Work in Progress

I thought it might be interesting to start showing some work in progress. I created this new Studio graphic from a photo I recently took and then altered in Photoshop Elements. Whenever you see this image at the top of my post, you’ll know its a Work in Progress update.

During a recent interview, one of the questions the writer asked is how I work. Ricë wanted to know if I had an idea and then sat down and completed it in a linear fashion from start to finish. Unfortunately, this isn’t my process, though it was when I first began doing mixed-media. As I explained to Ricë, these days my daily life is managed in chunks of time. This has impacted my creative time as well. This means I will work on things in stages and have projects in process at all the different stations I have in my studio. At first blush, it looks like a frenetic and messy way to work, but it’s how I manage to keep moving and juggle my plate.

The absolute worst thing for me is when I’m forced to completely clean my studio for a photograph. It’s like when I put things away I spend too much time searching for them again. My saving grace; tons of clear plastic shoe boxes from Costco to hold all the similar parts that I can make and rifle through when it comes time to finish a piece. (On a messy note, I do a once a month “sweep through” to keep my things from completely overtaking my space, but it never looks truly tidy.)

Like Ricë, I’m also fascinated by how working artists manage their time. Some people I know go deep into their work and don’t come up for air until their bodies force them to with a need for food or sleep. Others work a fairly 9-5 stint while their kids are in school or spouses off at work. Still others work around the clock, moving from laundry and carpools to teaching workshops, making samples and writing articles. Obviously, I fall in the latter category. I can’t imagine not having my studio in my home!

So, as promised, here are some pics of a project I’m working on for a Stampington deadline in 2 weeks. It’s a journal, and my inspiration is texture. I began earlier in the month with a painting playdate one morning with my daughter. The papers shown above are mine and not hers (lol). A few weeks later and another couple of hours resulted in finished front and back covers. In the next few days, I plan to work on collaging the inside pages, adding some photo transfers and then some journaling. Knowing myself as well as I do, the entire thing will get packaged and mailed off just in time to land on the editor’s desk the day of deadline. We can’t all be perfect! (grin)

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my studio. Now it’s your turn. Tell me, what is your work in progress and what’s your creative process?  Inquiring minds want to know!

Her own kind of beauty…

I’ve been putting off my health for past couple of years as we’ve been building the company and life ramped up to super speed. I honestly didn’t have time for doctors, dentists and eye exams.

Now in my 40s, I know my patterns well. Stress eating is one of them. Each time I grabbed cookies or chocolate, I knew it wasn’t the best choice. It was, however, the easy thing to do and lovely little sugar rushes made me happy each afternoon as I pushed through and kept working. As the weight inched upward to my pregnancy weight, I didn’t want to look at it, or discuss it or even acknowledge it. It’s just no fun to look yourself in the mirror and own up to the things you wish would just go away!

Earlier this month, I decided to use my Law of Attraction skills to put it out into the universe that I would find the perfect new doctor for me. The universe delivered. My amazing new PA asked my permission for a complete blood work and labs to check me out completely and wrote up the order to get a mammogram as well. A complete H2T (head to toe) exam. When we talked about weight loss and busy lifestyles, she told me about the Fresh 20. This is a woman I can relate to; working a busy practice, 3 kids (one with gluten allergies) and a husband who travels all the time for work!  If you are in the same boat of juggling a family, career, art, etc. and looking for a way to feed yourself and your family healthy meals, check out this online plan. I’ve only been doing it for a few weeks so I’m no expert, but it’s working for us so far. (note: the kale, corn and chicken enchilada recipe is yummy!) We print out the list on Sunday. Hubby does the shopping and I do the cooking. My son is now in charge of kitchen clean up after dinner.

My head is in the right place. I stopped eating sugary foods, joined Weight Watchers and have been eating good stuff like lots of veggies and protein and drinking my water again. I posted about joining WW on Facebook and didn’t plan to blog about this, as one’s weight and appearance is such a personal issue. My Facebook friends, many of them fellow artists/designers/authors/instructors, had so many positive comments to share and made me feel beautiful and worthy and loved, just as I am right now, that I decided to be brave and take it public.

This time, my desire to change to a more healthful lifestyle feels different. In the past whenever I’ve approached weight loss (and believe me, I have been down this road many times), it’s always come from a place of lack or frustration. Now, it’s not about what I can’t eat, or what I look like or even what I desire to look like some day. Instead, it’s about being the best authentic me that I can be.

I remember years ago when we took in my troubled nephew to live with us for a summer. He was such an insecure teenager that he would talk badly about people to make him feel better about himself. Every time he saw a teenage girl, he would judge them by two standards; hot or ugly. It would drive me crazy! I blew up at him once and told him he was never allowed to call another human being ugly in my presence ever again. The new comment for someone he wished to disparage was simply this: “She has her own kind of beauty.” Yes, I could have just said “don’t do it, don’t call anyone bad names.” However, I felt it had more power making him think about his words and then having to change them to something more positive.

Believe it or not, it worked. He’s 22 years old and when he starts his old habits during family get togethers, he looks at me slyly and repeats, “I’m sorry, Jen. She has her own kind of beauty.” I’ve come to love this, and I realize it is a positive statement. Nothing disparaging whatsoever.

As I’ve been taking these next steps in my journey, I keep thinking about how everyone has their own kind of beauty. We may not all look like Julia Roberts or Johnny Depp, but when we’re moving confidentially in the direction of our dreams, engaging in the things we love and supporting others who are authentically engaging in their dreams, we radiate joy. We beam our unique kind of beauty.

As I was looking through my photo files to find a picture to go along with this post, I came across this necklace that was just returned to me from when I sent it to Stampington almost 2 years ago. Normally the magazine never keeps my art this long, but I presume this little piece must have gotten put in a corner somewhere for possible publication and her time came and went. She never did get published, just returned to me in a box full of my other published artwork.

