Getting inspired by tools

Ilysa and I are working hard on our shop right now over at PolymerClayTV.

We carry only really interesting molds, tools and other polymer clay art supplies. Right now, we are wholesaling these tools- but we have our own line of exclusive tools coming up very soon. I am still working full time, but next Thursday is my last day in corporate. The business is making enough money to support me, and when I can do PCTV full time, I will be able to create even better income and no longer be just "supported," but be able to thrive.

It just takes a while to design, prototype, and order the things we are creating- and it's tough to dedicate time to it when you work a full time job. My work-life balance is definitely suffering. My temper is short, my time is limited. I'm looking forward to being more present at home and at PCTV, focusing inward and upward.

This week I took a look at our tools- which are together in a special part of my studio, to get inspired.

I saw my tin can sitting on the desk, the floral medallion mold that was almost the same size, and the basketweave metal stamping tool, and I knew what I could make.

Click here to enjoy my free tutorial!

Loving me some PEBEO Mixed Media! Watch what I did at CHA Mega Show 2015

I really love my Pebeo paints, and I really enjoyed spending a few days demonstrating so many fun things you can do with them. I painted a realistic seahorse floating in the seaweed to show how you can control the reactions with the paints and lay them down to create exactly the painting you want-

but here, in this video, you can see me using the pouring method. When you pour the paints and swirl them together, you can get some really interesting effects. You can also apply SOME control to this process. When you get to know the paints you will see that some reactions can be predicted. Such as:

Vitrail + Moon = lace
Moon + Ceramic = lace
Prisme + Moon = flat mica sheen (no honeycomb)

There is an awesome almost water-lily pond effect if you pour droplets of Moon into Vitrail or Ceramic after you let them set for a few minutes. And of course, different colors have slightly different effects. So if you want to learn to control the paint, like everything else in life... practice makes perfect!

Enjoy my demo :)

Mermaids and inspiration from the Masters

Alphonse Mucha is one of my favorite artists, and I love the art nouveaux style. I am trying to dissect and understand just exactly what it is about Mucha that entrances me, and I decided that mostly it has to do with posture and hands. So I've decided to do some mermaids in a long-thin composition, which is one that I absolutely love- the 2x1 proportion of this type of work is difficult to work with but offers a lot in terms of setting up a human figure.

What I learned:
It's really fun painting on wood.
Mucha was a master with hands.
It's hard sometimes to get proportions right when you are interpreting someone else's work.
When painting tall and thin like this, be careful. The canvas tends to "stretch" in your own view, so before you commit your composition, hold it up and really look at it. (my face is too small).

Here is the first in a series of mermaids that start with inspiration from Mucha, and end in my own mixed-media style.


The original work that inspired:

I got interviewed!

It was so awesome to be on the receiving end of an interview, after all the long years of podcasting and videocasting. iCreateFlix is a classroom site where I've got some videos for sale, and they talked to me on BlogTalkRadio last week. Here me talk about living my creative life, writing the book with Ilysa, and growing up in a teaching family. Among other things :)

Check Out Art Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with iCreateFlix Radio on BlogTalkRadio

One thing leads to another...

When we decided to write a book with a major publisher, we knew two things:

1. Some parts of it would be a pain in the rear (dealing with someone elses' deadlines and demands)
2. It would give us street-cred.

We were totally correct on both points. Going with a publisher means you get an editor, who may or may not work with you in the way you are best suited... it also means dealing with their schedule (they said our book would be available on September 20, and we noticed it was actually in stores and Amazon on August 23.... we actually MISSED the launch date of our own book because they forgot to tell us), and they had no marketing plan. WHAT! We are supposed to handle the marketing of our own book, totally on our own for that. So that's why they wanted us to have a strong social media platform. lol.

The street-cred thing is highly sought-after by artists. It seems that no matter how great you are at what you do, the crafting community only believes you are "real" if you've been published. I actually had someone say to me once, after I had been doing free monthly demos and teaching sessions for their polymer clay guild for several years, that I was not a "real" polymer clay teacher (because I was not published and/or traveling the country like a gypsy to teach in other cities). How do you think that felt?

