CREATE blog hop

I was tres busy yesterday pouring a bunch of new resin-filled bezels for the upcoming CREATE mixed-media art retreat in Irvine, California in a few short weeks. These little collages in ultra clear ICE Resin will soon be turned into earrings and necklaces and a few bracelets to show as samples at my Resin, Set, Go workshop and also on sale for vendor night. (Please excuse the bad photos. I took them right after I poured them on the white garbage bags. They look so much more lovely when the resin is cured and glass like).

While my resin class is just about full, there are still some spots left in my other classes. Whimsical Rings, where students will learn how to make their own adjustable ring bands from copper sheet metal and also cold-connection techniques of stacking up these colorful lampwork beads. I’m also really thrilled to be teaching my Mermaid Dreams necklace class for the first time. This workshop is chock full of techniques, from making your own molds from old hardware and replicating them in resin clay then adding all kinds of surface treatments and color. We’ll also be making our own textured clay beads and then wirewrapping it all together.

There are so many amazing instructors at this event that I wish I could attend CREATE with no other purpose than learning so many fabulous techniques. I am thrilled to say I did sneak in one day to myself on Saturday to take Alisa Burke’s Large Than Life Canvas class. I have a huge bare wall in my new studio and I think this workshop is going to fill the bill. I love her style and know her personally. What an incredibly talented lady.

Here’s a little something extra special. If you comment on this post, I’m doing a little giveaway. A signed copy of my book, Explore, Create, Resinate; Mixed Media Techniques Using ICE Resin along with a 1 oz ICE Resin syringe and 2 mixed metal bezels to play with. Since I’m so excited about this event, I will include one of my handmade charms as well.

This weekend is a great time to possibly learn more about some wonderful artists who are part of the CREATE California blog hop. Hopefully, you got here from Jenn Mason’s post about the event, but if you didn’t be sure to check it out first and then work your way down the list.

So go grab a cup of coffee or an iced tea and a snack and settle into your computer for the next hour. It’s going to be fun!

• Dawn Sokol: dblogala.com/
• Dea Fischer: thestarbook.ca
• Helen Shafer Garcia: agavelatte.blogspot.com
• Jacqueline Newbold: djnewbold.blogspot.com
• Jane LaFazio: janeville.blogspot.com
• Jeannie P. Moore: Jeanniemooresblog.blogspot.com
• Jen Cushman: http://jencushman.wordpress.com
• Joanne Sharpe: joannezsharpe.blogspot.com
• Jodi Ohl: sweetrepeats.blogspot.com
• Leighanna Light: Thingmakerstudio.blogspot.com
• Lisa Engelbrecht: lisaletters.blogspot.ca
• Orly Avineri: oneartistjournal.wordpress.com
• Pam Carriker: pamcarriker.com
• Robin Dudley-Howes: robindudleyhowes.blogspot.com
• Sandra Duran Wilson: sandraduranwilson.blogspot.com
• Sherrie Drummond: sherriejd.com
• Sue Pelletier: suepelletierlaughpaint.com
• Tiffany Teske: tiffanyteske.com

And Cloth Paper Scissors Editor Jenn Mason!

Teaching Q&A’s

The best part about teaching is seeing students get in the new techniques. Here is my fellow instructor Liz Hicks and the so talented Camille McClelland, ask Wonder Cam

My December column is live as of today on CreateMixedMedia.com. Since I’ve just returned from the most amazing time being one of 3 instructors at Seaside Soiree, I thought I would tackle the topic of teaching. It’s a subject I know many people are interested it, so I give some insight as to how I began my journey as a mixed-media educator, along with some helpful hints on terminology and getting started.

I hope you get a moment to check it out. There are four contributing editors and each of us writes a column that stays up for a week at a time.

Speaking of Seaside, here are some pics of me and my incredible students creating wondrous goodies with ICE Resin and SLK handcrafted bezels.

Oh the gifts I want to give…

I was thrilled to learn that last year’s premiere issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors Gifts issue was a huge success. No wonder, the projects featured were just so darn inspiring. I made some fun ICE Resin ornaments that people could use as jewelry, or use as ornamentation for their gift-giving presentation.

When the esteemed Cloth, Paper, Scissors Editor Jenn Mason asked if I’d like to contribute another project to this year’s Gifts issue, I immediately said, um…Heck Yes! I had a great time making mixed-media tags for the 2011 CPS Gifts issue, which is available for pre-order right now.

Even though it was summer time and 90 degrees outside, I gathered up some of my vintage Christmas paper books and ephemera and resined up lots of yummy papers to use as a base in my tags. I show a step-out of how to resin paper in the article, so if you haven’t ever made resin paper before, be sure to check it out in the magazine.

Once the papers dried to the touch, I got out some plain vanilla shipping tags, my Distress inks from Ranger and a bunch of vintage trim and buttons. I added some stamped images and words, as well as some other found object goodies, like a blingy broken rhinestone pin, a broken watch face and two delicious snowy white buckles. I used Helmar’s 450 Quick Dry Adhesive and glued all that fun three-dimensional stuff on my collage tags.

I gave them a good day to dry thoroughly, gave them a little shake to ensure nothing was coming off of them in the mailing (the worst thing for editors is to receive artwork where bits and bobbles end up at the bottom of the package) and shipped them off to Jenn with a kiss and a wave.

Five months later the finished magazine arrives in my mailbox and I get to squeal with delight about what a wonderful job Jenn and Barbara Delaney and all the rest of the CPS team did to create another inspiring issue.

