the news from Mt. Hood. My heart goes out to the families of the climbers. I can only imagine what they are going through. They are in my prayers. It doesn't look good for the remaining two climbers, but there is always hope.

My heart swells with pride for my husband and his fellow National Guard soldiers. My husband's unit, the 1042nd, is one of the groups assisting with the search, and hopefully, rescue of these climbers. My husband is a part of the ground crew, so he isn't flying around the mountain. He helps keep those aircraft up in the air. I am so proud of the work they do on a regular basis. Whether it's in a war zone or here at home, they are the best at what they do.

Please keep them all in your prayers and good thoughts.

It's Christmas-time!

I think I'm still stuffed from Thanksgiving! We went to my mom's for the big day, so I fixed a turkey for us on Friday. It's just not Thanksgiving weekend if I don't have turkey sandwiches for days.

I also got up at 4:00 a.m. on Friday and hit the sales. Yes, I'm one of *those* people. I LOVE shopping on that day. I plan out my route on Thanksgiving night and hit the stores early. I managed to get everything that was on my list! And, I have just about all my shopping done! I have just one more thing to get for Mike and one thing for my mother. This gives me time to make some of my gifts. Mike did a little shopping on that day, too. He brought home a 42" plasma screen TV. The picture is beautiful AND he got a GREAT deal on it.

I am really looking foreward to Christmas this year. Last year, Mike spent the holidays freezing his tush off high in the mountains of Afghanistan, while Nicholas and I were trying to be merry here. It was not the best Christmas, to say the least.

Here is a photo of my dear husband and Rita Cosby, from MSNBC. We refer to her as Mike's second wife. LOL. He has always liked her, so this was a big treat for him. BTW, this is the hanger he lived and worked in.
Rita came to their base in Afghanistan just before Christmas with a group of pro wrestlers that were there to entertain the troops. We've never been wrestling fans, but I gained a new respect for them for going all the way over there to entertain our troops...On to the present. We are all happy at home this Christmas. I wish everyone was.

I promised another picture from Art and Soul. This was a bracelet I made on the first day of A&S. I even made the head pins. Oh! I can't tell you how much I love to fuse silver wire!! I really love this bracelet and I wear it all the time. The large tear-drop beads are a pink and black stone and the small ones are pink glass.
I made this in a class taught by Lisa Call. She is a wonderful artist and a patient teacher. For Christmas, my husband is getting me all the tools I need to start fusing silver wire. I reaaaaaally love to melt metal. I can't wait to make chains for the soldered charms I already make.

More Art and Soul goodies

I finally got my camera and a couple of projects from Art and Soul on the same floor of my house. It sounds easy, but for some reason, it never is!

This is the book I made in the dark with the Ashmans. Yes, in the dark. Our class was held in the bar at the nearby Holiday Inn. The ceiling was painted black and the lighting was just about non-existent. The facilities staff at the Holiday Inn was wonderful, though. They brought in lamps from other parts of the hotel and helped us as best they could. Of course, the other side of the room had lights that kept shutting off when they got over-heated! Most of us stayed and made the best of it. The Ashmans have the BEST projects! This covers of this book are beautifully textured Baroque glass with copper plumbers tape around the edge, framing printed transparencies. The bolts on the right side of the cover are not put in yet, as I need to grind my glass down just a smidge.

The spine is made from more plumbers tape, nuts, bolts, washers and a cut-up metal coat hanger. It's really a clever binding idea. I love this book! It truly looks like a relic from the sea.

More show and tell this week...

I'm still here!

I can't believe it's been a month since I posted!

Here is my first installment of "What I did at Art and Soul". Strangely enough, this is what I created in my class on the last day. But, it's scanned and I wanted to post, so here goes.

Albie Smith is a FANTASTIC teacher. She is very low-keyed and gentle, with a great wit. She was perfect for my last day, when I was running on adrenaline and my brain was on art overload. The technique we worked on required letting go of planning and over-thinking things. (Two of my vices!) The class had a very cool name: "Opulent Patterns and the Cross Structure Book". Sounds serious, doesn't it? We made paste papers and constructed a very beautiful , yet simple book structure. Here is the cover of mine:


It was all very intuitive and free-flowing. Perfect for the last day! Here is a page from the inside:


We used foam stamps, rubber stamps, stencils and plastic doilies. I remember my grandmother having plastic doilies! They are great for stamping. One of the paints we used was a wonderful bronze paint from Golden. It had bronze and green in it and I could have used that all day!

That's it for today. Tomorrow we close on the house we sold! And, it's our 16th wedding anniversary. Now *there's* a great way to start year 17!

A quick update

I'm back home after Art and Soul. WOW. Once again, I am blown away by the teachers, students and the whole experience that is Art and Soul. I'm still a bit out of it, so I'll post more tomorrow night. I loved my classes and I have a new obsession: fused silver. I love melting metal!