I digress. It's finally here! Next month, on November 5th, I will have my first guest-post on www.CreateMixedMedia.com! I'm so psyched about that. And today I'm being interviewed by www.iCreateFlix.com for their podcast, as a guest teacher. And I have a guest post coming out on their blog later this month too, when I will be featured in their newsletter AND I'll be releasing a new class on making a mixed-media shrine with cutout niche. So cool.

The next step will be getting published in Cloth-Paper-Scissors.... and then I think I'll take over the world :)

What is driving me, right now...

At this moment, I am crazy about making 100% of my income myself. I mean, emphatic. I need to stop doing the odd jobs that bring me a subsistance income, and start doing the passion work... the making of my own shiz... the stuff that won't make me angry to do because I know I will be directly paid what I am worth to do it.

I'm working really hard on Dream Your Success right now, because I know, in my heart, that we have the BEST... the ABSOLUTE best business and life coaching program for artists who want to succeed online. We have checked out the others- FLUFF, I tell you. Our program is fun and a lotta work- because it is true, no matter what they want to tell you- that you will need to learn and apply some things in order to get it done and sell your creations. We don't just tell you what to do, we SHOW you, teach you, encourage you, and have LIVE sessions every other week in case you need even more assistance. (Clients absolutely LOVE the live coaching.)

And I'm working hard on CraftyLink, because community is where it's at.

And the third thing driving me is my new product line, because jewelry is such a saturated market that it has become pretty hard to stand out from the crowd, and almost impossible to get accepted into art shows selling jewelry. So this requires some thought and planning to "break out of the mold," especially when the book Ilysa and I just wrote is on...wait for it... art jewelry!

So- I'm driven in three concurrent directions, all of them geared towards my ultimate goal of a real sustainable 5 figure income from my efforts.

What is driving you?

Crafty Love Notes #2: Innovate!

I love texture, in case you haven't noticed. I had been thinking for a while, gee, wouldn't it be grand if I could pre-texture the backgrounds of my paintings, instead of having to add it at the end with texture pastes and the like? I had also been drooling over embossing machines for many reasons, probably ever since I played with the Vintaj Sizzix at CHA last year.

So I asked my Dad for the Anna Griffin special edition Cuttlebug for my birthday. The reason I wanted that one is because it came with 12 pretty folders, so could get started right away! So I did a sample of each folder that I have, and then I started looking around the room seeing what other flat textured items I might be able to roll through it!

I have a giant pile of punchanella, some of it interesting shapes like stars and flowers. The star piece is just the right width to go through the machine. But it's not a folder, it lacks the thickness- and these machines are calibrated to take a certain thickness or they just don't work. So- I kept searching around my room and this is what I came up with-

I used the spacer block and the two embossing plate thingies that came with the machine. I laid down a thick-ish silicone mat that is used for baking (I use it for clay), then the paper (cardstock) with the star punchanella on top. Those were sandwiched between the 2 B embossing plates. Under that sandwich, I stuck a piece of matt board that I cut to size, as a "shim." Now, you can buy shims for your machine- but WHY would you spend money on what is essentially a thin piece of cardboard????

The result of my efforts is down below, a groovy textured piece of cardstock. Moral of the story? Open your Eyes, Look around you, and TRY NEW THINGS. You never know what you might discover!

 

What did you do to your hair! On going pink....

Yesterday, I spent an absurd (!!!) amount of money in a hair salon.  My hair was double-processed, the brown parts were all returned to my natural dark brown color and I had ombre pink and purple strips put into the front. All part of my birthday present to myself :)

In the future, I will keep adding more crazy colors to the front until I am saturated- right now, I had the strips put in so I could start getting used to it- I was a little afraid to go pink because I'm always nervous to let the real me out to play. What will people say or think? Then I have to remind myself that I don't really care, do I?

I love my hair right now...although I saw a girl at the salon and I've decided I want to look more like her- hair to mid-shoulders, black with blue and aqua strips. She was wearing it in a really interesting style, part braided and part pompadour in the front. So cute. Not that I want blue hair, but once you bleach the color out of an area, you pretty much end up with a part of your hair that can be any color at any time- there are no permanent crazy colors, so every color you put in immediately starts to fade and has to be freshened up often... so it becomes easy to say, let's be pink this week! or Blue, or Turquoise....

