New Jewelry for the New Year!

So, I made these about a month ago but they were snatched up so quickly at open studio that I never got a chance to post them.  You may be wondering why I titled this post "New jewelry" then.  Well,  I thought I'd start the new year off writing about my plans for some new jewelry pieces that were inspired by these beauties!  And it would give me a chance to share photos of them, even thought they sold because I'm excited about how they came out.

A while back, I ordered a bunch of vintage glass stones and the vendor was kind enough to throw in some extra stones.  Of course I was inspired the most by the unexpected ones, like these textured blue glass stones.  My husband and I had a sketch night and if you look closely you'll see the sketch for these earrings along with a bunch of other ideas that I have yet to make in reality.

So, for 2016, I'll be incorporating more stones in my work, using some of the natural cabochon and vintage glass stones I've had kickin around for a while so get ready for some new one of a kind pieces to hit my shop soon!  I'm also going to be working with more cast pieces and copper, of course.  I got a fold forming book for christmas and a big sheet of copper that's just been waiting for me to make something out of it.  Before I end, one more photo of these earrings!  I'm really happy with how they came out.  It's been a while since I've done any stone setting but it's just like riding a bike!  As always, I used green earth, recycled, sterling silver for the majority of the design.

SCAD Road Trip Part 1

A couple weeks ago I hopped in the car with my friend and fellow artist/ teacher Shelley Osowiecki and we headed to Savannah, GA for an Educator Forum at the Savannah College of Art and Design.  We made a few stops along the way, did lots of sight seeing, learned some new techniques to use in our own artwork and in our teaching and generally had a blast!  I took about 300 photos, don't worry, I won't bore you with all of them but here are a few of the highlights......

Made it to the GW bridge in NY at dusk, beautiful time to see it!  We stopped for a little fun in DC the next morning.  We hit the Natural History Museum and the Hirshorn Museum of contemporary art.  Shelley was dying to have a butterfly land on her and this one was happy to oblige....

A quick stop at south of the border for a photo op with Pedro because Joe was convinced it was a cultural experience not to be missed, and then we were on our way to Savannah!  SCAD welcomed us with open arms and plenty of schwag!  It was like being a college student again, staying in the dorms for the week!

Shelley and I took different workshops and learned lots of new techniques to use in our own artwork and with our students.  I learned a little about 3D printing, how to use Cinema 4D and a Wanhao 3D printer along with some awesome printing techniques to use on ceramics.  I don't know why I didn't figure this out sooner!  Back to my printmaking roots I go!!!!  Very excited to try more of this now that I' home in my own studio! 

Love this old warehouse that SCAD turned into part of their campus.  One of my workshops was in this group of buildings.

And of course, there was plenty of site seeing..... We took a walking tour around savannah and got to see the oldest building there, lots of the squares filled with live oak trees (I'm a little obsessed with live oaks now) and monuments to all of the historical figures that had a hand in making Savannah what it is and learned a little about Savannah's history.  SCAD's welcome center and Poetter Gallery is on Bull Street with lovely views of one of the squares.  This photo with the church steeple is taken from one of the balconies there.

As strange as it sounds we had quite a few people recommend that we check out Bonaventure cemetery while we were there. I took a photography class in grad school and the professor had a rule....Absolutely NO photographs in cemeteries!  I don't know if even he would have been able to resist at Bonaventure. The combo of old, new and live oak trees with drippy spanish moss was too much to resist!  Side note... it was 100 degrees the day we were at Bonaventure with a heat index of 115 because of the humidity.  Thank god we were able to drive around and get out of the car only when we wanted to take pictures!

 Had to stop and visit little Gracie Watson.  We heard quite a few ghost stories while in Savannah and a couple of them were about her.

Might as well see what the nightlife is like, right?!  This is the view from the rooftop bar at the Bohemian, Rocks on the Roof.  Great place to have a drink and take in views of the bridge and the river.  One of many bars we visited during our stay, including a speakeasy. (Shhhh, I might share a photo of that one too.) 

That's all for now!  I'll post more in a couple days!

Anniversary Commission

 I love seeing the process of other artists and jewelers and I don't post much about my process because I tend to get so engrossed with what I'm doing that I don't stop to take pictures.  I did this time because it was a commission for a friend so I thought I'd share!  This was a special anniversary gift and he requested a set of either a necklace and earrings or a necklace and ring.  I was given some basic parameters, nantucket, the beach, baskets, a daisy and blue and green colors (along with a few others) to work with.  When I think color I go straight for stones and since the beach was on the list and I had these lovely paua shell stones in blue and green I went straight for those.  I did A LOT of sketching.  I only included a couple of the ones that led to the final design here because this post would be ridiculously long if I included every sketch.  I like making notes about my designs in my sketchbook as you can see.  So I experimented a bit with the idea of basket weave, waves, daisy petal shapes and I got a little crazy with wire designs. (photos not included)

At this point I was given some feedback to go with the daisy design, try to include the entire flower and get away from the blues and greens so, round 2 of sketches looked like this......

