Spinning into gold…

March 31, 2011Leave a comment

Golden Book dress

In the fairy tales, Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother arrives to magically create a dress. Sometimes it is the spirit of her deceased mother watching over her, and magically gifting the girl with exquisite attire. Other retellings have the creatures of the woodland, to whom Cinderella was kind, working magic and serving as her tailors and stylists.

This is no fairy tale. It is a dress made from Golden books. Yes, those Golden books you read when you were young. With the gold floral spine. The Pokey Little Puppy. The Little Red Hen. Anything Richard Scary…

This dress is the work of Ryan Novelline, a Boston designer. I find it all amazing….

golden book dress 1

golden book dress 2

Golden bodice

And yes – the bodice is made of little strips of gold – from the spines of the books. Spinning straw into gold, Rumplestiltskin? No, spinning tales into cloth…

Spring is bringing many new things…

March 28, 20114 Comments

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. ~Charles Dickens

spring daffodils

Today was such a day. The daffodils are teased with the chill wind. The dogs are sunbathing, recharging their solar cells. And I was in the studio…. I try to do a seasonal newsletter, yet I find myself liking the weekly blog entries better. So please feel free to follow this blog, if you are interested in updates and musings, and work in progress. But on to the news of the season…

The Spring season was ushered in by the magical wonderful Mythic Faire. Held in Baltimore, this is the little sister show to the autumn extravaganza that is FaerieCon. The weekend is a medley of talks, panels, music, artwork, and meeting and chatting with creative people. It was great to see old friends and make new! More on Mythic Faire can be had here: Mythic Faire website and my blog entry…

Immediately after returning from the Realm, as Mythic Faire is often called… I had to get back into the studio! I had a new exhibit going up in days at the Music School of Delaware. My dear friend and talented artist Betsy Mortenson and I are revisiting our ImagoDea – Envisioning the Feminine Divine show with new work. The show is open now, and will remain up until May 20th. Our opening reception is in tandem with one of the schools concert series – Music : Ritual and Healing – held on Sunday April 3rd. If you are in the area and interested please stop by! More information at their website. They are located at 4101 Washington St in Wilmington DE.

ImagoDea postcard

A sneak peak into some of the new collages, you ask? ok – here is a teaser. This is from the series of 9 small collages – The Muses, as I was still working on them.

Muses in progress

But there is clay on my hands as well as paper fibers and glue! I am trying to achieve balance between areas of my life – arent we all? So time spent in the clay studio and ever increasingly in the jewelry studio rounds out my days. I have a fantastic new mold awaiting clay – from a detailed original carving – a split tailed mermaid, a sexy one at that! Cant wait to have a batch of tiles to glaze… I will post pictures as soon as I have some…

I also have new shrine tiles. I made the empty shrines, cast them, and from the mold can make multiples. Each one is different, but related. I like this new way of working in a series, yet still creating one of a kind pieces.

rough shrine tiles

Here they are very rough, straight from the mold. And after adding elements and glazing…

shrine tiles

Working in a series this way is how I do my ceramic pendants, and it seemed the next logical evolution to work on tiles this way as well. I have been working in the jewelry studio quite a bit lately, and may have news about my jewelry offerings in the future… For now I leave you with a few pictures of new work. (Some of which will soon be making its way to my Etsy shop, naturally…)

pendants

Along with the clay, I have been working in resin and in metals. Getting reacquainted with some of the skills I learned in metal smithing classes as an under grad!

resin

mojo talisman

So here is hoping spring finds you healthy and happy! And may it be a productive, creative and fruitful season!

Upcoming events:

I am teaching two workshops at through The Art Studio. Mixed Media Jewelry: Collage in Resin in resin will be held Thursday April 14th from 6-9pm. We will create small collages, inset into bezels and seal them with resin. It is simpler than it seems and highly addictive!

The second workshop is a ceramics workshop – Creating a Floral Mirror Frame. We will work in clay one week, and glaze the next. Students will design and sculpt a floral ceramic tile, which will become the mirror’s frame.

Information on my classes can be found at the Art Studio website, or by calling 302-995-7661 – if you are interested!

My next festival/art show of the year is in June – seems like so far away as I write this! The Appel Farm Arts and Music Festival is near and dear to my heart, as I was a jewelry instructor there for two summers. The day long music festival is a regional tradition, and draws great musical talent, as well as a stellar arts festival. Please do check it out, and see the line-up at their website.

A to Z: D is for destination… ( and delay – apparently)

March 11, 20112 Comments

: the purpose for which something is destined

: an act of appointing, setting aside for a purpose, or predetermining

: a place to which one is journeying or to which something is sent <kept their destination secret>

: a place worthy of travel or an extended visit —often used attributively

“Destination” really seems like a normal mundane word at first. A word we use frequently, and know very clearly its meaning. But look deeper, if you will. Destiny. Fate. Journeys. Travel. Those words are more intriguing, alive with possibility. And so this entry comes to you from my destination, a place I find well worth traveling to… The Mythic Faire.

