Monday, Monday

I have taken a look at what this week holds and I must say, I'd rather be Blogging. This is from Cathe Holden from Just Something I Made

Cars

I woke up this morning from a dream within a dream. I do not remember all the details, but I do remember the “outermost” dream was of me stuck at the auto-repair shop and my 9:30 class about to start. I was trying all kinds of things to get the word to the department that I was not going to be in class. No one would help me, I was on my own.

Why is this significant? I will not teaching this semester!

Maybe my old vehicle (teaching) is not going to work for me and I need to get creative to be able to go in another direction.

This summer I have started a new incarnation – as an artist. This is both exciting and terrifying, as I have said here before.

This week I am preparing some pieces to show at an open call for artists at a local gallery this Saturday. I believe my pieces are good enough to make the cut, but I need to make some necklaces and bracelets to go along with my earrings. These sets will be, by their very nature, “matchy-matchy”. I enjoy this kind of work, but I would also like to create OOAK (one of a kind) pieces that are out of the ordinary – that is a bit of stretch for me right now.

In the meantime, I have shown some of my pieces to close friends and invariably I end up selling a piece or two. That happened yesterday. I sold the beautiful amber and quartz Anglican Rosary featured a couple of posts ago and a pair of earring made from tiny turquoise scarabs. I have not had a sale in my Etsy Shop yet, but I keep putting the word out.

So, tell me, what are your dreams like at this point in the year? Are you waking from nightmares about a fall festival you are preparing for? Is the winter Holiday Season breathing down your neck? Are you panicking because school is starting?

Leave me a comment so I won’t think I am just writing all this for myself.

The only thing constant is change.

I have been tinkering with the blog and I've added a few things here and there. I like seeing my stuff that I have listed on Etsy. Look around and check it out. What do you like best?

It's here, I have finally done it . . . .

I have finally opened my Etsy Shop: Artemisia's Studio

I have had the empty shop for nearly a year and I just sat down and photographed everything I had on hand on Saturday so that I could post it today.

I only have eight items up currently, but I have about 20 more to write about and post. I would be ever so grateful if you would go by and check out the stock and come back to give me some feedback. Hereis one of the items I have listed, an amber and yellow quartz Anglican-style rosary bracelet with a sterling silver toggle closure and cross.

Thank you all for stopping by!

Well, I don't know how to post a page image to prove that the random number I am posting really is the random number generated -- you will just have to trust me as honest.

The winner of the lovely bracelet is No. 2; Linda! Thank you Linda, now send me your address and I will get it in the mail for your as soon as possible.

Thanks to all you lovely readers. Please keep on reading and please comment to let me know you stopped by. Your comments Make My Day!

Think cool thoughts. Think cool thoughts . . . . AND A GIVEAWAY!

Here it is the first of August, and if you think it was hot in Texas in July, you “ain’t seen nothin’ yet!” I have been­­ staying close to home and in the cool of the house, but I still have my own little “power surges” or ”personal heat-waves”, if you get my drift. And when that happens and the AC is as cool as it is going get, I repeat to myself, “Think cool thoughts. Think cool thoughts . . . .”
I was doing that today as I was making this bracelet.

It is a bit of a departure for me and I hope you like it, because I made it especially for this giveaway. (More on that in a moment.)

The bracelet is sterling silver links with a variety of glass beads (5mm – 12mm) dangling down from their silver wire wraps. The five orphan lamp-work beads are in shades of aqua and teal. They remind me of Monet’s Water-lily series.

I gave it a test wear this afternoon, and it is light and comfortable, and as you can see from the photos, it goes with anything from denim to chintz and lace.

Now, for the giveaway:
I really appreciate all my readers and I am so surprised that my counter has turned over 1,000 visits. To thank you and to increase readership, here are the rules:

#1 On your blog tell your friends about the giveaway and ask them to post a comment on this blog
#2 Stop by and post a comment on this blog – only one comment per person counts (if you should forget and post again)
#3 Check back next Saturday (August 8) to see if you were the lucky winner selected at random.

How easy is that?

And again: Thank You Thank You Thank You

WooHoo! What a Great Day

Look what I found in my mailbox this afternoon:

Cindy Gimbrone sent me the promised bronze pendant but also added an extra special set of her lampwork beads. What a surprise! She is known as the Lampwork Diva and here you can see why. I am just itching to see what I can create to do them justice. Thank you Cindy!

Next, I went by the printer’s and picked up the patterns for some tiny art quilts.

When I brought them home, I could hardly wait to pull some fabrics from my stash. What do you think?

