HappyDayArt!

Am I the only one

who is being lazy and hibernating? It is so cold here in California where I live. There was frost on the lid of the hot tub last night and no one wants to be the first one up in the morning to turn on the heater. Today we got out of bed around 11 am. My kids have been thrilled for the last 3 days laying around in their pajamas till after noon. Yesterday they didn’t even get out of them and you never saw them so happy. I figure tonight if no one makes me mad I’ll let them stay up till midnight and then I guess I’ll have to start making them go to bed and getting up earlier just so we don’t sleep through the alarm when Monday comes and they have to go back to school. That alarm rings at 6:30. I don’t like it but it is necessary. School starts at 8 and the traffic to the high school is nasty. Whatever! We still have a few lazy days of movies and popcorn and bleary-eyed gaming left.

I’ve been working on my ATC’s for the Artfest ATC Fatbook. Here they all are ready to ship out. The eyes of the birds are tiny 1mm rhinestones.

It was really sunny on the 23rd of December and so I took this picture of a canvas I made for one of my best friends, out in my yard. I used a color photo of her daughters from her yearly Christmas card, switched it to black and white in photoshop and made this collage a la ‘claudine hellmuth’.

This friend of mine is the one who always leaves me flowers on May Day. I think I’ve gotten her back now for all the nice things she’s done for me.

When I came inside I had to take this one of the play of light and shadow on my kitchen ceiling.

It is so intriguing to me and I have many ideas of how to use this in the future. I’m thinking it would be a good brush/overlay in photoshop. As soon as I can figure out how to do that. Can anyone explain it to me?

I made a bunch more earrings just in case anyone came through my front door that I hadn’t planned on. I was ready with little boxes and big ribbons.

One of my favorite memories of Christmas when I was a little girl was of the chocolates my mom and dad hung on our tree. So every year since my kids were old enough to take them off the tree, I have covered it with little chocolates. This year was no exception. I found a container at Cost Plus with the best swiss chocolate in playing card packaging.

We had more than 60 and I would put out about 15 a day and on Christmas all the rest so anyone could have one. I had to do it that way because I live with chocolate maniacs. If all of the chocolates were on the tree they would have been eaten in 2 days. This way I stretched it out for about 5. Yep, they were all gone by the day after, the 26th and on that day there were only 2 still on.

Here is what I am working on now:

This is a 3 part mold I have carved in polymer clay. I am using it to make a PMC focal piece. The biggest (about 2 1/4 inches wide) will be the base and the next size down will be the second layer. Then the third one will sit on top. Now picture them all 3 layers one on top of the other made of thin layers of silver and all one piece. It will be a 3D flower for a bracelet and/or a pendant.

And a few more:

another flower and a hand drawn butterfly

and here is one that is the opposite of the rubber stamp that made it

I want to try something with the positive/negative play of the rubber stamp and the carved mold. I’ll show you when it’s done in silver.

Well, I’m going to go watch “Seinfeld”. My husband got the complete series as a gift. We are on Season 2, and there are 9 in all, 32 discs. We are on disc 2. I don’t know if we will watch it until midnight. I have a movie too.

Love to all of you in 2008! I’m really glad you came by in 2007. My blog is 2 years old today. You made my life a lot fuller and I look forward to hearing from you next year.

I've been signing all my emails this week,

Happy New Year!

Catherine Whoisgearingupforsomeseriousartmakingin2008!

Isn't it beautiful?

Paris 12/21/07 around 8:28 am

Go see what it looks like NOW.

and this time lapse too.

An exciting new development in my life.

You may remember in my December 1st post I wrote about

8 things to do before I die:

one of them was

“be part of a group of artists who have a show each year together”

Well, I got my wish. YES, already! (that was two and a half weeks)
And this fills the bill perfectly.

I’ve been invited by my friend Leighanna Light to participate in a new project called “Project 8”. Eight artists are each going to create an 8x8 work of art every month for eight months. I’m really excited to be one of the artists in this group and I hope you will join us in our new endeavor and tell us all what you think along the way. At the end we will have a show together. I don’t know where yet, but it is the journey that matters to me right now. I have the responsibility of choosing the theme for the first month, January. So go on over there and see it.

I’m nervous too. The other artists are sooo cool! I am screaming inside with happiness!