I like my life. Quite a lot in fact. I work doing what I love, I have amazing family and friends far away, and friends close by. House, pets… But twice a year, I have a chance to leave the mundane world behind and enter the Realm. FaerieCon and RenCon – The Mythic Faire create a world out of time. a place of magic and creativity and mystery and lore. You have heard me talk on them before. I find them soul refreshing.When you find yourself surrounded by hundreds of kindred spirits for a weekend – the energy is phenomenal! Talking of art, music, myth, magic, lore, legend… all the things that inspire me and fuel my artwork.

It begins today. It nice to have found my tribe.

March 22nd – And it was a great weekend… albeit over a week ago! It was a whirlwind, and wonderful. Let me finally wrap this up with a few high points of my weekend:

Siren, songstress, petite pixie of a bard – SJ Tucker. Got to hear part of her set Friday night, and finally got to meet her and chat in person. The new cd “Mischief” is amazing, naturally.

My friend Dawn of Cucina Aurora. (Sorry you cant see my ears in that picture…) Great to see her again, and catch up…

Raven Grimassi and Stephanie Taylor. It was lovely to meet them, and yes, that is John Matthews peeking out in the background…

But I would say, as always the most inspirational is meeting and talking with fellow artists. Although my medium is so very different from theirs, I have found amazing kindred spirits!

Please take a look, and enjoy!

Brigid Ashwood: winged things and improbable machines

Jane Star Weils: Faery, fantasy, myth and magick

Stephanie Lostimolo:

Kenia Craft: The art of Kathryn Elizabeth Noska

Kimberly Coffman – Goblin Bazaar

**Please note: all images copyright of the artist. **

A to Z: Clay

March 4, 2011Leave a comment

1. a : an earthy material that is plastic when moist but hard when fired, that is composed mainly of fine particles of hydrous aluminum silicates and other minerals, and that is used for brick, tile, and pottery; specifically : soil composed chiefly of this material having particles less than a specified sizeb : earth, mud

a : a substance that resembles clay in plasticity and is used for modeling b : the human body as distinguished from the spirit c : fundamental nature or character

Its no secret that i love clay. In 2nd grade I made a clay squirrel, sitting up looking perky. I was proud; Mrs Foster the ancient art teacher said something negative to crush me. She was one of those teachers, striving to squelch all creativity with rules and insults. She even tried in vain to make me color in tiny neat circles. Others did and were praised. I did not.

Al2O3 2SiO2 2H2O. Although I had to memorize that in college – the chemical formula for clay – I had to look it up today. Alumina. Silica. Oxygen. Water. Magic.

In hindsight I wish I had taken more than one semester of Ceramics in college. There were many incredibly powerful insights learned that semester. Regis Brodie, my instructor, is a gifted teacher, artist, and inspired man. I had my first primal elemental Raku experience. I was introduced to “Form follows Function” – and also ” When life hands you lemons… make lemonade.” I was introduced to the wheel – we didnt fall in love. But coils are a near omnipotent method of construction… And after a semester I returned to oils and metals – leaving Earth behind for a while…

I took some snapshots around the studio this week. Clay in its myriad incarnations…

Orangutan and panda hanging out. ( From my students, as are the pots below.)

Vinita – throwing.

My new shrine tiles awaiting interior elements…

A shrine of mine. Celadon? Yangahara? Ohata? Cant decide on glazes… It will have text on copper at the bottom where the holes are.

Gazing down from the top shelf…

Pieces waiting to be fired. Their dusty exteriors divulge no secrets. They will emerge transformed.

I love the transformation of clay. It begins so malleable, plastic, flexible. It can be molded and modeled, sculpted and shaped. It stiffens – carving, attaching… After firing – well I like this quote – “If clay is heated to a sufficiently high temperature as in a pottery kiln, it is chemically transformed into a new substance. The principle difference between this new substance and the original clay is that the water portion of the clay molecules have been driven off leaving a compound of Silica and Alumina. This new substance is monolithic; the individual particles are fused and will longer dissociate into a plastic mud when wet.”

Monolithic. I like that. To me clay is all the elements in harmony. Of the Earth and water, tempered by air and fire, imbued with the spirit of the creator. A harmonious balance. Off to the studio…

Here be dragons…

March 1, 20113 Comments

Welsh dragon

Happy St David’s Day!

St. David is the patron saint of Wales, also known as Dewi Sant. The holiday marks his death – which was in 589. Recognized as a holiday in the 18th century – it seems to me to be more about celebrating Welsh nationalism than the dearly departed Dewi Sant. Especially since the Welsh were subjugated to English rule in what, 1282? The holiday is often marked by the wearing of the national emblems, or the national costume.

daffodils leeks

And a parade, I love a parade…

St Davids Day in Cardiff

I for one, am wearing my treasured 20+ year old Welsh T-shirt. It is alot more comfortable than the traditional Welsh costume… I did however, purchase my tee from a vendor in the shadow of Caernarfon Castle, in Caernarfon Wales. It was 10 pm, the sun was setting, and I was a 20 year old art student on holiday from London… Looks a little worse for wear, I know…

PC Caernarvon

( And just for trivia’s sake… “Here be dragons” is a phrase used to denote dangerous or unexplored territories, in imitation of the medieval practice of putting sea serpents and other mythological creatures in blank areas of maps.Thanks Wiki. )

Jenny Davies-Reazor

artist, teacher

Month: March 2011