I made this necklace during a time in my life where I was feeling particularly vulnerable, and what came out of me was a melocholony I felt at the time but didn’t necessarily acknowledge. When I unwrapped it from the box, I was surprised to see it again since I had totally forgotten about this piece. After joining Weight Watchers this time around and looking at health in an entirely new light, I’ve titled this piece, “Her Own Kind of Beauty.”

Seaside funnies and wrap up

Me and Elena the day before Seaside Soiree began.

If there is one thing I have learned over the years making mixed-media jewelry is that my style is definitely not everyone’s cup ‘o tea. While some people truly “get” me and my funky, artsy style there are others — like my very own mother-in-law — who respond to my work with descriptive words such as “interesting” or “nice” or “wow, different”. I admit it, at one time it used to bruise my ego just a tad when I heard these things because I knew it meant they didn’t like my work. I’ve so gotten over this as I continue to make work and grow as an artist. The bottom line is that I have to like my work. No one else. I’ve learned there are, indeed, other souls who view this world through the same quirky glasses I do and, somehow, we seem to find each other.

I bring this up because of Brooke. I met her this past weekend when I was teaching at Seaside Soiree in beautiful La Jolla, California right at the Scripps Institute with gorgeous ocean views. Brooke is a former Marine and a very dear friend of Elena’s. She worked her booty off as a volunteer at the art retreat, setting up decorations and picking up trash and doing her best to keep things running smoothly. Brooke is not a crafter. She doesn’t get the fascination of playing with inks, paints, resin, etc. She swears whatever she tries to do that’s crafty doesn’t work out.

I was so surprised when Brooke came up to me at the end of the night after the ladies had all poured their ICE Resin bezels and asked to make one. She swore up and down hers would be terrible and the resin would be sticky or not come out. I shrugged my shoulders and told her that it’s nearly impossible to mess up ICE Resin. Guess what? I was right. Brooke made a gorgeous collage and glitter bezel in ICE and it turned out perfectly.

Brooke’s face says it all…

I saw Brooke again Saturday night at the Seaside dinner and art auction. I was wearing a resin casting ring. I made a mold of a ceramic doll’s head and then painted it to finish it off. I then embedded the head in layers of resin paper and set it into one of our Art Mechanique prong rings. I happen to love my ring and wear it when I dress up. When Brooke saw the cast doll head, her expression said it all. She was so shell-shocked that she couldn’t even come up with the words “nice” or even “fine”. I burst out laughing at her reaction so loudly that Avila, one of the other ladies attending the retreat, snapped a photo.

I had a wonderful time at Seaside. It was my second year volunteering to teach to help Elena raise money for Charity Wings and I think it was even better than last year. About 40 very talented and very creative women participated and gave myself, Danita Art and Jennifer Priest an incredible outpouring of love and respect. I won’t be returning next year, as I have a pretty full teaching schedule for 2013 already, but I will definitely be there for Elena and Charity Wings when they open the doors to their new art center.

Here are a few more Seaside pics…

Carol LaValley, our social media curator for ICE Resin having fun painting her dress form

Pretty collaged and poured ICE Resin bezels and also resin paper for the journal class I taught the next day.

Lights, Camera, Action

My most recent column in Belle Armoire Jewelry is hitting newsstands now and this issue’s topic is facing fear as an artist in order to move forward. I give some real life examples on how feeling the fear and doing it anyway really helps one grow personally and professionally. Trust me, I’m writing from experience.

Tomorrow and Monday I get two new opportunities to continue working on my fears of being on camera. Tomorrow, I’m doing some filming for my book “Making Metal Jewelry”, coming out Dec. 13th. The safety net for this filming is that it can be edited to fix any boo-boos I might make. On Monday morning, I’ll be live on Sonoran Living ABC Channel 15 locally in Phoenix with my fab friend Terri Ouelette, or crafty mama Terri O as I like to call her. Terri is adorable on camera! Ugh, no pressure there. She radiates energy and youth and enthusiasm. I think it helps that she has a 25+ year history of being in the news business and on camera. (ya think?) I’m gonna do my best to shine right alongside of her.

I’m really jazzed about being on the show with Terri and showing off ICE Resin and our amazing Art Mechanique bezels to Arizona and beyond. If you’re local and have a dvr, please hit the record button Monday from 9-10 a.m. If you happen to be hanging around your home, grab a cuppa joe and take some time to tune in to Sonoran Living, a great daily lifestyle show.

I’ll be sure to post the web link to the broadcast when they have it available for all my non-Phoenix blog friends! 

Here’s wishing you a truly Artful day!

3 Little Houses All in a Row

I’m in sunny California along with Susan and the ICE Resin team setting up our booth. We’ve been working hard for months on the booth, art samples, new products and all kinds of crafty goodness for the Winter CHA trade show.

Just a quick post today since we’re all busy little artists. I thought I’d share a sneak peek of another one of my mixed-media pieces I made for the show. I call this one 3 Little Houses All in a Row. Sorry the pics are not the best. I had to grab them quickly. It was actually still drying on my kitchen table so I couldn’t even pick the canvas up for a better view.

This is a large 18×24 canvas that is really bright and colorful. I added houses made of hardboard with images from our brand new Art Mechanique collage pack that I resined with our signature product, ICE Resin. There are bezels, resin paper leaves in the tree, a sweet little clay birdie and even some Industrial Chic charms on this canvas. Everything but the kitchen sink!

Be sure to check in with the ICE Queen eZine to see what we’re up to. Carol, our social media maven, is at CHA to collect some video and information for us.

Here’s wishing you a truly Artful day!