But hey, this is still MY blog, so don't anyone go away just yet. I was just getting used to you!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, eat lots of comfort food and see you on my next post right here.

Hearts - I love them!

I met Carol Rose Parker online through her blog. She is a sweet, funny and interesting lady who lives in Pittsburgh, PA. She is very much into history and takes part in re-enactments of historical events with real life props. She is an accomplished seamstress and makes and restores many of the costumes the participants wear during these re-enactments.

Please visit her etsy shop called "Sophie the Pearl". She has a couple of things in there that are sweet stuffies and asked me to send people her way. She needs to pay for her "history habit".

Finished

Heart bead from post of November 15th.
Chain from post of November 10th.

Front

Flip side

Close-up of pendant bead filled with red resin that has a slightly metallic sheen.

and then some party earrings for my girlfriends for Christmas

pale blue green glass bead with a pacific opal swarovski fire ball

small yellow pearls with yellow citrine drops

... because a girl can never have enough earrings!

Ooooooh...

www.zefrank.com/snowflake

Something new I discovered

when I went over to Kim Carney's blog today. zefrank has a beautiful gizmo called snowflake. Here are two snowflakes I made. I think I am going to use them as a gift cards for my packages this Christmas.

Also Kim has posted pictures of her house while she is decorating for Christmas. TWO tall trees and branches suspended over her dining room table. IT.IS.GORGEOUS!

Look what I found!

This book we have all been waiting for can be pre-ordered on Amazon right now! I don't know who all is in there yet. I have to wait till I get my copy, but I do know Julie Molina and I are in there! We are both so excited. Dawn is a friend I met in person at Artfest last year after we met online reading each other's blogs. She is clever, and hardworking. What a great job she has.

And here is another book you can pre-order with it. L.K. Ludwig's new one. I just did. No, I have nothing in that one. L.K. Ludwig is a very creative woman I became aware of when I attended Artfest a few years ago. Because of her and reading about her life and art I began my blog almost 2 years ago. I am a big fan of her work and want this book to sell a million copies! Both books come out in July 2008.

When I show my kids these two books, I feel I can tell them in all honesty. "You can be what you want to be and do what YOU want to do with your life."

(...and "it's fun to see your work in print")

I love to read but sometimes I don't have time.

I am so dialed into my favorite blogs. There was a time no one ever heard a peep out of me but now I must comment, love reading comments other people have made on other people's blogs (see I get to eavesdrop and comment on other comments too). Crazy I know, but I like to get involved sometimes.

I signed up for Bloglines around the time that I was spending about 3-4 hours on the computer surfing around seeing if anyone had updated. It has made my life SO much easier and I get to do other things too now.

I found a new blog I am nuts about. It is called "Confessions of a Pioneer Woman". I am certainly nothing like her, and so I get to live vicariously the life of a wife and mother who lives on a ranch (I don't exactly know where yet). She is a talented photographer. She loves to cook (see, not like me at all) and photographs her recipes in steps. And she is a hilariously good writer. She is writing a story in installments called "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels: A Love Story". I am hooked!

IMPORTANT NOTE about my last post.

regarding firing PMC in vermiculite

My friend Lisa Myers Bulmash says (she's really smart): "If it's what I'm thinking of, vermiculite is a type of asbestos that used to be mined in Libby, MT for insulation and garden drainage purposes. However, it has nasty little barbs that really do a number on your lungs (about 200 people have died from mesothelioma, a kind of lung scarring caused by asbestos. Many of the people diagnosed with it never worked at the mine, just lived in the town). Of course, breathing in asbestos is not a good idea under the best of circumstances, but this stuff is really nasty.

I know this because a few years ago, I interviewed people in Libby and in Spokane, WA who worked for WR Grace, the mining company that (still) insists they took the required federal precautions to protect the miners. Also, one of our other local TV stations has done stories about vermiculite in the stuff meant to be spread in a garden to improve drainage."

Catherine says: I have to say that I am very careful when I use this stuff and don't swish it around when I place my 3-D pieces on or into it. I really don't think you can buy it in a gardening store anymore. I got my bag about 5 years ago. I like to live dangerously. There is an alternative to using it called "alumina hydrate". It's a white powder potters use in kiln wash when they coat kiln shelves so their clay pots don't stick while firing.