My newest Creations

So I really enjoy doing tiny piecework with polymer clay. However, I don't really enjoy doing it over and over and over again. I love the idea of molding my own original artwork and casting it, and coloring it by hand. That way I can labor over the creation of the original until it is perfect, and mold it indefinitely  trying out different color combinations, antiquing, beading, and such.

I made several originals last weekend- three of them have a little well or frame in the center so I can change what goes there- a word, phrase, affirmation, poem, blessing, whatever.

Right now I'm on a quest to find the absolute best medium to cast them in. I tried Cool2Cast, which is a fiber infused plaster product. However, when you cast it thin, as these are, they are extremely fragile. You could snap them in half. That's why I only have 2 to show, because one of them broke into three pieces, and the other one I'm not willing to spend the time working on because it won't be sellable. Instead I'm dreaming up some new original sculpts and I really want to take it 3D as well, and make some small sculptures I can then cast and paint.

It's so fun birthing a new idea, especially since these have turned out better than I even imagined!

Crafty Love Note # 1- never use anything for what it's intended for!

I am the QUEEN. I mean it, no one else can claim this title. I'm going to take you on a little verbal tour of my studio and tell you what I've got going on in here and then show you my favorite product "mis-use."
I have two Ikea desks. They both have glass tops because I can put clay, apoxy, and paint all over them and then scrape it off. LOVE them. On top of those desks, I have two shoe organizers, the kind that go in the bottom of your closet. They do NOT hold shoes, rather they hold a variety of art supplies, some in clear plastic shoe-boxes, of course. I find that the thinner profile of the shelves is perfect for art supplies.
In one of the shoe thingies, I have a tray- the big kind you use to serve drinks. It does not serve drinks, instead it holds onto the most recent unfinished project or parts of projects that I am currently working on, so I can throw the little parts and pieces in there and find them again.
Above my computer monitor, which is balanced on top of two small drawer pencil organizers that do not hold pencils, I have a "dream-fish-net." You read that correctly. Instead of a board, I attached a 4x5 foot fishnet using command hooks (the adhesive kind) and all the flotsam and jetsom of inspiration gets tangled in that net. I put artwork, paper flowers, two big starfish (used to live in Florida) a ceramic bird, a piece of my own finished art, and whatever else wants to land there right in plain view.
And the creme-de-la-creme is the rolling cart that does not roll. It's too perfect, perched in the corner ON TOP of the desk. The drawers are organized not by type of supply, but by the type of project I will use them on. For example, my gelli plate is in a drawer with two brayers, some bubble wrap, and the 4 colors of paint I use most. The other paints are in another drawer with the mediums I use most, except for the lightweight modeling paste, which is in a drawer with the tools I use with it most... and so on.

Think outside of the box, and you will find efficient ways to be organized!

How to make a Santos or cage doll

This morning I was making art jewelry with two part epoxy clay. I had some clay left over so I decided to start a santos doll. These are made with the cage on the bottom for a dress and usually hold a religious artifact. Mine will be a memorial to the sea which I used to live near and now I miss.

This is only the beginning and it's made from bamboo skewers. Clay takes overnight to cure so I will post more pictures later.

 

Digital Art Journalling with an iPad and apps

So I got an iPad. It was inevitable, seeing as I've been having a 4 year love affair with a guy named Mac who spends a lot of time warming my lap :)

I immediately downloaded a bunch of drawing apps, and I also investigated the stylus angle since I know I don't want to draw with my finger. I found what I believe is THE BEST stylus available for artists, it's called The Hand, and it was a Kickstarter project. It's awesome and you can find it here.

On to some thoughts on which apps to try. First, I downloaded ArtRage. I have it on my computer, so I figured the natural extension was to get it on the tablet. It's ok, but not my favorite thing to use. The cool thing is it's connected to my Dropbox and I can send the source file to my laptop for more refined paintings. The bad is that it's a little too complicated for doodles.

Next, I got Bamboo notebook- which is my favorite program to write and doodle in, by far.  And Sketchbook lite, which is nice when you want to do a more robust drawing. But there are a LOT of tools, and it takes some time to do a good drawing.

I tried several others, not worth mentioning.

And then I got Paper by 53. I started just sketching with the free pen, which is nice...but then I decided to get the add-ons for the felt-tip pen and the watercolor brush. Voila, my life is complete :)

Creative Fluency

Here's a concept for you- a very important one. It's called "fluency." You might associate this with language, as in "I speak fluent French," and you would be correct. If you really think about the word, it means that you understand and speak quickly and clearly, without having to muddle through.

