Month: October 2011

Fifteen minutes of Fame, winners, and the like…

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Halloween

Spook-tacular news: After three (?) years of waiting and wondering – my episode of HGTV’s “That’s Clever” will air on Monday October 17th, 2011! I am excited, and a little anxious. It has been so long, its all a blur in my memory. I am excited to see it, and feel a little self-conscious – will it be cool? Silly? Hmm. So check your local cable listings for time and channel! I am interested to hear what you think. 

Winners! – I though I was being so smart – deciding on 1 random winner and 1 that I selected. Completely impartial, I know, but my perogative. Well, that was a hard decision! There were great ideas for talismanic words and phrases – many that I will use! Thank to all who entered, that was the creative impetus I needed. I will post pix as things are hammered out. 

The random winner is…’Serenity now’ from Angela

And I could not resist…‘Empowered‘ from Rachel. ( Hard decision! SO many great ideas!) 

Other points of interest: 

FaerieCon – November 4-6, in Baltimore. A truly magical weekend of music, art, festivities, and the like. Great authors and artist, a chance to meet and see their new work. The line-up this year is the best yet! And the costumes! And the Green Men parade! and the Masquerade Balls! I cannot wait. 

The Arden Holiday Shop – November 27th, 11-4 pm. A tradition in Arden DE, this small gathering of local artists and craftspeople is very festive! Great place to start – or finish – your holiday shopping! 

And yes! I will have ‘word mojo’ necklaces at both events. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you can tune in on Monday!

Share the love…donations and a give away!

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I believe in sharing the love, in supporting causes I am committed to, and to helping out where I can. I dont have pockets lined with gold, and often my ‘help’ is a donation of artwork. This past week on Friday I had a chance to donate to two organizations/causes that I support wholeheartedly. 

The first is the DCCA – The Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts. It is an amazing exhibit space, and houses many local artists studios. They are committed to supporting the arts and upcoming artists. I have friends who work, and exhibit there. Every year they have a fundraiser auction: “Small Art/Big Auction. Donated works are small in scale; this year the size requirement was 12” square. Want a peek? I decided with the advice of my friend Sara T. to think outside the box…

DCCA necklace

“Siren’s Song” – starfish in mother of pearl with resin, river rock, carved netsuke, pearls, aquamarine, sterling, kyanite.  I think it will definitely get attention and be a great conversation piece. The auction is October 29th, you can se the details here…

 

Then I headed over to Playtime Doggy Daycare. After a few chats with the staff regarding their fundraising efforts – which included home made baked dog treats… I decided to make a necklace, or two. They are going to hold a raffle for a local dog rescue. I wish I could give money to all the dog rescues, and homes to a hundred adorable strays. But we have our hands full with our two rescued dogs: 

Oscar

Oscar – (Canaan Dog) aka Cutest dog ever, Noodle, Oscar Moo-Moo (Thats from Playtime!)

Zoey

Zoey (Belgain Malinois) aka Crazy. (Her one and only true nickmane)

So my donation, you ask? I couldn’t decide – so I made two: 

dog donations

The first is a vintage stamp advocating humane treatment. I do not know the date, but it was a $.05 value. It is collaged in a copper bezel under resin and paired with citrine and carnelian. The second is hand stamped copper, and enamel on copper. Both are 18″ long on copper chain. If you are interested – you can buy tickets to win, and donate to a worthy cause… just contact Playtime Doggy Daycare!

So in the spirit of giving – let me get to the details of the give away! I am doing a new style of necklace, focusing on words. Your inspiration, your word of power, your mantra. And I want your ideas… I will give away 2 necklaces in this style: (copper ball chain, 18″, 1 gemstone dangle, stamped word in copper.)

dog tag words

What do you have to do? Leave a comment here with your name and your word/short phrase. OR leave a comment on my Facebook “The Art of Jennifer Davies-Reazor” business page. I will pull the winners the morning of Friday the 14th. Check back Friday to see if you are the winner! Why Friday, you ask? Because that is my air date on HGTV’s “That’s Clever“!!! I will select 1 random winner, and one winner whose word I really like. Yup. My contest. My rules. (With FaerieCon coming up I am looking for words/phrases that are particularly magical, fantasy…but that is NOT a requirement.) Excelelnt. See you Friday!

 

You can never have too many earrings. Earring Swap reveal…

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Good morning – are you ready for the earring swap? Well, go get a coffee or brew some tea. If you are in the mood for Bead Soup – it is still simmering, here.)

