I tried to keep up, I promise I did.  But, like many of you, I have been trying to balance work, life, business and family. 

Something had to give.

I am going to do my best to keep up, now that most of the art festivals are behind me.  I do want to take my jewelry business to the next level, which means I must make a greater effort to post and keep myself visible on line.

I finally decided to add bracelets to my line of jewelry.  I enjoyed making them and found them easy to make.  I don't know why I didn't take the plunge earlier. 

On another note, as I had last written, my father battled cancer this year and I am happy to report that his health continues to improve and he is slowly gaining back the quality of life he once enjoyed.

So, as you can imagine, I had so much to be thankful for this past Thanksgiving.  I hope you had a wonderful holiday with your loved ones.

Till next time.

 

 

 

Blue and green stained glass earrings

Blue and green stained glass earrings

Wow, it has been a while since I last posted, I did have the best of intentions, I promise.  But, life has a way of changing one's plans.  Unfortunately, my family has struggled with health issues and I find myself in a very new position. 
I continue to work in my studio, which I consider my sanctuary.  I am able to escape for a while, my mind wanders and I allow myself to think freely and feel freely, whatever that might be.
Hopefully, I will be able to check in from time to time and hopefully things will get better on my side of the screen...

Busy doesn't even begin to explaiin my time away from the blogging world.  Some very good things and some very distressing things came my way.  My dad was diagnosed with cancer recently and I have to say that it has turned his life upside down.  Throughout all of this turmoil we have continued to go on life as usual.  Luckily (if you can say there is anything to feel lucky about) his cancer was found early and his prognosis is good.  Right now, we are just playing the waiting game.  Waiting to see if the radiation will do its job.  I have faith it will.
It took me a while to return to my studio, but when I did I was able to work through my emotions and keeping busy eased much of my tension.  I entered a few competitions, and won a few of them.  Now, I am working and getting prepared for some upcoming shows in a few galleries.  I love having a goal, it keeps you focused on something, which is what I need at the moment.
I've also enjoyed a few online workshops and am planning on one more. 
So now, I am two weeks away from the school year being over and I can concentrate on my own work over the summer.  I can't wait!
 I think I will relax tonight, look through all of the blogs and see what it is I have missed.
Oh, and can someone tell me what are all those weight loss adds appearing on my dashboard doing there and how do I get rid of them?
I hope you are warm and safe with your loved ones, and prayers for all of our military families.

My, how time flies!  I didn't think my life could get any busier, boy was I wrong.  With work, student competitions and jewelry making, very little time left to do much else.  Let's not forget family either.  Whew! 
These earrings are just a few examples of the work I have been creating lately.  I am relatively new to polymer clay and I am spending more and more time trying to learn this wonderful medium.  I still do soldered work, but I am slowly branching off to a few other mediums to add to my portfolio. 
Hopefully once school lets out I will be able to spend more time on my jewelry and posting on my blog.
At the moment I am trying to decide which online jewelry workshops to take, there are a few good ones being offered at this time.  It will be difficult to make the time to do them, but I love learning new techniques.  We'll see what I decide. 
As soon as I can catch my breath, I will share several pictures of my new polymer clay pieces.  It will be fun to chronicle my growth with polymer clay. 

I hope you are having a wonderful night.

Batik

I named this piece Nopal for reasons that I hope are obvious.  I created this piece while showing my art students how to create batiks.  They truly enjoyed the process and it was incredibly rewarding to create one of my own once again.  It had been a good three years since I had last made one and I'm so glad I haven't forgotten this beautiful art technique.

As for the subject matter, well, nopales are common in west Texas and parts of MX.  I tend to include nopales in my art.  I suppose it is because my grandmother had many nopales around her home in MX., she actually used them as a fence of sorts.  In the summer, the nopales gave their juicy fruit and my grandfather would fill a bucket of the delicious fruit for us to eat.  Placing nopales in my work is a tribute to my grandparents and the times I spent with them in MX. 

Now that I think about it, I have blogged about several of my pieces and I have cited my grandparents and my time with them as my inspiration, they were a huge part of my life and I still cherish those times and my memory of them.

I hope you are having a great week, until next time.

I hope the exit is joyful...

The prompt for this month's sketchbook entry( A year in the life...) is a favorite quote.  The quote from Frida Khalo quickly came to mind, "I hope the exit is joyful and I hope never to return."-FK  This quote seemed even more fitting because at the time I was conceiving my piece, I received news of the passing of one of my cousins from Juarez, MX.  I hope her exit was joyful and even though she leaves us broken hearted, I hope her soul is at rest.
For my piece, I used the bright colors of Mexico and included a small portrait of Frida with her two love birds.  On the right I included the heart from 'Loteria'.  I used acrylic on two pages of my sketchbook. This was a quick piece and only carved out a little bit of time, but it sure felt good working on it.
Until next time...

Headpins

Love My Art Jewelry is having an Art Jewelry Bootcamp.  This month the topic is headpins.  I had these headpins stashed away from my college days so I decided to use them for this blog post.  I don't use headpins very often in my work and this month's topic reminded me of the beauty and versatility of headpins.  I should use them more often in my work!

I went around looking at the other blogs and the work they featured using headpins, such wonderful work out there.  I think this bootcamp is going to be very inspirational and I hope it pushes me to try new things with my work.

Feb. Challenge

Trying something new this year. I happened along a blog that features a monthly challenge. The name of this blog is Art Bead Scene. The host provides a picture of a work of art as a color inspiration and bead/jewelry artists create their pieces based on these colors. The colors in the piece for February's challenge are quite beautiful and I decided to create a little something with this color pallete. I'm new to this challenge idea with my jewelry, I do monthly challenges with my drawings and paintings, but never with my jewelry. I suppose this is the next natural step for my jewelry creations. Let's see how this goes. A quick side note-I've been having trouble with my blog postings. I can't seem to get it to format the way I want it to, and I'm having trouble uploading pictures. Anyone else experiencing these glitches?

Yay, I've been selected as the artist of the month by my city's Museum and Cultural Art Dept. I've been part of the city's grass roots effort to get an Artists' Market up and going. It has not been easy going, but I continue to sell my wares there and have made many new acquaintances and friends. I also enjoy talking to the people that come by my booth and get to hear first hand what people have to say about my work. Woke up tired from watching the game last night and thought it was going to be a difficult Monday, turned out to be a great one!

Word of the Year

I've been doing the word of the year for several years now and also assign it to my high school art students. It remains one of my favorite sketchbook assignments and also that of my students. This year I decided to choose TRANSFORM as my word. Can you see the word on the butterfly? After taking a good long look at myself (spiritually, emotionally and physically) I decided my physical being needs some transforming. I have fallen into some very bad eating habits and have the body to show for it. I must transform myself into a healthier me. I think I will make a copy of this piece and tape it onto my refrigerator door. Transform Acrylic on paper

I created this piece two months ago and entered it into an exhibit and art competition. I'm happy to say that I won first place! I thoroughly enoyed making this piece and will probably attempt another one soon. Hope you are enjoying the new year!