And how do we build fluency? By immersion, and practice.

On to the story that inspired me to write about it...

Wendigo died last Saturday. Some people would say "passed away," but the truth is, he died and I helped. I have personally put three pets to sleep now (my husband helped too) and it is terrible every time, because it really does feel like you are killing them. Even though it is the humane thing to do, the end result is- they are dead, and you pulled the "trigger." It's a horrible guilty place to be. Poor little guy had no fight left in him, the cancer had riddled his body. So we came home to a house that felt empty. The danger is- we have two other kitties, and not to ignore them because of our grief.

When our dog, Kasha, died four years ago, I gathered up some mementos with great intentions of creating a memorial piece of artwork. That sits unfinished.

When we came home from the vet on Saturday, I knew I wanted to create something for my husband, for us, to remember him. We decided yellow was a good color for Wendigo (the color of his eyes) and he is white, so I chose an assortment of yellow and white papers and a 12 inch canvas. I used lots of other stuff, but basically created a canvas collage that now hangs in our den above the 5 foot cat tower that he used to sleep on. Now our old girl, Tigerlily, has taken over the top level of the tower.

I have been in a constant state of CREATE since moving to Austin. My supplies are out in the living room, and I do a live show almost every Tuesday morning at 8 am. Plus I've been writing a book, which involves a lot more creating and photography than my usual routine.

The point is this- I had an idea and carried it through to completion within hours, not weeks, months, years...It is because I have been PRACTICING constantly and have developed the creative fluency that helped me state, inside my soul, what kind of art I wanted to make, how I wanted to execute it, and I was able to quickly and easily make what I had pictured in my mind.

This is very different than anything in my past- when I would think about it, maybe sketch it, dig around various boxes of art supplies, take things out...put them back, start, tuck a canvas half-painted back away, and not finish. Heck, I hardly got started.

PLEASE- do yourself the immense favor of doing something creative as often as you can! When you are in a state of creative flow, ideas come more quickly and their execution is easier. You become your idea, and are able to see it through. Creative Fluency is the opposite of Creative Block, and it is a skill just like any language or instrument. Practice, and it will be at your fingertips, or the tip of your tongue.

"Just Be- who you Be!"

A quote by....me!

I said this to a group of my highschool students- we were in the middle of a discussion and an issue about peer pressure came up. 

I turned to one of the girls, a girl who has no problem with this concept- she is 5’10”, very dark skinned, "thick", and very steampunk. Her hair is purple and black, she almost always wears goggles as a “headband,” she loves big shoes that make her look even taller, and every day her eyebrows are drawn on differently. I said to her- “Just be, who you be!” and winked. Then we had a good laugh together. 

Take this advice- no matter what you feel like wearing, drawing, making; no matter who you are today- be you. Don’t worry if anyone cares- it’s you that needs to feel like, well, you! When you speak, act, look, and feel genuine to yourself, you will infect others with the confidence and light of your being.

The Problem of Mattering

The one thing I had wondered, since I was very little...maybe 7 or so, is why anything matters. My religious upbringing gave me the first signs that something was amiss.

Guess what, people. The only thing that matters- is whatever you think matters. Unfortunately, the Universe, God, whatever you call the divine larger power in your life, didn't impress tattoos regarding the meaning of your life on your forehead at birth.

My (adopted) mother made me feel very bad about life from an early age. She was not there for us in any real sense of the word. She herself was very insecure, an alcoholic, and emotionally abusive. She would yell at me for sitting with the family reading a book or doing homework, and not breaking up fights between my siblings that happened in front of me- saying "The only thing that matters to you is whatever YOU are doing. Why don't you look around you and take care of something besides yourself!" This was usually followed by admonitions regarding my "laziness" or lack of effort. All this yelling at ME for not doing HER job of mothering.

So in my tiny little 8, 10, 12, 14 year old heart...I took her word for it. I withdrew into myself and became very introverted. I started thinking passively about suicide- "What if our car just goes off the road into the river? That would be convenient."And then I started thinking that nothing matters at all. If what I wanted didn't matter to my parents, how could it matter to me? As a child, I had no power to manifest what mattered, except in my daydreams.

