You know how you see art on just about every product available in stores, from greeting cards, to tee shirts, to kitchen dish towels? Five years ago, after putting my fiction writing on the back burner, I wanted to focus on my artwork again, and I really wanted to be one of those artists who licenses my artwork for use on products people use every day. I started taking Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator classes to help me along. But then I took a wire jewelry class and I happily skipped off down a whole new path!

Yet while developing my wire skills and selling Kell’s Creations jewelry, I continued to work on my drawing and painting, uploading designs to gifts and apparel in my Zazzle shop, And from time to time I also included the occasional art-focused piece in my overall jewelry collection. That included the Fire Mountain Gems silver medal winning piece, “Faerie Carnivale,” which combined one of my fairy paintings with my metal clay and wire work. Since then, I’ve sold several fantasy art jewelry pieces at shows, and people who have seen the full-page ad featuring that contest piece have tracked me down to have me create pieces just for them.

So last summer I decided to take the hint and get serious about a new line in my Kell’s Creations collection focused solely on jewelry featuring my fantasy art combined with the wire work I love so much. I reserved a domain name, FaeFinery.com, and a shop on Etsy called FaeFineryArtwear, which remained empty until late December. It’s taken a while, but I finally have several pieces in the new shop. All the pieces feature the wire work I love, and I’ve resized and transferred some of my fantasy art paintings to the polymer clay focal pieces. I have ideas for more paintings for more pieces, and best of all, I’ve already had a couple of sales since listing the first items in the store!

I think the fiction writing is now burned to a crisp, and I still have a long way to go before my Fae Finery line is fully in focus with the vision I have for it, but I am excited about where this new journey might take me!

This is Virginia, wearing her new masked fairy piece. We had a great conversation about her love of fairies and about her maternal grandparents who were from Venice, Italy, where the mask is a centuries-old Carnevale fashion tradition.

“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.”
Ansel Adams

Sunday morning I woke to an amazing view of frost on the trees. Other than taking pictures of my jewelry for inventory purposes, or to list for sale at Artfire or Etsy, I don’t take many photographs, but I was definitely inspired by the lacy beauty of the frosty trees, so despite the frigid temps I put on the layers and headed outdoors.

We have a windmill and some outbuildings not far from the house, and though the windmill is no longer working, and we aren’t using the well, either, I decided it would make for an interesting focal point, since it is flanked by two big trees. I took the photo, and then I thought of Ansel Adams and his glorious black and white photos, some of which feature frosty trees. So here’s the shot of the windmill between the trees–after I changed it to black and white in Photoshop, of course. The fun thing I noticed is that editing the photo and making it black and white caused the outbuilding on the left and the water storage tank on the right to darken, creating two anchors, like the bottom two points of a triangle, which corresponds with the top point, which is the windmill wheel. Love when those accidents happen.

After that, I took pictures of the leftover coil of barbed wire hanging from a fencepost, and the top of a fencepost itself, because the cracked and checkered texture of the old juniper post contrasted so nicely with the lacy skirt of frost clinging to the wire.

I posted the windmill photo to my personal profile on Facebook, saying something like: “I’m no Ansel Adams, but the frost in the trees inspired me to go black and white.” The photo generated lots of likes and comments, but my favorite was the one by my writer friend Janine:

“Ansel wasn’t Ansel–until he was.”

That’s a funny way of saying something pretty profound, when you think about it. Though I don’t intend to change my creative focus to photography, the truth remains that no matter what we choose to do in life, we have to start somewhere. Ansel certainly did; I’m sure he wasn’t born taking perfect and beautiful pictures. So we shouldn’t let the fact that we don’t measure up to some creative icon–an icon who’s had years of practice and dedication–make us feel uncertain or embarrassed to spread our creative wings on occasion and fly somewhere we don’t usually fly. Being creative should be fun. I certainly enjoyed my little creative departure!

At last I can reveal the new product line I’ve been working on, along with it’s name! Fae Finery™ will be a line of jewelry and greeting cards featuring my fantasy and fairy art.

I’ve even reserved a domain name, FaeFinery.com. For now it points right back to my current website, Kell’s Creations, but I’m considering creating a website just for this jewelry and greeting card line. Each handcrafted Fae Finery™ greeting card will feature a pair of earrings (also handcrafted) that match the color and overall “look” of the card. Some cards will have calligraphy sayings, some will be blank, but all will feature the personal touch of yours truly, Kelley Pounds. Here are a few more pictures.

These new greeting cards, including a design for Valentine’s Day, will make their debut tonight at a home jewelry party in Ruidoso. I hope the guests are as excited to see them as I have been excited about creating them. I’ll be putting these cards in my Artfire shop starting next week.