I’m in love with Jenn’s Journal Jars, and Cat Kerr’s Coffee Cuffs. Also the work from my CHA Designer Member peers Melony Bradley, Laura Bray and Jennifer Swift. My friend Lara Scott has some cute stamp projects in there too using the Teresa Collins Stampmaker. Let’s not forget about the big guy himself,  craft guru Mark Montano who made a wintry assemblage. Reading the contributing artists is like being at an art retreat with so many fellow friends and artists.  

I’ve given my copy of the magazine a quick once over. I can’t wait for it to get dark so I can get into my pajamas and snuggle under my covers with the issue so I can read it from cover to cover.

I {heart} Saturdays

I bet I’m like most Americans who look forward to Saturdays as one of life’s weekly pleasures. The work week is over and Saturdays, for the most part, means family. It’s not always the kick-back time we long for, as my husband and I often trade hours in the day to play catch-up, but it is definitely the one time of the week we always make it a priority to spend time with each other and the kids.

I’ve decided that since I {heart} Saturdays so much, this is a great day for me to share something that inspires me. At first I thought I would make it something this inspires me as an artist. But then I thought of all the hats I wear — that we all wear as fellow travelers on this great big blue marble of a world — and decided my weekly Saturday inspiration is going to be a thought that inspires me as an:

artist/teacher/student/mother/wife/friend/daughter/sister/entrepreneur and all-around lover-of-life

My first image for I {heart} Saturdays comes from Holstee. The company’s self-description is “lifestyle goods, designed with a conscious.” Take a look at this image, which is the Holstee Manifesto Poster.

I’m considering shelling out the $25 to buy this poster and hang it in my studio. The two lines that give me goosebumps are “Life is about the people you meet and the things you create with them” and “Live your dream and share your passion.”

Yup, that pretty much sums of my artistic journey these past few years. I’m often at a loss of words for how grateful I am for these dual worlds of mine — the mixed-media world of art and publishing and retreats and the crafts industry of Designer friends and awesome manufacturers and art materials to work with so my passion can be shared with others.

Here’s wishing all of you a truly Artful Saturday!

Say YES!

The marvelously-talented Traci Bautista has created an online art marketing e-course called Discovering Y.O.U. and she asked me to give some helpful tips and advice as a working artist.

I was honored, as it wasn’t more than about 5 years ago that I met Miss Traci and was awed by her beautiful and colorful collages. She is a talented lady, great teacher and always so generous sharing what she knows and what she’s learned.

One of the questions Traci asked is to tell our story of how we came to be a working artist. So here it is:

I’ve always been creative. My mother missed the creative gene entirely, but luckily she recognized that it had skipped a generation and landed smack dab in my DNA. While we did not have a lot of spending money, she made sure I had a supply of crayons, paper and glue.

I remember tearing up magazine images and pasting them down as a way to pass the afternoons. I also remember playing dress up and rummaging through her collection of costume jewelry, which is why I think my heart skips a beat today when I find a box of junk jewelry parts at garage sales or flea markets.

In high school I decided to become a reporter and, by college, my desire to do award-winning journalism became my passion. I continued in this vein for more than a decade, steadily working my way up to larger papers with bigger beats.

At 30, my biological clock rang, more like an alarm clock bleating loudly at 3 a.m. I was getting burned out by daily news, and my husband and I decided to start a family. As an on-the-go-reporter turned at-home-mommy, I went through an identity crisis. To get through it, I joined a mothers club and started scrapbooking.

Within a few months of going to evening crops to socialize with other women, I grew bored with using the pre-made stuff and picked up the tools of my childhood — paper and paints and glue and started using my photos in an “artsy” way (much to the chagrin of my mom peers).

This lead me to Art Unraveled in my hometown. I took classes, came home inspired and made art while my son napped. I also began freelancing for my former boss.

A colleague called because she was promoted to editor-in-chief of a new lifestyle magazine in Scottsdale, AZ and asked if I would write for her. I agreed to be the Arts Editor since it was quickly becoming my new passion.

Word got out about my writing abilities and I began freelancing for other art magazines. One thing led to another and I was back working full time, barely having time to eke out my own creativity. Just as I was feeling overwhelmed, the magazine closed.

Another editor friend called and asked if I would go to New Orleans for a feature about the visual arts scene there. (This was pre-Katrina). I packed my bags and left for a week in the Big Easy. I met the editor of Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion, struck up a conversation about collage and assemblage and came home with a feature article promise. A week later she called and offered me a mixed media column. 

I did this column for nearly 5 years before the magazine closed. I kept up my freelance gigs and pursued my own artistic dreams in the hopes that I would one day get to make and teach art as a professional artist.

Then the most wonderful thing happened. We became naturally pregnant with our miracle baby. As I was dealing with morning sickness, my wickedly-talented friend and mentor Susan Lenart Kazmer asked me to join her company.

My husband and I have a beautiful 14-month-old baby girl, an almost 11-year-old son and I’m working as the Director of Education and Marketing for ICE Resin.

I am living the life of my dreams. Making art, raising a family, coordinating an incredible design team of talented ladies, dreaming up and putting into action online and print media marketing campaigns and teaching my own work. I was recently offered two additional column opportunities — one traditional print and one online — and I’m thrilled by my incredible luck.

I’m in my 40s and proud of it because all of my experiences led me to this.

If there is one salient piece of advice I can offer it’s this: Say YES! Yes to opportunities, yes to things that don’t necessarily mean $$$ in your pocket, but opportunities for promotion of self and others. Work your craft. Never stop learning. Network, network, network and always find a way to say YES! to the crazy ideas friends offer you.

Say YES! to the joy life offers you.