As an adult, these thoughts continued. I felt powerless to get what I wanted in life. I started to suppress the questions about what I wanted. It became difficult to ask for things that I wanted- even if it were a simple request, such as what restaurant to go to, what to do on a Saturday afternoon. God bless my husband for putting up with me during my completely wishy-washy phase of development.

So here it is- the problem of mattering. If something matters to you, it means you want it.

If wanting things is difficult for you, because things happened in your past to create blocks against you believing in things, it can be difficult to bust through those blocks.

Here are questions I had about things that mattered to me-

What If I Care?
What if I Try?

Those what if's are all completely fear-based.

If I care about this, it will be taken away from me, die, leave, or betray me.
If I try to do this, it won't be good enough.

My fears about caring had to do with the fact that my birth-mother left me at 8 months old...my adopted mother abused me, both of them died before my 18th birthday, my father betrayed me by not protecting me. My mother would dangle things I wanted in front of me like a carrot, and snatch them away at the last moment as a form of bizarre punishment. For example, if I were invited to a birthday party, I would be dressed and ready, holding a wrapped present, and she would tell me that I didn't clean the bathroom properly the night before and therefore would not be going to the party. When I did things, she would tell me they would have been better if I had tried harder...my 2 hours of piano practice daily would become 4 the next day if I didn't practice "enough..." She told me throughout my piano career of 8 years of weekly lessons, 2 hours of practice a day- you'll never make any money as a musician. Better think of something else.

It sounds like she was "Mommy Dearest," doesn't it? But she had her own problems that made her this way. She grew up in a very abusive household. My two uncles are totally screwed up as well, and now I don't even know them anymore. I relate this to you, dear reader, so we can empathize and feel compassion for each other. I think everyone's parents mess them up, at least a little, because none of us are perfect.

So where to go from there, when your upbringing does not validate your needs and wants, the things that matter to you most? How do you go from thinking about it (rumination) to moving forward, a brightly Illuminated soul? The answer lies in a lot of forgiveness, and making new choices.

For me it was simple, it came all at once, after long hours of study and meditation that allowed me to open up and bring new beliefs into my life. It is very important if you want to change something integral to yourself that you first examine your belief system and figure out which beliefs are yours, and which were taught to you and support negativity. If a belief you hold from childhood only brings negativity into your life, you need to break it apart and rebuild it to support your positive growth as a person. But that's another post :)

Simply this: can you say this, hold it in your heart, and begin to believe it?


If nothing matters, then everything does.

Everything I do...

Everything I say...

Everything I believe...

Everything I experience.

So go forward, and BE what matters to you. Others will see you for what you really are, and you will be able to love yourself fully and share that love outward.

From Rumination to Illumination

Rumination is usually defined as repetitively focusing on the symptoms of distress, and on its possible causes and consequences. Extensive research on the effects of rumination, or the tendency to self-reflect, shows that the negative form of rumination interferes with people’s ability to focus on problem-solving and results in dwelling on negative thoughts about past failures.

I just had the best experience in a long time- I got to Skype chat with Marney Makridakis, the founder of Artellaland.com. I've been following the site for years now. Can I just say that Marney is VERY smart? And a generous soul who gave me an hour of her time, free. In that hour, I was able to realize what my heart has been telling me about my life mission, and therefore I changed the title of my blog and now will change my focus as well. It's always been there, I just haven't been able to listen to the quiet, deep part of my soul that is telling me what my REAL, true wish is as a helping professional.

I am a teacher- through and through. I've taught others my whole life, and dedicated myself to lifelong learning. 

I've read several pieces of literature which suggest that teachers are people who have not had a healthy upbringing- rather they have had struggles to deal with, in some cases, all their lives. This makes this special group of people highly empathetic. Many become psychologists, counselors, or therapists of some kind or another. Many get specialized training to do these things, and I believe that in many cases it's because they want to practice in a medical field that they are forced to get this training. But it doesn't take "letters" after your name or a Master's degree to make someone a teacher or counselor. It's a gift.