This has been a 'Public Service Message' (I can't have it on my conscience to lead you all into dangerous, health threatening activities.)

I'm sure you would all like to know how I did it!

“Inside My Heart” Pendant and chain
by Catherine Witherell

I wanted to make a multi-dimensional piece with moving parts and more than one metal color. The design came to me in a flash on a flight to an art retreat in March and I drew it then. This piece is from that drawing. It is made up of many techniques and I used PMC3. Heart dimensions1-5/8 inch wide by 1-3/4 inch high. Cage 7/8 inch high. Chain 26 inches.

I formed a 3-D heart from cork clay, let it dry for 2 days and made a one dimensional paper template. I drew the pattern for the front on the cork heart with a fine point sharpie and outlined the pattern with the syringe. I drew my spiral pattern for the back on the paper heart template and greased it with hand salve. With the PMC3 syringe I outlined the paper pattern and when it was dry, pulled it off. Using a tiny paintbrush I filled in any gaps and joins in the back of the pattern with PMC3 paste. I also joined places that were butted up against each other to make the piece stronger. When it was dry, I layed a wet piece of napkin on top of my flat pattern and with Elmer’sGlue on the cork clay heart, I layed the piece down on the back and held it in place. The clay pattern relaxed onto the cork heart and the glue kept it in place. I filled in cracks and gaps with my brush and more paste. When it was dry, I drew in more of the pattern on the sides and the top. I left an opening on the top of the heart about 1 and 1/4 inch long by 1/2 inch wide for a lid/top. Over the next few days, adding paste when it was dry, I built up the layers until the heart was thick enough to fire and looked like florentine vines or filligree. I made a leaf lid from PMC3 clay and a scrapbooking ephemera skeleton leaf to cover the gap in the top, making sure to gently fold/press the clay into the indentation on the heart and form it to the rounded shape. There’s hole in the top of the leaf at the dent. I made another smaller leaf with a mesh side for part of the clasp. The heart and leaf lid were fired separately laying well supported in a terra cotta dish with vermiculite. When they came out of the kiln I reinforced all the seams of the heart from the inside with paste and made any repairs to cracks that may have formed during firing. Then I made sure the lid fit and bent it where needed and then attached it to the heart with more paste. This piece was then fired again.

I made another cork piece to build the birdcage on. With syringe paste I drew the lines in like spokes. All lines met at the top. The base was made slightly larger than the cork base, big enough for the spokes too. I let these pieces dry. With more syringe paste, I made a horizontal rung around the spokes of the cage and when it was dry, I reinforced the joins with paste. I fired the cage upside down in vermiculite. The base was fired flat.

I made a little bird shape and used a tiny pattern of a rubber stamp for cut out wings and a tail, sanded and pasted them on. I carved eyes and a line in the beak. After I fired it, I pasted it to the base of the cage and when it was dry I pasted the spokes to the base as well. I fired the cage embedded in vermiculite right side up.

Using Aura 22 gold paste, I brushed 3 coats on the birdcage spokes, the floor, the outside base and torch fired it to red hot, hand burnished and steel shot tumbled for 12 minutes. I drilled a small hole in the top of the cage and inserted a gold filled head pin and wrapped it into a loop ready to assemble.

For the chain I made PMC3 syringe paste organic circle chain links and blobs, torch fired them and then hammer textured them sandwiched between fine copper mesh. I hand wrapped sterling wire links between the PMC links and fabricated the hook clasp.

Assembled
Patinaed (not tumbled) and polished with a flexshaft to achieve muted satin finish. I wire wrapped bead and beadcap through hole and attached to loop on cage top.
Materials:
cork clay
PMC3 syringe
PMC3 paste
PMC3 clay
skeleton leaf and some fabric or mesh for texture of the top and clasp
fine brass mesh for chain link texture
Aura 22 paste
sterling silver wire - 22 guage (chain)
sterling silver wire - 24 guage 1/2 hard (used in assembly)
fine silver wire - 24 guage (head pin for bead and cap)
gold filled wire - 22 guage (used in assembly)
gold filled headpin - 24 guage 1/2 hard
one london blue topaz faceted bead - 4mm x 3mm

Now try that one. Good luck to you!