Photos From Bead & Button - My Experiences Part 1

I arrived back home from my five days at the Bead & Button Show early Sunday afternoon. After unpacking and tossing my clothes into the washer, I settled down and relaxed, making a bold attempt to return to "real life" once again. Verdict? Totally worth it! I had a wonderful time, pushed my creative boundaries, met two fellow artists who became fast friends, and generally dived into a world I don't get to live, but wish that I did. Here'a a short photo essay of my week. I'll have show photos of some incredible things later on this week, as well as an update on the Project Runway we missed just before the Final Episode of Season 17 airs on Thursday. So ... here we go. 

My hotel room was on the 17th floor - one floor down
from the very top. It was wonderful! Here's the interior
view looking over into the central atrium, all the way down. 

I drove out to the show on Tuesday, arriving and getting into my room in plenty of time to catch my bus to the Milwaukee Area Technical Center where the "Meet and Greet" was being held that night. The idea was to have both sets of classes meet and socialize along with beer, wine and "heavy" appetizers. It was actually better than I had expected, and I ran into a dear friend for many, many years, so the week started strong. 

The MATC is a six story building dealing in the Technical arts - metalworking
among them. I've had several classes here over the years. It's a great
building and very well equipped. We had practically everything we
needed available and it was awesome. 

The next day we caught the bus again at 7:45 am for our trip to the MATC and the start of a creative journey. The class was "Innovative Capture" and was going to help us think outside the standard methods of holding items together. Everyone brought something, or several somethings that they were interested in using. I brought two - a piece of abalone shell that reminded me of the brow of an owl, and a plastic camera lens that had me fascinated. 

I saw the abalone shell as becoming something similar
to this (this is laid out on paper with scrap copper. 

After lunch we gathered together in a round table and everyone had an opportunity to show the others what they had brought and get their feedback on how they thought it should be handled. It was fabulous, bounding ideas off each other like that. 

On the left is Karen, and on the right, Paulette. These two fellow
students in the class went to dinner at "The King and I" Thai
restaurant. Fabulous food, that I can always take enough back
to the hotel to reheat for a second meal later in the week. The
three of us really jelled. So much fun! 

On Day 2, we settled down and got down to some serious work on our pieces. The challenge with the lens I was working with was the fact that it was plastic - no heat could be put to it at all. I had to work with drilling and manipulating. I started getting somewhere late in the day, but realized I needed wire and sheet metal - they weren't available until the marketplace opened later than night. 

OK, I'm running out of time and have to get going to the gym. I'll continue this tomorrow. I was good, though. I hit the fitness center twice while I was on my trip, and I only gained two pounds, so that will be a breeze to get back off. I have to run ... more tomorrow! 

Possibilities I'm Bringing to the Table

My Workshop teacher, Andy Cooperman, sent a class-wide email of general "welcome" and minimal "instructions" out to those of us taking his class next week. I finally had a chance to read it in-depth a few days ago and one of the things he mentioned was a desire to have some photos of the items we were thinking about using in our project. So, I took photos of things I'm bringing along to use in my project (or not use, which often seems to be the end result), and I thought I might share them with you too. What we'll get in class are some basic materials - sheet metal of various types of metal including bronze - the larger equipment items like our torches, and bits of this and that. So, here's what I'm bringing to the table. 

This is a selection of items that I'm bringing along to my workshop.
Faceted cubic zirconia stones for setting, 2 differently sized
diameters of copper tubing, a carved face with an owl headdress
made from fossilized ivory (I'm a bit uncomfortable about using
any ivory, even though this is ancient), colored disks (yellow, white and
olive green) of Capiz shell, an old camera lens from an old digital
computer camera, irridescent abalone shell pieces, and two amber
 colored stone beads. 

Here is a photo of the entire array of things I'm bringing to play with. It's not really a lot of stuff. If I bring a bunch of stuff along, I'll spend my three days trying to decide what to work wish instead of just making a decision and rolling with it. I'll probably work with several of these, but many might travel there and back again unused. Let's look at some details, ok? 

Here's a close-up on some of the abalone shell pieces I'm thinking about
using. The left-hand pieces remind me of eyes, eyebrows or tears,
the right-hand piece evokes a nose or a beak. Possibilities exist and I
have a good selection of pieces in my bag. 

Here's some of the abalone pieces I'm bringing along. Abalone is a univalve sea shell with an iridescent nacre cushioning the interior of the shell. Think of it as the inside of an oyster shell, but larger than oysters usually grow. In many Native American cultures, abalone shells are used as vessels for burning sage to smudge rooms for purification. I've been using and selling abalone half-shells, buttons and odd pieces for many years. 

Just look at this piece of abalone shell. Doesn't it have the look of
a dog or wolf? I could quite easily make this into a
representation of the Egyptian god Annubis. 

This one piece of abalone I'm bringing along keeps tugging at me. Doesn't it look like a wolf or a dog to you? I'm seeing this as a side view of the god, Anubis, if I add ears. Fans of "Game of Thrones" might see it at a Stark wolf. It would certainly work for that image and world-view too. Whether I work with this one piece over the next few weeks or within the next few years, this one will be used - it's too amazing to waste in a drawer. 

I disassembled an old camera that was supposed to sit on top of a
computer monitor for using Skype or other interactive communications.
Cameras tend to come built-in now, and with much better graphics
capabilities, so I was going to donate this to my local Tech Dump. But
the depth and rings of the lens really intrigued me, so I tore it
apart for the lens. I would love to play with this. 