Also, we sold our rental house! A very nice young couple is buying it. Since the house is next door to us, we were also choosing our new neighbors. I think they will be a wonderful addition to the neighborhood.

The countdown has begun…

...to Art and Soul!! I’m thrilled about my classes this year. And, I’m excited about 5 nights at the Embassy Suites: no laundry, no house cleaning, no office job! Im almost as happy about not having those things in my life as I am about my classes. I think that says something about my life and it's not good! I'm also looking forward to spending time with some long-distance friends that I met at the first Art and Soul. Oh yea, and the bountiful breakfasts and free happy hour every night are two more perks!! Is it Wednesday yet?

Here’s my class line-up:

Wednesday: Fused Chain Charm Bracelet with Lisa Call. I think I am the *most* excited about this class. It just really sounds like something I’ll like to do. I’ve been reading Lisa’s blog and she seems like someone I’ll enjoy learning from, too.

Thursday: Stitched! Exploring Fabric Books with Lesley Riley. I LOVE Lesley. I took a class from her at the first Art and Soul. She has this quiet elegance and composure that I’d love to have. And, I’ve recently started playing with fabric, so this is perfect timing.

Thursday night: Tin Can Wearable Journal with Linda and Opie O’Brien. I have the tools to work with tin and their wonderful metal art book, but I haven’t made the time to play with them. This class will get me started.

Friday: Ladies of the House with Beckah Krahula. I love to solder. (I’m opening an Etsy shop after Art and Soul!) In this class, we will learn a technique for transferring images to glass and a stamping on glass technique. I saw the instructions for these in the book Simply Soldered, but once, again, I haven’t made the time to try it on my own. I’ve found that for transfer techniques, which require a bit of trial and error, hands on learning with an instructor saves a lot of frustration.

Saturday: Stained Glass Journal: All Metal Binding with Tom and Ramona Ashman. I took a class from this couple at Artfest this year. They are simply a wonderful team. It is so nice to be around married people that are working together and REALLY enjoy and respect each other. Their personalities and strengths compliment each other well. And, I saw an example of this book in person and it’s GORGEOUS! I bought some copper rosary bead chain on Ebay that I want to incorporate into the spine on this book.

Sunday: Building Your Own Spirit House with Nina Bagley. I saw the student creations from this class at Artfest. They were wonderful! They are little houses made with mica, copper mesh and transparencies. I want to make some of these for Christmas. I can just see it with transparencies of cool Gothic architecture and angels.

Monday: Opulent Patterns and the Cross Structure Book with Albie Smith. This sounds like a fun, playful day. A great way to end a fun week of art and friends.

Between now and Wednesday morning, I have a fabric book to complete for a swap, finish alter ing my beret for Art and Soul, put on an open house in the rental we are selling and get enough food in the house for my non-cooking husband and son. I'm sure they will live on pizza and chili. Maybe it's a good thing that I'll be gone that long!

The image above is an altered cabinet card I made.

A second post this week???

Yes, I'm posting again. My house is quiet and I just bought some new rubba'! I have to share the news. Check out the new unmounted stamp sheets from Michelle Ward. I bought three: two bird image sheets and the Oath alphabet. I have always admired Michelle's art and would love to take a class from her sometime. They should be here in plenty of time for Art and Soul.

I'm really looking forward to Art and Soul this year. I have a jam-packed schedule with teachers I've enjoyed before and new ones that I've heard wonderful things about. I'll be torching, soldering, patina-ing, painting, sewing and just generally having fun for 6 full days! It will be fun to see old friends and make some new ones. I have vowed to finish most of my projects in class this year. That has been a bad habit of mine in the past. I tend to lose focus when there are a bunch of people around. I usually create by myself.

My men are camping for a few days at beautiful Crater Lake, Oregon. I wanted to go, but I have to be here for the implementation of a project I've been working on for a few months. I heard that there was SNOW at Crater Lake this week. I hope my guys are warm. They packed a lot of warm clothes and gear, so they should be fine.

Time to go and enjoy the apple pie my mother-in-law baked for me for my birthday present! I can't believe I'm 45 years old now.

New art!

First of all, yes, I survived Nicholas' first sleep-away camp. Nicholas had a fabulous time and can't wait to go again!

I *finally* finished my pages for the Portland Art and Soul fatbook swap. Yea, me! Between work at the office and working on the house, my time has not been my own of late. And, I procrastinated! That's really not a good thing when you have 64 copies of something to make!

I found a photo of one of my favorite turn-of-the-century women: Lina Cavalieri in my library of vintage images. She was considered by many at the time to be the most beautiful woman in the world. I completely agree with that opinion. I use a lot of images of her in my art work.

