Art Opning ends in fairy houses post!

Tonight I went to a fabulous art reception for my dear friend  Dale Latta( painter) and showing along  with the amazing   Don Ellis  (pottery).  I got all dressed up in my finest Paris attire and some cool new jewelry.  I took along my camera because I thought it would be good to post on their event.  Both are great artist and deserve some kudos, but I did have alternative motives.
I talk about how I have no friends and I just stay home or work, which is true 99.9% of the time, But this night was different.  I wasent to tired to get all dolled up and rub elbows with my fellow artist friends, whom I don't see near enough.  I was taking pictures and thinking about the blog post that would follow.  My dear friend Janet offered to take a picture of me and my friend  Michael Billie (an amazing encaustic artist) when she noted "there's no memory cart in here.  OF COURSE THERE'S NOT!!! its at home in my computer from uploading bunny pix! So I enjoyed the night with no photo graphical evidence to prove I was present!

Miss Olive came home with me and was feeling a bit artsy.  I have a recycled sculpture of a house made of old metal, milk carton, sticks. and paper.  Olive is very good about leaving all my art untouched, but this piece just calls her name.  She is constantly sticking a doll inside it or having them walk up the latter ect.  Tonight, while playing, she had her chubby little hands on it again,  I reminded her that we have had "the talk" and she is not to touch my artwork.  Olive responded "well, this is not really art it is a fairy house"  Apparently Olive has many faeries who follow her around, waiting for her to cook them meals, entertain them, tuck them in bed, read to them, ect...These fairies seem a bit demanding to me!!  So I suggested we make out own"faerie houses"

We used some old paper cans (paper prune can and soy protein and a plastic toddler treat container.  We covered the paper ones in craft paper, cut a door and put on a roof with some sparkly glitter paper.  The plastic one is painted. I made door knobs, Glued feet to the bottom so they would stand up. Olive put my piece of "art' back in its place and said "these are way better fairy houses" 

 Here is Miss O Painting the plastic house. she had a purple belly button when fished.  she claims that it was "purely by accident" but it looks like a pretty good paint job to me!

 Here is olives project.  she decorated it with lots of sea horses and seashells.  This is the faerie dance school

 here are the 2 paper houses together.  They have already caused a lot of ruckus with the littlest pet shop folks wanting to come and check things out!

 This is my project.  pretty plain.  Olive says they will go here to rest! (translation:boring)

 Olive needing to pose with her creations.  She said she made them, she should get to be in the picture!  Makes sence

Here she is again making SURE you know that THESE are the ones she made!



So although I dont have pix of great professional art, and a fantastic opening with lots of my art friends.

The night was a huge success.  Olive figures we gave home to 10, maybe 20 faeries who other wise would have been out on the street, cold and hungry.  It an epidemic!  Join in the fight. Each faerie home you build means .....some... faeries will not be out in the cold (its hard to get a good count as they migrate and I just found out, are often invisible. Ask a 3 year old, they seem to have all the stats!)

Blessings
Sandy

Tech Tuesday

Check out my video on Ice Resin  for  Tech Tuesday.  It is my first video and it  has some problems.  I need to get a new camera and a new computer  (and some new knowledge on video editing!!)  Hopefully my next video will look a bit better.

I haven't posted for some time because I have been busy, busy busy.  I have been working(of course) but I have also been creating.  I have been hard at work on some new mixed media pieces like the one in the previous post.  I have lots of pieces in various stages of completion!  I hope to spend the weekend getting them all put together and then I will have lots to post.

In the mean time, here is a fun rabbit pendant I am working on.  I cast the rabbit in Ice Resin.  I made the mold from a beautiful piece of hardware lent to me by Jen Cushman.  Once the Rabbit was cast and dry, I set him in a half filled Bezel with an image.  I used Ice Resin to fill the rest of the bezel and secure him in place.  I used acrylic paint to distress the rabbit then used renaissance wax to add some shine and seal the color. 

Homage to Paris

I wanted to make a piece of art that paid homage to Paris. I used the pipe I purchased at a Paris flea market cast in resin, a bezel with a Moulin Rouge image,another heart bezel I made in the workshop, a small bronze cast Eiffel tower and some gems in colors that reminded me of a painting from Museum O dorsay. I know the photos are terrible. I have to figure out what Im doing wrong. But you get the gist.

casting in France

In France, All of the homes in Defort have wooden shutters with beautiful hardware. Most have these cool metal heads/bodies to hold the shutters open. Late one chilly night I decided to attempt to cast one of the shutter holders.

Putty sets quickly, so I was confident i could cast the neighbors hardware without being caught. I did not take in to consideration the cold weather. I passed back and forth attempting to be inconspicuous. going back often to blow warm breath on the putty! Mt first attempt failed because I was to anxious about being caught and it was not set. My second attempt was more successful. I cast the piece in Ice resin

I used gilders paste to alter the resin. I used resin to glue rhinestones in place. The cool green/blue glass piece at the bottom was a flea market find from Claire. It was originally part of a lamp shade with hundreds of these glass "blobs" They are beautiful..Thanks Claire for the cool piece I painted a thin coat of resin to give it a shine

I used bronze chain and garnet. I added a SLK bezel with resin to finish the piece off. I poured the bezel 1/2 way and painted it red and rubbed some gold gilders paste. once it was dry, I poured the bezel full and added a piece of torn french paper.

I love how this bezel turned out. Many people have asked me "what kind of stone is that!" The layers of resin and gilders paste give it a depth you cant achieve with one pour.

slide in resin

Here are the samples of what I came up with for the slides.

Here is what they look like in the "original state"

Here is the slide taken apart

Here is the slide set in an open back bezel with Ice resin

And a another

Like I said, they look cool with a light source. Here is a sample with a piece of paper behind it. You can see through the entire image. Its cool that the image is translucent, but not practical for jewelry. When wearing it, it just looks like a dark empty bezel. Maybe I will make a lamp shade of chandelier with them. It would be cool to figure out how to place a small LED light behind the piece....HUM...maybe it can still be jewelry. Come on My French friends, you can help come up with some great ideas!

on the way!!!

I finally got everything packed up and on its way. A friend gave me some old slides. I set one in an open back bezel and resin. It looks really cool with the light behind it, but not so great against dark clothing. I sent each of you one of the slides and hope you can come up with a cool project (this is really a selfish act because I have tons of them and need ideas!!!) Hope they all arrive safe and soon. Miss you all