Published today; go see!

http://watchmecreate.com/?p=5298

After two solid weeks of slaving for the wage, having my website down, and realizing my pictures of my sold work aren’t that great (GRRrrr…); I managed to write a post for Watch me create team blog. I’ll let you know when that’s up!

Chakra decals are hitting the cyber space glass Lampwork market this month! In more places than one! My website, and my Etsy shop

New! WRAPAROUND DECALS!! They wrap around your bead!!

People boogie-in’ down are available in a Unique 1″ x 3″ package (And! The price includes instructions!). Music notes are a fun addition to this group of soul gestures. Imagine how nice this strip of decals wraps around this bead.  I just fired that one this past week. I’ll have to show you the pictures of the final thing….Yep! You guessed it; Later in time…

Not so easy keeping up with the selling. Not enough time in a day to get out in cyber space. We do the best we can.  (“We” …ha!)

Oh! One more thing. You might bump into a little story about these decals later this week. I’ll keep you posted!

An "odalisque" 2006

What if I were to interupt the normal flow of things a little bit. When I was writing my second post on the holy grail for Watch me create this was the first result.

I am letting an inner personal perspective shine….read with caution;

This is a touchy subject. We are talking about deep secrets.  Do we tell people how we do the things we do? Or, do we keep it a secret? Do we reveal technique?

I am addicted to celebrating the passion in art. As soon as I learn something, I see another Artist’s work, and I see how they could benefit from a technique, or medium.  We only get to be here and see it for so long. The more; the MORE! More is good.

On with the story to the grail…

From 1991-1994 (Fall) my emphasis with art was painting. I was a landscape painter. I lived up North and studied the landscape, and painted when I was not working. The Professor in painting at my University and I did not seam to get along, and that is really why I went into sculpture. I did have good print making Instructors, but I knew the digital world would take that over some day.  (And, now with my decals; there is some irony to that thought.) Now, for all I know, that Painting Professor may have known that painting was wrong for me, and sculpture is where I should be, and he just had a funny way of expressing that? One can only speculate.  He intimidated me.  The move to sculpture was a little bit of a head game. It was still dominated by men, and I was reminded of that often.

Ceramics turned my head another direction. I could feel the art in my hands. It was a magical discovery. Sculpting the images I would draw before came natural to me. I still had the same inspirations, and now I could create little environments for a sculpture, and the art became a part of life.

Studying ceramics was about studying mediums with different viscosity, and malliability.  How to best control the medium in a number of ways.  Knowing that I could take the raw elements and make art with them, was really neat to me.  Science becomes a part of the creation process in the Clay workers world.  Mixing clay bodies, and glazes is an incredible discovery.  Being able to know what metals mix what colors, at what temperature;  controlling the elements with heat, and flame. We begin to understand all of these chemical reactions.

Creating for the sake of celebrating something I am passionate about. That is why I was there in Art school.   So, am I practical? Can I earn the living?  I needed to find inspiration in some kind of product line to keep the overhead covered.

Brain stormed that thought for too many years…;

Today I am working with glass.  I have saved all of my images of my glass beads in a digital format. Filed them by the month for the last 2-1/2 years. I had thoughts of creating posters, and making two dimensional art with the images.  I played around in photoshop and manipulated photographs. Cropping my people from my beads has been a side job commitment.  Using what I got!

grail?

My old Ceramics Instructor developed a technically advanced enamel decal process in the early 2000’s. I was fascinated with the process. I just couldn’t afford it. I held onto the idea and kept collecting imagery from my art. I Finally started The enamel tests in Winter 2008.   The process with lampwork glass works! I can now fuse my images to the surface of the glass.

Another wonderful thing, I found my potential product line.  I can sell my images for a reasonable price, and boogie down beads could be done up to its full potential. I think bead makers out there could make some rockin’ bead designs with my decals.

I feel like I found a way to use the images I create in a practical way.  Not much of my art had a practicle purpose before beads, and now decals!   I am super inspired to create them! Glass enamel decals have been used for hundreds of years. It was a secret for a long time in the glass world in Sweeden (1700’s).  The furnace glass workers were fusing decal enamel to the outside of the vases, and sculpture they made. using the enamel images they were able to create very detailed surface imagery that would be a secret glass technique.  I was so inspired to hear what they named this process; “the holy grail!”

I learned that AFTER I figured it out in the flame….; it came to me personally; a holy grail of inspiration.

My site administration has notified me of issues. My website will not be accessible until they resolve this.

sorry for the inconvenience!

Yep! I had a post published on the 26th at Watch me create team blog. I forgot to tell you about it cuz, I went up North to take a break from my house for a little while. And that was nice. 

I am about to begin 2 weeks of solid work every day! It was nice to take a few days away from all of that, and now I have a gazillion things to do.

This boro sculpture will be with me at my next shows. This is demonstrating how the different color decals come out on borosillicate white glass.

Happy Birthday!! Sunday, September 27th, was Colin May’s Birthday. (VERY cute boy friend in 1992)  Happy Birthday! So glad you were born!

So fun to see what people make with my beads.  The bead inspires an idea, and to see people finish that off is so super cool to me.

 I was excited to see that one of my faces was named by another Artist.  “Wanda” is at Fitzherbert’s shop at Etsy.  She gets to hang with some jasper beads in a beautiful neck piece. I am honored to have created her.

She was sculpted a couple years ago in the flame, and sold at my Etsy shop. FOR the sake of Art! She became a finished piece.

Art and BEAD SHOWS COMING UP IN MICHIAGN!

Saturday, October 10 in Grand Rapids, Mi 

Oct 11, 2009 Southfield, Mi. Bead Bonanza 

I will be at both shows!! Come say, HI!!

New post at the team blog…all about those decals. An amazing medium.

This is a small 3-1/4″ tall soft glass sculpture.  The decals can be place on the curves, and I think I am coming up with some ways to get them on textures too. In time…

<—-Soft glass, sculpted in a flame, COE 104, “Chakra Goddess” 8-2009

These decals are not just pigments on paper. This is pigment coated with a binding agent. Not only does the binding agent hold the pigment together. The binding agent has special glue in it that helps the decal fit the form like skin. Totally cool!

Well, I learned by accident that I can turn the glue into frost. Looks like an etched surface.

Pretty wild!

Ofcourse, that is how it is with this borosilicate glass rainbow bead. (The soft glass I usually work with absorbs the pigment, and burns off the glue before I have a chance to grap it out of the kiln for its dance with the flame.)

This 2nd bead is clear borosilicate with some more soul gesture decals. (Decal images derived  from past pieces I have sculpted.)   I can burn off that glue, so that I do not get frost too!   The pigments want to be slightly raised, and matte on the borosilicate, with pixels within, creating some shimmer.The magnification of the borosilicate glass is such a mystery. Some of the imagery from the opposite side is larger only because you are looking at it through the glass.

The blues are holding up well with the boro. 

Click here to go to the knew post about the decals…

(Yes! On Borosilicate glass…keep it slow; don’t burn up those oxides…..WOWZA!)

Oh ya! Magnified, and surreal; borosilicate with fused “melded” enamel…..such an awesome medium!

Enamel decals…

Tell you more when I get back from a much needed vacation. Houghton lake (67 and clear this Wednesday night!); here I come!