I printed her photo and a Paris street scene on transparencies and reverse painted them. The buildings, people and street are painted with a metalic gold. I cut out the figure and attached it to the font, along with a piece of blue script paper for the sky. I added a jewel on each of the fat book pages, too.

I really like how the original turned out. Painting the hair and face are the hardest parts of transparency painting. You have to paint the small areas, like the whites of the eyes, first. I wish it would have been feasible to paint each copy, but I would have been doing that all summer!

The photo is okay and the photocopies for the fat book are good, but this type of art needs to be seen in person or photographed by a better photographer than me to really get the full affect!

A quiet house!

Here are some charms I made last year. I love to solder!

Nicholas has been at an overnight camp since Wednesday for kids of Guard members. It's his first time being away from home for this long - 5 days! Part of me is very excited for him to being going away to camp and having adventures, but the Mommy part of me worries. Will he eat enough? Will he change his underwear? Will the other kids be nice to him? Sigh. Everyone has told me that going to camp for the first time is harder on Mommy than it is on the child. I hope so. I want him to have a wonderful time.

Mike and I thought we'd get a lot done while Nicholas is gone. HA! It hasn't happened so far. Mike has drill this weekend, so I'm on my own during the day today and tomorrow. I can't tell you what a rarity that is! I'm working on my fatbook pages for the A&S swap. And, I need to get some work done around this house.

My latest art obsession has been fabric art. I am completely enamoured with mini art quilts. I bought a BUNCH of fabric last night, along with embroidery floss, batting, etc. to start making some. Those fat quarters at the fabric store are like M&Ms! You just keep tossing them in. I'll post a photo when I actually sit down and do one. After the fatbook pages...

Hello again

I can't believe how long it's been since I've blogged! Things have been hectic at home and work this summer. I even have to go into the office tomorrow. That may be part of the reason behind my 3 day headache. Ouch. That, and the grass field burning all the farmers in this area are doing. I'm allergic to grass, so I wonder if I'm more sensitive to the smoke from the grass fields? I don't know if that's the cause, but my head hurts and my eyes water a lot!

I will have some new art to post soon. I am working on my page for the Portland Art and Soul fatbook swap. It's due in the hostess' hand by August 31st. The theme is "The Streets of Paris". I have 64 copies of it to make!! It's a lot of work, but there are some amazing artists doing pages for it.

I've also signed up for the next three swaps hosted by Diane Downs. The first one is a "more than 4x4" fatbook swap with the theme of white. You can use white, ivory, tan, etc. The only requirement is that the left side of the front of the page be 4x4" and not thick so that it will go through the coil binder. The top and other sides can be thick and more than 4x4. Her swaps are always the best. The other two will be later in the fall and winter. (A calender for 2007 and an Alphebetica swap.) I am usually a last-minute artist, but I have vowed to change my ways! It takes the fun out of it when you are stressed. I'll let you all know how well I kept up my resolution!

I'm very excited about a swap that should be arriving in my hot little hands in the next few days. They are 6x6 scrapbook pages from a group of wonderful friends. These are scrapbook pages we each made with a photo of ourselves on it. We'll each have a book of pages with our dear friends' faces and art on them. These ladies started out as members of an online scrapbooking group years ago. Some of us broke off and have formed a really wonderful group. We are a very diverse bunch of women. I don't know what I'd do without them. We also have a greeting card swap going. I really like to give hand made cards, but I don't always have the time to whip one up. These swaps really help with that. Plus, I get great ideas for other cards.

My yard is looking wonderful these days. I'm afraid to see my next water bill. The rental that we are prepping for sale (the NEVER-ENDING-JOB!) is looking great, too. I'll take some photos of it this weekend. It looks like a little doll house!

Here's some photos of a star book I made for a friend who was in the hospital a few years ago. Star books are one of my favorite projects. Enjoy!

Finally...artwork!

As promised, I made some artwork with Florence, my new photo friend. I belong to a group of mixed media artists known as the Portland Art Collective. Today was the annual picnic. It was also my first in-person meeting. I've belonged to the Yahoo group for a while, but getting up to Portland to the monthly meetings has been difficult for me. Today, all the stars aligned and I made it. It was worth the drive and more! Of course, I got lost on the way back to work, so it took me twice as long to get there. It was still worth the drive!

We each made a shrine with a wood box. We all started out with the same size box. We had no theme or instructions. Just make a shrine. It was wonderful to see all the creativity! I've seen many of the other member's work and I was a little nervous going into it. Everyone was warm and friendly, though. We swapped the shrines by drawing names from a hat. I truly would have been happy with ANY of the shrines. I was lucky enough to get Diane Downs' shrine. It has all kinds of wonderful bits in it. It is truly a treasure.

This piece started out with blue, green and purple paisley paper for my inspiration. What, you don't see the paper? lol. It didn't end up in the finished piece. Isn't it funny how art takes on a mind of it's own sometimes?