The Raven - Mixed Media Art Piece

My latest mixed media art piece - The Raven. I had a blast building this wood plaque up with plaster, pastels, hot beeswax and then shallow carving it down for some darker paints. While the raven is an iconic image, this was a recent memory for me. My girls and I were out running errands and came upon this tremendous raven sitting on a fence during a fiery sunset. It was just stunning and eerie  Of course, I was too late with my camera - as if it would have done my memory justice. I've wanted to recreate that spooky, beautiful moment for awhile now and am quite happy with this piece. Our memories are always so more vivid and alive than can be captured by film, this mixed media art is a bit closer to what feelings were invoked.

Seriously loving playing with plaster and paint!

Art Journal - The Daily Doodle

I have been really focused on learning and exploring new techniques, so much that my imagery ideas have been stalled. It's really fustrating to want to dive into a project, but not know exactly what designs to use. I've never been able to keep a consistent art journal. I write down ideas and sketches all the time, but they are scattered here and there. The art journals I've seen are so beautiful and meaty - I just don't have the time to dedicate to it, or at least I'd rather use that time working on the actual project. Then I decided that my art journal is just for me, to help me move forward. What I need to move forward is to be more comfortable with my drawing skills and to generate more image ideas. 

So, I started a daily doodle art journal. Just a boring composition book and a nice black pen. No colors, nothing else. Now, I'm not showing pictures to brag or in any way solicit praise. I'm not comfortable with my drawing, it's not a skill that has ever come easily to me. But it is a skill, it requires daily practice, it requires failing and learning. 

My first page of doodles is to help me move along in a project I've been wanting to do for awhile, it's titled "Flies In Your Honey". It's about how my husband and I do not fit in the state of Utah, the home of the beehive. We are flies, not bees..

The page today was inspired by a morning trip to the aquarium with Baby Girl. I have always been obsessed with jellyfish. They are graceful, translucent and not to be held down without a price to pay.

A friend of mine asked how I'm generating prompts for the doodles. For right now, I have a huge stack of project ideas with words already associated with them. I'm just going through my list of ideas and trying to create visions to go with them.

If you are not the crazy note taker that I am, but interested in some artistic word prompts.. Here are a few sites for you to enjoy. Not all of these are current or maintained, but they still provide a great base to work from.

Balzer Designs
Blacksburg Belle
Daisy Yellow
The Smashbook

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Linking up to: Today's Creative Blog

Playing With Fire - My First Dive Into Pyrography

Last week on Instagram, one of my online friends displayed a photo of her wood burned spoons. I fell in love! Pyrography is something that has always interested me, but I have never played with it. I was inspired to see how it can be used in such modern ways to create amazing art. Also given my latest love with playing on wood bases for encaustic and plaster art, it seemed like a natural technique to learn up on and incorporate.

My very first piece was this queso / cheese board that I just paired with kitchen towels and listed on Etsy.

I free hand sketched the design and just dove into it with my pyrography pen. I feel in love fast! Wood burning is not quick, it is a slow art that allows a level of meditation. If you try to force it to move quickly, you will not receive the desired results. You have to relax, man. Yeah, I need some more of that in my life!

The Halloween trinket box, I posted yesterday? The ghost bunny was wood burned first!

And what else I have been playing with?

A wood burned paper mache egg! I can't wait to finish this and paint in the dots with some metallic cream. This beast is not a normal egg shape,more like an ostrich egg and it will be some time before I finish. But working on it is the best reward!

If you are looking for a new medium to work in and would like to be forced to sllooowww down, pyrography is the way to go!

When The Stores Fail, DIY Carved Stamp

I have been working on this Halloween project demo and really wanted to add something to the background. Nothing super obvious or distracting, just something to layer up some depth. I thought it would be easy enough to find a polka dot stencil..um, nope. Apparently the big box stores think plastic stencils are passe, but some of my favorite designers have been quite busy creating amazing ones.

What to do, what to do..

Well I have plenty of toys that would help me create my own stencil. I figured though if I was going to take the time to make my own, it should speak more of me rather than what is always expected. It would be easy enough to punch holes through some stencil plastic, but that just didn't seem right.

I decided that even though this would be a simple polka dot design, I wanted to hand carve a rubber stamp. It doesn't take long and you have full control over the final appearance. I started by stamping dots with the back of a pencil eraser - low tech, but effective! I then carved out the rubber around the circles. I varied the circles width - some bigger, some smaller. I love the final stamp - it's fun and perfect for what I needed.

For the Halloween project, I layered brown PanPastel chalk on the stamp and pressed down on the wood. Yup, you can totally stamp with them! A background that is layered, but doesn't scream out at you.

DIY - Salt Dough 'Thank You' Tags

It is amazing how much packaging of items can play a part in our level of happiness. I'm always striving to create cute shipping & packaging for my Etsy items. I want people to receive my item and feel like that special care was taken, that their purchase has become a memorable gift.

I've decided to raise the bar a bit and make something a bit extra to show my appreciation. This afternoon I decided I would create salt dough gift tags. There are a number of DIY salt dough recipes on the internet, but if you are interested, the one I used is here. After rolling them out, I used my Making Memories metal tag stamps to create the "Thank You". Metal stamps are pretty popular these days; you should be able to find them in your local craft store or even some hardware stores like Harbor Freight.

Once these come out of the oven, I will give them a light wash of color and highlight the text. Then pull a yummy ribbon or baker's twine through them and wrap them up with my outgoing orders.

It seems like these days customer service is so rare that we remember the few places we find it.
I hope this will help my clients feel treasured and appreciated!

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Linking up to: Today's Creative Blog