Somewhere in my early 30's, I realized that I spent a lot of time in Rumination. That is to say, that I could identify the causes and effects of the negative parts of my rearing and psyche. I could think about them to no end, pick them apart, and wallow in them (which, as the definition above suggests, is what rumination often leads to.) But I was getting no where in this endless cycle of negative thinking. I was still depressed, passively suicidal (wishing your airplane will crash when upon takeoff is a terrible thing to live through) and wondering about the meaning of life. Questions I had since age 8 or so. I realized that I had to let the light in, and let my light out. My focus then became finding the light. I did some reading, meditation, study and therapy. I still have a ways to go, and my teachers assure me that I will probably spend the rest of my life "perfecting" my own approach to happiness, fulfillment, and contentment- three states of mind that sometimes coexist, sometimes not.

My gift is this- I now understand how to shine. I know the path, and I want to share it. I believe that creativity and positive thinking can lead you there. As humans, we all share the power to create, and the power to think- to make new life, to make art and build things, to tell stories, to imagine things that weren't there before. Creativity and Positivity is our gift. I'm not just talking about art making, although that tends to be my primary expression. I do like to write as well :)

Halloween Party Pumpkin

This weekend I went to a pumpkin carving party...of course, I can't go with a plain pumpkin. I used a white craft foam pumpkin because I saw something on Martha Stewart using one with black swirls that looked like lace, so I couldn't help myself.
Here's what I used:
Ranger Distress Black Soot crackle paint over the bats
Michael's Studio G black glitter paint for the swirls
Lumiere gold/fuchsia as an undercoat for the bats
Glossy black transparent glass paint for the dots

So I started by randomly painting Lumiere bats, and let them dry. Then I began working on the swirls which took a LONG time. I started at the stem of the pumpkin with a small swirl and then went down, going around the bats and down to the bottom.

After that was done, I overcoated the bats with crackle paint. Then I added some dots to accent the swirled design. Ta-Da!

Clay Mosaic Plaque! A New video I did live today

I have decided to use Tuesday Schmoozeday as my very own creative outlet. I have WAY too much going on in my life, lots of businesses and a part time job, plus I'm trying to get certified to teach in Texas and continue my actual career.... So often, my own art is the first thing to go. I'm always trying to make something to sell or market, and never making something just for me. But I have a whole room full of art supplies because I'm a hoarder! So on Tuesdays during my live show, I'm making things just BECAUSE. Things that are in my heart, things I want to try. Today, I made it and gave it away. That makes me feel good- because I'm a lightworker- I want to enrich the world with the talents I have. So a big thanks to Finra, in New Zealand, who wakes up in the middle of the night each Tuesday and has watched my show faithfully since we started a month ago. Today she was the winner.

Inspiration all around

Well, we are back from the CHA show. It was a little disappointing this year, because the economy has hit so hard and a lot of companies just didn't feel like it would be a good use of their money. But what a wonderful treasure trove of information and inspiration! We tried out so many cool things- like one of my favorites- iron-on trims and fibers. I can use my little tack iron to attach them to things and there is no need to sew!!!!
None of the clay companies were there. They must not have anything new to show. Lord knows, the last time we were there so was Polyform- with their Studio product (fail). They had a beautiful booth and a terrible concept. Oh well, they should have asked the accomplished clay artists to weigh in before trying to sell that product.
Die Cuts with a View- their booth was GORGEOUS! It looked like a forest, with big trees and things hanging from them. A bead company went so far as to hang their strands from a faux-tree, it was beautiful. I came home and started making things, how could you not? The BEAE art show hangs in two weeks and I'm hoping to put two pieces into it. I'll post pics later :)
If you are interested, you can check out some of my photos at the sneak-peaks post on ThingsCrafty.

"creative genius"

So, I just want to say something about what it means to be a Creative Genius. It means that I am always thinking, putting 2+2 together (and definitely NOT coming up with 4), always learning, pushing limits, reading, writing, did I mention thinking? There's an awesome other way to think, it's called Metacognition- in which you actually think about what you think about, and how you think about it. LOL. It means that although I am an excellent speller, there are two words I can never, ever spell and I always have to use spellcheck to fix them, no matter how many times I have written them before (exercise, and rhythm.) It means that I am unafraid of a creative or intellectual challenge and I actually seek both. It means if I don't have the ingredients, I will experiment.

I encourage everyone to work on the Creative Genius inside of them. Creativity is not just about making art, or making good art for that matter. It's the quintessential "making the best out of what you have," plus a little bit of magical thinking.