KEEP WORKING AT IT

I missed you last week!  I just had too many ‘irons in the fire’ and did not get my blog completed for last week.  My apologies.  Life does get in the way, but it can’t keep us from moving forward on those things we put on our priority lists!  Just remember to keep putting one foot in front of the other and before we know it, progress!

This little quote from Thomas Edison made me smile, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work”.  There is quite a bit of truth in this little sentence.  When you have completed what you set out to do and look back at how far you have come, it feels good and motivates you to keep going.  Rarely was it not worth the effort put forth.  Stay focused on your goals, put forth your best work and don’t forget to grab those opportunities when they pop up.

Last week I did complete the 3 wind chimes for my favorite gallery in Lowell, MI, Glass House Designs.  It was definitely a tough week for them, as the river flooded Main Street with all the rains last week.  The shops on Main Street luckily had forewarning that the flood waters were coming their way, so they could prepare with sand bags and moving store inventory and supplies so they were not damaged.  The determined business owner that Susan is, she had her shop up and running on Tuesday this week.  She certainly did not do that without determination and hard work!  I continue to be inspired by her strength and generosity. 

My favorite of the 3...

 My new business cards are in my ‘hot little hands’.  I do love my local printer, Cascade Printing.  They not only did a great job on the cards, they were extremely patient as I worked through a few iterations narrowing in on the final design.  I felt it was important that I created the design (why leave the fun part to someone else?) since it represented my creative spirit.  If you are not adept at creating on the computer you can always provide the images you want and lay it out by hand so they are clear on your direction.  It is good to get in and “get your hand dirty” so the card you create (as with any artistic piece you do) has you “written all over it”! Cascade Printing was able to take my electronic designs and provide guidance on what cutting tolerances they needed.  They also helped me with a few Adobe tips on the layout.  They are my ‘go to’ team for print work.  If you are in the Grand Rapids area, I would highly recommend them.

I am still working through the etsy website which is my last web page for the new 2dogsglass website.  I am hopeful that I will be able to get it completed this weekend.  So very close.

Kentucky bound next week!  I am excited about my trip to Kentucky.  Ever since I was a child, this has been my favorite state to visit.  The rock, rolling hills and open spaces are inspiring.  Last year we stopped along the side of the road, because this young horse was just too beautiful not to stop on our last day and say hello!  He was very excited and ‘danced’ in his coral for us.  My mother-in-law, Nancy, and I are headed there again this year for a weekend art retreat.  It will be a long weekend to refresh our artistic spirits.  A full day absorbing the art in Berea, KY followed by 2 days of creating mixed media books.  I just can’t wait to get there! :-)

hope our beautiful friend is there again this year!

We were assigned homework before the class even started.  Artist trading cards (ATCs).  These are the first ones I have ever made and it turned out that my design took me far longer than I had planned.  But I had fun creating these little cards.  I decided to do the napkin collage process on actual playing cards (upcycling) and then embellish them.  I did make extras to be able to experiment a bit with the various steps.  I am going to really enjoy seeing what everyone in the class created and will have my first set of cards to start collecting ATCs. 

quite a difference a few napkins can make!

I will be sure to share with you our fun-filled art weekend in KY!

DON'T FORGET TO PLAY IN THE SANDBOX!

background is a tag made with the napkin collage process

Pablo Picasso sure hit the target with this one.  I love this saying, "You don't make art, you find it", by Pablo Picasso.  This week in my studio I decided to make 2 long plates.  I stood there for a few moments admiring my glass (yes, I admit to my little addiction, I do love the colors and shine of glass) trying to determine just how best to put it together, letting the glass play out on my work space.  Those creations that I do not force, turn out far better than when I push myself to make something very specific.  I think it is because I am letting my mind create as I go, rather than re-creating something.

I am a big believer of repetition to learn a skill, but then “let it soar!”  When I take an art class, I go back to my studio and make more of them, until it becomes automatic and I understand how it works.  I can’t tell you how many glass kaleidoscopes, patterned stained glass projects, tatted butterflies and flowers, as well as jewelry techniques I have done when I learned something new.  Besides, it is something new!  And that is so much fun to keep doing!!!!  Many times I go back to these projects to refresh.   But what I love is to just “freeform” my work and see where it goes.

