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.

Well, here I am three days late (almost four) posting photos of my new booth set up for 2010! Let’s just say that after all the hard work my husband put in helping me get my project finished, I decided I’d better help him catch up with the solid surface countertop he’s been building.

A few weeks ago I started brainstorming trade show/craft show booth designs, and I decided to come up with something that would go better with my business card and the branding ideas I’ve been working on for Kell’s Creaetions. But I didn’t want it to cost a lot of money. Of course it certainly helps when your husband is a carpenter who’s willing to volunteer a few hours and extra supplies. So the picture above is what we came up with: standing wall panels with stenciled ivy designs on unbleached linen and wooden arches for more necklace and pendant displays, display pillars, and a folding door for the back corner display.

I already had three small table-top display pillars/risers, but they had been painted with a faux verdigris technique, and I wanted something lighter, so I pulled out my books on faux painting techniques and trompe l’oeil, including one called The Trompe L’Oeil Home, that had a great design for painting skies.

Basically, you start with a dark blue color on the outside edge, add a lighter sky blue, then a sand color, and then a cream in the center. Without allowing the paint to dry, you “pounce” the brush to subtly blend the colors. Because my brushes were a bit too stiff for this technique, I ended up doing another technique called “ragging off,” using a wad of soft t-shirt type material. But here are the steps I went through:

First, I repainted the risers white.

Then I started with the dark blue on the outside edges, painting and finishing one side at a time.

I added the sky blue, blending it into the dark blue by “pouncing” my paint brush.

Then I added the sand and the cream, working inward. I pounced to blend the different colors of wet paint, then used the wad of t-shirt material to “rag off” the excess and blend a little better–but not too much. Ultimately I ended up with a nice sky look, which you can see in two of the risers in my display. I was pretty happy with the way they turned out.

And the best part is, the Mayfair organizers liked my booth display as well; they gave me an “Honor Booth” award!

Another booth shot.

Mayfair was a lot of fun, and Heather (of Beads to Beauty) and I did well.

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’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.

Summer is my favorite season, and it always takes its sweet time getting to my neck of the woods (and it never sticks around as long as I would like), so I’m always thrilled when it finally arrives. I was no less excited to work with the items I chose for the Summertime Blogging Fun promotion for Artbeads.com, featuring charms, pendants, and glass beads. Landlocked ocean lover that I am, I love paua shell and dolphins, so I combined two loves  in the Paua dolphin pendant I chose. The pendant comes plain with the paua shell on the front and black acrylic coated resin on the back, like this:

This dolphin pendant is pretty on it’s own, so I could have happily put a jump ring in the hole and threaded the pendant on a chain or ribbon, but of course I saw the pendant as part of a larger picture. So I finally came up with the idea to create a polymer clay and domed resin pendant piece with wire curls that simulate stylized ocean waves so that the paua shell dolphin would look like it was leaping out of the ocean. Combined with some seed beads, seafoam green ribbon,  shell beads, crystals, and blue pearls, the final design came out like this:

And would summer be complete without butterflies? Of course not. Lately I’ve been admiring the necklaces I’ve seen that feature decorative clasps somewhere in the front of the design, so when I saw this Sterling silver 3-strand butterfly hook and eye clasp, the design idea came pretty quickly. I’m primarily a wire wrapper, but in this case I thought a lot of wire work would just detract from the beauty of the butterfly clasp, so I kept the design simple and elegant, using some cyclamen colored Swarovski bicones and Czech glass maple leaf beads that I chose from Artbeads.com to go with the butterfly clasp.

When I ordered this clasp, I couldn’t really tell how it worked from the pictures on Artbeads.com, but when it arrived I figured out how simple it was. The clasp is well hidden. The middle ball of the butterfly’s body hides the eye, while one wing hides the hook, and when the clasp is closed you can barely see the seam. The butterfly has a slightly oxidized appearance, but parts are still shiny and reflective, as you can see in the pictures; the colors are a reflection of the aqua and purple fabric I used on the surface where I was photographing this piece. Though I chose to use the clasp in front, I could easily imagine how beautiful a necklace would look with this clasp in back, either with short hair or an up-do. Perfect for a summer wedding.

And anyone who knows me knows how much I love hummingbirds, so from the extensive selection of charms, I chose this sterling silver hummingbird charm to work with:

In my opinion, this is one of the prettiest sterling silver hummingbird charms I’ve ever seen. I’ve used other sterling hummingbird charms, but none had quite the detail and graceful appearance of this one. This one is very dimensional–so dimensional you do need to be careful how you use the charm in your jewelry, because the little guy’s beak sticks out and could be a bit uncomfortable. This would make a nice bracelet charm, and the attached hidden loop on the back is perfect for threading the charm on a chain or ribbon, but because of my penchant for complicated jewelry, this is what I ended up doing with it:

Though I sometimes receive free items because of Artbeads.com’s blogging program, I also order other items from them on a regular basis because of the quality of the items I’ve received. I’m thinking these items have been some of my favorites so far. Plus, you can’t bead free shipping in the United States.

Disclosure Notice: The sterling silver butterfly clasp, the paua shell dolphin pendant, the Czech glass leaf beads, and the sterling silver hummingbird charm used in these pieces were provided free of charge by Artbeads.com for my participation in the Artbeads.com blogging program. I have not received any payment from Artbeads.com, and this post represents only my personal opinion.

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.