As for the Fae Finery™ jewelry, I just finished a piece for the newly named line which I will be entering in the Vintaj Challenge “Starry Night.” Pictures tomorrow!

I really enjoy teaching classes in person, and I want to continue doing that, but lately I’ve also been looking into the possibility of teaching some classes online. I love Christi Friesen’s whimsical polymer clay work, I have two of her books, so I decided to take one of her online classes to see how online classes for jewelry making techniques might work. I signed up for the Frost Faerie class, which is just getting started, and I think this is going to be great fun!

So far we’ve been given the materials list, and on that list was some small dichroic glass cabochons with an “icy” look. Christi sells them in her class kit, but since I enjoy fusing glass and have a kiln, I decided to make some. Here’s a picture of my dichroic glass cabs for this class. I made 6, and 5 turned out well. The other one looks like a square-headed amoeba! I’ll need to rework and re-fire that one to make it pretty. The ones I don’t use in this project I might use in my wire wrapped rings or in the fun winter piece I’m dreaming up for the Artbeads.com blogging program. I’m going to start working on that next week as soon as all the supplies arrive. Looking forward to it!

If I remember to pack my Christi Friesen books when I head for Tucson in February, I’m going to have her autograph them.

Update: Went back to Christi’s website, and this is not technically a jewelry piece we’ll be making–it’s supposed to be a wall hanging. But if it’s not too big, it might make a great brooch.

This was my 3rd year to participate in the Santa Fe Renaissance Fair at El Rancho de las Golondrinas, and once again I had a great time. It was hot! Unseasonably hot for September in Santa Fe, but it was still great fun. I saw several familiar faces of customers who found my Kell’s Creations booth last year and the year before, and came back for more jewelry. That really made me feel good. In fact, I sold my Fire Mountain Gems contest piece to a very nice woman who has become a collector. I’m both thrilled and humbled.

While we were there, I did get away from the booth a little bit, leaving my husband to “babysit,” and while I was gone I saw some Irish dancing by Belisama Irish Dance. Of course I forgot my camera back at the booth! But I did see some belly dancers, and I got a shot of them.

I sold several of my new pieces, including these two dragonfly necklaces.

The resin wings were so much fun to make. I found the resin wing technique (among others) in a great book called Enchanted Adornments, by Cynthia Thornton. This book may be my new favorite for fun and unusual ideas to incorporate into my own work. I never like to copy anyone’s work exactly, but I can already see how I can adjust the ideas to suit my work and my style.

And I was both happy and sad when this bronze clay leaf pendant adorned with pearls left my booth to go to a new home.

I took a day off to rejuvenate, but now it’s time to get back to work. I’ll be teaching my “Three Ring Circus” class this coming Saturday, and the weekend of October 2 & 3 I’ll be attending the October Artfest in Cloudcroft as a vendor. Time to make more jewelry!

Note: The link to Enchanted Adornments at Amazon.com is an affiliate link, and if the item is purchased from my link, I will earn a small commission.

I folded up the pieces of paper with the names of entrants on them, tossed them in the air, let them fall on the floor, and picked one up with my eyes closed. And the winner is . . . Lorelei Kingsmore! Congratulations, Lorelei. I hope you enjoy your “Faerie Carnivale” print.

Kelley

To celebrate my silver medal success in the Fire Mountain Gems contest, I’m offering a free 5X7 watercolor print of the cameo artwork titled “Faerie Carnivale.” Why is the fairy wearing a mask, you ask? You tell me in my blog comments, and you will be entered to win. On July 1, 2010, I’ll put all the names of those who have told me their fairy mask stories in the proverbial hat and have a drawing. The person whose name is drawn will win a signed 5X7 print printed with Epson archival inks on Epson watercolor paper. Now, use your imagination and comment away!

At last! I was just about to give up and email the people at Fire Mountain Gems to ask about the contest results when I received an email saying that the judging was complete, the pieces were back in the mail, and the award certificates and gift certificates were on their way. I don’t yet have “Faerie Carnivale” back yet, but I checked the website and found out that this piece received a silver medal award in the necklace category! I’m elated! Considering I haven’t been working with metal clay very long, this is a huge accomplishment, and I am honored to be in such great company. The cameo “portrait” is a transfer on polymer clay of my watercolor painting of a fairy wearing a butterfly mask, and the wire woven neckpiece was a piece I had set aside to finish later. It’s funny how that happens sometimes–you have an idea that doesn’t quite fit the current project, so you set it aside and it’s perfect for something else. Here’s a picture showing more detail on the neck piece:

And here’s a picture of the whole design:

Fire Mountain Gems took pictures of one of their employees wearing my piece, but I couldn’t copy and paste, so you can see it here. Be sure to click on the “Lifestyle View.”  While you’re there, take a look at all the other winners, too. There are some truly talented jewelry artisans out there!