When I get a nature inspired design in my head, out comes the paper and colored pencils and I look at photos to see the character of the item and sketch, sketch, sketch until I feel that I have the general direction of what I will do and what colors I would like to work with.  This part is almost as fun as cutting and stacking glass for the final piece.  With freeform projects that don’t need to look like a flower (smirk), like this week, I stand and stare at my glass selection, lay pieces out and see what looks like it belongs.  This time I kept the plates clean and simple.  Don’t get me wrong, they don’t all turn out, but even if they “don’t make the cut” I did learn something that will improve the next attempt.

one of the plates ready to come out of the kiln

With my other favorite art forms, freeform peyote, bead embroidery and what I call my “half and half” bracelets are where I tend to gravitate when I am creating jewelry pieces.  With the mixed media scrapbooks, I enjoy a mix of materials to create those special books and pages.  I think this process helps us create something that speaks from our hearts or a way to include a little part of ourselves as our art piece takes form.

If you have not done this with your art of choice, I highly recommend it.  The good news is… you can’t get it wrong, because there is no pattern to follow.  The great news is… you will have fun playing!  When was the last time you had the time to “play”?  Then it is about time.  They say many of us lose our creativity as we get older, so it is probably about time we stepped back in the sandbox.

There is a good lesson to keep in mind during this process.  It is unrealistic to expect every piece to be at a level you would put your name on it.  That is perfectly OK.  I know many times I found this disappointing, I still do.  But what we can all agree is that there is something to learn from each piece that improves our work.  And, as it was pointed out to me many years ago, what we do is handmade, not manufactured, so we need to accept those little telltale signs that show it was indeed handmade. =-)

Have fun in your sandbox!

IT'S A SCRAMBLE

Remember in my earlier post when I said we were getting out there and catching the rest up as quickly as we could after?  Well, I am in that “scramble mode”.  This week I am focused on getting more glass items completed, working on a new business card, and updating my website.  The wonderful part of this is that each of these is a creative undertaking.  The downside is that working on these is WAY more fun than all those ‘other things’ I need to be doing this week.  

I am making small steps forward, even with much of last week focused on getting my taxes to our poor tax accountant.  Connecting Creatively now has a Facebook page, www.facebook.com/ConnectingCreatively, which will hopefully be a wonderful interactive tool to share creative insight and projects.  I would love to see what you are working on, so please feel free to ‘like’ the page and post your projects!  I am working through the logo design for Connecting Creatively and I am very close on finalizing it.  Hopefully you will see it next week.

I made the decision this week to keep 2dogs glass for my glass pieces as well as jewelry and mixed media books.  I struggled with the word glass, but this identity was started a few years ago when I started selling work at Glass HouseDesigns.  I considered 2dogsart and 2dogs, which would be OK deviations, but the domains were not available.  I always check domain availability BEFORE I select a name for something.  It will be fun to look for creative ways to add that special piece of glass to each project.  Jewelry is easy with beads, but mixed media books could be quite interesting and fun!

The business card design is underway.  My goal is to complete the design this weekend.  There is still time this week to complete a few of these tasks before the weekend is over…. Always think positive!

Yesterday was a good day.  I spent over 4 hours in my glass studio creating 2 more wind chimes, this time for Glass House Designs, followed by a few hours working up a napkin collage project for a class in May.  A few weeks ago Jane and I headed to Columbus, OH for a scrapbooking expo.  While there, I took a class from Joe Rotella for napkin collage.  He was a wonderful instructor and it was quite an inspiring class.  There are so many substrates I will be using this art form on.  I am sure this adorable little bird will inspire others towards this new little addiction of mine (I will never look at napkins the same way again!).  It is always fun to have others addicted with you.  Looking forward to my first official art class, as the instructor.

Looks like tomorrow will be another glass day.  Yea!.  Unfortunately, one of my wind chimes did not make the cut today when I opened the kiln.  That is one of the challenges with fused glass; it takes a day before you can see your work and today was that day.  If I want to complete 3 wind chimes this weekend for my favorite art gallery, I need to keep up the pace.  Glass, glass, glass… tomorrow will be another good day!