Today ends an online course I took with Laura Bray on Multiple Streams of Income for Artists and Crafters. What a great course! I recommend it. Although I was already enjoying several streams of income, I was also driving myself crazy trying to do too many things. I needed some help focusing my energy on specific goals, and one of my goals has been to create a more cohesive public image, a small part of the process of branding.

(Side note: my cattle rancher husband understands the original practice this business concept comes from pretty well, since he had a little run in with the branding iron last week. Thankfully, it wasn’t too bad; his cheek has peeled and healed.)

I still don’t know all I want or need to about branding, but I do know that with the coming arts and crafts show season, I want my jewelry booth and displays to better complement the business card I designed–which I really like, and which usually gets compliments. So I started with an idea for new earring cards. Somebody mentioned that they used business cards for their earring displays, so that got the creative juices flowing, and this is what I came up with:

I make both long and short earrings, so I used business card dimensions for one earring card size, and for the longer cards I created a design that would give me 2 earring cards printed on a single post card. Vista Print, where I usually print my business cards, was running a special on postcards, so I uploaded my postcard/earring card design. Whey the new cards arrived, I cut them apart and glued them on some plain black plastic hanging earring cards I bought when I first started this jewelry making madness. I did notice that the biz card size cards came back more purple than I intended, so I need to double check my color balance in that Photoshop file for future printings. They’ll still work, although they’re not the blue shade I really wanted.

I’m still experimenting with the walls for the new booth design, but since the earring cards have ivy leaves on them, I decided to go with an ivy leaf stencil on unbleached linen. We have lots of great linen scraps from when my husband built stretchers for an artist, so I figured why not find a way to use them? I’ll post pictures of the new stenciled linen wall panels as soon as they’re finished! The final result should look a lot cleaner than what is in the picture–I hope. That’s the plan, anyway.

In the meantime, the next project is repainting my tabletop display risers. I think it will all come together in the end.

I’d really rather just make my jewelry and art and let the display and selling take care of itself! Of course I can’t do that, so I always seem to think about display and booth ideas just as I’m gearing up to be too busy to really do my ideas justice, and this year will probably be no exception. After three years, I’m ready to mix up my booth design. Here’s a photo of my booth from the 2009 Las Cruces Renaissance Artsfair:

Not bad. (That’s my husband in the booth). I like my sign, but I’m tired of looking at plain white tent walls, and I think my overall display is too dark. The standing earring displays need a lighter look so that potential customers can see more of the earrings from a distance and less of the display itself. And I’m thinking about giving my display pedestals (which also double as storage) an upgrade from the faux verdigris finish they have now to a faux slate or marble look, so I’ve been looking through my books on faux painting techniques.

My first show of the season, Mayfair, is Memorial Day weekend in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, and my booth will be inside the pavilion, so I’m trying to come up with wall ideas so that my booth will be clearly differentiated from those next to me. I found a great photo pool on Flickr, full of photos of displays at Arts and Crafts Fairs. Since Flickr doesn’t seem to want me to copy photos to re-post here, I’ll just provide links:

Paper Pastries has a fun and colorful booth, but the stars of this booth are the custom shelving units. Nice! I would want to shop in this booth; the shop’s name and color scheme are perfectly in sync. Photos of this booth really get me thinking about unique wall or shelving display ideas.

Blue Roof Designs is equally inviting in my opinion, but nothing like Paper Pastries. The colors are subtle and earthy, allowing the handmade books to be the focal point. But what I like best about this booth is the use of floor space. Unlike my booth, I don’t think customers would feel claustrophobic shopping here. I’m definitely going to have to brainstorm wall display ideas that will allow me to free up some floor space in my booth. Creating floor space in a 10′ X 10′ space is a challenge!

I think it’s interesting that out of all the photos I looked at, I didn’t find a jewelry display I liked very well. Hmmmm. I do know that there are usually so many jewelry artists at shows that people tend to overlook and dismiss jewelry booths, so I want to make sure my booth is as inviting as possible. I also know I don’t have a lot of money or time, so I’m going to have to find a way to refurbish things I have on hand. I have lots of unbleached linen scraps, so I’m thinking about re-covering some of my jewelry displays using linen. It’s a nice neutral gray color that will lighten the look of my booth display. But whatever I come up with will also have to complement my sign and my new business cards, which are predominantly periwinkle blue and feature one of my favorite jewelry pieces, Dragonfly Moon.

I’ll be sure to post pictures of my updated booth display after Mayfair.

The “unspeakable muse” jewelry finding included in my kit for the Use the Muse IV contest inspired a piece of art featuring a design similar to a stained glass rose window, which I used as the backdrop for a black-haired dragonfly fairy.

Unless I change my mind, the plan is to transfer this piece of art to a polymer clay shield pendant piece and incorporate some copper clay dragonflies with all the other components in the Use the Muse kit. If I get brave, I may even try my hand at enameling those copper clay dragonflies I want to make. Until then, here’s the artwork. The color scheme is a warmer blend of pastels that should go with the beads in the kit.

I also recently joined a blog called Art Cards 365, where all the art featured by members is in the collectible art card size of 2.5″ X 3.5″. I thought participating in this blog would inspire me to keep working on my art and get back into practice. Maybe if I did that, black hair–or hair in general–wouldn’t be so difficult for me to paint! The original of this piece is 5″ X 7″, which resizes perfectly to ACEO size, so I think I’m going to use this piece as a limited edition ACEO. Now I just need to think of a title!