Retelling the tale… a new art journal class

December 8, 2023Leave a comment

Retelling the tale – aka Misunderstood women of Greek myth.

After a hiatus of a few months… months of hectic work, festival, training the energetic puppy, and the like… I am back! I realize how much I need my art journal practice, both in a casual format for my self, and my health, and also in a more structured practice, divine gift other inspirations that myths hold. I am energized and excited by the research – and how it inspired and informs my work – both in my journal and in the ceramics studio.

This class I wanted to focus on women. As we (my former students and I) are coming from a year of goddess focused inspiration and devotion; I wanted to turn to our sisters, our peers, from the Classical world. Women whose names we may know from the myths, from history, from the writings of men in the past. Women whose tales are multilayered, whose journeys are myriad. Women who deserve a deeper investigation into their stories, a retelling with a modern lens, reclaiming their herstories with a feminist filter in place.

Pandora. Medusa. Ariadne. Cassandra. Psyche.

Princess, prophetess, priestess, daughter, sister, lover, wife.

If you are new to my online art journal classes here is the structure and format. As well as information on the theme and my teaching style! (If you are a veteran – dates and details below.)

5 lessons – 10 weeks. Lessons are emailed on Mondays, twice a month – and include private video tutorials, and PDF’s of information, images, and inspiration. Your access to these videos does not expire!
There will be 2 Facebook live demos per month – for a chance to connect, have a Q& A session, see new techniques in progress. ( Recorded and posted in the FB group if you miss it)
Schedule – START DATE January 7th. First lesson Monday January 8th. Ending mid March.
Pricing: $65 – (that is only $6.50 a week – about the same as a fancy coffee!) Invoices will be emailed via PayPal, and can be paid via credit card.
Sign ups: Email me at Jen.davies.reazor@gmail.com to join! Let me know whether you prefer an invoice or would like to pay me directly via PP/Venmo. (Or PM me if we are connected on social media)

Questions:

Yes, this course is open to all ages, teen and up. ( There will be some light cursing and tough topics due to the subject matter. ie: assault, rape, war, slavery, torture… it’s all in the myths!)
Yes, this course welcomes all experience levels. No, you do NOT need to know how to draw. (See video)
Supplies list – whatever you have? More info given at sign up!
What if I miss a lesson? Pick up when you can, on current lesson. You can cycle back later on your time frame.
Facebook group is OPTIONAL as we all have different social media limits. But I can best support and provide feedback if/when images/pages are shared with me.

My YouTube channel has 2 years worth of weekly art journaling videos if you would like a sampling of my materials, style, etc. These aren’t lessons I am teaching per se, but my own play and explorations on the page.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions! I look forward to getting back to the page – and hope you will join me!

A few of my reference materials! Amidst the holiday decorations…

One step at a time….

September 1, 2022September 1, 20221 Comment

Hello! tap tap tap… is this thing on?

September 1st. I just never know what year it is anymore. Time is meaningless – yet it slips through my fingers. I just wanted to stop by – and say that I do have plans to rejuvenate this blog. With Social media becoming more and more advertised and polarized – I want to post on a place that is mine, and free from issues. I hope you will join me here.

I recently advertised my art journal classes on a friends podcast – Dawn Hunt/Cucina Aurora ” Conversational Witchcraft. If you are here because you followed her link thread – thank you and Welcome ! There will be a new limited edition art journaling video for you! Coming soon – it will be emailed to any new newsletter subscribers from now til Samhain!

I work in many materials and mediums – from clay to beads to gems to paper, and I invite you to stroll through my galleries of images. I exhibit at arts festivals and faerie festivals in the Mid Atlantic region. But its my art journaling classes that have really taken flight since 2020.

The special free sample lesson will be a video demonstration/tutorial and a resource packet – all themed with the goddess of the lesson. Stay tuned – and I thank you in advance for your patience!

Kwan Yin – from “Goddess Guides – a yearlong journey” art journaling class.

*Oak themed spread from my intro class – “Sparking Creativity”*

Fossils: the Art Elements reveal for November!

November 27, 20198 Comments

Welcome to the (slightly late) but inspired by ancient… fossils that is… Art Elements revel post! When Niky chose this theme I knew I had a plethora of choices by my talented team mates and Mother Nature herself…

And I chose something completely different. Ok Muse – I hear you!

On and off since this summer I have been working on new pieces embedding crystals into polymer pieces, creating a crystal terminal/point on the base of the piece:

The owl prototypes – they were extremely popular.