A few weeks ago my friend Diana of Suburban Girl Studio organized an earring swap. I wear jeans and tees to the studio most days, so this is great…You can never have too many earrings!And featurign artist beads/ Even better! I was thrilled my partner was Diana herself! She does lovely raku components. 

Here is what arrived. Happy Day!

Ear swap pkg

There they are! Dramatic, yet gypsy boho as well, which is very me. I can see them dressed up with a little black dress, and adding some spark to a mundane tee and jeans outfit. They are super long for me, and very light; a good thing. I think the crystals are a great partner for Diana’s raku pieces – shell/spirals that I adore. I will confess I had seen similar pieces in her Etsy shop and loved them!

earring reveal!

I love that they dangle below my hair. Great visibility. (Well – did you want my whole face, or the earrings? I figured – earrings!)

my earrings!

And what did I send her? I will give you a hint…

earring mania

I call that earring mania – I was getting ready for Art on the Ave in Alexandria. You will have to tune in to her blog to see what else I added to my ceramic charms to complete her custom pieces! Take a look at the other offerings, and leave comments! We love that! And thanks to Diana! This was fun, pure fun, and I was thrilled to be a part of it!

 

Jenny Davies-Reazor  http://www.jdaviesreazor.com (thats me…)
Marie-Noel Voyer-Cramp  http://www.skyejewels.blogspot.com
 

 

Art Bliss.Pure and simply – art bliss! DC 2011.

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Art Bliss 2011

The second annual ArtBLISS retreat was held in Dulles VA on September 23-25th. Our hosts Jeannette Blix and Cindy Wimmer created another magical weekend of creativity and camaraderie. In some ways its hard to write about… I find as an artist that I need times away from all of the life/human/house/pet responsibilities when everything is attended too and I can simple create. And be inspired, experiment, share ideas, and recharge. I work alone in the studio most days, with dogs at my feet. Although I do talk to them, they are not so well versed in critique and composition…

So this retreat weekend is very valuable to me. I made some good friends last year, and it has been a pleasure to see them on Facebook and the like. I anticipated more of that relationship building and networking. Add to that that my best friend Jen was coming! Hurrah! We met in college, in drawing class… but I will save that for a follow up ArtBliss post… 

Jen and I took “Rings and Things” a class with Robert Dancik to work with his material Faux Bone. I had worked with it on my own, and liked it, but wanted to go straight to the source as it were. Here is my workspace early into class – and a ring in progress. 

FB begins 

The material is a plastic, and it is incredibly durable and versatile. Saw it, file it, sand it. It sculpts on a belt sander like soft clay! Its non toxic, and takes color…The ring below was sculpted out of 1/2″ thick material and designed to showcase that antique button. 

FB rings

But I decided it needed to have another focal, and so this button is interchangeable! So sweet. Never would have imagined. But I had never used the myriad forms of microbolts before either…. Each button has a microbolt epoxied to the back where the shank was – and that is what connects to the ring shank itself. Ingenious!

Fb ring 2

Glad I finally got to work with Robert – it was a great class. 

Davies and Dancik

Saturday night – a trunk show of my ceramic beads and charms. Thats Jen there sketching in the room. It was such a party! Thanks to everyone who came and made it a success! I hope to see your creations here on the Interwebs in the future! I got to meet so many beaders/designers/artists whose blogs I read, whose work I follow. A pleasure! 

JKM and trunk show

On the second day… there were watches. “Watch this” with Richard Salley to be exact. I have know Richard for a few years, having met and worked with him at the Shepherdess in San Deigo. I have a huge stash of watches, and was seeking inspiration. Here is the day’s breakdown: 

Salley class1

Setting up: coffee, clean table, sketchbook. (Isnt the pen bandolier the best? Cleverhands on Etsy) 

Salley class2

In progress/sketching: I wanted to use the antique cigarette card of Athena – so I wanted to take the time to plan and thing things through. How to create tabs? Where to rivet? What embellishments? To do her justice and not mess up the only one I have…

Salley class 3

Working: tools strewn around, notes, seltzer…

watches WIP

This was the end of the day. The Strongbow cider lid/watch needs Faux bone for the backing. The Athena watch awaits resin. I will post pix when they are done!

watch crew

The crew – thanks for a great class, and being a part of a great weekend. I wish I had taken more pictures! The Meet and Greet, the charm swap… The whole experience is so rich – I will come back another day. Stay tuned. But for now – back to the studio, and a heartfelt thanks to the teachers, the organizers, my fellow attendees…It really is aptly named “art bliss”