I am totally intrigued by the possibilities presented by this old camera lens. It has depth and texture. It's role could be an ever-hungry mouth or a symbol of a journey to inner peace - so many possibilities. I really want to play with this component and by choosing this, figure out the best ways to entrap items that can't handle the heat when combined with metals that require torches. 

These two stone beads aren't super large, and if I'm working on copper,
they might get lost because they could blend too much, but they're coming
along for the ride, because you never know what I might end up
using when push comes to shove. 

Finally, I have these two stone beads, because I am a beader and beads are usually incorporated in much of my work. They are quite different - one a flat, thin tab, the other a rounded cylinder. I love the color and entrapping beads is usually pretty easy - some wire through the hole, secure to a base plate, voila! 

So there you have it - my workshop possibilities. Along with a small carry-all of my tools, I think I'm ready for my classes. Now to actually pack clothing - the idea of no clothes just doesn't appeal to me. I have a few days to toss clothes into my suitcases, so I'm not really worried ... yet! Have a wonderful weekend and I'll be back on Monday. I might start getting intense about packing on Monday night - LOL. 

Face Off, Post Cards and Meme

First of all, Face Off is on tonight, for those of you who love the show as much as I do. I'm doing the happy dance just thinking about it (another 10 calories just bit the dust). Secondly, have you sent your postcards to your Senators yet? I'm not going to tell you which concerns you should have, I think those are probably different for each one of us. But send them! Send them today!

I bought a set of four really lovely hand-designed post cards from
an Etsy artist. They are thick stock and after composing what
I wanted to write, I got them completed and mailed on Saturday.
I'm ready for the next 10 Actions in 100 Days. It should be
announced soon. 

I loved the post cards I purchased to send to my Senators. I wrote my concerns to them in multicolored pens in a spiral pattern. I want them to stand out, to not get lost in the crowd. Now I'm starting work on the Avalanche Program - a similar action with a twist. If you are interested in information on this one, message me privately. I'm still trying very hard to keep politics in the background on my blog.

Let's do a couple of days of the 365-day Meme ...

I thought this was so cute. The
drawing is by Ann C Sullivan. 

If you could do today over, would you change anything?

Well, I just woke up an hour ago, so probably not yet. But I'm sure there will be something somewhere that I'll want to have smoothed out a bit more, or an action that I will wish I had taken more time with. There's always room for improvement.

I wish I had ...

I wish I had an opportunity to spend one more hour with my parents, just to tell them how much they have meant to me over the years and how much I miss them. Who knows? Maybe they know anyway, but since I'm really not a believer in white light and welcoming hands after death, I suspect probably not. They were pretty amazing people, though, and I love and miss them every day.

So let's make it through another day. I'm going to go out and shovel the small amount of snow we got overnight and head out to the gym for my swim. Here's hoping we all have a good Tuesday.

Fulfillment and Happiness

So after more than two hours of frustrated work to get the lettering onto my Big Bang collage, I finally succeeded in exactly what I wanted.  I may still go over the lettering with my wood burner, but I'll test that out with my signature panel on the back of the piece first.  What I can say, happily, is that it is DONE and I will be photographing it this week so that I can Email it to the appropriate people.  Whether or not my author will consider it to be worthwhile?  Hard to say.  My artwork is always off the mainstream.  But my DH, although he did criticize part of the image, generally liked what I came up with - a surprise since he rarely has anything good to say about my artwork at all.  So I'm happy - fulfilled, even. 

The central image is an antique ivory comb that was

heavily carved in the center.  It's a stunning piece!

Yesterday I thought I would work up some userpics and banners for my Middle Earth Fan Fiction award nominees, and noticed that I had been nominated for a sixth story.  Yippee!  I'm so incredibly honored and just floored that anyone would find my writings moving enough to nominate.  Thrilled doesn't even begin to describe my feelings.  So I worked up a banner for Morning Song shown above.  I'm still working on my user pics for my LJ pages.  So, I'm doubly happy.  Unfortunately, I'm looking at four days in a row of work, definitely a downer.  But...I've got good books to read on my NookColor, good coffee and oatmeal for the morning, and only the chapter headings still to draw for my Big Bang things (and those are bonus, not required), so all is well.  Now to get beading on my BFAC piece for the year...

Altered Art, Altered Future - VOTE!!

OK - Today is election day. I have to start this out by telling everyone who is eligible to vote to get out to their polling stations and cast their vote. Especially any women who are reading this. Frankly, after the sacrifices that our grandmothers and great-grandmothers went through to allow females to vote in this country and in Europe, every single woman should be at the polling doors when they unlock this morning. I expect that I'll be in line 1-2 hours, even though I'll be at my polling place more than an hour before the polls open. I won't regret it at all. I not only cast my vote for my convictions, I honor my ancestors through the action. Make sure that you also honor yours by exercising your hard-fought right to be considered a person rather than a piece of property or a rubber stamp of the opinions of your husband, father, or brother.

How that my tirade is through for the morning (LOL), I also wanted to quickly touch on altered art. Altered art is artwork made from a conglomeration of items - rather like collage, but in many different types of art, not just wall art. I've seen a lot of altered art through the years, and I suppose I should amend that to state that I've seen a lot of really ugly altered art through the years. There is something really nice and really green about reusing "trash", but if trash is creating more trash, is it really an improvement? Although there is some good and innovative altered art out there, the vast majority is very ho-hum, in other words...boring. I challenge those who are making this type of art to step back from what they are creating and take a second look at their work. Does it have an underlying theme? Are there certain techniques that are defining your work? What makes your work better than the original that you cut up to create your new item? Think about it, make revisions if needed, and make your work unique - not just one more offering in an overcrowded pallette.