He decided to go with the necklace design in the bottom photo, bottom right as well as the single petal ring AND dangle earrings because he liked the designs of all of them and couldn't decide.  So, I got off to work......

 creating granulated daisy centers for the earrings and necklace. 

A stamped back with the words "HE LOVES ME!" and their anniversary date.  Ultimately this had a heart shape cut out in it as well.  The hole was functional but I always like to try to incorporate it into the design if I can.

I always try rings on while I'm working on them, even if they don't fit me well, just to check how they wear and look on.  I really like the concept behind this design, the single daisy petals acting as the symbol for the "he loves me, he loves me not" game.  Perfect for an anniversary.

And the final products...... A single petal ring with a few silver beads to tie it into the granulated detail of the earrings and necklace.

Summer Travels, Part 1

I've spent quite a bit of time traveling this summer and I'm just getting back to the studio so look for more posts about what I'm working on now....  In the meantime, I thought I'd share some photos from my travels!  If you have never been to Franconia Notch State Park in NH, GO!  The Flume Gorge is breathtaking, like a real live fern gully.  I was fascinated by the amount of moss and plant life growing up the rock faces and even trees growing on the tops of boulders, stretching their roots around to reach the ground.  It was probably one of the most inspirational hikes I've taken.  I took hundreds of photos there but here's just a few to give you the idea.....

After camping outside the park for a night, we headed farther north toward Canada and made a pit stop in Glover, VT to check out Bread and Puppet.  If you're a puppetry or performance art fan, it should be on your bucket list.  Unfortunately, they weren't doing a performance on the day we came through but we got to see a little bit of a rehearsal for the performances that are happening now and we check out the barn galleries full of all the puppets from past performances.  Based on the little bit of the rehearsal we saw, the performance looks like it'll be pretty cool.  Here's a few photos from Bread and Puppet to give you an idea of what the galleries are like.  That's Joe in the bottom one, it's hard to tell the scale of some of these puppets without a person in there for scale.  This is one of the coolest and creepiest places I've visited for looking at art.  The photos don't do it justice, it's definitely worth a stop if you're ever in the area.  Great recommendation from a great friend!  I will also pass on this little tid bit..... if you're in the area, stop at the general store in the center of town, you won't regret a walk around the store.  Where else can you see a taxidermy, buy fishing gear, toilet paper and have a sandwich made all in one place!!???

From here we drove up to Canada, but I'll save those photos for my next post!  

New earrings.

I've been working on a pair of silver and hammered copper earrings.  The design again inspired by the fiddlehead that appears so much in my work.  Here they are on the work bench in my studio.  They need some finishing touches but look for them soon on my etsy shop!

Sprout

It's been a while since I've posted any of my art work so I thought I'd start back up with this little guy.  I altered a blank Munny for a local Munny Madness exhibit a few months ago.  Since this is my most recent piece I thought I'd share him......
His name is Sprout.
He's a mini munny about 5" tall, 3" wide and 5" front to back including the wires.  I hammered a piece of copper for his belly and nose.  Sculpted additions are done with Super Sculpey and Apoxie and then I painted it with Acrylics and added the copper wire and flocking material.  If you love him, he's for sale on my etsy site, Onoclea Studios!  

Sketchbook Project Tour ooops!

Apparently I wrote this post a couple years ago but never posted it!  OOOPPS!  So.... here's a blast from the past.....
So, I've been working on a sketchbook that's going to go on tour starting at the end of January with books by 28834 other artists. The Brooklyn Art Library runs the Sketchbook Project and it tours the country so check it out if it comes to a city close to you, looks like it should be pretty cool. I chose the theme Jackets, Blankets and Sheets and decided to go with photo transfers and collage for the imagery. Some of the images are also drawn into.  It's a departure from the other work I've been doing recently but still very me with its textural qualities. Here's a little taste....

 Hoped you enjoyed the blast from the past.  If you haven't been to the Brooklyn Art Library, definitely check it out if you get a chance to, there are some pretty amazing treasures there and they've done a lot more of these sketchbook projects since I did mine, all different themes, very cool.