And finally, thanks to everyone who has visited my blog.

The counter is about to rollover to 1,000. (Granted, quite a few of that number records me checking in before I knew how to exclude my count.)

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. And to thank you properly, I will host a giveaway. Details on Saturday, August 1st. You don’t want to miss this.

And the Winner is . . . .

It could be you! Lorelei over at Lorelei’s Blog is hosting a giveaway for Cynthia Thornton of Green Girl Studio’s book “Enchanted Adornments: Creating Mixed-Media Jewelry with Metal, Clay, Wire, Resin & More” which will be released November 1st. Building up to that release, Lorelei will be hosting, not one, not two, but EIGHT (8) giveaways.

Check out her blog and enter to win the first and stay tuned for the following giveaways!

In local news, Kate Clawson of Ongoing Explorations of an Organic Artist has won the Snowflake Obsidian and Pearl earrings

for her email comment on my “Ups and Downs” blog post. Apparently she was not able to post to my blog. I know that sometimes I have to preview a blog before I am allowed to actually post my comments. Anyway, check out her lovely blog – she does amazing things with polymer clay!

Speaking of giveaways, I am a winner of the Art Bead Scene Studio Saturday giveaway from Cindy Gimbrone. Check out this gorgeous bronze pendant she is going to send me. Can't wait!

I was supposed to go in for jury duty today, but I just got a call saying I have been ‘release from that obligation’ – funny how I suddenly feel “sooo freeee!!!” Now I can make plans for my week. I can do some serious work in my untidy house and create something beautiful in my studio. Check out my before and after photos of one corner of my now lovely little kitchen.

Boggles the mind that I let the chaos get so bad.

The Ups and Downs

Where does your creativity come from? Are you a thoughtful, focused, organized processor of your creative ideas? Or do you come to your ideas from intuitive spurts that are erratic and disorganized? I imagine quite a few artists with claim the second process over the first but that probably varies depending on the medium an artist chooses.




Right now I am having a little trouble, because I am taking a medication that diminishes that sort of euphoric feeling you get when you are at the beginning or in the middle of creating a piece – where time stands still and all the separate elements seem to fall into place. That euphoria is the same feeling you get in your gut and head when you have laughed long and hard. The effect of the medication has me very concerned. I am taking it for very good reasons, so I will continue to take it even if I don’t like this particular effect, but I fear the flattening of that “up” feeling.


In short, I fear losing my creativity.

I have been told that the medication will help me focus and finish tasks -- and that is a very good thing, but I worry about the beginning of tasks – especially artistic endeavors. From my own observations I think the artistic temperament tends to be more sensitive and skates a little closer to the edge than other folks. It also seems to be a two-edged sword: creative euphoria with dramatic highs, or numbing lows that prevent any creative thoughts a place to roost. I have experienced them both, and I must say I prefer the “ups” – and who wouldn’t! But if they are too high, the fall is farther and much more pronounced. (What I am talking about is NOT bi-polar disorder, but depression with manic episodes.) We all have our demons, this is mine.
At this point, my creative output is a moot point – I am not creating anything tangible – but I do have lots of concrete ideas I want to pursue.

So help me out here: whether or not you suffer from similar demons (no need to self-disclose), do you see your creative self in any of this? How do you deal with it in or outside of your studio? Do you have organized processes to get to your creative work? Do you keep an art journal (and does it help)? What practices could I adopt to “get me going” when the “up” isn’t there? Give me some boot-straps I can pull on.

Since I did not have any takers for the last giveaway – the Snowflake Obsidian and Fresh-water Pearl earrings will go to a special someone (selected at random) who posts a comment to this blog between now and Saturday Morning.


Thanks in advance.

Color, Colour,

If you have been reading along the last few posts, you will know I am about to jump into the artistic abyss – with glee!

Color has been on my mind lately. I love color, I could not really tell you which color is my favorite one, I love them all. Part of this thing with color comes from a presentation at our local quilt guild. The speaker gave us a basic talk on color the other day but I know there is a lot more to it. She spoke about how the printers of fabric help us match fabric colors with the little colored dots in the selvedges and she spoke briefly about the color wheel.

I have another method for squeezing out the color from an image. I open the images in “Paint” and then I “select all” and grab a corner and manipulate it until the image is pixilated into large blocks.

I plan on using these rendered pairs to create interesting textural pieces. Exactly how they will look once I have finished, I will be as surprised to know as you. Now, I have to get in the studio and let the muse guide my hand. I am really looking forward to that!