I have been planning more in this series, and sourcing amazing crystals – stay tuned for that. But this month an unlikely item caught my eye: a megalodon tooth. (wiki). I believe Lindsay sent me this as a gift?!

I knew I wanted to make a goddess figure – so I started the sculpt with her body in granite polymer. She has fine line striations to match the tooth’s texture. To adhere the two I sculpted a connection in Apoxie sculpt – and textured it as well. I am SO sorry I didn’t take a pix at that stage! Here she is done:

And with another fossil from my stash, I tried another style – embedding the fossil. ( Also granite polymer)

I am really pleased with how they turned out and look froward to more along this theme. I imaging them in shadowbox frames, with a felted beaded backdrop? Or handheld pieces for table or altar? Or both…. Excited for the new work the new year will bring.

But for now – wishing you a happy holiday weekend for the US crowd, and happy fall to everyone else –

OH – Dont forget to hop :

AE Team

Jenny ( you are here)

Guests

Revelry and magic; fire and ash

July 5, 2018Leave a comment

When Midsummer arrives, in flowers and greenery, Tatiana the Faerie Queen opens the Realm, for mortals to mingle with fae folk. (Yes, there are trolls, goblins, and mer folk as well.) This revelry takes place in New York state, in dappled sunlight and beside a flowing stream. Sounds idyllic? It is a magical place. This year was the 10th year, and although it was unseasonably hot – we had a lovely time!

For the first time – a few of us that are ceramic artist/potters/lovers of clay got permission to do a thing. Friday nights events include a large bonfire/drum circle. With fire spinners, and performers, and dance, and music – its a pretty amazing night. We got permission to place a little chamber of fire brick in the base of the fire!

Emma and I made small votive offerings and goddess figures, and we decided to bisque fire ours in advance. Although this means we were not relying not eh bonfire to actually FIRE our pieces, we were taking less risk of breakage. Our white stoneware pieces would still be pit-fired or smoke-fired and change color.

Friday evening we built the kiln chamber and filled it with organic matter all found in the immediate vicinity: twigs, pine cones, pine needles, leaves. They were not very dry. Pieces in teh firing ranged from green terra cotta, green stoneware and bisque stoneware as mentioned above. We also included some medallions made form clay from the property itself. These were pretty rough as the clay was very raw, with inclusions, etc.

Ye s- we are a motley crew. It IS a faerie festival! We had been vending all day in the heat, although it was to get much hotter…

Two bricks to cap the kiln and offer some protection from falling logs as the large fire was to burn for hours that night.

.Our host Billy Bardo opened the night with this:“If you are a dreamer come in
If you are a dreamer a wisher a liar
A hoper a pray-er a magic-bean-buyer
If you’re a pretender com sit by my fire
For we have some flax golden tales to spin
Come in! Come in!”

Saturday morning was already brutally hot – and here was our first look at our kiln! Still warm to the touch, but not smoldering.

Results: the nature raw clay did not fire, still crumbly… All the other clay bodies fired well. We had some areas in the bottom of our kiln that were not heavily reduced ( in oxygen/ reduction atmosphere) so there were color variation. Basically – when a piece IS in a reduction atmosphere, the fire steals the oxygen, and the piece absorbs carbon in the exchange. This results in the dark tones on the clay itself.

A beautiful palette of smoke fired colors and a few flashes of green!

This was am amazing opportunity. I have done many, many pit fired before: on the beach, with students, large, small, exciting, commonplace. But this was was magical. To have these pieces imbued with the spirit of community from Friday nights events, from this place, at this time? Wonderful!

We gave the pieces away. To the Fire crew, the land owners, the Queen, to the people who make this faire happen! And we hope to make this pit fire happen again next year!

If you are still reading, and want a little more – here is the video reveal of the opening. Silly, excited, irreverent, and un edited.

SaveSave

A year of Goddesses: part 2

January 11, 2017January 11, 20173 Comments

For the first half of the year – go to this original post.

It started out as challenge to myself. Inspired by artist/beader and now fellow Art Elements contributor Cathy Mendola. It turned out to be educational, inspiring, and very, very fulfilling. Here is the remainder of the 2016 beaded goddess tapestries:

December may be my favorite. Mandala and snowflake inspired shapes crown her head.

November – with a nod to Thanksgiving – rooted, holding wheat, recalling the harvest.

October brings Dia de Los Muertos. The color palette and designs inspired by sugar skulls and talavera tiles.