Now I need to figure out how I want to spend my $75 prize.

I’m back from the Mayfair juried arts show in Cloudcroft, NM that took place over Memorial Day weekend, and tomorrow I’ll share pictures of the new booth design I came up with. 

But for today, I’m honored to report that I have been chosen as “Designer of the Week” at Art Bead Scene blog! Wow, what a wonderful surprise. Before I left last Friday morning I was so busy working on last minute details that I didn’t have time to blog about my entry, which was inspired by Marc Chagall’s painting Le Jongleur/The Juggler. I was just happy to have made the deadline! I’m so proud of myself for making it, despite everything that was going on in preparation for Mayfair. This is the result. I’m calling it Time Flies, and if you look closely beneath the clock gears you can see the number 2 has “flown” off the clock face and is winging away on the orange parrot feather:

The pendant is a large oval collage bead made of Kato pearl and dark blue concentrate clays, gold-colored metal foil, a stamp with snippets of paragraphs in French, parrot feathers, an antique watch face and gears, a random piece of antique jewelry, and resin. The antique piece of jewelry had a hole at the top where it had been connected to other pieces, but because I knew the piece of jewelry embedded in the clay wouldn’t be strong enough to support the entire pendant, I created a bead hole near the top of the oval focal piece for a 20-gauge sterling silver wire,  and I created a festoon-like drape of lightly oxidized sterling silver chain. For the necklace I used hand-dyed royal blue silk ribbon, lapis lazuli oval beads and amber chip beads, which were a perfect match for the orange parrot feather.

With the watch face and gears, this piece is in the tradition of the popular jewelry style known as “Steampunk,” which I would describe as “mechanical Victoriana.” After this, I was inspired to create more Steampunk pieces, so I bought Christi Friesen’s book, Steampunkery.

Though my style is nothing like Christi Friesen’s, this little book is filled with ideas and inspiration. It’s also full of Christi’s wonderful humor, which makes reading her books fun. She describes Steampunk as  a “sort of Victorian-era mad scientist adventurer look–all clockwork gears and brassy bits, leathery straps, and even the occasional bit of “lacy filigree.” I think I may have too much of the “lacy filigree”  look in this piece to be truly “Steampunky,” but it was a fun introduction for me, a way to stretch my imagination into a new arena. I’m looking forward to doing more jewelry in my own Steampunk style.

Note: As an Amazon Associate, the books I recommend are part of that associate program, so if you decide to buy the book, I will earn a percentage. However, I only recommend books on my blog that I am happy to read and use myself.

I feel like a juggler lately! So many things to keep up in the air at the same time. And now this contest that I really want to enter. Art Bead Scene is a blog that sponsors a monthly contest in which entrants are supposed to “create something using an art bead that fits within [their] monthly theme. This challenge is open to jewelry-makers, fiber artists, collage artist, etc. The art bead can be created by you or someone else. The challenge is to inspire those who use art beads and to see all the different ways art beads can be incorporated into your handiwork.” And you can’t just string the pretty bead on a chain or cord and call it good.

So the painting that is supposed to inspire entrants in the May challenge is this piece by Marc Chagall called Le Jongleur, or The Juggler. I studied Chagall a bit in art history, and I love his use of color. But his work also intrigues me because of its mixture of surrealism and symbolism; I appreciate the fact that I can look at one of his paintings and find interesting hidden meanings. For instance, whether Chagall intended it or not, I see the saying “Time flies when you’re having fun,” because the winged, bird-like juggler in the center ring of the circus seems to be running to take off in flight with a bent clock draped over his arm. Of course that also makes me think of time melting away. Interesting, because Salvador Dali, a surrealist, melted a lot of clocks in his art, too. This is probably Dali’s best known “melted clock” painting, titled Persistence of Memory:

What is it with these surrealists and their melting clocks? Some say it speaks to the belief in the irrelevance of time, but if time is so irrelevant, why bother painting it melting away? Seems to me time is pretty relevant, and anyone who is trying to juggle numerous things (especially with deadlines looming!) would probably understand that. But both paintings do make me think about prioritizing and spending my time wisely doing what I love (creating art and jewelry, enjoying and sharing in the creativity of others), and spending my time with those I love most: God, family, and friends.

So now I’m going to attempt to come up with a polymer clay art bead and a piece of jewelry based on thoughts and colors inspired by Le Jongleur. I’ve been wanting to try something that involved the look of “Steampunk,” and since time, watches, clocks, etc. are part of that look, and since I just got some antique watches and watch parts, I think I’ll melt some of my own time working on this today.

Before I go, and since it’s Sunday, I’ll leave you with another inspiring work of art by Chagall, a stained glass window for the Catholic church of St. Stephan in Mainz.