Tag: necklace

A dream-y collaboration…

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Last December I received notification for a show called TWOgether, a collaborative exhibit. Held at the Center for Creative Arts in Yorklyn, DE – the call was for a pair of works by 2 artists. I immediately thought of Betsy, my partner in crime, and many artistic undertakings. (We have had multiple exhibits of our show Imago Dea – envisioning the feminine divine.) So we sat at her kitchen table after the holidays and brainstormed. Until now we have always exhibited collages. Betsy’s are digital, using her photographs among myriad other items, textures, locations… She exhibits them as stunning giclee prints. Mine are paper, fabric, glue, paint… more traditional style collages. This time I wanted to do a mixed media piece, bring to life ideas I had been sketching. And I had to deal with surgery and recovery. So I sketched this to show her my basic assemblage idea…

working sketch

(The moon was to illustrate that some image would be framed by the vintage Mother-of-pearl buckle…. Thats were we left it. For Betsy to take the threads of an idea, and a handful of found objects I presented to her as my potential materials. And run with it. And run she did!

Betsy's "Oceana"

Ooh – the textures, nacre of shell, ripples of water, sand… The colors. That ammonite – which she scanned from my original. Oh! This is going to be good. 

filigree links

Sterling and copper links echo the sea foam shapes. The sterling is actually the positive and negative of the same curl. 

WIP dreams

River rock and enameled copper for color. The same ammonite – tab set in copper. And putting it all TWOgether…

Detritus of dreams

Words from her poem (included in the print) under mica, framed by the MOP buckle. The layers are micro-bolted, and riveted. 

dreams detail

I couldnt be more pleased with how it came out! The show is opening tomorrow, with a reception on Friday the 10th from 6-8pm. If you are in the area, please stop by! It will be on exhibit until the 24th. 

 

 

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!

 

Harmony: enamel shadowbox reveal…

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Good Morning! Welcome to the Enamel Shadowbox bezel and blog hop! Here in Delaware – it has been a busy few days as we are preparing for Irene…So join me for a cup of coffee, thats what I am having – and enjoy!

The Hop takes place thanks to Lorelei and C-Koop beads; Lorelei posted this contect/challenge on her blog and I was thrilled to be one of the finalists. For truly I felt like I had won the prize! The enameled pendants, bezels actually are created by Sara of C-Koop Beads. I enamel small components, and fell in love with these immediately! Here is the one I recieved: 

empty bezel

Gorgoeus shades of maroon, wine, and gold. The problem: I dont want to cover all of that up! I want to use resin – I create a series of resin penndats, incorporating word and image. The word is usually found text rom 200+year old books. I usually incorporate text in my pieces. Perhaps polymer? I had recently taken a class with the zany Christie Friesen – an was open to polymer’s potential. 

moth vs lantern

The bezel reminded me of origami paper, with its patterns of gold. From Japanese paper – to lanterns; the lantern was the first idea. I actually prefered the luna moth more myself – as it is a symbol of transformation… but in the end the lantern fit better, and preserved the gold pattering on the bezel. These pieces are sculpted from polymer, accented with mica powders, baked, and set in with caulk (my prefered glue). Seed beads were also added to create the blossoms and lantern base. The Chinese character for “Harmony” was written in with Sharpie, lo tech, but effective!

designing

This was the picture as it all came together. I knew I wanted to use my chunky copper chain, and I knew flowers. I wanted the chain to be more elaborate, and decided to run a strand of seed beads through it for visual interest, and color. The color that worked best picked up the light tones on the lantern, not the wine colors as I had imagined. I needed a word. To define the Chinese character on the lantern, and to tie it all together. Harmony. (That is what the lantern says, BTW). So I am stamping that onto copper…

finished pendant

The finished pendant before resin. 

detail

Detail of the chain, three wine color pearls visually balance the stamped copper. 

finished piece

There it is. App. 18″ of mixed media magic. I am pleased with how it came out… Oh right! Resin…

with resin

This morning’s update: resin cured. (Little seepage on the back to be sanded.) I hope you liked that journey through my thought process. I cannot wait to see what the others have done! So go – see those blogs! And please, let me know what you think!

 

Enjoy hopping through these participating blogs!
11. Grubbi
12. Jenny Davies- Reazor (you are here. And I thank you for visiting!)

13. Beth of Elizabeth Williams

 

Amulet from Amanda…

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Amanda Davie – that is. 

Before Christmas I was doing my usual coffee drinking, blog reading and posting routine – and I left a comment on Amanda Davie’s blog. Now I had followed her work for a while – innovative mixed media pieces, unique bezels with resin, often incorporating vintage text, a sense of the sacred, a reverance for the natural world… These are things I am drawn to, and recognized a kindred spirit in her work. She is a artist/mother/blogger/creative soul in Wisconsin. 

How thrilled was I to win the giveaway!?! And recieve a gift certificate to her shop? Ha! I am going to treat myself! So I window shopped, and browsed, and was tempted… and didnt commit. To many things I liked. I went back – they were gone… But thats ok. I found an even better piece. A talisman for the new year. An amulet for myself. ( Enough already, show them a picture…)

The packaging. Gorgeous. What attention to detail!

Davie package

Inside – what? More gorgeous-ness! A bonus! Hand made treasure pouch withe silk ribbon and sea glass button. You are too much, Amanda!

Davie pouch

Butterflies inside? Now its getting too serendipitous. My favorite symbol – the embodiment of transformation, a sylph of grace and beauty…

pouch interior

And the necklace itself…

The necklace A. Davie

The pendant is a cluster of charms, first and foremost a small brass screw-top vial. A charm of Inanna, a turquoise wand… My plan is to put a message to myself in the vial. A message for the year. Not goals per se, but an affirmation, a reminder, a few powerful words… And as I have “written” it, so it shall come to be. I am still thinking this over, knowing that the right words will come at the right time. 

necklace detail   

Gemstones – pearls, coral, turquoise, wood, hand crafted bronze charms. A plethora. A delight to the senses – touch, sight, sound…

necklace detail2

Thank you Amanda! Thank you so much!

 

In our emails back and forth we have begun a fledgling blogging friendship – and I sent Amanda some of my ceramic pendants. I can’t wait to hear and see how she puts them to good use. Its nice to make a connection across the miles with a kindred creative spirit. Shame we are to far apart to meet for a coffee…