September/Virgo is my sign. I wanted her to reference the Zodiac a bit with the plenty/harvest that adorns the frame.

August – the ocean. Cresting waves, sandy neutrals.

July – the summer sky and a hint of swirling fireworks.

I am beginning work on a series for this year. While I had intended to take a smaller seasonal challenge this year – I had a great idea…. Stay tuned! Pictures coming!

Half a year of Goddesses?

June 8, 20163 Comments

I know June has just begun, but I am already finished my beaded goddess for this month. I am thrilled with the progress I am making. The design aspects flow more readily each month. I have abandoned symetry – which can be a challenge for me. And I have NOT hit a slump. If anything, the last 2 months went easier and faster… I know the blog has languished a bit, more htan a bit. There is a revamping in the works for this summer – thats all I’ll say for now.

So take a look at half a year of goddesses:

6 goddesses. Jan - June

The Goddess project – one month at a time

March 4, 20164 Comments

This year I have undertaken a project, a goddess project. Inspired by the fabulous bead artist Cathy Mendola, I am doing one seed beaded/bead embroidered piece a month incorporating a goddess cabochon. I met Cathy on Instagram!!! – she was doing a goddess project last year and used a few of my polymer goddess cabochons. We have talked and struck up an Internet friendship… and she has passed the torch of inspiration to me!

The time frame fits me well. I like to have something to bead on when I have a little late afternoon down time, with a cuppa tea. Or coffee. I do find bead embroidery to be very meditative. Over the course of the year I want to experiment with bead shapes, composition, movement… and plan to have a combination of wall hangings and pendants by year’s end. I hope to exhibit them next year.

So here is the beginning:

January goddess WIP

January – named for the Roman god Janus, whose 2 faces looked backwards and forwards in time… He’s often seen with a key… The key I used is a gorgeous lampwork key from Jennifer Cameron of Glass Addictons. It inspired the purple accent tones in the piece. I chose this goddess, and the spiraling composition because I was thinking of New Year’s Eve and fireworks. No specific goddess was on my mind, but a piece that was symbolic of the year’s beginning.

January Goddess

The completed January goddesses. She is wearing a crown of hematite stars. I havent decided yet how these will be mounted/displayed… but I have all year.

February – starts with the festival of Imbolc, marking the mid way point in winter. Associated with the Irish goddess Brigid, whose domain was fire. Fire in the head of inspiration, fire in the forge… I created this polymer goddess with the stylized fire in her belly specifically for this month. But I was reading “Brigid: Sun of womanhood” (published by Goddess Ink) and thinking on Brigid’s association with healing and water and holy wells… of the symbolism of the light of spring emerging from the dark of winter… and my plans were changed…

Brigid sketches

Brigid as “fiery arrow”, snowdrops, flames, water… so many sketches. But what else does one have to do at Jury duty?

February WIP

Brigid in progress showing the fires of inspiration… little polymer flames made for this piece.

February goddess

Finished! Thanks to Leap day as I needed a bit more time.

Here is some of my inspiration from Cathy – who I will be interviewing over at Art Jewelry Elements blog on April 8th! Stay tuned!

Cathdola montage

And yes – the 2 goddesses on the left are polymer cabochons I sculpted. While I look to possibly showing this series next year – I am also doing it as pure pleasure. The beads, the colors, the textures… and revisiting Cathy’s pieces I am drawn into the enticing movement in pieces and the composition. I want to play with symetry and asymetry. I want to push my color sensibilities out of the comfort zone. I look forward to a year of exploration and challenges!

Find Cathy on Facebook: – www.facebook.com/CathySMendolaJewelryandFiberArt/

Her blog is www.cmendola.blogspot.com

Instagram as cathdola

Beading Back in Time – Blog Hop Reveal

April 28, 20151 Comment

(If you are looking for the Art Jewelry Elements April COM follow this link. Thanks! )

Beading Back in Time! Time to find the Tardis key, walk through a certain circle of stones, or fuel up the DeLorean…

This quarter we are inspired by ancient history, “Early Human” which for the intents and purposes here will be prior to 3500 BCE. Now this time period resonates with me… I hve been drawn to the carved stone goddess figures since childhood. If you want to get really careful with dating and art history this period is even before the famous cave paintings of Lascaux! So I thought for sure it would be goddesses that inspired this challenge!

ancient goddesses

1. Venus of Willendorf 2. Venus of Brassempouy 3. Venus of Laussel

Goddess work collage

My goddess tiles, and small sculptures.

Goddess amulet planning

So I set aside a small simple stoneware goddess. She is bare clay, fired to ^10 reduction with a wash of iron oxide to give her a patina. Iron oxide is a naturally occurring pigment, just rust actuallly, and it was used to color stone and cave paintings of this era. I tried her with honey tones, with rugged chunks of labradorite, with craggy rough turquoise. And I havent made a decision yet. I have an existing piece ( shown bottom left above) where I paired a stoneware goddess with Roman glass, geode slices, bronze ammonites… and I wanted to do something different. We’ll see what I finally decide on. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Here is what I did end up with as my “Early Human” offering:

Tab set in copper, this Marsha Neal cabochon is a dark clay body with a white “crusty” glaze. This already felt right, but its a spiral – an ancient motif that can embody change, journey, progression, life, cycles, it was perfect. I was drawn to use other ancient materials – a hollow shell that is reminiscent of bone, and a chunk of amber. Both bone and amber were used as adornments since… forever.

Early Human amulet

I wasn’t sure I would have time to complete the necklace parts, but the Muse ( and the clock! ) cooperated:

Seed pods and chunky howlite connect the copper chain to the sari silk. Although rawhide would have been more historically accurate, the silk was the right fit aesthetically.

Final version!

I love the pieces together, the spiral and the amber really sing to me. Please join us in this time travel inspiration, to our early human roots!

All the participants links can be found at Sherri’s blog OR Lindsay’s blog.

Thanks for joining us!

Runic Goddess – the September Component of the Month reveal

September 29, 201415 Comments

September. I miss you. <sigh>

September Component of the Month is brought to you by Kristi Bowman of Dream Some Design. The colors in this amulet are WOW! It is white copper, I believe, and the style says primitive talisman to me… I wanted to bring out the subtle tones of peach/honey and aqua. Not my usual palette so I am happy for the challenge!

Runic Goddess

The linear and dot motifs helped guide me. I wanted to play up the linear quality, and decided to incorporate the wrapped chain links. They are copper and nickel parawire tumbled to a shiny finish. ( Thanks to Lesley for inspiration on these links.) The gems – jaspers and agates – repeat the dot/round motif nicely.

Runic Goddess Sept CoM

I wanted to give the piece another layer of meaning and keep in the primitive style. ( I mean that in the best way, naturally). I decided to stamp runes into copper discs and intersperse them with the gems. (The runes are linear in nature as they were originally carved in stone. This makes them easy enough to stamp with letter stamps… no curves needed. )

rune detail

rune chart

“Jera” – Harvest: beneficial outcomes to your commited endeavor. Reap what you have sown.

“Dagaz” – Breakthrough: Self transformation, change.

“Sowelu” – Wholeness: the path you must follow; the core of your individuality.

I liked the meanings here. I thought that made for a powerful sentiment, a personal talisman. I would love to hear your thoughts as well…

And dont miss the other pieces designed by my fellow Art Jewelry Elements team mates and this month’s guests!

April Component of the Month! Headpins…

April 29, 201318 Comments

(If you are looking for the “Inspired by Reading” post and creative reveal – please click here. )

I love it when a plan comes together. I received these simply gorgeous glass headpins from the hands of Jen Cameron for this month’s Component of the Month at Art Jewelry Elements. But I was out of town. I got home with 36 hours until the reveal… and I was tired and had mounds of laundry to do… When I sat down this afternoon I was thrilled to make it work – and I am pleased with the results.

The headpins made me think of water. Not only the color, but the spiral and the tiny bubbles… I have been working on and off lately on a series of Goddess necklaces. This color and the element of water made me think of Yemanja. She is the Yoruba orisha, or diety of water, childbirth, the essence of the ocean. She was and is revered in many Afro-American regions, from Brazil to the Caribbean. (My Yemanja figure, shown on my “water” shelf with Sulis from Bath, is from New Orleans. ) Over time, Yemanja was seen to share many characteristics with the Virgin Mary: protectress of women and children, robed in blue, Mother of all… Mary is also known as Stella Maris/Star of the Sea thus linking her with the ocean as well.

So I started browsing the stash… and started with a piece of sea glass. Here is a little “photo essay” of the selection process:

After that – the Parawire and the seashell were kept in the mix, along with copper links. I found the color blue more vibrant than the gems in my stash, and turned to Czech glass and crystal to satisfy my palette. The copper links are stamped “etoile” and “de la mer” to reference Yemanja/Stella Maris/Mary.